Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ (Mission in Global Community)

by Roberta Rose King

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2019

Overview

In this latest volume in the award-winning Mission in Global Community series, veteran missionary-scholar Roberta King draws on a lifetime of study and firsthand mission experience to show how witness through contextualized global arts can dynamically reveal Christ to all peoples. King offers the global church biblical foundations, historical pathways, theoretical frameworks, and effective practices for communicating Christ through the arts in diverse contexts.

Supplemented with stories from the field, illustrations, and discussion questions, this textbook offers innovative and dynamic approaches essential for doing mission in transformative ways through the arts in diverse contexts around the world. It also features a full-color insert of artwork discussed in the book. Global Arts and Christian Witness is a must read for all those involved with or interested in mission, especially professors and students for use in mission, intercultural studies, and evangelism courses as well as missionaries and church leaders. It will also be of interest to musicians and artists who want to know how they can engage in mission.

The Mission in Global Community series reframes missiological themes and studies for students under the common rubric of mission as partnership with Christians throughout the global community. Series authors draw upon their own global experiences and those of their global colleagues to illumine present realities and chart a course into the future. Series editors are Scott W. Sunquist, president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and former dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, and Amos Yong, director of the Center for Missiological Research and professor of theology and mission at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Key Features

• Explores the contribution of global arts to communicating Christ
• Addresses critical issues and hurdles that need to be overcome
• Provides the most recent global scholarship on key themes in mission

Contents

• Part 1: Foundations in Global Arts and Christ-Centered Witness
• Part 2: Encountering Christ through Global Arts
• Part 3: Engaging Peoples for Christ via Global Arts

Praise for the Print Edition

Drawing on decades of rich field experience, focused research, and teaching, Global Arts and Christian Witness pulls together the treasures of Roberta King’s life and work into one outstanding volume. While the book speaks powerfully to missionaries and artists of all kinds, I recommend it for mission pastors, students, and professors as well, as it offers a clear and compelling introduction to the importance of engaging global arts in ministry. Packed with stories on subjects ranging from Bono to the Senufo, this volume will motivate and inspire its readers to think in new ways about the value of global arts in the church. I especially appreciate her ten recommendations for needed shifts in our thinking. If these shifts could be implemented today, the use of arts in witness and worship worldwide would change dramatically for the better.

—Robin Harris, director, Center for Excellence in World Arts, Dallas International University

It has been said that music is a universal language, but its meaning is not. Roberta King has given us an in-depth analysis adding to the ethnomusicological lexicon in great detail. In a world where everyone has some type of favorite music, King’s astute inquiry gives us a better glimpse into the complexity of music from around the world. Very much worth the read!

—Daniel White Hodge, associate professor of intercultural communication, North Park University; author of Homeland Insecurity: A Hip Hop Missiology for the Post-Civil Rights Era

This inspirational book provides art makers and art appreciators with multiple ideas on how to individually and collectively spread God’s fame globally. King masterfully articulates, demonstrates, and illustrates how global creative arts lead beyond fictional faith to vibrant faith through witness and worship.

—Tom Steffen, professor emeritus of intercultural studies, Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University

Product Details

• Title: Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ
• Author: Roberta R. King
• Series: Mission in Global Community
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 288
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Missions

About Roberta Rose King

Roberta R. King (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is professor of communication and ethnomusicology in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She previously served as a missionary and professor in Kenya for twenty years and is a past president of the APM (American Professors of Mission). She is the author of Pathways in Christian Music Communication and coauthor of Music in the Life of the African Church. King also coproduced (un)Common Sounds: Songs of Peace and Reconciliation among Muslims and Christians, which received national airplay on ABC TV.

Sample Pages from Global Arts and Christian Witness: Exegeting Culture, Translating the Message, and Communicating Christ (Mission in Global Community)