Honor, Shame, and the Gospel: Reframing Our Message and Ministry

by Christopher L. Flanders; Werner Mischke

Publisher:

William Carey Library

, 2020

Overview

An Honorific Gospel: Biblically Faithful & Culturally Relevant

Christians engaged in communicating the gospel navigate a challenging tension: faithfulness to God’s ancient, revealed Word—and relevance to the local, current social context. What if there was a lens or paradigm offering both? Understanding the Bible—particularly the gospel—through the ancient cultural “language” of honor-shame offers believers this double blessing. An honorific gospel offers new points of resonance with communities where shame and honor are critical values, including most unreached peoples.

In Honor, Shame, and the Gospel, over a dozen practitioners and scholars from diverse contexts and fields add to the ongoing conversation around the theological and missiological implications of an honorific gospel. Eight illuminating case studies explore ways to make disciples in a diversity of social contexts—for example, East Asian rural, Middle Eastern refugee, African tribal, and Western secular urban.

Honor, Shame, and the Gospel provides valuable resources to impact the ministry efforts of the church, locally and globally. Linked with its ancient honor-shame cultural roots, the gospel, paradoxically, is ever new—offering fresh wisdom to Christian leaders and optimism to the church for our quest to expand Christ’s kingdom and serve the worldwide mission of God.

Key Features

• Helps to enrich cross-culture practice while also equipping the Church to gro as a global family
• Serves as a great resource for colleges, seminaries, and mission trainig centers equipping God's people for twenty-first century mission
• Provides a foundation and deeper conversations that gives attention to differing gendered, religious, and community experiences of hoinor and shame

Contents

Honor-Shame in general Contexts

• The Honor and Golry of Jesys Christ
• Honor and Shame in History Theology
• A Clothesline Theology for the World
• Saving Us from Me
• The Shaming of Jesus in John
• Empowering Personal Healing
• Abuse and Shame

Honor-Shame in Various Mission Contexts

• The Dark Side of Orality
• Must Honor Clash with Humility?
• Sharing God's Love in an Urban, Pluralistic Context
• Discipleship in Asian Honor Cultures
• An Honor-Shame Gospel for Syrians Displaced by War
• A Gospel That Reconciles
• The Book of Samuel
• The Muslim Woman's Journey from Shame to Honor

Praise for Honor, Shame, and the Gospel

When I was in seminary, learning about honor, shame, and the impact of social values on culture and religion was transformative for my understanding of Scripture, theology, and the world. I am delighted to see this interdisciplinary contribution to honor-shame studies bring together influential scholars and practitioners from many backgrounds and contexts. I highly recommend for pastors and students, but also for all who care about the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world.

—Nijay K. Gupta, PhD, professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

Honor, Shame, and the Gospel brings afresh an important message and teaching to the attention of the global Church and mission. While in many ways the topic is not new, its renewed attention to the nexus of theology and mission practice today is timely. The richness of this book is in the conversation between different voices as they wrestle with reading scripture and its honor and shame perspective and apply it in a multiplicity of ministry contexts. While the reader can focus on individual chapters, the book is more than individual perspectives and is richer when read in the light of the dialogues that are happening between the individual understandings. It provides an excellent foundation for a much needed, broader, and deeper conversation that gives attention to the differing gendered, religious, and community experiences of honor and shame.

—Cathy Hine, PhD co-founder of When Women Speak: Angelina Noble Women's Mission Research Centre, Australian College of Theology

I am completely convinced that it is high time for a major reframing of the gospel in the West. This is not only because our prevailing articulation of it is indexed to a completely different historic, religious, and cultural era, but also because the culture/s in which we now serve are immeasurably more complex and require a deeper understanding of honor-shame and how the gospel addresses this ubiquitous human experience.

—Alan Hirsch, Author of numerous award-winning books and founder of Movement Leaders Collective and Forge Missional Training Network

Written by leaders and practitioners with diverse missiological experiences, these essays and stories focus on the convergence of honor, shame, and the gospel, at both the theoretical and practical level. This timely volume will further your sensitivity towards honor-shame motifs in Scripture. Additionally, the stories that are drawn from nations as varied as Cambodia, Croatia, and Syria will surely challenge you to consider the strategic importance of such motifs for advancing the gospel in a global context.

—Te-Li Lau, PhD, Associate professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

We are in an era when we need to rethink how we are sharing the Gospel. What worked in earlier decades, or with previous generations, very often is no longer effective. Given the scope of global migration patterns, prior thinking that honor and shame cultures were for "others in a different part of the world" is no longer accurate. In almost any city or context that is not ethnically homogeneous, we now need to understand the concepts in this book if we want to be more effective in leading people to Christ and aiding them in their discipleship journeys.

—Mary Lederleitner, PhD author of Women in Coen Mission managing director of the Church Evangelism Institute at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center

Product Details

• Title: Honor, Shame, and the Gospel: Reframing Our Message and Ministry
• Authors: Christopher L. Flanders, Werner Mischke
• Publisher: William Carey Library
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781645082804, 1645082806
• Resource ID: LLS:HNRSHMGSPL
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:34:25Z