Book Review Part 2: Ed. J.P. Greenman and G.K. Green, "Global Theology in Evangelical Perspective," IVP, 2012.

Global Theology - Exploring the Contextual Nature of Theology and Mission,

 

Review:

Samuel Escobar “Doing Theology on Christ’s Road”

The context for theology and mission in Latin America in the 1960’s was the challenge of Marxism.  “I found out that the evangelical theological canon was no help in the struggle.” We needed to develop an evangelical theology that addressed “social concerns from a biblical perspective… Liberation theologies “offered a new reading of Scripture, a fresh reading through the perspective of the poor, a vision from the underside.” (pp. 67, 69, 77).

Latin American leader Rene Padilla described “two different attitudes that he called ‘the balcony’ and ‘the road.’ The road is the place where life is tensely lived, where thought has its birth in conflict and concern…it is the place of action, of pilgrimage, of crusade…As Latin American thinkers we chose to do our theology not contemplating Christ from the comfortable distance of the balcony, a secure and easily received orthodoxy [as in North American theology], but following him on the troubled roads of our Latin American lands”...We engaged in the development of a contextual theology…a new open-ended reading of Scripture with a hermeneutic in which the biblical text and the historical situation become mutually engaged in a dialogue whose purpose is to place the Church under the Lordship of Jesus Christ in its particular context” (pp.70-72).

 In the 1980s and 1990s the poor masses in Latin American were opting for the evangelical and Pentecostal churches. [As a result} Evangelical theology in Latin American is now exploring the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in relation to the existence and mission of the Protestant churches there…I ask myself, why is it that as evangelical theologians in Latin America we did not place the Holy Spirit earlier in our agenda?  Could it be that evangelical dialogue at a global scale imposed a ‘modern’ agenda on us so that the role of the Holy Spirit is mainly to help us to arrive at correct propositional truth,” [i.e., truth seen from the balcony]? (p.83). 

Ruth Padilla DeBorst “Songs of Hope Out of a Crying Land”
“It is important to understand that Latin American Christianity cannot be understood in terms of North American Christianity – that goes for both Catholicism and Protestantism” (p.100). “Rather than a systemic, academic discipline reserved for intellectual elites, authentically Latin American theologies, in their liberationist, holistic evangelical and Pentecostal strands, are communal practices of hope and indigenous praxis that resist being defined by categories imposed from the outside” (p.88).

“Pentecostal religion provides positive social and economic benefits for many poor women in Latin America…Church becomes for women the place to pool meager resources, find mutual support, childcare and health…Yet further, church helps women gain strength to resist machismo…Not only are the lives of women transformed by the involvement in the church but ‘with family values a high priority in Pentecostalism,’ men change their behavior – they stop drinking and smoking, stop cheating on their wives.’ A certain ‘reformation of machismo’ takes place” (p.91).

“In Latin America as in North America the challenge to all who identify as Christians is the incarnation of a socially committed spirituality…that engages in the deeply complex and painful realities of its context with the hopeful proclamation of a different reality. This presence demands awareness not only of the biblical visions of justice and peace but also of the issues and demands of our day, including the place and responsibility of all nations and peoples in the world scene” (p.101).

Juan Martinez “Outside the Gate” – a view from the perspective of Latino Protestantism in the U.S.

“Latino theology, like all contextual theologies, creates tensions for evangelicals in the U.S.  The Latino Christian experience in the U.S…forces us to address…issues of conquest and mission, racism, internal colonialism, the benefits that the U.S. economy gains from having undocumented ‘disposable labor’ and related topics…It also calls for a significant reinterpretation of the narrative of evangelical Protestantism in the United States” (p.180).

“Common cultural themes within the Latino community create the environment for a community-based theology…Most Latinos have experienced exile or have been treated like outsiders, even if they have their historical roots in this country…Latinos are mestizos. The vast majority are the children of multiple cultural, ethnic and racial encounters…Spirituality is another common influence. There is a clear openness to the spiritual and a sense of God’s presence in the world. Worship services often feel like a fiesta where God’s presence and mighty acts are celebrated in the gathering of an extended family.” (pp. 182-183).

 Orlando Costas was a Puerto Rican missiologist who published Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom. His role was to do missiology from the periphery…working among the poor, outside the gates of power...Christ is outside the gate of power and privilege; therefore those who want to share the gospel...have to return the evangelistic ministry to the grass roots of the church and establish a preferential option for the marginalized of society” (p. 187).

 “Latinos have a noninnocent reading of the Bible and of history…[in contrast to] American exceptionalism…Dominant-culture evangelicalism [in the U.S.] needs to recognize how it has been shaped by its context. Militarism, individualism, materialism and the U.S. story of racism and imperial expansion have all had an influence on evangelical theology” (pp. 185, 193). 

“The Biblical vision of the future is one in which the rich diversity of humanity is joined in the worship of the Lamb (Rev. 7:9-10).  Yet this goes against the assumed models for the unity of U.S. society.  Both the Anglo-conformity and Melting Pot models subsume the diversity into the commonality.  Most U.S. Protestants, be they evangelical or mainline, assume uniformity over diversity…The reality is that race is still a very strong social construct in this country”(p.192).

 Other types of issues Latino Protestant theology raises for Euro-American evangelicals are immigration reform and the undocumented, conquest and gospel, culture and gospel (that accepts the cultural influences of others outside the U.S. dominant culture and takes active steps to limit U.S. evangelical cultural hegemony), Latin American missionaries to the North, visions of the future of the United States.  Will U.S. evangelicalism learn to retell its story in such a way that Latino Pentecostalism plays a role in its self-definition or will it be excluded because of a European slant and a Calvinist restriction?” (pp. 191-193).

                                                                                 - M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D.,  4/5/12