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

open social context of the common public and … acknowledges the freedom and
the liberty of self determination of individuals to reform or reaffirm their religions
or to change from one religion to another or to stay without a religion.’ He further
suggests that ‘these inter-community dialogues and discussions can lead to the
formulation of a public theology that is a theology emerging from, for and by the
civil public, the common people.’ 205
Sauter Gerhard provides us with another version of public theology. In his
discussion of public theology within the Hungarian Protestant context, he equates
it with the ‘service of theology’, by which he means that ‘theology serves the
public domain indirectly rather than acting as a “theology of service”- a theology
that claims to be an affirmation of political goals that are underlined by
motivations derived from Christian moral traditions.’ 206 He rejects any public
theology outside the church, rather arguing that ‘theology must serve the church
preparing for dialogue with other members of the society to give account of our
hope if we are asked for its reason (I Pet. 3:15).’ 207
Pentecostal mission theology in Rajasthan is similar to Gerhard’s concept of
public theology, which equips the church to serve the public in different ways.
Here, the meaning of public mission is restricted to mission of public interest, of
common benefit and of the well-being of the society. The public nature of
Pentecostal theology is clear from its insistence that Charismatic gifts as well as
205 Cherian, Hindutva Agenda and Minority Rights, 309-11.
206 Gerhard Sauter, Protestant Theology at the Crossroads: How to Face the Crucial Tasks for
Theology in the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 151.
207 Sauter, Protestant Theology, 165.
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