MichaelJFast - PS302 - Kritik of Chosen Dissertation

8/13/2019 MichaelJFast - PS302 - Kritik of Chosen Dissertation

1/8

PS 302 Theories in Philippine Studies – Dr. Vicente C. Villan

Critique of a Chosen Dissertation

Michael J. Fast 2013-78255 Chosen Dissertation:

Dave Johnson, Theology in Context: A Case Study in the Philippines (Baguio: Asia

Pacific Theological Seminary Press, 2013). This book is a published version of the author’s PhDDissertation at the Asia Graduate School of Theology.Johnson states that within Filipino society there is a “deeply engrained indigenous

consciousness which bears little resemblance to biblical Christianity.”1 He goes on to say that

Roman Catholicism has impacted practices but has not challenged the “animistic worldview.”2

Johnson’s goal “is to study the worldview and religious beliefs of the Waray people as well asthe growth of the Assemblies of God in this region to indentify the elements that would be of

value in presenting the gospel in a contextually effective manner. Johnson’s approach to the problem is Contextual Theology, which he defines as “a theology that presents the gospel of

Jesus Christ within the worldview of the people while being faithful to the Scriptures.”Johnson does not claim to be making an “exhaustive effort at contextualization.”

3 He

only looks at two aspects of Christian ministry, namely “proclamation of the gospel message”and the “initial follow-up process.”

Johnson approaches his study from a Protestant Christian worldview. Moreover, hisChristianity can more clearly defined as being “western” in its origin and orientation. Further, he

comes from a branch of Protestant Christianity known as Pentecostalism, which has certain fociand emphases that make it somewhat distinct from other branches. In particular, and this does

plan an important role in the study, Pentecostals believe in a second work of grace after salvationwhere the Holy Spirit baptizes or fills a Christian.

Critique of Purpose:

“My purpose in this book is to first understand, respect, explain and engage this

worldview while comparing it to biblical revelation. I intend to show how Christians can impactthis worldview through an explanation and demonstration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the

Filipino within their cultural context.”4 Johnson's study focuses on the Waray of Samar and Leyte. He decries the lack of

contextual theology for the Waray and says that only the Roman Catholics have done any workin that area. He also claims that Roman Catholic contextual theologies “were written from a

point of view that calls for cultural accommodation rather than transformation through the powerof the Word of God.”

5 What does this mean? What does cultural accommodation mean? What is

his evidence of this? How does his view differ from that of the Roman Catholics'? I.e. In whatway is his method transformative rather than accommodating? What are the markers/signposts?

Johnson does revisit this in his conclusion where he elaborates on the Roman Catholic position. According to Johnson, the works of the major Roman Catholic contextual theologians

“are built on the belief that cultural values should be accommodated even if they are not in line

1. Dave Johnson, Theology in Context: A Case Study in the Philippines (Baguio: Asia

Pacific Theological Seminary Press, 2013), 1.2. Johnson, 1.

3. Johnson, 6.4. Johnson, 1.

5. Johnson, 2.


2/8

2

with the Scriptures.”6 As an example, he cites the idea that within their writings, “idolatry is

permissible because it accords well with Filipino culture.”7 Johnson rejects this on “biblical

grounds.”8 Johnson's approach to the problem is to develop a contextual theology. He defines

contextual theology as ”... a theology that presents the gospel of Jesus Christ within the

worldview of the people while being faithful to the Scriptures. In other words it is communicatedin a way in which people will understand and will not seem foreign to them.”9

1. “validates what is biblical in the Waray culture”

2. “allows what is not unbiblical”3. “seeks to transform ... that which falls short of biblical revelation”

One of Johnson’s early key statements is: “The development of a contextual theology isimportant as it provides for the opportunity to express the unchanging Good News of Jesus

Christ within the worldview of the people, making it easier for the Waray to understand God'srevelation and to make an informed decision as to whether or not they will become followers of

Jesus Christ.”10

It is hard to reconcile the concepts in use in this sentence. Johnson begins the book with

the idea that theology itself is always in context.

11

The whole idea he is trying to get across isthat cultural context, which is different in every part of the world, means that our expressions of

who God is are always different, depending upon our culture.The difficulty lies when Johnson then goes on to talk about the “unchanging Good News

of Jesus Christ.” Wait a minute. Is it contextual or is it unchanging? At what point does one drawthe line between what is unchanging and what is context? Maggay states, “our sociohistorical

situations determine the selection of central motifs in the formulation of theologies.”12 Thus,even the “unchanging Good News” is culturally selected.

