Category / Cultural Intersections

by daviddawson462742281

Do Traditional Cultures Still Exist?

Cliggett’s Intent and Purpose in Writing Grains from Grass

            Lisa Cliggett’s Grains from Grass (2005) studies the Tonga people of the Gwembe Valley in Southern Zambia. Her findings can speak to Western readers who are disillusioned with the individualism of their own societies. This disappointment motivates many Westerners to search for cultures that still honor the sacredness of the family (p. 1). But Cliggett disabuses Western readers of such a stereotype in her study of the Tonga people. In this community, diverse systems of collaboration, generosity, and charity exist based not primarily on “moral duty or altruistic sentiments” but on “necessity in the face of limited choices”. Of particular interest to this research is the relevance of gender-specific survival modes. Cliggett explores family dynamics related to survival in economically vulnerable communities. She discovers the significance of kinship networks for combating poverty and injustice. Cliggett’s understanding of vulnerability considers differences in access and control of resources among different members of Tonga society. Her findings correct simplistic notions regarding impoverished nations, let alone a continent such as Africa (Cliggett, 2005, p. 2-19). 

            Cliggett (2005) investigates the ways that older women and men in the Gwembe Valley interact with a relational world acutely affected by scarcity of resources (p. 22). And this research explores the ways family and community provide for or ignore the needs of elderly women and men in ways not obvious to an outside observer. The purpose of such analysis is to correct oversimplified visions of social problems in Africa on the one hand, as well as ingenuous ideas of the noble altruism of African families. It is argued that care for the elderly needy is not a natural phenomenon to any human society whether industrialized and modern or agricultural and traditional. A more nuanced vision of the multifaceted process of decision making in relation to helping needy family members is needed. This helps societies worldwide to be wiser about the connection between family relationships, poverty, and globalization. Thus, Cliggett addresses naïve Western notions of former times and other places where the support of family members simply flowed out of the goodness of human nature. Caring for the elderly is not a “natural” component of non-industrialized societies, which begs the question, “Where can we find positive examples of this behavior?” Cliggett’s aim to identify differences – “gender, class, generational or historical” – amidst generalizations about “poor and disaster prone” peoples, yields a more comprehensive view of our world’s complex reality. The result is a framework that ties together the agency of the individual, kinship economic models, and long-term analysis of at-risk populations. Cliggett (2005) hopes this will produce theoretical concepts which give “broader meaning” to the phenomena social science research observes in vulnerable communities (Cliggett, 2005, p. 22-75). 

The Resource Bases of Elderly Tonga Women and their Strategies to Access Them

            Cliggett (2005) gives a general description of Gewmbe villagers’ economic situation as consisting of resource ownership, small entrepreneurialism, government assistance, and wage employment (p. 80). In times of economic adversity all these factors are used by individuals in ways that reflect their gender, age, social networks, and the “capacity to negotiate relationships” for survival (p. 80). 

Cliggett (2005) found that women made the adjustment to old age with less disruption, and even with positive expectations regarding its potential benefits. Tonga society practices matrilineal kinship in which primary family identity is shared between women and their children (p. 20). Perhaps surprisingly, in this system widowhood or divorce can give women new freedom to work autonomously, or preferably to be supported from the households of their adult children. Thus, elderly women’s means of survival are connected to their maternal identity in relation to the children they spent their lives sacrificing for and serving. Matrilineal kinship strongly influences how the Tonga people strategize for obtaining resources. But this social system is not tidy, rather, individuals must make compromises and bargain creatively (Cliggett, 2005, p. 19-20). 

Women have been excluded from significant sources of sustenance and have therefore formed innovative means for self-perseveration in old age (Cliggett, 2015, p. 64). Women have less access than men to resources that can be used to generate income, but the former employ diverse types of “craft and service-oriented skills”. The primary way elderly Gwembe women provide for themselves is developing social networks from which they can receive food and other goods. As Gwembe women advance in age, they hope these strategically built relationships can help them procure food, housing, service, and general needs. The most precarious situation for an elderly woman is if she has no close adult male kin who can provide help (Cliggett, 2015, p. 83-108). 

The Resource Bases of Elderly Tonga Men and their Strategies to Access Them

            Tonga men tend to hold on to their position of social power as they age and cannot work the fields and care for themselves (Cliggett, 2015, p. 19). As stated earlier, matrilineal kinship means fathers do not share primary family identity with their children. In this family model, elderly men mitigate against disenfranchisement by exerting their right to adult son’s labor and through bride price, the amount paid for daughters. Despite men’s lack of shared clan identity with wives and children, they do have kinship roles giving them control over resources at the level of the nuclear family. Thus, men’s relationships with their offspring are largely based on formal rights. Women’s relationship with their adult children, on the other hand, depends on connection through kinship and the ties of the “mother-child experience”. By the time they become elderly, men have generally been able to accumulate an amount of wealth which can be used to support themselves. And in a polygamous society, an elderly man is likely to have at least one living wife residing in his home who can care for him (Cliggett, 2015, p. 20-38). 

Tonga men are more able than women to clear new bush fields and a man’s inheritance is traditionally passed on to male heirs. Therefore, predominant male ownership of land has been perpetuated over several generations (Cliggett, 2015, p. 65). Cash-producing activities that men have access to include selling agricultural tools they make, milk from cattle, and garden produce. Men can also offer their services in home construction, brickmaking, and other forms of manual labor. By the time a man is older, one reason his need for such forms of small income decreases is because of accumulated resources. A second reason is that a man’s dependents, such as daughters soon to marry and sons with incomes of their own, will provide additional resources. It is through residential arrangements with extended family members that most elderly men receive the bulk of their food and have their basic needs met (Cliggett, 2015, p. 83-97). 

The idea of a father receiving and “income” from his adult children seems strange to a Westerner like me who prizes independence and would see a parent being supported in such a way as a sign of failing to achieve independence. But from a Zambian perspective, such an arrangement can be seen as a form of retirement at the end of a life lived in significant part to supporting offspring.

How Such Strategies Relate to Elderly Men and Women’s Connections to the “Ritual World”

            In Africa, roughly a century of European slave trade followed by a century of industrialization and colonization have deeply affected “social, economic, and belief systems” (Cliggett, 2015, p. 53). In Zambia, differences in how global economic vulnerability has affected different regions produced richer and poorer regions. Seasonal fluctuation of food availability has led to agricultural migration, profoundly altering people’s connection to their land. This in turn has undermined the importance of ritual institutions and their leaders, elderly men (Cliggett, 2015, p. 56-62). 

            The funeral homestead is a “market of sorts” where people exchange and sell as well as singing funeral songs and developing relational networks, i.e. catching up on local gossip and current events (Cliggett, 2015, p. 82). Thus, a wide range of goods could be found by villagers and visitors at these recurring rural markets. Women’s participation in religious funeral rights is fundamental in the form of food preparation. The preparation of food is empowering to women, in fact the funeral period officially ends when the women finish clearing out the fire ovens (Cliggett, 2-15, p. 82-121). 

            Christianity has grown in the Gwembe valley, but the elderly population is not a significant presence in church life (Cliggett, 2015, p. 117). I wonder if elderly men and women do not see as much of the benefits of Christianity as a theology and community versus the younger more entrepreneurial population. The Pentecostal type of Christianity that has been so influential in Africa is highly individualistic, emphasizing God’s intervention in the life of the individual, the potential to receive his blessing on finances and health. Perhaps the elderly see this as not contributing to the traditional cultural and social institutions that benefit them, or worse, perhaps they see them as threatening. Ancestor worship is a traditional part of indigenous Tonga religious practice, and I am curious how different Christian denominations have interacted with this practice. 

            Men are seen as having agency regarding the spirit world in a direct way while women are beset upon by spirits, at times harmlessly but in some cases dangerously (Cliggett, 2015, p. 132). Women can use the cultural belief that they are vulnerable to possession by evil spirits as a means for requesting help (p. 140). A situation of spiritual attack makes an elderly woman victim a sympathetic plight for members of her kinship network. 

Some Effects of Migration on Traditional Kinship Support Paradigms

            Economic pressures and opportunities lead many of the Tonga people to migrate away from their home villages. But connections with family back home are generally maintained, not through remittances but sporadic gifts. Such contributions would not amount to a reliable or significant source of income (Cliggett, 2015, p. 148). And for those who migrate, making their new lives work is the main priority. The imposition of requests for help from visitors from a migrant’s home village makes greater distance helpful. The farther migrants move away, the more of a “buffer from such impositions” exists. The best way a visitor from back home can obtain a gift from a prosperous migrant relative is to make the request in person. Often the gift request is attended to, and sometimes at significant cost to the giver. But the gift is based on the nature of the interaction and is not a given, therefore the person requesting goes to great efforts to be gracious and diplomatic. Such gifts do not amount to a reliable source of income for villagers who remain back home. At best these contributions are a helpful part of a village’s economic system, but not a main source. If a migrant does not maintain ties with his or her home village, there is also a downside. This will result in being cut off from social ties to the home village and material, emotional, and spiritual benefits it can offer (Cliggett, 2015, p. 152-5).

