The Need for Contextualization ILLUSTRATION-The Gospel to Buddhist Ears “The missionaries ultimate goal in communication has always been to present the

The Need for Contextualization

ILLUSTRATION-The Gospel to Buddhist Ears

“ The missionaries ultimate goal in communication has alwa ys been to present the supracultural message of the gospel in culturally relevant terms” (Hesselgrave and Rommen (1

989), Contextualization, p. 1).

“ Thus, missionaries of all ages have had to come to grips wit h not only their own enculturation, but also the customs, lang

1uages, and belief systems of the world’s peoples” (p. )

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.


• 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.


• 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 grou nded in the complexity of communicati

on

S message-meaning[filters] <encodes> sends

receives[filters] <decodes>message-meaning

R

What happens in communication?

Outside/Inside we receive a sign , this calls up a referent (tree, car, house). Attempting to interepre t or find meaning in the sign we file a reference in

our brain. Then we verbalize or assign a symbol t o it.

Sign>>>referent>>>reference>>>symbol

The Semantic Trianglereference

symbol referent

The fundamen tal semantic pr

oblem is that t here is no dire

ct connection between the s

ymbol and the referent. The

word is not the thing.

……………….

Insights fromModern Communication Theory

Meaning is in people, in sources and receptors, not i n words or events or things. Words as such have no

meaning. The source of a message entertains an id ea 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 an d phrases (the message) and decodes it into certain

meanings, corresponding more or less to the meani ng entertained by the source. But the meaning is to be located in the two minds not in the message. (He

sselgrave and Rommen, p. 188) Hesselgrave and Rommen’s critique , “Pressed t oo far, to say that there is no meaning in words is lik

e saying that there is no value in stocks or bonds or - a one thousand dollar bill. There is no inherent, intri

nsic value in them, but they have an imputed, invest ed 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 sub-cultures. Butler and Martorella (1979), Sociology: A Basic Course

BEHAVIOR

What is done?

VALUES

What is good or best?

BELIEFS

What is true?

WORLDWIEW

What is real?

Accessed on August 26, 2005 at

www.theculturalcommission.org

/education

http://www.theculturalcommission.org/education



What In The World Is A

Worldview?Worldview DefinitionsWorldview ScripturesWorldview AnalogiesWorldview Checklist•Organized•Complete•Non-contradictory•Livability•Consequences

Worldview DefinitionA worldview is

all the presuppositio

ns and assumptions you bring to

bear on every decision you make in life.

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.

Worldview Scriptures

mailto:[email protected]

• 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…”

Acts 17: The Classic

“Worldview in Action” Scripture

Worldview Analogies

Worldview lenses

Worldview Analogies

Our worldview

is the rails on

which our lives run.

Francis Schaeffer said that we are all worldview

missionaries.

Worldview Analogies

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 WorldviewSystem 2

•God•Metaphysics•Epistemology•Ethics•Human Nature

5 Centripetal Tendencies1. 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 Tendencies1. 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 (Geertz Interpretivist)

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

Cul t ur e i s best concei ved as a ver y l ar ge and het er ogenous c ol l ect i on of models bbbb bb bbbbbb bbbbbbbbb bbb bbb … ‘

bbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbb bbb bbb b bbbb bb b bb bbbb bb b b’ ‘ ’ ommunity.

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 simul taneous beginning…when the silence was broken b

y the voice of God, communication commenced bet ween man and God.

bb b bbb bbbbbb bbb bb bbbbb bbb bbbb bb bbbbbbbb bbbbbbb bb b ontext and deepened understanding of culture. “A new word

wasneeded t o denot e t he ways i n whi ch we adj ust messages t o culturalcont ext s and go about t he doi ng of t heol ogy i t sel f . That

newwor d i s contextualization bb ” ( , .2 8 ).

The term “contextualization” first appeare d 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 wit hin the existential situation in which men and women find th

32emselves today” (Hesselgrave and Rommen, p. ).

