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Third World Dyrness
Dyrness on Global Theology from an Evangelical Perspective
The world is comprised of infinite spiritual and religious stripes. These connect to culture, context and history, and in doing so, have created infinite permutations of observance and worship. This would on one level appear to be the driving premise of the text by William A. Dyrness (1990), entitled Learning About Theology From the Third World. Indeed, the Dyrness text initiates its discussion with the assumption that the great and diverse body of humanity has consequently produced a great and diverse body of theological notions. However, upon closer inspection, the reader finds that the Dyrness text is guided by a decidedly unilateral notion of theology which perceives many non-western ideologies as inherently subordinate to a centering Christian worldview. This impacts the critical reaction to the text expressed hereafter.
Purpose:
The author makes clear from the outset that his text will offer no peering insight or complex revelations on the subject of world theology but will instead attempt to shed surface light on the diversity of religious traditions guiding Christian practice throughout the global community. Dyrness indicates that his "fundamental motivation for writing the book,...
For it is not hard to show that Western Christians ordinarily have only the vaguest idea of what their counterparts in other parts of the world are thinking." (p. vii) This underscores a text whose basic purpose is to appeal only to Western Christian readers, and among them, only to those who desire the most limited available knowledge of religious practice outside of the traditions familiar to them.
Basic Argument:
The basic argumentation that drives the text is that there is value which is often overlooked by Western Christians in the specific modes of practice employed in parts of the developing sphere. Here, discussions on Asia, Africa and Latin America serve as case examples for how different geographical and sociological contexts have led to different ways of interpreting the imperatives of Christianity. This is underscored also by the evangelical argument that Christianity is the one true faith, a point of assertion that leads to many of the texts more problematic conceits. According to Dyrness, "for our purposes an evangelical will be defined as one who holds that the truth of God's revelation given in Scripture is transcultural…
Works Cited:
Dyrness, W.A. (1990). Learning About Theology From the Third World. Zondervan.
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