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| Author | Stephen B. Bevans |
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| Language | English |
| Publisher | Orbis Books |
Publication date |
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| Publication place | United States |
Models of Contextual Theology is a book written by Stephen B. Bevans which argues that all Christian theology is contextual and identifies six dominant models of contextual theology.
Bevans first sketched out his ideas of various models of contextualization through his time as a missionary in the Philippines and when he was teaching at Catholic Theological Union. [1] [2]
These ideas were expanded into Models, first published in 1992, which included five models: translation, anthropological, praxis, synthetic, and transcendental. The book was revised in 2002 to include a sixth model, the countercultural model. [3]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2021) |
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2021) |
The praxis model is a way of doing theology that is formed by knowledge at its most intense level. It is also about discerning the meaning and contributing to the course of social change, and so it takes its inspiration from neither classic texts nor classic behavior but from present realities and future possibilities. The praxis model gives ample room for expressions of personal and communal experience. At the same time it provides exciting new understandings of the scriptural and older theological witness. [4]
The term praxis is used as an alternative to the terms "practice" or "action" in both theological and the social science disciplines. "Praxis" is a term not unfamiliar to Christian thought, where Orthopraxy is a term derived from Greek ὀρθοπραξία (orthopraxia) meaning "correct action/activity" or an emphasis on conduct, both ethical and liturgical, as opposed to faith or grace etc. [5] [6] [7] This contrasts with orthodoxy, which emphasizes correct belief, and ritualism, the use of rituals. [8] The term is frequently used by liberation theology proponents, such as Gustavo Gutierrez, who emphasize "praxis" over doctrine. Gutierrez later clarified his position by advocating a circular relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxis seeing the two as having a symbiotic relationship. [9] Gutierrez' reading of the Biblical prophets condemning oppression and injustice against the poor (i.e. Jeremiah 22:13–17) informs his assertion that to know God (orthodoxy) is to do justice (orthopraxis). [10] Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), however, criticized liberation theology for elevating orthopraxis to the level of orthodoxy. [11] Richard McBrien summarizes this concept as follows:
God is disclosed in the historical ‘’praxis’’ of liberation. It is the situation, and our passionate and reflective involvement in it, which mediates the Word of God. Today that Word is mediated through the cries of the poor and the oppressed. [12]
In the social sciences, praxis is understood as a technical term with roots in Marxism, and in the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire.
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2021) |
The transcendental model proposes that constructing a contextualized theology is not about producing a particular body of texts, but is instead about attending to the affective and cognitive operations in the self-transcending subject. In other words, "theology happens as a person struggles more adequately and authentically to articulate and appropriate this ongoing relationship with the divine." [13] The emphasis here is on theology as an activity and process as opposed to a particular context. This model is not about finding right answers that exist in some transcultural realm, but rather revolves around a passionate search for authentic expression of one's religious and cultural identity. [14]
The term transcendental echoes the "transcendental method" created by Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century and developed in the twentieth century by thinkers like Pierre Rousselot, Joseph Marechal, Karl Rahner, and Bernard Lonergan, all attempting to understand a genuine "intellectualism" they found in Thomas Aquinas with regard to modern subjectivity and historical consciousness. [15]
The countercultural model aims to be engaging and relevant to the context while at the same time remaining faithful to the gospel. This model recognizes the deep ambiguity and even antigospel character of context. In regard to so much of western culture, it seems that Christianity today must speak a word of radical dissent and offer an alternate way of living. [16]
However, this model have four areas of caution. First, the danger that this model to be anticultural. Second, the danger of sectarianism is always present in this model. Third, countercultural model is in regard to its relatively monocultural makeup. Finally, the danger of Christian exclusivism over against other religious ways. [17]
Liberation theology is a theological approach emphasizing the "liberation of the oppressed". It engages in socio-economic analyses, with social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples and addresses other forms of perceived inequality.
The emerging church, sometimes wrongly equated with the "emergent movement" or "emergent conversation", is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st century. Emerging churches can be found around the globe, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. Members come from a number of Christian traditions. Some attend local independent churches or house churches while others worship in traditional Christian denominations. The emerging church favors the use of simple story and narrative. Members of the movement often place a high value on good works or social activism, including missional living. Proponents of the movement believe it transcends labels such as "conservative" and "liberal"; it is sometimes called a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature, its range of standpoints, and commitment to dialogue. Participants seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a "postmodern" society. Disillusionment with the organized and institutional church has led participants to support the deconstruction of modern Christian worship and evangelism, and the nature of modern Christian community.
