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The problem, however, is that “facts” always remain ambiguous. It isn't the facts of history that reveal where God is at work, but the facts illuminated by the gospel. According to GS 4, the church, in reading the signs of the times, is to interpret them in the light of the gospel (cf Waldenfels 1987:227). In all major ecclesial traditions—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant—people look not only at where they are at the present moment, but also at where they come from. They look for a real, reliable, and universal guide to the truth and justice of God, to apply as criterion in evaluating the context. This means that it is the gospel which is the norma normans, the “norming norm.” Our reading of the context is also a norm, but in a derived sense; it is the norma normata, the “normed norm” (Küng 1987:151). Of course, the gospel can only be read from and make sense in our present context, and yet to posit it as criterion means that it may, and often does, critique the context and our reading of it.
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David J. Bosch (Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission)