The image is from the initiative by Whitley College, a college of the University of Divinity, in partnership with NAIITS, to explore theology, history and the practice of ministry from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and world Indigenous perspectives. In 2021, the University of Divinity also launched the School of Indigenous Studies.
The below references Indigenous Christian theologies written (almost) only by Indigenous peoples. The point here is to move the discussion away from a sense of contextualisation that treats the Christian faith as something essentially foreign, something that requires a step from an established form to a secondary form that requires maturation. Indigenous Christian theology, by contrast, does not translate a primary cultural embodiment of the faith into a secondary form, but the lived experience of the faith grows out of the word of God speaking in local language.
This is presented with a caveat, however: the below material encompasses the globe and there is a legitimate concern that “Indigenous” becomes reduced to a genus, an amorphous body. The potential here is that certain voices come to dominate the Indigenous narrative, meaning that Indigenous concerns and theological insights reduce, for example, to the North American experience. This has, of course, been the typical Indigenous experience. It is necessary, in other words, to retain the particularity basic to indigeneity. Read the below text with this caution of particularity in mind.
Anno, Ferdinand. 2010. “Indigenous Theology: Sources and Resources Perspectives From the Philippines.” The Ecumenical Review 62 (4): 371–78.
Apeh, John E. 1994. “Doing Indigenous Theology: A Philosophical and Theological Basis.” The Asia Journal of Theology 8 (1): 54–71.
Appiah-Kubi, Kofi. 1979. “Indigenous African Christian Churches: Signs of Authenticity.” In African Theology En Route: Papers From the Pan African Conference of Third World Theologians, December 17-23, 1977, Accra, Ghana, edited by Kofi Appiah-Kubi, and Sergio Torres, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Aye, Inatoli. 2021. “Queer(y)ing Naga Indigenous Theology.” Feminist Theology 30 (1): 37–51.
Baago, Kaj. 1966. “Indian Indigenous Theology.” International Review of Mission 55 (218): 221–25.
Baagø, Kaj. 1969. Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity. Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society and the Christian Literature Society.
Barber, Ron. 2020. “Globalization, Contextualization, and Indigeneity: Local Approaches to Indigenous Christianity.” Missiology 48 (4): 376–91.
Battung, R., Z. Samita, and G. Tinker. 1998. “Indigenous Theologies: An EATWOT Response.” Voices from the Third World 21 (1): 108–9.
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Cebrian, Dina Ludena. 2010. “The Sources and Resources of Our Indigenous Theology.” The Ecumenical Review 62 361–70.
Charleston, Steven, and Elaine A. Robinson, eds. 2015. Coming Full Circle: Constructing Native Christian Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers.
Clark, Jawanza Eric. 2012. Indigenous Black Theology: Toward an African-Centered Theology of the African-American Religious Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Devadutt, Vinjamuri E. 1949. “What is an Indigenous Theology?” Ecumenical Review 2 (1): 40–51.
Djiniyini, Terry. 1984. “Aboriginal Christianity: Based on Indigenous Theology.” Nelen Yubu (18): 30–36.
Dodson, P. 1988. “The Land Our Mother, the Church Our Mother.” In Discovering an Australian Theology, edited by P. Malone, 83–88. Homebush, NSW: St Paul.
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Holth, Sverre. 1968. “Towards an Indigenous Theology.” Ching Feng 11 (4): 5–16.
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Longkumer, Atola. 2010. “Not All is Well in My Ancestors’ Home: An Indigenous Theology of Internal Critique.” The Ecumenical Review 62 (4): 399–410.
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Magowan, Fiona. 2007. “Globalisation and Indigenous Christianity: Translocal Sentiments in Australian Aboriginal Christian Songs.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14 (4): 459–83.
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Martin, Kathleen J. 2010. “‘Jesus Was Not an Indian’: Encountering Native Images in the Catholic Church.” In Indigenous Symbols and Practices in the Catholic Church: Visual Culture, Missionization and Appropriation, 137–62. Farnham, UK: Routledge.
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Pattel-Gray, Anne, and John Percival Brown, eds. 1997. Indigenous Australia: A Dialogue About the Word Becoming Flesh in Aboriginal Churches. Geneva: World Council of Churches.
Pattel-Gray, Anne. 1991. Through Aboriginal Eyes: The Cry From the Wilderness. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications.
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