Thursday, March 6, 2008

Gospel and Culture

Report of the consultation in Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia, February 5 to 10 1996

Understanding gospel and culture
Authentic witness within each culture
Local congregations in pluralistic societies
Empowerment of identities in community by the gospel
One gospel - many expressions

For a long time, a particular theology, with a particular history and born in a particular culture (that of the west), was presented and was seen as universal. But as churches in the south became independent, the role of their own cultures in appropriating the gospel, articulating their theology and shaping their Christian community came under serious discussion.

Christians from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific countries recognize that their faith has dimensions beyond that which they received from the western Judeo-Christian stream. As Christians in different times and places have always done, they are striving to enrich their understanding of the gospel with their own cultural and religious heritage.

In 1989, the 22nd Warc general council met in Seoul and issued a statement on this subject:

"For us the gospel speaks in many tongues. We cannot speak together as Reformed Christians without knowing at once that the gospel has taken root in the various and diverse cultures in which our churches bear witness to the gospel... The incarnation of Jesus Christ demands that we take culture seriously: for there is no "flesh" that is not nourished by a culture. No "word" can be heard that is not the language of a culture... We recognize that the gospel illuminates culture...[C]ulture also illuminates our understanding of the gospel. Different cultures can perceive in the gospel that which other cultures had failed to perceive." (Proceedings, pp.177-178)

The issue of gospel and cultures continues to engage Warc member churches all over the world. In recent years local and regional reflections and studies were undertaken by Warc and its member churches, in conjunction with a wider ecumenical study sponsored by the World Council of Churches. The results of these local and regional studies were brought together at the international consultation at Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, from February 5 to 10 1996. The findings of this consultation are hereby presented to the WCC world conference on mission and evangelism in November 1996 and the 23rd Warc general council in August 1997.1

Understanding gospel and culture

We begin by addressing the various ways in which we understand the words "gospel" and "culture". Neither concept is easy to define in a universal and normative fashion.

Culture

It is an elusive business to say what a culture is. In many languages, the word culture is derived from the Latin verb colere. It means to plough the earth, to build and inhabit a house, to revere, to worship, to honour, to respect, to pay homage. It is a rich and multi-layered term. Is culture coextensive with a geographical area, larger or smaller, or with a language or a language-cluster? Is it a function of shared histories or common customs? What does it mean for several places to share a culture, or for one place to have many cultures or recognized subcultures?

"Culture" is a term that once belonged to the observer: the anthropologists looking at a tribe or a region, or the historian or art historian studying empires or iconography. But the existential reality indicated by the term has become, in our time, a matter of self-conscious identification, a way of saying how we belong in the place where we are: our particular shared form-of-existence within the community we recognize as "our own." Culture is a totality of being: how we live-believe-hope-die. It has many aspects:

  • Cognitive/affective: it is a system of rules that are crucial for our attitudes and our vision of the world and our way of life, it is a set of values that help us to make decisions in the world;
  • Performative: it is an attitude and ethos, a rite and praxis;
  • Relational: it is the metaphor of people in an ongoing conversation, it is a set of social arrangements that prevail, it is that which gives people an identity;
  • Functional: it is a strategy, a "tool box" for coping with challenges.

At its core there is a particular worldview and way of being.

All cultures are under theological scrutiny. In the past, many non-Christian cultures were rejected by Christians because of theological and missiological assumptions. In the west, culture is so enmeshed with remnants of the old Christendom and with the global free market that it is difficult to identify culture clearly, let alone criticize the relationship between gospel and cultures. At the same time, many traditional cultures are declining in the face of globalization. Some cultures have been lost. Others are threatened by displacement for economic gain or militarism. Culture is a human product, where power politics are a real problem; and the gospel challenges us on the use and abuse of power. Certain constraints are imposed by culture. This happens even when there is theological openness, as for example with regard to the ordination of women. Culture embodies human identity, and can either affirm or deny human integrity.

Gospel

For many Christians it is odd to ask "what is gospel?" We agree on a working definition of gospel as good news. For Christians it is intrinsically related to the story of Jesus received as good news by his followers and believed and lived out. The gospel has to do with our vision of life and our way of life.

