Biblio Format	Annotation
Barrett, Peter J. "The Gospel and Western Culture: On the Ideas of Lesslie Newbigin." Missionalia 27:1 (April 1999): 62-72.	An outline of Newbigin's career leads Into a discussion of his challenge to the church to engage with the modern science-based culture of the West, evaluating the latter in terms of a contemporary biblically-based world view. Thus can the Church begin to see the gospel as 'public truth', affecting all areas of public life if its members are equipped for the engagement, for the gospel can form the heart of a metaphysical scheme of the widest rationality and greatest explanatory power. His approach is compared briefly with ideas of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Konrad Raiser.
Bjork, David. "A Model for Analysis of Incarnational Ministry in Post-Christian Lands." Missiology 25:3 (July 1997): 279-91.	Why are Western Protestant missionaries who work in areas of the world where Christian churches date back many centuries so ineffective? Is it really necessary and unavoidable that we be seen as members of sectarian and cultist groups by the post-Christendom peoples we seek to win for Christ? This article considers the ways in which our missional paradigm and ministry methods combine to shape the way we are perceived by others. Based on lessons learned from years of ministry in France, it provides conceptual glasses through which we may discover new perspectives on the incarnation of the gospel in countries marked by Christendom.
Boyd, R. H. S. "Western Origins of Theological Formulations." In Readings in Dynamic Indigeneity, ed. Charles H. Kraft and Tom N. Wisley, 349-71. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1979.	Boyd sees the western origins of theological formulations in history. In this chapter he examines two apologists and the development of the theological conceptualization of the "Trinity." As an illustration of other great doctrines it is important to acknowledge the Latin influence on the theology of the Church in order to grasp the significance of indigenous thought processes. We do not want to adapt to the cultural sphere to the extent that we suffer a "reduction of the Gospel." But we are aided in our further study if we consider the extent to which we are "captives" of another cultural heritage in the development of theology across cultures.
Broz, Ludek. "The Task Facing Theology in Europe." The Ecumenical Review 45:2 (April 1993): 169-72.	Overview of European issues in theologizing from an ecumenical perspective.
Byrne, James M., ed. The Christian Understanding of God Today: Theological Colloquium on the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland: Columba Press, 1993.
Cook, David. "Significant Trends in Christology in Western Scholarly Debate." In Sharing Jesus in the Two Thirds World: Evangelical Christologies from the Contexts of Poverty, Powerlessness, and Religious Pluralism, ed. Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden, 251-76. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984.	An examination of how the forces of secularization, pluralism, and relativism condition Christology in the British context with a critical analysis of "The Myth of God Incarnate" and "Spirit-Christology" in the work of Geoffrey Lampe. The paper highlights the dangers of allowing our context to control our Christological understanding in an uncritical way.
Coppedge, Allan. "How Wesleyans Do Theology." In Doing Theology in Today's World: Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer, ed. John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey, 267-90. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991.	There is no understanding of Wesleyan theology without a clear picture of how John Wesley did theology. Not only is Wesley's work the standard for the content by which all subsequent Wesleyan theology must be judged, but it is also the standard with regard to the method by which theology is done. Accordingly, we will focus our primary attention on Wesley's theological method, with only secondary indications as to variations from that standard.
D'Costa, Gavin. "The End of Systematic Theology." Theology 95 (September/October 1992): 324-34.	My argument here is twofold. In Part One I argue that the end of systematic theology that I wish to herald is the beginning of new types of systematic theologies, which are both continuous with and dissimilar from earlier traditions. Crudely put, my contention will be that for the most part modem systematic theology has assumed that the world in which Christians live is entirely populated by scientists and atheists (and after the Second World War, Jews). Hence, systematic theology has developed its agenda and styles and its doctrines of God, creation, sin, salvation and the last things almost entirely in dialogue with science and secularisms and with Western European philosophies which have given birth to such a world. In Part Two, I then want to argue that some recent attempts to remedy this situation are seriously flawed and are actually quite detrimental to some of the proper tasks of systematic theology. I will briefly address the pioneering work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Leonard Swidler to show that their agenda should be rejected for good theological reasons. Finally, in Part Three I will briefly indicate the directions in which such new systematic theologies could develop and some of the structural implications of these developments. As with any assassination attempt, the subject of overthrow will appear two-dimensional, and necessarily so in such a brief coup.
Finzel, Hans W. "Love 'Em And Leave 'Em: On Temporary Partnerships And The Recycling Of Missionaries." International Journal of Frontier Missions 9:3 (July 1992): 103-105.	Missionaries gain special skills that can be recycled--used on behalf of new peoples. Wisdom and sensitivity are needed to decide when one's task among a people is finished and therefore when one can move on. This issue may provide a major injection of life into the frontier missions movement.
