“Spiritual Metrics as a Bulwark Against Secularization” Responses and Dialogue

Abstract

Almost a year and a half ago, on May 4, 2023, the Accord Research Alliance (ARA) community of practice of the Accord Network organized a virtual symposium to discuss David Bronkema’s “Spiritual Metrics as a Bulwark Against Secularization: Reflections on Jayakumar Christian’s Words at the ARA on “Slicing Off” the Spiritual.” The purpose of the symposium, and of Bronkema’s thought piece that underpinned it (and published as part of this issue of the journal), was to tackle the critique advanced by Jayakumar Christian in the ARA pre-conference intensive of October 2022 on the danger of engaging in spiritual metrics in a way that separated out the spiritual from everything else. The symposium was moderated by Peter Howard of the Accord Network. The first part consisted of introductory remarks by David Bronkema (a professor at Eastern University) and responses to Bronkema’s paper by Jayakumar Christian (former National Director, World Vision India), James Waters (founder and director Kingdom Impact, Ltd.), Katie Toop (senior director of transformational development at World Concern), Subodh Kumar (vice president of mission impact for Food for the Hungry), and Victor Cortez (regional director for Latin America at Water Mission). This was followed by a discussion in which David Bronkema and Jayakumar Christian responded to the comments that had been proffered, after which the respondents were given the opportunity a to add their own observations to the discussion. Below is an edited version of the remarks at the symposium. The full recording of the symposium can be found at https://vimeo.com/823841424.