The belief in a transcendent, powerful God appears “natural” for most people – that is, they need not be conditioned to believe, though they can be educated not to belief.
John Mbiti – Christian Philosopher (African Intercultural Studies)
In Latin America, recent reflections on Scripture has led theologians to react against a view of God “from above,” one that reminds them of the oppressive power of the colonial regime and ignores the plight of the poor and marginalized. Rather, in Christ people have found a God who walks along with them and shared their sufferings on the cross and yet at the same time is the one who creates and sustains the world
Since the time of the European conquest, evangelizing the “New World” has been an ongoing and unfinished project of Western Christianity that is often subsumed into the practice of a civilizing mission.
We should no longer study the Christian church today by merely looking back into the annals of the historical archives of Western Christianity. The church is alive and being shaped by non-Western Christians and the newer generations of hybrid believers who live in diaspora in the West.
When Western Christians think of the church, they have in mind the ancient Orthodox or Catholic Churches, with its Roman seat of authority, or perhaps the local expression of thier own Presbyterian or Methodist or Assemblies of God church down the street. But even a brief experience outside Europe and the United States/Canada show how limited this view has become.
Dr. Oscar Garcia-Johnson – Theologian & Fuller Professor