Title: Matheny, D.P. (2011). Contextual Theology: The Drama of Our Times, Eugene, OR: Pickwick. Pp. xv+130; ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-967-5. Price $10; Paperback

Author: Elia Shabani Mligo

 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Teofilo Kisanji University, P.O. Box 1104, Mbeya, United Republic of Tanzania.

Correspondence: eshamm2015@gmail.com

Paul Duane Matheny is Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at the Philippines Christian University and at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines. His book draws our attention towards contextual theology as opposed to the traditional Western kind of theologizing that still hold the “traditional answers to old questions.” Contextual theology is like a “stone rejected by the builders” currently acquiring great reputation in the non–Western world. Contextual theology is the source of what the author calls “New Christianity” moving the epicenter of Christianity away from the West to the non–Western world. The rise of “New Christianity” and contextual theologies is due to shift in the method of doing theology. “It is becoming clearer that theology is not the work of an individual, but of the praxis and cultural mediation of concrete communities of faith.” (p.x)