Revisiting Contextualization: Missiological Parallelism as an Alternative

Abstract

When Shoki Coe introduced the term “contextualization” in 1972, his intent was to take the sociocultural realities of those receiving the gospel message more seriously. For many, however, the word has lost its original focus. Years of Western missionaries eager to defend locally developed theologies against heresy have attached a colonial connotation to the term, as some theologies were deemed “contextual,” in juxtaposition to Western ideas. In contrast, missiologists such as David Bosch (2011, pp. 186) and Stephen B. Bevans (2018, pp. 1-3) have made the case that all theologies are influenced by their context. This article argues that new language is needed in order to support their conclusion. It briefly surveys the history and meaning of contextualization, before proposing polemical parallelism as an alternative. The article recasts polemical parallelism, originally coined by German theologian Adolph Deissmann in 1910, as missiological parallelism to better identify God’s work within a culture, irenically introducing Jesus Christ as the best solution for human struggle.