LLANDAFF AND UPPSALA DIOCESES SEMINAR ON LEADERSHIP
St Michael’s College, Cardiff, March 24-28 2014
LOCAL THEOLOGY – contextualization and the embodiment of the Church
Thomas Nordin, rev. Diocese of Uppsala.
Together towards life
The headline refers to the recently published WCC affirmation on Mission and Evangelism in changing landscapes. The document could serve as a backdrop to my reflections on local theology and contextualization. The document speaks about mission beginning in the heart of the Triune God and the love that binds together the Holy Trinity overflows to all humanity and creation. Life in the Holy Spirit is the essence of mission. Among the surprises of the Spirit are the ways in which God works from locations which appear to be on the margins and through people who appear to be excluded. People in positions of privilege have much to learn from the daily struggles of people living in marginal conditions. Marginalized, oppressed and suffering people have a special gift to distinguish what news is good for them and what news is bad for their endangered life. People at the margins are claiming their key role as agents of mission and affirming mission as transformation. In this sense the document speaks about mission from the margin.
On the side of the oppressed
Contextual theology represents a standpoint where God is on the side of the oppressed, underprivileged and vulnerable. Their dreams and hopes should be strong and leading visions for all. In one sense we are all marginalized in periods of life, for example in times of unemployment, illness or bereavement. God acts more by empowering the poor and marginalized than by enlightening the strong and powerful. Contextual theology reminds us to ask the critical question concerning a theological approach whether it diminishes or extends our understanding of a life formed by the cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus. A life in solidarity with the poor and marginalized. A life in balance with the resources of God´s creation. An awareness that God chooses what is weak and insignificant to be strong bearers of the secrets of his kingdom. Contextual theology helps us to see that theology is not the study of God in some abstract way, but the study of God is the study of what God has done and does and speak to us in a specific context. We can only talk about God within the limits of our context and as human beings. How does this affect my leadership?Is for example the vision of my parish still relevant when life is being marginalized?
Contextual or local theology?
It appears sometimes as if the words contextual and local areinterchangeable. Some would prefer to put contextual theology under “local theology” to include theologies which are “local” but not contextual in a more strict definition of the word.
Two approaches on contextual theology
Evangelical academics may be more likely to discuss local or contextual theology under the headline of missiology where the understanding of the culture has an evangelistic approach. Other academics would use contextual theologies to criticize the western dominance of theology. Their approach is pluralistic, focusing on liberation and cultural identity, rights of minorities, oppressed groups and social change.
Bible and buffaloes
There were some peopleand their sayings that immediately came to my mindwhen reflecting on “contextualization”.First I remembered a meeting with the late archbishop Gitari in Kenya in the early nineties. He had recently been nominated the first bishop of the Diocese of Kirinyaga. If I remember him correctly he said that he had made some decisions when entering his new office. First he would try not to do what somebody else could do. Secondly he would not do alone what he could do together with others. Thirdly he would try not to speak on behalf of others if he could make them speak for themselves. And as a last point he would try to relate anything he would do to a Biblical context.
The second person that came to my mind was the Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama and his “water-buffalo theology.” In his ministry in Thailand he realized that in order to be able to say something relevant to the people he met he had to relate to their conceptual world. He writes: On my way to the country church, 1 never fail to see a herd of water-buffaloes grazing in the muddy paddy fields... . It reminds me that the people to whom I am to bring the gospel of Christ spend most of their time with these water-buffaloes in the rice field……….They remind me to discard all abstract ideas and to use exclusively objects that are immediately tangible. “Sticky-rice,” “banana,” “pepper,” “dog,” cat,” ‘bicycle,” “rainy
season” . . . these are meaningful words for them.These two quotations show that in contextual theology – literary, “what surrounds the text” we need to bring the Biblical text in connection with our experiences, what we are doing and at the same time make an effort to understand the conceptual world where we are doing it. What brings people together? What hinders people to be part of the communal life?
Parish instruction in the Church of Sweden
After the disestablishment of the Church of Sweden in 2000 the parishes are obliged to write what we call a parish instruction. It contains formal parts such as giving an account of the allocation of pastoral and ministerial services in the different congregations of the Ministry area and a plan of action for the confirmation work. Besides thatit should also be a pastoral program that shows how the parish deals with its fundamental task/commissionand its four dimensions: To worship, celebrate the Sunday service, pursue/manage Christian education, practice Diakonia and Mission. A new provision is that the instruction should especially take into consideration children´s perspective. The document should give a picture of the identity of the parishin relation to the local community.
In our diocese the diocesan chapter has stressed that thework with the instruction should be preceded by a thorough contemporary social and environmental analysis as a basis for the instruction and pastoral program.The parishwith its governing board and leadership should be able to share the view of its surrounding community:This is what the place looks like, where we live together and where the church summons people to come togetherand where we are sent out to share the gospel in words and deeds.
