"...We have been realizing increasingly that "postmodern" is a Euro-American way of talking about one slice of a much larger and more profound reality called "postcolonial" in the global south (which is now the demographic center of Christian faith and mission). We believe that postcolonial is a better, richer, more all- encompassing way to frame many of the issues we are grappling with. So, we are convinced that any theological conversation that doesn't include global south and north as partners simply perpetuates colonial, modern, Euro-American Christianity. The global north/west needs to learn from the global south/east, and we want to link emerging leaders for that conversation and friendship. We have been working on this side of things for a couple of years, but we felt the time had come to shift significant resources in this direction."
Brian MacLaren
This has been a troubling feature of the postmodern shift for me to resolve. Unless it's working itself out in Asia and Africa, it's only a western church thing. If I begin to see it as a postcolonial thing, well, that starts to move it in a much bigger direction.
So, I wonder if the church in Africa (and maybe Asia, but I don't have any experience with it) has had a "modern" period other than the style of church which was sort of an importation. I can't see most of those I know as having a modern understanding of the world - being hung up on life being rational and analysable. The incomprehensible, the mystical and majical, the unexplainable world of spirit are still all too real and I think still are more acceptable than a "modern" rationalized world or faith system.
ReplyDeleteI think post-colonial is a better descriptor for them than post-modern as they discover what it means to be a Christian in the context of their own culture, allowing God to redeem their own culture, things which we don't even understand, but which will probably enrich our faith as well as God works through them. They are beginning to use more of their own music and more culturally appropriate forms of worship already, leaving the old translated hymns which must have been petty strange to them when they were first introduced.