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JENSEN PARKER LEE BANDA LORD AHN JONES

SPRING 2007

InsightsThe Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary

GLOBALIZATION


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I n s i g h t sThe Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary

Spring 2007Volume 122 Number 1

Editor: Cynthia L. RigbyEditorial Board:Allan Cole, David Jensen,

and Randal Whittington

Insights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminaryis published two times each year byAustin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 100 East 27th Street, Austin, TX 78705-5797.

e-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.austinseminary.edu

Entered as non-profit class bulk mail at Austin, Texas, under Permit No. 2473. POSTMASTER: Addressservice requested. Send to Insights, 100 East 27th Street, Austin, TX 78705-5797.

Printing runs are limited. When available, additional copies may be obtained for $3 per copy. Permission tocopy articles from Insights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminaryfor educational purposes may be given bythe editor upon receipt of a written request.

Some previous issues ofInsights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary, are available on microfilm throughUniversity Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (16 mm microfilm, 105mm microfiche, and article copies are available). Insightsis indexed in Religion Index One: Periodicals, Index

to Book Reviews in Religion, Religion Indexes: RIO/RIT/IBRR 1975- on CD-ROM, and the ATLA ReligionDatabase on CD-ROM, published by the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite2100, Chicago, IL 60606-6701; telephone: 312-454-5100; e-mail: [email protected]; web site: www.atla.com;ISSN 1056-0548.

COVER: The Spirit of Lei Feng Vs. Monroe as a Model, licensed by Ji Wenyu,ShanghArt Gallery, www.shanghartgallery.com; 2005, oil on canvas (4'5" x 6'4").Reprinted with permission.

Consumerism becomes the new belief system in Ji Wenyus color and detail saturated images In his emblematic paintings, Ji Wenyu contrasts communist propaganda imagery of workers andpeasants in heroic poses with Western brand-name product logos. Here, political propagandaenters new alliances with Western marketings promises of happiness, which the artist (not

without irony) holds up against the public of a radically changing China. By juxtaposing imagesand iconographies of the stereotyped oriental and the assumed occidental, Ji Wenyu questionsthe politics of cultural representation. Ji Wenyus universe is full of surprises and references toboth political occurrences and cultural productions, focusing on the precise distortion of todaysspectacle society.

from an introduction to the artist Ji Wenyu, ShanghArt Gallery


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C o n t e n t s

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I N T R O D U C T I O NCynthia L. Rigby

G L O B A L I Z A T I O N

3 TH E B I G MAC A ND T HE LO R D S TABLE :A TH E O L O G I C A L IN TE R PR ETAT I ON O F GL O B A L I Z A TI O NDavid Hadley Jensen

12 DAVID JENSEN : GLOBAL WE AR IN ES S A ND SABBATH RESTAn Interview

16 RE F L E C TI O N SAN EC UME NIC A L CH R I S T I A N RE FL EC TI ON O N GLOBA LIZ A T IONby Janet L. Parker

TRINITARIAN ORTHEOCRATIC? by Hak Joon Lee

THE AMBIGUITY OF GLOBALIZATION: A PRESSING CHALLENGE FORAFRICAN CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY by Lameck Banda

30 PASTORS PANELChristine Eaton Blair, Laura Taylor de Palomino

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R E Q U I R E D R E A D I N G

PREACHING WORDS: 144 K EY TERMS IN HOMILETICS,written by John S. McClure, reviewed by Jennifer L. Lord;

THE STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND IS AIAH AS CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE,written by Brevard S. Childs, reviewed by John Ahn

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C H R I S T I A N I T Y A N D C U L T U R E

TH E WE S TE R N M I S S I O N A R Y MO V E M E N TI N A N ER A O F GL O B A L I Z A TI O N

Arun W. Jones


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When we first began working on this issue, we worried that globalization mightcome across as one of those words. I think you know the kind of words I

mean: words like postmodernity, epistemological, paradigmatic. Words thatmany of our loyal readers might wish we would leave in the academy; words that canseem irrelevant to the concrete realities of our daily lives.

As you will see in the articles and interviews you are about to read, we had noth-ing to worry about. Globalization is one of those words that means exactly as itsounds. And we can hardly go for an hour without encountering its perks and its chal-lenges. This issue works to articulate exactly how we benefit from and how we are con-fronted by the dynamics of globalization. Each one of our authors seeks to articulatewhat it might look like to live faithful Christian lives in a world which seems to growsmaller and faster every day.

In our centerpiece, Austin Seminary professor David Jensen invites us to explorethe tensions we negotiate, as Christian believers in a globalized world, by juxtaposingthe universal image of the Big Macwith that of the Lords Table. Dr. Jensen point-edly raises the question: How do we prophetically challenge the economy of scarcitydriving our global existence with the economy of abundance which characterizes theEucharistic banquet? Dr. Jensens provocative discussion is followed by three reflectionpieces. First, Janet Parkerpastor, ethicist, and ecumenical consultant for the WorldCouncil of Churchesmanifests great hope in arguing that there is an alternative toEmpire. Economic justice in our globalized world is possible, she believes, and Chris-tians all over the world are insisting on it. Next, Hak Joon Lee, ethics professor fromNew Brunswick Seminary, suggests that our trinitarian confession offers resources fordefying the unrelational and monistic thinking characteristic of American suprema-cy. Finally, Lameck Banda, Zambian pastor and emerging theologian, invites us to con-sider what globalization looks like from the perspective of African contexts.

This issue also features an interview in which Dr. Jensen discusses (1) what Chris-tian worship has to offer in addressing the weariness characteristic of a globalized age,and (2) how congregations can respond to the challenges of globalization. In our regu-larly featured pastors panel, Christine Eaton Blair and Laura Taylor de Palomino dis-cuss what it is like to minister to and with multinational congregations. The issue isrounded off by two book recommendations and a wonderful piece, written by our own Arun Jones, which challenges mainline Protestants to explore the universal andtransnational dimensions of the Christian faith in their missional work.

We trust that you will enjoy this issue. We hope it will spark new ideas and sup-port re-commitments to faithful living in this age of globalization. In the meantime,our editorial staff will be working hard on our Fall 2008 issue, which will be focusedon the theme of Resurrection. Our goal is to produce an issue that will be helpful topastors and lay leaders as they look toward the planning of Lent in Spring 2008.

Thank you, as always, for your reading and support ofInsights. Please continue tosend us your comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

Cynthia L. Rigby, editorW.C. Brown Professor of TheologyAustin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

I N T R O D U C T I O N


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To realize the full possibilities of this economy, we must reach beyond our own bor-

ders, to shape the revolution that is tearing down barriers and building new net-works among nations and individuals, and economies and cultures: globalization.Its the central reality of our time. Bill Clinton

If you are totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of global-ization will never come to you. Jimmy Carter

A NEWGLOBALWORLD ORDER?

What is globalization? At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we are bom-barded by the term, a buzz word in debates ranging from politics, business,popular music, the environment, even controversies over the food we eat.

Heralded as a harbinger of democracy and mourned as the inaugurator of terrorism, itis hard to determine whether globalization is a boon or bane to the planets life. Per-haps it is no surprise that two former U.S. presidentsfrom the same political partycannot agree on globalizations benefits. What is globalization? For the purposes of this

THE BIG MAC

AND THE LORDS TABLE

A THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION

OF GLOBALIZATION

DAVID HADLEYJE N S E N

David Hadley Jensen is associate professor of constructive theology at Austin Seminary. He

received a BA from Carleton College, an MAR from Yale Divinity School, and the PhD fromVanderbilt University. He is currently among forty invited participants nationwide in the Work-group in Constructive Theology. Jensen is the author ofIn the Company of Others: A DialogicalChristology(Pilgrim Press, 2001), Graced Vulnerability: A Theology of Childhood(Pilgrim Press,2005), and Responsive Labor: A Theology of Work(Westminster John Knox, 2006).


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essay, I suggest the following definition: globalization refers to the compression of timeand space relationships between persons that results in intensified awareness of the intercon-nected and interdependent nature of life on planet earth.1 Globalization does not merelyrefer to the realityof global interconnection, but to the economic, political, and cul-tural forces that intensify connections already present. Human beings have long livedin a global world, where actions in one part of the globe have affected relationships inothers. (Consider ancient trade routes, exploration, and Western colonialism as histor-ical examples.) What is new in this century, however, is the increased speed and intri-cacy of these connections: where terrorist attacks in New York City and WashingtonD.C. have an immediate effect on policing in London and Riyadh; where a slight dis-ruption in Wal-Marts supply chain ripples throughout the global economy, wherecomputer connections allow persons to experience events across the planet as theyunfold rather than waiting for the evening newscast or tomorrows newspaper. If glob-al interconnection is hardly new, the immediacy of these relationships at this point inhistory is unprecedented.

