Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 11:2 (Fall 2020)
Article: Introduction
Author: Walter R. Strickland II

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Introduction

Walter R. Strickland II

Guest Editor

Christ is Lord over all, and his reign is manifest among the redeemed. Testimonies to Christ’s universal saving work are borne around the world as Jesus salvifically encounters image bearers in the particulars of their life. Jesus is the only way to salvation (John 14:6), and sinners are drawn to him in various ways—largely based upon their unique emotional and spiritual needs. The result is that believers are captivated by the saving Lord for reasons pertinent to their story and are subsequently discipled into the fullness of Christ.

The consensus among American missiologists affirms the need for methodological, and often theological, contextualization when the gospel is carried to distant lands. However, the same contextual sensibility is often not applied to gospel proclamation in North America. The essays and interviews in this issue of the Southeastern Theological Review demonstrate how specific aspects of Christ’s person and work are significant for various North American cultural traditions. Readers will grasp the benefit of exploring the riches of Christ cross-culturally and learn to communicate Christ more effectively to those from different cultural backgrounds.

Although definitions of theology abound, they often truncate the theological task to producing timeless statements about God. Theologizing certainly includes engagement with the divine, but the theological process is commonly detached from its human production on the one hand, and its implications for daily living on the other. I offer yet another addition to the chorus of theological definitions to demonstrate how the forthcoming Christological inquiry situates into the scope of constructive theological engagement.

Christian theology is the dramatic convergence of humanity’s meditation on God’s authoritative self-revelation with daily life for the purpose of living wisely via fostering cruciform transformation, demonstration, and proclamation.1 This process traverses the common Western chasms between orthodoxy (right

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thought), orthopraxy (right action), and orthopathy (right affection) because theology is a holistic endeavor that requires more than an intellectual ascent to knowledge.

The proposed definition problematizes theology reduced to systematized doctrinal formulation under loci that are abstracted from daily living. Theology that is reduced to a purely intellectual exercise causes the illusion of understanding without its substance, adhering to “the weightier matters of the la...