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God scarcely will be found beyond but in context (Sigurd Bergmann, A Survey o f
Contextual Theology [Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2003], xv).
Contextual theology is an interpretation o f Christian faith, which arises in the
consciousness o f its context (ibid., 4, italics V.P.).
Although it would be an exaggeration to suppose that this implies an uncritical
adoption o f that culture, many advocates o f contextual theology give that impression.
The approach o f contextual theology is not anything new. It rather expresses an
aspiration for reconstruction and interpreting anew a theological self-understanding and method, which has been in use before the historical pattern which started
to spread during the Renaissance and which still today modernizes the whole biosphere (S. Bergmann, op. cit., 16). ... There has never been a genuine theology that
was articulated in an ivory tower with no referent to or dependence on the events,
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the thought forms, or the culture o f its particular place and time (Stephen Bevans,
W hat has Contextual Theology to Offer to the Church o f the 21st Century, Mission in Context Lecture, Church Mission Society, Oxford, October 15, 2009).
E.g., rabbi, messiah, prophet, son o f God, son o f Man, saviour, Word,
Truth, etc., etc.
Compare K. H. Ohlig, Fundamentalchristologie. Im Spannungsfeld von Christentum
und K ultur (Munich: Kosel, 1986), 6 2 0-21 .
J. D. G. Dunn ,Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making, Vol. I), (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 55 3 -54.
From the very beginning o f the proclamation o f the Gospel, we have to underscore
that the Gospel is a strange Gospel. We have to emphasize its over against character.
O ver against every culture the Greek culture as well. Hence, we have not only
to inquire what has been transmitted, but also what has been lost by the cultural
constraints o f the New Testament and early church era (E. Brinkman, Contextual
Theology without Ulterior Motives, in E. A. J. G. Van der Borght (ed.) Religion
without Ulterior M otive [Netherlands: Brill, 2006], 159-78).
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This reminds us that contextual theology in the modern sense explicitly appeared
on a large scale as Latin-American liberation theology, feminist theology, African
and North American black theology, Korean Minjung theology, Taiwanese third-eye
theology, Indian Dalit theology, Philippines people s power theology, Indonesian
Pancha Sila theology, and finally as eco-theology, to mention only the most popular.
These new contextual theologies, existing for only half a century, have emerged out
o f the pains, struggles, and desire o f people from these cultures to formulate their
own theologies (in contradistinction to traditional European theology) that would
make sense o f God who became man to live with us in the context o f everybodys
daily life.
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We must always be attentive not only to the knowledge o f God but also to the
knowledge o f ourselves as human beings if we hope to practice an approach to theology that leads to wisdom. We must also be attentive to the fact that the knowledge
o f God and the knowledge o f ourselves are not available to us in the form o f timeless
and undisputed teaching. Instead, we learn from the history o f Christian thought
that doctrines and conceptions o f God and the nature o f the human condition, as
well as many other significant matters, have been developed and formulated in the
context o f numerous social, historical, and cultural settings and have in turn been
shaped by these settings (John Franke, The Character o f Theology: An Introduction to
Its Nature, Task, and Purpose, 14).
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Cf. Paul Ricoeur: To narrate is already to explain, Time and Narrative, Vol. 1 (Ox-
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tigation.
It could be shown that it applies even to the way in which we ask the questions.
... Every interpretation necessarily goes in circle (R. Bultmann, Glauben und Verstehen. Gesammelte Aufstze, Bd. 2, J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] [Tbingen 19582],
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2 1 1-35 ).
See Hans Waldenfels, Kontextuelle Fundamentaltheologie (Paderborn-MunichVienna-Zurich:Ferdinand Schning, 19882), I, 3, 1.
By interpretation here is meant the fundamental difficulties o f interpretation,
not some individual misunderstandings (see Karl Lehmann, article Hermeneutics in: Encyclopedia o f Theology, A Concise Sacramentum M undi [ed. Karl Rahner]
[Burns & Oates, 19813], 6 1 1 -1 5 , at 611.
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The universal medium o f such hermeneutics as the basic movement o f finitehistorical existence in general is language. For language conveys, conceals and reveals
a whole understanding o f the world and other unobtrusive anticipations and conditions which affect the understanding. Its structure, which is not independent o f ethical and political action and public life, can convey to a certain extent phenomena like
power and social interests which seemingly lie outside the scope o f speech. Hence,
formally, language can provide the truly universal aspect o f a hermeneutics (Karl
Lehmann, op.cit., 614).
