More Chairs at the Theological Table: Reflections on Timothy Tennent’s “Theology in the Context of World Christianity”

By Tim Campbell

There is an app on my iPad called Google Earth. Though an older app, it is quite amazing. Satellite imagery enables me to view any point on the globe at rooftop level with unusual detail. Google Earth is a fitting icon for the new realities of a global culture. The world is no longer small in terms of knowledge, interaction, and relationships. In almost every area of life, we now have to think globally.

However, as Timothy C. Tennent points out, an exception to the new global perspective might be theological discourse [1]. He states, “[T]he Western church has not yet fully absorbed how the dramatic shifts in global Christianity are influencing what constitutes normative Christianity” [2]. Tennent charges that theological reflection and discussion is, for the most part, confined to Western thought. And, Western theological circles tend to be closed. Tennent makes a case that it is time for a rigorous and weighty theological engagement with the global Christian community. I agree with his assessment.

The Geographical Center of Christianity

But, I do not want to join ranks with those who advocate jettisoning Western thought for the sake of contextualization. For reasons known to God, He saw fit to advance Christian thought and truth through the West. Western theology is not an arrogant, cultural or theological offender. As Scott Anoil states:

I think it is undeniable that Western culture by and large has been influenced by Christian values more than perhaps any other in the world. That is not to say at all that there haven’t been anti-biblical influences as well; there certainly have been. But by God’s common grace we haven’t been influenced by Satanism or Eastern mysticism to the same extent as other societies. That has influenced the development of culture [3].

In other words, for centuries Western culture cradled the Christian worldview. Western culture was largely shaped by Christian thought and values. Consequently and appropriately, Western culture was the seedbed and medium for formal theological thinking and expression. Therefore, contemporary theology now has an undeniable Western nuance and tint.

Nonetheless, just as the geographical center of Christianity shifted westward from Palestine in the early centuries, it shifted southward from 1900 to the late 1960s. And in the last five decades, it has been shifting south and east. Many Western Christians do not realize that there are now more Christians in what we commonly call “Third World” countries than in the West. And, those countries are not only the Majority World, but also the Majority Church World in terms of population [4]. This has profound implications for the theological community, and Christianity in general, in terms of waning in the West. Tennent laments:

I always leave the USA with the troubling impression that apart from a new Great Awakening, Christianity in North America is in the throes of a precipitous decline. I see many signs of the erosion of authentic Christian life and vitality in the West. In Western Europe, where I also lived for three years, the situation is even more beleaguered [5].

In a secularized context, little if any consideration is given to how reality interconnects with theology and vice versa. This is what has occurred in the West. While there may be stark differences, there is a real sense that the West has changed positions with Third World countries. As has been pointed out, the majority of Christians now reside outside the West. Christianity is growing in Majority Church countries. Yet, formal theological dialogue is still confined to the West. Western theological discourse was birthed in the context of Judeo-Christian cultures. That has now changed, and the theological world must make room at the theological table for recent scholarship that has emerged from the Gospel’s application in South American, Africa, and Asia—those in the Majority Church.

Contextualization

      This, of course, brings up the issue of contextualization. This concept has been abused and misapplied. Tennent agrees:

How easily we seem to forget that the gospel doesn’t need our help in being made relevant. The gospel is always relevant, and it is we who need to be made relevant to the gospel. If we spent as much time really immersing ourselves into apostolic orthodoxy as we do trying to capture, if I can use Tom Oden’s phrase, “predictive sociological expertise” on the latest cultural wave coming, our churches would be far better off.…We have accepted almost without question certain definitions of success and what a successful church looks like. Only sustained theological reflection is able to penetrate and unmask the pragmatic, market driven assumptions which largely go unchecked in today’s evangelical churches [6].

I believe contextualization, correctly understood, is not the process of shaping the Gospel to culture, but the process of shaping culture to the Gospel. Cultural assumptions are readily apparent, but true contextualization occurs when the principles of the Gospel are allowed to speak to those assumptions. There can be contextualization without biblical or theological compromise. Nevertheless, Western theology speaks to Western culture. There now exists a great need to grapple with how Christianity and theology has developed and now is applied in other contexts and cultures. Tennent points this out in several chapters. He shows how theology applies in matters not considered by Western thinkers. Thus he shows that Western theology is not necessarily deficient, but has simply never been faced with problems unique to biblical application in other countries and cultures.

