Abstract
World Christianity has become an accepted field of academic enquiry. Its focus has tended to be within the non-Western context, albeit not limited to it, and has added a rich new dimension to Christian studies. As a field of study, it is not limited to one academic discipline. However, most scholars have tended to employ historical or social scientific methods to the field. Only recently have theological methods to world Christianity received more focus. The volume under review attempts to highlight the significance of these latter developments, attempting a global conversation about theology.
Theology is necessarily contextual; but so is the interpretation of theology. Hence, the two authors begin with respective chapters biographically introducing their approaches to the study of theology. García-Johnson speaks about his mother of ‘pure’ white blood marrying a handsome trigeño (dark-skinned) man of Latin America, before exploring the politics of location in Christian theology. Dyrness recalls his own journey from American Midwestern pietism through Strasbourg, Amsterdam, and, eventually, Manila. For both these authors, the text revolves around the need for a conversation between Western and non-Western theology.
Chapter 3 moves into a discussion arguing the important role of indigenous traditions in Christian theology, before moving onto four major chapters exploring views from global contexts and their approaches to theology proper and creation (Ch. 4), Christology and soteriology (Ch. 5), ecclesiology (Ch. 6), and eschatology (Ch. 7). The overarching emphasis of these chapters is a discussion of Western views, on the one hand, and African and Hispanic/Latin American views, on the other hand. Aside from a few exceptions, Asian voices are surprisingly scarce, with not one voice from mainland China—arguably one of the largest and fastest-growing Christian populations in the world today. Moreover, this reviewer expected to see more direct conversation between various localised theologies rather than the approach taken that tended to shift from context to context in turn.
Our authors have provided us with a welcome introduction to theology in global contexts. Three prolegomenal chapters and four chapters on major theological subjects seems somewhat imbalanced, but those who are yet to be convinced of the importance of non-Western Christianity in theological studies will be offered a masterly primer.