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Olofinjana, Israel Oluwole, Wise, David and Reifsnider, Usha (eds.). 2025. Polyphonic God: Exploring Intercultural Theology, Churches and Justice

Year: 2026
Type: book-review
Abstract: This timely edited volume emerges from the conviction that the future of the Church -at least in the UK -will be irreducibly intercultural or it will be diminished.Set against a postmodern, secular, and sharply polarized Britain in which public discourse regularly declares the "failure" of multiculturalism, the editors argue that intercultural churches can embody a counter-narrative of the kingdom, enacting unity-in-diversity in concrete congregational life.The book's central theological proposal is the metaphor of a "polyphonic God".Drawing on Trinitarian theology, the editors suggest that the Triune God is not mono-cultural or mono-lingual but "speaks more than one language and inhabits multiple worldviews while remaining one in essence".This metaphor provides the imaginative center of gravity for the volume: if God's being is polyphonic, then the church as the Body of Christ is called to reflect that polyphony in its worship, leadership, and public witness.Intercultural churches are thus not a pragmatic response to demographic change but an ecclesiological imperative.The book is structured in three parts, each combining theological reflection and grounded case studies.Part I, "Intercultural Theology: Foundational Thought and Perspectives", sets out the theological framework.Israel Olofinjana opens by locating intercultural ecclesiology within the contested politics of multiculturalism in Britain, making the case that intercultural churches offer a constructive alternative to both assimilationist and segregationist imaginaries.David Wise then develops the rich metaphor of "tapestry" to describe inter-ethnic congregations, emphasizing that beauty arises not from uniformity but from the careful weaving together of distinct threads.A third chapter reads Ephesians through the lens of the household of God, exploring
DOI: 10.54195/ef26616
Language: English
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7154118183
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