Tuesday, 7th November, 2006

Context: Post Modern or beyond?

And I thought context was just looking from a different perspective!

I had never considered you could create a justifiable Theology from a single context. I always believed theology was the study of the whole, the all encompassing word of God. I am now beginning to see something new. Rest at a plateau and explore from a limited horizon. Hopefully this is with an aim to later move up to see the wider context. Perhaps I would be happier if it where called “Theology within Context”.

The application of theology in context, is seen in Christ’s theology. Jesus himself worked initially with the Jews, forbidding the disciples to practice on the Samaritans or Gentiles. They worked within the context of Israel, before venturing out to the wider mission. See Mathew 10.1-10. Tom Wright explains Christs phased process in “Matthew for Everyone” Part 1 p112.

Seeing from a different context and applying theology seems obvious, to pertain to a wholly inclusive truth by applying the hypothesis within the next context and so on. By applying dialectical motion as in the way of Hegel “Thesis, antithesis and synthesis” over time all paths should finally reveal the promised kingdom on earth. But if contextual theology only ever develops into a thesis without intention to expand outside it’s own context, is this theology? In concept, contextual theology reasoning against a bias can appear biased to itself.

Looking at Latin American “Liberation Theology” the missions are immense, but ultimately the realisation is the same throughout centuries of oppression and poverty, however I am still shocked how these problems still exist. The plight of poor Brazilian children in the 9th wealthiest country in the world is enough to freeze your soul (see also CAFOD). I can become aware of these distant contexts through news, books and literature but do I really relate.

Sometimes we can get a glimpse. In Graham Greene’s “The Power and the Glory” you can start to comprehend the effect of the weather from the first page. The poverty and political oppression throughout the book gives substance to help realise the problems with “Imaginative Construction” (Gordon Kaufmann) within another context.

Looking from a different perspective, although changing the contextual environment may effect us, we are what God reveals to us. If we up sticks and leave to new climates we normally take our struggles with us, possibly collecting more. The priest in Greens book could not escape his own issues by crossing the border, instead he chose to return and face them paying the ultimate sacrifice.