love this quote that I used yesterday in class (Contextual Ministry) at Tyndale -- it always get the class discussion going!
“Contextuality in theology means that the form of faith’s self-understanding is always determined by the historical configuration in which the community of belief finds itself. It is this world which initiates the questions, the concerns, the frustrations and alternatives, the possibilities and impossibilities by which the content of the faith must be shaped and reshaped, and finally confessed. Conscious and thoughtful involvement of the disciple community in its cultural setting is thus the condition sine qua non of its right appropriation of its theological discipline.”
Douglas John Hall, Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context
Does anyone in the class bring out the observation that simply put Hall is basically promoting eisegesis rather than proper exegesis of the Word?
Posted by: John Galbraith | May 17, 2011 at 10:54 AM
oh, definitely, then we start to have a conversation about what it all means and doesn't mean :)
Posted by: Dan | May 17, 2011 at 03:52 PM
God's message of redemption and salvation is eternal and unchanging; but the world we live in is continually changing, so the context in which His eternal message was delivered say 1,000 years ago is definitely not the reality today and the onus is on the church of this generation to convey this eternal message in the context of today's society.
We are able to contextualize in today's cultural setting without compromising the integrity of our faith.
Posted by: Jasmine | May 17, 2011 at 04:03 PM