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Finding Our Own Voice: The Reinterpreting of Christianity by Oceanian Theologians

July 2005 T study of Christianity in the Pacific Islands is nothing new. What is new is that the study is being carried out by islanders themselves. Recent years have seen a surge of fresh thinking by theologically trained Pacific Islanders dealing with the Christian religion. This new thinking is the result of a great variety of changes in island life. The most obvious change has been the transition from colonial status to independence in most island countries. Equally important has been independence for the island churches. Starting with Tonga in the nineteenth century and continuing with the other islands from the 1930s to the 1960s, church independence for all but the Roman Catholic churches was established.1 The Catholics received native-born bishops and regional bishops’ conferences to care for them, even though, as in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, the bishops continued to be appointed by Rome. Independent churches in independent countries have given an impetus to independent thinking. Simultaneously, a revolutionary change has taken place in theological colleges in the Pacific Islands, making fresh thinking possible. The old theological colleges provided only limited opportunity for students to study, for the students had to grow their own food or catch their own fish, and they had to construct or maintain their own homes and the college buildings. In this way the colleges were economically independent, reflecting the economic independence of traditional Pacific societies, but less than half of the workday could be spent on studies. Academic standards were usually low. But starting about 1960, standards began to rise. With outside financial help, that highly privileged character—the full-time student—began to appear.2 The flagship for the new style was a special college established jointly by the Protestant churches from all over the South Pacific in 1966. It was the Pacific Theological College, located in Suva, Fiji. It was the first degree-granting institution in the South Pacific Islands and received the top students from the churches of most of the island countries. Its purpose was to train theological teachers and church administrators, rather than local pastors.3 It also had a further goal, as stated in its original statement of purpose: “To make available to the world the distinctive theological insights which God has given to Pacific Christians.”4 In other words, its establishment implied the creation of a Pacific theology, and from the beginning it took this intention seriously. Students were required to write theses or projects, most of which were about Pacific theology, conditions, or history. Of the 291 theses written before 1994, fully 275, or 95 percent, focused on a Pacific theme. These theses, an important expression of Pacific thinking, have been microfilmed by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, in Canberra, Australia. The Pacific Theological College naturally became the main source for teachers and principals of the lower-level theological colleges in all the island countries, and these graduates were the prime force in raising the standards of those institutions. IslandFinding Our Own Voice: The Reinterpreting of Christianity by Oceanian Theologians