Page - 56 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

56 | www.limina-graz.eu that is, a way of being a “citizen of the world” in very local and confusing circumstances. He called these features “ordinary virtues,” in the sense of a simple moral order for living in a multicultural setting over which no group can exercise control (Ignatieff 2017). The “ordinary virtues” he singled out were: tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience. These are virtues that do not find their roots in fear and insecurity, but a deeper sense of dignity of each human person and the value of a shared community. With regard to polarizing features of society that grow out of a response to globalization there is, at this stage of globalization processes in the world, a single factor that threatens all forms that society takes: the peril of cli- mate change. More than anything else, this is a reality that impinges upon everyone and everywhere on the planet. Solutions to this challenge cannot succeed solely along national boundaries or cultural configurations. It re- quires a sense of a common humanity that respects difference and particu- larity, but finds solid footing for justice and solidarity among peoples. How will Christian theology respond to this fact, in the midst of the complexities of globalization and its disparate effects? Plurality in Theologies as a Basis for Addressing Globalization Christian theology understandably seeks a certain unity or universality in that its object is the study of God. Theology is aware of its limits in speak- ing a finite language about an infinite reality. Yet it tries to comprehend and include as much as it can its reflections upon God and God’s action in the world. The twentieth century saw a distinctive pluralization of theologies relat- ed to the processes of globalization, yet arrived at by a somewhat differ- ent route. With Roman Catholicism, it first became evident in Africa in the 1940s and 1950s, where philosophers and theologians felt that the Neo- Scholasticism they had inherited from Europe did not begin to illuminate African Christian experience in identity. In 1944, the Flemish missionary Placide Tempels published La Philosophie bantoue which was an attempt to develop a philosophy out of the vitalist understanding of reality common among Bantu peoples (Tempels 1944). In 1956, a group of Congolese doc- robert J. schreiter | Globalization and Plural theologies Being a “citizen of the world” in very local and confusing circumstances calls for specific virtues: tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience.