Abstract
By and large, the non Protestant churches from the developing world rarely have a creative theology that is unique to their own cultures and religiosity. It was my hypothesis that the theological barrenness of churches from the developing world is partly as a result of the antiintellectualist legacy of the past missions from the developed world. This legacy was fostered by the strong paternalism of these past missions on the one hand and on the other, by their revivalist conversionism. The anti-intellectual legacy has brought two notable results to the missionised churches from the developing world: their profound dependency on theologies from the developed world and their resulting theological poverty, both interdependent elements.
Highlights
Original ResearchThe non Protestant churches from the developing world rarely have a creative theology that is unique to their own cultures and religiosity
The Protestant churches of the developing world, which have been largely missionised in past centuries by Protestant missionaries from the developed world, have failed to develop a creative theology that is unique to their own cultures and religiosity
Acknowledging that Christian theology in India reflected ‘an almost entirely Western type of thought and language’, theologians in India lamented that ‘they have not yet produced official doctrinal statements which express the Christian faith in a distinctively Indian way’ (Boyd 1969:207). This is true of the Japanese Protestant churches, which have experienced ‘Germanic captivity of Japanese theology’ (Drummond 1994:249)
Summary
The non Protestant churches from the developing world rarely have a creative theology that is unique to their own cultures and religiosity. It was my hypothesis that the theological barrenness of churches from the developing world is partly as a result of the antiintellectualist legacy of the past missions from the developed world. This legacy was fostered by the strong paternalism of these past missions on the one hand and on the other, by their revivalist conversionism. The anti-intellectual legacy has brought two notable results to the missionised churches from the developing world: their profound dependency on theologies from the developed world and their resulting theological poverty, both interdependent elements
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