Abstract
According to Stephen Bevans, the growing realization that culture and historical contexts play significant roles in our construction of reality, drums home the fact that context influences our understandings of God and our expressions of faith (Bevans, 1998, p. 2). Since context does not discount present human experience, many scholars view it as another locus theologicus apart from scripture and tradition, with the view that theology done in context makes it meaningful and relevant.
Nonetheless, for contextual theology to achieve its goals it needs to be clearly defined in respect to its subject, methods, and processes. The works of Bevans, and Paul Matheny among others remain significant contributions in this direction. While Bevans concentrates on the models of contextual theology, Matheny focuses on engaging the theological process with contextual methods in respect to the ‘New Christianity’ of the Global South; a conceptual category which defines and sets apart non-Western Christianity from its Western counterpart.
For Matheny, the 1960s have witnessed a shift in the epicentre of Christianity from the historic heartlands of Europe and North America to the Global South (pp. 3-4). In the process this has raised new questions about the Christian faith and life. These are questions that demand new answers derived creatively from within the ideas and cultural life, beliefs and practices of the churches of ‘the new centre’ (p 18). From this perspective, the author’s purpose is to examine the changes in the understanding of the theological processes due to the reality of ‘the New Christianity’ and the introduction of contextual methods in theology. Thus his purpose is to retrieve the significance of contextual methods in Christian mission and theology, thereby promoting ecumenism among communities everywhere.
The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter one reviews the turning points in Christian mission that triggered contextual theology. Chapter two concerns the use of contextual methods in the theological processes of the ‘New Christianity.’ Chapter three and four address the emergence of contextual theology as an adequate response to theologizing in the ‘New Christianity.’ Chapter five concerns the sources and processes of contextual theology. Finally, chapter six demonstrates the potential of contextual theology to connect the work of faith communities to the will of God for all creation.
Commendably, the author’s work is a significant contribution to contextual theological scholarship. His identification of the ‘Global South’ as the ‘new epicentre’ of Christianity is an obvious reality many Western Church leaders and theologians find difficult to accept. Besides the author’s exposition of the relevance of contextual theology, perhaps his key contribution is reflecting upon how that relevance can be worked out in practice to meaningfully shape the future of theology.
However, the author’s over-emphasis on contextual theology can make such theologies so rooted in their own contexts that they no longer communicate with the theologies of other contexts. Yet even in context, theology must also remain universal so that it can be identified and shared by people of the same faith. This book is a good resource for theologians, students of theology, church leaders and members who desire to render the theological enterprise a contextual one.