The Need for
Contextualization
ILLUSTRATION-The Gospel to
Buddhist Ears
“The missionaries ultimate goal in communication
has always been to present the supracultural
message of the gospel in culturally relevant terms”
(Hesselgrave and Rommen (1989), Contextualization,
p. 1).
“Thus, missionaries of all ages have had to come to
grips with not only their own enculturation, but also
the customs, languages, and belief systems of the
world’s peoples” (p. 1)
Sharing your faith with a Buddhist
• Buddhists emphasize orthopraxis not orthodoxy. This
means that we need to be concerned about the social
implications of the message we are sharing.
• The foundation of a witnessing relationship with anyone
is a relationship.
• A relationship with people provides the interpretive
context for understanding what we are saying.
• View sharing the Gospel as a process and not a point in
time event.
• Bring issues of faith to the forefront of the relationship.
Don’t be friends and then suddenly surprise people with
a Gospel presentation. Let you faith be a natural part of
your life.
Sharing your faith with a Buddhist
• People believe what they overhear more than what they
are told directly. Expose Buddhists to the witness of the
community. Let them overhear of God’s grace at work in
people’s lives.
• Make witnessing to Christ a dialogue and not just a
monologue.
• Ask questions about what they believe and practice.
• Raise questions that are issues for them. In John 4 the
woman raised a question that was important in her social
setting.
• Learn about Buddhism in order to anticipate objections
that they may have and build this into your sharing of the
content of the Gospel.
Sharing your faith with a Buddhist
• Buddhist people come to faith through experiencing
Christ and not through verbal presentations alone. Bring
prayer into your encounters with Buddhists. Pray with
them for things that are happening in their life and invite
them to pray.
• Pray for Buddhists to bind the work of the enemy in their
lives.
• Build discipleship into evangelism. Let them know what
is expected and what the Christian life is like.
• Utilize small group and larger group events to expose
people to personal testimonies and the Gospel message.
• Tools-The four pillars of the Gospel, The Hand of Faith,
the Five Principles for a Christian Life
TWO POTENTAIL HAZARDS IN GOSPEL
COMMUNICATION
1. The perception of the
communicators own cultural heritage
as in integral part of the gospel.
2. Syncretistic inclusion of elements
of the receptor culture which
alter/eliminate aspects of the
message upon which the integrity of
the gospel depends.
The need for contextualization is
grounded in the complexity of
communication
S message-meaning[filters]
<encodes> sends
receives[filters]
<decodes>messagemeaning R
What happens in
communication?
Outside/Inside we receive a sign, this calls
up a referent (tree, car, house). Attempting
to interepret or find meaning in the sign we
file a reference in our brain. Then we
verbalize or assign a symbol to it.
Sign>>>referent>>>reference>>>symbol
The Semantic Triangle
reference
The
fundamental
semantic
problem is
that there is
no direct
connection
between the
symbol and
the referent.
The word is
not the thing.
symbol
……………….
referent
Insights from Modern Communication Theory
Meaning is in people, in sources and receptors, not in words or
events or things. Words as such have no meaning. The source of
a message entertains an idea which is expressed in the words and
phrases of a language code, but the meaning stays in the source’s
head. The receptor is stimulated by the words and phrases (the
message) and decodes it into certain meanings, corresponding
more or less to the meaning entertained by the source. But the
meaning is to be located in the two minds not in the message. (Hesselgrave
and Rommen, p. 188)
Hesselgrave and Rommen’s critique, “Pressed too far, to say
that there is no meaning in words is like saying that there is no
value in stocks or bonds or a one-thousand dollar bill. There is no
inherent, intrinsic value in them, but they have an imputed,
invested value. Otherwise, people would not rob banks (p. 194).
•E. B. Tylor 1871 Culture is “that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society.”
•Marvin Mayers…Culture is learned and shared
attitudes, values, ways of behaving and material
artifacts.
•Kottak (1991, p. 17 in Borofsky p. 3) Culture as that
which is “distinctly human; transmitted through
learning; traditions and customs that govern behavior
and beliefs.”
•Bohannan (1992, p. 22 in Borofsky p. 3) Culture is
“the capacity to use tools and symbols.”
•Keesing (1981, p. 509 in Borofsky p. 3) Culture “is
the system of knowledge more or less shared by
members of society.”
Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1963 in Borofsky p. 3) explored
over 150 definitions of culture in Culture: A Critical Review
of Concepts and Definitions and summarize their own in
this lengthy definition:
“Culture consists of patterns, explicit
and implicit, of and for behavior
acquired and transmitted by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement
of human groups, including their
embodiments in artifacts; the essential
core of culture consists of
traditional…ideas and especially their
attached values; culture systems may,
on the one hand, be considered as
products of action, on the other as
conditioning elements of further action.”
