Hermeneutical Community: Pursuing Local Theology in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024.
Many Western initiatives exist for theological development in the majority world, but how often do practitioners from the West pause to examine the role they should play in that endeavor? Missions history and church history have revealed inadequacies of imposing foreign theology on local churches, yet the alternative of withdrawing from local theological development appears equally problematic. If, therefore, the outsider’s role is neither to impose theology nor withdraw from the task, then what is his or her role? Hermeneutical Community addresses this fundamental question and seeks to lay a sound missiological foundation for local theological development.
“Local Ownership of the Theological Task.” Great Commission Baptist Journal of Missions 2.2 (2023): 1–16.
While some Majority World churches have, over time, become agents of their own theological convictions, many others have relied on borrowed theology from churches outside of their context. This precedent has tended to stunt the maturation of local churches and left them susceptible to theological syncretism. This paper highlights a way that missionary practitioners can address this issue and help local churches to become self-theologizing.