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Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. The new context for theology and its challenge 3
3. Secularization 6
4. New tasks for academic theology 6
5. The challenge for Christian theology 8
6. Three models: God, humanity or the world as “object” of theology 12
7. Theology as a theory of faith 15
8. Papua theology 16
9. Conclusion 18
10.Bibliography 19
Towards a Theology “From Below”
1. Introduction
In this paper I want to set out a way how to come to a new way of practicing
systematic theology that is adequate with modern or even post-modern society.
I will try to evaluate some different approaches in systematic theology, including
the so-called “theologies of the genitive hermeneutics”, that is feminist theology,
liberation theology, African and Asian contextual theology, Black theology. These
theologies may be considered one-sided or even marginal form the perspective of
the traditional “grand system” systematic theologies like those of Thomas
Aquinas, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich or Karl Rahner to
mention a few great systematicians. However, I consider a main advantage of the
“theologies of the genitive hermeneutics” that they are equally interested in the
context, in the receivers of the Gospel message as in the analysis of the Gospel
message itself. These are theologies at least of “flesh and blood.” In that they are
in accordance with the dominant metaphor in Christianity of the Incarnation.
These theologies are clearly free from the Docetic error!
I will look for a common ground in these theologies. I will suggest that these
theologies have in common that their focus is on people who are in one way or
the other, politically or culturally, oppressed. These people are inspired by the

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Gospel to liberate themselves and they use the stories of the Scriptures to
analyze their situation for new hope. The Gospel helps them to gain a new
awareness of the oppression and provides metaphors for the struggle for
liberation. I assume the reality of divine revelation. The “Anknuepfungspunkt” is
where divine revelation touches the human heart and makes people moving in
accordance with eth Gospel of Jesus Christ. The task of theology is to observe
and analyse people’s theologies in liturgies, hymns, prayers, forms of worship
and social action. The methods are derived from the social sciences. Though this
theology is close to science of religion it is different as one assumes the reality of
divine revelation, God’s continuing involvement with humanity. The Scriptures are
an example of God’s close involvement with the patriarchs, the people of Israel,
and with the whole of humanity and the world. These provide also for modern
times consolation and metaphors that make people move into action.This
theology “from below” is inspired by my stay in West Papua as a lecturer at a
theological college of the Evangelical Christian Chucrh in PapuaLand from 1995
till 2002. The Papuans since the annexation of their land by Indonesia in 1962
have been suffering discrimination, severe violations of their human rights, the
robbing of their ancestral lands. There is a great risk that they are doomed to
extinction in one generation. West Papua does not has only very few professional
theologians, because of the deprivation in the area of education. Moreover
Papuan society, like the San society in Southern Africa, is highly egalitarian. This
egalitarianism, or democratic attitude in traditional society, has determined their
role theologians choose for themselves, that is to analyse the way ordinary
Christians practice their faith and struggle for freedom. I will analyse the methods
of two Papua theologians, Dr Benny Giay and NelesTebay M. Th. Both lecture in
West Papua, Both originate from the Me area of the Highlands. Benny Giay
defended a doctoral thesis at the Free University of Amsterdam on the
WegeBage Movement, an independent church in his home area. NelesTebay
studied the contents of hymns in the Me language composed by lay people in his
Roman Catholic Church without interference of Europeans missionaries. I
consider both theologians as representatives of a “theology from below”.
2. The new context and its challenge for theology

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The past century the world has changed beyond recognition in the area of
science, education, politics, communication, transport, technology and customs.
This has an effect on the church and on the way systematic theology is defined
and practiced.The world has become, increasingly,a world without political,
religious, ethnic and cultural borders. One can have encounters with people of
different ethnic, cultural and religious groups. “Closed” societies are being broken
up. This not only refers to so called “tribal” societies, but also to traditional
agricultural or fishing village communities of Hollandand other countries. Human
beings, men and women, feel that they can makeand have to make their own
choiceswhat education and career to choose, what marriage partner to share
one’s life with, the sexual orientation one wants to follow, the number of children
one wants to take care for, the place where one lives and increasingly also the
country and part of the world where one wants to live.
How far modern society, or rather post-modern society, has been transformed
compared with the traditional agricultural society the world has know for millennia,
could be illustrated by the idea of the of cyber world. When one moves into this
world on the World Wide Web all certainties disappear: gender, age, skin colour,
prejudice, and nationality. Everything is a matter of choice, using “skins”.
However, real encounters emerge out of this virtual world, like people finding their
marriage partner there. One can also buy and sell real items, play games, watch
movies and so on. This new medium provides the opportunity of real encounters
across human made, artificial borders
Science has to be free to be able to advance. In Soviet Union technological and
scientific advances in those sectors where the state had an interest in: defence
and spacecraft. Here the state created an isolated environment of intellectual
freedom. But in the area of consumer technology the Soviet Unionfailed to make
much progress. In the arts (history, literature, philosophy, theology,)there was
equally little progress. Some very gifted authors like Solzhenitsin ended up in
prison. As the state (or party) tried to control the minds of its citizens it prevented
the possibilities of the development of information technology through the use of
personal computers. This in the end, in my mind, more than anything else led to
the downfall of, apart from the USA, the only other superpower.