Conclusion

            Cliggett (2005) makes a compelling argument that simplistic stereotypes of the drama and needs of the African people result in misguided endeavors to save victims and solve problems without tackling foundational causes (p. 48). The “framework of vulnerability” approach rightly advocates for multifaceted research on issues such as environmental crises, access to food, and kinship. This approach mitigates against tendencies in the social sciences to generalize about the circumstances of all members of a village, region, or nation (p. 49). I agree with the notion that at-risk populations’ foundational problem is relational. And each member of a family negotiates for resources within the kinship network with differing “desires, abilities, and power” (p. 50). 

I understand the need to find out who copes better or worse among vulnerable populations. First, those who cope poorly can learn from those who have innovated, negotiated, strategized, and succeeded. Second, I appreciate the importance of determining what unjust phenomena may be creating situations of inequality of coping. Thirdly, it is vital simply to determine who the poorest copers are to target them as those in greatest need. 

            Cliggett’s work demonstrates that support is channeled through “continually negotiated social networks” in different ways by elderly men and women (p, 158). With the participation of multiple family members in the chain of resources, a decision or failure to perform by any individual threatens the entire system. Cliggett (2004) demonstrates how individual’s in the Gwembe valley are able not only to survive but to prosper (p. 167). This account of individual human agency in poor communities emphasizes the endeavor to progress and flourish contra the caricature of acquiescence and acceptance of poverty. Cliggett’s work effectively counters the error of overly attributing worldview – how people think in sweeping generic national-ethnic terms – instead of observing reality of experience and agency on the ground (p. 167). I agree with the general position of this work as it posits that the most simple and foundational method of combatting the reductive tendency towards sociocultural analysis is the place the target community in “center stage” (p. 168), rather than giving too much credence to stereotypes and generalizations about vulnerable peoples such as the Tonga of the Gwembe valley. 

References

Cliggett, L. (2005). Grains from grass: Aging, gender, and famine in rural Africa. Cornell University Press.

by daviddawson462742281

Downtrodden Victims or Resilient Adaptors?

Intent and Purpose of Shaw’s Study of Oxford Pakistanis

Alison Shaw (2000) seeks to counter any notion that Pakistani immigrants in Oxford, England are fundamentally “the downtrodden victims of political, economic and social processes beyond their control” (p. 3). On the contrary, evidence is given that these immigrants are flexible and resilient in adapting to the “structural and cultural resources” they find in Britain. With these assets, Pakistanis have improvised and constructed their lives “on their own terms”. Shaw’s (2000) goal is to demonstrate “both continuity and change” in the experience of this community. Coming from rural agrarian contexts, these immigrants are confronted with the contrasts of industrial urban life. But they adapt “quite easily” to these material changes, proving quite capable of maintaining their traditional beliefs and values (p. 3-4). 

Shaw (2000) gives particular attention to perceptions in Brittain of Pakistani women – now in their third generation – versus the reality of their lives (p. 5). In the West, an emphasis on duty is generally seen as detracting from individual freedom. But even the younger generation of Pakistani immigrants values “advantages and satisfactions” that accompany duty (p. 7-8). 

Contrary to generalizations in Brittain regarding South Asian immigrants, Shaw’s (2000) research indicates this community’s significant internal diversity. Shaw (2000) argues that seeing them as a “homogenous group with a common culture” complies with the political agenda of a white majority concerted about competition for resources (p. 10). These Pakistanis identify their native culture, including their ancestral region, caste, or linguistic group. But they come to identify with much of British culture as well. The aspect of a Pakistani’s identity that is emphasized in each moment – “whether it is more or less exclusive” – depends on the context (p. 10).

How Kinship Influences Behavior and Attitudes 

Family structure allowed the first generation of Pakistani migration, for a man’s parents could be trusted to take care of his wife and children as he went abroad. Families would encourage this type of arrangement for the benefit of remittances that would benefit immediate kin at home (Shaw, 2000, p. 23). Chain migrationrefers to the practice of relatives pooling cash to sponsor one man who would in turn facilitate the way for his kinsmen. This help would include finding housing and employment, resulting in a cluster of related men from the same region of Pakistan (p. 27). This practice mitigated against the high probability of South Asians being rejected by white English landlords (p. 40). 

For the first several years, multi-occupational lodgings were the most common arrangement for male Pakistani immigrants (p. 42). When housing was purchased by Pakistanis, it was often through relatives pooling their resources. And these kinship groups also embarked upon partnerships in business, even offering interest-free loans or participating in rotating credit associations (p. 51). In ancestral Pakistani communities, relatives tended to live in adjacent dwellings and villages were formed by kinship groups (p. 69). At the end of the 19th century, the British built villages where Muslim, Hindu and Sikh colonizers were incentivized to settle in sections according to their cast (p. 71).

How Gender Influences Behavior and Attitudes 

The premium placed on female virginity at marriage has numerous effects upon how young men and women relate to peers, their education, and marriage (Shaw, 2000, p. 168). Sons receive far more leniency in general from their parents, having fewer domestic responsibilities and spending most leisure time outside the home (p. 168). Socially acceptable activities for sons include helping their father’s business, frequenting the mosque, or spending time with other young men. These colleagues may be of diverse ethnic backgrounds: other South Asians, English, or Afro-Caribbeans (p. 168). And though Pakistani parents do not closely monitor their sons’ activities, the latter are expected to keep an eye on their sisters (p. 168). 

A daughter’s responsibilities have direct bearing upon the reputation of the men in her family. This means men must defend the honor of the women in their family, whether it be their own misbehavior or any affront they may suffer (Shaw, 2000, p. 169). An implicit double-standard often exists for Pakistani men in relation to sexual promiscuity. While women in their family are expected to be chaste, all women outside a man’s family can be seen as potential sexual partners (p. 169). Pakistani men who date English girls often do not see this as disobedience to the expectation that they will eventually accept an arranged marriage. English girls are outside Pakistani cultural norms related to marriage and are therefore considered “sexually available” (p. 170). 

Daughters have increasingly negotiated permission from their parents to pursue higher education and the development of careers outside the home (Shaw, 2000, p. 179). Such negotiations involve a daughter’s commitment to fulfilling the traditional duties of a wife in the future. And once a Pakistani daughter is married, families increasingly see her ability to make a good income outside the home as helpful to the success of the marriage (p. 179). 

How Marriage Influences Behavior and Attitudes 

Despite fascination in British society over the punishment of Pakistani daughters who elope with white men, Shaw’s (2000) research only found such cases involving other Pakistanis, South Asians, or Muslim men (p. 161-2). Elopements by Pakistani sons and daughters may lead to the complete severing of ties with family. Girls who do not honor marriage norms – such as finding a husband within their caste or family circles – are seen as denying their fathers the privilege of giving them away respectfully. But young people who reject arranged marriages usually don’t see this as a “wholesale rejection” of traditional values in favor of Western ones. Rather, these Pakistani youth see their actions as an “attempt at reform from within” (p. 185, 186, 189).

How Gift-Giving Influences Behavior and Attitudes 

Married women follow the traditional custom of playing the major role in sustaining the relationships of “informal reciprocity” as well as formal relationships of “gift exchange between households” (Shaw, 2000, p. 227-8). The practice of gift giving is a feature of a wife’s engagement in rituals and events of the domestic life cycle (p. 228). Gifts given at weddings, birthday parties, or dinner invitations involve some “expectation of return” (p. 228). Types of gifts are considered appropriate for specific occasions, such as sweets for the birth of a baby and money for a wedding or when a family will travel abroad (p. 238, 241). 

Both Pakistani men and women understand that these types of gifts will result in similar help from the community when the occasion arises for them (p. 241). This can be described as a form of “rotating credit, though with a less predictably timed outcome” (p. 241). Reciprocities like these exert a form of “social and moral control” as a means for evaluating the status of an individual or household (p. 256). And the occasions in which gift giving takes place are also the context for “exchange of news and gossip”, not merely on banalities but important matters such as marriage prospects or disputes in the mosque (p. 256). 

Conclusion

Shaw (2000) effectively demonstrates that Pakistani immigrants in Oxford, England preserve much individual and collective agency while engaging the majority culture. They would not have come to England from their ancestral lands if they did not believe there would be significant social and material benefits. Indeed, they were acquainted with British culture through colonialism. This meant that Pakistanis coming to the Empire’s headquarters were well-informed on much of what they would face. These immigrants counted the cost and demonstrated organization and strategical ingenuity at every step of their transition to life in Britain. Shaw’s (2000) study leaves one wondering who influenced the other more culturally – the British upon the colonized Pakistanis, or vice versa. And in the decadence of Western culture due to an overemphasis on individualism, one wonders how increasingly attractive and influential collectivist South Asian cultures will become.

References

Alison Shaw. (2000). Kinship and Continuity: Pakistani Families in Britain. Routledge. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=nlebk&AN=696804&authtype=sso&custid=s6133893&site=ehost-live&custid=s6133893

by daviddawson462742281

Do the Most Successful Immigrants Assimilate or Negotiate?

In Kinship and Continuity , Alison Shaw (2000) studies how Pakistani immigrants to Oxford, England preserve their culture while adapting in many creative ways to their new context. This work counters many of the troupes common in the West regarding immigrant communities. On the one hand, these groups are often seen as either immutably “stuck” in their traditional ways, causing lack of integration and development. The corollary to this perspective is that immigrants that assimilate most comprehensively bear the most benefits of the modern Western world. But Shaw’s (2000) work indicates a much more complex and nuanced reality, showing how cultural enclaves develop creative hybridity. 

Immigrant Communities in Portugal Today

The insights from Shaw’s (2000) study  indicate several possible applications  for the multicultural Lisbon metro area where I live. It is important to recognize  “general restlessness” and “desire for social advancement” generated by colonialism among immigrant communities (p. 25). A 2023 study showed the number of foreigners living in Portugal had doubled over the past decade, significantly impacting demographics (Foreign Population in Portugal Sees Dramatic Rise, n.d.). The jobless rate for foreigners is almost twice as much as the national average, and nearly a third of immigrants live in conditions of “poverty or social exclusion”. On the other hand, one third of all graduate students at the doctoral level are immigrants (Foreign Population in Portugal Sees Dramatic Rise, n.d.). 

A 2024 study indicates that in the Lisbon metropolitan area 43% of the population is from an immigrant background with 41% being first-generation residents (Monteiro, 2024). As a whole, the country has an exceptionally high percentage of repatriated immigrants, with 63% being ethnic Portuguese. These entered the country by way of family reunification or having come with their parents when they were children (Monteiro, 2024). Besides these, a 2021 study showed that the largest group of immigrants was Brazilians at 25.6% followed, by Portuguese speaking African countries at 9.2% (Imigração e emigração em Portugal | Eurocid – Informação europeia ao cidadão, n.d.). 

On the other hand, the flow of native Portuguese emigrants remains high, with other E.U. countries being the primary destinations (Vidigal & Pires, n.d.). And Portuguese moving overseas tend to be the empowered and upwardly mobile. 47.6% of  emigrants have higher education degrees, and 66% are men (Foreign Population in Portugal Sees Dramatic Rise, n.d.). 

What Cultural Hybridity Teaches us About Immigrant Communities

Shaw’s (2000) analysis demonstrates how Pakistanis coming to Oxford were neither mere pawns of international labor nor fully autonomous agents (p. 38). While these immigrants were subject to wider economic and political forces, they acted upon their own aspirations and principles (p. 38). For the families that grew up, socio-economic circumstances changed for the better. In part this depended on adapting traditional forms of family organization. Some women took up work outside the home while also fulfilling the role of maintaining community ties which they traditionally held (Shaw, 2000, p. 68, 227-8).

Shaw (2000) also describes the conversion of the Isai, known within Hinduism as untouchables (p. 79). This phenomena is relevant to the evangelization of immigrant communities in Lisbon by Evangelicals. The Isai were latrine cleaners in Pakistan but were considered equal to all brethren in a Christian worldview. However, evangelism targeting groups of marginal status must consider whether religious change is tied to material and social ambitions. This can  undermine the unity of  church community where doubts arise regarding its members motivation to convert. Evangelistic efforts that target the marginalized of society can be seen as exploitative, with new proselytes being the goal of the first party and new social status being the goal of the second party. On the other hand, liberation theology would argue that converting to Christianity that hopes for social and material betterment is not a contradiction of interests. 

The renegotiation of caste among Pakistani immigrants in Oxford is an example of intersectionality causing hybridity, rather than mere assimilation (Shaw, 2000, p. 113-115). Property ownership and business enterprise allowed some men of “low caste or middle-ranking landowning backgrounds” to exceed high caste men financially. But this does not amount to caste being “shrugged off as irrelevant” (p. 114). Rather, the rankings are renegotiated regarding “which caste fits each Brod category” related to occupation and wealth (p. 115). I believe that in this regard Pakistani immigrants in Oxford will increasingly assimilate to egalitarian Western views of individual status. The strength of Enlightenment notions of human freedom without reference to outside authorities may not eliminate caste but it will most likely alter it. This type of renegotiation of cultural concepts is helpful in majority Catholic Lisbon as young people intermarry with other religious traditions. The legacy of racism towards African immigrants in Portugal is an unfortunate legacy of colonialism. However, Africans who are devout Catholics experience an intersection of race and religion where the latter benefits them socially. Inversely, a significant percentage of Brazilian immigrants are Evangelical, which can hurt them socially. Even though many of these Brazilian Evangelicals share a close ethnic matrix with the Portuguese, their religious affiliation creates a cultural barrier. Recognizing these dynamics of intersectionality and being able to dialogue openly about them is helpful for interfaith relations and evangelism. 

Shaw (2000) emphasizes the constant change undergone by constellations of culture including “social structures, economic activities, religious beliefs, health beliefs, and so on” (p. 290). The sum of these phenomena can inadequately be referred to as “ethnic” attempting an “overall explanation of difference” which ignores constant internal change (p. 290). Shaw (2000) seeks to demonstrate that what characterizes and defines a group “may alter over time as circumstances change (p. 290). I feel this is adequately demonstrated by the Pakistani-Oxford immigration study. Several aspects of their cultural constellation are seen to be preservable and adaptable in ways that affect the immigrant, the host community, as well as the sending community. 

Shaw’s (2000) research shows how Pakistani immigrants weigh their interests in ways that permit changes within traditional social structures while adapting to new circumstances (p. 293). This is an alternative to assimilation to Western individualistic values, which I believe the Pakistanis can sustain in the future. On the other hand, the Pakistanis will have to accommodate to the limits of modern Britain’s doctrine of multiculturalism. As Shaw observes, “Protection of, and respect for, minority values and customs does not extend to ideas and practices that contradict civil rights (p. 295).

Lastly, I see potential in the tendency of Pakistani immigrants’ “turning to Islam as a more significant source of identity than ethnicity” for its universal appeal (Shaw, 2000, p. 300). In the process, however, they are challenging traditional Islamic practices in search of innovations that fit their own goals and values. Their creativity is impressively able to do so while articulating faithfulness to Islamic doctrine (p. 300). This approach can serve as a positive model for Evangelical immigrants to majority Catholic Portugal who want to maintain their faith tradition while seeking to be relevant. Traditionally, Evangelical missions in Portugal have yielded humble results, especially in terms of conversions among native Portuguese. Examples of immigrants who are able to adapt their religious practice to a new environment in search of greater compatibility and relevance are inspiring. Even more so when such innovation streams from a genuine sense of lessons leaned from the “host” culture, rather than simple a means to subversively manipulate it for individual gains. 

References

Foreign Population in Portugal Sees Dramatic Rise. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2024, from https://etias.com/articles/portugal-foreign-population-growth-2023

Imigração e emigração em Portugal | Eurocid—Informação europeia ao cidadão. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2024, from http://eurocid.mne.gov.pt/artigos/imigracao-e-emigracao-em-portugal

Monteiro, C. (2024, April 16). Migração: Factos e Números 2024. EAPN. https://www.eapn.pt/centro-de-documentacao/migracao-factos-e-numeros-2024/

Vidigal, I., & Pires, R. P. (n.d.). Portuguese emigration: Trends and forecasts.

by daviddawson462742281

What Ancient Societies Teach us about Giving?