Global consciousness is hardly new to Christian faith. Hope for a communion thatstretches to the ends of the earth is present throughout the New Testament. The con-clusion to Matthews gospel offers but one example of Christian globalism: Go there-fore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have com-manded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Mt. 28:19-20). A renewal movement that began among Jews rapidly spread to Gentiles in placesas disparate as Spain, Ethiopia, Greece, and North Africa. Christian faith grew, more-over, during the reign of a global power. Jesus lived in a colony under the rule of aRoman Empire that sought to extend its influence throughout the known world. Theearly church, no doubt, was aided in its growth by the strands of interconnection thatEmpire wrought, even if that Empire tried to suppress the nascent church. This rapidgrowth of the church across cultures brought its own struggles and conflicts, which areamply recorded in the Book of Acts. In its pages we catch a glimpse of a churchwrestling with its own global tendencies, guided by Gods gracious Spirit as it proclaimsthe Good News of Jesus Christ. One way of looking at the Book of Acts, then, is as anearly Christian assessment of globalization, how faithfulness to Jesus Christ might belived out in a diverse and interconnected world. Many of the churchs responses to glob-alization center on its practices of table fellowship: what foods are shared, how thatfood is distributed, and the language of hospitality present at table. The meals that areserved in the earliest Christian communities make a world of difference.

TWO MEALS WITH DIFFERENTASSUMPTIONS

M

eals are always about more than food, for they instill practices and assumptions

in those gathered around the food shared at table. Take the Christian practice ofthe Lords Supper as an example, a global meal that is celebrated wherever the Gospelis proclaimed. The patterns of this meal reveal many assumptions about food and oth-ers. We assume, for example, that there is always room for one more baptized person at

GLOBA LIZ A T ION : TH E B I G MAC A ND T HE LO R D S TABLE


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the table, no matter how small the loaf of bread and cup of wine. We believe that inbreaking bread and pouring the cup, we do not merely host others, but that the RisenChrist is present as the true Host. We come to the Lords Table hungry and experiencefulfillment at table, but also go away hungry, knowing that this food is not yet sharedwith all. In the bread and wine, we encounter the gift of Gods Son, broken and givenfor the world, a gift of life that also equips us to give of ourselves. When celebratedagain and again, these patterns of the Lords Tableabundant giving, hosting, hunger-ing, remembering, making room for othersbecome contagious, taking shape in ourlives as we rise from the table.

The food and drink at the Lords Table are by no means unique to a particular cul-ture. Viewed broadly, the food constitutes the most basic staple across cultures. Eachculture has its own unique form of breadbaguette, challah, tortilla, naan. The risenChrist, accordingly, does not come in a meal that is specific to one culture alone. MostProtestant churches, therefore, do not specify the kind of bread to be served during theLords Supper. The drink, likewise, is not restricted to specific cultures; nor is it essen-tial for Protestants that the cup contain fermented beverage. Each culture has its ownfestival drink. But this drink also constitutes the cup of sacrifice at the Lords Table. TheHost who gives life to us is also the One who gives his life for us. So it is that this drinkis both sweet and bitter, whether the cup is filled in Viet Nam, Venezuela, or the Vati-can. The food and drink of the Lords Table always take shape in local cultures. Theybecome a part of a global meal as they remember and celebrate the risen Christ who ispresent at all tables.2At this table the food and drink are worth lingering over.

Our peculiar North American culture has also bequeathed a meal for the worldsconsumption, a meal that gorges a larger number of bellies every year: the Big Mac,fries, and Coke. This meal also embodies distinct practices: of burgers packaged in indi-vidual containers that resist sharing, of a maddening rush to the counter, of empty calo-ries rather than food that sustains, of convenience rather than hospitality, of intricateglobal supply chains ensuring that beef from Brazil arrives in Asia on time, of homo-geneous tastes rather than regional adaptation, of scarcity that breeds overconsumptionfrom super-sized portions rather than sharing that begets moderation. Convenience,price, and uniformity are prized in todays McMeals. Whether one travels to China orChile, one can always find the comfort of the familiar without waiting long for food.Such meals, in the end, enable us to devour all we can quickly without bothering tointeract with those hosting the meal. When ingested again and again, this meal, too,inculcates patterns: consumption, scarcity, and minimal interchange with others. Themeal becomes something we rush through rather than linger over.

These two global meals offer distinct outlooks on the reality of global intercon-nectedness. Where the McMeal encourages hoarding, the Lords Supper fosters sharing;where the McMeal longs for a homogenous culture, the Lords Supper celebrates thediversity of Gods children. The practices of the Lords Table in a global world, there-fore, are not merely the private rites for the church, but public acts for the sake of apublic good. We offer this meal and these gestures of grace present within the meal notmerely for our own sake, but because Christ desires all to be present at the Lords Table,to be caught up in the movement of grace for the world in practices of sharing and


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abundance. How might our participation in these distinct meals affect our cultural andeconomic practices in an era of globalization? To those questions I now turn.

SCARCITY ANDABUNDANCE:

ECONOMICASSUMPTIONS OF THE TWO MEALS

The McMeal is about more than food; it carries with it a host of economic assump-tions. First, the meal assumes that cost is the preeminent criterion of a good meal.

Compared to other lunchtime options in the U.S., the Big Mac, fries, and Coke isa consistently cheap option.3 The attraction of the meal, no doubt, lies in its compara-tive affordability: if you sell a cheap burger, they will come. To ensure low prices,McDonalds has secured an intricate global supply chain, where potato farmers in Idahoare connected to cattle ranchers in Brazil, each filling the maw of an increasingly hun-

gry world with food that leads to heart disease and obesity. Cost, in this case, takesprecedence over the substance of the meal. McDonalds ensures that each of its suppli-ers are gained at the lowest cost, and often farmers have little recourse. Lose McDon-alds as a customer and one can lose ones livelihood. The intricacy of this global sup-ply chain is, in itself, neither benign nor destructive, but when cost takes priority overpeople, then the supply chain tilts toward problematic assumptions: that I have to holdon to what Ive got, lest someone else take it from me. As suppliers cling to theirMcDonalds connections, McDonalds also holds suppliers in its clutches. Is it no won-der that the Big Mac is designed to be clutched with both hands? When cost alone

determines the value of a meal, it can result in patterns of scarcity and hoarding.The habits of the McMeal mimic some patterns of wealth distribution in the glob-

al economy. Who benefits from the whirring engines of this economy? Current trends,it seems, only confirm attitudes of hoarding among the wealthiest nations on earth. Asthe 2000 U.N. Development Report notes, Before the onset of globalization in 1973,the income ratio between the richest and poorest countries was at about 44 to 1. Twen-ty-five years later it had climbed to 74 to 1. In the period since the end of the ColdWar, the number of persons subsisting below the international poverty line rose from1.2 billion in 1987 to 1.5 billion today.4 Nations and peoples that were already well-

off have continued to grow richer, while those left in the slow lanes of the global eco-nomic track continue to subsist on less. Even in those pockets of the developing world where globalization has proved a boon to local economies in select technologicalhubsBangalore, for examplethe high-tech industry accounts for a mere 0.2 percentof Indian employment and often affects those outside its orbit rather little.5 Hoarding,on these levels, only occurs when we assume that there is not enough wealth to goaround. But this assumption flies in the face of reality. North Americans are now livingin one of the most prosperous eras known to humankind. There is more than enoughfood and resources to go around. But instead of living into that abundance, we have

chosen to hang on to more, desire more, and spend more, creating unprecedented lev-els of personal debt. If we assume scarcity and hoard our mealseven in abundanttimeswe can never have enough.


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How different the patterns of table fellowship in the Book of Acts sound to ourears:

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell

their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need.Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke breadat home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God andhaving the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to theirnumber those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-46).

The assumption of this meal, these practices, and this table is one of abundance. Theseearly followers of the Way were not possessed of the compulsion to share because therewas little left to give; rather, they shared food and broke bread with each other becauseGod provided more than enough to go around. The sharing at this table proceeded outof abundance and joy. These first converts, it seems, spent a lot of time in local, every-day activities infused with gladness: breaking bread at home, eating, praying, teaching,sharing, working. Granted new life in baptism, they were empowered to give to any andall who have need. The gifts at these meals kept on giving, as daily God added to thenumber of those being saved.

