GOSPEL-CULTURE ENCOUNTER AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONTEXTUAL

THEOLOGIES

Introduction: Theology is a re-confession of faith. A confession informed by a living

encounter with the divine in the socio-political and economic context in which a faith
community seeks to realize the will of God. There is no single theology universally relevant.
Contextual theology is the witness and proclamation of salvation and providence of the living
God towards people of different race in different time and space. God who had lived and
acted in different eras, is living today and lives in the future. Throughout history, the Gospel
has encountered various cultures, each with its unique worldview, traditions, and societal
structures. From the early encounters between Christianity and Greco-Roman culture to the
spread of the faith across continents through missions and colonialism, the Gospel has
continually adapted to and been shaped by the cultural landscapes it encountered. An
exploration of the intersection between the Gospel message and diverse cultures and how this
encounter has given rise to what we call as contextual theologies will be made here.
Contextual Theology: Contextual theology seeks to understand and articulate the Christian
faith in ways that resonate with the particular cultural context in which it is proclaimed. It
recognizes that the Gospel message is dynamic, capable of speaking to people in diverse
cultural settings. Contextual theology might also be called situational theology. It takes the
context, conditions and situations of the lands, histories and cultures of the people in the
society that church exists as resources for theological reflection and faith confession; there
with constructing a theology that can shape a Christian identity relevant to its context. It may
also be broadly defined as a systematic and coherent articulation of how a community of faith
confesses Christ in a particular context.
The followings are some contextual theologies:
1. Liberation Theology: This is a Latin American theology of liberation developed in the
context of poverty and unjust distribution of wealth. Liberation theology is a movement in
Christian theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of liberation from
unjust economic, political, or social conditions. It has been described by proponents as “an
interpretation of Christian faith through the poor’s suffering, their struggle and hope, and a
critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor”
Liberation theology arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty caused by social
injustice in Latin America. The term was coined in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo
Gutiérrez, who wrote one of the movement’s most famous books, A Theology of Liberation.
2. Black Theology: Black theology is a theological perspective that emerged in the United
States during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. It seeks to articulate the Christian faith
from the perspective of African Americans, addressing their unique experiences of
oppression, struggle, and resilience.
Black theology emphasizes liberation from systemic oppression and social injustice. It draws
inspiration from the Exodus narrative, where God liberates the Israelites from slavery in
Egypt, viewing it as a paradigm for contemporary struggles for freedom. Black theology
contextualizes Christian beliefs and practices within the socio-cultural realities of African
American communities. It acknowledges the importance of cultural symbols, traditions, and
experiences in shaping theological reflection.
Black theology critiques the complicity of Christianity in perpetuating white supremacy and
racial discrimination. It challenges Eurocentric interpretations of theology and asserts the
dignity and worth of black lives. James Cone: Often regarded as the father of Black theology,
Cone’s works, such as “Black Theology & Black Power” and “A Black Theology of
Liberation,” laid the foundation for the movement.
3. Feminist Theology: Feminist theology focuses on the status of woman who are oppressed
because of the patriarchal culture, those who are economically poor and politically
marginalized, and those with second-class status within the religious institutions of the world,
including Christianity. Feminist theology is committed to the struggle for justice for women
and transformation of society. It is a challenge for the churches to recognize and to admit that
patriarchal socialization caused a deformation of Christian witness. Richard Evans defines
feminism as ‘the doctrine of equal rights for women, based on the theory of the equality of
the sexes.’
4. Dalit theology: The social structure of India is stratified, within built inequalities and
injustices, based on the caste- system sanctified by Brahmanic -Hinduism. The Dalits form
the inner core of poverty, which is birth ascribed. They have been excluded from the caste
system (social hierarchy), hence out-castes; declared ritually unclean, hence untouchable; and
pushed out for fear of pollution to live on the outskirts of villages, hence segregated.” In fact,
Dalits have been the most degraded, downtrodden, exploited and the least educated in the
society. They have been socially and culturally, economically and politically subjugated and
marginalized through three thousand years of Indian history.
It is a theology about Dalits or theological reflection upon the Christian responsibility to the
depressed classes. Dalit theology is the result of the reflection of Dalit Christians upon the
gospel in the light of their own circumstances. From the perspective of a local theology it is
“a way of recovering a world-view or way of life that has been blocked by false
consciousness on a large scale”, especially by the Brahmanic culture.
5. Tribal Theology: K.Thanzauva defined Tribal theology as a theological reflection on the
tribal Christian experiences of the interaction of tribal culture and gospel over the past of
hundred years in the region and of the struggle for liberation. Tribal theology is contextual by
nature and it aims liberation of tribal people from their unfortunate condition characterized by
violence, ethnic crisis, division, underdevelopment, poverty, alienation and the suffering of
innocent masses. It is “a theological reflection on the vision, aspiration and struggle of the
people for further action”
Approaches to Mission:
Incarnation is the very heart and nature of mission and it can’t be anything else. Christians
are called to go into the world because it’s the world that God so loves, the world that needs
to be made right, the world in which the Kingdom needs to come. The particularity of
incarnation is that it teaches us that things are always changed and transformed from the
inside. God came into the world in the person of Jesus and he comes into human lives
through his Spirit.

It has been said that, ‘if one wants to make things real, he/she must make it local.’ This is
precisely what God has done in his son Jesus Christ, the coming of Jesus was not just a
momentary theophany, but constituted an actual dwelling among his people and he became to
be known as Jesus of Nazareth.

In relating to another culture the Gospel needs to penetrate the world of the native people’s
thinking, the world of their feelings, and the world of their living. One should identify
himself/herself as much as they are able at the physical, emotional, intellectual, social,
cultural, and practical levels.

All contextual theologies are made from the local theologies or the local experiences. At the
time of early Christianity, the Christian faith was based on eternal, unalterable truth, which
had already been stated in its final form. The 17th Century protestant confessions were soon
treated as universals, valid in all times and setting. On the other hand, the encounter of the
Gospel with different cultures suggests the experimental and contingent nature of all
theology. We need an experimental theology in which an on-going dialogue takes place
between text and context, a theology which, in the nature of the case, remains provisional and
hypothetical. However, this should not lead to an un-critical celebration of an infinite number
of contextual and often mutually exclusive theologies.
Signs of the times: How we are to interpret God’s action in the history and so learn to
commit ourselves to participate in this. Which are the signs in human history that reveal
God’s will and God’s presence? There was a time when the west colonialism was widely
viewed as a sign of God’s providential intervention in History, For many decades the policy
of separate development-Apartheid- was hailed by serious Christians in Africa as a just and
God’s will solution to the problems of that country. But today all of these signs of the time
have been discredited. Therefore, Contextual theology is concerned with the present signs of
the time as well as the future non-oppression but not rejecting the history. Our interpretations
of the signs only have relative validity and they involve tremendous risk. Mathew’s parables
of reign of God emphasized the need of watching. (Mat. 25) Watching flows from not
knowing, at the same time watching is a form of an interpretation of signs.

Conclusion:
Christ meets us in our own cultural contexts. In the inculturation process, the core of the
gospel message must take flesh and blood in a given culture. It must be born in a culture and
not superimposed. The deep felt aspirations and needs of a people find their fulfilment and
enrichment in the Gospel. In the present day scenario, engaging in Christian mission thus,
takes into account the process of secularism, technology and the struggle for human justice,
which characterized the historical movements of nations in the third world. It is also takes
seriously the culture of the community. But one thing which is very important for all the
above contextual theologies is the ‘Bible’. In every religious life of Christians and its mission
the importance of the Bible cannot be diminished or ignored.