Dr. Isabelo F. Magalit: A Case of Public Theology in the Philippine Evangelical Context

Isabelo Magalit (1940-2017) was a Filipino evangelical pastor whose leadership and example helped influence a generation of Filipino evangelicals. This thesis introduces Magalit as a case, an example, of public theology in the Philippines shaped and informed by his context.

Globally, discourse on public theology has grown in terms of apologetic, biographical and constructive sources. This dissertation looks at public theology as biography in its study of the life and work of Magalit as a theologian formed in and for the public context. Magalit intentionally sought to present his faith and convictions on issues of common concern and for the common good in ways that would connect in the different publics within and outside the church. In his early years as a student leader, his I Have a Dream speech fuelled and mobilized an evangelical student community in the Philippines. Under Martial Law and dictatorship, his speeches at the Urbana student mission conferences in 1976, 1979, and 1981 connected him more to a global and broader audience. Leading up to the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, Magalit played a role in the issuing of public statements presenting the position of faith communities in light of Philippine social realities. This included his Call to Repentance in 1983 as well as the Christians Response to the February 7 elections in 1986 which Diliman Bible Church issued under his leadership. After the Marcos dictatorship, Magalit continued to be involved in the drafting of statements. Post-EDSA, his Vision for the Nation was republished and reissued. His advocacy for Filipino nationalism, which is understood in the Tagalog language as ‘makabayan,’ was also a position he held until the latter years of his life.

Magalit’s contextuality and intercontextuality surfaces in the different ways that his different speeches, manuscripts, and statements were shaped, formed and informed by his context. It presents the ways that Philippine socio-political realities informed his development and thinking. It additionally argues that experience, history, culture, language, and a hermeneutical community served as additional areas of context that both formed and informed him as a Filipino and public theologian without formal theological training.
Isabelo Magalit, as a public theologian in the Philippine evangelical context, is a contribution to Philippine church history and global theology. It also adds to existing discourse on biographical sources and the contextuality of public theology. It presents, particularly, a case where contextuality is not just the unique and distinct issues that public theology engages with but also the different factors that form, inform, shape and influence it.