For some people it is important to stress that their ultimate identity is in Jesus Christ. For others it is important to stress that the gospel is not just doctrines and creeds: such approaches can easily reduce the good news to an ideology. For some it is the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Some emphasize that it is a liberating force, freeing us, for example, from a negative past. For others it is important to say that it concerns not only eternal life but also life now with our brothers and sisters. There are many "false gospels" in our cultures. For example, the gospel of prosperity through the free market system.

The gospel liberates us from our restrictive images of God. God is already present in all cultures but transcends all cultural images.

Our concepts of gospel need to be revitalized, and reinterpreted in the light of contemporary idioms. "Our presuppositions shape our paradigms." Christians in South Africa, for example, use the term ubuntu to interpret the gospel as relating to people-in-community, not simply to individuals. The four Gospels in the New Testament exemplify the diversity of interpretations that arises as Christian communities try to reflect the gospel in their own contexts.

Models of relationship between gospel and cultures

Various models have existed within the church historically, and can be detected in any conversation on the topic. Some are explicit and "dogmatic". Others are implicit (like the unquestioned acceptance of the blue-eyed, Caucasian Jesus) and attitudinal. Nineteenth-century missiological models often equated the gospel with western culture and regarded other cultures as heathen and incompatible with the gospel.

Today a theological shift has taken place. Western theology is no longer the universal norm for understanding the gospel. Particular interpretations of the gospels are emerging from cultures or subcultures employing their own distinctive images and experience. Examples include Minjung theology from Korea, Dalit theology from India, feminist theology, womanist theology, coconut theology from the Pacific, bamboo theology among Japanese Canadians and in the Caribbean, liberation theologies from Latin America, and mango tree theology from Bali.

These theologies redefine the two-way relationship between gospel and cultures.

  • The gospel interacts with cultures, and cultures interact with the gospel. For example, some people understand the gospel as emphasizing individual salvation whereas others, in cultures with strong communitarian bases, see the gospel as affirming and undergirding community (koinonia).
  • The gospel and cultures illumine each other. Cultures enrich the gospel through various cultural expressions such as art, music and dance.
  • The gospel and cultures challenge each other and also empower each other. Sometimes the gospel criticizes cultures, sometimes it affirms cultures, but always this interaction takes place as communities wrestle to be faithful in their witness. It is the situation in which they find themselves that determines the stance, empowering or challenging.
  • The gospel is embodied in cultures. For example, the good news of God's shalom and wholeness was embodied in the healed flesh of the woman with the haemorrhage in Lk 8.42b-48.
  • The gospel transcends cultures. For example, some traditional cultures with payback systems of taking a life for a life now advocate forgiveness and reconciliation.
  • The gospel criticizes culture. For example, the gospel challenges violence against women and children and the exclusion of women from the ordained ministry. In every culture, the gospel demands justice in church and society.
  • The gospel shapes and changes culture. Where people are dehumanized, the gospel moves to change the culture. For example, the gospel modified the Christian Jewish subculture so that it became open to other, non-Jewish cultures (Acts 8).

Authentic witness within each culture (mission)

"Cultural literacy" is a metaphor that many participants in the consultation found helpful. When sharing the gospel across cultures, one must be aware of the presuppositions of one's own culture and belief systems and guard against cultural bias. One must become literate in the culture of the other. An often unacknowledged cross-cultural conflict can be seen in pastors trained with western exegetical skills who attempt to teach the gospel to grassroots people who read and live the gospel in their own contexts. Those who are formally trained in theology must remember that authenticity of biblical interpretation is not the preserve of theological learning. As grassroots people read and live the gospel, their interpretation comes alive when they are set free by the spirit of the gospel in celebration, festivity, and dancing, and in struggle against economic and social oppression.

Issues raised

1. Language as a barrier or a bridge

Language can be used to dominate theological discussion or to facilitate cross-cultural theological conversation. Language raises issues of power: who must learn whose language, and what language is taken as the medium for theological discussion.

2. Conflicts within and between cultures

Every culture today is influenced by the movement of people, the international trade in technology and other goods, and other forms of globalization. The gospel becomes an ideological means of oppression, rather than a faithful life-giving word, when religious values are made tools of economic, social, or cultural imperialism.