Fraser, Ian M. "Theology at the Base." In Theology by the People: Reflections on Doing Theology in Community, ed. Samuel Amirtham and John S. Pobee, 55-64. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1986.	The assignment given me includes the request that I offer some insight into people's theology in Europe. I could fulfill my task by quoting extensively from documents--"markers" which basic Christian communities put down to register the stage they have reached. A second approach would be to study effects. How would we know whether people had been doing their biblical and theological work in Holland some years ago, when illegal immigrants were being hunted down? The immigrants were taken into the homes of members of basic Christian communities, sheltered, protected from the authorities and found work. In such action lies the evidence that Dutch basic Christian communities had been doing their theology. A third approach could relate to processes and methods. We could look at the way in which, over a period, people have wrestled with the scriptures in the Holy Spirit, seeking to make real and deep the approach to the Bible and to life. I choose a different entry point: how the Bible has been used to domesticate and subdue peoples, and how the people are recovering their freedom.
Fuss, Michael. "New Age and Europe: A Challenge for Theology." Mission Studies 8:2 (1991): 190-220.	Focusing on the problem of alternative religious movements demands a complementary and multidimensional approach. Far from being able comprehensively to approach the movement and to evaluate the incalculable number of publications by or about this modern consumer religion, and without entering into a discussion of its scientific theories, I shall trace out a few guiding ideas of theological importance which may be summarily characterized as the four tendencies towards millenarianism, syncretism, holistic ecology, and evolutionism. To avoid repetition of widely discussed sociological research, this survey will, in its first part, inquire into the European roots of the New Age, and offer a brief description of its main features. A second part intends to express a few preliminary considerations for a theological encounter with this religious pluralism in the European context.
Garde, Michael. "Irish Theology." In Mission Focus: Current Issues, ed. Wilbert R. Shenk, 200-211. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980.	The main themes of an Irish theology will be to draw out the lines of the movement that God brought into existence at Pentecost. It will be a movement which has continuity with the history in which it finds itself, which is God's history; yet it will point to the culmination of messianic salvation when Christ returns. It will announce that we live in the last days, in the days of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. It will declare the need for repentance in order to receive personal and social salvation within the family of God. It will view the Body of Christ as the provisional wing of the kingdom of God which by virtue of Christ's death and resurrection is called to be an alternative people in the world. It will be a meeting place of all races and all backgrounds in which class distinctions will disappear.
Green, Robin and Simpson, Theodore. "A Site of Struggle." Theology 93 (1990): 462-467.	The experience of the Church in South Africa has very clear parallels with what is happening in parts of Latin America, in the Philippines, in the basic community and ashram movements in India and in places like the Centre for Society and Religion in Sri Lanka. All those movements are well placed to help the Church in Britain to develop a structural and contextual theology here. The type of theological reflection that we have tried to illustrate out of the South African experience has very close parallels with some of the struggles that Christians in Britain will face once they begin to take seriously the situation of the marginalized in our racially and culturally divided society, and in our broken world. We cannot yet envisage how an experiment such as an Association for Contextual Theology might develop in Britain. Indeed, we are not sure how much energy already exists for such an enterprise. But we are convinced that such an exploration needs to begin so that the kind of theological thinking taking place among lay people and church leaders, professional theologians and pastors in other parts of the world can make a major contribution to the now critical reassessment of the Church's role in this country. We would be very glad to hear whether the readers of this journal share any of our intuitions. We would equally welcome challenges and questions!
Greenham, Ant. "Secular Europe Won't Take Our Gospel Medicine." Evangelical Missions Quarterly 28:3 (July 1992): 292-99.	Missionaries with unusual wisdom and understanding face the reality of Europeans' deeply held impressions. Utilizes Hesselgrave's five step conversion process (discover, deliberation, determination, dissonance, and discipline) to explore how to reach Europeans for Christ.
Hayward, Douglas. "Contextualizing the Gospel among the Saxons: An Example from the Ninth Century of the Cultural Adaptation of the Gospel as Found in The Heliand." Missiology 22:4 (October 1994): 439-53.	In the middle of the ninth century, Christian missionaries among the Germans propagated the gospel by singing the story of the life of Christ in the meadhalls of Saxon warrior-nobles. This article, based upon a new translation and interpretation of that song-text (The Heliand) by G. Ronald Murphy, SJ, examines the manner in which those missionaries sought to adopt the life and witness of Jesus Christ to the life and times of the Saxon people. This author identifies three primary concerns of contextualization in every age, and shows how these were addressed more than one thousand years ago.
Hollenweger, Walter J. "A Plea for a Theologically Responsible Syncretism." Missionalia 25:1 (April 1997): 5-18.	Saayman is correct in his view on mission in today's Russia: everything depends on how missionaries go there. Christianity is a syncretism par excellence, as is evident in the Bible and throughout history. The experiences of western missionaries in Russia amount to a clash between two types of syncretism. In the West there is an upsurge of interest in religion, but for the churches to see this as a mere business opportunity would amount to irresponsible syncretism. The church should enter into dialogue with medicine, economics and science, the "principalities and powers" of contemporary society. As in Colossians, the church should engage the "powers" by using their language but at the same time correcting them, thus producing responsible syncretisms. This is illustrated with reference to the challenge facing Christians to confront the (capitalist) economism of the West.
Jossua, Jean-Pierre and Metz, Johannes Baptist, eds. Doing Theology in New Places. New York: Seabury Press, 1979.
Kahl, Brigitte "Doing Theology in the Context of Eastern Europe." Ministerial Formation 43 (1988): 4-9.	Several main headings comprise the assertions made: Doing theology in the context of Eastern Europe: 1) involves repentance, 2) means liberation from the ties of the 'Christian West', 3) means cooperation and dialogue with marxists within a secular society; 4) means witness towards coexistence with the West in solidarity with the South.
Kerr, David A. "Christology in Christian-Muslim Dialogue." In Christology in Dialogue, Robert F. Berkey and Sarah A. Edwards, eds. 201-20. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1993.	Deals with the question as to whether Christology is a bridge or barrier to Muslim-Christian dialogue, explores the writings of four Muslim writers in the West, and resulting patterns of Muslim-Christian dialogue about Christ, and names several issues for future consideration.
Kurten, Tage. "Theology and the Secular Fallacy: An Outline of Contextual Theology." Studia Theologica 44 (1990): 137-48.	The relation between theology as an academic discipline and the church and culture that surrounds it is a pressing problem for theologians all around the world. It seems as if Finnish theology today has little to offer anyone outside academic circles. This development could, of course, be understood as natural and necessary. But it can also be seen as a problem. In this article I will put forth arguments for a more constructive aim of (systematic) theology, in order to tackle this problem. First I will present a view of our over-all cultural situation, aiming at a deeper understanding of our present predicament. Inspired by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, I will then develop an argument for a constructive methodology in theology.
Mate-Toth, Andras. "The 'Second World' as Context for Theology." In Popular Religion, Liberation and Contextual Theology: Papers from a Congress (January 3-7, 1990, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) Dedicated to Arnulf Camps OFM, ed. Jacques Van Nieuwenhove and Berma Klein Goldewijk, 183-87. Kampen, Netherlands: J. H. Kok, 1991.	The theologians of liberation developed their reflections and options in relation to the characteristics of the social environment of their particular regions, and, consequently, of the third world. Theologians from the "first world" reacted to this fundamental position of third world theologians with similar reflections on their own context on the social, historical and political level. This theologically reflected contextuality became one of the sources and conditions for the option for the "people of God". The characteristics of the (real-existing) socialist world, i.e. the "second world", have not been theologically analyzed, a fact, which makes a new kind of option for the churches impossible, or at least difficult. Such an analysis could only be achieved through a collegiality which still has to be brought to life and through the collaboration of "second world theologians". This article should be seen as a small contribution, like a small stone in a mosaic.
Menconi, Margo Lyn. "Understanding and Relating to the Three Cultures of Cross-Cultural Ministry in Russia." Missiology 24:4 (October 1996): 519-31.	When missionaries or church workers enter a new culture with the gospel, they actually have three cultures to deal with: their own native culture, the culture of the target people, and also biblical or "kingdom " culture. We need to understand all three in order to communicate faithfully our message to the people we aim to reach for Christ. In this paper, I compare Russian, United States, and biblical culture, using Carolyn Ryffel's adaptation (1994) of one of Geert Hofstede's "Dimensions of Culture" (1991, 1986, 1984) as a framework. The purpose s to encourage the reconsideration of the place of each of these three cultures in our missionary activities and the making of conscious, informed decisions about our approach to mission in regard to them.
