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theologies and cultures Vol. VIII. No. 1, June 2011 Paradigm Shift in Theology and Mission Editor M. P. Joseph Associate Editors Yatang CHUANG Po Ho HUANG Augustine MUSOPOLE Fuya WU Consulting Editors Tissa BALASURIYA, Sri Lanka Mark BURROWS, USA Enrique DUSSEL, Mexico Virginia FABELLA, Philippines Dwight N. HOPKINS, USA Abraham, K.C, India Yong-Bock KIM, Korea Jessi MUGAMBI, Kenya Michael NORTHCOTT, Britain Teresa OKURE, Nigeria Choan-Seng SONG, Taiwan/USA Elsa TAMEZ, Costa Rica Lieve TROCH, Netherlands WONG Wai Ching Angela, Hong Kong THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES is an academic journal dedicated to inter-disciplinary research and scholarly exploration in the field of theology and its interplay with the social, economic, political and cultural dimensions of people. The journal is committed to promoting engaged dialogue of different faith traditions and theological formulations in view of creating communities of justice and mutual understanding. Views expressed in this journal are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect, those held by the editorial board of THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES or of FCCRC or its sponsors. Copy right @ Chang Jung Christian University & Tainan Theological College and Seminary All rights reserved. Reproduction of articles is allowed with an acknowledgement of the source. ISSN no. 1813-7024 Editorial correspondence, submission of articles, book reviews, and books for review should be send to THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES, Shoki Coe House, TTCS, 360-1 Youth Road, Tainan, Taiwan; e-mail: [email protected] Business correspondence should be addressed to THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES, Shoki Coe House, TTCS, 360-1 Youth Road, Tainan, Taiwan; e- mail: [email protected] This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database®, a product of the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606, USA. email: [email protected], www:http://www.atla.com. Contents Editorial 5 Towards a Paradigm Shift in Theology: From Euro-andro- anthropocentric Salvation to the Redemption of God’s Creation Po Ho Huang 8 Whither Missions Today? A Historical and Theological Survey of the Shifts in Mission Thinking S. Wesley Ariarajah 28 “The Laughing Jesus of Asia” C. S. Song 46 The Parallelism of Taiwanese and Israelites in the Construction of “Homeland Theology” in Taiwan Wong, Chong-gyiau、 Hsu, Chih-ya 62 When Victims Become Judges: The Project of Forgiveness in Healing the Wound Catherine A. Muhoma & Eunice Kamaara 85 Religion and Critical Social Engagement: Re-imagining Interfaith Dialogue and Praxis George Zachariah 105 The Objectified people and the Objectified god of Tourism M.P. Joseph 125 theologies and cultures, Vol.VIII, No.1 June 2011, pp. 8-27 TOWARDS A PARADIGM SHIFT IN THEOLOGY: FROM EURO-ANDRO- ANTHROPOCENTRIC SALVATION TO THE REDEMPTION OF GOD’S CREATION Po Ho Huang1 Introduction Some forty years ago, Kosuke Koyama, a Japanese theologian and longtime missionary in Thailand, who later became the director of the Association of Theological Schools in Southeast Asia (ATSSEA) and Dean of Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST), wrote a book titled “Waterbuffalo Theology” in the 70’s of last century. In the preface of the book he began with a quotation from St. Paul, taken from I Corinthians: To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessing.”(I Cor. 9.22f) He then professes his theological position by the following statement, which says: “I will read the 1 Prof. Dr. Po Ho Huang is the Vice President of Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan. Paradigm Shift in Theology 9 Scriptures and theological works with your needs in mind…”2 Koyama explains that this theological position was made through his experiences in Northern Thailand, where he confronted daily with a herd of waterbuffaloes grazing in the muddy paddy field on his way to the country church. He says that this sight is an inspiring moment for him, he explains: “Because it reminds me that the people to whom I am to bring the gospel of Christ spend most of their time with these waterbuffaloes in the rice field. The waterbuffaloes tell me that I must preach to these farmers in the simplest sentence-structure and ideas, and to use exclusively objects that are immediately tangible.”3 “I decided to subordinate great theological thoughts, like those Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth, to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers. I decided that the greatness of theological works is to be judged by the extent and quality of the service they can render to the farmers to whom I am sent…”4 He then continued: “…. that the theology for