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One of the major points evident throughout the majority of readings this week, was the awareness of the need for interpretive skills in our current cultural contexts. These interpretive skills were best captured by the list of questions posed by Graham, Walton and Ward:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cQuestions concerning the conversation partners of theology in the contemporary context lead us to consider other important issues. If this method rests on a dialogue between \u201cChristian tradition\u201d and \u201cexperience\u201d then what do these categories actually contain? What kinds of experience are referred to, and how will it be articulated? What disciplines and methods will be adopted to bring such experience to light? Whose experience is deemed authoritative?\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul took time to notice and respect the traditions of the Athenians. The evidence of their statues revealed beliefs that were shared by the community, perhaps for many years, even centuries. However those statues and idols didn\u2019t just represent the past. They also represented a hope for the future, even if it that hope couldn\u2019t be accurately articulated. Another important reminder form these readings was the role of traditions. There is certainly a tendency for us to rush into a communities or projects without taking the time to understand the reason behind established patterns. In ignoring the reason for these patterns, according to Terry Veling, we may miss the opening to understanding their (a community or a person\u2019s) hope for the future. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n
If I had to pick one of the various genres of theology that would be most significant for my current ministry application, it would be contextual theology.\u00a0 Stephen Bevans, in particular, challenges the reader to engage the present, in due consideration of the past, with a focus on the future. [4]<\/a> \u00a0A challenge to be sure, but all interpreters need to be disciplined in their training and focused on their role.\u00a0 In my role as a pastor it has been valuable to move into the community where our building is located, observing patterns of behavior and getting involved in local activities. It\u2019s helped me to learn the language of our community.<\/p>\n
In view of the importance of contextual theology, the call for intentionally equipped theologians are all the more crucial, according to Robert Schreiter: \u201cThe theologian cannot create a theology in isolation from the community\u2019s experience; but the community has need of the theologian\u2019s knowledge to ground its own experience within the Christian traditions of faith. In so doing, the theologian helps to create the bonds of mutual accountability between local and world church.\u201d [5]<\/a> \u00a0Schreiter is calling for the theologian to be a skilled and equipped interpreter.<\/p>\n
Our western thinking is often clouded by our innate desire to be part of a big accomplishment or to see dramatic changes take place. This is where the wide reaching policy-minded approach of both political and public theologies seem to miss the mark in their theological approaches. They become more like theories to adopt or plans to implement without proper regard for the nuances of the local context or the people groups in those local contexts or the individual people within those people groups. Theology must have application in real time, addressing the real questions of real people.<\/p>\n
The contextual theological interpreter is placed in just that position, to do what Stackhouse purports as being most effective. \u201cWith the proper cultivation and development, they are refined as they work their way not from the bottom up, nor from the top down, but from the center out.\u201d [6]<\/a> \u00a0Real change according to Stackhouse and the Apostle Paul is neither a political movement nor a grassroots movement, rather it can be effectual through an interpreter capable of facilitating a conversation between Our God as they stand among\/within a people and a community.<\/p>\n
Interpreters needed. Apply locally. \u2013 Jesus (John 1:14)<\/p>\n
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\n\n[1]<\/a> Pearson, Clive. \u201cThe Quest for a Glocal Public Theology.\u201d International Journal of Public Theology<\/em>. 1, no. 2. (2007):151-172, 155.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n[2]<\/a> Graham, Elaine, Heather Walton and Frances Ward. \u201c\u2018Speaking of God in Public\u2019:\u00a0Correlation.\u201d In Theological Reflection: Methods<\/em>, edited by Elaine Graham, Heather Walton and\u00a0Frances Ward,138-169. (London: SCM Press, 2005), 167.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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