I begin with a direct assessment. This is a fresh and compelling study in what is sure to be an increasingly important field. Miller has provided us with pioneering research in an emerging sector of World Christianity: the indigenous theology of Christians from a Muslim background. Miller deserves commendation for doing well a work that needed doing.
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A key contribution of this study, then, is to elicit, search out, analyze, and order the “theology” being produced by these new groups of believers in Christ. The point is not that these CMB communities feature “professional theologians” or the publication of formal theological texts. No, rather, the point is that in reality the CMBs are “working out their faith” in practice, in church life, and in various forms of communication from popular-level books to online poetry. Thought, talk, and action about God (or even “for” God) constitute “theology.”
Dear Colleagues,Alex Miller has recently publish an article on contemporary Christians in Tunis. Here is the abstract of the article:In the last few decades a substantial number of Tunisians have converted to Christianity. This article seeks to better understand their context and based on two weeks of fieldwork in Tunis in the summer of 2014, this article outlines the history of three of the principal churches in the city—one Catholic, one Anglican, and one Reformed—describes some facets of their worship and spiritual life, and then, based on interviews with church leaders and members, explores key challenges facing the churches. Utilizing the framework of Shoki Coe’s contextual theology, the findings are then analyzed in order to better understand the priorities, aspirations and ministry strategies of the local churches.If you know anyone interested in Christianity in North Africa today, please do share this resource with them.The article can be downloaded from the Pharos Journal's site: http://www.pharosjot.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/pharos_article_12_vol_97_2016.pdfOr from Dr. Miller's academia.edu site:
In terms of background information, the C-scale refers to an early attempt to classify congregations or ‘Christ following communities’ (but not ‘churches’) according to how ‘contextualized’ they are. The word ‘contextualization’ originates with the educational and missiological theory of Shoki Coe (1973, 1974), a Taiwanese pastor and educator, and in its original form envisioned the next step beyond indigenization. That is, contextualization was something done by the indigenous Christians, it was not done for them. By the time that Travis devised his scale, which ranged from c1 (a church speaking a foreign language and Christians exist as an ethnic/religious minority) to c5 (people who identify themselves as Muslims of some kind[1] and use the religious and cultural forms of Islam, and remain culturally and officially Muslim). Western evangelicals had lost the original (Asian) meaning of contextualization and had instead decided that contextualization was something to be done by missionaries for people of other cultures. The intention behind this was to ensure that the Good News would reach people in a cultural and religious form that would not be objectionable to them. This vision of contextualization (in Islamic contexts, at least) placed a great deal of emphasis on how people dress, what greetings they use, whether or not they eat pork or drink alcohol, whether their women cover their heads, and so on. Some missionaries even went so far as to legally convert to Islam so they could be a Muslim to the Muslims, in their attempt to imitate St Paul’s own practice (1 Cor 9:20). This concept, that a Muslim (or Buddhist or Hindu or Taoist) can follow Jesus while remaining an ‘insider’ to their religious community is at the heart of so much debate today, and Dr Dixon shares his insights on the topic in the interview.