At this point in the book of Acts, the Jesus movement is on the cusp of a globalworld. The early converts are all Jews who spent much time together in the temple.But these local practices of sharing and abundance have global significance, for they arethe very practices that these early disciples bring to the world. These practices of tablefellowship carry economic assumptions: In Gods economy we do not earn our bless-ings; they are simply given, abundantly, even recklessly with the expectation that we,too, might give. In direct contradiction to an economy of scarcity, giving in this mealincreases the abundance of table rather than diminishes it. Such assumptions of abun-dance are contagious, empowering all who partake of the meal to give. At the LordsSupper, Gods gifts beget our own giving: God gives, we respond in thanks with tokensof bread and wine, while God keeps on giving Gods very self as Christs body andblood. Such a meal has global consequences, for it assumes that there is always enoughfor the body and that hoarding food leads ultimately to death.

HOMOGENIZATION ORHYBRIDITY?CULTURALASSUMPTIONS OF THE TWO MEALS

In addition to economic practices, the McMeal also conveys cultural assumptionswith its burgers and fries. An unexpressed goal of the global march of McDonalds is

cultural homogeneity. Unlike the Eucharist, the McMeal does not exhibit much region-al adaptation. Devour a cheeseburger in Beijing and it tastes the same as it does inBoston. Big Macs and Quarter Pounders seem to hover above culture, unable tointeract with local tastes and customs. In the name of efficiency, the Big Mac, fries,

and Coke

are purveyed as hurriedly and predictably as possible: no variations, noattempts to meld with local cuisines. At McDonalds, even bread tastes the same acrossthe globe. Happy Meals construe otherness as a threat to the meals security and hap-piness, for at this meal no others are welcomed. If the Eucharist presents a banquet


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who share a common culture to an expansion of practices and peoples as foreigners,strangers, and undesirables are caught up in the Messianic banquet. The Peter who isrevolted by the vision is the same Peter who orders strangers and Gentiles to be bap-tized in the name of Jesus Christ (10:48). Peters vision of a foreign feast leads to theinclusion of foreigners in the fold.

At first glance, this teeming table seems little to resemble the Eucharistic feast.Instead of staple foods we encounter exotic creatures destined for slaughter. But theassumptions of this descending sheet resemble the global assumptions of the LordsSupper. Indeed, the vision marks the beginning of the Eucharist as a cross-culturalmeal. In Christ, at this table, all persons are hybrid rather than homogeneous.

At the Lords Table all baptized persons are welcomed. Try as the church hasthroughout its conflicted history, there is no way to erect legitimate barriers around thetable. This is a supper where all are welcome, no matter what culture, no matter whatlanguage. As the invitation to the Lords Table reminds us, Friends, this is the joyfulfeast of the people of God! They will come from east and west, and from north andsouth, and sit at table in the kingdom of God.7 The Eucharist is a global meal that isnot partisan to a particular culture, but allows each culture to express itself as Christcomes to redeem all cultures. The Supper does not impose a particular cultural stan-dard upon all. This is why it is not essential what kind of bread or what kind of wineis used at the supper. Here no culture is at advantage or lacking because the meal takesshape in local practices. As it repeats Jesus gestures at that meal celebrated inJerusalemtaking, blessing, breaking, and givinga local meal makes Christ knownto the world. In local practice Christ is present as the global Host.

The Lords Supper reminds us that cultural identity, however essential, is not theultimate marker of personhood. The fundamental truth of my life, in other words, isnot that I am American, Samoan, or Zambian, but that in Christ I am a new creation.Baptismal identity does not obliterate culture, but gathers up that identity in the truththat in Christ I am a child of God. In this sense, Christian personhood is hybrididen-tity. One lie we tell ourselves is to reduce others (and ourselves) to a particular culture,gender, nation, means of sexual expression, or vocation. How many times have we con-vinced ourselves that we will only understand someone if we see them as straight,African, female, or minister? The Good News of Jesus Christ, however, is that allfacets of our identity are redeemed by Gods grace in baptism. Pauls claim that inChrist there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female (Gal. 3:28) rela-tivizes our own culture while it connects us with persons and cultures foreign to us. Atthe Lords Table, the children of God are American andIraqi, gayandstraight, rich andpoorthose who are no longer reduced to these designations. This global meal doesnot erect boundaries around a particular culture or establish one culture at the expenseof another. Rather, it invites all cultures to participate in the richness of a meal thattakes shape in local practices, connecting the celebration of one meal to allmeals whereChrist is Host. The Christ who finds a home in all cultures of the earth invites us, then,to partake in cultures riches, wherever they may be found.

One of these riches is language itself. The Eucharistic banquet, like the dizzyingspectacle of Peters vision of a descending sheet, invites us to hear many languages of


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praise. The Book of Acts, after all, begins with the profusion of Pentecost. And, like thevision, this phenomenon, too, provokes astonishment: And at this sound the crowdgathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native lan-guage of each (Acts 2:6). The birth of the church signals not the imposition of oneword or language poured out for many, but the assumption of the Divine Word in thetongues of all the earths peoples. The Word privileges no particular tonguein directopposition to global commerce that heralds the triumph of a single lingua francabutgives rise to ceaseless praise in a multitude of speech, so that all might understand. Themeal is global in the riches of each local tongue.

CONCLUSION

Christian faith has long sought the global while holding fast to the local. The incar-

nation of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is not an acultural idea, but tookplace in a particular culture and thus gives hope for the whole world. The church is notan amorphous global conglomerate, but is embodied in local communities that witnessto the worlds hope. The Lords Supper does not hover above culture, but embeds itself within diverse cultures as it proclaims Christ present now and forever. A Christianunderstanding of globalization, therefore, is not anti-global in the sense of a longing toreturn home, to the confines of the familiar. Jesus, after all, experiences rejection andthreats of violence in his hometown (Lk. 4:21-30). Christ invites us to share in a mealwhere local identities are redeemed in baptismal identity and informed by cultures

other than our own. Yet neither is a Christian understanding of globalization pro-glob-al in the sense that the inexorable march of economic progress, global supply chains,and the proliferation of American consumer culture are assumed to be benevolent.Christian faith must name some of the trends of globalization captured in the McMealas destructive, where cultural differences are threats to the market, where languages dis-appear, and where attitudes of scarcity beget overconsumption and hoarding. On thewhole, the verdict is still out on the peril and promise of globalization. Market andpolitical forces may lead to increased collaboration and understanding among cultures,or a renewed erection of fences on borders and closing fortresses of prosperity to

migrants. A global society may recognize the hybrid nature of all human identity, or itmay impose one culture at the expense of others. Wealth in a global world may beshared or hoarded. To this perplexing movement that we call globalization, Christiansbring distinct assumptions as we eat and drink. Do we assume that there is enough foodand drink to be shared? Do we assume that all cultures are welcome at Christs table?Do we invite profuse languages of praise as we give thanks for this meal? Or do weassume that one has to hoard and devour quickly lest one go hungry? Do we assumethat other cultures and religions are a threat to our particular Christian identity? Do weassume that in the name of coherence we must settle for one kind of speech? The

assumptions we bring to the table make all the difference, for they affect the kind ofmeal that we celebrate and share with the world.


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NOTES

1. In constructing this definition, I have relied on selected definitions of globalization gath-ered from other theorists. See Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (New

York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 10-13.

2. For these reflections on the connection between local practice and the global meal, I amindebted to conversations with Arun Jones, associate professor of mission and evangelism at

Austin Seminary.

3. The price of the McMeal, by contrast, is generally unaffordable in the so-called devel-oping world. Dining at McDonalds in these contexts is often a sign of privilege and comfort

with American culture.

4. Steger, Globalization, 105.

5. Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century,Updated and Expanded Edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), 470.

6. Steger, Globalization, 84.7. Book of Common Worship (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), 68.

Jensen


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In a nutshell, how would you explain globalization?

I think globalization is a term that names an experience people have across culture,

across income level, across religionthe experience of a shrinking planet. We now livein a world where events on distant continents often have an immediate impact on thelife we live wherever we are. And globalization is not just about human relationships,it also has to do with the natural world. I think one of the distinct phenomena of glob-alization is that environmental pollution and catastrophe now are perceived on a world-wide level. Suddenly we are living in a planet where we are increasingly aware of ourinterconnectedness with folks and peoples and cultures in distant places, and the cyclesof nature that sustain our lives.

