Evangelicals and Contextual Theology: Lessons from Missiology for Theological Reflection

In this paper, we argue that evangelical missiological reflection on contextual theology will help develop models and methods for doing contextual theology that western evangelical theologians and ministers may be more comfortable with than some of the dominant models available in the western theological training. In the process, we also hope to show that evangelical resistance to contextual theology and theological reflection as exhibited in its dominant forms in western theological discourse is not a rejection of it per se. Using five of Bevan's six models for contextual theology, we argue for a range of models for contextualization and theological reflection for the tasks that Christian presence, witness, and discipleship require in our multicultural world, to help us in our desire to grow in faithfulness to the Scriptures and to the nature of God's revelation in Christ and therefore in fruitfulness in our Christian witness in the contemporary world.