- Vincent Kundukulam
Several models exist for the interaction between Christian faith and context. The model of classical age was linear, which started with doctrine and then proceeded to application in the given context. But since 20th century, the experience-action-reflection’ model has been popularly used. It begins with experiencing the life-struggles of the poor, proceeds to committing to their cause and ends with articulation. The life-situation of people, their perception of reality, their natural response to situations and discerning God’s role in human struggles are the good features of this model.
At present, the model followed for contextualisation in the scientific circles is hermeneutical. It is a continuous, situational and dialectical process where the gospel, world-views, socio-cultural contexts, themes selected, and the analytical methods interact one another and converge in exposing faith-credentials in new ways. It gives due respect to both the gospel and the context.
Gospel is the story about Jesus. Although there are four versions for gospel, they do not exhaust what Jesus said and did because the gospel writers have recorded only those data which was needed to meet the need of early Christian communities. It means, we don’t have direct access to the full personality of Jesus. In other words, there is no ‘pure gospel’ accessible to us; we do have only contextualized gospels. As per the gospels, Jesus was concerned about the context in his mission. He spent much time to pray over the historical situation in which he lived (Mk 1, 35; Mk 6, 46; Lk 6, 12). He prayed to the Father not to take the disciples away from the world but to protect them from the evil (Jn 17, 15). He explained about the Kingdom making use of examples from the world and showed solidarity with people’s sufferings and their search for justice and truth.
The world-view is the basic way one perceives and interprets reality. In Clifford Geertz’ view, it represents a set of control mechanisms – formulas, rules and instructions – that govern human behaviour. It influences people in conscious and subconscious manner and finds expressions in the way they live out their culture. The beliefs, moral values, customs approaches and choices depend upon the world views. It determines what is central and what is peripheral in life.
One who takes effort to make theological precepts meaningful for people must also take seriously people’s social, cultural and educational standings. However, in the dialectical interaction we must ensure that the specificity of the gospel message is not lost. The word of God is liberative and the contexts should be revised with the corrective energy inherent in the word of God.
As regards the reflection on the topic, the theologians will have to deal with questions of natural sciences if they have existential or ethical consequences for religious beliefs and faith-living. For example, they can express their views on political stands of the State when the latter goes against ethical principles. However, they must respect the stands of experts in respective fields.
Theologians must use a consistent method in analysing the subjects and making intuitions. Similarly, the language of the redacted text must be such that it enables people to live faith authentically and joyfully. It must be written in a form that reaches out to elites as well as ordinary people. Naturally, such expressions may take the form of parables, stories, prayers, songs, arts, paintings, sculptures, dolls, dance, music, and so on and so forth.
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