So is globalization more about increased awareness of our interconnectedness,or are we actually more connected than we were before?

I think its about both. Of course theres increased awareness thanks to mass media: theInternet, television, CNN: 24-hours a day, seven days a week. So we're bombarded bynews and events from other places. But there is also more interconnectedness, simplybecause of the way that the economies of places are more interrelated. Theres no suchthing as a self-sufficient economy anywhere in the world now. No matter how hard wetry to isolate ourselves, were always going to be connected in some way, thanks to traderoutes and the pattern of food and product distribution worldwide. When you and I

go to buy an apple in Austin, Texas, the apple that we eat often comes from a place asfar away as New Zealand. Its truly mind-blowing when you think of that level of inter-connectedness; that the food I eat to sustain myself every day is made possible becauseof agricultural production literally on the other side of the world. We often, in theUnited States, find the label, made in the U.S.A. appealing. But the fact of the mat-ter is, almost nothing that we purchase is produced and assembled in one place. Dellcomputers, which is headquartered in Austin, draws from literally every continent ofthe earth in manufacturing its computers.

What level of awareness and concern should we have of all this, as responsibleChristian believers? What difference does globalization make to our lives offaith?

I think one way of addressing that question is to remember a fundamental assumption

I N T E R V I E W

DAVID H. JENSEN:

GLOBAL WEARINESS AND SABBATH REST


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INTERVIEW

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of the Christian faith, namely, that God has created us to live relationally. Godcovenants with humanity and wills to save us in and through Jesus Christ. The rela-tionship that God initiates with us, in and through Jesus Christ, relates us to oneanother and calls us to care for and attend to one another. The church is therefore called

to pay attention to how relationships intended to form and give sustenance can build

up and destroy community. The paradox of globalization is that the very relationshipsthat give us life and sustain life can also be twisted in ways that suck us dry or workagainst life and destroy life. So that apple from New Zealand that I eat in Austin to sus-tain my life may also in some ways be connected to means of agricultural productionand global distribution patterns that ensure that some people have enough to eat andsome dont. And I believe Christians are called to dig really deeply into the complexcharacter of the relationships globalization draws to our attention.

So should Christians commit themselves, for example, to buying fair tradecoffee?

I think we all need to be aware of how we participate in the structures Ive been describ-ing. I think Christian faith shows us the ambiguity of all the ways human beings set upsystems and ways of living. All the structures we create in some way fall short of theglory of God. There are certain ways of living in light of Gods revelation of Jesus Christ

THE PARADOX OF GLOBALIZATION IS

THAT THE VERY RELATIONSHIPS THAT

GIVE US LIFE AND SUSTAIN LIFE CAN

ALSO BE TWISTED IN WAYS THAT

SUCK US DRY OR WORK AGAINST LIFE

AND DESTROY LIFE. SO THAT APPLE

FROM NEWZEALAND THAT I EAT IN

AUSTIN TO SUSTAIN MY LIFE MAY

ALSO IN SOME WAYS BE CONNECTED

TO MEANS OF AGRICULTURAL

PRODUCTION AND GLOBAL

DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS THAT

ENSURE THAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE

ENOUGH TO EAT AND SOME DONT.


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14

that more closely approximate the kingdom than others. So certainly I would say thatbuying a cup of coffee that is fair trade comes closer to walking in light of the life ofJesus Christ than buying coffee that fosters exploitation of farm workers. But of coursewe are not just talking about coffee, herewere talking about everything.

How do you avoid feeling helpless, even overwhelmed, by the fact that everythingneeds attention?

I think we should be overwhelmedthere is no way around that. Theres a lot thatsoverwhelming. The brokenness of the world is overwhelming. But lets not forget thatso is the grace of God. In light of Gods grace, I think Christian believers are called tobe people of hope.

But what does that hope look like, exactly? How do we hope, in an age of global-

ization?I try to suggest in my article that there are certain patterns of Christian worship thatinform and shape our lives the more we partake of them. So when I share food at theLords Table with those with whom Im gathered on Sunday morning, I dont just leavethat pattern of sharing and abundance once I leave the sanctuary at 12:00. I believe wein some sense continue to partake of the Lords Supper as we move through the dailyroutines of our lives. And that doesnt mean that I stop buying the Big Mac or startbuying the fair trade coffee and say that Ive done enough. What it does mean is that Iam aware of the patterns of my life. I ask myself, for example, Are my daily activities

and decisions characterized by a concern that I do not have enough, and somehow needto acquire more? Or are they characterized by an openness to using the gifts of God forthe sake of others in the world?

We as Christians need to realize that theres no way to escape interconnectedness,and so there is also no escape from the patterns of good and ill that exist in the globaleconomic system. But there are ways we can live in and out of that system without giv-ing our ultimate allegiance to another lord. We need habitually to ask ourselves: Whodo we belong to in life and death? My job? My economic security? There is no moreradically free statement than that we belong to God in life and in death. That, I think,gives us hope in the midst of the profound ambiguities of the global society. And it may

empower us to work in and through our everyday relationships to live toward the jus-tice of Christs kingdom.

But doesnt our hope as Christians do more than keep us managing in the midstof the ambiguities that surround us? Doesnt it compel us to take a propheticstand? What about, for example, the boycotting of Taco Bell, a few years back?

The boycott of Taco Bell is an example of a focused, distinct practice that sought toremedy specific injustices related to globalization. It was protesting the conditions ofthe agricultural workers that were supplying the tomatoes and other vegetables to Taco

Bell. The protest used the criterion of justice that is certainly in line with Jesus visionof welcoming all to the table and sharing with everyone the abundance that is provid-ed there. I believe Christians are called, in the name of Jesus Christ, to participate inprotests like this.


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So do you think churches should actively seek to invest themselves in a couple ofkey causes, speaking prophetically against systems that we believe do not reflect anunderstanding of resources and fellowship consistent with the Lords Supper? Forexample, some churches have taken a radical stand on the immigration issue, giv-

ing sanctuary to people who are illegal aliens. It seems to me that they are insist-ing, to draw from the terminology of your article, that this isnt an economy ofscarcity, theres enough here. Frankly, I think these churches are also saying tothese illegal immigrants that, even if theres not enough, well just cut the piecessmaller so you can be included, because even if were all a little hungrier, we wouldrather have you at the table and eat less bread.

All churches experience of the global world in some way begins in their local context.And so I think all churches are called to reflect upon their local ministry context. Whatare the fractures in the town, city, community in which my congregation is situated?

And the more we reflect and think about and immerse ourselves in that context asparishioners, as ministers, the more we become deeply aware of the global world. Andso Im not saying that the phrase, think globally, act locally is the panacea for all Chris-tian action, but one cant be in the ministry without paying attention to how globalinjustices are reflected on a local scale.

Can you say a little more about the Lords Table and how you think we could do abetter job of engaging in our daily lives what we believe is going on in worship?

Sure. I think Christian worship has a lot to say, for example, to the weariness of theglobalized world. Ten percent of the global population is exhausted by an overabun-dance of power and means. We in the western world have over-programmed ourselves,over-committed ourselves. And then the ninety percent of the world that does not haveaccess to excess is weary because of over-work in the name of sheer survival. So, maybeif there is one universal truth: its that were all tired.

So how does Christian worship address our weariness?

What we see in Christian worship is that on the first day, we rest. We give all that weare and all that we have back to God. We rest through the God who works on ourbehalf. So Christian worship, I think, draws on this practice of Sabbath. There is a day

of the week in which we rest from our ceaseless patterns and celebrate Gods work onbehalf of us. So part of where I get the energy to live comes from the rest I experiencein Christian worship. However, rest isnt the only thing Christian worship offers, in theface of our weariness. Theres something in Christian worship that celebrates the laborof human hands. I think its no coincidence that the bread and the wine of the LordsSupper are the products of human hands applied to the gifts of God. In other words,we dont commune using the grapes and the wheat, the raw stuff of Gods creation, wecelebrate the presence of Christ in bread and wine which are there because of our workin some way. While we rest in God in Christian worship from our ceaseless labors, wealso celebrate the good that has come about because of our hands. And we pray that

even in the brokenness of our work that Gods glory be somehow celebrated. Thedynamic of work and rest that we practice in worship is sorely needed in an over-tiredworld.

