a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

one among several ways to justify mission, but the justification par excellence.’
For Spindler, biblical grounding does not mean to seek ‘literal biblical mandates
for all modern missionary activities’ or to legitimate all actions, but to evaluate
these activities in the light of an understanding of the Bible. 108 According to
Bevans, a contextual theology is an ‘attempt to understand Christian faith in terms
of a particular context.’ However, as mentioned in chapter one, he argues that in
order to do theology contextually, two issues, the ‘faith experience of the past that
is recorded in the scriptures’ and ‘the experience of the present, the context,’ must
be taken into account. 109 Biblical grounding is important to Christians in general,
and so for Pentecostals around the globe. Noel Davies and Martin Conway
observe that, ‘in the absence of ‘Pentecostal creedal formulae and a commonly
agreed theology,’ the Bible is ‘the ultimate authority in matters of spirituality,
doctrines and ethics.’ 110
The Bible has become increasingly important in the lives of Christians in the
global South, and Jenkins’ recent study clearly demonstrates this fact. According
to him, Asian as well as African Christians draw fresh and Charismatic elements
from the Scripture. ‘For the growing churches of the global South, the Bible
speaks to everyday, real-world issues of poverty and debt, famine and urban crisis,
racial and gender oppression, state brutality and persecution.’ 111 While discussing
108
Spindler, ‘Biblical Grounding,’ 124-25.
109
Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology, 3-5. With ‘experience of the past’ he means
experiences that is ‘recorded in scriptures and kept alive, preserved, defended- and perhaps even
neglected or suppressed- in tradition,’ and ‘experience of the present’ means, ‘individual and
contemporary-collective experience.’
110
Noel Davies and Martin Conway, World Christianity in the Twentieth Century, SCM Core Text
(London: SCM, 2008), 78.
111
Philip Jenkins, The New Face of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Oxford:
OUP, 2006), 5-6.
293