Can Contemporary Societies Learn from Ancient Economic Systems

            The Gift is as an excerpt from Marcel Mauss’ (2000) studies of economic systems in primitive societies (p. 3). Among diverse social phenomenon, the book addresses the question “What rule of legality and self-interest, in societies of a backward or archaic type, compels the gift that has been received to be obligatorily reciprocated” (Mauss, 2000, p. 4). Mauss (2000) contends that the market is a human phenomenon common to all societies, but with differing systems (p. 5). Mauss seeks to explore how the market functioned before modern forms of contract and sale to shed light on how primordial forms of “morality and organization still function in our own societies”. It is hoped that this inquiry may yield helpful conclusions regarding contemporary challenges related to modern economic systems (Mauss, 2000, p. 5). By exploring “primitive” economic institutions still extant today, we can better understand how our modern societies developed (Mauss, 2000, p. 60). Indeed, Mauss (2000) intends to show how modern systems of law and economies emerged from archaic ones (p. 61). 

Examples of “Archaic” or “Primitive” Societies and Activities

            In ancient Germanic societies, a system of exchange was “clearly defined and well developed” by which clans, tribes, and kings made and maintained alliances (p. 77-8). The obligation to reciprocate was known as the angebinde, and the term gaben refers to gifts given on special occasions that the whole village participated (p. 78). Transactions resulted in each part possessing something of the other, creating a bond by virtue of the inherent power of the object (p. 79). The significance of this obligation is expressed in the fact that diverse Germanic languages have a term for gift that also implies poison (p. 81). A ubiquitous theme in Germanic folklore is the “fatal gift, the present or item of property that is changed into poison” (p. 81). 

In classical Hindu societies, the danadharma – “law of the gift” – determined the duty of giving among the elite Brahmin class (Mauss, 2000, p. 70). A gift generates an equivalent reward for the giver in this life and an increased reward in the next life (Mauss, 2000, p. 72). Gifts are personified as “living creatures with whom one enters into a dialogue”, who desire to be given away and with whom an agreement is established (Mauss, 2000, p. 72). A Brahmin’s property is identified with himself, which can visit harm upon a transgressor (Mauss, 2000, p. 73). Many sanctions exist related to gift giving, such as being directed to another member of the Brahmin caste (p. 73). Brahmins take care to avoid residual benefits from receiving a gift because this makes him dependent on the donor, which would be demeaning (p. 75-6). Thus, “all kinds of archaic precautions are taken” so that “no error is committed” in the gift giving (p. 77). 

            In traditional Chinese law, an unalterable link exists between a think and its original owner (p. 81). Therefore, even after an item has been passed on, a contracted alliance puts the giver or seller and receiver or buyer in “perpetual dependence towards one another” (p. 82). 

Promising Paradigms from Antiquity for Modern Economic Systems

            Mauss sees as “fortunate” the fact that the “atmosphere of the gift” still exists in modern societies, so that everything is not defined in terms of “buying and selling” (p. 83). By analyzing ancient societies, Mauss seeks to demonstrate that charity is still “wounding for him who has accepted it”, “we must give back more than we have received”, and “things sold still have soul” (p. 83-4). The Gift argues that the “old principles react against the rigor, abstraction, and inhumanity” of modern legal codes (p. 85), and contemporary social security schemes represent attempts to return to a “group morality” (p. 87). Mauss promotes such a new morality as consisting of a “moderate blend of reality and the ideal”, amounting to a return to elements of archaic society (p. 88). Listed among the benefits of such a proposal are joy in public giving, generous sponsorship of the arts, hospitality, and private and public celebrations (p. 89). 

            Mauss advocates for a return to a time when man was not a calculating, utilitarian machine (p. 98). The most beneficial economy is not to be found in the “calculation of individual needs” which ends up harming the peace of all, ultimately rebounding upon the individual themself (p. 98). Only by considering society as an integral entity can we perceive what is essential (p. 102). The progress of societies has depended on their success in “stabilizing relationships, giving, receiving, and finally, giving in return” (p. 105). This positive development has occurred as far as societies, subgroups, and individuals succeeded in “stabilizing relationships, giving, receiving, and finally, giving in return” (p. 105). 

            Ancient economic systems teach us that societies built of clans, tribes, and elites can learn to “oppose and to give to one another without sacrificing themselves to one another” (p. 106). The principles of wisdom and solidarity found in the ancient societies Mauss’ studied represent a primordial morality for economic systems (p. 106). Mauss sees the possibility of recovering a balance of both individual and common endeavor as well as the accumulation and redistribution of wealth. Such harmony is possible only through a society-wide education program that encourages “mutual respect and reciprocating generosity” (p. 106). Mauss’ defends the value of researching “civics”, i.e., the “aesthetic, moral, religious, and economic motivations”, and “diverse material and demographic factors” which form the shared life of a society (p. 107). 

References

Mauss, M. (2000). The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Routledge Classics.

by daviddawson462742281

Why Giving Causes Tension Among Friends?

Christians consider generosity to be a virtue, meaning something that is freely given and voluntary. But as someone who has served in ministry for the past 3 decades, I’ve seen how tensions between giver and receiver are common. Marcel Mauss’ (2000) The Gift explores cases of lack of gratitude as based on the error of thinking free gifts can exist. For example, a donor should not intend to be exempt from return gifts coming from the receiver. Refusing reciprocation places gift giving outside the possibility of mutual connection. In this text I comment briefly on how Mauss’ work can be applied to missionary service. 

Mauss’ (2000) anthropological research on gift giving in archaic societies and its relevance to contemporary economic systems has interesting applications to my work as a missionary. Specifically, I find Mauss’ work relevant to the challenge missionaries face today in light of postcolonialism. Willie Jennings (2010) descries the arrogant and egotistical approach to giving and receiving of Western missions during colonialism: 

Adaptability, fluidity, formation, and reformation of being were heavily weighted on the side of indigenes as their requirement for survival. As Christianity developed both in the old world of Europe and in the new worlds of the

Americas, Asia, and Africa, it was no longer able to feel this tragic imbalance. Indeed, it is as though Christianity, wherever it went in the modern colonies, inverted its sense of hospitality. It claimed to be the host, the owner of the spaces it entered, and demanded native peoples enter its cultural logics, its ways of being in the world, and its conceptualities. (p. 8)

The legacy of Western missions is ambiguous, the negative aspects of which I am unavoidably connected. In relation to Mauss’ work, one such liability lies in the church’s posture as host and owner even as it invaded the homelands of ancient peoples. I do not subscribe to a notion of a noble savage or pristine indigenous societies that were not connected to their own histories of ethnic competition, conquest, displacement, and genocide. However, I do believe part of missionaries’ task of addressing our colonial past is re-articulating a Christian vision of economic systems. In this endeavor, Mauss’ (2000) work is helpful. 

According to Greene (2024), gift giving is an essential aspect of social relations, involving three types of reciprocity: generalized (based on assumption that immediate return isn’t expected), balanced (explicit expectation of equivalent return near future), and negative (intentionally getting something for nothing such as gabling or cheating). 

Mauss (2000) describes some of the archaic economic systems he studied as existing prior to the emergence of societies where man was turned into a calculating, utilitarian machine (p. 98). In these ancient societies consisting of various groups, alliances were established and maintained through systems of exchange. Through transactions both parties accepted mutual obligation because of the inherent power resident in specific objects. According to Mauss, these primitive economies reflect a vision of society as an integral entity. In such a society, success depends on stabilizing relationships rather than each individual pursuing their own ends (p. 78,78, 98). However, Mauss’ may be critiqued for selecting societies to prove his theory and for portraying them in a naive, idyllic manner (Greene, 2024). 

Mauss (2000) envisions a return to ancient economic systems where both individual and group objectives are balanced and where accumulated wealth is redistributed (p. 106). I promote interfaith dialogue and partnership as a central aspect of postsupersessionist missions. Therefore, Mauss’ work on gift giving yields helpful principles related to intergroup partnership. Postsupersessionist missions involves identifying ourselves as pilgrims and witnesses rather than the exclusive people of God. This exclusivity was a central part of supersessionism’s Gentile appropriation of biblical promises and callings uniquely attributed to the Jews. It is not incorrect for the church to affirm its identity as the people of God. But Christianity’s association with Western imperialism and colonialism creates a need for language that repudiates the sordid legacy of these political and religious phenomena. I suggest the use of terms such as pilgrims, witnesses, and disciples to describe Christian groups. The concept of divine election should be treated as a mystery to be reflected upon within the church rather than a badge visible to outsiders. I believe the election of the Jewish people and the church of Christ is a biblical doctrine that should not be rejected. However, the concept of election is not meant to give groups ideas of superiority and inspire practices of exclusion. 