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This may prove that also in the area of religion control of the minds and hearts of
the faithful can not be enforced by a system of central ecclesiastical authority, the
formulation of fixed dogmas, the control by the churches of education from
nursery to university, control of the choice of marriage partners of its adherents
(only form ones own religion or denomination), condemnation of other
denominations and religions, whose followers are condemned to eternal
punishments, though no fault of themselves, to eternal fire in the hell together
with the devils and demons. There is an emancipation of church adherents from
the church. The rules and regulations with regard to moral conduct are more and
more only accepted when the people personally agree with them and when they
are workable in practice. An example in case is the ruling of the Roman Catholic
Church on the use of any form of birth control except that of periodical exemption.
The use of condoms, advocated by governments and health organisations, to
prevent the spread of Aids, is forbidden. In practice, this ruling is universally
ignored as it is too unpractical. Also the need for some ruling on voluntary
euthanasia, the legal arrangement of same sex relationships and the right to
abortion has been implemented without or at times even against rulings by
churches. The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian Church even
opposed strongly all of these. Systematic of dogmatic theology used to have the
role of legitimizing positions of the church in the area of science, morals,
cosmology and so on. In view of these developments of a moving apart of the
church as an institution, including the rationalisation of its position on so many
issues as done in theology, from the practice and faith of its own adherents, there
seems a is a need for an emancipation of theology away from control by the
churches. This will also challenge the methods used in theology. It will not do to
base oneself on the authority of previous theologians. It will also no longer do to
assume as infallible one particular way of exegesis (one’s own) of the Bible as a
Holy Book, assumed to be directly inspired by God.
The Church is an integral part of society and is affected by changes in society.
The Church as an institution can not separate itself from society by assuming a
tension or even a conflict between the two. There is now the insight that there is
no visible “eternal” church, which is the Body of Christ in a concrete way. That the

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visible, institutional Church could be identified with the Church as the mystic Body
of Christ was the dominant view of the Roman Catholic Church till the Vatican
Council II. Outside the Church (i.e. the visible Roman Catholic Church as an
institution) there is no salvation. Without the visible and concrete sacraments of
the Church like baptism there was no salvation. The Church could in a concrete
way handle (sell, dispense) the excess of good deeds of saints. The spiritual is
made concrete; the supernatural has been made natural. The transubstantiation
is another example. The concrete bread and wine of the Eucharist becomes real
flesh and blood of Christ, though in a mysterious and scientifically not verifiable
way.
Theology has been a theology from above. It is part of the Constantinian
dispensation. In exchange for support by the state the Church had to submit to
the interests of the state, even to the extent of giving away the right to appoint its
senior clergy or seeing the Emperor presiding over Ecumenical Councils settling
theological disputes and determining what doctrines are heretic and what
doctrines are orthodox. As the Empire is a top down institution in the same way
the doctrine of God and Christology is developed top down. God is “the King of
Kings”. The Messiah, though on earth a peripatetic preacher without any worldly
possessions, became pictured as the Son of a King, descending from His
heavenly abode, a palace, with a throne. Like God He was seen as eternal and
all-powerful like the dynasties of the Roman Empire and Europe between the 9th
and the 19th
century.There is a clear analogy of a specific type of social structure
and the way the Bible is exegeted, and the doctrine of God and Christology is
developed. Pelikan1
finds not less than 18 titles for Jesus or rather ways to
describe his mission between the first and twentieth century. Jesus as “King of
Kings” is developed in the time of Emperor Constantine. Jesus as “Son of Man” is
developed at a time of the decline of the Roman Empire in the West by Saint
Augustine.The latter legitimated the first and the first the latter. Opposition against
one means punishment by the other! This even led to the Inquisition where torture
and capital punishment was applied to eliminate doctrinal errors.2
1
See for a very enlightening exposition of this phenomenon JaroslavPelikan 1985, Jesus through the
Centuries, New Haven/London (Dutch translation, 1987. Jezus door de eeuwen heen. Zijn plaats in de
cultuurgeschiedenis, Kampen).
2
The Inquisition properly so called did not come into existence until 1231, with the constitution
Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV, under the influence of the revival of

