From Theological Abstraction to Incarnate Reality

On February 26^th 2025, Modern Church and the Relational Church network held a joint online conversation called ‘Time for Change’. Three contributors, all members of the Modern Church Council, explored one change they would like to see. All three scripts are being published here as Modern Church blogs.

From Theological Abstraction to Incarnate Reality

By Yin-An Chen

I want to see the Church of England deepen its commitment to the value and dignity of each person as a child of God. The experiences and voices of individuals are not peripheral; they are central. Each voice reveals the diversity and complexity of God’s grace and mercy in creation, as well as the distortions of humanity caused by structural sin and oppression. The Church of England must shift its focus—moving beyond abstraction and institutional self-preservation—to fully embrace the lived realities of human beings in all their complexity and suffering.

Too often, the Church is preoccupied with universal moral principles, rules, and regulations—detached from the concrete lives of people. We long for theological consistency and institutional cohesion, but in doing so, we risk overlooking the significance of personal experience.

This manifests in troubling ways, especially even when we have good intentions, we have bad attentions. When we discuss structural change, we focus on individual heroes or villains rather than addressing the underlying issues. When we claim to offer pastoral care, we avoid personal engagement and instead retreat into debates about institutional reform.

For example, when survivors of church-related abuse demand to be heard, we deflect by discussing future policies rather than acknowledging their present suffering. While tightening the policy to come, we deceive ourselves that this is the best response to the survivors. When LGBTQIA+ individuals speak about their painful experiences of exclusion, we shift the conversation to abstract theological debates about marriage rather than listening to their lived realities of alienation within the Church. It is similar in the case of church growth—we talk about numbers in quantity rather than stories of quality.

Structural change is vital, but without grounding in human experience, it remains empty. True reform happens when we begin by truly listening to the wounded and marginalised. The Incarnation itself testifies to this: Christ does not come as an abstract principle or a distant ruler. He comes as a person, fully entering the human experience, embracing suffering, failure, and brokenness. This radical act of solidarity and union of the Divine and the human must be our model.

To embody this humanist vision of the Gospel, the Church of England must become more relational. We must make space for people’s stories—not as case studies or rhetorical devices, but as divine testimonies that shape our theology and practice. We must resist prioritising institutional comfort over the cries of those harmed by it. This means fostering communities where people feel safe to share their struggles without fear of being dismissed or theologised into silence.

We need a way of constructing and expressing Christian theology that focuses on the redemption of human suffering in real lives—not as a soteriological concept, but as a lived reality. This theology must centre on the voices of individual experiences and empower every human being, regardless of their faith, viewpoints, status, power, vulnerability, strength, or weakness. Only by doing so, we can embody the radical inclusivity of Christ’s love and justice.

So how do we move forward?

First, we must cultivate a culture of deep listening—one that requires humility, patience, and a willingness to sit with discomfort.

Second, we must recognise that real change begins at the ground level—in local churches, in personal relationships, and in the way we welcome and care for one another.

Third, we must acknowledge that human dignity is not something we confer; it is something we recognise, as God has already conferred it.

This term, while teaching Selected Readings on Anglican Theology in the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan, I traced the theme of the Incarnation within the Liberal Catholic tradition—from Charles Gore to William Temple and Michael Ramsey. Through this, I developed the interpretation that the core of Incarnational doctrine is the most ‘humanist’ expression of Christian faith. Redeeming and restoring the utmost treasure of humanity is the fundamental motivation of the Divine God taking human form—the Word made flesh. This clearly expresses how God so loved the world that he sent his Son to save our humanity. Thus, humanism is not in opposition to the Christian faith but our deepest expression.

Jesus gave up everything to love and embrace humanity in all our brokenness. If the Church of England is to be faithful to the example of the Incarnation, we must do the same. We must listen to and honour every individual as a bearer of divine dignity, making their voices central to our theology, practice, and mission. Only then can we truly reflect the love of Christ and live out our calling as a church that values every human being as a child of God.

Yin-An Chen is Curate of St John-at-Hampstead, London Diocese; Trustee of Open Table and Inclusive Church; and the author of ‘Toward a Micro-political Theology‘