{"id":11257,"date":"2017-01-27T01:25:40","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T09:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=11257"},"modified":"2017-01-27T01:25:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T09:25:40","slug":"i-have-some-context-in-my-theology-and-so-do-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/i-have-some-context-in-my-theology-and-so-do-you\/","title":{"rendered":"I have some context in my theology…..and so do you"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I was reading about contextual theology in our assigned works by Steven Garner and Stephen Bevans, I kept thinking about the ad campaign from Reese’s peanut butter cups.<\/p>\n

The ad (a picture from the commercial is on the left) was (in the most 80’s way possible) incredibly cheesy as it had two people, one carrying chocolate and one carrying a jar of peanut butter bump into each other and accidentally ‘mix’ their peanut butter and chocolate. \u00a0They are initially furious until they learn what we already know, that peanut butter and chocolate is a delicious combination.<\/p>\n

So, at times as I was reading these texts, Bevans larger overview of contextual theology,\u00a0Models of Contextual Theology,\u00a0<\/em>and Garner’s short exploration of the values of contextual and public theology,\u00a0Contextual and Public Theology: Passing Fads or Theological Imperatives?,\u00a0<\/em>I saw this commercial being played out with theology and our contexts playing the roles of chocolate and peanut butter.<\/p>\n

In varying degrees of detail both Bevans and Garner highlight that in a very real way, all theology is contextual because all of our thoughts and actions come out of and are shaped, at least in part, but the context from which they arise.<\/p>\n

As Bevans states (and Garner cites):<\/p>\n

There is no such thing as “theology”; there is only contextual theology: feminist theology, black theology, liberation theology, Filipino theology, Asian-American theology, African theology, and so forth. Doing theology contextually is not an option, nor is it something that should only interest people from the Third World, missionaries who work there, or ethnic communities within dominant cultures. The contextualization of theology\u2014the attempt to understand Christian faith in terms of a particular context\u2014is really a theological imperative. As we have come to understand theology today, it is a process that is part of the very nature of theology itself. (Bevans, Kindle Location 188)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are really two critical pieces of information to digest in that quote. \u00a0First, that it isn’t only the theologies that arise from minority communities that need to be understood as contextualized. \u00a0Black, liberation, feminist, theologies emerge because the dominant or majority theologies (which by virtue of their place of prominence and\/or dominance don’t usually get a ethnic or contextual name) don’t adequately address their issues and contexts. \u00a0 When we ignore the truth that all theology is contextual we run the risk of confusing the structures of our current context with the structures of the gospel.<\/p>\n

There is much more at stake here than accurate and precise theology at stake here. \u00a0When we fail to recognize the influence that comes from our particular context, the result can be a corruption of the very meaning and nature of the gospel. \u00a0An example of this is the many, many churches, pastors and theologians that supported slavery as the will of God – their theology of dominion of one culture (white\/european) over another (black\/african) was clearly influenced by their context. \u00a0This is easy for us to see, because we are no longer in that context – but it serves as reminder to us of the importance of carefully examining our context and it’s influence on our thinking and theology.<\/p>\n

I first made this connection in seminary as we were reading and discussing James Cone and black, liberation theology. \u00a0The discussion was robust and many in the class reacted very strongly – some negatively, some positively – to Cone. \u00a0Then someone asked this question: why do we need ‘black’ theology and shouldn’t all Christian theology be liberation theology by definition? \u00a0This question led to the recognition that these theologies arose out of specific contexts to be sure, but also they arose in response to the inadequacies of the already existing theologies to speak to the context that so many were living in – because they were developed and arose out of a very different context.<\/p>\n

The second critical piece of information is that this process of contextualizing our theology – or rather recognizing that our theology is contextual is imperative. \u00a0This imperative is tied up in the nature of the gospel and in our call to share it with the world.<\/p>\n

I see this as being connected to the idea that Jesus talks about in Matthew 9, the ongoing process of ensuring that there are new wineskins for the new wine. \u00a0And this is the challenge of discussing and parsing out what it means to be a faithful Christian and what faithful theology looks like in our or any context. \u00a0We worship a God that exists as an historical figure (and hence in a particular context), but we believe that historical figure brought salvation and Good news that we believe is for all people – in all times and contexts.<\/p>\n

So the question becomes what has to be preserved from Jesus’ historical context and what is just that ‘context’ that can and should be flexible or contextual and is best left behind with the old wineskin.<\/p>\n

Context matters!<\/p><\/div>\n

For me, I have found much value in the praxis model of contextual theology paired with a strong dose of public theology. \u00a0Garner gives the ‘classical’ definition of public theology by quoting Duncan Forrester, ‘theology which seeks the welfare of the\u00a0city before protecting the interests of the\u00a0Church, or its proper liberty to preach the
\nGospel and celebrate the sacraments’ (Garner, 25). \u00a0This is, to my understanding, a fundamental understanding of what it means to be the church – we do not exist for ourselves, but rather to be God’s ‘hands and feet’, Christ’s body serving in the world.<\/p>\n

And the Praxis model of contextual theology provides an appropriate way of doing that, namely that the Praxis model compels us to move from reflection towards action. \u00a0Asking of our faith and theology, in essence, ‘so what?’ or ‘what difference does it make?’. \u00a0The Praxis model is so compelling because it isn’t content to describe what we might think or believe about God, Jesus, our faith, etc. but it connects that belief to action that is consistent with it.<\/p>\n

Like it or not, aware of it or not all of us have a lot of context in our theology – \u00a0when we acknowledge that and wrestle with that context, it enriches our understanding and helps us to more clearly communicate the good news of the gospel within our particular context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was reading about contextual theology in our assigned works by Steven Garner and Stephen Bevans, I kept thinking about the ad campaign from Reese’s peanut butter cups. The ad (a picture from the commercial is on the left) was (in the most 80’s way possible) incredibly cheesy as it had two people, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,13],"class_list":["post-11257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bevans","tag-garner","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}