Reflections on “Who do you say that I am?” by Tim Livesey
Published April 25, 2024
Direct Link: https://practicaltheologyhub.com/?p=1404
I was deeply moved by Tim Livesey’s reflections on identity, labelling, and empathy, sparked by his interfaith pilgrimage through Israel and Palestine. His analysis of Jesus’ powerful question—“Who do you say that I am?”—strikes at the heart of how we see, understand, and ultimately treat one another. Tim compellingly shows how labels, whether religious, ethnic, or political, profoundly shape our interactions, often distorting our capacity to acknowledge shared humanity.
This reflection comes at a time when the dark shadow of abandonment, death, neglect, hunger, and pain overwhelms innocents caught in a conflict not of their own making, while much of the world watches in silence. Accountability is essential—but first, we must ask: Who is naming whom deviant, and by what standard? What I have learned across my research life is that untold truths feel safer, yet once spoken, they unsettle complacency—often painfully yet necessarily.
This resonates strongly with my own research on child-witchcraft accusations, where labels such as “witch,” “evil,” “spirit-led,” or “possessed” become tools of exclusion and violence to justify harm, masking the humanity of vulnerable children. Tim’s insight into seeing beyond labels to a shared core of dignity and spiritual resilience reinforces the necessity of my concept of post-secular diplomacy—an approach that respects belief without endorsing harm.
Where Tim seeks empathy and shared humanity, diplomatic frameworks must also cultivate spaces where belief isn’t immediately treated as a threat but as lived truth needing cultural attention. Those whom we label as deviants are those whom we select as scapegoats, not solely out of revenge, but to mask our own weaknesses and failures. People we labelled do not ask to be our scapegoats, nor do they wish to cross our paths; they were simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It is in this respect that the response to Jesus’ question about his identity cannot be fully answered, especially by the labellers who pretentiously framed the ideal image of the Jesus they want to align with, and instead forget that in His lifetime, Jesus did not see race, religion, politics, economics or power; what concerns him was to ensure the betterness of those lives around him — without judgement or bias. Indeed, as Tim powerfully notes, a just and hopeful future cannot be built at the expense of another’s suffering; true human flourishing depends on creating spacious, generous places for all, not confining some to narrow and shadowed corners of life.
I especially appreciate Tim’s emphasis on hope, grounded not merely in political solutions but in deeper spiritual empathy. This mirrors my conviction that diplomatic and theological engagements with belief-based violence must be culturally empathic, morally courageous, and spiritually informed.
I would be delighted to continue this conversation, exploring how Tim’s profound question might shape diplomatic and theological responses in contexts where labels inflict real harm.
Thank you, Tim, for this thoughtful and timely contribution.
© Claire Princess Ayelotan, 2025.
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Claire Princess Ayelotan obtained her PhD in 2021 at the University of Roehampton, London. As an interdisciplinary scholar, her research interests include witchcraft, Yoruba ethnography, children with epilepsy, practical theology, African Pentecostalism, creative writing and research, and violence against women and children. Her latest peer-reviewed journal article can be found in Practical Theology.
