Doing Theology as if People Mattered narrates a reflexive account of the “doing” of contextual theology at the Jesuit School of Theology (JST) of Santa Clara University. The collection explores practicing contextual theology in the classroom and beyond, in service, international immersions, interreligious dialogue, and mission. The book presents the concept of contextual theology as expressed and lived at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California, a member school of the Graduate Theological Union. All theology is contextual (Stephen Bevans) and the Jesuit School of Theology has operated out of this paradigm for many years. Implicit in the book is the faculty’s conversion to doing contextual theology in the educational context of the classroom and beyond. This collection narrates the story of contextual theology at JST: how the School came to select this theological method and how it guides the vision and mission of the School; how contextual theology shapes pedagogy and work in the classroom; how contextual theology and education flourish in ministerial praxis in the local intercultural San Francisco Bay Area, and in international contexts, as the School engages in immersions, pilgrimage, and interreligious dialogue; how JST welcomes students from many continents, and prepares students to go back to those contexts; and how JST lives out the maxim of a “faith that does justice”.