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3. Secularization.
There has been at least in the traditional Christian countries, like those in
Western and Southern Europe, an enormous loss of influence and power of the
established churches. This is with regard to church participation, membership, but
also control by the church over education, health services, voluntary
organisations, trade unions, women and youth organisations, the media, politics
through religious and denominational parties and so on. This regards mainly the
institutional aspect. There remains a general and large interest in spirituality, but
also is there an increased interest in issues which really belong to the essence of
the diaconal tasks of the church, like the preservation of the environment, the
struggle against violations of human rights, equality and legal protection of all
citizens, the provision of basic rights, like the right to work, to housing, to good
health care, a fair and easy access to essential drugs independent of social,
ethnic of economic status (eg. the HIV drugs in Africa), the right to life, access to
proper education, the fight against corruption and discrimination, liberation and
emancipation of the oppressed and so on. Many of these issues areclearly an
essential part of the Gospel message as found in the New Testament. We could
see here a deinstitutionalisation. The values and norms, the church has been
propagating, have moved out into the world, in a way like the biblical salt, yeast or
a light metaphor, to transform the world. Many of these religious and Christian
values in turn get institutionalized, like the Charter of the Human Rights of the
United Nations, confirmed in various binding protocols, national legislation with
regard to right to a social minimum income for unemployed, homeless or the
handicapped. The Government, at least in many Western and developed
democratic countries, has become, especially in the past five decades, a loving
and caring institution (though very bureaucratic) taking over traditional diaconal
tasks of the church like in health care, care for the old aged, care for orphans and
widower and widows. The state now persecutes those who discriminate women,
foreigners, ethnic minorities. It gets involved in peace missions to prevent war in
hot spots in the world like Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan, Palestine, Liberia and
so on. I consider secularization as a form of inculturation of gospel values, and in
Roman law, officially sanctioned the use of torture to extract the truth from suspects. Tomás de
Torquemada, the first and most notorious grand inquisitor, in the Spain of Philips II, alone had thousands of
reputed heretics executed. The Inquisition in Spain was only suppressed as late as 1834.(Microsoft®
Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002).

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as far as these values are realized and institionalised I want to see secularization
is as something positive.
4. New tasks for academic theology.
Academic theology could find itself new and challenging tasks in view of these
changes in politics and society, and the changing relationships between church
and stateto investigate where and how the Spirit makes people moving. I define
(Christian) theology as the study of (Christian) faith. What are the values inherent
in the Gospel message? How are these realized in the concrete world? How get
people inspired by these values? This is not restricted to Christianity and can be
and should be recognized and honoured in other religions.
We live increasingly in a world without borders, the result of globalisation, and of
the formation of large political units like the European Union. Because of the
exponential growth of air transport, new forms of communication through
television and through the internet and mobile phones the world is shrinking. The
idea of the global village has already been realized when young people find a
soul mate through chatting on the internet, where they also play games and find
the information needed for their studies. One can speak about the end of the
Constantinian era for the church, which lost a lot of influence, at least the
established churches, especially in Western and Northern Europe. Through the
onslaught of secularisation, the church as an institution lost its grip on the people,
who no longer needed the church for finding a partner, livelihood, work, status, or
influence. The other side of the medal of secularisation has been individual
emancipation, where issues like abortion, euthanasia, same sex partnerships
could be discussed openly without moralizing and could become a matter of
individual choice. This very much improved the well being of the individuals
concerned. In due time these opportunities for choice became individuals rights
enshrined in laws. Notwithstanding the decline of the role of the church as an
institution the way the (Western) Christian theologians, apparently remained
unchallenged, continued tooperate from a particular denominational base. The
type of theology practiced, remained dominant at a world level, at least in
academia. The major theologians, who set the tone are from Western Europe,
Northern America or South Africabelong to mainline churches. They are generally

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speaking male and white or of European (Caucasian) descent, like for instance
Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner, Schillebeeckx, Johannes Metz,
WolfhartPannenberg, JurgenMoltmann, Bishop John Robinson, Hans Küng and
AdrioKönig. The theologians from other areas, women, and non white, are given
a marginal role as theologians of a “genitive” and so a partial theology, like Black
Theology (J. Cone, S. Maimela), Liberation theology (Gustavo Gutierrez,
MiguezBonino, Leonardo Boff, Assman), Feminist theology (Mary Redford
Ruether, Sallie McFague) and African (S. Kibicho, LaurentiMagesa, Teresa
Okure) and Asian theologies (Aloysius Pieris, Michael Amaladoss). In theological
textbooks, in international conferences and in theological journals the former type
of theologian dominate. In the field, however, it is the other way around. The
dynamism, the growth of the church is in Africa, Latin America and in Asia and
with charismatic and Pentecostal churches and Independent Churches. We need
a theology that is faking these churches serious. Here different, often pluralist,
theologies are emerging.
At Independence in the 1960s many African countries introduced the discipline
Religious Studies at their newly built universities. With this they deviated from the
traditional pattern to establish theology departments. Also the syllabi of religious
education for primary and secondary schools were of an interfaith character,
though often taught by Christian priests or ministers. This was true even in
countries like Zambia where the great majority of the people are Christian. I see
here an intention to open oneself up for pluralism and accepting it as a fact. In the
past four decades the religious picture in Africa has become more pluralist. In a
country like Ghana one can find neo Hindu sects like AnandaMarga, the
Bhagwan, Sai Baba, Hare Krishna, next to Muslims, mainline churches like the
Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church or the Roman Catholic Church an all
kinds of African Initiated Churches. There is in Ghana also a new resurgence of
African Traditional Religion, which is modelling itself organisationally after African
Initiated Churches.
5. The challenge for Christian theology
(a) The Constantinian period
In the Constantinian era pluralism could be ignored. To maintain the harmony and

