Tennent - Theology in the context of world Christianity : how the global church is influencing the way we think about and discuss theology

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING ABOUT THEOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF WORLD CHRISTIANITY

This book is a great idea, executed well offering a vital complement to traditional, Western doctrinal categories. There is much instruction here for theological students and teachers alike. Tennent asks important questions, providing answers that are often insightful and always biblically thoughtful.

DANIEL J. TREIER, associate professor of theology, Wheaton College, and author of Virtue and the Voice of God: Toward Theology as Wisdom

This volume masterfully demonstrates that listening to theological reflection from around the globe yields fresh contributions to discussions of Christian faith and practice. It contains new insights, new challenges, yet all the while interwoven with Christian history and thinking past and present. May Tennents work be the first of many stimulating conversations!

M. DANIEL CARROLL R. (RODAS), Earl S. Kalland chair of Old Testament, Denver Seminary (USA); adjunct professor, El Seminario Teolgico Centroamericano (Guatemala)

For a long time the systematic theology developed by the church has been generally deficient because it did not take into account the approaches of Christians from the rest of the world and of people of other faiths. This book by Tim Tennent shows us how to do this. He has taken samplings of some crucial issues and done an admirable job in showing how they should influence our theological formulations. The added benefit of this book is that it is easy to read something that cannot be said of most theology books!

AJITH FERNANDO, national director, Youth for Christ, Sri Lanka

This book is a must-read for all people who are interested in a new and exciting way of doing theology at a time when Christianity is already a post-Western and global religion. Truly fascinating!

SUNG WOOK CHUNG, associate professor of theology, Denver Seminary

This is the book we have waited a long time for. We have all sampled selections from the growing menu of theological reflection in the Majority World church, but so often these have been viewed by scholars and students in the West as the theological equivalent of ethnic restaurants exotic and interesting but not to be taken too seriously in the dining hall of real (Western) theology. Meanwhile Philip Jenkins, Andrew Walls, Lamin Sanneh, and others have thrust the staggering realities of Majority World Christianity into the forefront of Western Christian consciousness. Theologians are now at last grappling with what missiologists have been saying for years: theology is a cross-cultural team game with global players. And the referee is no longer the Western academy, but the Scriptures themselves. Tim Tennent engages all his experience in mission and theology to argue that it is not just the outer forms of Christianity that are culturally translatable, but theology itself. No part of the global body of Christ can say to any other part, I have no need of you. Every part is enriched theologically too by every other part. Theology, like mission, has to be from everywhere to everywhere. This book, organized in the systematic way that Western theology likes, offers teacher and student alike a representative, thorough, constructively critical compendium of some of the key contributors to the task of global theology. The point is not whether we will like everything we read here, but whether we are willing to listen. These are the voices we must increasingly engage with in the global conversation of Christian theology.

REV DR CHRISTOPHER J H WRIGHT, international director, Langham Partnership International

THEOLOGY
in the context of
WORLD CHRISTIANITY

ZONDERVAN

Theology in the Context of World Christianity
Copyright 2007 by Timothy C. Tennent

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-29848-9

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tennent, Timothy C.

Theology in the context of world Christianity : how the global church is influencing the way we think about and discuss theology / Timothy C. Tennent.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27511-4

1. Theology Methodology. 2. Globalization Religious aspects Christianity. I. Title.

BR118.T44 2007

230.09 dc22

2007014651

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Dedicated to the memory of my father,
Robert W. Tennent Sr. (1925 2005),
who always encouraged me to
reach for Gods highest

Table of Contents

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I am indebted to the trustees and faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for granting me a sabbatical to write this book. My long-standing academic pursuit has been dedicated to finding new ways to reconnect the disciplines of theology and missiology. I can think of no better place to engage in this task than Gordon-Conwell. I would like to extend special thanks to my colleague Jack Davis, who read the manuscript and provided many helpful suggestions.

I am also indebted to the students, staff, and faculty of the Luther W. New Jr. Theological College in India, where I have had the privilege of teaching for the last twenty years. My interaction with students, both at GCTS and at NTC over the years, has been a continual source of insight and joy. Many of the ideas for this book arose out of stimulating discussions with students in classrooms in the USA and in India. I am particularly grateful for the friendship and mentoring I have received from my dear friend George Chavanikamannil, who opened up the door of India to me.

Although I explore this more in chapter 10, I also want to thank Andrew Walls for pointing out to me that theological scholarship needs a renaissance of mission studies. It is this spark that was fanned into a flame and eventually became this book.

Most of my sabbatical was spent at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, where I served as Senior Scholar in Residence. I am indebted to Jonathan Bonk, the director of OMSC, and his wonderful staff for their encouragement and support during the many months it took to write this book. Being able to walk across the street to the Day Missions Library of Yale Divinity School, arguably the finest missions collection in the world, is one of those great treasures I will always cherish.