Description
‘I am located, therefore I am.’ Dr Mary Graham (Kombumerri person) Context is profoundly significant for shaping our understanding of God and what it means to be human. In this volume three scholars from South Australia explore the gifts of and challenges to theologies shaped by their locations.
In ‘Reimagining God and the Church in Australia through an Adnyamathanha Lens’, Rev Dr Aunty Denise Champion from the Flinders Ranges argues for attending to ancient wisdom gifted by ancestors in Country as our primary resource for understanding the ‘new thing’ that is Christ. She explores some of her peoples’ experiences of, and the ongoing implications therefore for, church and Christology in this place. ‘Jesus Walking on Aboriginal Countries,’ by Dr Labhaoise Upton, a Catholic woman, charts the surprising wisdom she encountered listening to Elders along the Dingo Songline as she took up Pope John Paul II’s 1986 charge to joyfully receive the contribution to the Church of Aboriginal peoples.
And in ‘Locational Challenges for Second Generation Asian Australian Theology’, Rev Cyrus Kung, a second- generation Hong Kong Chinese Australian, presses by way of autobiographical theology into the locational challenges he perceives exist for him and others like him to theologise in Australia.
Editor bio:
Rosemary Dewerse is the link between the three scholars in this volume. Since 2012 it has been her privilege to work with Aunty Denise to publish her thinking. She supervised Labhaoise’s PhD and Cyrus’ Masters thesis from which their contributions are drawn. Rosemary, whose tūrangawaewae (home location) is Aotearoa New Zealand, is the Academic Dean and Research Coordinator of the Uniting College for Leadership and Theology in Adelaide, a college of the University of Divinity.
Art credit: ‘Flinders Trails,’ by Georgie Sharp, Life Member Curdnatta Art Group Port Augusta. Used with permission.