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consensus dissenters could be persecuted as heretics. They could be ostracized,
expelled, banned, and brought to court and so on. In the Constantinian era there
is “a theology from above”, an authoritative theology, establishing religious truth,
needed for salvation, often expressed in written down doctrinal statements, which
are authoritative. Social institutions controlled by the church, like schools,
hospitals and professional associations would enforce the doctrines upon the
participants. People had to avow, often with a signed declaration, adherence to
the basic doctrines like the Three Statements of Christian Unity (“De
DrieFormulieren van Enigheid”), or had to have active church membership in
order to get employment. The church would get support from the state. In turn the
church would provide theological legitimation to the state, in the form of
establishing a divine right of rulers, finding parallels between the benevolent rule
of God over humankind with the present incumbent of the royal office. The church
would also be actively present at royal marriages, coronation ceremonies, royal
jubilees, and national memorial days. The context in which theology was
practised had its effects on the contents. God is at the top of the pyramid, sending
his son to the earth as his representative. The believer is the passive receiver of
the gift of salvation. There are necessary intermediaries in the salvation process,
like priests or ministers holding the monopoly of the sacraments without which
one still could risk one’s damnation.
(b) The pluralist era
In the pluralist ear there is no dominant religion anymore in the metropolitan
areas where before the world political and economic power was firmly
established. Part of the new pluralism came, in fact, as a result of the “burden of
empire” when people form the colonies went to the universities of the
metropolitan power or large numbers of workers went from poor countries in the
so-called Third World to work in the industries of the First World. This process is
still going on. South Africa being economically more developed than its
neighbours has received its share of migrants from abroad, extending the existing
pluralist character of the nation culturally, ethnically, and religiously. In America 5
% of the population are Muslims.
The Netherlands, previously known as a bastion for Protestant orthodoxy
protecting the legacy of the Synod of Dordt, has now one million Muslim. On a

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population of 16 million only about 40 % are Christians, of which again a minority
is religiously active. It has become to a large measure a post-Christian nation.
Nevertheless many values which are intrinsic to Christianity have remained and
found a new organisational form. In correlation with the decline of religious
participation is the rise of all kinds of new organisations getting massive support
of the people, like Green Peace, Oxfam Netherlands (Novib), WWF,
Natuurmonumenten, VerrenigingMilieudefensie, the Red Cross, Foster Parents
Plan, Foundation For Refugee Aid (StichtingVluchtelingenwerk), and Amnesty
International. These organisations are in fact doing the diaconal work of the
churches. Christian values are also entrenched in the social policy of the
government, protecting widows, widowers and orphans, the unemployed, the
homeless, the political refugees, the sick and handicapped. One could see it as a
kind of institutionalisation (“incarnation”) of the Gospel.
In many African and Asian countries one can not find the same level of welfare of
the citizens. Here churches and other religions still have the role in providing
education, health service, and shelter for the homeless, to help women, workers,
victims of human rights violations and so on. Churches very often also play a role
in strengthening one’s identity, in empowering the powerless by providing an
institutional from where people can feel at home and exercise a position of
influence and authority not possible in secular society. This has been the role of
African Initiated Churches, like the ZuluZionChurch in South Africa and in
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Zaire and Nigeria.
For a South African example of the pluralist challenge for Christian theology we
could mention the Roman Catholic Zulu priest who is asked to conduct a funeral
service. After he has finished with it he knows that the people who remain will
now start the traditional Zulu rites for the spirit of the deceased, which is forbidden
by the Roman Catholic Church. As a Roman Catholic priest he has to condemn
these rituals. However, as a Zulu he sees these as indispensable to please the
spirits of the ancestors and as essential for the well being of the living clan and
tribesmen and women. Another African example is about a person who suffers
from a particular ailment like barrenness or impotence but does not find a cure
with the medical doctor. He or she goes to a healing church specializing in this