INTERVIEW


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When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasonedlike a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For nowwe see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know onlyin part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And nowfaith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

I Cor. 13:11-13 (NRSV)

ITS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

Do you remember the feeling of being a young child, and how big the worldseemed? Do you remember looking at the horizon and feeling it stretch away infi-

nitely before you, and wondering what you would find if you could walk all the way tothe end of the horizon? To a child, the world seems unfathomably large, awesome, aninexhaustible place of infinite possibility. And do you remember the exact point atwhich that same infinitely large world began to become smaller, more intelligible, moreconnected to yours? And do you remember the moment when you first entertained anotion that had never before entered your mind, when with a poignant sigh you first

knew that the world was not inexhaustible, nor full of infinite possibility, but rather afragile, limited, small globe? Do you remember when you first gasped at the realizationof what a slender oasis of life our earth is, this tiny blue orb that bears all our humanhopes and fears and loves and sorrows?

This issue ofInsightsis about that realization; it is a sustained theological reflection

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE:

AN ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN

REFLECTION ON GLOBALIZATION

JANET L. PARKER

R E F L E C T I O N S

Janet L. Parkeris pastor of parish life at Rock Spring Congregational UnitedChurch of Christ in Arlington, Virginia. She earned the MDiv from PrincetonTheological Seminary and the PhD from Union Theological Seminary in New

York with a focus on economic and ecological ethics. Following the September

11th attacks, Parker served the Presbytery of New York City as Coordinator forDisaster Relief. She has taught at Chicago Theological Seminary and was a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton Universitys Center for the Study of Religion. Anadvisor to the World Council of Churches, Parker consults on the theological

issues relating to terrorism, human rights, and genocide in the United States and abroad.


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upon that gasp of insight thatglobalization has pushed us out of the childhood of ourspecies into a forced adulthood in which we see that we have become intricately con-nected with one another in a myriad of ways that affect our lives, and the life of ourbeloved planet as a whole. In this issue of Insights, we reflect on the reality and themeaning of our newfoundglobality, the condition of being global citizens, and the pro-found impacts which we are having upon one another because of the interwoven natureof our global economy, global society, and the global ecological effects of our vastlyincreased exploitation of the natural world.

I write to you as a pastor, a Christian ethicist, and an ecological and ecumenicaltheologian who has been struggling with my own aha experience about the impactsof globalization on human life and Gods creation for the past decade and a half. I cantname the exact moment when the revelation came to me, but sometime in the early90s, as I was entering my doctoral program in Christian Ethics at Union TheologicalSeminary in New York, I realized that my passion for economic, gender, and racial jus-ticein other words, justice within the human realmhad to be linked to my long-standing love for Gods creation, because without a healthy planet, questions of humanjustice and equality were moot. A few years before I had my own aha moment, theWorld Council of Churches, aglobalbody of Christians which represents the largestmanifestation of the worldwide ecumenical movement, had crystallized a similar reve-lation into a new phrase which defined their work during the 1980s and 1990s. In the1980s, the World Council of Churches began to speak of the call to Christians to workfor justice, peace, and the integrity of creation.1 Christians around the world werewaking up to the fact that concerns for justice and peace were tied inexorably to thehealth of planetary ecosystems. Not only human welfare, but the integrityof Godsentire creation, is under threat of unraveling.

In the meantime, since these early revelations in the 1980s and early 90s, ourworld has experienced a massive acceleration of a process that we have all come to knowby the name globalization. Or more particularly, economic globalization. Or morespecifically still, a particular form of economic globalization rooted in an ideologicalcommitment to free markets and free trade and unregulated investment, in the ser-vice of ever greater global economic integration with ever lower barriers to the flow ofcapital, goods, and services (but not labor). This process of corporate-led economicglobalization has in effect made our world vastly smaller, more tied together, and moreecologically and socially fragile. Not all globalization is bad, of course. Becoming moreconnected across cultural and geographical lines can be empowering, liberating, andenlightening. The ecumenical movement itself is a fruit of a certain kind of globaliza-tion.

I have been blessed to grow spiritually and theologically from my own interactionswith Christians from around the world in ecumenical forums organized by the WorldCouncil of Churches. We need to listen to one another deeply across our lines of dif-ference in order to learn to live peacefully together as the body of Christ, and morebroadly, as one human family. But it is precisely through my opportunities to gatherwith Christians in global settings that I myself have learned more about the impactsthat economic globalization is having on my brothers and sisters in Christ and on Gods


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RE F LE C T IONS

creation. From a decade of involvement in ecumenical work and from my own deeptheological reflection upon the realities of economic globalization and our global eco-logical crisis, I seek to lift up in this essay voices which American Christians rarelyhearthe voices of Christians from other parts of the globe who have a message thatwe need to engage, for the sake of life itself.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

If you were asked to name the most dangerous illusion currently besetting the humanrace, what would you say? Im sure there would be many good contenders, but one

that would be at the top of my list is the famous phrase of Margaret Thatcher, formerPrime Minister of Great Britain, who declared that there is no alternative to corpo-rate-led, free-market style economic globalization. Its absolutely remarkable how many

people from all walks of life, all faith traditions, and all countries have bought into themyth that no alternative exists to our current global economic system. No matter thatglobal warming may destroy the conditions for life as we know it on earth; no matterthat economic inequality is growing both within and between nations, squeezing outthe middle class; no matter that humans have increased the rate of global extinctions athousand-fold over the natural rate typical of Earths long-term history, or that 1.1billion people lack access to clean waterregardless of the wild facts of our time,many people seem to have contracted a paralysis of the imagination, or perhaps a formof amnesia.2We forget that the current form of global capitalism is not a physical law

of the universe, but a humanly constructed system. Fortunately, however, our unique-ly human capacity to imagine other worlds is making a comeback.The last decade has witnessed an extraordinary rise in peoples movements around

the globe that are committed to the belief that another world is possible. Coalitionsof farmers, indigenous peoples, grassroots womens organizations, environmental orga-nizations, youth, human rights activists, and others have converged to mount fierceresistance to the hegemony of the free-trade and free-markets regime. This diversemovement rejects any system which prioritizes profits over people and the earth, or cap-ital accumulation over communities.

Even more remarkable is the recent emergence of Christian voices joining this cryfor another world. I myself witnessed this when I attended the World Council ofChurches Ninth Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, last year. The Assembly endorsed theAGAPE calla call for Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth. Thecall describes a seven-year process of study and dialogue leading up to the Assembly,and concludes the following:

This process has examined the project of economic globalization that is led bythe ideology of unfettered market forces and serves the dominant political andeconomic interests Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the home of the World

Social Forum (WSF), we are encouraged by the constructive and positive mes-sage of the movements gathering in the WSF that alternatives are possible. Weaffirm that we can and must make a difference by becoming transformativecommunities caring for people and the earth.3

Meeting a year and a half earlier in Accra, the 24th General Council of the World


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Alliance of Reformed Churches launched a similar challenge to the project of econom-ic globalization. Drawing upon a Reformed tradition invoked only during times of seri-ous crisis, the General Council called member churches to enter into aprocessus confes-sionis, a process of recognition, education, and confession, intended to result in afaith commitment to global economic justice as essential to the integrity of our faithin God and our discipleship as Christians.4 In Accra, the representatives of the worldsReformed churches recognized that saying yes to global economic justice (and eco-logical sanity) also required saying no to a prevailing economic system that is becom-ing totalitarian in nature, through the relentless squeezing out of all alternatives and thedrive to incorporate the entire world into its globalizing market logic.

Remarkably, both the World Council of Churches and the World Alliance ofReformed Churches are using the language of Empire to describe the totalitarian ten-dencies of the dominant form of globalization. According to the 24th General Council:

As we look at the negative consequences of globalization for the most vulner-able and for the earth community as a whole, we have begun to rediscover theevangelical significance of the biblical teaching about Empire Today, wedefine Empire as the convergence of economic, political, cultural, and mili-tary interests that constitute a system of domination in which benefits areforced to flow from the weak to the powerful.5

Modeling their statement after the famous Barmen Declaration, the 24th GeneralCouncil proceeded to enumerate a series of confessional statements spelling out whatChristians are called to affirm and reject. At the heart of the statement is the followingconfession:

We believe in God, Creator and Sustainer of all life, who calls us as partnersin the creation and redemption of the world We believe that God is sover-eign over all creation. The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof (Psalm24:1).