18 Compare Rudolf Bultmann, who ascribes this attitude to so-called historicism, op.
cit.
19 Compare the difference which made Fritz Blttner, talking about works o f art, between intentio recta and intentio obliqua in his paper, Das Griechenbild J. J.
Winkelmanns in Antike und Abendland, Heft I (1944): 121-32.
20 Historical sensitivity must not be used as a device to block philosophical analysis
(Brian Hebblethwaite, Philosophical Theology and Christian Doctrine [London:
Blackwell, 2005], 6).
21 An (extreme?) example o f this viewpoint is the insistence o f the Filipina theologian
Estela Padilla to write her papers exclusively in Tagalog (an Austronesian language
spoken in the Philippines, with the consequence that only Filipinos can read her),
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then, about other cultures and their truths? If every culture had
its own truth, then truth would not exist at all.22Therefore, in trying
to interpret some biblical truths, we should never take culture as a
norm, much less as the ultimate criterion of truth. We should notice
that among the so-called context theologians there is a tendency
to hypostatize culture. However, the truths o f divine revelations
cannot be judged by the criteria of culture, so, it is important in
theology to avoid what one might call a fundamentalism of
culture,23 or an even more subtle form o f same attitude, a cultural
foundationalism.24 Furthermore, culture can sometimes contribute
to the understanding of some revealed truths, but more often than
not it can prevent it. In such cases, the understanding of culture
would not help in the understanding of the biblical message.25Yet the
understanding (and living) of the biblical message can contribute to
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because (supposedly) no other language can capture and convey what she wants to
say. So, one o f the main principles o f contextual theology-communication with different cultures-cannot be realized just because o f respect for its other main principle,
being culturally determined.
There is a clear danger in the emphasis on the contextual, o f Christian theology
committing itself to a process o f fragmentation, resulting in a multiplicity o f peculiar
theologies unable to communicate with each other, and each tending to claim the
absoluteness o f the significance o f its contextual and cultural setting over all others (Keith Clements, Theology Now, in Companion Encyclopedia o f Theology, ed.
Peter Byrne & Leslie Houlden [London and New York: Routledge, 1995], 2 7 2-90 ,
at 287). Cf. also: How D o We Preserve the Unity o f Faith from a Diversity o f Perspectives?, J. M. Soskice, The Truth Looks Different from Here, in Christ and
Context, The Confrontation between Gospel and Culture, eds. H. D. Regan & A. J.
Torrance with A. W ood (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993), 51.
In the words o f Alan J. Torrance, this exists where the demands o f culture, defined in
terms o f its own prior selfunderstanding, are accepted uncritically as defining theological conclusions, Introduction in Christ and Context, 2.
This exists where it is believed (explicitly or implicitly) that culture defines the neeessary form o f theological questioning, A. J. Torrance, ibid.
By making our own cultural particularity primary, we make it our God; and by
so doing we reduce the Gospel o f Christ to just another, subordinate world-view,
Sue Patterson, Response to J. M. Soskice, in Christ and Context, 72. And Veronica
Brady rightly observes that the tendency to turn theology into a branch o f anthropology or ethnology is a permanent problem for all theology, o f course, but it is especially so for contextual theology, Response to E. Moltmann-Wendel, in Christ and
Context, 125.
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In the words o f Douglas Campbell, Life in Christ cannot but be superior to the
most cherished features o f our old life and context. Certainly our cultural identity
will not be obliterated: differences will remain. But the ground o f our existence w ill
no longer be cultural, or any aspect o f culture. We are grounded instead in the person
o f Christ, through the Spirit. In short, we now have the same ground as any other believer, irrespective o f context, while our various contexts are constantly beingjudged and
transformed by that ground' (italics V.P.); and moreover a recognition o f contextual
differences as fundamental would amount to a negation o f the work o f Christ and
exalt culture over the Cross, Response to J. W. de Gruchy, in Christ and Context,
174-75.
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Theological Context
The main question we have to answer is: what is the proper context
for theological reflection? The answer to this question will show what
kind of theology we are talking about. Under the influence of the
theologies from the so-called Third World, traditional, European
theology is held to be too scientific or elite, and functioning only
in the ivory tower as a kind of Glasperlenspiel, having nothing or
little in common with the real needs of ordinary people. To their
mind, theology should be context-dependent, which usually means
that it should be a religious reflection on existing living conditions
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And not only theology but also Christianity that was pre-existent to culture and
history, or a culturally divested, a culturally naked Christianity does not exist, Johann B. Metz, The O n e World: A Challenge to Western Christianity, in Christ
and Context, 210.
