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COMPASSION AND SALTPETRE: Reflections on my Life as a Theologian in the Factory
Author(s) -
Hulbert Alastair
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
international review of mission
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.118
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1758-6631
pISSN - 0020-8582
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-6631.1979.tb01331.x
Subject(s) - working class , sociology , wife , protestantism , scots , multinational corporation , compassion , religious studies , theology , law , art , political science , philosophy , literature , politics
The following article was written for the French Protestant Industrial Mission by Alastair Hulbert, a young Scots pastor who worked in France from 1972 to 1977 as a member of the Mission Populaire team. First in Roubaix, then in Paris, Alastair and his wife Fiona with their two children experienced every facet of working‐class life. These reflections accordingly take the form of a personal account of a journey; they have the feel and smell of experience, testifying to the difficulties but also to the joys of two English‐speaking team members thrust for five years into an unfamiliar world. Without succumbing to pro‐working‐class snobbery or a taste for martyrdom, Alastair and Fiona Hulbert succeeded in the rare achievement of penetrating deeply at a particular place with no pretence or indulgence towards those with whom and for whom the struggle is waged. In fact, far from selling theology cheap by facile simplifications, this article is a specimen of in situ theological reflection on the motives and conditions of militant action.