Enabling the Majority World to Benefit from “Superior” Western Theology

Abstract

Is the proposal that Western theology is in no way superior to other theologies a pretentious humility? While contextualization is a necessary part of enabling theology to work, subsidizing Western theological education can block contextualization. Helpful translation is introducing something new into a pre-existing field. Theological education in the majority world being in Western languages implies translation from known into unknown bodies of knowledge and understanding. Success in this project would require destruction of the target context. Theology should be taught, that is, learned, primarily by example. Theological education should be engaged in using the language of the people being reached.