• Vincent Kundukulam

It is practically impossible to set general norms for the contextualization of theology. This is because the context of each local church varies from one to the other. Each diocese may have its own history and specific culture which necessitate a unique way of reflecting and expressing the Christian faith. Hence, the only possible way would be to propose a certain number of poles which must be necessarily taken into consideration while interpreting faith in the given context.

Commitment to Bible and culture: Contextualization includes giving cultural embodiment to the biblical faith. Subsequently, the message of revelation in the Bible has to be interpreted in vernacular language and in relation to local issues. When Bible is translated into local language, special care is to be taken not to lose the alterity of gospel. It is true, theologians will have to get out of the cultural matrix of Middle-East and Europe but it must not be at the expense of Christianness. The credibility of contextualization has to be assessed in terms of its capacity to create interest in the local faithful to become a disciple of Jesus in their given context. Contextualization must help the local believers to make their society livable just and humane and thus equip people to move towards the fulfilment of God’s reign on earth.

Paradigms of God’s absoluteness and humaneness: Contextualization has to attend to God’s absoluteness (transcendental nature) and humaneness (loving, forgiving and suffering nature of God). Often, believers absolutize the doctrines about God and worship them as idols.  To unmask this falsity, one has to grow in the awareness of God’s absoluteness i.e. the perception that God is beyond all pour imageries. The one who becomes really illuminated by God realize how finite and relative are human ideas of God. Similarly, one who grows in the awareness of God’s humaneness grasp how much we have to be humane in practicing religion. Love and mercy must domine over law and punishment. The more we experience God’s humaneness the more we learn to humanize the inhuman structures and stand against depersonalization.

Community as locus theologicus: Theology must be communitarian in order to transform society. Theology has the purpose of knitting of a new web of relationships and hence it can never be done independent of the community. Real theology is lived and done in and by the routine of ordinary people. Peoples of all walks of life – parents, children, teachers, researchers, social activists, health workers, laborers and organizers – are all the agents of theologizing process. Theologians’ task is to serve as midwife i.e., to help the community to express the theology hidden within the people. Compared to individuals, the oppressed communities see what the Gospel means to them and what challenges and hopes it holds out to everyone.

An Asian Perspective: As far as Indian Christians are concerned, the theology developed in their sub-continent must suit to the culture of the Eastern culture. Euro-American culture is dominated by logical and systematic reasoning, conceptual and speculative thinking, deductive method and a linear vision of history. Whereas, the Asian cultures are permeated with symbolic understanding, narrative communication, inductive method and circular vision of history.

There is difference between Euro-American and Asian cultures in the way they perceive the reality. The former is rather dualistic and dichotomous while the latter is unitive and holistic. The West understand humans and nature as of different entities whereas the East (Advaita philosophy in India and Tao wisdom in China) looks at them as inter-dependent. Consequently, their perceptions regarding God and man’s destiny are also different. The Asians try more for realization while the Europeans prefer more for knowledge. The Europeans prefer rather an upward approach while Asian feel at home with downward approach in research.

Many of the African and Latin-American countries also share with the Asian word-views and perspectives. Given that Indians are doing theology from the context of Asia and for the people living in Asia, their theologizing must be defined by the Asian views of reality.

• Kundu1962@gmail.com