Myhre-Nielsen, Dag. "Life Forms and 'Folk Church': Some Aspects of Norwegian Ecclesiology." Studia Theologica 44 (1990): 85-94.	The Scandinavian specialty in the field of church characteristics is the 'Folk Church', created through several hundred years of symbiotic coexistence between church and state. Already in the first part of the 19th century, this symbiosis created a growing uneasiness among groups of clergymen and laity, an uneasiness that grew to a movement for church reform as the century went by. The movement has continued its quest into the present century and has, step by step, transferred legislative and administrative authority from the political to the ecclesial institutions. The aim of this article is to point out some characteristics of the Norwegian 'Folk Church' concept and to delineate some basic questions worth considering if this concept should still play a part in the theological construction of church reality in Norway. In doing this I shall not use the movement for church reform mentioned above, but turn to another movement of considerable importance in this century: the so called 'Small-Church Movement'. The ecclesiological thinking and strategy of this movement have played a decisive part in the development of church ideology and practice in Norway throughout the century.
Newbigin, Lesslie. "Text and Context: The Bible in the Church." Theological Review 5:1 (1982): 5-13.	The eclipse of the "biblical theology" of the 1950s has had serious consequences for the practical life of the churches. One must ask for the grounds on which it was abandoned. Among the most effective works of demolition was James Barr's The Bible in the Modern World (1973). But the three grounds there given are questionable. 1) The relation between exegesis and theology is reciprocal, not unilateral. 2) The culture gap is not as insuperable as suggested. 3) The kind of authority he seems to desire is not available. Pannenburg's attack on Barth's "revelational positivism" rests on vulnerable assumptions.
Ovecka, Libor and Ryskova, Mireille. "Theology and Liberation in the Context of Czechoslovakia Today." In Popular Religion, Liberation and Contextual Theology: Papers from a Congress (January 3-7, 1990, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) Dedicated to Arnulf Camps OFM, ed. Jacques Van Nieuwenhove and Berma Klein Goldewijk, 177-82. Kampen, Netherlands: J. H. Kok, 1991.	Examines the recent history of Czechoslovakia and the implications for theology which liberates. Concludes: Theology, which is now beginning to develop freely in our country again, enjoys the environment it needs to develop, as such, a theology of the church which kill be the mediator of Christ's liberation to our nations, and in this sense to be a theology of liberation. If it is to be realized, then what we need, in many respects, is a liberation of theology. The conditions necessary for it are created by the fact that it is a theology developing in the situation of liberation.
Packer, J. I. "Is Systematic Theology a Mirage? An Introductory Discussion." In Doing Theology in Today's World: Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer, ed. John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey, 17-38. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991.	Today spokesmen for a certain type of Protestantism, one that emerged out of the self-styled Enlightenment and that its critics refer to as liberal, radical, modernist, or revisionist, challenge this confidence. They allege that the ordered knowledge of God that Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Reformational Protestant teachers have set forth with (be it said) striking agreement at most points is like the oasis mirage in a desert. Because it is dear and coherent and claims to be absolute and final truth, coming from God himself, it cannot but allure the wayfaring mind. But, say the challengers, it is in fact an illusion, a mirage, an illegitimate objectifying of opinions-in plain words, a fantasy, an unreality, a vast mistake, a giant fraud. Theology (so they say) cannot relay to us revealed truth, for there is no such thing; it can only describe, correlate, interpret, and criticize or justify intuitions and guesses about God that are found in the churches; and it is high time that, by facing this fact realistically, we cut theology down to size. Are the critics right? This chapter attempts to weigh their claim.
Pobee, John. "Europe as a Locus Theologicus." The Ecumenical Review 45:2 (April 1993): 194-201.	An African ecumenical perspective on Europe and theology in the European context.
Shenk, Wilbert R., ed. Mission Focus: Current Issues, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980.
Simpson, Theo. "Theology in Context." Theology 95 (September/October 1992): 343-353.	Explores theology in a secularized, post-modern context and specifically Great Britain. The general orientation: It is generally recognized now that we can no longer regard a Western theology shaped by Western society and Western culture as normative for the rest of the world. The next step is to acknowledge that the rest of the world may have something to teach us, and that this may turn out to be very important for the recovery of the dynamism and vitality of theology in the West.
Spindler, Marc R. "Europe's Neo-Paganism: A Perverse Inculturation." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 11:1 (January 1987): 8-11.	The resurgence in paganism in Europe is discussed, starting with their self-understanding and offering theological assessment.
Visser 't Hooft, W. A. "Evangelism among Europe's Neo-Pagans." International Review of Mission 65:264 (October 1977): 349-60.	Asserts that too much attention has been given to the post-Christian secularist in Europe, but ignored the reality of a non-Christians who hold religious convictions still found in Europe (this article was written prior to the explosion of the New Age) . The contemporary neo-pagan appears generally to hold to a form of monism, believes that God is revealed in many ways, identifies God and nature, seeks the intensification of life rather than its transformation, demands a restoration of eroticism that was suppressed by Christianity, and is without a well-grounded hope. This is the audience that needs evangelization in appropriate forms.