Christianity is a religion of the ‘Word made flesh’
We confess a God who became incarnate at a particular place and time. The Bible, likewise, is made up of books written to particular people at particular times; the content is concrete and particular, not abstract and theoretical. Christians believe God to be present and active in each local context – in the face of neighbour and stranger, and in the life we seek to build together.
That is why, for Christians, theology is necessarily contextual. Theology is not just a matter of academic analysis. Rather, it emerges from a life of prayer and practice – in a community that meets with God in Word and Sacrament, that listens to the wisdom of Tradition, and that seeks to discern and respond to his presence and action in the world.
The Contextual Theology Centre exists to help Christians to do just that: to understand and enter more deeply into the communities where God has placed them; to discern and respond to his presence and action, and so to engage in faithful and effective witness.