Mauss’ (2000) vision of society-wide education that fosters reciprocal respect and generosity can inform Christian endeavors to promote the role of interfaith dialogue in missions practice. Missiologists do well to study civics, which Mauss describes as a society’s “aesthetic, moral, religious, and economic motivations”, as well as “diverse material and demographic factors”. Surely such anthropological and sociological research can help the church become part of a shared project of societal development (Mauss, 2000, p. 107).  

References

Greene, Katrina (2024). Introductory Videos: Fall 2024: Social Anthropology ISAN751-01. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2024, from https://biola.instructure.com/courses/58516/pages/introductory-videos?module_item_id=1167199

Jennings, W. J. (2010). The Christian imagination: Theology and the origins of race. Yale University Press; 

Mauss, M. (2000). The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Routledge Classics.

by daviddawson462742281

From Those Who Wander to Those Who Wander

Can Good Come from Relating to People from other Religions?

A missionary must have a passion for understanding different cultures. As outsiders, we want to influence cultures in ways insiders will consider respectful and helpful. Comparative missiology analyzes how Christianity and other faith traditions have sought to expand and how they justify their efforts (Kim & Fitchett-Climenhaga, 2022, p. 11). 

Questions about Christian mission exist in the general field of religious practices and patterns of diffusion. In a steadily more religiously pluralist world, missiologists can gain insights from other missionary religions like Buddhism and Islam (Kollman, 2022, p. 49). 

Christians can also grow in their understanding of mission by dialogue with non-evangelistic religions like Hinduism, Confucianism, and Judaism (Kollman, 2022, p. 50). Learning how to relate to people from other religions productively should be part of Christian missions (Fitchett-Climenhaga, 2022, p. 10). Have different religions influenced each other in positive ways? As someone engaged in Jewish-Christian relations advocacy, I’m encouraged that Jewish theologians have begun to refer to Christianity and rabbinic Judaism as sister religions. In the first century C.E., these two great faith traditions emerged and developed in mutual influence. And I believe that Christianity and Judaism have much to discover in continued, respectful dialogue (Kedem, 2022). 

Can Good Come from Missionaries Studying the Social Sciences?

The field of missiology emerged as a research-based approach to cross-cultural evangelism which gave special place to the social sciences (Fitchett-Climenhaga, 2022, p. 8). This occurred while theology and biblical studies were becoming scientific studies (Fitchett-Climenhaga, 2022, p. 19). The Anglo-American pragmatic approach to mission studies emphasized the strategic delivery of the gospel. But the German scientific approach to mission emphasized how indigenous peoples were appropriating the gospel in diverse ways (Stanley, 2022, p. 21). As an American Evangelical, I have been steeped in the strategical, project-management orientation to evangelism. But as the baton of Christian leadership passes to the Global South – Latin America, Africa, and Asia – I’m more interested in understanding and encouraging how the gospel is being reinterpreted and reimagined today. And as a student of church history, I’m aware that reinterpretation and reimagination has defined the progress of the gospel as it travelled from culture to culture. 

Missionaries increasingly study diverse fields that are related but not central to evangelism as it has traditionally been understood (Kollman, 2022, p. 51). Some fear that Christian missions will become too fragmented by a multiplicity of terms, theories, and methods (Nagy, 2022, p. 56). The clustering of comparative, historical empirical, and hermeneutical methods across disciplines makes missions studies susceptible to “interdisciplinary miscommunication and misunderstanding” (Nagy, 2022, p. 57). The study of missions mustn’t become so nebulous and vast that it cannot be directed towards practical ends. I find this definition of missiology to be helpful: “the study of the relational, communicative (co)existence between God, humans, fellow human beings and the whole creation across space and time” (Nagy, 2022, p. 60). 

Why Care About Supersessionism?

For the past several years my work has centered on post-supersessionist (PS) advocacy. The Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology describes PS as “a family of theological perspectives that affirms God’s irrevocable covenant with the Jewish people as a central and coherent part of ecclesial teaching” (Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology | Jewish-Christian Relations, n.d.). PS advocacy is described as seeking “to overcome understandings of the New Covenant that entail the abrogation or obsolescence of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, of the Torah as a demarcator of Jewish communal identity, or of the Jewish people themselves” (Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology | Jewish-Christian Relations, n.d.). 

What 

I believe Christians need to discover how God’s particular relationship with Israel demonstrates his desire and ability to love Gentile cultures in all their diversity. This perspective can mitigate against approaches to mission that reproduce cultural Christianities – national, ethnic, or tribal (Nagy, 2022, p. 65). PS advocacy recognizes the roots of supersessionist theology in the Age of Exploration when Western Christianity claimed exclusive identity as ‘people of God’ effectively abolishing the notion of the ‘Gentile’ (Jennings, 2010). 

The history of mission studies’ interaction with colonialism is important to my PS advocacy. It is encouraging to note that voices critical of Christian mission’s connection to Western colonialist were not slow to appear. Protesting voices were heard from Spanish Catholic missionaries in the 16th century for the un-Christian way Europeans treated indigenous peoples (Robert, 2022, p. 385). And Protestant voices rose similar self-accusations targeting the West’s notion of being a Christian civilization (Robert, 2022, p. 387). The culmination of the decline of ‘West to-the-rest’ mentality came in the post-World War II era’s growing anti-colonial movements and nationalism (Robert, 2022, p. 388). I do not lament this undermining of the westernizing foundations of the missionary enterprise, but it is helpful to understand the history when it casts its shadow even today. 

Hospitality from Wanderer to Wanderer

I celebrate the freeing of Christianity from its Western captivity and the unprecedented phase of growth in what came to be known as the church of the Global South (Robert, 2022, p. 389). But I lament that even in the Global South the tendency of Christians to be isolated from people of other religions results from ignorance and fear (Zurlo et al., 2022, p. 74). The statistics reveal the work at hand if Christians are to convincingly support the common human good: 87% of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims don’t know a Christian (Zurlo et al., 2022, p. 73). Solidarity with our fellow human beings according to the biblical worldview does not mean renouncing the gospel. The church needs to learn to engage the religious and ideological ‘other’ in a way that shows “love, respect, friendship, and hospitality” (Zurlo et al, 2022, p. 74). 

In a time un unprecedented migration and displacement of peoples, it is crucial to know that these phenomena have been foundational to the global spread of Christianity (Fredericks, 2022, p. 670). The reality of cultural diversity is nothing new, but even the most traditionally homogenous societies now feel the strain of pluralism (Wu, 2022, p. 53). And in metropolitan areas that have some of the largest refugee communities, the ease with which Christians can “isolate and occupy themselves away” must be addressed (Wu, 2022, p. 53). PS advocacy must learn from ecumenicists who have emphasized hospitality as the preferred motif of Christian witness (Frederiks, 2022, p. 678). Missionaries are particularly poised to show hospitality to marginalized members of society because of their shared liminal identity. As aliens and exiles in this world, the people of God have a liminal status similar in some ways to that of refugees and immigrants (Pohl, 2003, p. 5). By self-identifying as diaspora persons, missionaries can find solidarity with members of religions who were displaced from their homelands (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 348). This practice is an effective way of countering the antiquated paternalistic West to-the-rest mission narrative (Sanchez et al, 2021, p. 346). Western scholars have been reminded by Christian leaders from the Global South that evangelization is not the distinct vocation of Westerners, and that even refugees can be seen as missionaries (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 346). PS advocacy can only benefit from a posture of Christian witness that embodies such humility. 

References

Frederiks, Martha T. (2022). Mission Studies and World Christianity. In Robert, Dana L. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Kedem (Director). (2022, December 17). Christianity & Judaism – When did they actually separate? Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNFAXLC8qw

Jennings, W. J. (2010). The Christian imagination: Theology and the origins of race. Yale University Press

Kim, Kirsteen & Fitchett-Climenhaga, Alison (2022). Introduction To Mission Studies. In Kim, Kirsteen & Fitchett-Climenhaga, Alison (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Kollman, Paul. (2022). Defining Mission Studies for the Third Millennium of Christianity. In Kollman, Paul (Ed.),The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Nagy, Dorottya. (2022). Theory and Method in Mission Studies / Missiology. In Nagym Dorottya (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Pohl CD (2003) Biblical issues in mission and migration. Missiology: An International Review 31: 3–14.

Robert, Dana L. (2022). Mission Studies and World Christianity. In Robert, Dana L. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Sanchez, et al., (2021). Ministry Amidst the Refugee Crisis in Europe: Understanding Missionary- Refugee Relationships. Transformation, Vol. 38(4)

Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology | Jewish-Christian Relations. (n.d.). Spostst. Retrieved July 28, 2024, from https://www.spostst.org

Stanley, Brian (2022). The Changing Face Of Mission Studies Since The Nineteenth Century. In Stanley, Brian (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford. 

