10 December 2025
Section outline
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Where Do We Meet? Places and People
One of the most fundamental claims of modern mission studies is the importance of paying attention to local cultures and contexts. In this class we will examine this aspect, discussing what the role of culture and context is, how both to affirm and challenge it, and what we need to learn from the other in order to communicate with them. We will examine some models of contextual theology, considering which might be most appropriate for our own home contexts.
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Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D., “Unraveling a “Complex Reality”: Six Elements of Mission,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 27:2 (2003), 50–53.
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A leading figure in the development of contextual theology looks at what contextual theology means. Robert Schreiter, “Contexts and Theological Methods,” in Christian Mission, Contextual Theology, Prophetic Dialogue. Essays in Honor of Stephen B. Bevans, SVD, edited by Dale Irvin and Peter Phan (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2018), 65–72.
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O. S. Olagunju, Ogbomoso Journal of Theology 17:2 (2012) 37-57
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John Roxborogh, “Missiology after “Mission”?,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 38:3 (2014), 120–24.
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Craig Ott, “Globalization and contextualization: Reframing the task of contextualization in the twenty-first century,” Missiology 43:1 (2015) 43–58
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Charles Fensham, “The methodology of missiology in the context of Turtle Island,” Missiology 47:3 (2019), 300–314.
Turtle Island is used, somewhat a-contextually, to refer to North America, since some Native American peoples use this term to describe their land.
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