Similarity within Univocity: The Foundation of World Christianity beyond ‘Differentiation or Uniformity’

Abstract Recent scholarship suggests the postmodern era, marked by a rejection of universal objectivity and ideas of unity, and by an emphasis on difference and plurality, may be ending. World Christianity scholars are also shifting focus from ‘difference’, ‘locality’ and ‘contextuality’ and seeking to recuperate the ‘universal’ via the concepts of unity, exchange and mutual dependence. They do, though, recognise the risks of claiming universalism, as exemplified by Radical Orthodoxy. This anti-modern theology, which argues for a retrieval of medieval Platonic Christendom as ‘the common vision’, is criticised by post-colonialists as a Eurocentric totalising tendency. Going beyond total difference or total sameness, this article proposes ‘similarity within univocity’ as a theoretical solution to the dilemma facing World Christianity: either a hyper-fragmented contextual model or Radical Orthodoxy’s universalism model. It demonstrates that ‘similarity’ not only avoids totalitarian absolute sameness, but also fragmentary difference, thus providing a novel hermeneutical foundation for the future of World Christianity.