•Culture consists of many systems of organized
behavior governed by traditional standards and
rules specifying how people are supposed to
act.
•It includes ideas, values, goals, as well as the
material products created.
•Cultures develop distinctly from one another,
but basic human needs (food, shelter,
friendship etc.) cause cultures to resemble one
another closely. Cultures develop institutions to
fulfill basic human needs and govern
relationships.
•Culture is learned, and language is the social
vehicle by which it is shared, sustained, and
preserved.
•All cultures are subject to continuous change.
•Within cultures are distinct groups of subcultures.
Butler and Martorella (1979), Sociology: A
Basic Course
What is done?
What is good or best?
What is true?
What is real?
WORLDWIEW
BELIEFS
VALUES
BEHAVIOR
Accessed on August 26,
2005 at
www.theculturalcommission.o
rg/education
What In The World
Is A Worldview?
Worldview Definitions
Worldview Scriptures
Worldview Analogies
Worldview Checklist
• Organized
• Complete
• Non-contradictory
• Livability
• Consequences
Worldview Definition
A worldview is all
the presuppositions
and assumptions
you bring to bear
on every decision
you make in life.
Worldview Scriptures
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 3For
though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the
flesh. 4For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but
mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, 5casting
down arguments and every
high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of
Christ.
Acts 17: The Classic
“Worldview in Action”
Scripture
• Act 17:22, “Then Paul stood in the midst of the
Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that
in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was
passing through and considering the objects of your
worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One
whom you worship without knowing, Him I
proclaim to you…”
Worldview Analogies
Worldview lenses
Worldview Analogies
Our
worldview is
the rails on
which our
lives run.
Worldview Analogies
Francis Schaeffer said that we are all
worldview missionaries.
Organizing Your Worldview
System 1
• Creation - How
did we get here?
• Fall – What has
gone wrong?
• Redemption –
What can be
done about it?
Organizing Your Worldview
System 2
• God
• Metaphysics
• Epistemology
• Ethics
• Human Nature
5 Centripetal Tendencies
1. Relatively durable in the individual.
2. Emotional and motivational force.
3. Relatively durable historically, reproduced generation to generation.
4. Relatively thematic in the sense that understanding may be repeatedly shared in
a wide variety of contexts.
5. More or less widely shared.
4 Centrifugal Tendencies
1. Changeable in person, across generations.
2. Unmotivating.
3. Contextually limited.
4. Can be shared by relatively few in a society
Quinn and Strauss (1997), A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning
How Do You Account for the Fact that
Both of These Situations are True?
Culture as a thing (essentialist,
reification) Bounded, timeless,
unchanging..The Culture of X
Culture as an invention, constructed
(Postmodern)
Culture as Public Meanings (GeertzInterpretivist)
Culture as shared mental
representations-cognitive anthropology
Anthropologists have conceptualized culture in many
ways:
•traits
•integrated configurations
•constellations of symbols and meanings
•symbolic templates
•a web of meanings
•taxonomic trees
•measurable units of behavior
•a collection of material artifacts
•systems of knowledge, sets of beliefs and values
•strategies for reaching a goal
•a series of divers discourses
Culture is best conceived as a very large and heterogenous
collection of models…They exist both as public artifacts ‘in
the world’ and as cognitive constructs ‘in the mind’ of
members of a community.
Personal mental models-illustration…neighborhood maps
Conventional models-part of the stock of shared
cognitive resources of my own community…illustration
Star Spangled Banner
Mental models are creative and adaptive
simplifications of reality…they abstract and
schematize relevant information (reduce details and
highlight salient features). It is part memory, part
invention.
An important difference between
personal and cultural models
“Cultural models are constructed as mental
representations in the same way as any mental
models with the important exception that the
internalization of cultural models is based on more
socially constrained experiences than is the case of
idiosyncratic models. Cultural practices that
constrain attention and guide what is perceived as
salient are not left open to much personal choice but
are closely guided by social norms”
Defining
Contextualization
Contextualization, culture and theology had a
simultaneous beginning…when the silence
was broken by the voice of God,
communication commenced between man and
God.
In more recent times there has been an enlarged
concept of context and deepened understanding of
culture. “A new word was needed to denote the ways in
which we adjust messages to cultural contexts and go
about the doing of theology itself. That new word is
contextualization” (Hesselgrave and Rommen, p. 28).
The term “contextualization” first
appeared the 1970’s in Protestant
conciliar circles.