3. Colonial powers and cultures

Colonizers and many missionaries gave many people the idea that there was nothing of value in their own culture and that they were required to adopt the culture of the colonial power. Every culture contains both good and bad elements. The gospel sets us free to be true human beings, and it is our responsibility before God to choose what is good and to change what is bad in our cultures.

4. Culturally-sensitive witness

When did our culture begin? Do we date its history from the arrival of the missionaries? Can we claim that God was already present in our culture before Christianity arrived? Some say that the God of our ancestors is the same as the Hebrew God, while others say that they are not the same. How do we see our ancestors' spirituality?

5. The cultural implications of the gospel

People increasingly recognize the value of using cultural elements in communion. In the Pacific, for example, the culturally-fitting element is taro, but its use was forbidden by the missionaries. Now many Christians prefer bread to our traditional food. Should we use taro for communion? Would that be clinging to a dead culture, or would it be an affirmation of our traditions that would uphold and enrich our culture? In the last five years, some people have used the Kava Bowl (used by most Pacific communities in their welcoming ceremonies and cultural festivities) instead of the chalice for the wine and, in some places, coconut instead of bread. Traditional tunes, costumes and indigenous languages have been used in liturgies by seminary students. However, many local congregations have not yet caught up with the importance of such practices in celebrating both the gospel and culture.

6. Globalization

Acceptance of Christianity does not mean wholesale acceptance of alien values. In many ways, globalization leads to the commodification and consumerizing of traditional cultures. For example, the western military presence in Indochina and the rapid promotion of tourism as an economic boost created great economic disparities in Thailand and shattered the social fabric. Thus, the video of the Prodigal Daughter produced by the Thai church addresses issues of child prostitution, family values, and the secondary role of women in the church and in the culture. When people are released by the truth of the gospel, they can confront the invasion of globalization.

Theological questions

  1. Is there a core gospel, transcending any culture, that can be formulated in an abstract way apart from its cultural roots?
  2. How is the authority of scripture understood in relation to the many cultures of the earth? How does the contextualization of the gospel conflict with authoritatively-accepted interpretations?
  3. Does the use of local traditional elements rather than bread and wine for communion alter the theological content of the sacrament? Is the historical context in which the Last Supper was celebrated determinative for all future celebrations of the event?

Recommendations to congregations

  1. Develop conversations within and among congregations of different traditions about the meaning of your cultural heritage in your witness to the gospel.
  2. Examine the language with which you seek to communicate the gospel: are you unnecessarily limiting your ability to communicate with your community, particularly young people, by using words and thought-forms that are not to be found within the culture?
  3. Examine how leadership is exercised. Do leaders pay attention to what is happening at the grassroots?
  4. In what ways do the mass media affect traditional cultures, the interpretation of scriptures, and mass uniformity?

Local congregations in pluralistic societies (education)

In every culture the good news of Jesus Christ unfolds like a flower, each petal releasing new fragrance into the world of God's creation. In every culture Christians seek to nurture the whole people of God for witness and service; in every culture the good news of Jesus Christ is communicated in particular shapes and forms according to the context. Local congregations in every place should recognize and value the many identities in their cultural context: racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender and generational. Educators in congregations and theological institutions need to challenge oppression within the Christian community and the larger culture, especially when this is based on interpretations of scripture that discriminate against particular groups of Christians or other faith traditions.

Issues raised

1. The variety of contexts calls forth diverse responses of congregations in their efforts to witness in their cultural context

In a majority or dominant-culture church, education should help members understand the cultural norms that support their dominant position but may oppress others both within and outside the church. In a minority context, churches should affirm their cultural identity, using good teachers and appropriate materials and educational experiences to foster indigenization.

In multicultural contexts, churches should affirm plural identities, the positive nature of difference and the value of all cultures. They should recognize that, particularly in western societies, individuals and communities occupy complex social locations, in which they may be both privileged and marginalized. For instance, white women in the north are economically and racially privileged, while also marginalized by their gender.

In emerging multireligious contexts such as the USA or the European Union, where cross-cultural conversation is available down the block or across town, churches should engage their religiously diverse neighbours in active conversation to increase their own understanding.