Allan J. Torrance, Response to Jrgen Moltmann, in Christ and Context, 194.
Context is a mental, if not also a cultural, construct, one which serves to tidy up the
often confusing mixture o f situations in which we find ourselves, Daniel W. Hardy,
The Spirit o f God in Creation and Reconciliation, in Christ and Context, 237. Cf.
also Context does not indicate that which surrounds us, as if that were distinct
from us, as if it were an envelope in which we are contained. Nor ... are contexts
clearly distinct or disjoined from each other. That is true both conceptually and actually (italics V.P.), ibid. Compare: no context really exists in isolation, Douglas
Campbell, op. cit., 166. n. 20.
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I do not want to deny that most o f what contextual theology is doing is useful for
understanding the relationship between Church and society, religion and culture,
etc. It could also be useful for the self-understanding o f the Church and her place in
concrete historical circumstances. More than this, it could be useful for understanding and meeting the daily needs o f Church members. But, however useful, the question remains: is that really theology?
O f course, not as some particular philosophical system, but asphilosophical rationality.
That can be shown even in the case o f ethics, apologetics, Christian anthropology,
and all other theological disciplines.
... in Jesus Christ God has set us free from the bondage o f closed, static cultures, and
opened up the possibility for the birth o f the new in which Jew and Gentile, slave
and free, men and women can be united in one body,J. W. de Gruchy in Christ and
Context, 141. Cf. also about Christs shocking abolition o f the age-old distinction
between Jew and Gentile, and hence ... abolition o f any contextual barrier within
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the people o f God, whether based on race or culture, Douglas Campbell, Response
to John W. de Gruchy, Christian Witness and the Transformation o f Culture in a
Society in Transition, in Christ and Context, 170.
A. J. Torrance reminds us that in the opening paragraphs o f what are now published
as Bonhoeffer s lectures on Christology it is argued (among other things) that if the
Logos is to be taken seriously as the Word o f God to humankind, then this Word stands
over against our systems o f thought and prior, (often subliminally, self-oriented and
self-interested) cultural agendas and context-conditioned direction o f thought. The
Word serves, rather, to liberate and to reorientate our world-view, to bring us to new,
more inclusive and often more radical ways o f interpreting and reinterpreting the world
around us, Introduction in Christ and Context, 5 -6 (italics V.R).
Scientific can mean many things, and I do not want to enter the whole range o f its
meanings. Nevertheless, it has to imply at least the obedience to the basic laws o f form al
logic. O f course, it is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for doing science.
A contextual theologian could observe, for example, that hungry people do not care
for geometry. This, o f course, is true, but it is also trivial.
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It is always useful to remind ourselves that while Rationalism is a kind o f (philosophical) ideology, rationality is God s gift to humanity, making us what we are.
We have to ask also what is the context o f Orthodox theology today And the answer
will not be easy, even if we take for granted that context means cultural surrounding,
because today we have Orthodox theology in very different cultural settings, and on
every continent. So, if every cultural context in today s poly-contextual world is decisive
in making theology, one could ask why all these culture-dependent theologies would
be called Orthodox? Or, conversely, if they are Orthodox independently o f cultural
context, than what happened with the basic principles o f contextual theology?
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I said that it would be o f little help because I also claim that Christian theology
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springs not solely from a social context (Keith Clements, op. cit., 286).
This is the wise advice o f Lord Acton (though he did not offer it regarding theology),
quoted in R. G. Collingwoods Autobiography (London: Oxford University Press,
19675), 130.
Cf. Brian Hebblethwaite, op. cit., 62.
E.g., Richard o f St. Victor, who claimed that supreme love must include not only
dilection (love for another) but also condilection (mutual love for a third), and
this entails a Trinity o f persons in the divine (i.e., perfect) being.
Although the understanding o f their appearance at some particular historical time
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To mention here only one example o f the Orthodox (and not only the Orthodox)
going astray: the claim that apart from the laws o f formal logic, and indeed in contradistinction with them, there are some other laws o f G ods logic inaccessible to human intellect. Against that kind o f mysticism with closed eyes, I would recommend
one with eyes open, for which at least the logical law o f non-contradiction remains
essential to anything intelligible.
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