"Given that the center of Christianity has now shifted to these poorer countries...Ironically, those who boast the highest standard of living and display also the greatest spiritual poverty are also the ones who write our theology texts; meanwhile, those with the least often have much to teach us about prayer and dependence on God." William A Dyrness-Diversity in Mission and Theology: Fuller Seminary
The majority of Christians who are living today are not Anglo-Saxon, are financially poor, and are people with whom we have little in common with; if you can overlook the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Their Christianity is not our Christianity; our faith is not their faith. They compose a majority of the church, yet as Dr. Dyrness says we compose the majority of theology that affects the body. Can't we say that our theology, and therefore the body, is lacking without the contribution of those who experience Christ-centered life in ways we don't? I believe that our understanding of God is deficient without the contribution of those who have a dependency on Christ that most of us only read about. Yet we write the books on ecclesiology (church), which is ironic since our culture provides us with a context that leaves community as an option, whereas community for them is often a means of survival.
Shouldn’t they be invited into dialogues about church since they live what most of us attend? They really know what it means to "share all things in common" (Acts 2), we "sacrifice what we don't need, keep what we want" and then write about community while living in neighborly isolation.
The church is the body, the bride of Christ. The body and therefore our understanding of church is out of proportion. We need the emergence of a global perspective.
4 comments:
Has it become passe yet to feel guilty for being born in America? My heart breaks for the real people in the diverse world of humanity. My heart breaks even though the cultural divide may make them feel so distant in my mind. Given enough time I guess self-percieved power-brokers eventually arise in any and all human endevors. People are crazy things.
I've often thought the largest desert in the world is that 18 inches from my mind to my heart. Without Christ I'd have never even tried to make the trip brother.
Think global, act local.
Solids points... I wonder if America will go the way of Europe or the way of Africa when it comes to faith.
I love this idea ... but what does it look like in practice for those of us in the western world surrounded by post Christendom culture to encourage others on the other side of the globe to help us theologically? What does it look like?
Tim, there is a large amount of literature being published by people who are not Euro. However, most of us read stuff that we find relevant to our situation, which is great, but we need to enlarge our "worldview." Enlarging our understanding of "church" through the examples of our brothers and sisters in other cultures will help us to see what God is doing elsewhere, which should help us to see what we can implement. If we learned to pray like the Chinese, or have community like Africans, or did evangelism like Columbians our churches would be effected.
Post-modernity has come and it will go, but there are biblical principles that will never change. Culture is important, but what values do all humans hold dear? There are common values that have never changed.
Here are a couple of folks that have challenged me:Anthropology & Theology of Missions by Tite Tienou
Post-Modern by Mabiala Kenzo, The Heavenly Man, Road to Jerusalem, Samuel Escobar. You go Tim!!! Take Preston for Jesus.
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