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type of ailment and find his complaint redressed. We find in one and the same
person the influence of a mainline church, an African Initiated healing church,
traditional religion with its veneration of the ancestral spirits and possibly
influence of a modern secularised scientific world view.
How to meet the challenge of a new theology which can cover these
experiences? In the first place we have to take the spiritual experiences of the
common people in the context where they are living serious. In the second place
we will have to assume the existence of something like divine revelation. This
revelation manifests itself in the human person as faith. We can go along with the
approach of Prof. Van Niekerk, who sees theology as a theory of faith. (Van
Niekerk, 1988: 127 ff) In this approach the links between church and church
structure on one hand and theology on the other hand have been severed.
Theology has emancipated itself and has become a tool for the ordinary believer
to understand his faith. This is a “theology from below” as its starts by analysing
the statements, hymns, prayers of common man/woman produced in that
particular political, cultural and social context in which he or she lives and
celebrates his or her faith. together with the (religious, ethnic, cultural) community
of which he or she is part. This approach empowers the believers, teaches the
people to do the theologising themselves. It is not a normative theology, but its
results are validated by criteria derived from the Christian Gospel like justice,
peace, life, hope and love.
If we look at the history of theology we see that the “object” of theology alternated
among three uniting concepts of God, Humanity and the World, which
respectively, roughly, represents the orthodox approach, the liberal approach and
the “scientistic” approach, represented by the theologians Karl Barth, Friedrich
Schleiermacher and Wolfgang Pannenberg. (Van Niekerk: 101). We follow Van
Niekerk (Study guide) about the role of theology in the modern age. Van Niekerk
(5) argues that we should reject secularization, or rather in his terminology, “the
secularization hypothesis” as secularization is by no means universal.
Secularization means that the sacred and the profane are separated, also in
institutions. It means that God’s primary area of revelation is the church and its
community. This ignores experiences of God outside the church. This view has

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far going consequences for the identity of theology, for the identity of the church,
for the way the church relates to other religions. Van Niekerk’s theology is
unorthodox in that he rejects the Bible as the sole source of knowledge about
God. He also rejects the notion that God is revealed only in Israel and Jesus
Christ. He uses the authority of the Bible to prove his point. (Amos, Rom. 1) (13).
This is a paradigm shift, which is timely, as we live, increasingly, in a world
without borders, where we have to orient ourselves to a larger world, and where
we should be ready for an encounter with other religions and ideologies on a
basis of dialogue and mutual respect..
In my opinion one has to have an “Anknüpfungspunkt” , a point of contact,
between divine revelation of any nature and the objective, empirical world in
which we live and which we experience. My assumption is that there is something
like “revelation” that has an impact on human individuals, giving them inspiration
and perspective. In orthodox theology God is, in fact, placed outside our world.
“God is not part of human reality.” This theology wants, however, still say
something about God, apart from and beyond his revelation This is also what
Barth is doing. For Barth there is no “Anknupfungspunkt”, but miraculously, God’s
Word, as a stone thrown from Heaven, comes about when the preacher start
climbing the pulpit. For Schleiermacher this Anknüpfungspunkt is a sense of
unconditional dependance (schlechtsinnigesAbhängigkeitsgefühl). This is not so
much a feeling, but something that comes about from a real encounter with the
Holy, about which his student Rudolph Otto wrote a famous monograph. For
Pannenberg the Anknüpfungspunkt is the experience of the accomplished totality
of meaning. This is a chiliasm.The task of theology is to deal in hypotheses to
measure to what extent that which features as implicitly, proleptic meaning in an
experience is formulated explicitly in the proposition of religious tradition.(:125-
126) . This is, apparently, a kind of proleptic vision of the totality we will
experience when we are “all in all” at the end of times.
For Van Niekerk dualism should be avoided, in particular the dualism implicit in
secularization. Van Niekerk rejects the three main methods or approaches in
theology, because in one way or the other they bring in the secularisation
hypothesis. In secularization, or rather in secularism, there is a dualism between

