THE ROLE OF THEOLOGICAL CONSTANTS IN DOING CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY

Every theology is contextual. A theology is always a product of a particular culture’s encounter

with the Gospel. It is a fact that theology develops or evolves as the Gospel is accepted by
different people of different times. Hence, the early Christian communities may have their
distinctive interpretation of the Gospel from that of the Scholastics, the moderns, and the
contemporary people. The West’s understanding of the Gospel may not be totally identical with
that of the East. Every culture interprets the Gospel in its own unique way.

However, there is no plurality of Christian faith. There may be varied traditions of Christianity
but these are all bound together into a single unified faith. As theology attempts to become
relevant to various cultures, it cannot also deny its fidelity to the one Gospel of Christ. Every
theologizing then strives to strike the balance of its meaningfulness to the culture on the one
hand, and its faithfulness to the Gospel on the other.

Hence, it is always difficult to do theology. Some theologians give emphasis on the culture at
the expense of an authentic expression of the Gospel, while others may simply repeat the
dominant theologies of the West without regard for their relevance to the culture of the people.

This is where the theology research team of the John Paul II Research Center hopes to make its
contribution. The team worked for a Filipino theological articulation of justice. The choice of the
topic was influenced by two reasons: (1) the need to come up with a particular method that can
be used in doing theology and (2) because the theme on justice continues to be a problem in our
Philippine condition. As the group started its work, its first question was: “how” to articulate a
Filipino theology of justice.

The search for the method resulted to a proposal of looking for the constant themes that regularly
surface in the exploration of the various traditions of Christianity. These constants somehow
assure that a particular theology is rooted in the Gospel. The fact that other Christian traditions
have discerned the same themes in the Gospel testifies that they must be grounded on the
Gospel Truth. Moreover, these constants can also be used as guides for future theological
articulation. In this way, we are guaranteed that the fresh interpretation of the Gospel remains
to be a continuation of the long established Tradition of the Church. This means that as the
constants open the possibility of talking about God from the point of view of the culture, such
discourse does not really depart from the Gospel.

Since the topic of the project is “on justice,” it is important that the constant themes on justice
have to be sought. But due to the vastness and richness of the Christian traditions, the group
chooses to study only the Scripture, the theology of Tommaso d’Aquino and the Social
Teachings of the Church. The work then seeks the convergences, the common themes, or the
constants found in the reflections of these three traditions on justice.

As the study progresses, it discovered that the notable constant themes in the talk of justice are
the following: (1) the norm – this is the particular way by which a certain culture views God; (2)
the actions involved – these refer to God’s actions as He relates to His people, and the people’s
responses to these actions of God; (3) the people’s fidelity to the norm – this looks at a particular
people’s accepted regulations and practices whereby they incarnate God’s justice; and (4) the
primacy of love – this is the realization that every talk about justice ultimately results to love as
the more important virtue, that is, justice simply serves fruition of love.

These four identified constant themes are then used as guides in the fresh interpretation of justice
especially in the context of the Filipino culture. In other words, in order to articulate a Filipino
theology of justice, the study must endeavor to answer the following questions:
1. How does the Filipino culture view God?
2. How does the God of the Filipino people relate to them?
3. How do the Filipinos relate to God?
4. How do the Filipinos manifest their sense of justice in their social relationships?
5. How do the Filipinos show the primacy of love over justice?

The project was but an initial attempt to actually do a contextualized theology. It tries to
develop a concept of justice that is both meaningful to the culture and faithful to the Gospel.
Furthermore, it contributes to the search for a feasible method of contemporary theologizing:
the discernment for the theological constants in the various Christian traditions, and to use the
same as guides in articulating a fresh Filipino or local theology.

The study hopes that the constants could help address the perennial concern in the task of doing
theology: the balance of a theology’s faithfulness to the entire Christian Tradition and its
relevance to the culture of the people.

Joel C. Sagut