Theology for Life: Doing Public Theology in Romania

This paper builds on my previous work, “God in Public: A Prolegomena to Public Theology in the Romanian Context,” where I made an argument for the need of public theology in the Romanian context and offered a brief introduction to the nature of this new field. Now I present several issues that would need attention in a public theology in our context. One such issue, to begin with, is the atrophy of the capacity for dreaming, for envisioning a better world, of the capacity for imagination and hope. Most of people living through the difficult period of a long transition period, with such a high rate of corruption, poverty and uncertainty, have lost any hope for a positive social change. There are no solid institutions and structures in these young democracies and people are really struggling to live a normal life. Similarly, other crucial dimensions of life have been downplayed and so in need to be recovered, such as work, family, civil society, justice, to name just a few. It is argued that a public theology for Romania and for the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe would need to address exactly these kinds of issues: a vision for a better world, Christianity and nation-building, faith and work, faith and society. The paper concludes by pointing to several example of platforms that are very promising for public theology.