Contextualization: A Theology of Gospel and Culture

by Bruce J. Nicholls

How can a Christian brought up in the metropolis of Sao Paulo speak the gospel clearly to a Buddhist raised in the mountains of Tibet? Every missionary confronts the difficulty of cross-cultural communication. But missionaries from the Third World, Bruce Nicholls says, must understand four cultures--"the Bible's, the Western missionaries' who first brought the gospel, their own, and the people's to whom they take the gospel." Recognizing this, Nicholls proposes that the gospel be contextualized, that is, presented in forms which are characteristic of the culture to which the gospel is taken. The problem is to find the right cultural forms and thus keep the gospel message both clear and biblical. Nicholls deals with tough social, theological and hermeneutical questions and proposes a direction for missions in the future. Bruce J. Nicholls, formerly executive secretary of the World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission, was a career missionary in India working in theological education and in pastoral ministry with the Church of North India. He was also Editor of the Evangelical Review of Theology for 18 years and is now Editor of the Asia Bible Commentary series.

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Duane Alexander Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the best treatments of contextualization written by an evangelical. His experience in India is helpful as he is able to provide examples for what he is talking about. Also, his willingness to admit that the Bible is itself speaking from within a given cultural matrix (or rather cultural matrices) is a much needed remedy to the simplistic 'read the Bible and do what it says' mentality of so many mission scholars writing today.



His great weakness is that he does not really grapple with the original theory of Shoki Coe et al in the context of the WCC's Theological Education group. Because of this he loses the ability to distinguish between contextualization done by foreigners (what I call directed contextualization) and contextualization done by the local community of believers (organic contextualization). Because of this, the author of his 'contextual' theologies are forever indeterminate. Does he really want to say that American missionaries in Egypt are producing the same kind of theology (ie, contextual) as the indigenous communities grappling with the Scripture and the Tradition in India or, for that matter, Egypt? Surely the later is greater than the former, more authentic and a more original and meaningful contribution to the growth of the catholic Church.



If you must read an evangelical on the topic, this is a suitable work. I still prefer Robert Schreiter's 'Constructing Local Theologies' much more.