Vad är konstant och vad är föränderligt i tredje världens teologi?

Abstract

This article presents the text of the lecture which Manfred Hofmann gave at the conference on the Future of Contextual Theology in January 2005 at Lund University. The conference marked the occasion of Aasulv Lande’s and Manfred Hofmann’s retirement from long academic service. In this lecture Hofmann reflects upon his own academic background and development that led him to work with liberation theology and emerging contextual theologies in different parts of this world. Concentrating on central issues of his research, Hofmann stresses the sensibility of contextual theology for local developments, especially for the voices of the marginalised, the poor, and the oppressed. Power structures need to be exposed. The signs of the time must be interpreted and memories of suffering need to be retrieved not least through biographical recollection and storytelling. But even the method of theology needs to adapt to the demands of its context: hence the interconnectedness between seeing, understanding and acting is the hallmark of a praxis-conscious theology. Finally, a new spirituality has to be explored that both unmasks the terror of unjust systems and supports the strengthening of the forces of life, dialogue, justice, and peace, that will overcome both classical forms of dualist theology and contemporary systems of death and exploitation.