Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice

The book sets out to address and answer three questions from the point of view of Christian theology. The first is, from where does theology speak? The second is, what are the mechanisms whereby cultures change? The third is, how might we conceive the relationship between the contemporary production of theological discourse and the transformation of cultures more generally? Drawing upon the work of standpoint epistemologists, cultural anthropologists and social scientists, the book argues that public acts of interpretation are involvements in renegotiating the future direction of cultural change. Though the enquiry is conducted from one particular standpoint - Christian theology - the observations and suggestions it makes regarding cultural transformation and the defense it makes of syncretism have more general application.

• This is original: no one has examined the processes of cultural transformation and theology’s involvement with them so systematically • It offers a profound theological engagement with cultural studies and social theory from a theological perspective. • It opens the way for a theological apologetics of a postmodern kind

Introduction; Governing Question I: From what place does theology speak?; Governing Question II: How do cultures change?; Governing Question III: What is the relationship between religious practices and cultural transformation?