public theology and the gospel

Reading work of Storrar currently, and he talk about the work of Forrester a lot, I wrote something about Forrester here. And he use the word evangelical a lot. Basically, as I can understand, it boils down to the following. When we as Christians, theologians or the church, take part in public conversation, we do it as exactly that: Christians, theologians or the church. We take part because we have a unique contribution to make. If we try to become just another politician, loose our destinctive ways, then we loose the right to take part in the conversation. Why do we take part in the conversation at all then? We are not needed then.

So, we take part, but what we point to is towards the way of Jesus. Although public theology would then probably way we do it in such a way that the other participants in the conversation do not neccesarily commit to the way of Jesus in order to hear what we have to say, but that we influence the public opinion from our own view of the way of Jesus. Is this also a way of sharing the good news? Is this a crucial part of our ministry as Christians? Is this enough, or should evangelism also be part of what we do as public theologians? If we do, how do we do this? What is the good news that we need to share in the public sphere?

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