Cultural Issues

Hayward is a Christian anthropologist who lectures at Biola University. This is a very helpful presentation explaining how anthropologists view religion and how a Christian anthropologist adds to this. Hayward has some excellent things to say which are relevant to evangelism and ministry across cultures. His wide-sweeping lecture also concerns the relationship between the science [...]

1. Biblical Perspectives 2. Hot Issue: Multi-Ethnic Congregations/Church Communities OR HUP (Homogeneous Unit Principle) Churches? 3. General 4. Videos 5. Websites ____ 1. Biblical Perspectives The Bible as Authority as an Antidote to Cultural Imperialism Bible Translation in Historical Context. The Changing Role of Cross-Cultural Workers (International Journal of Frontier Missiology) A Brief Investigation of [...]

In his recent book Christianity Alongside Islam (Acorn Press, 2010), John Wilson combats the common secularist notion that all religions are essentially the same. According to such a viewpoint choosing a religion is akin to choosing between a Ford or a Toyota or between McDonald’s and KFC – just a matter of personal preference. What [...]

I enjoyed reading Richard Glover’s witty article in this last weekend’s Spectrum (“Playing the patriot game? That’s so un-Australian”). The term “un-Australian” has sadly become a device used by many in political debates to insinuate that those holding an opposing viewpoint are somehow unpatriotic. Glover begins his article jocularly asking: Can we ban the term [...]

In the 16th century Montaigne observed the ethnocentrism of his compatriots: Once out of their villages, they feel like fish out of water. Wherever they go they cling to their ways and curse foreign ones. If they come across a fellow-countryman… they celebrate the event… With a morose and taciturn prudence they travel about wrapped [...]

In a Letter to a Christian Nation New Atheist Sam Harris comments: If we ever do transcend our religious bewilderment, we will look back upon this period in human history with horror and amazement. How could it have been possible for people to believe such things in the twenty-first century? How could it be that [...]

In our last study of Habermas’ thought we concluded with Habermas’ movement from the paradigm of consciousness to the paradigm of language and his emphasis on communicative action: that the human species maintains itself through the socially coordinated activities of its members and this coordination is established through communication. Indeed, fundamental to Habermas’ thought is [...]

This is my summary of Stephen Rhodes’ very helpful book, packed full of illustrations often drawn from the lives of members of his multicultural church. Rhodes Where Nations Meet

This is my summary of Livermore’s helpful book. Livermore Cultural Intelligence www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au

Welcome to one of the classics in missiology. This book extends to 445 pages and is so dense that my summary runs for 65 pages. Although this book was first written in 1938 it is not dated. Even Kraemer’s portrait of where the Church currently stands is very much “on the money.” Speaking from an [...]