How can intercultural theology and practice be understood in a new way?
Prof Dr Johannes Weth explored this question in his inaugural lecture at the FIT
Weth, who has been teaching the subject "Systematic Theology in Intercultural Perspective" at the University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology for some time now, starts by asking himself how intercultural communication can succeed at all. Unlike people who are afraid that people from different contexts might misunderstand each other, he assumes that misunderstanding in intercultural-ecumenical contexts is the norm the first time and sees this as the "starting point for a new and better understanding".
Our usual communication patterns are (apparently) based on a common understanding of how communication works - including hierarchies, pre-understandings and expected communication results. According to Weth, this is different in intercultural communication, as communication patterns and assumptions do not usually coincide. This leads to a different kind of communication:
"I hear something different, listen into another life and thus gain a new counterpart. Our [communication - ed.] lines interweave, forming a surface of possibilities and mutual perspectives, a vast land."
In contrast to our other (solution-orientated) communication, the facts underlying the misunderstanding are often not clarified, but "we have made some progress in all areas of our community and our mutual verbal and non-verbal understanding." However, the prerequisite for this is not to give up too quickly or to automatically regard the misunderstanding as a "catastrophe of communication".
If we only ever look for communication between equals that brings us the expected results and only ever recognise the "lack of points of intersection" in intercultural communication, this leads to "a feeling of loneliness and helplessness".
"[...] We miss out on a world of in-between spaces, of reciprocal perspectives, of gaining new dimensions that only come into our own knowledge and life through the other. Every friction, every misunderstanding and every distance could become an invitation to expand our own perception."
Weth is familiar with switching between worlds, having studied art and theology in parallel. His entire biography is linked to this theme. And even during his studies, he recognised that the two worlds of art and theology did not remain unconnected, but rather merged in him "into a field of reciprocal perspectives":
"In art, my theology unfolded, and in theology, my art gained its great motifs and its counterpart in God."
To illustrate his ability to change perspectives, Weth shows the captivated and surprised audience so-called ambiguous images.
Thomas Joseph Kuhn (1922-1996) describes the insights that can be drawn from tilting images and multistable perception for the renewal of scientific knowledge as a change of perspective, affirmed ambiguity, the tilting of the image, the change of point of view. Weth explains how Kuhn's term "paradigm shift" can lead to new insights and transfers these insights to the field of intercultural theology and practice:
"Intercultural theology is necessarily ambiguous and diverse. And that is not its problem, but can be understood as its great potential."
For Weth, text and context form a unity; there is no order of importance, but rather a multi-layered simultaneity. According to Weth, the change in terminology from mission theology to intercultural theology expresses this change - from a monolinear way of thinking to a multi-perspective one.
At the end, Weth turns encouragingly to his students, with whom he can already experience unity in diversity:
-
You are invited to participate in the communion of the Holy Spirit
-
Let yourselves be frustrated neither by complexity nor by linearity, but let the interplay of both lead you to an understanding that is not one-sided and poor
-
You move theology and theology moves you
-
Do not worry about possible misunderstandings! They will lead you to a better understanding.