2. Changes are needed in theological education

a) Responsibilities of the theological schools

  • Theological education must not be so academic that ministers can no longer be understood by grassroots believers. The curriculum, institutional structures and intellectual frameworks need to reflect the cultures and contexts in which graduates will serve so that students do not return alienated from their own people.
  • Theological schools need to prepare for second-career students, and to work more closely with congregations so that congregational needs are addressed during the training.

b) Responsibilities of the congregations

  • Congregations and presbyteries need to offer better preparation both before and after selection, and to equip candidates thoroughly before they enter seminary. Pastoral care needs to be offered before, during and after training.

3. New values are emerging in contemporary societies

International television and other communication modes have complex effects. While the new technologies allow the development of networks around the world, and the rapid dissemination of information into previously isolated or remote areas, they also raise false economic expectations, promote individualism and consumerism, and exacerbate generational conflicts. Global communication corporations control what and how information is disseminated. CNN does not broadcast its global news in the United States; it gives US news, with a sprinkling of international news that directly affects US political or economic interests. International news is available on many CNN stations for only one half hour a day, in the middle of the afternoon. Thus even the new modes of communication can foster continued isolation. People in the US see reflected back from their television screens only their own social context, not a global reality.

4. Churches need to engage in extensive education as well as strong pastoral care for people with AIDS and their families

AIDS is spreading rapidly in Asia as well as in Africa and Latin America. In these areas, it is identified primarily with heterosexual prostitution and drug abuse. It often leads to stigmatization within families and communities. It has serious economic effects in many countries, and will have even greater effects as the pandemic spreads. One Thai prostitute with AIDS said that she knew she would die in ten years from the disease, but that she would die sooner if she did not have the money she made from her work as a prostitute. A top-ranking Thai politician said that most probably his daughter would marry a man infected by AIDS since AIDS has infected so many men and women in his country. In some countries in Africa, the AIDS epidemic has shattered the coherence and solidarity of society. In Kenya, for example, the normal reverence for widows is not extended to widows of AIDS victims; they receive no pastoral care. In the United States, AIDS is stigmatized as a homosexual disease, even though currently it is spreading mainly among heterosexual white youth and within the black community through the use of drugs. In Sulawesi, no church yet recognizes any members with AIDS, perhaps because those affected have not returned to their homes. AIDS testing is expensive and not yet widely available in Indonesia, although the government has begun an educational programme and the churches observe international AIDS Day in December with witness and worship.

5. Christians need to be open to the variety of instructional methods in different indigenous cultures

We need in each place to listen to the community so that we can use the methods and the thinking that best fit their culture. In Oceania, for instance, while an indigenous content has been brought into education, the methods still remain alien to the cultural ethos. Moreover, not every breakthrough in theological insight or educational practice comes from within the church. Christians need to be open to instruction in both method and form from the local culture.

6. Christian xenophobia has shown itself in the devaluing and destruction of cultures, population groups and individuals around the world

The focus of Christian xenophobia (hatred or fear of the other) varies from culture to culture and in different historical periods. In the US it has taken the form of Christian racism and isolationism. In many churches it has appeared as homophobia, the irrational fear of homosexual people. It has attacked the Jews, the Irish, the Lebanese, people who are mentally ill or physically disabled, and most of the racial ethnic cultures of the southern hemisphere. Local congregations have a particular responsibility to combat this fear of the other. Kosuke Koyama in his Towards a Theology of Inculturation argues convincingly that the gospel is essentially "stranger-centred." An inclusive love for the "other" is the defining characteristic of the early church's understanding of the person and work of Christ.

Theological questions

  1. If the Spirit of God is outside the church, then why should we evangelize?
  2. If salvation is available outside the church, why does the church exist?
  3. Is God in the church first?
  4. Is salvation available apart from Christ?
  5. How, if at all, does the Reformed insistence on sola scriptura continue to function in a multicultural, contextual theological conversation?