northern Thailand begins and grows in northern Thailand, and nowhere else. Northern Thailand theology, the theology that serves Jesus Christ in northern Thailand, will surely comes into being when we dare to make this decision. In this 2 Kosuke Koyama, Waterbuffalo Theology, (Great Britain: SCM Press Ltd, 1974), p. vii 3 Ibid., p. vii 4 Ibid., p. viii 10 theologies and cultures decision is the beginning of a theology for Thailand and for Asia.”5 With Your Needs in Mind After 40 years of socio-political and economic development, the circumstance of Thailand, even northern Thailand may not be the same as Koyama portrays. It is however, the theological principle of “to subordinate great theological thoughts to the intellectual and spiritual needs of people whom I am sent” which was proposed by Kosuke Koyama that still rings in our ears. The spirit of the Koyama’s concern about “The needs in the mind of people whom I am sent”, can be reiterated in a more popular expression, commonly used in theological circles as the term of “contextuality”. Theologians engaged with contextual theologies contend that all theologies were produced in response to the particular contexts as theologians and their faith communities confronted in different geographical locations and different periods of human history.6 For instance: Jesus and his community were structuring their theology in response to the setting of Judeo-Roman religious and political struggles; early church fathers in the impact of Greek culture and Christian heretics; scholastics to the high power of the sophisticated philosophies and the entangling struggles of church and states under Roman empires in middle ages; reformers to the power corruption of the church politics in 15th century; and contemporary theologians to the enlightenment movement which brought the scientific myth of rationalism. Contextual theologies on the other hand were confronted by the oppressive system within the third world nations. In many nations around the world identity struggles assumed as cardinal theological concerns. “The needs in the mind of people” which Koyama points as the 5 Ibid., p. ix 6 The responses of theologies towards context should be informed through an active and critical engagement with the context. Paradigm Shift in Theology 11 main concern of his theology, is identified through locating the relevance of these theological discourses in the life of the people for whom they are addressed to. Christian theologies thus, need to transform themselves boldly and continually according to the demands generated from the changing contexts and circumstances. This is what we mean by “contextualization” or put in the terminology of Catholic theological communities- “inculturation”. Contextualization according to Shoki Coe, a Taiwanese theologian, is a continual task of theological endeavor. He says: “So, for us, authentic contextualization must be open constantly to the painful process of de- contextualization, for the sake of re-contextualization. Only through the pain of the Cross is there the glory of the resurrection.” 7 Thus, as history moves forward, contexts change and cultures continue to develop, and inevitably, theologies have to commit themselves to be renewed in order to be able to relevantly respond to the new circumstances and contexts. Paradigm Shifts of Christian Theology Though church history has demonstrated that the model of theological arguments was changing constantly, there were three principal theological paradigm shifts that took place in Christian history. These principal theological paradigm shifts have to do with the change in the nature and scope of theology. They are: 1) Christian formation of theology generated from the religion of Judaism reformulated by Jesus’ community and the early church. A revolutionary transformation was made to both the doctrine of God and the faith community. The absolute monotheism of Jewish tradition was replaced by “a” God of Trinity, 7 Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, CSP ed. Mission Trends No. 3, (NY: Paulist Fathers, Inc. and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), p. 24 12 theologies and cultures and a nation based religion and religious adherents were radically extended to a universal and cross cultural faith tradition. 2) The modernization of Christian theology in reaction to the ethos of rationalism proposed by the enlightenment movement in 17th and 18th century. In so doing, Christian theology was thus made one of the scientific disciplines, all religious mysteries and spiritual momentum were neglected if not totally against. 3) Irruption of Third world contextual theologies after the Second World War. What was traditionally considered as pagan and profane experiences and cultures were lifted as profound sources for doing theology