Praxis, a transliteration of the Greek word πρᾶξις, means "practice, action, doing". More particularly, it means either:
Phronema is a transliteration of the Greek word φρόνημα, which has the meanings of "mind", "spirit", "thought", "purpose", "will", and can have either a positive meaning or a bad sense.
In the study of religion, orthopraxy is correct conduct, both ethical and liturgical, as opposed to faith or grace. Orthopraxy is in contrast with orthodoxy, which emphasizes correct belief. The word is a neoclassical compound—ὀρθοπραξία meaning 'right practice'.
In Christianity, inculturation is the adaptation of Christian teachings and practices to cultures. This is a term that is generally used by Catholics and the Orthodox, whereas Protestants, especially associated with the World Council of Churches, prefer to use the term "contextual theology".
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino is a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest, regarded as one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology. He currently holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and has previously been a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.
Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian, philosopher writer, and former Catholic priest known for his active support for Latin American liberation theology.
James Hal Cone was an American Methodist minister and theologian. He is best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church. His message was that Black Power, defined as black people asserting the humanity that white supremacy denied, was the gospel in America. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed, advocating the same thing as Black Power. He argued that white American churches preached a gospel based on white supremacy, antithetical to the gospel of Jesus.
The Second Episcopal Conference of Latin America was a bishops' conference held in 1968 in Medellín, Colombia, as a follow-up to the Second Vatican Council which it adapted in a creative way to the Latin American context. It took as the theme for its 16 documents “The Church in the Present Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Council", with a focus on the poor and oppressed in society. It recognized that “the social situation demands an efficacious presence of the Church that goes beyond the promotion of personal holiness by preaching and the sacraments.” The bishops agreed that the church should take "a preferential option for the poor" and gave their approval to Christian "base communities" in which the poor might learn to read by reading the Bible. The goal of the bishops was to liberate the people from the "institutionalized violence" of poverty. They maintained that poverty and hunger were preventable.
Marie-Dominique Chenu was a Catholic theologian and one of the founders of the reformist journal Concilium.
Naim Stifan Ateek is a Palestinian priest in the Anglican Communion and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. He has been an active leader in the shaping of the Palestinian liberation theology. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989, and based on his dissertation for his degree in theology. The book laid the foundation of a theology that addresses the conflict over Palestine and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, he lectures widely both at home and abroad. His book, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, was published by Orbis in 2008, followed by A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, 2017.
Christian theological praxis is a term used by most liberation theologians to express how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be lived in the world.
Paul Francis Knitter is an American theologian. He is currently an emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary, where he has served as the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture since 2007. He is also Emeritus Professor of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he taught for 28 years before moving to Union. Knitter is known for his work on religious pluralism and multiple religious belonging, particularly regarding Buddhism and Christianity.
The option for the poor, or the preferential option for the poor, is a principle of Catholic social teaching, explicitly articulated in the latter half of the 20th century. The concept was first articulated within Latin American liberation theology, and was championed by many Latin American Christian democratic parties at the time. It is also a theological emphasis in Methodism.
Contextual theology or contextualizing theology refers to theology which has responded to the dynamics of a particular context.
Roberto Segundo Goizueta is a Cuban American Catholic theologian currently holding the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Chair in Catholic Theology at Boston College. Some of his specialties include Latino(a) theology and Christology.
Environmental theology pertains to "the God-environment relationship and divine expectations of human behavior in relation to the environment".
Stephen Bennett Bevans, SVD is an American Catholic priest, theologian, and professor emeritus at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois. He is known for his book Models of Contextual Theology.
Latin American liberation theology is a synthesis of Christian theology and Marxian socio-economic analyses, that emphasizes "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". Beginning in the 1960s after the Second Vatican Council, liberation theology became the political praxis of Latin American theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, and Jesuits Juan Luis Segundo and Jon Sobrino, who popularized the phrase "preferential option for the poor". It arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty and social injustice in the region, which Cepal deemed the most unequal in the world.