Theology: Mission Studies: Culture

Christianity is not only a global but also an intercultural phenomenon. The diversity of world Christianity is evident not merely outside our borders but even within our own neighborhoods.Over the past half century theologians and missiologists have addressed this reality by developing local and contextual theologies and by exploring issues like contextualization, inculturation, and translation. In recent years these various trajectories have coalesced into a new field called intercultural theology. Bringing together missiology, religious studies, social science research, and Christian theology, the field of intercultural theology is a fresh attempt to rethink the discipline of theology in light of the diversity and pluriformity of Christianity today.Henning Wrogemann, one of the leading missiologists and scholars of religion in Europe, has written the most comprehensive textbook on the subject of Christianity and culture today. In three volumes his Intercultural Theology provides an exhaustive account of the history, theory, and practice of Christian mission. Volume one introduces the concepts of culture and context, volume two surveys theologies of mission both past and present, and volume three explores theologies of religion and interreligious relationships.In this first volume on intercultural hermeneutics, Wrogemann introduces the term "intercultural theology" and investigates what it means to understand another cultural context. In addition to surveying different hermeneutical theories and concepts of culture, he assesses how intercultural understanding has taken place throughout the history of Christian mission. Wrogemann also provides an extensive discussion of contextual theologies with a special focus on African theologies.Intercultural Theology is an indispensable resource for all people--especially students, pastors, and scholars--that explores the defining issues of Christian identity and practice in the context of an increasingly intercultural and interreligious world.

Christianity is not only a global but also an intercultural phenomenon. In this second volume of his three-volume Intercultural Theology, Henning Wrogemann turns to theologies of mission. Mission theologies, he argues, are found in a wide range of implicit as well as explicit forms, from the practice of Christian presence by a Pakistani Christian among a marginalized people to the published deliberations of mission scholars in the West. The task of intercultural theology is to investigate and promote awareness of the variety of culture- and context-specific theologies of mission. From Warneck to Bosch, from Edinburgh to Lausanne to Busan, Wrogemann provides an overview of the theological underpinnings, rationalizations, and visions for mission and its practice. Tracing developments across a range of Christian traditions, movements, themes, and regions of the globe, from Europe and North America to sub-Saharan Africa, Wrogemann presents us with an array of mission theologies across the scope of the modern missionary movement. This rich conspectus is rounded out with the doxological dimension of mission and the varied facets of oikoumenism. Masterful in its scope and detail, this volume will richly inform the study of missiology and global Christianity. And it is essential reading for doing theology in a multicultural key. In a day when the church in the West struggles to understand and appreciate its missionary legacy and calling, Wrogemann's work sparkles with its deeply informed insights and inspiring vision.

Ten Outstanding Books in Mission Studies, World Christianity and Intercultural Theology for 2019 -- International Bulletin of Mission Research (IBMR) interculturalIntercultural Theologytheory of interreligious relationstheology of interreligious relations

Our globalized world increasingly brings together people of many different cultures, though not always harmoniously. In recent decades, multinational companies have sought more efficient strategies for authenticintercultural collaboration. But in today's multicultural world-church, faith communities too--from local parishes to international religious communities--are faced with the challenge of intercultural living. The social sciences have developed some constructive approaches, but people of faith also need to build their endeavors on a sound biblical and theological foundation. Living Mission Interculturally integrates sociology/anthropology with practical theology, reminds us that good will alone is not enough to effect change, and points to a way of intercultural living underpinned by faith, virtue, and a range of new and appropriate skills.

Authors include missiologists José M. de Mesa, Darrell L. Whiteman, Aylward Shorter, Jon P. Kirby, and Angelyn Dries, anthropologists Linda E. Thomas, Anthony J. Gittins, and Philip Gibbs, and theologians Gemma T. Cruz and Robert J. Schreiter. Book jacket.

During the past century the advance of secularism, the growth of other religious communities and the decline of the churches have combined to reduce the size and influence of the Christian community. Christians are now members of a minority religious community in a plural society. How is this diminished status to be understood in a global and historical context, within the purposes of God? What institutional changes are required? What psychological and emotional adjustments are needed in communities that have a corporate memory of majority status, privilege and influence? What hopes and expectations should be encouraged? What strategies should be adopted? A Vast Minority explores the challenges and opportunities we face. - Publisher

Safwat Marzouk offers a biblical vision for what it means to be an intercultural church, one that fosters just diversity, integrates different cultural articulations of faith and worship, and embodies an alternative to the politics of assimilation and segregation. A church that fosters intercultural identity learns how to embrace and celebrate difference, which in turn enriches its worship and ministry. While the church in North America might see migration as an opportunity to serve God's kingdom by showing hospitality to the migrant and the alien, migration offers the church an opportunity to renew itself by rediscovering the biblical vision of the church as a diverse community. This biblical vision views cultural, linguistic, racial, and ethnic differences as gifts from God that can enrich the church's worship, deepen the sense of fellowship in the church, and broaden the church's witness to God's reconciling mission in the world.Today's church faces the challenge of what it means to be church in the light of the ever-growing diversity of the population. This may entail advocacy work on behalf of the undocumented, asylum seekers, and refugees, but the church also faces the question of how to welcome the stranger, the migrant, and the refugee into the heart of the worshipping community. This may mean changing worship, leadership, or ministry styles to embrace diverse communities in the church's neighborhood. Marzouk surveys numerous biblical texts from the early ancestor stories of Israel to the Prophets, to the Gospels and Acts, the letters of Paul, and Revelation. The stories introduce themes of welcoming strangers, living as aliens, playing host to outsiders, discovering true worship, and seeking common language for expressing faith. Discussion questions are provided to encourage conversation on this complex and important topic.