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God and the world. This leads to an isolation of the church, to a a ghetto position.
For Van Niekerk human faith is the Anknüpfungspunkt. In faith God meets the
human. Faith is oriented toward the world and tries to be relevant in the world.
This theology may target on the church as the community of the faithful, but in no
way theology should be subservient to the church. It should not be an
ecclesiastical science. Only with this view theology in the modern age takes its
rightful place among the scientific disciplines at a university, relevant for and in
dialogue with other disciplines and with other religions.
6. Three models: God, humanity or the world as the “object” of theology?
(a) Orthodox theology
In orthodox theology God is the “object” and focus of theology. God is studied as
He is revealed in documents, like the Bible, pronouncements of church councils,
the confessional writings of the Reformation, the decisions of synods etc. It is Karl
Barth (1886-1968) who tried to make orthodox theology relevant for the 20th
century. Barth tries to refute the liberal theology of the 19th century, in particular
the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher. God is to be God again. God should not
be brought into the world of science, where He could be grasped by scientists
and intellectuals. God, according to Barth, is not part of human reality. God can
be known by God alone. Because God knows us, we are able to know God. We,
however, do not know God as God knows us, and we do not know God in the
way we know one another. Though God is an “object”, He is it in a way different
from any other “object”, just as Israel is separated from the other peoples as a
holy people, and as the church is separated from the world. All other objects
(peoples, cultures?, religions?, ideologies?) are also divinely determined (but not
holy). God is self-posited in free grace as an object of divine revelation to human
beings. Divine revelation is a form of sacramental reality: God elevates and
selects a definite subject-object relationship as the instrument of the Covenant
between Creator and creature. God meets the human subject halfway in His
Word and through the Holy Spirit. (104). There is an interactive relationship
between God and humanity. Human thought, following divine revelation, is
different from our self-determined existence (105). The surrender in faith
presupposes and includes within itself the union and distinction which the human
fulfills between him/herself and God, who makes it possible and necessary (106).

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Barth’s whole systematic theology (church dogmatics in his words) is exclusively
christocentric. In the human nature of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the eternal
Word, is the sacramental reality of revelation. Through proclamation of the
Gospel message this unique event, the incarnation of the Word, and so creaturely
unity with God, is repeated (108).
Van Niekerk sees a dualism in Barth’s theology as, one the one hand, there is
“the divinely determined” totality, and on the other hand the human “pre-arranged
mode of existence.” (112). Van Niekerk rejects Barth’s position that “the
eschatological suspense in which we live ... derives from the “immanent” logic of
a dialectic between God’s power of disposal over us in faith and ours over other
objects.” Van Niekerk sees at as very important to maintain that the perfect
salvation of the world is still to come. If not, faith becomes “the one proleptic
cipher of salvation.” and “a ghetto in human life with minimal socio-political
relevance”.(115). I would suggest, against this view, that faith has both an
“already” and a “not yet” character. If only the “not yet” is stressed as Van Niekerk
(and Pannenberg) are doing, the unique salvific work of Christ on the cross and
with the Resurrection is downplayed. If only the “already”is stressed there is a
risk of a Christian faith that no longer is salt and a lamp in the world. This basic
duality in our human existence can not be ignored. There is a duality of life and
death (though we have, in faith, already eternal life), light and darkness (though
we have moved out of spiritual darkness into the light), the spirit (that is willing)
and the body (that is weak), sin and salvation.. Another criticism of Van Niekerk
against Barth is that if God is the object of theology it implies that God can not be
the object of other sciences, because the vertical subject-object relationship is
structured like other (horizontal) subject-object relationships. If God who is above
and in everything is defined in terms of a structure normally applied to the
everything, it means that God has to be removed from that everything. In my
opinion this is not necessarily so. The statement that God is above and in
everything is a statement of faith. This statement would not withhold any scientist
to study God, though on his/her own conditions, as a scientist of religion, a
psychologist, or a philosopher. What all scientific disciplines have in common is
some basic agreement about the discourse, about scientific communication and
the scientific method.. Methods of astronomy and philosophy or psychology differ

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widely, so theology could have its own methods. Theology, however, can not
claim a position of supremacy because its object is so all-encompassing.
(b) Liberal theology
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) tried to bring theology “down to earth” and
relevant for the atheistic or agnostic intellectual of the 19th century, who began
adhering to a scientific view of life. Schleiermacher maintains that one can only
speak about God in human terms (116). Theology must get together with other
sciences and find some mutually accepted concept of science. All the
propositions of Christian dogmatics must be interpreted either as descriptions of
the conditions of human life or as conceptions of divine attributes or as
statements on the nature of the world. Schleiermacher’s central concept is “piety”,
an empirical fact, which is determined by “a feeling of immediate self-
consciousness.” (117) Our relationship to God is a sense of unconditional
dependence (schlechtsinnigeAbhängigkeitsgefühl). But God can not be identified
with this feeling (118) as God can not be made into an object. One discovers
within oneself the all-embracing Whole that supports the objective world; God is
the source of the human sense of dependence (119). Piety, linked to the sensory
self-consciousness, effects the encounter between self and the world, and the all-
embracing, all-supporting ground of existence, is discovered. Humanity is the
“object” of theology because all statements about God and the world are
developed as a translation or modification of pronouncements about the self
(120). Van Niekerk (122-3) is of the opinion that “stealthily” the secularization
hypothesis re-emerges, because “piety” in the thinking of Schleiermacher is a
religious province in human consciousness, which is a substantialism in respect
of the human being. .
(c) “Scientistic” theology
The third method takes the world or history as the mediating function between
God or divine reality and human awareness (124). How can the totality of finite
reality inherent in the concept of God provide a feasible criterion for the
verification of statements about God? According to Pannenberg the total reality
has a “not yet” character as it has not yet been consummated to its proper totality
(125). This totality can only be experienced in the form of anticipations, which is