Wu, Cindy M. (2022). Refugees and the Mission of the Church. International Bulletin of Mission Research, Vol. 46(I)

Zurlo, Gina A.; Johnson, Todd M.; Crossing, Peter F. (2022). World Christianity and Religions 2022: A Complicated Relationship. International Bulletin of Mission Research, Vol. 46(I) 71-80 

by daviddawson462742281

Missionaries are Migrant Workers

Mission as a By-Product of Migration

Missiologist Martha Frederiks (2022) makes the strong claim that “mission as a by-product of migration” may be as significant to the global spread of Christianity as deliberate missions (p. 670). And the effects of migration on mission have been both positive and negative. This is based on an understanding of mission that goes beyond evangelism to include “diakonia, healing, reconciliation, presence, interfaith relations, and advocacy” (Bosch, 1991; Bevans & Schroeder, 2004; Corrie et al., 2007). Migration itself has many different definitions and is central to political debates. 

Thus, a discussion of the relationship of migration to missions is controversial (Frederiks, 2022, p. 672). The term migrant is often used as a form of othering, a “process whereby individuals and groups are treated and marked as different and inferior from the dominant social group” (Griffin, 2017). The information gleaned from interviewing migrants often ignores the probability that they don’t feel safe giving information about their experiences. Evangelism can often be seen as exploiting the vulnerability of displaced peoples. And research into migrants is predominantly done in the West, from a Western perspective. With these considerations in mind, it is undeniable that missions have been promoted through “mercantile networks, settler communities, and other forms of group migration” (Frederiks, 2022, p. 672-673). 

The term refugee has been described as migrants in foreign lands who are “unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion” (Refugees, n.d.). Missiologist Sam George states that although persecution and refugee movements have been “strategic inflection points in the history of Christianity” the current phenomena of displacement will “reshape the future of Christianity” (Adeney, 2018). 

Although cultural diversity is nothing new, increasingly even the most traditionally homogenous societies are experiencing the pressures of pluralism. In her study of forced migration, missiologist Cindy Wu (2022) studied how the church has responded to forced migration. She found that in Houston, Texas, “one of the top resettlement cities in the country”, most Christians were unaware of neighbor refugee communities. Wu (2022) found that it was easy for Christians to “isolate of occupy themselves away” from peculiar communities in their cities (p. 52-53).

Migration and Mission in Scripture and Church History

Although Christian migrants have historically proven to be effective spreaders of the gospel, this is not a given. In many cases Christian migrant’s disempowered and marginal status neutralized their influence. And the conversion of migrants to Christianity can often be seen as harmful because it enabled colonial oppression (Frederiks, 2022, p. 674). The legacy of mission and migration is ambiguous. The Jewish diaspora formed the network through which the gospel spread from Judea. The gospel spread to Germanic tribes north of the Roman Empire through their invasions and kidnapping of Christian women. And Orthodox Christianity spread as Slavic masses migrated to Central Europe (Frederiks, 2022, p. 675). 

To counter accusation of exploitation, practical forms of mission to migrants emerged that go beyond relief work to include social action and justice advocacy (Frederiks, 2022, p. 676). This aligns with the biblical injunction that the Israelites show impartiality and justice by providing for the material needs of diplaced peoples (Deut. 1:17; 24:14, 17; 27:19; Lev 19:9–10). Ecumenicists dealing with mission and migration have emphasized hospitality as the preferred motif of Christian witness (Frederiks, 2022, p. 678). 

Abraham exemplifies hospitality by hosting the stranger under the oaks of Mamre (Gen. 18). The patriarch’s actions remind us not to ignore opportunities for hospitality to foreigners (Wu, 2022, p. 55). Other biblical examples of hospitality to foreigners include the widow at Zarephath’s welcoming of Elijah (I Kg. 17), and the Gentile woman’s provision for Elisha (II Kg. 4,8). But some have pointed out the social power dynamics involved in the guest/host model of hospitality. The suggested alternative is that Christians treat migrants as neighbors with whom they have much in common (Nagy, 2015). Jesus’ inviting himself to the home of Zacchaeus the tax can also be seen as a form of hospitality. This demonstrates how showing hospitality to refugees is a “two-way Chanel of redemption” in which both giver and receiver “experience the grace of God” (Wu, 2022, p. 56). 

Missionaries are Migrants Themselves

This focus on common ground is found in missiologist Christine Pohl’s (2003) proposal that two biblical motifs should inform Christian thinking related to migration (p. 3-14). The first motif is liminality, present in the biblical image of God’s people as aliens and exiles in this world (Pohl, 2003, p. 5). Sanchez et al. (2021) found that missionaries shared a liminal identity with refugees in foreign countries where they served (p. 347). The missionaries that identified themselves as diaspora persons and were more likely to invite refugees into their homes. This was even a way for missionaries to find solidarity with Muslims who were also displaced from their cultures of origin (Sanchez et al, 2021, p. 348). Members of both communities – the missionaries and the Muslim immigrants – shared their experiences of raising children in a foreign culture. Like refugees, some of these missionaries had been forced to move with their families “five times in five years” and understood how exhausting an experience displacement is (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 348). 

But not all missionaries shared a liminal identity with fellow migrants in the countries where they served. This was clear in the fact that they referred to themselves as missionaries, ignoring any corresponding status as migrants (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 348). These missionaries’ sense of community was back at home with the sending organizations they represented, referring to themselves as “on loan” and “planting” a branch of those foreign entities (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 348).

Pohl’s (2003) speaks of hospitality as the natural reaction of liminal groups meeting each other. As strangers themselves, “the people of God will welcome strangers and will embody hospitality as a way of life (p. 5). Hospitality’s true value is seen when it is offered to those who are “significantly different from ourselves”. Thus, it contrasts with our selfish tendency to be friendly to those who are “interesting, valuable, and important to us” (Pohl, 2003, p. 10). This is the opposite of the fear of refugees as detrimental to the economy and the preservation of demographical status quo (Wu, 2022, p. 55). Such an attitude among Christians is shameful, representing a scarcity mentality that seeks newcomers as a “threat or a burden” (Wu, 2022, p. 55). Often the church is complicit in a system where migrants are welcomed as cheap labor while prohibiting citizenship that would potentially change cultural identity. This is a stark contrast to the biblical mandate against mistreating or oppressing foreigners (24:19; 26:12–15; Jer. 7:5–7; 22:3; Ezek. 22:7, 29; Zech. 7:10; Mal. 3:5). 

Hospitality that Seeks Invitation Versus Giving Invitation

Sanchez et al., (2021) found that missionaries serving Muslim migrant communities overseas worked hard developing relationships and saw being invited to formal or informal events as a breakthrough (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 349). Informal events included “afterschool programs for children and youth, language classes, food and clothing provision, and community center activities designed to help immigrants”. These missionaries participated in language classes to create a relational bridge which could lead to opportunities to share the gospel. These classes were a context where Muslim women could “socialize and connect”, which was superior to their need for language learning. In this way, a formal language class became an “informal, hospitable gathering” offering intercultural learning and relational support (Sanchez et al., 2021, p. 349-350).

Rejecting the “West to the Rest” Paradigm

Theologies of mission and migration developed by immigrants tend to focus on praxis versus theory. A “diaspora missiology” emerges that sees evangelism as something done from every place to every people (Wan, 2010). The most influential mission from migrants’ perspective has been reverse mission which encourages the sending of missionaries from the non-Western world to the former “heartlands of Christianity” in Europe and North America (Frederiks, 2022, p. 679). This last movement is described as a “re-narrativizing” project that counters the typical experiences of immigrants: marginalization, discrimination, racism, and exploitation (Frederiks, 2022, p. 679). This counters the “old paternalistic paradigm of ‘the West to the rest’” (Sanchez et al, 2021, p. 346). Majority World scholars have reminded Western scholars that “sharing the Gospel is not the sole business of Westerners”, and refugees can be seen as missionaries (Sanchez et al, 2021, p. 346). 

Missiologist Cindy Wu (2022) reminds us of the way Christian tradition has “honored the legacy of sojourners and refugees” in the Bible. Abraham was called out of Ur, the patriarchs wandered for generations in Canaan and Egypt, and Moses ultimately led Israel’s exodus in the desert. The factors which cause displacement of peoples are as old as time: “economic opportunity, environmental devastation, war, and persecution”. This has caused the development of unusual religious communities far away from their traditional homelands. Europe has experienced the most drastic demographic shifts because of asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (Wu, 2022, p. 54). 

