Stripping God of his Cultural Clothing

Local theologies makes theology democratic. It looks at the form of the Christian gospel in any given time or place. The main argument is that the ‘pure’ form of the gospel is removed from the Western idea of the gospel and instead it is accepted that you can’t actually get a ‘pure’ form of the gospel. The gospel cannot exist independent of a particular time, place or culture.

Inculturation is the interaction between the gospel and culture. Culture is where we form our identity. It shapes and forms us and this interaction is inculturation and from this emerges Christianity. But where does this take place and when do we see it? The World Council of Churches argues there has been a shift from the White, West Christianity to a global identity. Missionaries have gone to other parts of the world and with them have taken the gospel (their version of it) and planted it into another country. However, ironically in some places Christianity has been more ‘at home’ in other countries. For example, biblical passages like Jesus driving out demons may have to be interpreted for a British culture or it may seem alien and strange. However in some African cultures this may be seen as normal and therefore they can relate to the religion more. Christianity has travelled throughout the world and has found itself in different cultures and has moulded itself around the differences within that culture.

However, it can be argued that Christianity hasn’t moulded at all. What instead has happened is that other cultures have adopted a Western version of Christianity. For example, in India converts are not Christian Indians but Indians attempting to adopt Western values and traditions. Chung Hyung Kyung would support this point. She rejects oppression and injustice and deploys cultural tool in her theology. Her personal struggle was the image of God which she always saw as an old, wise, distant white man. She admits she found this image of God very difficult to relate to. Through a long personal struggle she stripped God of his cultural clothing and rediscovered God as a figure like her mother; a warm, lovable middle aged Korean woman.

Through doing this theology becomes democratic. We can view God how we want to view God. This is essentially local theology. The fact that a theological repositioning needs to take place illustrates the problematic history of Christianity in the first place. Christianity was carried in on the back of political imperialism and reinforced through spiritual imperialism. People not only had their land colonialised but their souls also. Therefore democratic people fought theologically for the de-colonialisation of their souls. They invented God to be the image they wanted God. If one can vote, then one can also make God who one wants God to be. This can lead to one arguing that Christianity contains in itself the seeds of its own destruction but ultimately a democratic and local theology allows people to invent theology for themselves.