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the theme of religion. Therefore religion is the immediate object of theology.
“Theology deals in hypotheses to measure to what extent that which features as
implicitly proleptic meaning in other experience is formulated explicitly in the
propositions of religious tradition” (126).Here s, according to Van Niekerk, there is
a risk that Pannenberg is seeking the substance or essence of things, the old
problem of classical metaphysics, taking the totality of reality as the primary field
of his theology. Theology then becomes a philosophy that sees the totality of
reality in respectu Dei.(126).
7. Theology as atheory of faith
To overcome the limitations in the three previous methods Van Niekerk suggest
to take faith as the “object” of theology. This is in line with how theology, generally
speaking, is defined. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines theology as “a
rational analysis of a religious faith.” William Madges also defines theology as
“the process of reflecting critically upon the way people ... should live out their
faith.” (Hill, 1997: 286) or as “the rational reflection upon and the systematic
expression of the meaning and significance of any religious faith.” (Hill, 1997:
289) or even more detailed as “the process and product of conversation between
the Christian tradition and our contemporary situation, aiming at the deepening of
our understanding of Christian faith and our commitment to transform the world.”
(Madges in Hil, 1997: 4)..
Faith is something essentially human, a basic function of human nature. Faith is
intrinsically human. Unlike faith, grace is a divine affair, to be used by theologians
- and all other people - for actual salvation and reconciliation. Theology is the
perspective of faith, but the theoretical perspective of faith. There is the everyday
experience of faith (the praxis) and the theoretical reflection on faith (theory)
(128). Hill defines faith as “a human response to the experience of Transcendent
Mystery (Hill, 1997: 1).Here it remains open what this “Transcendent Mystery” is.
It seems similar with the “numenous” of Otto. Is it any transcendental mystery? Is
this purposeful? Is it benevolent? Does it have a focus, a use? How is experience
the mediating factor? One should, in my opinion, add “a positive human
response” to the mystery. How does this relate to the Calvinist view of revelation
in the Word of God as found in the Bible? How does the concept of salvation

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come in? If theology is then defined as “the critical reflection upon the response of
faith and the expression of religion ” there are new problems. Faith is itself
defined as “a response”, while religion is the context of the response.
Van Niekerk defines theology as the theory of faith with reference to the uniting
concepts of God, humanity and the world, or those of origin, totality and the
coherence of meaning in relation to faith. Theology deals with the church as the
communion of the faithful. However, theology is a free discipline in the context of
a university with other disciplines, with mutual cross-fertilization; theology is not
an ecclesiastic science. (129). This view overcomes the limitations of the
traditional methods of theology, evaluated above. It also allows for a monist view
of reality, overcoming the secularization hypothesis. The view has similarities with
the liberal approach of Schleiermacher and Otto, in that the focus is on where
revelation has its impact, in the human person, who has faith. In his monism, Van
Niekerk, shows similarities with the process theologians, where also the unity of
God and the world is stressed. In process theology God is involved with nature
and with the world. By (over)stressing the need for a monism, and the rejection of
secularisation, there is a risk that some of the paradoxical or even contradictory
character of the human condition and of reality, as we experience it, is ignored.
8. Papua theology
As a case study of this “theology from below” I will analyze Papua theology.The
Papuans of West Papua belong culturally and ethnically to Melanesia. In 1962 the
Dutch handed West Papua over to Indonesia, which is part of an Austronesian
culture. Since that time Papuans feel that they are treated as second rank citizens
in their own country. Any protest is violently repressed. For most of the period the
territory was under military emergency rule (“Area of Military Operation”). Most of
the Papuans are Protestant Christians. The churches are nominally following the
Calvinist theology. This is also taught at the theological college. There is not yet a
Papua theology established like Black theology or African theology in Africa and
America, because of the relative backwardness of the educational system and the
open discouragement of anything which gives support to a Papuan identity,
separate form, the Indonesian identity in the unitary state. At the congregational
level the situation is quite different. People at the grass roots used the Gospel to