Recommendations to congregations

  1. Work within your local communities to foster dialogue about pluralism.
  2. Examine and improve the ways in which you support your seminary students.
  3. Explore ways to be genuinely indigenous in life and witness, liturgy and service. Use local art-forms (drama, dance, customs and festivals) in worship. The Toraja Church forms of worship are colourful and meaningful precisely because they have incorporated customs and traditions of the rich Toraja culture. In Guatemala, Mexico and other Central American countries, the marimba is used in worship, in spite of some protests. The marimba is a native, "non-sacred," musical instrument, with a wonderful and inspiring sound, but for some people is too sensual.
  4. Explore new ways to be inclusive and reconciling. Some examples:
    • Base communities in Latin America have tried to put a brake on the penchant for divisions, communalism, and the "divide and rule" policy of rulers.
    • Ministries with migrant workers in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have offered refuge and help to maids who have been abused.
    • In many societies, churches address gender discrimination directly. In several Reformed churches, women are refused ordination or, if they are ordained, are not allowed to engage in a full pastoral ministry. In Indonesia, however, many churches have ordained women pastors for decades. In the Gereja Masehi Injili di Minahasa (Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa) the first woman was ordained in 1954, and more than half the ordained ministers are women. In some cases, the number of ordained women pastors has doubled in the last decade. In many places in Africa, female circumcision is defended as a legitimate cultural form, but some churches are taking a stand against this practice. In Confucian societies, women are assigned a secondary status and are expected to play a subservient role. Teenage girls are sold into prostitution, female foetuses are aborted, and women are treated as economic commodities. In some of these societies, churches are slowly changing: women are beginning to take leadership roles as elders and deacons, while theologically-trained women are encouraged to consider the pastorate or other church-related ministries.
  5. Explore ways in multireligious contexts in which you may work with others to bring about a just, sustainable, and democratic society. One example is to be found in Malaysia, where Christians work hand in glove with their Muslim and Hindu neighbours in gotong royong projects, such as the promotion of neighbourliness, road paving, and the installation of water pipes, as well as developing more effective forms of farming and fishing.

Empowerment of identities in community by the gospel (liberation)

As human beings we are all made in the image or likeness of God. This is the biblical foundation on which, as Reformed Christians, we evaluate cultures and political, theological and other expressions of identity. Self-centredness dehumanizes and destroys others. Conversion to Christ is meant to be a liberating experience. It means freedom from self-righteousness. Our common identity is formed and repeatedly questioned by our calling to be true to the reign of God. The vision of equality expressed in Gal 3.28 demands that every kind of dualism leading to segregation or discrimination must be rejected. Whenever a cultural group absolutizes its own identity it falls into idolatry. The histories of South Africa, former Yugoslavia, and the Balkans among others show the disaster of defending cultural identity by absolutizing it over against others. The histories of indigenous peoples and their cultures show the disasters created by a cultural and religious imperialism that absolutizes a particular form of Christianity.

Issues raised

l. Power

The power of Christian evangelizing to destroy local cultures is contrasted with the power to assert one's own ethnic identity in and through the gospel. In the context of mission, past and present, we must ask who has spoken for whom, and who is deciding for whom. The powerful have often spoken on behalf of the powerless, creating or sustaining inequitable power balances in which the powerless are forced into a compromise that only the powerful can afford. We might well ask whether the decision of the Jerusalem council on circumcision (Acts 15) was a real compromise, since the gentiles were not present. The presupposition of empowerment is God's preferential option for the poor and oppressed. The gospel empowers identity in community when it enables people to participate in decision-making processes that have communal and cultural integrity.

Three examples of empowerment by the gospel are:

  • In Malawi, independence came in 1964, and the nation became a republic in 1966. The government abused human rights during the 70s and 80s. In 1992, one denomination issued a Lenten letter, condemning the government and naming names. Other Christian communities formed a solidarity network for the denomination, including the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The government was overthrown in an open election in 1994.
  • In Mexico, the first-nations people of Chiapas have launched a revolution. Christ is with them in their struggle to reclaim their land. God, in their faith, prefers the poor and oppressed, and negates the rich oppressors. Empowerment is possible, despite the death of some of their people, because they are empowered by the Spirit of the Lord (Lk 4).
  • In Colombia, a five-year old child was asked, "What would you like to be when you grow up?" The child replied, "I want to be a gringo (North American), because they have beautiful houses and nice cars". The gringo the child knew was the local missionary. The child grew up to be a medical doctor, assisting the non-gringo who cannot afford a beautiful house.