Therefore, we reject the current world economic order imposed by glob-al neoliberal capitalism and any other economic system, including absoluteplanned economies, which defy Gods covenant by excluding the poor, thevulnerable, and the whole of creation from the fullness of life. We reject any

claim of economic, political, and military empire which subverts Gods sover-eignty over life and acts contrary to Gods just rule.6

To Christians in industrialized nations, the language of empire may seem inflam-matory or overblown. Many of us do not perceive ourselves to be living in an Empire.Yet we would be wise to listen to the voices of Christians in other parts of the worldwho are speaking out about the impact of the global economy on their communities.These Christians are not seeking to condemn us but to enlist our solidarity and our aid.They are crying out for us to wake up to the pain that the global economic system iscausing billions of people and countless other species on our planet. In order to wake

up, however, we must reject the Thatcherist myth that there is no alternative. For, asProverbs warns us, where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18).


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AND NOW FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE ABIDE, THESE THREE;AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

I

f we are to achieve the course corrections we need in order to avert global catastro-

phes of ecological destruction, increasing poverty and disease, and spiraling inequal-ity, we will need to draw upon the faith that moves mountains, and the wellspring ofChristian hope that closes its ears to the counsels of despair. But most of all, we willneed the spiritual gift of love. The World Council of Churches in its AGAPE processenvisions an alternative form of human economy that is grounded in Gods call to loveone another. The call is for an agapeeconomy which honors God and serves life:

Agaperelationships reflect that all life has its common root in Gods free graceand life-giving love. Grace is Gods power to sustain and renew creation, andto turn us from death to life. Discrimination, exclusion, and an unequal dis-

tribution of wealth and power deny the values of the agapecommunity andviolate the commandment to love God and neighbor.7

Ultimately, the question that looms before us as Christians is, Whom shall you serve?Do we serve an economic system oriented towards ensuring the welfare of the few at theexpense of the many? Or do we serve the God who gifted us with this good, greenearth, who calls us to sacrificial love for one another, and who charged us with theresponsibility to care for Gods creation? Listening to the voices of Christians fromaround the world, I have learned that we are all kinnot only humankind, but oth-erkind tooin effect, all living beings are the neighbor that Christ calls us to love.

If we are to survive and thrive together on this beautiful planet, we must eschew alltotalitarian tendencies, economic or otherwise. Christian freedom, and Gods love forall creation, demands no less.

NOTES

1. Larry Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996): 98-103.

2. For a description of the dire ecological threats facing our world today, see the report of

the Board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, released by the United Nations in 2005 andentitled, Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-Being. Available athttp://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx. For analysis of the growing economicinequality between and within nations, see United Nations Development Programme, HumanDevelopment Report 2005(New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2005), 3. Forstatistics on lack of access to clean water, see Peter Gleick, The Human Right to Water, WaterPolicy1, No. 5 (1999): 487-503.

3. World Council of Churches, Alternative Globalization Addressing People and EarthAGAPE: A Call to Love and Action, in Programme Book, Ninth Assembly, Porto Alegre, February2006(Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2006), 111-115.

4. World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and theEarth, par. 1, 16.

5. World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Mission Section Plenary Report, 24th Gener-al Council meeting in Accra, Ghana, July 30-August 13, 2004, par. 1.1.

Continued on page 29


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One telling feature of globalization is interdependence. Globalization has broughtdifferent peoples, cultures, and religions together into a single arena, making

mutual contact and interaction inevitable. Despite the increasing interdependence ofthe world, however, morality and a reliable social order are not on the horizon yet, thuscreating a vacuum for power manipulation, exploitation, abuse, and conflicts to fill.Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Through our scientific and technological genius, wehave made of this world a neighborhood. It is urgently true that now we are challengedthrough our spiritual and moral commitments to make of this world a brotherhood.1

How has America been responding to the expanding reality of interdependence?As the only superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Americans have enjoyedthe privilege of influencing the directions of international affairs and issues. Then the9/11 tragedy happened: this defining moment in American history revealed that theentire world is not content with American influence. Nineteen Al Qaeda members,recruited from different countries, attacked the Pentagon, the twin towers of the WorldTrade Center, and presumably intended to attack Camp David or the White Houseall symbols of American military, economic, and political power.

America hit back hard with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Five years after 9/11,however, the world has become even more dangerous through Americas inappropriateresponses to that well-choreographed terrorist attack. Bushs War on Terror has gen-erated more terrorists. The Guantnamo military camp and Abu Ghraib prison havebecome symbols of U.S. imperial supremacy, inflaming world opinion against the American nation, and feeding the recruitment of terrorists. The U.S., usurping all

TRINITARIAN OR THEOCRATIC?

HA KJO O N LE E

Hak Joon Lee is associate professor of ethics and community at NewBrunswick Theological Seminary. Lee received his MDiv (1990) and PhD(1997, summa cum laude) degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. A

member of the board of editors for Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought,Lee is the author ofCovenant and Communication: A Christian Moral Conversa-tion with Jrgen Habermas(University Press of America, 2006), We Will Get tothe Promised Land: Martin Luther King Jr.s Communal-Political Spirituality(Pil-grim Press, 2006), Bridge Builders(The Doorae Publishing Company, Korea),

and numerous articles.


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RE F LE C T IONS

22

moral support in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, has now become one of the mostdisliked nations.

What may be the reason for such a failure? A striking possibility is the attitude ofthe Bush government in dealing with globalization and religious terrorism, in particu-lar its confusion of the global and the local in the way is thinks and acts, as exemplifiedby its overwhelming sense of American supremacy and its doctrine of preemptive strike.Rather than subjecting themselves to the study of the highly complicated internation-al situations created by globalization, and calling for the support of other nations, theBush teams response was a completely inappropriate, simplistic, and local response toa problem that is global and interdependent in nature. Bushs doctrine aimed at theimposition of a local ideology and interests of America, over the complex reality of aglobal society and the common good. Deceived by a supremacist ambition, the Bushadministration acted globally while thinking locally rather than having the wisdom ofdoing the opposite: think globally and act locally.

Supremacy, whatever form it may take, tends to glorify and romanticize thelocalmy tribe, my race, my religion, my nation, etc., at the expense of others.Supremacy is a more extreme variety of an unrelational, monistic thinking, groundedin a belief of ones religious and nationalistic superiority. Although U.S. supremacy andIslamic religious terrorism seem to lie on opposite sides, upon close scrutiny, they tendto reveal similar logic and dynamics: the rejection of human solidarity and interdepen-dence, supported by a fear of assimilation and loss of identity. Supremacists refuse totreat other human beings as equal to themselves. In an Us vs. Them state of mind,supremacists think of themselves as righteous, while demonizing the opponents as evil.And labeling the opponents as evil has the effect of covering up all their own culpabil-ity and shortcomings, ascribing the responsibility for all wrongs to the enemy.

American supremacy is historically associated with Christian theocracy, which hasbeen expressed through the ideas of manifest destiny, with the theological notions ofelection and a privileged covenant: the United States believes and promotes its ownmythological status as a nation chosen by God to redeem the world, to bring Westerncivilization to primitive peoples, if necessary by using military means. The Bush gov-ernments close political alignment with the Christian Coalition and Christian funda-mentalists shows that this historical association is still alive.

The unrelational and monistic thinking of supremacy cannot effectively solve thecomplex problems of a global society. In this new world order, an individual nation-state becomes just one of many locals; it can no longer behave as a self-sufficient, all-encompassing entity. No matter how strong its military and its economy may be, theU.S.A. cannot exist alone. Supremacy is a fanciful myth in a global society because it isan attitude based on an aversion for difference, a fear of otherness, and the desire tocontrol others. World peace is possible only when the fundamental interdependence,reciprocity, and equality of humanity are radically affirmed. We are so interdependentthat the success of our struggle against terrorism depends on the support of the peoplesof those other nations where terrorists operate. The solution to the problem is not moreviolence or revenge, but mutually respectful dialogue and the removal of injustice incombination with absolutely necessary military actions.


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Globalization requires a change in our fundamental thinking about approachingthe changing world: we must move from unilateral and monistic to holistic and rela-tional. Christians are no exception in this case. We must acknowledge and affirm thefundamental interdependence of humanity in God. As King said, In a real sense, wemust all live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We must see thissense of dependence, this sense of interdependence. No individual can live alone, nonation can live alone; we are made to live together.2

In this respect, a Christian doctrine of the Trinity has a new relevance and signifi-cance for us. The Trinity tells that the heart of Christianity is relationship. The triuneGod does not exist as a self-sufficient supreme individual or a monarch, but as the com-munity of the three distinct persons of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Perichoresis, anancient theological term that literally means dancing together, aptly captures thisinterdependent nature of the triune God. The trinitarian persons are eternally in mutu-ally loving, interrelated, and interpenetrating unity without losing distinctiveness. In amanner analogous to the trinitarian hypostasis, human beings are understood to berelated but distinct, particular but not isolated. Trinitarian thinking overcomes thedichotomy between monism and relativism, and between absolutism and subjectivism.3

In trinitarian thinking, relationality is constitutive of ones identity and being; I amwho I am in relation to others, just as Father is Father in relation to Son, and vice versa.

