Global Theology Starter Kit

Tamie Davis is a Ridley College graduate and missionary in Tanzania and she wrote a provocative article Why Do We Assume Western Theology is Superior? Tamie concludes by saying:

I am not advocating for an uncritical acceptance of African theologies, or any other theology from the Global South. To be sure, some are faulty, just as there are many false teachers in the West. But those of us who ‘live overseas’ are rarely in danger of uncritical acceptance; many of us are here to give, contribute, teach and train. Indeed, we are used to hearing about poverty and famine in Africa, and it’s easy to assume that this is true theologically as well, that somehow all the ‘good theology’ got concentrated in the West like the world’s capital. We may even be told this by local people who are beholden to our greater monetary wealth or who are used to thinking of that which comes from the West as better. But Jesus spoke time and again of how wealth warps theology, and that ought to give those of us from wealthy countries pause about the quality of our own theology. The kingdom of God is growing in Africa; are we sufficiently poor in spirit to be inheritors of it, together with our African sisters and brothers?

If you would like to open yourself up to new horizons and fresh perspectives from the global church and add some diversity to your collection of white “mangelical” systematic theologies - yes, mine are among them - I would recommend the following:

Globally Focused
Amos Yong, Renewing Christian Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014)
Gene L. Green, Stephen T. Pardue, and K. K. Yeo (eds.), Majority World Theology: Christian Doctrine in Global Context (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020)

Asian Perspectives
Timoteo D. Gender & Stephen T. Pardue (eds.), Asian Christian Theology: Evangelical Perspectives (Langham Global Library, 2019).
Simon Chan, Grass Roots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014).

African and African-American Perspectives
Matthew Michael, Christian Theology and African Tradition (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013).
Esau MaCcaully, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020).
Charles Octavius Boothe, Plain Theology for Plain People (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2017).

Latin American Perspectives
Robert Chao Romero, Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020).
Justo L. Gonzalez, Mañana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1990).

Other Perspectives
Ellen T. Charry, By Renewing Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine (Oxford: OUP, 1997).
Beth Jones Felker, Practising Christian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2014).
Andrea Zaki Stephanous (ed.), Arab Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021).