2. Individualism versus communalism

The tension between individual and community takes different forms in different contexts. In the USA and Canada, where individualism runs rampant over commitment to the commonweal, individualist interpretations of the gospel, emphasizing personal salvation to the exclusion of communal responsibilities, undermine the Reformed principles of common life. In other contexts, where communal identity precedes individual identity, the problem is that individuals may not take responsibility for their own actions.

3. Multiculturality

Many cultures and subcultures have been identified within the western world: regional cultures, racial or ethnic cultures, religious cultures, pop or media cultures, computer culture, youth culture, etc. All of them find their identity within the framework, and reflect the value-systems, of western civilization, and are so identified by others. But there are many other value-systems around the globe. Cultures and subcultures within the framework of non-western civilizations need to be understood in their own terms.

4. Cross-cultural critique

What can we do when we see injustice in cultures other than our own? Victims of injustice can participate in the movement to get rid of the injustice. If we are not directly involved, then we must listen to what the victims are saying; if they permit, we may raise the issue with our own people and then support them. In Taiwan, for example, there are ten first-nations peoples, all marginalized and oppressed. The church assists them in their struggle for self-determination and identity, and appeals to international bodies such as the UN on their behalf.

5. Revitalizing communities

In many cases communities have lost or are losing their cultures. They need to dig deeper into the sources of the culture as well as into the gospel. In their covenant tradition, for instance, the Torajan people of Indonesia have a cultural resource that can be used to develop vitality within the church as well as in the larger culture.

6. Leadership

Leadership is crucial in our communities. We need to develop an ethos of leadership that will avoid any patron-client relationship, and leave room for integrating all the elements of the community, especially women, youth, and children, as well as the mentally and physically handicapped.

Theological questions

  1. How do we develop new theological understandings of power when the divine-human relationship is imaged as a hierarchical power relationship?
  2. Who determines the theological bases on which criticism is levelled against abuses within or across cultures?
  3. How do we give a theological account of the liberating power that is effective outside of Christianity? Is a creation-centred theology better able than other approaches to open us to God's liberating presence in our neighbouring communities? God has been present throughout the earth in all cultures before the mission movement. A creation-centred theology often offers healing to the broken people of cultures who have been crushed by western Christian imperialism. Interpreting the gospel through the idea of a crucified God empowers the powerless and oppressed people whose suffering is embodied in Godself. At the same time, emphasis on the resurrected Christ gives strength and courage to those who suffer oppression. The same empowering possibilities exist in many cultures.

Recommendations to congregations

  1. Look at the questions of power within your own structures. Does a parliamentary system of governance, for instance, keep out those who do not know the system?
  2. Explore the relationships of power within your community and examine how those with structural political power exercise that power.
  3. Examine ways in which individualism or communalism oppress your members or others within the community.
  4. Explore the meaning and the effects of multiculturality within your context.
  5. Investigate the place of your culture within the framework of your civilization.

One gospel - many expressions (cross-cultural sharing)

There is no one sacred language and no one sacred place. God's Spirit works in and through plurality. Wherever people gather in spirit and in truth, God's presence is there. The people gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost were people from different communities with different cultural identities. Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch, Peter's meeting with Cornelius, the debate at the Jerusalem council, and Paul's sermon in Athens all testify to the presence of God's Spirit in all places. The gospel is like a mineral stone that is honed and polished, reflecting its beauty through a multitude of cultural facets.

Issues raised

1. The enrichment of the gospel by cross-cultural understanding

The scriptures attest to the need to foster cross-cultural understanding. Zechariah describes Jerusalem as a village without walls. In Rev 21, all nations bring their glories and treasures to Jerusalem. In Gal 3.28 Paul offers a vision of new people breaking down barriers. These visions of cross-cultural communities underscore our need of each other and call for interrelationship through cross-cultural activities.

2. Cross-cultural hermeneutics

At this consultation we came together quite easily in song, dance and laughter, but we had more difficulty when we shared theological ideas. Far from being unique, our experience is a common one throughout the church. We debated whether European and North American interpretative "baggage" should determine our interpretation of the scriptures, or even if any particular hermeneutic "baggage" should be held as superior to others. It is difficult to develop a grassroots hermeneutic when the historical/critical model is so dominant. Certain Reformed principles such as sola scriptura have been used in that model to determine acceptable limits of difference. We asked whether and how that principle might be resituated in its historical context and so become newly useful for our interpretation. Furthermore, we asked what we mean exactly by interpretation and how we can engage in cross-cultural hermeneutics. First we need to understand each other and each other's expression of faith cross-culturally.

