Teaching Global Theologies: Power and Praxis (original) (raw)
Related papers
Globalization: A Theological Overview
CMS Consultation, UBS, Pune, 2014
Does globalization serve the same function as hellenization did in the 1st century? Is globalization a threat to religion? Is there a theological ground for understanding the leveling of barriers? How does Pentecost relate to Babel and the present phenomena of globalization? These are some questions explored in this paper.
Missiology, 2017
This article examines the potential of intercultural theology as a mode of public theologizing particularly suited for a global Christian church of extraordinary diversity today. Given the salience of "public" themes already resident within it, I suggest, intercultural theology has the potential to make a substantive contribution to the nature and practice of theology as global discourse. I explore three respects in which intercultural theology can assist the church in articulating its public witness: the demand that theology be global in scope, holistic in depth and reach, and attentive to truth. Keywords intercultural theology, theology of mission, religious pluralism, public theology, public missiology The recognition that Christianity is now a truly global faith has become commonplace. And thanks to a growing body of scholarly and popular publications, its dizzying cultural , linguistic, and demographic diversity is also gaining greater salience. For many students of this new reality, however, Christianity today finds itself in uncharted waters. Buffeted by the creative-destructive dynamics of globalization, relentless social, political , economic, and demographic change seems to have become the new normal for Christians everywhere-a state of affairs that demands fresh theological reflection.
The Full has Never been Told: Theology and the Encounter with Globalization.
My thesis, The Full Has Never Been Told: Theology and the Encounter with Globalization, is an investigation of the encounter between religion and globalization. Rastafari reggae performer Buju Banton's song, Untold Story (Banton, 2002) recounts a variety of injustices and sufferings inflicted on 'low-budget people', each concluding with the refrain, "I could go on and on, the full has never been told." The full has never been told is the hermeneutical orientation of my research that encapsulates the suffering of the wretched of the earth as they encountered the oppressive forces of globalization and the hope that inevitably emerges from this encounter. My research begins with an understanding of globalization not as a clash of civilizations, but as a clash of symbols and metaphors. An important insight I have investigated is the theoretical significance of the 'deterritorialization' of symbols as a primary, long run driving force of economic, political, and social globalization and globalizations encounter in the developing world as a boundary situation. The Caribbean's experience of transatlantic slavery, colonization/decolonization, the in-migration of indentured labour, and the continued out migration of West Indian's through-out the globe represents the first clash with the boundary situation of globalization. Paul Ricoeur identifies boundary situations as encounters with "war, suffering, guilt, death and so which the individual or community experience as a fundamental existential crisis." In the Caribbean, these boundary situations require solutions beyond purely political, economic or technical means. They demand, as Ricoeur notes, "we ask ourselves the ultimate question concerning our origins and ends: Where do we come from? Where are we going? In this way we become aware of our basic capacities and reason for surviving, for being and continuing to be what we are." These questions and contradictions are at the core of theology's encounter with globalization. The hypothesizes that I sought to prove is: if leading social scientific theorists of globalization are correct in their assessment of the importance of communication and symbolic exchanges to globalization then a hermeneutic of the productive imagination that is attentive to symbol and myth is a critical analytic tool for reflection on globalization. Such a hermeneutic has the advantage of locating globalization as both the text and context of theological and social scientific analysis. Rastafari contributes to reflections on this encounter through its interpretation of the symbolic importance of word, sound and power thus situating it as a grassroots example of a hermeneutic of liberation in praxis that recharges theological language through the re-enactment, re-enforcement and re-embodiment of symbol and myth. This project employed an interdisciplinary methodology using Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological hermeneutic of the productive imagination, Niklas Luhmann and Peter Beyer's social theory of the communicative characteristic of global society and Rastafari's interpretation of word, sound and power in their encounter with globalization. The theoretical framework of my project follows Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic arc. The first moment of the arc, pre-understanding, introduces the historical framework of globalization and religion. In the second moment of the arc, configuration, this framework is configured with Ricoeur's presentation of the productive imagination to present a hermeneutic model for understanding and explaining the symbolic and mythic encounter of globalization. In the final moment of the arc, application, the Rastafari hermeneutic of word, sound and power emerging from the Rastafari experience of globalization shows itself as an exemplar of an ontology of hope that has passed through despair. This interdisciplinary methodology has sought to bridge the gap between theological reflection and social scientific theory. These theories complement one another as they draw our attention to the surplus of meaning inherent in any text, discourse, or meaningful action. Ricoeur, Luhmann, and Beyer start from the centrality of meaning to human existence recognizing that meaning is set against a foreground, or horizon of possible meaning. This is the surplus of meaning that Ricoeur's hermeneutics attempts to make sense of and the conceptualization of society in terms of meaning-processing systems of communication advanced by Luhmann and Beyer. Communication is at the heart of Luhmann and Beyer's theory of social systems and communications are ultimately symbolic exchanges that "can be conceptualized as a kind of self-excitation that inundates the system with meaning" (Luhmann, 1995, 171 ). Getting at this surplus of meaning is the central task of Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics and Rastafari reasoning through word, sound and power. The reconfiguration ofthese theoretical perspectives has yielded valuable insights into the interpretation of the symbols and discourse of globalization making a unique contribution to theological knowledge.
Christianity (Global Interactions)
Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics, 2022
This entry explores implications of the shift in Christianity’s center of gravity, from the Global North to the Global South, for the field of religious ethics. Focal issues include: first, the articulation of norms and values respecting the demands of justice; and, second, the formation and flourishing of the self, often through embeddedness in communities beyond the self. Historically and in the global scope of contemporary Christianity, these two orientations have overlapped in a variety of ways. This entry begins by considering the ethical dimensions of modern European missions, then turns to issues of colonization, class, race, culture, and religion addressed by contextual theologians of the Global South. From the early modern period to the present, the demography of Christianity has changed tremendously, ushering along with it a far more global awareness of the scope of Christian ethics and the nature of Christian selves.
2013
e-mail account. Learn how to access and forward emails to your personal account. I. COURSE DESCRIPTION Globalization is one of the main features of our contemporary post-modern culture. This course provides a comprehensive theological and missiological study of the life and ministry of the global church in the twenty first century. The missional nature of the church will be explored from a Trinitarian perspective. Church's ministry and responsibility towards other religious beliefs, cultures, injustices, poverty, urbanization and the ecology will be explored and studied from a global perspective. Special attention will be given to the development of the Christian faith and theological reflections in the cultural context of Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East as well as the post-modern pluralistic society of Europe/North America. Major themes such as religious pluralism/ religious fundamentalism will be explored and studied. The relationship between Christianity and Islam will be presented as one of the most significant issues facing the 21 st century global church. Emphasis will be given to the mission of the people of God as an instrument for peace and reconciliation among world communities and nations.
Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity
2007
Transformation Vol 26 No 3 July 2009 213 differences (e.g. Islamic and Christian understanding of revelation, inspiration, forgiveness, salvation, politics, etc.) between the two faiths; and discusses how one might view Islam from a Biblical perspective, which includes the cost that Muslims have to pay in converting to Christianity and the challenge that Islam presents in the global political arena. In Part V (Bearing Witness to Jesus), Chapman’s goal is to help Christians become effective in their witness to Muslims by inculcating a spirit of love rather than espousing an argumentative demeanor. He gives three ways in which Christians can explain their faith in Jesus to Muslims, which include using themes in the Bible, or themes in the Qur’an, or by showing how the first disciples came to grow over time in their understanding of who Jesus really is. Chapman has consulted an impressive list of sources – although he seems to rely too heavily on Kenneth Cragg (six titles referenced 14...