Christian theocracy aligned with US supremacy is a complete contradiction of theGospel, which says all human beings are created free, equal, and interdependent by the

triune God, and affirms that Christ came and died for the whole of humanity. The mis-sion of Christian churches is to teach and share the mystery and blessing of the triuneGod with humanity: that Gods will for humanity is love and mutuality. It seems thattwo paths are before us: the monistic, unilateral, fear-driven thinking of Us vs. Them,or the dialogical, reciprocal, and ecumenical way of living together.

For me, it is a wonderful time to be trinitarian.

NOTES

1. Martin Luther King Jr., Gay Lecture, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, (TheKing Center Archives, April 19, 1961), 4.

2. Ibid.

3. See Colin Gunton, The One, The Three, and The Many(New York: Cambridge Univer-sity Press, 1993).


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INTRODUCTION

It is commonly said almost world over that the world is becoming small or theworld has become small. This view seems to sound so positive that one easily gets

overwhelmed. Of course, the statement intends to refer to the fact that due to thebooming global market, people easily interact and can get to one another in the short-est possible time. However, the scenario needs to be perceived with a critical eye andmind. Is the world really becoming smallsmall for all on the global scene? Inas-

much as we appreciate the reality and the benefits thereof in globalization, it needs tobe made clear that it is a fact that the smallness of the world is for the elite and thepowerful, economically speaking. For me, globalization is ambiguous and poses a press-ing challenge to African contextual theologies. As an African theologian and minister,I do not see the ambiguity of globalization as a threat, so to say, but a challenge whichhas to be approached seriously and critically in order for theology to be sound in theAfrican context.

DUAL-FACETED AMBIGUITY

How then is globalization ambiguous? The ambiguity lies in the fact that the cur-rent scenario portrays a disparity in the way globalization is manifested. I call this

disparity dual-faceted ambiguity. Globalization seems to present itself with two facesof one reality. On the one hand, it seems to be promising a Paradise on earth so full ofprogress and development that optimism is the order of the day. On the other hand, itpresents itself with a gloomy face of global retardation and retrogression which results

THE AMBIGUITY OF GLOBALIZATION:

A PRESSING CHALLENGE FOR

AFRICAN CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY

LAMECK BANDA

Lameck Banda is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in Zambia.

He holds the Bachelor of Theology from Justo Mwale Theological College inZambia and the Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Austin Presbyter-ian Theological Seminary. Currently, he is serving at Railways Congregation ofthe RCZ and is a lecturer at Justo Mwale and is engaged in PhD studies at theUniversity of Free State in Bloefontein, South Africa.


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in passivism on some of the anticipated beneficiaries of globalization, especially theunderprivileged and marginalized.

The positive and brighter face of globalization revives hope. Let me cite a fewprominent components of this glittering face of globalization. The world today is expe-riencing the explosion of technology. The coming on the world scene of computers, cellphones, Internet, and improved media, to name a few, has made communication andwork not only easier but also improved. One can easily convey the message in a simplebut effective and efficient manner, unlike a situation where you only use the ordinarypostage system. For instance, this article is conveyed to the editor from Kabwe, Zam-bia, to Austin in the U.S.A. through the Internet within minutes over a distance ofthousands of miles. What a blessing of globalization! The same technological systempermits that a single person can do a huge amount of work effectively within a shorttime. Indeed, there is a small world of technological boom.

Another promising component which is taking deep roots on the world scene isdemocratization. Democracy, coupled with capitalism, which started in the West, is notonly gaining momentum in the third world, but it has also spread to many countrieson the African continent. Among the positives of democratization is the promotion ofhuman rights which were grossly violated by many tyrants. There are also related issuesinclusive of improved economies, huge investments, privatization, democratically elect-ed national leaders other than the formerly self-imposed dictatorial systems, etc. Inshort, we would say that there is an improved quality of life in the world which in away has been brought about by democracy and capitalism.

Globalization has to some extent contributed to the abolition of superstition onthe global level, though in some corners of the world superstition is still strong andprominent. One can safely say that the human mindset is so technologically orientedthat most people are caught up in the business of the world. In fact, in globalizationthere is a sense of competitiveness. Everyone is aiming to top the rest in the world insocial, economic, political, and religious spheres. This competitiveness in the world hasled to the expansion of global capital, benefiting some more than others.

Globalization promises a brighter future. However, for some of the global masses,especially in Africa, globalization is a nightmare. It is not a small world but a hugeworld in that they do not see light at the end of the tunnel. The darkness of global-ization is still overshadowing many poor, marginalized, and voiceless masses. There aremany pressing issues which are real in the African context which clearly define thedarkness of globalization. Disparity in global economic progression in Africa is readilyperceived by any open-minded person. The minority rich are continuously becomingricher at the expense of the majority poor masses. Just a few days before writing thisarticle, I read in one of Zambias print media that one of the multinational powers inthe Southern African region which had invested in my country intends to pull out of

the country so as to avoid paying tax. This simply means that after making huge prof-its they would go and invest elsewhere, leaving many of the local employees, who havecontributed a lot to those profits, in the cold of joblessness and wallowing in poverty.The employees will in the end fail to contribute to the economic development of thenation, which in will retard national economic progression.


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In the global world, the African identity of communality is suppressed by Westernindividualism. Africans by nature are social and communal. Globalization suppresses thisrich and unifying identity of African culture by fostering an environment in which indi-viduals are aiming at individual prosperity. The relations of the community are neglect-ed to the point of oblivion. Related to individualism is urbanization. Urbanization hasdeprived rural established settlements of a much-needed able and reliable work-force ofyoung people who have instead migrated to seek greener pastures in the cities. This, inthe end, has resulted in overpopulation of urban settlements. Overpopulation hasbirthed an increase in a number of vices such as crime, spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic,prostitution, ever-spreading number of street kids, and ever-increasing levels of unem-ployment and poverty.

The global scenario has seen the growing generation gap. The non-materialistic,naturalistic older generation in Africa is left out by the fast-moving, energetic, andmaterialistic younger generation. What matters most for the African older generationis their relationship with the spiritual world and in the community. This is not as truefor the young in the globalized Africa. What counts is progression and adventure of anindividual in the new and material world for the sake of personal prosperity. To illus-trate this point, I offer this example. Our son, Naphtali, knows more about the opera-tions of a computer than I do, and yet he is only twelve years oldmore than twodecades younger than I am. What a fascinating child! Sometimes I imagine how myfather, who died in 1988, would be perplexed and shocked if he could see how theworld has grown. Yes, there is a gap between me and my father, but there is even anever-growing gap between me and our son. How will it be ten years from now?

The other component on the dark side of globalization is the continual increase ofthe ecological crisis. With the optimism of economic expansion, globalization poses achallenge to humanitys relationship with nature. The sad part of this challenge is thatit is not only a threat to the natural world, but more so to the human species existence.Massive industrial investments in Africa have displaced the much-needed naturalresources for human co-existence and survival. For example, we need oxygen for respi-ration, but we have devastated the vegetation which produces the needed oxygen.Though I may not be a scientific expert, I think it is right to associate the increase inthe number of respiratory diseases with the ecological crisis, considering what is hap-pening in the world now.

Globalization, as analyzed above, is indeed ambiguous in that it portrays itself onthe world scene as a dual-faceted entity. It is this ambiguity that poses a challenge tothe African context. In fact, it is within the African context, of course not sideliningother contexts, where the ambiguity is mostly and clearly notable. How then is anAfrican contextual theology challenged by the ever-perplexing ambiguity of globaliza-tion? What follows is a brief illustration of the challenge that the ambiguity poses toAfrican contextual theologies.


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CHALLENGE OF THE AMBIGUITY TO THEAFRICAN CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY

A

frican theologies have to face and address several obstacles, in the process of con-

textualization. The reality of the ambiguity of globalization is one considerationthat must not be ignored.

It is now the call in theological circles that African contextual theology must con-sider the historical-cultural norms or cultural thought-forms of the locals in the contextwithin which that theology is pursued. Theology must not ignore the local historical,religious, political, and social heritagethe way people live, their linguistic patterns,the way people think, and the way the locals relate to one another. But then, the ambi-guity of globalization poses a challenge in that African contextual theology cannotafford to bury itself in the sand of the historical-cultural norms of the locals. It has to

find a way of making theology real to the locals in their cultural thought-forms, butwithin the ever-changing global scenario. In the process, African contextual theologiesface the challenge of fusing the dual-facets of globalizations ambiguityboth thebrighter and darker sides, the promising and gloomy faces of globalization.