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express a liberation theology. Jesus was the Liberator, the one who would
remove injustice and oppression. People were speaking about the period of
Indonesian rule as a period of the Babylonian captivity. Or they saw the period
after 1963 as a period of living like the people of Israel in the desert. Forty years
after the departure into the desert they would arrive in the promised land, that is
get back their own country.
Jesus is called “The King of Papua” (Raja Papua). The Papuans have a special
role in the God’s salvation plan for the world. The Papuans are faced with a
majority of non-Christians. Nevertheless they remain faithful to Jesus. Maybe
soon, maybe next month already, as a result of prayer, all the Muslims will leave
the country and they will leave behind their cars, their houses and their other
belongings. Jesus will not forget his people, his Papuans. The Morningstar flag,
(Sang BintangKejora) often raised at great personal risk in 1999 and 2000 is itself
a strong messianic and eschatological symbol. It is symbol of
ManserenMangumbi, while in the book of Revelations Jesus is called the Bright
and Morningstar Rev.. 22, 16b). It is now still dark, but the day and light will surely
come, as certain as we can see the Morningstar. Praying and the singing of
hymns is a major method of political action. “Onwards Christian Soldiers” is
popular in this context.. In December 1998 the Papua traditional leader
TheysEluay in Sentani called upon his followers to pray without stopping till the
Papuans would heave realized their freedom. People were again asked to pray
and to fast for three days on 3, 4 en 5 September and to decorate the house with
a cross. One should pray that “the mighty hand of the Lord would accomplish the
complete work of the demand of the struggling people of Papuans to achieve the
recognition of the right to sovereignty in elation to Independence.” (Open Letter,
dated. 28-8-1999) The letter ends with an identification of the suffering of the
Papua people with the suffering an death of Christ on the cross. The final call was
one for forgiveness as they “have no knowledge of what they are doing” (Luc. 23,
34).
Is this people’s theology legitimate? I would argue that it is. The basis of the
Christian faith as expressed for instance in the Apostolic Confession of faith is
that Jesus Christ was a historic person. He came in the flesh. He really lived and

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suffered and was crucified in Jerusalem under the Roman consul Pontius Pilates.
God has a plan with individual persons who may be called like Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David, but also with whole peoples. God made the people of Israel, some
bands (or tribes) of nomadic pastoralists his chosen people, promising them a
land of their own, the Promised Land. This promise still stands. It is a miracle that
Israel managed to get the country after being away from it for almost nineteen
centuries.
9. Conclusion
In this world of globalisation where through exponential development of the
transport facilities and the means of communication (television, hand phones,
internet with chat forum and mailing list facilities) there is an unprecedented
increase in the exchange of ideas and people. This demands a Copernican
revolution of theology. It has to leave its Western bias. Theology has to take as its
base the location where divine revelation meets the human heart that is faith.
Theology is to be defined as a theory of faith. The sources for this theology are
the hymns, prayers, and statements of the common believer validated by that
what can be seen as the essence of the Gospel: love hope, life, reconciliation,
peace, and forgiveness.
There is need for a new paradigm in theology. It is important that theology claims
its right as an academic discipline among other disciplines. It is also important
that theology is freed from control of the church. With faith as the “object” of
theology, Christian theology opens itself for dialogue with other religions and
other theologies. As a concrete example of a theology on the basis of the
assumptions implicit in this approach is a study as done by Karen Armstrong, A
History of God. From Abraham to the Present. 4,000 Year Quest for God, which
is a huge best seller, reaching a public which normally is not open for theological
reflection.A topic for research, emerging from this approach, could be a study of
the relationship between praxis and theory, i. e. between the praxis of theologians
and their theologies. How can the theory of faith make faith relevant for the
problems this world at this age faces?
I do not agree with Van Niekerk where he rejects the secularisation hypothesis.
There is no harm in accepting a moderate dualism, which is implied in the

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concept of secularism. The secular attitude has brought benefits which are
consonant with the Gospel message, like emancipation in science and society,
civil liberties, including human rights, women emancipation, emancipation of the
Black people, democracy, in short he modern world as we know it. Faith is to be
salt and a lamp in the world. Faith is the contents and the church is the
wrappings. To become effective the faith in the Gospel has to be relieved of the
institutional form. This is valid as much for the institutionalized church as for the
theology that is imprisoned by the institutionalized church. Academci theologians
have to unlearn their theoretical assumptions and to search for people’s
theologies, the true place where faith is seen in action, where divine revelation
meets the human heart and the people’s heart.
Bibliography
Hick, John 2001. Dialogues in the Philosophy of Religion, Houndmills: Palgrave
Hill, Brennan R., Paul Knitter and William Madges, 1990. Faith, Religion and
Theology. A Contemporary Introduction, Mystic (Conn.): Twenty-Third
Publications
Van Niekerk, E., 1988 (2nd
ed.). Systematic Theology (Honours BTh). Only Study
Guide for STH411-T (Theological Methodology), Pretoria: Unisa
Verklaring over de Houding van de Kerk ten Opzichte van de Niet-Christelijke
Godsdiensten. Consitituties en Decreten van het Tweede Vaticaans
Oecumenisch Concilie (VI), Amersfoort: De Horstink (Katholiek Archief)
(Declaration Nostra Aetate)