Intercultural Theology Competence for an Intercultural Faith Education

Abstract

The article begins with clarifying what an Intercultural Faith Education would mean in a global culture that seems to be growing more pronounced in its pluralistic nature. Taking for granted the evident fact that Intercultural theology is the bedrock for a faith education in an intercultural context, it seeks to enumerate certain specific Intercultural theology competences that can render the process of intercultural faith education possible, significant and feasible. From a catechetical or faith education point of view, it analyses the three perspectives of faith that intercultural theology should promote, namely, the dialogic personalisation of faith, the prophetic challenging of faith and the cohesive exchange of faith—corresponding to personal and interpersonal dimensions, communitarian and social dimensions and expressive and missionary dimensions of faith, respectively. Each of these three perspectives declinate themselves into at least three specific competences, amounting to nine practical competences in all: comparative understanding, critical interpretation, cultural collaboration, the recognition of power equations, the ratification of identity formation, the recommendation of theological bonum, equality of expression in faith, an eagerness to learn and empathy in engagement. Interpreting each of these competences and their distinctive contributions, the article configures the foundational framework of intercultural theology for intercultural faith education in terms of these competences.