Contextualization has to do with the theological heritage of the Christian faith andcommunity. African contextual theologies are not isolated entitiesthey are part of andexist in the global scope of the Christian theological conceptualization of the supremereality called God, to whom we relate our faith. The challenge then is: African contex-tual theology has to make the theological heritage a reality in the ambiguity of global-

ization. Some of the concepts in the Christian theological heritage seem not to be ofvalue on the global scenario. For instance, they seem not to be addressing the disparitybetween the rich and the poor. In short, one would say, they were relevant during thetime of our forefathers. Their relevance has become questionable in the globalizedworld. African contextual theology must ponder how to make these theological her-itages relevant in the ambiguously globalized African context.

Africa has been considered a dark continent for a long time. With the surfacing ofthe gloomy face of globalization, a large population of Africans have undergoneunfavourable conditions such as poverty, poor health care, unemployment, economic

neo-colonialism, and many more. The challenge for African contextual theology is thatit has to be mindful of the experiences of the local people. Theology should penetratethe status quo by bridging the gap between the elite and the underprivileged in the con-text where it is situated.

African theology outside scripture is not theology at all. Without scripture, Africantheology faces the danger of falling into fictitious conceptualizations or African syn-cretism. Any Christian theology is born and progresses from scripture because the Wordof scripture attests Gods own self-disclosure in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the challengingtask of African contextual theology is to make this revelation a reality and meaningful

to the situation of the ambiguity of globalization within the African context. The dis-parity in the world seems to make the reality of the Christian God questionable thoughChristians affirm the reality as attested to by scripture. The challenging question whichAfrican contextual theology should seek to answer is, How can the Word of scripture


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be presented to the African community in such a way as to make it appealing to theglobalized African context?

MAPPING THE FRAMEWORK OFAFRICAN CONTEXTUALTHEOLOGY WITHIN THE AMBIGUITY

How should the framework of African contextual theologies address the ambigui-ty of globalization? This is the core issue in the last section of the article. Here I

suggest a sketch of how African contextual theologies can be pursued. My approachshould be taken as one among many suggested possible solutions to the ambiguity. Ithink it can be of help to some, especially the emerging African contextual theologians.

Here are some guidelines in the framework which need to be taken into consider-ation as an African theologian ventures to do theology not only in the African context,

but also in the context of the ambiguity of globalization:Consider the centrality of scripturemaintaining the biblical soundness.Africancontextual theology should keep the scriptural base and tone ablaze. This the-ology must reflect the trueness of the gospel of Gods own self-disclosure inJesus Christ as attested in scripture.

Be sensitive to the needs and problems of the locals in the African context. In fact,theology does not emerge from a vacuum, it is influenced by the life experi-ences of the local people of a particular context in time and space. Therefore,African contextual theology has to be sensitive to such life experiences.

Be realistic about the experiences of the African situation or context. In doing the-ology in a particular context, there is always a temptation to exaggerate theintensity of the needs and problems of that context. While we should not benaive in considering the situation, we must also adopt a sensitive and realisticapproach to doing African contextual theology.

Study the global social, economic, and political mega trends and how they influ-ence the African continent. An African contextual theologian should be con-versant with what is going on in the world and how these events are impact-ing the African context.

Allow the global realities to influence the locals. Change is inevitable, and we areaffected by changes. Therefore, African contextual theology must always besensitive and attentive to global changes.

Be an ecumenical-minded theologian. African contextual theology must inter-act with other theologies to enrich, evaluate, cross-examine, dialogue, venti-late, and share with each other. In this way, African contextual theology takesinto account the wisdom of the wider ecumenical community.

Co-ordinate Christian (and Reformed) identity with African identity. African

contextual theology must allow the Christian theological heritage to interactand dialogue with the African context.

Assimilate the interdisciplinary and holistic approach. African contextual theol-ogy should involve other non-theological disciplines such as sociology, eco-


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nomics, accounts, political science, etc.

Work closely with expatriate theologians. Inasmuch as African theologians needto take the lead in doing theology in context, expatriate theologians can as well

provide expertise in an advisory role.

CONCLUSION

Globalization is indeed a pressing challenge to African contextual theology because,as seen in this article, it presents a dual-faceted ambiguity; the brighter and

promising face as well as the darker and gloomy face. African contextual theologiesneed to face such a challenge holistically. They need to consider a multi-faceted frame-work if they are to successfully, effectively, and efficiently face and address the chal-lenges posed by the global scenario.

6. Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth, par. 17-19.

7. World Council of Churches, Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth(AGAPE): A Background Document(Geneva: World Council of Churches Justice, Peace and Cre-ation Team, 2005), 14.

Another worldContinued from page 20


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How has the shrinking world, the increasing contact between persons of differentcultures and nationalities, had an impact on your ministry?

CHRISTINE EATON BLAIR, ASSOCIATE PASTOR, AMERICAN CHURCH IN PARISThe American Church in Paris is in the unique situation of providing English worship

in a French-speaking context. As a result, English-speaking Christians from all over theworld join this congregation in worship and ministry. In the last decade, the numberof Americans in Paris has dropped considerably. At the same time, the number ofAfricans and Asians has increased dramatically as a result of waves of immigrants com-ing to Europe to escape war, disease, and extreme poverty at home. This movement ismade possible as the world shrinks and borders are more easily reached and crossed.At the American Church, approximately fifty nations are represented in worship onSunday morning, with 2/3 of our members coming from the 2/3 world. With anaverage Sunday morning attendance of 550 to 600, this means that over 300 of those

present come from Asia and Africa (including the Middle East). A second factor is thatthose who worship with us very often come from home churches that were started byAmerican and British missionaries. They have a deep Christian faith and they find itnatural to worship in an American-style church. Thirdly, for many peoples of faithfrom other countries, whether they be diplomats, business people, legal immigrants, orillegal refugees, the church is often the one place where they receive an honorable wel-come and they can feel at home. As a result, a major ministry of this church is that ofcare and support that is both spiritual and physical. It includes the ministry of prayerand Bible study, on the one hand, and of providing food tickets, loans for rent, and free

legal advice, on the other hand. Our parishioners highly value both of these ministries,ministries of soul and of body.

LAURATAYLOR DE PALOMINO, PASTOR, CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,HANOVERPARK, ILLINOISBetween a fourth and a third of my congregation consists of members who have cometo the U.S. from other countries and cultures. It is an important part of our identity asa congregation to celebrate and embrace the diversity among us. During Advent, we lis-tened to a Christmas carol in Arabic that was translated by a member who is fromLebanon. Another week we heard a Christmas carol sung in Twi (and translated) by amember from Ghana, and a couple from the Philippines sang a carol in Tagalog. Wealso have music in Spanish and Portuguese and have used creeds of faith from othercultural expressions of Christianity. In addition, we prayed for the family of a churchmember who had been affected by the typhoons and mudslides in the Philippines and

We asked church leaders to reflect on the reality of a shrinking world and

its consequences for their ministries. Here is what they told us:


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PASTORS PANEL

other families whose members had been affected by political violence in the Philippinesand Lebanon. We are keenly aware of immigration concerns, from the perspective ofhard-working immigrants who make contributions to society and still suffer from anti-immigrant attitudes in people around them. We are able to benefit from a wider vari-ety of news sources, knowing more languages, and having family and friends aroundthe world.

What resources in the Christian tradition do you draw on as you help others grap-ple with the realities of globalization?

CHRISTINE EATON BLAIRI have found that the faith of peoples from Asia and Africa is deep and strong, basedin a wide knowledge of the Bible and an unquestioning trust in the power of prayer.This makes a powerful impression on others as they spend time with these Christianswho come from other parts of the globe. The meeting places in church life becomeimportant centers of encounter and community building: Bible studies, fellowshiptimes, mission projects, teaching Sunday School, to name a few. A key resource is thefaith of the members: sharing personal faith stories and individual experiences of Godssupport and presence plays a major role in uniting this diverse body.

Theologically, I draw on the Reformed understanding based in Scripture that Godcalls into being Christs Body. To witness an international and diverse congregationsuch as this one is to see a more accurate representation of Christs Body. Therefore, thepeople who are called to worship a

insights spring 07

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