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In Order to Answer This Question It Will Be Necessary to Examine, First of All TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY FOR INCULTURATION: ADULT THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE INTERACTION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH AND CULTURE by NIGEL JAMES ROOMS A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY Department of Theology and Religion School of Historical Studies The University of Birmingham March 2007 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT The thesis begins in the author’s exposure to the inculturation issue as an adult theological educator in Africa and then in UK. The contemporary UK church faces a dilemma of ‘gospel’ and culture as sharp as in Africa. The research question is posed for the UK context as; is it possible to develop an educational course that will deliver inculturation, and if so what would be good practice within it? A cyclical ‘Kolbian’ methodology is chosen for the field research. It consists of three case studies of adult theological education courses which deal obliquely with the interaction of faith and culture in UK; a) the Alpha course in three different cultural contexts; b) A Lent Course linking a UK and African Diocese; c) the Education for Ministry course, in particular its imaginative methods of theological reflection. The case studies occur in series, rather than in parallel, as ‘research journey cycles.’ All the case studies make important conclusions leading to an affirmative response to the research question. Significant learning regarding good practice in pedagogy for inculturation is developed; imagination is presented as of primary importance. The thesis raises fundamental questions about hermeneutics which bridge inculturation and adult education. The individual nature of educational courses provides a limit to the conclusions. DEDICATION For the people and clergy of The Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro who inspired this project. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank both Sue Boughey and especially Catriona Gundlach who, as my secretaries over the period of the project, were invaluable in arranging some of the field research and in the laborious task of transcribing interviews and focus groups. Whether it is normal practice or not at this point I would like to acknowledge the contribution of my doctoral supervisors. Needless to say I couldn’t have completed the research without the constant help, support, ideas, cajoling and criticism of Edmond Tang and John Hull. John deserves a further mention as he continued long into his ‘retirement.’ Finally thanks to the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham who supported me during the programme and whilst taking study leave to complete the writing-up. University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. CONTENTS Page 1/3 CHAPTER / Section Page Number CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCING INCULTURATION 4 A Definition of Inculturation 4 The Pole of Christian Faith – or ‘gospel’ 8 The Pole of Culture 12 The Premise, Process and Content of Inculturation 15 The Limits of Inculturation 21 Inculturation, Education and Practical Theology 24 Conclusion 26 CHAPTER 3: INTRODUCING PEDAGOGY 28 Classical and other Epistemologies 29 Twentieth Century Epistemology and Hermeneutics 30 Post-Gadamerian Hermeneutics 33 Two Possible Educational Methodologies 34 Education following Freire 35 Formative and Critical Education 38 Cyclical Educational and Research Methodologies 41 Other Pedagogical Issues for the Project 43 a) Domains of learning and culture 43 b) Individual or communitarian learning 44 Definitions 44 Conclusion 46 CHAPTER 4: A METHODOLOGICAL NARRATIVE OF DISCOVERY 48 Proposal and Reality 48 Key turns on the Journey – the Case Studies 51 Research Ethics 55 Reflexivity 56 Writing up the Research 60 Reflections on the Methodological Journey 60 CONTENTS Page 2/3 CHAPTER / Section Page Number CHAPTER 5: CASE STUDY ONE – THE ALPHA COURSE 62 Overview and Research Question 62 Existing Research 64 Methodology 67 The Process of Data Collection 68 a) The Churches Together Group 68 b) The Student group 69 c) The Prison Group 70 The Three Cultural Contexts 71 Evaluation of research data 72 a) The premise of the course 72 b) The process of the course 73 c) The content of the course 76 d) The outcomes of the course 81 e) The meaning and contestability of the course 84 Conclusions 85 CHAPTER 6: CASE STUDY TWO – THE UBUNTU LENT COURSE 86 Introduction 86 Outline and Description of the Ubuntu Course 86 An issue in the planning of the Case Study 89 The Case Study 92 The Process of Data Collection 97 Evaluation of the Data 99 a) The Course Itself 99 b) The Internet Forum 101 c) The Groups Themselves 104 d) Group Observations 105 e) Focus Groups 110 Conclusions 114 CONTENTS Page 3/3 CHAPTER / Section Page Number CHAPTER 7: CASE STUDY THREE – THE EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY (EFM) COURSE 117 Overview 117 The EFM Method Explained 122 Initial Critique of the EFM method 126 The Case Study Research 129 The Process of Data Collection 130 a) The Course Material 130 b) Interviews 131 c) Focus Groups 131 Evaluation of the Data 131 a) Sociological Data 132 b) Course Material and Initial Observations 132 c) Interviews 136 d) Focus Groups Modelling EFM TR 144 Conclusion 146 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSIONS 147 Section a) Revisiting the Case Studies 147 Section b) Conclusions to the Research Questions 156 Section c) Implications of the Research for Doing Theology and the Future 162 APPENDIX I: Thesis Methodology Essay 169 APPENDIX II: Alpha Course Data 182 APPENDIX III: Ubuntu Course Data 185 APPENDIX IV: EFM Course Data 193 APPENDIX V: Documents Demonstrating Research Ethics 199 BIBLIOGRAPHY 202 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Number Figure 1. Structural dimensions underlying the process 42 of experiential learning LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Alpha International AI The Education for Ministry Course EFM Higher Education HE International Bulletin of Missionary Research IBMR Member of Parliament MP Mission and Public Affairs Council MPAC of the Church of England New Testament NT Non-Governmental Organisation NGO Old Testament OT Theological Reflection TR United Kingdom UK United States of America USA University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee USST World Council of Churches WCC CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION The research question that this thesis addresses arose, in the first instance, from the author’s experience of working for several years during the 1990s in adult theological education and training in the Anglican Church of Tanzania. I wrote a short course of studies addressing the issue of inculturation in an open learning text (Theological Education by Extension or TEE) in Swahili written for lay Christians at the ‘grass roots.’ In that context the inculturation question was somewhat crudely; how can I and the community be authentically African and authentically Christian? (Especially when the Christianity we have inherited is not African in origin and we may have already lost some of our African culture because of its influence to date.) The end result did not seem entirely satisfactory when field tested and in engaging with the literature on inculturation it became clear that there had been few, if any attempts at transferring the theory of inculturation into an adult educational programme whose outcome would be inculturation. I was also privileged occasionally to have the experience of seeing Tanzanian Christians worshipping with a deep sense of joy and belonging, and possibly resistance1 when they used musical idioms from their own traditional culture. This was in contrast to the normal rather stiff approach when singing translated Western hymns to European tunes. There remained a gulf between theological education institutions in Africa and the grass roots of the churches – a gulf which is perhaps based on educational methods imported from the West over many years. My experience was that issues of inculturation were discussed and reflected on at the college level, but the grass roots of the church remained unchanged. The importance and seemingly not-yet-birthed possibilities of authentic inculturation were presented starkly to me in such experiences. 1 This could be what Gerald West (1999: 48) describes as “the often fugitive political conduct of subordinate groups” through rumours, gossip and songs etc. 1 I returned to work in England, continuing in adult theological education and training in the church and started the doctoral programme in 2002. I knew that however much I would like to research in Africa, practically this would not be possible. I soon discovered though that
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