He then continues by talking about presenting a revelation that is nowunderstandable. Does one understand revelation or receive revelation? Maggay says, ”It seems

that at the heart of the failure to situate the Gospel adequately within the context of people is thefailure to perceive that we have a faith delivered , not interpreted , once for all.”

13

Johnson uses terminology that is typical of an evangelical Christian theoreticalframework. At one point he speaks of his desire to develop a contextual theology so the Waray

may “make and informed decision” on whether to ”become followers of Jesus Christ.”14

Thesewords identify for us what the “unchanging Good News” is. Notice the emphasis on personal



10. Johnson, 3.11. Johnson, i, where he quotes Dean Flemming, Contextualization of the New

Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission (Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005). Hethen has an entire paragraph explaining the different meanings of this phrase.

12. Melba Padilla Maggay, "Theology, Context and the Filipino Church" in Maggay,ed. Communicating Cross-Culturally: Towards a new Context for Missions in the

Philippines (Quezon City: New Day, 1989), 58.13. Johnson, 57.

14. Johnson, 3.


3/8

3

decision in this process. This represents a typically American Protestant approach to theChristian life but it is by no means the only option for expressing salvation in common usage.

15

Johnson also says, “I also needed to learn the cultural issues that impact and are impacted by Waray religious beliefs. ... the cultural issues that impact Waray religious beliefs.” This seems

like an odd statement since it is hard to separate religious beliefs from cultural issues. I wonder if

Johnson has made a clear enough distinction between the two in his study.Critique of Sources of InformationAn examination of Johnson's bibliography is revealing. It appears that the two major

sources cited for definition of key religious terms are the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia and the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. These decidedly Christian

sources make Johnson's study somewhat one-sided.Six Bible commentaries, covering only a few parts of the Bible, are also cited. This is

surprisingly few given the devotion the study has on comparing Waray beliefs with the Bible.A third surprise was that apparently only two Greek words were studied. One would

expect more, especially given the strong “biblical” emphasis given in this study.Critique of Research Methods

Johnson lays out his research methods in this section. He describes using “books,dissertations and other written materials on the Waray.”16

From these he was able to develop two

questionnaires and one interview, as follows:Questionnaire #1 for the General Waray population.

Questionnaire #2 for Assemblies of God, namely Waray members and adherents.An open-ended interview with the pioneering pastors of Assemblies of God working

among the Waray. No indication is made as to whether or not these questionnaires are in English or in the

vernacular.Critique of Methods

Johnson's goal is a contextual theology, which explicitly identifies those who create thetheology – i.e. those within the context. In spite of the fact that Johnson's goal is to develop a

partial contextual theology, his research method seems to be entirely externally driven. Thequestions are formulated by not just an outsider, but also a foreigner to boot. Perhaps Johnson is

trying to create a contextualization from without rather than the contextualization from withinthat the term “contextual theology” implies.

17 Contextualization from without is where the forces

that drive the contextualization as well as the formulation and presentation of that message, areexternal to the culture being discussed. Contextualization from within is much different in that

the forces shaping the contextualization are all internal to the culture. He also says, “To constructsuch a theology, the religious presuppositions of the target audience must be understood.”18 This

is truly contextualization from without. In all fairness to Johnson, it would be difficult for him to

15 See for example works by Donald MacGavran, who studied the conversion of castes in

India and developed a community-oriented and shaped conversion experience.16. Johnson, 5.

17. See Virgilio G. Enriquez, Indigenous Psychology and National Consciousness, Studyof Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Monograph Series No. 23, (Tokyo: Institute for

the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1989), 69-76, for a discussion ofcontextualization from within and without.

18. Johnson, 69.


4/8

4

do contextualization from within simply because his is an outsider. It would be better to havedeveloped a research tool that was open to adaptation by the respondents; one that utilized some

indigenous research methods more suited to finding out what was in the consciousness of theWaray.

19

A major part of Johnson's study includes the idea that contextual theology must address

issues related to supernatural beings. The supernatural beings indicated here include the middlerange of supernatural beings existing between the upper level (God and Jesus) and the humanworld. Since most Western theologies have not traditionally addressed this topic, it is one of the

key ways in which the Waray consciousness can be honored. This is also of special importanceto Johnson, as a member of the Christian denomination Assemblies of God. As mentioned above,

one of the key features of their theology surrounds the concept of being baptized and/or filledwith the Holy Spirit. Thus, perhaps, Assemblies of God theology is has a sense of closeness with

Waray ideas of the spirit. Johnson does not appear to offer any answers to the differences between Christian conceptions of the Holy Spirit and Waray conceptions of the spirit other than

to suggest a number of questions that need answering.Another aspect of the study was that the data was “compared to what the Bible teaches

about each related theological issue.”

20

This concept of “biblical,” which for Johnson denotes anultimate kind of authority, needs further examination and definition in that it raises several

issues.Biblical is defined as “of, relating to, or contained in the Bible” by the New Oxford

American Dictionary. However, this definition is somewhat unclear. Biblical could merelydefine something as being found in the Bible. The problem with this definition is that most

words are found in the Bible and hence could be labeled with the “biblical” tag. However, this inno way imparts anything special to them -- they are merely communication tools used by the

writer.To complicate matters, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

Thus for one to claim that any English word is “biblical” is also a bit of a misnomer. Any truestudy of biblical words must return to original languages. As noted above, Johnson only refers to

two Greek words in his study.Biblical could also be defined as something that is taught in the Bible. This is easier to

accept than the above definition in that instead of talking about ideas, one is now talking aboutconcepts. The difficulty lies, however, with the fact that there are several teachings in the Bible

that are identified in the Bible as being false.21

So what does Johnson mean when he uses the term “biblical?” Based upon the analysis

he gives of his data, Johnson is firmly within the Assemblies of God camp when it comes tointerpreting the Bible. The Bible stories are seen as truth and they are applicable to people's lives

19 See Rogelia Pe-Pua, ed., Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Teorya, Metodo at Gamit (Quezon

City: University of the Philippines Press, 2011) for some examples of indigenous research

methods.20. Johnson, 6.

21. An example being that the advice of Job's friends, which claims to be an accurateunderstanding of God and, at least on the surface, appears to be valid, is specifically identified at

the end of the story as being false. It is interesting to note that some Western theologies stillinclude the statements of Job's friends as truth about who God is in spite of the textual evidence

to the contrary.


5/8

5

even in the present day. His examples cover both Old and New Testaments, with little discussion being made of how transferrable his interpretations are to different periods and different cultural

settings. I must admit that I don't disagree with his ideological belief in the truth of the Bible norin his interpretive tool. I do wonder how much I myself am limited by my own cultural methods

and philosophies when it comes to theology.

Critique of ConclusionsJohnson applies Kraft's Worldview Model of Contextualization to the Waray situation.Since “worldview is a culture's driving force.... change must take place at the worldview level

which means that understanding how this transformation takes place is critical to seeing ithappen.”22 Johnson also cites Jocano, who observes, “individuals seldom evaluate things in way

alien to their cultural background.”23

Johnson seeks to evaluate the Waray worldview to findclues as to how to effect transformation.

He explains Kraft's Model as follows:“1. explanation as to how and why things are the way they are

2. evaluation and judgment of cultural values and goals3. psychological reinforcement for that culture

4. integration of their perceptions of life into an organized design5. the idea that no one's worldview is complete, answering all of the questions of life all

of the time.”24

Kraft asserts, “members of different cultures arrive at different conclusions regarding

reality because they have started from different assumptions.”25

In the conclusion, Johnson returns to this model and fills in the blanks, so to speak, with

the data he has gathered through the questionnaire and interview process.1. Explanation:

Johnson's research shows similarities and differences between both the general population of Waray (GP) and the Assemblies of God Waray (AG). Both see a close relationship

between the supernatural and the physical. For the AG however, God is at the center of theequation.

2. Evaluation:According to Kraft, one evaluates values and goals based upon one's view of God. If you

want to change the culture, you must change their view of God. Of course Johnson's data showsevidence among the AG that they have changed their view of God and as such have a different

evaluative system for things such as demon possession and protection from demons and evilspirits.

3. Psychological Reinforcement:According to Kraft, a person's “conceptual system” engages during times of liminality

and provides the strength to get through to the other side. Johnson saw evidence of this in both

22. Johnson, 85.23. Johnson, 85, referring to F. Landa Jocano, Folk Christianity: A Preliminary Study of

Conversion and Pattering of Christian Experience in the Philippines (Quezon City: TrinityCollege, 1981), 67.

24. Johnson, 85-86.25. Charles H. Kraft, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing

in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979), 57, quoted in Johnson, 86.


6/8

6

GP and AG populations. The major difference being that while GP pray to a variety of spiritual beings and use anting-anting , the AG pray exclusively to God.

