The Gospel and Palm Trees in the Pacific Northwest

A Palm Tree in Vancouver, WA

Palm trees are an unusual sight in the Pacific Northwest. They are normally found in places with tropical climates--wet places, yes, yet places where it rarely gets cold (certainly not cold enough to snow). Undeterred, a neighbor has planted two palm trees in his front yard--and tall trees, at that. All things considered, the trees seem to be faring well--a fact that I find surprising and remarkable.

The gospel--the good news of and about Jesus--is like a palm tree. The Jesus story and palm trees are alike in at least two ways. First, neither are native to Cascadia; they are out of place, transplanted from parts of the world that are very different from the Pacific Northwest. Second, both are adaptable; they can adapt (in the case of the palm tree) or be adapted (in the case of the gospel) to a wide variety of contexts.

The gospel not only can be adapted for the Pacific Northwest; the gospel must be adapted for the Pacific Northwest. It cries out to be translated or contextualized for a context that is not first-century, not Jewish, and not Mediterranean. Without contextualization, the gospel will be incomprehensible to many Cascadians.

What is contextualization? In his book Constructing Local Theologies, Robert Schreiter offers, "Terms like 'localization,' 'contextualization,' 'indigenization,' and 'inculturation'...point to the need for and responsibility of Christians to make their response to the gospel as concrete and lively as possible" (1). In Reaching a New Generation, Alan Roxburgh explains that contextualization "recognizes the changing, pluralistic character of life today. It emphasizes the need to understand the particularity of specific contexts so that the gospel might be addressed into the situation" (68). Clemens Sedmak's Doing Local Theology is about localizing theology for particular contexts; Sedmak observes that Jesus did theology in this way: "Jesus was rooted in a local culture, expressing himself in the local language, using local experiences and local images in his parables" (23).

An understanding of contextualization leads to another question: What will a local theology in and for the Pacific Northwest look like?