References

Adeney, Sam G. & Miriam Adeney, eds., (2018). Refugee Diaspora: Missions amid the Greatest Humanitarian Crisis of Our Times. William Carey Publishing, Kindle location 363.

Bosch, David (1990). Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll: Orbis. 

Bevans, Stephan & Schroeder, Roger. (2004). Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today. Maryknoll: Orbit.

Corrie, John, Escobar, Samuel and Shenk, Wilbert R. (2007). Dictionary of Mission Theology: Evangelical Foundations. Nottingham: InterVarsity Press. 

Frederiks, Martha T. (2022). Mission Studies and World Christianity. In Robert, Dana L. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Griffin, G. (2017). Othering. In A Dictionary of Gender Studies. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191834837.001.0001/acref-9780191834837-e-283

Nagy, D. (2015). Minding methodology: Theology-missiology and migration studies. Mission Studies, 32(2), 203–233. https://doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341401

Pohl, Christine D. (2003) Biblical issues in mission and migration. Missiology: An International Review 31: 3–14.

Refugees. (n.d.). UNHCR US. Retrieved July 12, 2024, from https://www.unhcr.org/us/refugees

Sanchez, et al., (2021). Ministry Amidst the Refugee Crisis in Europe: Understanding Missionary- Refugee Relationships. Transformation, Vol. 38(4)

Wan, E. (2010). RETHINKING MISSIOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 21ST CENTURY: GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND DIASPORA MISSIOLOGY. Great Commission Research Journal, 2(1), 7–20.

Wu, Cindy M. (2022). Refugees and the Mission of the Church. International Bulletin of Mission Research, Vol. 46(I)

by daviddawson462742281

Can Missionaries Change Cultures in a Good Way?

What Missiologists Think

According to missiologist Craig Ott (2021) postcolonial thought is the critique of attempts by one culture to impose their worldview onto another. But Ott warns against a naive attitude that opposes cultural change in general, contrary to the fact that this is an obvious reality in our modern, globalizing world. He also contends that cross-cultural teachers will inevitably be agents of culture change, so they must seek to do so intentionally and profitably. And since no culture perfectly represents the biblical worldview, part of Christian practice is mutual intercultural exhortation. Ott describes the impetus for worldview change as a person coming to realize that “the way they have understood the world so far can no longer account for their present experience”. And such change is not motivated merely by information, human reasoning is based on emotional narratives imbibed in our upbringing. It is only through alternative narratives that one’s conception of reality can change and cause the reshaping of an individual’s identity and values (Ott, 2021, p. 160-167). 

So people will only be persuaded by the biblical worldview if it is linked to local issues and is a story people can “identify with, remember and which will have a life changing impact” (Bartle, 2005, p. 185). For biblical concepts to influence traditional religious cultures, these concepts must be associated with indigenous symbols. Then these symbols can be used to integrate a traditional culture with the world of Scripture “into a holistic Christian application of faith to life” (Zahniser, 1997, p. 13). 

Missiologists Lingenfelter & Lingenfelter (2003) also recognize that every culture is a source of bondage and should so be challenged by teachers (p. 88). Although cultural stability and continuity are necessary for individual and community flourishing, social practices that contradict our values should be confronted. Experiential learning is a technique consisting of “doing and reflecting on what happened”, learning begins with concrete experience followed by reflective observations that lead to the formation of abstract generalizations. The motivation and ability to change behavior comes from students’ experience of discomfort or dissonance, whose cause when recognized can be mitigated against. Experiential learning is effective in promoting change because it focuses on “experience and emotional responses” rather than information. But creating powerful simulations that connect abstract concepts and concrete experiences is more challenging than just lecturing. Still, simulations of experience followed by group and personal reflection can affect change like that which long-term mentoring relationships would produce. From a Christian perspective, ultimately no educational method can produce transformation, only trials, repentance, and obedience to biblical teaching can do that (Lingenfelter & Lingenfelter 2003, p. 89-98). 

What Intercultural Education Experts Think

Geneva Gay (2018) of the University of Washington critiques “micro-level changes” made by short-term educational projects with limited influence on the wider learning culture (p. 275). Gay asserts that this approach won’t generate significant change (p. 275). And change is possible only when educators stop advocating for a return to traditions from a past that marginalized many ethnic minorities. Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) will only change the culture when it is a required part of teacher training, rather than an optional approach. Gay also advocates for holistic approaches to change in education that deal with students’ “ethic and cultural particularities, and their individual uniqueness”. Ultimately, the motivation for change through CRT is the development of students who help make society more “equitable, receptive, and reflective of diverse peoples, experiences, perspectives, and contributions”. This formation must begin in early childhood when students’ ideas about race are being shaped. Merely recognizing the value of CRT is not enough, it must be implemented, and field-based training helps knowledge and practice “reinforce and refine each other” (Gay, 2018, p. 277-290). 

In Developing Fundamental Orientations for Teaching, Villegas & Lucas (2002) advocate for teachers seeing themselves as agents of chance who see “schools and society as interconnected” (p. 55). This involves recognizing that the potential education must challenge societal injustice is more often substituted by a tendency to reproduce the thinking and behavior of the dominant cultural group (Villegas & Lucas, 2002, p. 55). 

Dealing with Controversial Issues: Social Studies in Africa

Lewis Asimeng-Boahene (2007) researched strategies for dealing with controversial issues in social studies education in African schools. He argues that the increased approximation and interdependence of nations increases the importance of social studies educators’ role in preparing children to live in “tomorrow’s global village” (p. 232). The African continent is a particular challenge involving the need to navigate controversial issues while community taboos often prevent open discussion. Asimeng-Boahene argues that decisions about what issues should or should not be discussed need to be based on what fulfills the long-term goals of the school in its community. Introducing controversial issues into classroom discussion sparks students’ interest and encourages civic participation. It also teaches students how to face and resolve conflict and controversy in a “rational, thoughtful, and sensitive manner” (Asimeng-Boahene, 2007, p. 232-233). 

I recognize the benefits of a teacher not committing to a particular position about a controversial issue. But I agree with experts that recommend a teacher never introduce a subject they are not willing to comment on personally, i.e., beliefs and values (Hoge et al., 2004; Martorella et al., 2005). 

How to Teach for Cultural Change Ethically

My context of service is primarily ecumenical meetings of Christian leaders from diverse traditions working on issues of reconciliation. Participants come from churches that have different concepts about what type of issues should be discussed publicly and how that should be conducted. This type of work requires a balance of challenging participants to step outside their comfort zones while respecting their convictions. Our gatherings have people from conservative and liberal/progressive church traditions and it is often a challenge to go beyond niceties to get real work done while avoiding unfruitful controversy. Experts in discussing controversial issues in education recommend inviting respected members of the community to participate (Adeyemi, 2000). In an ecumenical reconciliation themed event, I would apply this principle to the need for local hosts to be given a place of honor. In general, this has been the approach of the reconciliation events I have participated in. Local Christian leaders are given a role of host and convener whose presence mitigates against the appearance of indifference to community context. 

Villegas and Lucas (2002) observe the difficulty of teachers having influence outside the classroom due to the hierarchical culture of schools (p. 56). Teachers are so bogged down with teaching and bureaucratic duties that becoming change agents is an unreasonable endeavor. Making things worse is the postmodern critique of peer relations that creates “a sense of despair (…) that all actions are oppressive and that human agency is an illusion”. For this reason, I agree with the assessment that teachers must encourage “both critique and hope in equal measure” (Villegas and Lucas, 2002, p. 56-58). 

In the context of my ecumenical reconciliation work, the “teaching” is expressed in the mode of round-table discussions. Leaders representing diverse church traditions interact as equals seeking the healing of historic divisions through prayer, repentance, and advocacy. The central motif of much of our work is the Ephesians 2 vision of one new humanity describing the church as a prophetic image of intercultural reconciliation. The concept of being a teacher as an ethical Christian change agent should find direct application to the work I am involved in. Ecumenism that seeks to fulfill the vision of John 17:21 must not be introverted and concerned only with the benefits of reconciliation to the global communion of Christian faith. Our efforts at reconciliation within the church must have a clear goal to bring the fruits of this work to bear on the injustices that plague our world. 

Experts recommend that teachers as agents of social change seek to do so as part of collaborative projects (Villegas & Lucas, 2002, p. 63). I find application of this principle to the work I am involved in, where reconciliation advocates must avoid the discouragement that comes with trying to work alone. Neither schools, nor ecumenical meetings are sufficient to bring about social justice. What is needed is “collaborative communities working for change” in ways that go beyond the spheres of individual change agents. 