A Prototype: Guilt Cultures Versus Shame Cultures

For example, the West is an individualistic, guilt-based culture. In a guilt-based culture we speak in terms of internalized conviction of sin and Christ paying for our sins on the cross. Individuals standing before God are the focus. However, many other cultures are shame-based. These cultures, such as the Japanese, think in terms of the group in which they are a part. Again, Tennet writes:

Guilt generally follows the transgression of a moral law, particularly a law that has been revealed by divine revelation. Shame generally follows any action perceived by the larger group to reduce one’s standing or status within the group. The former represents a loss of innocence; the latter represents a loss of face [7]. 

My first reaction to this is to think that contextualization toward shame-based is a compromise. As Tennent points out, however, it is not that guilt-based application is wrong or unbiblical, but neither is the concept of shame. Rather, Western theological thought has ignored the biblical concept of shame. Shame is mentioned more than three hundred times in the Old Testament, which uses ten different Hebrew words. Similarly, in the New Testament there are more than a half dozen Greek roots that are translated ‘shame.’ The truth is that both guilt and shame play a key role in understanding how sin affects us. Yet, the concept of shame is noticeably absent in Western theology. While its absence may not lead to a deficient view of the atonement, it prevents a full-orbed understanding of it at the very least.

It is not that Western theology should be rewritten or reformed. And it is not that it is lacking in matters to which it speaks. It is that Western theology deals with Western thought in Western ways. That should not be laid aside. But new invitations must be given to those outside of the West who are contextualizing their culture to the Bible and theology. Missions can no longer be theology’s stepchild. While I am not advocating for relinquishing particular theological convictions, there must be recognition of global Christian theological scholarship. While we dare not give up our particular theological applications, we must also remember that theological discourse is not isolated or finalized. We must engage. Christian theology is for every nation, tribe, people, and language!

Dr. Tennent properly states:

The gospel is inherently a gospel of action, not merely a gospel of reflection; it is not merely propositions to be believed, but a salvation to be proclaimed. Could missions studies, long the stepchild within the family of theological studies, not become the very stream God uses to stimulate new life and vitality into the very heart of evangelical theological scholarship? [8]

Conclusion

This emergence of global theology is fruit of the West’s missionary labors. Now, the tables have turned. We are the minority. Could it be that we have become overly confident in thinking our theological systems are fully developed and applied? If so, that is a sore error. There are others who are not of our house who are grappling with its application in myriad ways that we have not considered. It is time for the West to invite emerging theologians of the Majority Church to come to the table so that we may humbly share and tackle new problems and questions so that we may, as Tennent states: “…return to the Scripture with a fresh perspective.”

Tennent ends his book with these words:

I am convinced that the growth of Majority World Christianity coupled with the new waves of immigration into the West may be the only hope for a resurgence of biblical Christianity in our midst. We can no longer afford to let these exciting realities of global Christianity be swallowed up by any kind of evangelical self-absorption or fundamentalist parochialism, or the latest theological fad of liberalism that suffers from gospel amnesia [9].

I agree. Christianity in the West may depend on it.

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[1] Timothy C. Tennent (PhD, University of Edinburgh, Scotland) has serves as President of Asbury Theological Seminary. Previously he was the Professor of World Missions and Indian Studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary where he served since 1998. Ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1984, he has pastored churches in Georgia, and in several of the largest churches in New England. Since 1989, he has taught annually as an adjunct professor at the New Theological College in Dehra Dun, India. He is a frequent conference speaker around the country and throughout the world, including numerous countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

[2] Timothy C. Tennent, Theology in the Context of World Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), xviii.

[3] Scott Anoil, Should Western Music Be Transplanted to Mission Church Plants?” (2010), http://religiousaffections.org/articles/articles-on-culture/western-music-transplanted-missions/, (accessed February 14, 2012).

[4] Tennent, op. cit., xix.

[5] Ibid., 8.

[6] Timothy Tennent, “Our Mission to ‘Theologically Educate’” (2011), http://timothytennent.com/2011/09/10/our-mission-to-theologically-educate/ (accessed February 27, 2012).

[7] Tennent, op. cit., 79.

[8] Ibid., 250.

[9] Ibid., 271.

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About the Guest Contributor: Tim Campbell is a sixth generation Arkansan and a third generation Free Will Baptist. He is the executive director of the Arkansas State Association of Free Will Baptists and the president of the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council. He is also a member of the General Board of the Free Will Baptist National Association and the Executive Committee of the Free Will Baptist National Association. He graduated from the Free Will Baptist Bible College in 1990 and has completed graduate work at Liberty University. He and his wife Jane have been married for 35 years and have one son, Ben, who is a freshman at Free Will Baptist Bible College.

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