Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

interpretation. It again gives suggestions for
every translator to use appropriate principles
and methods to bring the message closer to
the original (Chakkuvarackal, 2002).
Many non-Western theological contributions have made fresh and incredibly valuable
contributions. For instance, the global Christian community has been able to see again
through the eyes of the early church. Believers in regions where the church is young
(e.g., China) theologize with fresh and profound insights. Sub-Saharan African
Christians are also producing extremely valuable contributions that often deal with life
issues almost totally unknown to most Westerners (i.e., monogamy). To be sure, African,
South American and Asian Christians understand the particular and daily agonies of
poverty that Westerners know so little of, and are able to theologize according to those
experiences.
Along with this fresh theologizing have come syncretistic and even heretical beliefs;
reminding the global church of the same growth pains the early church went through.
The concern Westerners have for syncretism is, however, not equally shared by their non-
Western brethren. “Third World biblical hermeneutics is still in the grip of the warning
of missionaries against syncretism, overtly Christocentric in its outlook and reluctant to
let go it Christian moorings” (Sugirtharajah, 2002:191). Further, Western biblical
hermeneutics are “still seduced by the modernistic notion of using the rational as the key
to open up texts and fails to accept intuition, sentiment, and emotion as a way into the
text... By and large, the world of contemporary biblical interpretation is detached from the
problems of the contemporary world and has become ineffectual because it has failed to
challenge the status quo or work for any sort of social change” (Sugirtharajah, 2002:26).
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa