New Doctorate in Contextual Theology Cohort to Begin in June 2024
Dr. David Fitch is the Betty R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary.
Northern Seminary is opening applications for a new cohort for our Doctorate in Contextual Theology, which is set to begin June 2024. If you are interested please email Mike Moore at mmoore@seminary.edu or learn more here. Programs is led by Dr. David Fitch.
What Is Contextual Theology?
Contextual theology:
- Combines culture studies and ecclesiology (theology and practice of church) with the study of the gospel (theology and Scripture)
- Shape leaders, pastors, and thinkers to lead churches into the cultural challenges facing the church in the post Christendom West
- Is about listening to people and the social dynamics in a context
- Is about interpreting, communicating and then living the gospel in that context
- Is about discerning the questions of the Trinity, Jesus, the gospel, salvation, the church, and justice, for the engagement of where we live
Some may call all of this practical theology or missional theology or liberation theology. At Northern Seminary, we call it contextual theology.
Why Is Contextual Theology Important?
Contextual theology is important because in North America we no longer live in a Christendom culture. In times past, while living in Christendom United States and Canada, the majority church could assume that the culture was monolithic, that language was the same for everyone, that the power of Christian consensus could be depended upon, and that identity and selfhood was mediated through the majority Christian culture and rarely to be questioned.
But today, in a post-Christendom West, all of these assumptions are up for grabs. Today, the Church (and Christianity) is resented. We live in multiple cultures with multiple languages where the authority of Scripture and the church no longer holds. We are sorting out how to live as Christians within a secular imaginary. We are surrounded by glaring injustices regarding racism, sexuality, gender, economics. We are living in fields of mission.
The Need to Be ‘Contextual Theologians’
If the church is to disciple followers of Jesus in these new contexts and engage the places of brokenness, the social injustices of our contexts, and those who do not yet know who Jesus is, we must become contextual theologians. It is not enough to make pronouncements regarding racism, sexuality, patriarchy, economic exploitation, etc. We must know how to engage, be present, and lead our churches into in these cultures with the gospel.
If pastors in North America are to lead churches that engage the social issues of injustice of our time in a way that both heals our cultures as well as draws people into Christ’s Kingdom and Lordship, then we must become contextual theologians, skilled in the practices of mission.
The Tradition of Contextual Theology
The Tradition of Contextual TheologyThe tradition of contextual theology at Northern Seminary has been developing for two decades. We have attracted premier scholars and practitioners in the fields of ethnography, ecclesiology and mission, cultural exegesis, Scriptural hermeneutics and context, congregational leadership and change, and contextual theological method to teach in the DMin in Contextual Theology program.
World renowned scholars have supervised our doctoral theses and our students have become leaders in denominational bodies in church planting, home mission, and pastoral education. Our graduates have taken up roles in seminaries and other theological education venues. Many are pastors, community organizers, and publishers of books, and are leading churches into mission.