Why Study Global Christian Theology?

1. We are called to engage the world theologically. The social and cultural contexts in which Christians have found themselves over the course of history have continually given rise to a need to relate Christian theology to those various contexts. As a result, Christians have been faced with the challenge of thinking theologically about a plethora of issues that have arisen within their diverse social environments. This should facilitate the development of Christian theology in all of the global communities in which Christians are present.
2. We should be careful to engage all cultures, particularly those cultures in which the majority of the world’s Christians are found. In 2000, there were 785 million Christians in North America and Europe. But there are over a billion Christians in Africa, South America, and Asia. And so Western Christians are in the minority. Obviously, there are a variety of social phenomena which occur in these other regions of the world. And as Christians, we are called to engage these cultures. Ultimately, these non-Western social contexts and the situations arising from these contexts affect the majority of the world’s Christians. But there has been a great lack of reflection upon many of these situations by Christians in the West.
3. Dialog with Christians from other cultures helps us to understand the issues with which they are struggling. This is true of theology that is truly Christian and theology that is Christian in name only. As we enter into conversation with Christians who live in other social contexts, it helps us to understand the questions and issues that relate to them so that we can then reflect theologically on these issues.
4. Global readings help us to ask important questions that we might not have considered given our own social location. In the same way we are able to observe ways in which Christians from other cultures might be compromising Christian doctrine, so too they can help us to see ways that we might be succumbing to such compromise.
5. Theological conversation with Christians in different cultures can help us in our understanding of Scripture. There are Christians in other regions of the world who are seeking to interpret the Bible in ways that are faithful to the text. At times these Christians may have cultural parallels to the ancient culture which enable them to see things that we might not have observed because of the degree to which our own culture is removed from the ancient culture.