Missiology as encounterology: Pentecostal considerations

Abstract

Encounterology is a missiological approach to the theology of religions that was developed by J.N.J. Kritzinger – a South African missiologist. The approach recognises the encounter between people of different faiths or religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and others. Encounterology is a theology of a particular interfaith encounter that is relevant to the theology of religions. Encounterology is discussed here as a theology relevant to addressing the differences that exist between Christian denominations and their theological approaches. This article engages encounterology from a Pentecostal theological perspective to develop an authentic and transformative Pentecostal theology of encounters. This article builds from the Pentecostal theology of encounters with the Holy Spirit and fellow human beings into the development of the theology of interreligious encounters. In addition, encounterology is relevant in Pentecostalism in the encounters between the movement and other Christian traditions. Therefore, the theology of religions should consider not only exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist approaches, but also encounterology as an authentic and transformative approach for both interreligious and ecumenical dialogue.

Contribution: This article used encounterology as an important framework for a Pentecostal theology of interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. This article has made a new contribution to the theology of religions in the methodological and theoretical field in proposing encounterology to existing approaches such as exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist approaches.