Aims and Background of the Eatwot c/o Eatwot website

BACKGROUND
EATWOT was born in Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1976. Twenty-two representatives from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and one Black theologian from the U.S.A. met in Dar-es Salaam for an "Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians" to share with one another theological efforts in their denominations - Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. The decades before its birth were a time of awakening for the Third World, the so-called "underdeveloped" or, more euphemistically, "developing" countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. People on the Third World had become conscious of the fact that their countries were not "underdeveloped" by virtue of limited natural or human resources but were forced into such a condition as a result of long years of exploitation and domination - economic, political, and cultural. At this time, too, Third World Christians had become aware that the "universal" theology they had inherited from the West was not pertinent to their context of poverty and marginalization; traditional theology had to be reformulated become meaningful to peoples struggling for a more just and egalitarian world. This was the backdrop of EATWOT's foundation.
Posted on 2003-02-06
AIM: THE ASSOCIATION WILL ENDEAVOURS
Share the present trends of interpretation of the Gospel in the different Third World contexts.
Encourage the interchange of theological views by the exchange of personnel and through books and periodicals published in the Third World.
Foster the mutual interaction between theological formulation, science, art, spirituality and ecology.
Take into serious account the interaction of theology with the diverse cultures and religions of the peoples of the Third World in reformulating theology.
Keep close contacts with, be involved in, and give support to movements for human, spiritual social and inter-religious liberation.
Arrange for publications and communications in different languages for the purpose of promoting an interaction of theological views in the Third World.
Organize intercontinental, continental and regional meetings of Third World Theologians.
Posted on 2003-02-06