Interacting with the Experiences of Others
The communicative openness of theological multiculturalism requires significant change for
all involved, and thus many theologians attempt to evade the interaction. Specifically, three
common responses to the theology of other cultures need to be recognized and avoided.
23
First, "a
threatening position can sometimes be disposed of simply by calling it a `fad' and those who
espouse it `naive.'"
24
Although it is important to be cautious in accepting new ideas and beliefs,
labeling a theology in discrediting terms is an unwarranted approach. Judging the content of
another theology is beneficial in so far as the motives of the critic are pure, for the purpose of
accountability and furthering the pursuit of truth. "But these judgments should be well informed.
We need to understand and appreciate other cultures before we judge them."
25
A second manner in which a particular theology can be shunned is by co-opting it.
26
This
entails twisting the terminology of a particular theology, watering down the concepts, insisting that
they are not unique, and thereby blunting the concrete issues that this theology is attempting to
address. This attitude is unfair in that the individual or community who is judging has built a "stick
person" so to speak, a theology that has been simplified or distorted, and then critiqued this
caricature. Two common misconceptions regarding feminist theology can fuel this evasive attitude.
First, in Western culture the individualistic mindset is dominant. When one looks at a theology that
is not familiar or immediately relevant to them, the tendency is to dismiss that worldview. Often I
have heard a number of my male peers in seminary claim that feminist theology, evangelical and
23
These evasive moves are adapted from Robert McAfee Brown, "A Preface and Conclusion" in
Theology in the Americas (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976), pp. xv-xviii.
24
Ibid., p. xv.
25
Paul G. Hiebert, "Cultural Differences and the Communication of the Gospel," in Perspectives on
the World Christian Movement, (Pasadena, CA: Willam Carey Library, 1999), p. 379.
26
Brown, "A Preface and Conclusion," pp. xv-xvi.