Intercultural Hermeneutics. Intercultural Theology: Volume One by Henning Wrogemann (review)

Reviewed by: Intercultural Hermeneutics. Intercultural Theology: Volume One by Henning Wrogemann Graham Joseph Hill (bio) Intercultural Hermeneutics. Intercultural Theology: Volume One. By Henning Wrogemann. Translated by Karl E Böhmer. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016. 435 pp. $45 hdbk. Majority World churches are redefining twenty-first-century Christianity. "Majority World" is an alternative term for the Global South, Developing World, or Third World, and includes countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Oceania, Indigenous and First Nations Peoples. Most of the world's population is in those contexts, and the majority of Christians live in those countries. Western churches must decide how they will respond to the astonishing growth of Majority World churches and the shift of Christianity from the West to the South and the East. In The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, U.S. historian Philip Jenkins writes, "We are currently living through one of the transforming moments in the history of religion worldwide … Over the last century, the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably away from Europe, southward, to Africa and Latin America, and eastward, toward Asia. Today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are to be found in those regions" (1). What does this mean for the spirituality of the church worldwide? What does it mean particularly for the spirituality of the Western church? Those of us in the West need a new narrative. It is time to abandon our flawed Eurocentric and Americentric worldviews. We need a new, global, and intercultural narrative. We must turn to the churches of Majority World and Indigenous cultures. They can help us explore what it means to be a global and intercultural community. Many Christian communities in Majority World and Indigenous contexts have been wrestling with contemporary intercultural and interreligious issues for generations. Majority World Christians are compelled to explore intercultural spirituality and interfaith approaches to art and religion. Consequently, spirituality and faith in these Majority World churches have flourished. In his three volumes on intercultural theology, Henning Wrogemann offers the most comprehensive treatment of World Christianity, mission studies, and intercultural theology seen for decades. Wrogemann's series is magisterial and profound and displays a breathtaking mastery of interfaith spirituality, theology, missiology, sociology, and related disciplines. German-language intercultural theology and mission studies are largely unknown in the English-speaking world, and much of this German-language intercultural theology is still to be translated. In volume 1 of Intercultural Hermeneutics, Wrogemann gives us a window into German-language intercultural and missiological treatments of such topics as World Christianity, intercultural theology, intercultural and interfaith spirituality, culture, syncretism, inculturation, identity, cultural semiotics, postcolonialism, ecumenism, discourse theory, globalization, and historical and contemporary models of mission. Henning Wrogemann's Intercultural Hermeneutics is stunning—a feast for anyone interested in mission studies, World Christianity, cross-cultural spirituality, and intercultural theology. Wrogemann defines intercultural hermeneutics this way: "From a cultural-semiotic perspective, [intercultural hermeneutics] is the attempt to decode other, foreign cultures using the medium of their own conceptions and terminology, i.e., to identify that meaning, those referential connections, and that relevance that things have for people from the culture in question" (154–55). [End Page 179] Intercultural Hermeneutics has many strengths. The series is more than comprehensive; it is magisterial. Wrogemann offers a holistic view of hermeneutics, encompassing both culture and text. The book introduces readers to German-language missiology and intercultural theology. Wrogemann's location in a European university makes him work hard on rationality and reason, critical engagements with his theories, and the contribution of his work and intercultural theology to society. The intellectual rigour of Wrogemann's work may prevent intellectual calcification and stimulate a dynamism in intercultural theology. Lesslie Newbigin has been an influential voice in the missiological academe in the North America. But his contributions regarding society got warped into "church matters" in much North American discourse. Wrogemann picks up Newbigin's broader agenda. His book recognizes the complexity of the history of mission and colonization, and intercultural approaches to spirituality and religion. His global perspective means that Wrogemann is respectful of Pentecostal and Evangelical spirituality, which is often ignored or despised in academic circles and...