VULNERABLE MISSION

VULNERABLE MISSION: QUESTIONS FROM A LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXT
The effort to let Scripture speak without imposing on it a ready-made interpretation is a
hermeneutical task binding upon all interpreters, whatever their culture. Unless objectivity
is set as a goal, the whole interpretive process is condemned to failure from the start.
Objectivity, however, must not be confused with neutrality. 40
Similarly, as a twenty-first century American, my encounters with Irenaeus, the Cappadocian
Fathers, Anselm, Calvin, or Karl Barth are all cross-cultural. Theological education
actually seeks to challenge the student’s local thinking style, not to place it in a
reservation.
Latin American Theological Scholarship
Vibrant theological scholarship already exists in Latin America, though its scale is modest
relative to the number of churches it serves. Latin American theological scholarship
bears certain prominent traits that present difficulties for VM methods. First, theological
leaders think of themselves in terms of Latin America and therefore undertake their task
internationally in Spanish or Portuguese. Entities such as the Latin American Theological
Fellowship and the Evangelical Association of Theological Education in Latin
America represent this characteristic most prominently. 41 Second, they are participants
in the theological discourse of the global church. Prominent leaders such as Samuel Escobar
and René Padilla have played vital roles in the Lausanne Movement, for example.
They participate in this global scene, as well as publish, in English.
The weight of these simple observations increases in proportion to the degree that theological
leaders of the dominant criollo culture do indeed represent their diverse national
contexts. This is not to say that local languages should be ignored—the principles of
sound missiology stand. But even in indigenous communities in Latin America, “in the
pedagogical process and in the development of an integral formation both languages are
necessary and complementary”: 42
The educational process, within the framework of the religious conscience is decisive in a
socialization which will allow the aboriginal people and other participants to elaborate critical
and constructive relations with the society in which we are living. The contrary, within
current conditions, would inevitably lead to one form or another of the extermination of
minority groups. In this sense, the proposal which certain anthropological currents uphold,
to “maintain the indigenous cultures in a state of purity” simply brings on the same tragic
consequences that the destruction/absorption plans have produced. . . .
The aim of a school in the aboriginal context is a double one: on one hand, to rescue and
affirm the values of their own culture, language, identity, religious cosmovision; and also to
offer adequate training so as to enable participation on a level of equality in a multi-cultural
society, which at the same time is a dominating and vicious one towards certain sectors. 43
40 C. René Padilla, “The Interpreted Word: Reflections on Contextual Hermeneutics,” Themelios 7, no. 1
(September 1981): 21.
41 See Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana, http://www.ftl-al.org; Asociación Evangélica de Educación
Theológica en América Latina, http://www.aetal.com/esp/index.html.
42 Samuel Almada, “Intercultural Dialogue Perspectives in Theological Education with Originary People,”
Journal of Latin American Hermeneutics 1 (Summer 2004): 3.
43 Ibid.
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