RECOGNIZING AND MAKING THE MOST
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RECOGNIZING AND MAKING THE MOST
OF AN ENCULTURATED GOSPEL.
BY SAM CHAN
•VIRGIN AND CHILD oil on canvas Unknown Artist
Korean School 20th century
KOREAN SCHOOL / PRIVATE COLLECTION / PHOTO @ BOLTIN PICTURE LIBRARY / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
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Christians believe that the gospel is universal and normative for all peoples at all times and in all places.
But we often forget that the gospel is not acultural, as if it hovers above culture and is devoid of any culture. Instead, the gospel is deeply enculturated. That is why we have to explain the Bible’s culture whenever we give a story or talk from the Bible. Whenever we teach the Bible to children or newcomers, we often begin with the phrase, “In their culture …”
Even the Son of God became enculturated. When John says “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” he is saying that the second person of the Trinity became a first-century Jewish male who lived in Roman-occupied, Second Temple Palestine and grewup in a working-class family. To understand the gospel, we need to understand its culture. We need to do cultural hermeneutics.
The person we are tryingto evangelize is also enculturated. They are not a person who hovers above culture, devoid of any cultural influences. Instead, this person is deeply encul turated. And this can vary widely, even within the same geo graphical area. For example, if the person lived in Chicago, they could be from an American-born Chinese culture, a North Shore tennis-mom culture, a Northwestern undergrad culture, a Kellogg business school culture, a community col lege culture, a North Beach culture, a single mom culture, a retiree culture, etc.
Each of these is a unique and distinct culture in Chi- cagoland. Each would have different cultural concerns, gos pel interpretation, cultural communication, and cultural application.
For example, American-born Chinese people maybe con cerned about honoring the family and pressures to study. The retiree maybe concerned about loneliness, health, and boredom. The single mom maybe concerned about finances.
The gospel will be interpreted and misinterpreted differently by each cul ture. What does their cultural lens help them to see in the Bible? What are their cultural blind spots that make them mis understand what’s in the Bible?
For example, a California surfer might come to the Bible with the lenses of Western individualism. He may cor rectly understand that he needs to make a personal decision to follow Jesus, but he mightbe culturally blind to his corporate responsibilities in the body of Christ.
For people to understand you, you must speak in ways that their culture can understand. We often take this for granted. An Anglican bishop once told a missionary friend of mine that he didn’t believe we needed any form of contextu- alization. My missionary friend replied, “At least you’re using English rather than Greek.”
This is especially important because much of our language is idiomatic. This means that we have to learn not only a culture’s language but also its idioms, metaphors, and illustrations. A friend of mine, Leigh, was having lunch at a popular tourist destination in Sydney. Leigh was approached by a Chinese tourist. The tourist asked Leigh if he could use the vacant seat next to him.
EVEN THE SON OF GOD
BECAME ENCULTURATED.
•THE MADONNA AND CHILD oil on canvas Giovanni Battista Salvi
Sassoferrato, Italy 17th Century
PRIVATE COLLECTION / PHOTO @ CHRISTIE’S IMAGES / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
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Leigh replied, “Go for your life!” When the tourist heard this, he ran away. Of course, what Leigh had meant was, “Sure, the seat’s free, take it!” But the tourist thought Leigh was threatening him! This story shows how much of our communication is idiomatic.
In addition to idioms, the way we organize and present our ideas is also culturally determined. Some cultures prefer a propositional, point-by-point presentation. Other cultures prefer sto ries, illustrations, and examples. All of this affects the way we communicate.
The gospel will also be applied differ ently in each culture. For example, when American-born Chinese people become Christians, they face a challenge: “How can I honor God without dishonoring my non-Christian parents?” The surfer might face a different challenge: “How can I honor God without letting down my friends?”
My PhD supervisor, Graham Cole, pointed out to me that in Luke 3:10-14, John the Baptist had different applica tions of the gospel for different audi ences. To the crowd, John said to share food and clothing; to tax collectors, stop cheating; to soldiers, stop extort ing money and accusing people falsely. If you’ve ever taught in another cultural context, you’ve likely faced the struggle of trying to give application to your ideas in that culture. The struggle you faced in doing this reveals that you are already implicitly doing some form of cultural hermeneutics.
THE GOSPEL TELLER’S ACCENT
We ourselves as evangelists are also enculturated. We are not free-floating people hovering above the culture. We each have a cultural accent and a cultural flavor, and this will affect our under standing and application of the gospel.
We come to the Bible with our own cultural, theological, existential, emo tional, and experiential concerns. For instance, in my theological tradition, I’ve been used to the idea that Jesus died forme. So I’ve quickly noticed Bible pas sages with the “for us” language—that Christ died for us (e.g., Rom. 5:8). Now, as I read and listen, I hear more theolo gians pointing out that Christ isn’t just for us; we are also in him (our union with Christ). So now I’m noticing Bible passages with the “in him” language as well (e.g., 2 Cor. 5:21). But how did I miss such obvious language before now? Because it wasn’t part of my theological concerns until now.
We are not blank slates. We bring our own theological interpretive grids to the Bible. For example, in John 4, when Jesus tells the Samaritan woman she had five husbands and the man she is with isn’t even her husband, what do we think of the woman? We automatically think she’s an adulteress. She’s a sinner.
But in other cultures, they might interpret the story to mean that she has been abandoned unfairly by five men, one after the other. And she now lives with another man for protection. But this man won’t even honor her by marrying her. She’s been sinned against.
There’s nothing in the text to tell us whether she’s a sinner or sinned against. We come to our interpretations based on the theological systems that we have brought to the text.
I have lived inboth the United States and Australia. An Australian friend once joked to me, “Never have two countries been divided so much by a common language!” That’s because even though Americans and Australians both speak English, our words can mean different things. For example, in the US, college refers to an undergraduate institution and school can refer to a postgradu ate institution (e.g., Harvard Business School). But in Australia, it’s the other
way around! As another example, in the US, if you “take a class,” then you are the student in the class. But in Aus tralia, if you “take a class,” then you are the teacher of that class. In the US, you order “takeout.” But in Australia, you order “takeaway.”
It’s the same for us when we com municate the gospel. Words that mean one thing to our particular Christian tradition might have a completely dif ferent meaning to a non-Christian in their culture. Take the word evangeli cal. In our Christian tradition, it might mean a characteristic of a denomination or movement within Christianity that holds to the primacy of the gospel mes sage—from the word euangelion. But to our non-Christian friend, it may mean a sociopolitical movement associated with the conservative right.
And these differences can be even more profound. In our Christian tra dition, we might associate a particular formulation of the gospel as the gos pel itself. If so, we might wrongly think that unless we tell the gospel in this particular way, the gospel has not been proclaimed. In some Christian tradi tions and denominations, we proudly announce that we preach “Christ cru cified” (the gospel) and not rhetoric (citing 1 Cor. 1:18-2:16).
But what we usually fail to realize is that we do employ a rhetorical method when we present the gospel. We can’t escape it. The rhetorical method is usu ally one that we are so used to in our culture, denomination, or tradition that we don’t notice it. We are always using a rhetorical method—usually one determine d by our culture —whether we acknowledge it or not.
I come from a Sydney culture where the application for almost every New Testament passage was “Give up medi cine, go to seminary, go into professional ministry, and become a pastor.” When I traveled to Siberia, their preachers
■ THE MADONNA AND CHILD mural Alaqa Engida (likely artist)
Ura Kidane Mihret Monastery | Ethiopia 19th Century
PATRICK SNYDER / LONELY PLANET IMAGES / GETTY
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FOR PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND YOU, YOU MUST SPEAK IN WAYS THAT THEIR CULTURE CAN UNDERSTAND.
applied every New Testament passage as “You must not drink alcohol.” If you are an American, there is abetter-than- average chance thatyour Americanpas- tor applies almost every New Testament passage as “You must do daily devo tions, pray more, and give more money to missions.”
These may or may not be valid applications. But it should be obvious that those who evangelize have inter pretations and applications that are deeply influenced…
