Beschreibung
The term ContactZone was coined in postcolonial discourse to signify
the place where cultures and religions meet. It implies that first
contact, cultural-religious exchange and conflict have always been
determined by power-relations. Through making use of communication
theories, hermeneutics and aesthetics intercultural theology
generates new terminologies and theoretical tools to explore these
interactions. Its scope ranges from issues such as dialogue and
syncretism to fundamentalism and ethnicity. Perspectives of culture,
religion, race, class and gender alike are involved in the necessary
multi-axial approach. ContactZone is going to create a space where
a choir of multiple voices is responding to the challenges of the cultural
religious pluralism of the 21st century.
Archbishop Paul Kwong (* 1950) develops the idea of „identity in
community“ as central to the mission and theological agenda of
Christians in Hong Kong. In a wide-ranging multidisciplinary study,
he analyzes diverse perspectives on the territory’s recent history and
compares the methodological approaches of local theologians with
contextual theologies from other parts of the world. He argues that
the overlapping cultural and religious identities of Christians in the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China can empower
Hong Kong people to embrace rather than to exclude differences
and otherness, so that they can accept and live out our their
identities in community without having to make a choice for one
among the many.
