Toward Becoming Intercultural in Theological Education: Engaging with Calabash Breakers

This thesis explores a conviction that the purpose of theological education is to model and facilitate deep engagement with the o/Other, for transformation comes through relationship and the Christian life is about transformation. In a context like Aotearoa New Zealand that is becoming increasingly multicultural, but where theological education still operates out of an agenda largely dominated by those who are racially white, the argument is made for a kind of deep engagement that would realise truly intercultural theological education. In order to ensure that this conviction is lived as well as discussed, the methodology for this research is shaped by the Buberian-derived idea of dialogical relation and seeks to pay careful attention to I, Thou, and It -- subjective reflection, the voice of the other, and objective analysis. A combination of autoethnography and modified grounded theory is employed alongside semi-structured, reflexive interviews and a research journal to facilitate this. The critical hermeneutic of Jung Young Lee, who claimed that it is "new marginal" people -- those who stand with their feet in two or more cultures and see "in-both," "inbetween," and "in-beyond" -- who hold the key to realising multicultural (or intercultural) theology for a multicultural context, undergirds and informs the choice of interviewees. In total the voices of thirty-seven people are heard, people here named "calabash breakers" because they cross boundaries and break rules. They are drawn largely from Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, a country that has some history in addressing diversity in theological education. The result of analysis of their interviews reveals that they are advocating formation, more than knowledge acquisition, as being the appropriate educational milieu. Between them, the calabash breakers identify four areas needing particular attention within that: caring for identity; listening to silenced voices; experiencing epistemic ruptures; and dismantling discrimination. A case study of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, drawing on material collected in September-October 2009, helpfully illustrates the challenges and implications of a commitment to these areas, across structures, curriculum, pedagogy, and community life, for an institution willing to dedicate itself long-term to the journey of becoming intercultural.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Dewerse, Rosemary

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Culbertson, P
• Smith, S
• Dunn, J

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/8513

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/8513