Globalizing Theology

The world we live in today is much smaller and more interrelated than the world of our parents and grandparents. Air travel, television and the Internet have all played their part in this change. 9/11 and the recent credit crunch have both had global implications and will continue to do so for many years to come. We, in this country, are rubbing shoulders with people of other faiths and cultures in a way which would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. The ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech by Enoch Powell back in 1968 would take on a very different resonance in today’s Britain.

On top of this, Christianity has also changed. Christian theology has largely been fashioned by Western minds and the Western worldview. However, the centre of gravity in the Christian Church has now shifted. The Church in the West has declined whereas there is explosive growth in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Questions are therefore being asked as to whether the theology of the Western Church is universally applicable as was assumed by those who colonised Asia, Africa and the Americas. Do these young and emerging Christian Churches have the right to read and interpret Scripture in their own culture or are there theological absolutes, which apply universally and at all times?

This book brings together some of the sharpest minds in the Church today to explore the issues raised by globalization and its impact upon our theology.