Evangelicals adopted the word but not th e meaning or method…

b bbbbb bbbbbbbb bb bbbbbb bbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbb bbb b bbbbb into a meaningful form, discovering legitimate application

s 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 wo

rd 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 Contextualization: The Theory, the Gap, the ChallengeGap, the Challenge

Darrell L. WhitemanDarrell L. WhitemanInternational Bulletin of Missionary Research—International Bulletin of Missionary Research—

January 1997January 1997

Contextualization captures in method and perspective the challenge of relating the Gospel to culture.




First FunctionFirst 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.




Second FunctionSecond FunctionAnother 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.




Third FunctionThird 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 Ki nds of Contextualization

• bbb bbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbb bb bbb bbbbbbbb b bbbbbb.

• Recognizesthatbi bl i cal r evel at i on i s not acul t ur al , but t hat God ov ersawt he pr ocess so t hat hi s message was t r ansmi t t ed.

•“ Their emphasis is on taking the apostolic faith ‘once for al 3l entrusted to the saint’ (Jude ) and contextualizing (transla

ting, interpreting, adapting, applying) that faith (body of tru th) to the people of a respondent culture in such a way as to

preserve as much of its original meaning and relevance as p ossible” (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 messa ge is meaningful and pursuasive to the res

pondents.

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 t he person, works, Word and will of God in a w ay that is faithful to God’s revelation…

• … and that is meaningful to respondents in th eir respective cultural and existential context

s.• It is both verbal and nonverbal and has to do

with theologizing, Bible translation, interpret ation and application, incarnational lifestyle,

evangelism, Christian instruction, church pla nting and growth, church organization, wors

hip 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

1994Paul Hiebert ( ) Anthropological Reflections on Missiologicalbbbbbb

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: Plu ralism, Biblical Contradiction

and Transformation

- 1 . Cultural relativity pluralism (with a low view of culture, taint ed by sin). Varieties of worldviews, relationship of social envir

onmentand wor l dvi ew. - 2. Biblical absolutism commitment to the truth and authority o fScr i pt ur e.

- 3. Biblical contradiction ”How does the Gospel contradict what I think, what I believe and how I live?” Thinking theologically a

part from worldview. - 4. Transformationl i vi ng t r ansf or med l i ves wi t hi n our cul t ur al envi r onments.

Critical Contextualization

• - Exegete the Culture uncritically gather information.

• - Exegete Scripture what it meant.

• - Build the Hermenuetical Bridge translate the Biblical messa ge into the cognitive, affective, and evaluative dimensions of

another culture. Without the bridge you have a distorted vie w of the Gospel.

• - CriticalResponse eval uat e cust oms i n l i ght of t he newbi bl i cal understandingand make a deci si on.

• bbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbb.

• - Checkagai nst syncr et i smt he chur ch as a her meneut i cal community.

IDEAS FOR EXEGETING CULTURE

• - The ethnographic interview Notes fromSpradley

• -Open ended interviews• - Domain Analysis Free Recall Listing• Pile Sorts• Paired or Triadic Comparisons• Gathering Proverbs ([email protected] “List

en first, Speak Later”

CONTEXTUALIZING THE GOSPEL FOR BUDDHIST EARS

• bbbbb -bbb bbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbb bbb bbbbbbbbb b/ , ,bbbbbb bbbb•bbbb bbb b bbb bbbbbb bbbbb-bbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbb-bbbbb bbb bbb bbbb b•b bbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbb bb b bbbbb b bb bbbbb-bbbbbbb b bbbbbbb bbbbbb

rations for each major concept

• Cor r ect i ng mi sunder st andi ngs as t he base f or shar i ng tbb bbbbbb• Good cont ext ual i zat i on of t he message cannot over come

- bad eccl esi ol ogy t he power of a l i f e as a cont ext ual i zedbbbbbbb

WorldviewCulture 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, Forms, Functions, Meanings, and Usageand 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.


Forms, Forms, FunctionsFunctions, Meanings, , Meanings, and Usageand 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.



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).



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.


Principles in Principles in ContextualizationContextualization

“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:



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.


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?


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.



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.



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.



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.


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.

Documents

The Need for Contextualization ILLUSTRATION-The Gospel to Buddhist Ears “The missionaries ultimate goal in communication has always been to present the