engleski

Suffering and missional praxis: analyzing Roma narratives through a theological and missiological lens

Narrative research conducted among Christian Roma in Eastern Europe reveals, among other things, individuals grappling with the meaning of suffering in life stories. Suffering results from persistent poverty, trauma, social marginalization and discrimination, war memories, domestic violence, and substance abuse. This impacts the ways in which individuals and communities integrate their life stories with the Christian story and the ways in which they interpret meaning into their past, present, and future lives. Pentecostal theology highlighting the active involvement of God’s presence helps individuals and communities wrestle with some of these questions. However, a lack of a contextual theology of suffering can hinder transformation dependent on a deep integration between the Christian narrative and one’s life story as well as contributing to a dualistic thinking between ‘spirit’ and ‘body’. Therefore, this paper argues that a contextual theology of suffering is a critical aspect of holistic missional praxis in Roma churches. This paper will place these issues in a framework of mission that focuses on the church’s commitment to justice, peace, and the ministry of reconciliation (Bevans & Schroeder 2004). Next, this paper will briefly highlight Black theology as an example of a contextual theology of suffering to demonstrate how this is critical to both healing and missional praxis of the African American Church in America. Finally, this paper will bring these concepts into conversation with narratives from Roma communities and suggest possible ways forward both theologically and missiologically.

Christian Roma ; Eastern Europe ; the ministry of reconciliation

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