ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that mutual appreciation and constructive interaction between theology and culture may be facilitated by reflection on the notion of generosity. It concerns interactions of faith and culture in a number of specific instances. Modernization generates secularization except where religion finds or retains work to do other than relating individuals to the supernatural. The chapter discusses the praxis of intercultural theology, and concentrates on two central issues, the one Christology, the focal point of the Christian contribution to theology and the Christian response to basic human well-being, and the other human rights, a basic ethical and political issue with central Christological implications. In considering reflection upon the public square from Taylor to Habermas, the chapter opens up some of the issues with which a revised poetic of theological discourse must deal: the nature of humanity individual and corporate in the sight of God, the constraints of conversation and community, the shapes of freedom and democratic process.