“To its originators it involved a new point of departure and a new approach
to theologizing and to theological education: namely, praxis or involvement
in the struggle for justice within the existential situation in which men and
women find themselves today” (Hesselgrave and Rommen, p. 32).
Evangelicals adopted the word but
not the meaning or method…
Making concepts or ideals relevant, translating the Gospel into a
meaningful form, discovering legitimate applications of the gospel in a
given situation...
“This brings us to the heart of the problem for evangelical. There is not
yet a commonly accepted definition of the word contextualization.” (p.
35).
Contextualization
Specifically, I propose that our
contextualization agenda include (at a
minimum) seven critical areas: Bible
translation, language, evangelism, church
planting, worship and music, theology and
leadership training.
-Harley Talman
-International Journal of Frontier Missions 21:1
Spring 2004.6
Contextualization: The Theory, the
Gap, the Challenge
Darrell L. Whiteman
International Bulletin of Missionary Research—
January 1997
Contextualization
captures in method and
perspective the
challenge of relating
the Gospel to culture.
Contextualization: The Theory, the
Gap, the Challenge
Darrell L. Whiteman
International Bulletin of Missionary Research—
January 1997
First Function
Contextualization attempts to communicate
the Gospel in word and deed and to establish
the church in ways that make sense to people
within their local cultural context, presenting
Christianity in such a way that it meets
people’s deepest needs and penetrates their
worldview, thus allowing them to follow
Christ and remain within their own culture.
Contextualization: The Theory, the
Gap, the Challenge
Darrell L. Whiteman
International Bulletin of Missionary Research—
January 1997
Second Function
Another function is to offend—but only for the right
reasons, not the wrong ones. When the Gospel is
presented in word and deed, and the fellowship of
believers we call the church is organized along
appropriate cultural patterns, then people will more
likely be confronted with the offense of the Gospel,
exposing their own sinfulness and the tendency toward
evil, oppressive structures and behavior patterns within
their culture.
Contextualization: The Theory, the
Gap, the Challenge
Darrell L. Whiteman
International Bulletin of Missionary Research—
January 1997
Third Function
The third function is to develop
contextualized expressions of the Gospel
so that the Gospel itself will be
understood in ways the universal church
has neither experienced nor understood
before, thus expanding our understanding
of the kingdom of God.
Different Starting Points Lead to
Different Kinds of Contextualization
•Emphasizes the supracultural nature of the biblical Gospel.
•Recognizes that biblical revelation is not acultural, but that
God oversaw the process so that his message was
transmitted.
•“Their emphasis is on taking the apostolic faith ‘once for all
entrusted to the saint’ (Jude 3) and contextualizing
(translating, interpreting, adapting, applying) that faith
(body of truth) to the people of a respondent culture in such
a way as to preserve as much of its original meaning and
relevance as possible” (Hesselgrave and Rommen, p. 149).
Authenticity-deals with God’s
revelation. Faithfulness to the
authority and content of the will of
God as revealed in creation,
conscience and Scripture.
Authenticity does not guarantee the
message is meaningful and pursuasive
to the respondents.
Relevance-speaks of effectiveness.
It is communication that grows out
of understanding our respondents in
their particular context and the
work of the Holy Spirit in us an
them.
Christian
Contextualization
• The attempt to communicate the message of the
person, works, Word and will of God in a way that
is faithful to God’s revelation…
• …and that is meaningful to respondents in their
respective cultural and existential contexts.
• It is both verbal and nonverbal and has to do with
theologizing, Bible translation, interpretation and
application, incarnational lifestyle, evangelism,
Christian instruction, church planting and growth,
church organization, worship style etc.
Is not monocultural (ethnocentric) nor pluralistic (cultural
relativity).
It seeks to enable people in one culture to understand
messages and ritual practices from another culture with a
minimum of distortion.
It is based on a critical realist epistemology
It takes historical and cultural contexts seriously
It sees contextualizaton as on ongoing process
Paul Hiebert (1994) Anthropological Reflections on
Missiological Issues
Contextualization Involves
Two Major Tasks
• Task 1 Interpretation and
Decontextualization (Revelation,
Interpretation, Application).
• Task 2 Contextualize the message
to communicate it effectively to
respondents in the target culture (7
Dimension Paradigm)
Lingenfelter’s Synthesis:
Pluralism, Biblical
Contradiction and
Transformation
1. Cultural relativity-pluralism (with a low view of culture,
tainted by sin). Varieties of worldviews, relationship of
social environment and worldview.
2. Biblical absolutism-commitment to the truth and
authority of Scripture.
3. Biblical contradiction-”How does the Gospel contradict
what I think, what I believe and how I live?” Thinking
theologically apart from worldview.
4. Transformation-living transformed lives within our
cultural environments.
Critical
Contextualization
•Exegete the Culture-uncritically gather information.
•Exegete Scripture-what it meant.
•Build the Hermenuetical Bridge-translate the Biblical
message into the cognitive, affective, and evaluative
dimensions of another culture. Without the bridge you
have a distorted view of the Gospel.
•Critical Response-evaluate customs in light of the new
biblical understanding and make a decision.
•Develop new contextualized practices.
•Check against syncretism-the church as a
hermeneutical community.
IDEAS FOR EXEGETING
CULTURE
• The ethnographic interview-Notes
from Spradley
• Open ended-interviews
• Domain Analysis-Free Recall Listing
• Pile Sorts
• Paired or Triadic Comparisons
• Gathering Proverbs (stan@gmi.org
“Listen first, Speak Later”
CONTEXTUALIZING THE
GOSPEL FOR BUDDHIST EARS
•Finding points of entry-sowing/reaping, desire, all
religions equally good
•Knowing what people think-anticipating objectionsJesus and bad karma
•Using illustrations as windows on truth-finding
multiple illustrations for each major concept
•Correcting misunderstandings as the base for sharing
the Gospel
•Good contextualization of the message cannot
overcome bad ecclesiology-the power of a life as a
contextualized message
Worldview
Culture patterns perception of reality into
conceptualizations of what reality can or should
be, what is to be regarded as actual, probable,
possible, and impossible. These
conceptualizations form what is termed the
“worldview” of the culture. The worldview is the
central systematization of conceptions of reality to
which the members of the culture assent (largely
unconsciously) and from which stems their value
system. The worldview lies at the very heart of
culture, touching, interacting with, and strongly
influencing every other aspect of the culture.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 53
Forms, Functions, Meanings,
and Usage
1.
The forms of a culture are the
observable parts of which it is made
up. These are the customs arranged in
patterns or the products of those
customs. Many cultural forms are
conceptualizations of material items;
most are conceptualizatioins of
nonmaterial items.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 64
Forms, Functions, Meanings,
and Usage
2.
Each of the forms of a culture is used…by the
people of that culture to serve particular
functions. Certain of these functions are
general, universal functions, relation to basic
human needs that every culture must meet.
Others are more specifically related to
nonuniversal, individual, and group concerns.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 65
Forms, Functions, Meanings,
and Usage
3.
One of the most important functions served
by every cultural form is to convey meaning
to the participants of a culture. The meaning
of a cultural form consists of “the totality of
subjective associations attached to the form”
(Luzbetak 1963:139). In many ways “culture
is communication” (Hall 1959).
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 65
Forms, Functions, Meanings,
and Usage
4.
Closely interrelated to function and meaning
is the matter of how a cultural form is used.
This consideration, more than others, makes
explicit the active part that human beings
take in the operation of culture. The forms of
culture are relatively passive in and of
themselves.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 66
Principles in
Contextualization
“Is this practice usable within
Christianity or does it express an
allegiance that is incompatible with
faith-allegiance to God through
Christ?” Perhaps the following five
principles will be both helpful and in
accord with the insights generated so
far:
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 93
Principles in
Contextualization
1.
As a first step toward evaluation,
every cultural system should be
sized up in terms of its own
ideals, not those of some similar
system in another culture.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 93
What problems does this system
set for itself and how well do its
forms fit the functions/needs of
which the people and their
culture as a whole are aware?
Principles in
Contextualization
2.
In evaluating any aspect of any
culture (including our own) it is
important to be constantly aware
of the fact that the pervasiveness
of sin is a universal. Every culture
is less than totally adequate.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 93
Principles in
Contextualization
3.
Even with the benefit of the biblical
revelation, Paul felt constrained to state that
“what we see now is like the dim image in a
mirror . . . What I know now is only partial . .
.” (1 Cor. 13:12 TEV). It is therefore highly
unlikely that we understand as much about
the specific of how God seeks to work in
culture (even our own) as we often think we
do.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 93
Principles in
Contextualization
4.
We should recognize, as
anthropologists point out, that a
people’s religious system does serve
several extremely important horizontal
functions whether or not it adequately
fulfills the necessary vertical
functions.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 93
Principles in
Contextualization
5.
We should recognize the universal
need for the fulfilling of the
function of relating human beings
to God. All people need this
relationship with God through
Christ.
Kraft, C. (1979). Christianity and Culture: 94
The need to experience it, however,
without the necessity of converting
from their particular set of cultural
forms to, for example, our cultural
forms (see Acts 15). For our forms are
not prerequisite (or even necessarily
the best) for adequately expressing
the fulfillment of this vertical function
in their culture.