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This major statement by a leading missiologist represents a lifetime of wrestling with a topic every cross-cultural leader must address: how to adapt the universal gospel to particular settings. This comprehensive yet accessible textbook organizes contextualization, which includes "everything the church is and does," into seven dimensions. Filled with examples, case studies, and diagrams and conversant with contemporary arguments and debates, it offers the author's unique take on the challenge of adapting the faith in local cultures.
Contextualization is the art of translating ideas into a particular situation, place or culture. It is fundamental to communication, which makes contextualization essential in missions. This textbook pulls together and maps the variety of evangelical approaches to contextualization. Introductory classes on contextualization and missionary preparation institutes will appreciate this valuable textbook. Contextualization in Missions will guide mission-minded Christians to an informed plan for spreading the gospel effectively. While written with a theoretical perspective, Contextualization in Missions also provides real-world examples to provoke both thought and action.
This book is an attempt to hit the pause button on this rapid-paced world and to reflect on how we do mission. The underlying issues of each chapter are age-old topics that have reared their heads at various times throughout history: priorities in mission, power struggles, perspectives on cultural others, and contextualization.
Winner of a 2006 Christianity Today Book Award! Honored as one of the "Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2005 for Mission Studies" by International Bulletin of Missionary Research From Cairo to Calcutta, from Cochabamba to Columbus, Christians are engaged in a conversation about how to speak and live the gospel in today's traditional, modern and emergent cultures. The technical term for their efforts is contextualization. Missionary theorists have pondered and written on it at length. More and more, those who do theology in the West are also trying to discover new ways of communicating and embodying the gospel for an emerging postmodern culture. But few have considered in depth how the early church contextualized the gospel. And yet the New Testament provides numerous examples. As both a crosscultural missionary and a New Testament scholar, Dean Flemming is well equipped to examine how the early church contextualized the gospel and to draw out lessons for today. By carefully sifting the New Testament evidence, Flemming uncovers the patterns and parameters of a Paul or Mark or John as they spoke the Word on target, and he brings these to bear on our contemporary missiological task. Rich in insights and conversant with frontline thinking, this is a book that will revitalize the conversation and refresh our speaking and living the gospel in today's cultures, whether in traditional, modern or emergent contexts.
"Culture's influence upon Christianity is easier to discern in retrospect than in prospect. If history is our guide, one thing is sure: This age will be as syncretistic as any other?How is the gospel being contextualized in the contemporary world? To what degree are these new contextualizations syncretistic? This book attempts to answer these questions by defining and analyzing contextualization and syncretism."-Gailyn Van Rheenen
Christianity may be the greatest story ever told, but in Western culture it is losing ground against the powerful forces of secularization. In examining the root causes of this cultural shift, does the church have anything to learn from secular society and the business sector? For decades the church has resisted the idea of using business methodologies in the religious sphere. Yet a closer look reveals that most church hierarchies have borrowed much of their organizational structure from the business sector. But the church is not alone in its borrowing. Today the lines between the church and the business sector are blurred, as both entities influence each other interchangeably. In Branded Faith, Rajkumar Dixit enters an engaging and intellectually stimulating analysis of what the church can learn from the business practices of marketing, branding, and contextualization. Using examples drawn from widely recognized companies such as Nike, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Subway, Dixit systematically builds a case for the power of a story, and emphasizes the importance of seeking culturally relevant ways to spread it. Those who care deeply about sharing Christianity powerfully and effectively will find in Branded Faith a thoughtful presentation of ideas on how to maintain the integrity of the gospel, while exploring fresh methods of communicating the good news to a postmodern society.
Christianity may be the greatest story ever told, but in Western culture it is losing ground against the powerful forces of secularization. In examining the root causes of this cultural shift, does the church have anything to learn from secular society and the business sector? For decades the church has resisted the idea of using business methodologies in the religious sphere. Yet a closer look reveals that most church hierarchies have borrowed much of their organizational structure from the business sector. But the church is not alone in its borrowing. Today the lines between the church and the business sector are blurred, as both entities influence each other interchangeably. In Branded Faith, Rajkumar Dixit enters an engaging and intellectually stimulating analysis of what the church can learn from the business practices of marketing, branding, and contextualization. Using examples drawn from widely recognized companies such as Nike, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Subway, Dixit systematically builds a case for the power of a story, and emphasizes the importance of seeking culturally relevant ways to spread it. Those who care deeply about sharing Christianity powerfully and effectively will find in Branded Faith a thoughtful presentation of ideas on how to maintain the integrity of the gospel, while exploring fresh methods of communicating the good news to a postmodern society.
Unity of knowledge is not easily achieved in todays Africa where often there is little conscious interaction between traditional beliefs, Christian faith and modern secularity. The challenge is taken up in this book as scholars from a variety of disciplines wrestle with the relation of faith and science at the frontiers of knowledge. The results are important alike for the integrity of faith, for scienti?c advance and for the attainment of creative cultural unity in society. Readers with such concerns at heart will ?nd much food for thought as they traverse the broad frontiers explored in these wide-ranging essays.
This classic textbook brings together the meanings, proposals, and tasks involved in contextualization. Hesselgrave and Rommen explore the history of contextualization in the Bible and the Church while examining the proposals of prominent thinkers on this subject. They conclude with their own definition and approach to contextualization.
Jesus didn't give his followers a fixed set of statements defining everything they needed to know about the kingdom of God in a neat package. Rather he told stories, made comparisons, drew contrasts. He talked of a mustard seed, of yeast and of a hidden treasure to communicate some of the most important truths of the faith. Jesus didn't fall back on parables because he lacked the right words. Parables were the exact way Jesus intended to communicate. What pictures or analogies today can give us greater understanding of the Christian faith? Adam English finds fresh insight in four: Christianity as story, game, language, culture. Christianity is like a story with scenery, characters and plots. It's like a language with vocabulary, grammar and conversation. It's like a game with rules and players, goals and equipment. It's like a culture with a distinct way of living, working, playing and loving. No one analogy is complete, but all offer new windows of appreciation for the faith. English gives us a fresh representation of Christian theology that is neither modern nor postmodern, but in dialogue with both in order to articulate what we believe. Here is a book for those who want to grasp Christianity more fully and authentically in a way that illuminates our contemporary cultural context and enables us to make a compelling response.