4. Integration:Kraft says a worldview serves a systematizing and ordering function in a society. Johnson

sees evidence of major differences between the GP and AG Waray systems.26

While a belief in

supernatural powers still exists among them, AG now see God as the only benevolent spirit andthe rest as malevolent. This change gives the AG different reasons for doing traditional rituals,such as participating in fiestas and visiting the cemetery on All Saints' Day. Rather than trying to

appease a spirit, they participate to build and maintain relationships with the rest of thecommunity. Tensions do arise, however, when the new system of the AG interferes with the

traditional system of the GP. “But this paradigm shift in worldview often causes conflict ordissonance with the old ways. The old values, institutions, customs and actions must then be re-

evaluated to see if they can be integrated into the new paradigm or whether they must berejected.”

27 This has an impact, according to Johnson, on how the Good News is presented.

Those points that are in conflict with the traditional beliefs, such as idolatry, are not taught until people themselves see what the Bible says and change their ways of their own accord. To me this

is true contextual theology because its source is one culture's encounter with the Bible rather thanwith another culture's theology.28

It is interesting to note, however, that Johnson points out “the

biblical teaching on idolatry should not be avoided.” Seems like an odd statement in light of thefact that it is just this biblical teaching that has led the AG Waray to change.

“The old customs which are biblical or at least do not violate the Scriptures can andshould be retained as there is no reason why believers cannot also be Waray. Those values that

do not measure up [to] the Scriptures must be amended or rejected.”29 He uses the churchanniversary to illustrate a valid alternative to the town fiesta. However, does this go far enough?

What is it about the fiesta that needs change? Why not modify what exists rather than replace itwith something new? In spite of Johnson's claims that that is exactly what is happening, notice

that these new events take place at AG churches and are largely for AG people whereas the townfiesta is for the entire town.

5. Adaptation:According to Kraft, change is possible within a culture and often this change happens

when influential members of the culture influence others to a new way. This change, however,takes a long time. Johnson says there is lots of evidence that this has happened among the AG

themselves. However, he also seems to be saying that until there is an adequate explanatorysystem to make these changes understandable to the GP the culture itself will not be transformed.

In many ways, it is not surprising that the AG show evidence of being different from the GPWaray. This is due in large part to the fact that one cannot even be identified as AG without

showing evidence of having adopted some Christian practices and ideas.30

Thus, the study

26. He calls it a “paradigm shift,” 181.

27. Johnson, 181.28. This is not to deny the fact that hermeneutics is also highly cultural in nature.

29. Johnson, 183.30

Johnson lists down some of these in the Glossary of Terms on viii. Eg. Members must

be baptized, must be 20 years of age, and must attend an Assemblies of God church. Adherents,on the other hand, must show interest in an Assemblies of God church (attending services or

attending Bible Studies), “may or may not be born again,” and not yet be a baptized member.


7/8

7

becomes self-fulfilling. I am not sure how it leads to the development of a contextual theologysince the basis for inclusion is purely externally determined.

I am not sure how to get around this issue other than to perhaps interact with those whohave not yet made the transition from GP to AG. It might be interesting to engage those who

have encountered and rejected (or just not yet chosen) the AG way to see what it was missing in

their mind.It would also be interesting to compare Kraft's model with Enriquez's “Phases of CulturalDomination” and proposed solutions.

31

31. Virgilio G. Enriquez, Pagbabangong-Dangal: Indigenous Psychology and Cultural

Empowerment (Quezon City: Akademya ng Kultura at Sikolohiyang Pilipino, 1994), 7-42.


8/8

8

Bibliography

Enriquez, Virgilio G. Indigenous Psychology and National Consciousness. Study of Languagesand Cultures of Asia and Africa Monograph Series No. 23. Tokyo: Institute for the Study

of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1989.

———. Pagbabangong-Dangal: Indigenous Psychology and Cultural Empowerment. Quezon

City: Akademya ng Kultura at Sikolohiyang Pilipino, 1994.

Johnson, Dave. Theology in Context: A Case Study in the Philippines. Baguio: Asia Pacific

Theological Seminary Press, 2013.

Maggay, Melba Padilla. “Theology, Context and the Filipino Church” in Maggay,

ed. Communicating Cross-Culturally: Towards a new Context for Missions in the Philippines. Quezon City: New Day, 1989.

Pe-Pua, Rogelia, ed. Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Teorya, Metodo at Gamit. Quezon City: University

of the Philippines Press, 2011.

Documents

MichaelJFast - PS302 - Kritik of Chosen Dissertation