3. Obstacles to cross-cultural communication

  • The consequences of the colonial experience pose problems of cross-cultural understanding for both the colonizers and the colonized.
  • The Reformed church in Brazil has a problem with Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian religion of the descendants of African slaves in that country. Candomblé is held to be, not just a cultural mode of expression, but the liturgy of a "pagan cult," with songs, dances, symbols and other forms of expression to evoke the deities of the believers. The elevation of a particular cultural mode of expression as the right mode may be an obstacle to understanding the identities of people as expressed in religiosity like that of Candomblé.
  • Issues surrounding sexism also present cultural challenges. The understanding of other cultural practices is important for communications and the overcoming of oppression.
  • Another obstacle to understanding is the generation gap. Swedish youth, for example, are turned off by language that is often above their heads and not in conformity with their street and gang vocabulary. Artistic forms such as weaving and sculpture are used because church language and ritual no longer communicate with youth or adults.

4. Becoming a community of communities

The distinctiveness of communities and cultures is obliterated by the encroachment of "megaculture". McDonaldization, the secular ecumenical agenda of the transnational corporations to reduce everyone to consumers of common products, threatens true community. The church is challenged to pursue the goal of a community of communities to counter such threats.

The ecumenical movement, with a history of more than a century of promoting cross-cultural sharing, has experienced the difficulty of becoming a real cross-cultural community. This is partly because it has not succeeded in reaching Christian communities beyond the leadership and even beyond urban centres. The creation of community is not being fulfilled by formal ecumenism. At the present time the ecumenical movement is in the process of reevaluation and seeking a new paradigm and praxis for the future.

Grassroots ecumenism in some locations, such as the United States, has furthered the formation of community as people cross denominational lines to engage in shared ministries or form congregations. In other places, communities that were formerly united are disintegrating due to a new denominationalism and a new confessionalism. An old man in Nauru recently said, "From Monday to Saturday, we are one. We eat together, we laugh together, we fish together, we help each other build houses. For one hour on Sundays we go separately to our churches and we are divided. I believe that the less we go to that one hour on Sundays, the better for our community." In a similar situation, the Toraja church is developing cross-cultural and interethnic relationships intentionally.

We call for the pursuit of greater unity among Christians, beginning with our own Reformed family. Elements within our Reformed heritage that argue against "uniformity" have sometimes led to fragmentation. But disunity is against the spirit of the gospel that calls for wholeness of human community without sacrificing specific enriching diversities. Our commitment for the future is to form a community of communities.

Theological questions raised

  1. The centrality of the local church has the potential for creating problems in the development of a community of communities. What are the theological issues involved here?
  2. In the Reformed tradition, we affirm that "God alone is God." Therefore all creeds, confessions, cultural assumptions are held with a certain tentativeness and cannot be absolutized. Does this stance of humility and common subjection before God create the atmosphere in which cross-cultural dialogue can flourish and provide the basis for developing a cross-cultural hermeneutic?
  3. Is national identity an expression of culture in the gospel and cultures dialogue?

Recommendations to congregations

  1. Undertake a conscious programme of cross-cultural exchange at the level of the congregation, seminaries, synods, assemblies and other institutions.
  2. Initiate dialogue as a means to understand each other cross-culturally, moving beyond prejudices to discover each other's values.
  3. Seek out a mutually binding principle that can draw communities together so as to develop cross-cultural understanding. One possibility is justice. Others might be the rights of children or ecological responsibilities.
  4. Initiate a cross-cultural conversation about the person and work of Jesus Christ, with particular attention to the question of who has the power to defend "Jesus Christ".

Participants

see more at: http://www.warc.ch/dt/erl2/12.html

Note


1. The initial draft of this report, incorporating all the suggestions made at the closing plenary session of the consultation, was prepared by Drs Susan Davies and Weli Mazamisa. On the basis of comments received, it was revised for publication by a committee consisting of Dr Anna Case-Winters, Dr Pieter Holtrop, Rev Samuel Dansokho and Dr HS Wilson.
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