Contextual Theology

Contextual Theology

1. Tradition - transmit, hand over, to give for safekeeping

   • beliefs, objects or customs performed or believed in the past and present
     • Cultural web - beliefs, creeds, history, attitudes, morals, customs, practices, environment
   • performed or believed in the present
   • inform dogmas, values, polity; resolve tensions and concerns
   • conflicts from the surrounding culture
   • new theological traditions as encounters own history and traditions
     • new questions that confront the context - meanings take their shape and form within context
       • tradition carries a profound "surplus of meaning" that is continually proposing "new worlds" in front of us. Ricoeur
     • a gift, not of my own making, not generated by my own resources, rather given to me, exists prior to my arrival on the scene
   • always dependent upon a cultural context
     • the functional, modernist, essentialistic mode of tradition is akin to the concept of indigenisation, whereby the unchanging gospel was transplanted into the static cultures of non-Chriatian peoples.
       • the need to move from indigenisation to contextualisation - situational hermenutics (Bultmann) for the church in the midst of rapid social change to be action-oriented; the questioning of the distinction between salvation history and world history; the acceptance of the principle of humanisation and universalism in salvation
         • shift of priority from interpreting the text to reflection on suffering and oppression in particular contexts
         • the process of secularity, technology and the struggle for human justice
         • takes seriously the issues of cultural conditioning of the biblical message, the communicator's self-understanding and the receiving community's response to the message
           • faithful exegesis of the text enters into a dialogical encounter with the issues of the human situation - dependence on the HS who is the hermeneutic key to relating text and context
             • contextualisation culminates in the good news breaking into every situation, with the newness of redemption from sin, guilt and demonic power, liberation from human despair and social injustice and the actualisation of faith, hope and love
             • contextual basis - praxis - empirical results - new contextual theory for practice (new strategy)
           • We start our interpretation of a biblical text with a pre-understanding. This is our experience and our theological tradition (s) that form the lens we are looking through. Pieterse
       • liberation theologians reject traditional view of divine revelation - all Scripture is culturally and historically conditioned, its message is relative and situational. No epistemological split between thought and action, truth and practice
         • prophetic 'reading of the times', discerning God's act of humanisation and liberation in the general historical process and in particular situations
         • valid concerns but this way of doing theology leads to a truncated gospel, a secularised political theology and demise of the institution of the church
           • true contextualisation demands commitment to the church
       • culture and context ask for a communication of the gospel that fits into the problems, questions and terminology of the people. Pieterse
     • "more than" or "other" Derrida

2. not yet shaped a new notion of tradition even though shaped the historical experience

3. Bergmann - reflect upon traditions and conditions of its interpretation to develop claims for a comprehensive interpretation of Christianity

   • advocates for a dynamic view to shape a trans-modern notion of tradition
     • all authentic theology must be participatory theology - participation in action and reflection on praxis

4. dynamic process of the church's reflection

   • interaction of the text as the word of God and the context as a specific human situation