Abstract
The globalization of Christian faith expresses localized theological practices reflective of context and culture. In the global south, pluriform Christian communities take shape through cultural, theological, religious, and sociopolitical milieux. This is the domain of mission studies. In the volume under consideration, the reader is introduced to a new perspective on mission studies through the field of intercultural theology coming from the German missiological academy. Intercultural theology, until now, was the primary concern of the German intercultural studies academy. This series offers the English-speaking mission scholar and practitioner the ongoing conversation of that development, and its import to the Global Church.
The author, Henning Wrogemann, is chairman of the German Society of Missiology, and distinguished professor of interreligious studies at the Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel in Germany. In Volume 1 of this series, Wrogemann advances the understanding of intercultural theology as a complementary companion of mission studies that “emphasizes the interculturality of theology” (p. 23). Intercultural theology recognizes localized expressions that are not limited to codified texts but may reveal “itself in the proverbs of everyday life and in certain rituals like … festivals, processions, forms of mediation, and others” (p. 19). It is the object then of intercultural theology and mission studies to investigate and “describe these processes of localization, globalization, and diversification” (p. 391), and seek to discover how hermeneutical perspectives in various ecclesial contexts reveal the uniformity of Christian identity.
This introductory volume encompasses twenty-six chapters divided into five major sections. Part one introduces the reader to the discussion and emergence of intercultural theology/mission studies as a consideration of the situated hermeneutic of the Western and African context, variant perspectives, and the need for dialogue across the impasse. Part two examines intercultural hermeneutics and culture, with chapters on semiotics, historical hermeneutic approaches, discourse theory, and is interspersed with case samples from Global South contexts. The central component in the analysis is part three and the examination of contextual African theologies through the media of significant African faith communities and theologians. Part four reviews the interpretive models functioning within historic mission contexts in intercultural encounter. The final section, part five, evaluates systematizing perspectives on inculturation, syncretism, postcolonial theory, ecumenism, and concludes with a chapter on the “plurality of Christianities” (p. 391), and what constitutes authentic Christian identity.
I found this volume accessible, and an important contribution to mission studies and the emerging concept of intercultural theology. The introductory material provides an important foundation as more volumes are brought to the English-speaking academy. The mission scholar and researcher will find this volume an indispensable addition as a reference resource.