Teaching Christian ethics beyond Europe and North America: from a postgraduate research seminar to a theology of listening

This paper explores the process of teaching Christian theological ethics beyond the common focus on European and North American sources. In conversation with moves to decolonise university curricula, the paper offers a proposal of a theology of listening, an example of a research seminar at the University of Aberdeen on Christian ethics beyond Europe and North America, and an exploration of broader challenges for the formation of the theologian. The paper asks, what can we learn when we give up power and control when doing and learning theology? How can we shift our methods of knowing and practicing theology? We write as theologians from India, Mexico, and the United States living in the United Kingdom. We reflect on forms of exclusion in theological method and formation that arise from colonising, systemic violence, and inequalities. The paper considers intercultural challenges when encountering different methods of reflection on the Christian experience. In a search for a more profoundly theological approach, we propose listening to the other as integral to doing theology. In an intercultural move, we draw on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology of listening, proposing that theology must be an advent of voices from beyond our usual places and methods.