Gospel, church and culture
The Catholic theologian Robert Schreiter writes: The three principal roots beneath the growth of local theology are gospel, church and culture. They must interact to produce the full and living reality.
Gospel, he writes is the Good News of Jesus Christ and the salvation through him. It both includes and goes beyond its proclamation. It refers to the living presence of the Lord already active before his word was proclaimed.
Church is a complex of cultural patterns in which the gospel has been manifested.
Culture is the concrete context in which this happens. It represents a way of life for a given time and place, replete with values, symbols and meanings reaching out with hopes and dreams, often struggling for a better world.
Models for local theology
Robert Schreiter divides local theologies in to three different categoriesor preferably theological approaches: Translation, adaption and contextual approaches.
Translation model
In the translation approach the cultural analysis is done not on the terms of the culture investigated. The culture is mainly interesting as a potential receiver of the Gospel. The attempt is to translate local practices and values for Christian purposes. Some of its weaknesses are that it assumes that biblical revelation occurs in some supra cultural sphere which could be translated into any given culture.
Adaption model
The adaptionapproach takes culture more seriously. The human experience is in focus. It tries to develop an explicit philosophy or picture of the conceptual world, world-view of the local culture by using sociological, philosophical or anthropological descriptions. And with this as a foundation you can form a theology. It is here we find expressions like inculturation and indigenization. The problem is that cultural data are forced into(often foreign) categories. With this scientific approach church and the academic world stay close. We learn a lot about secularization, science and religion but we don’t get much help to understand the role of the parishin relation to thelocal community and the theological process involved.
Contextual model
The Contextual approach beginsit´s reflection inthe cultural context.The particular strength with a contextual approachis that it begins with the questions the people themselves have, not posed by the church necessary for a systematic understanding of faith as in the adaption model. The approach focuses on the frailty and vulnerability of life and liberation from human oppression and should lead to a change in praxis. What is a sustainable way of life? It may call for a change in the culture and lead to a counter cultural approach. See, reflect, act and celebrate gives a model for the approach.
Correlation model
In the listing of contextual approaches you will also find the correlationapproach or by others called the synthetic model. The task of the theologian as well as for lay people is to interpret the local culture. Such interpretation becomes theological when being correlated with Christian symbols. It is a synthesis of other contextual models.It presents a careful balance, between commitment, tradition, scripture and doctrine and the contemporary local context.
Being a leader of a parish I think you should be able to make account for your theological view on the interaction with the culture. You should be able to say something about how church, gospel and culture interact and how you make them interact and finally what you would like to see happen.
Word and action together
The Swedish researcher Jonas Ideström at Church of Sweden Research Unit, has brought to my attention Gordon Lathrop’s view on the Liturgy where human activities are juxtaposed to the word of God. In the Eucharist for example the words of Jesus are said in connection with the meal and the handling of bread and wine.
Ideström wants to establish a dialogue between experiences from different activities and gospel narratives. And through such a dialogue involve the participants in constructive and self-critical reflections on the activities theological and ecclesiological dimensions. An interaction between learning, action, experience and theological reflection enables the churchworkers to access implicit theologies in their practices.What does the outcome of such an interaction invite/challenge us to do?
His experiences show that parish workers are aware of the danger that people become objects for the Church´s projects and activities whereas they want them grow and be independent.
The aim is to reach a better understanding of what happens in the interaction between the work of the parish and the people involved.
Contextualization in practice?
The contemporary social and environmental analysisin the parish instruction is often accused of being more a descriptive study than analysis. One way of turning it into an analysis would be to define areas of concern for us as church, rooted in the gospel and with these in mind read the studywith the sensitivity of both a prophet and a poet. It is not enough to askif there are there any poor people around but also whythere are poor people and how is it to be poor in our community? To be unemployed? To be homeless? To be a stranger? To be a child? What are their stories? How do we bring these often untold stories in to the integrity of the church? Jesus deals with these questions and they should be our areas of concern as well.
An increased awareness of how the gospel, churchandlocal culture interact in our activities might help us to discern how the church is embodied in the place where we are called to work. And finally we would perhaps be able to see what our contribution is to our community from a Christological point of view.
To my understanding to facilitatethis work of interpreting, correlating context and the gospeland church doctrine should be one of the main tasks of a leader in a parish. I am fond of the expression that a pastoral leader should be “the leading learner”. A leader should be able to say: This is the way I want us to deepen our understanding of how the church is embodied in our context.
I end by quoting Archbishop Rowan Williams: The doctrine of incarnation is recovered and revitalizedas often we recover our authority as a Christian community to challenge and resist what holds back human community. And the doctrine looks redundant or impenetrable only when we have lost that vision.
1