Women Doing Mission Theology

Abstract

Traditionally doing theology has been the domain of men. Yet, throughout Christian history, there have always been a few women that have defied this pattern. As Christian women, they took on mission tasks. They developed mission theologies.

This paper contrasts the traditional method of doing top down theology in the Imperial Mood to a method that women use to develop theologies — the Contextual Mood. Although this process of experience/action/reflection has been used by women for centuries, post-colonial critiques of Christian mission brings this methodology into prominence as a most suitable method of doing mission theology in the postmodern era. Moving this methodology from the pre-theoretical, intuitive domain into conscious understanding and articulation can turn the contextual method into a strong tool for developing women mission theologies.