References

Adeyemi, M. B. (2000) Teaching conflict resolution to social studies students in Botswana, The Social Studies, 91(1), 38–41.

Hoge, J. D. et al. (2004) Real-world investigations for social studies (Columbus, OH, Pearson/Merrill/

Prentice Hall).

Ott, C. (2021). Teaching and learning across cultures: A guide to theory and practice. (Lower Level LC1099. O83 2021). Baker Academic

Bartle, Neville. 2005. Death, Witchcraft and the Spirit World in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Goroka, Papua New Guinea: Melanesian Institute.

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. (Lower Level LC1099.3. G393 2018; Third edition.). Teachers College Press

Lewis Asimeng‐Boahene (2007) Creating strategies to deal with problems of teaching controversial issues in social studies education in African schools, Intercultural Education, 18:3, 231-242, DOI: 10.1080/14675980701463588

Lingenfelter, J., & Lingenfelter, S. (2003). Teaching cross culturally: An incarnational model for learning and teaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Martorella, P., Beal, H., Candy, M. & Bolick, C. M (2005) Teaching social studies in middle and

secondary schools (4th edn) (Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson).

Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Educating culturally responsive teachers: A coherent approach. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Zahniser, A. H. Matthias. 1997. Symbol and Ceremony: Making Disciples across Cultures. Monrovia, CA: MARC.

by daviddawson462742281

Teaching from the Outside

The Far-reaching Perspective of the Portuguese People

As someone from a minority Christian tradition in the majority Catholic nation of Portugal, I believe that sharing the gospel here should connect with the culture’s sense of values and meaning. The Portuguese are fully engaged in modernity, but they also have a sense of the continuous history of their nation – founded in 1143 C.E., considered by some to be the oldest country in Europe (Historical Development, n.d.; (17 Fun Facts about Portugal You Probably Never Knew, n.d.). Learning activities that spark curiosity to see how class content relates to daily life and individual accomplishment of Portuguese students will be most effective. 

Evangelical missionaries like me serving in Latin Europe – Portugal, Spain, Italy – often complain of the difficulty of their work. But I believe a key is connecting the good news of Jesus’ redemptive kingdom to the felt needs and values of these Catholic, secularized societies. The last description cites a great paradox of those countries of Southern Europe that resisted the effects of modernity longer. Here we experience a culture that wants to exercise the freedoms that come with liberalism while also keeping the Catholic church as a bastion of moral reference. 

Sage on a Stage Versus Guide on the Side

The study of diverse interactive methods of teaching that unlock students’ knowledge is enough for a teacher to spend a lifetime learning. This approach is known as student-based learning (SBL), and those who got into teaching because of the love of study need not feel they will be unfulfilled by using this approach. Two cutting edge SBL methods are problem-based learning (Nurul Fadilah et al., 2024) and jigsaw learning (Usman et al., 2022). Both these approaches have the strength of generating and taking advantage of group discussion. I feel that learning approaches that emphasize group discussion have many benefits for a foreign missionary like me. Problem-based learning should be engaged with soberly by a foreign teacher because it will expose them to the pain and struggles of the culturally “other” they serve. If a missionary expects to not stay in a country a long time, or perhaps indefinitely, they can be protected from the despair inherent to any culture by always keeping their eyes on the horizon expecting to go home one day. 

When we really engage and enmesh ourselves in a local culture – marrying someone from there and raising our native-born children there – the liabilities of that nation will affect us for better or worse. The missionary must have a different perspective – that there is no worse-off person due to intercultural service for Jesus. The call of a missionary is only enriching even if not by human standards. 

Ideas of Power: Comparing our Baggage

Hierarchy and order in the Portuguese learning context are quite different from my home culture of Southern California. In the context of teaching, I find that the Portuguese are less likely to recognize someone’s authority to speak on a subject based on experience and charisma but without formal education. Higher education degrees are highly valued in my home culture, but there are many people who become persons of influence in an area due solely to their accomplishments independent of academic pedigree. 

Attractive body appearance is also a significant status defining criteria in the coastal urban context of Cascais where I live, located in the metro area of Lisbon. Dressing well and multilingual ability is highly respected in this context and even necessary depending on one’s vocation. Size of family is more of status symbol for US-Americans than Europeans who often feel the former are irresponsible and even egotistical for having such large families. This would be viewed in the opposite manner by US-Americans. The main challenge I see in engaging and influencing Portuguese culture relates to hierarchy and material status. For US-Americans like me deference to hierarchical and institutional values are harder to accept, and the Portuguese will likely be turned off if US-Americans ostentatiously demonstrate consumerism as a social elevator. 

Is it Valid to Seek Cultural Change? 

 In closing, diverse challenges exist for a foreign teacher who desires to be an agent of cultural and social change. It is imperative that members of the local community be involved in learning activities that seek to bring positive transformation. And as said at the beginning of this text, foreign agents of cultural change should seek to do so in compliance with the goals and values of their target constituencies. The institutions of Portugal still seem daunting to me after living here for four years. I take comfort in the experience of spending 16 years in Brazil, knowing that the learning curve has spikes and plateaus but continues if a missionary stays the course. Staying isn’t enough; however, many stay for decades without becoming wise navigators of culture. My prayer is that I maintain a teachable spirit before the Lord and leave a legacy of blessing – however small it may be by human estimation – that glorifies the name of Jesus. 

References

Historical development. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/portugal/historical-development#

17 fun facts about Portugal you probably never knew. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/fun-facts-about-portugal/

Usman, M., Degeng, I. N. S., Utaya, S., & Kuswandi, D. (2022). The Influence of JIGSAW Learning Model and Discovery Learning on Learning Discipline and Learning Outcomes. Pegem Journal of Education and Instruction, 12(2), 166–178.

by daviddawson462742281

Finding Hope in Narrative Learning 

Giving our Life Stories Structure and Coherence

According to Goodson et al. (2010), stories can either give our lives “structure, coherence and meaning” or inversely they can provide “the backdrop against which we experience our lives as complex, fragmented or without meaning” (p. 1). These stories don’t just help us understand ourselves, they constitute who we are(Goodson, 2010, p. 1). We create these stories, finding in them meaning, direction, and support for dealing with circumstances and our identities in them (Goodson, 2010, p. 2). Rather than consisting in learning fromthe stories of our lives and selves, narrative learning happens “in and through the narration” (Goodson, 2010, p. 2). 

We can deliberately engage in constructing narrative through autobiographical work (Goodson, 2010, p. 2). Bateson’s (1994) model for narrative learning involves “recognition of experience, reflection, and reconstruction, which are interrelated as a spiral”. Spiral learning consists of navigating complexity “with partial understanding, allowing for later returns” (Bateson, 1994, p.243). Learning as we move forward, we reflect on experiences and reconstruct them during our lives (Liu, 2015, p. 21). 

Stage theory is a common approach to understanding an individual’s life. But Cohler (1982) states that narrative “may offer a better understanding of the life course than stage theory because it closely parallels the storying process that people use in making meaning of their own lives”. This frees the exercise from constricting models of life progression, as if individual’s lives would always follow one of a set of predictable patterns. 

According to Polkinghorne (1995), narrative discourse “draws together diverse events, happenings, and actions of human lives into thematically unified goal directed purposes” (p. 5). We use narratives to “inform our decisions by constructing imaginative ‘what if’ scenarios” hopefully coming to see that what we have received outweighs what we have lost (Polkinghorne, 1998, p. 14).

Helping Explain Why Our Lives Deviate from “the Norm”

Bruner (1990) describes the function of narratives as specifically “to find an intentional state that mitigates or at least makes comprehensible a deviation from canonical cultural patterns” (p. 49-50). Narrative forms are both “socially patterned” and “personally inscribed”, meaning that understanding the social involves taking personal stories seriously “in their own terms and not just as the expression of something underlying or overarching” (Goodson, 2010, p. 126-7). And as a collaborative creative activity, narrative learning consists in both the way we tell a story and how the receiver interprets it (Liu, 2015, p. 4; Czanniawska, 1997). 

We establish coherence in our narratives by finding connections between the variety of experiences that bombard us with daily (Clark & Rossiter, 2008, p. 62). This coherence is often found in specific cultural narratives, which if identified can be critiqued and countered with alternative narratives (Clark & Rossiter, 2008, p. 62). Indeed, all narratives are situated in culture and tied to it (Clark, 2010, p. 3). However, there is also individual agency in creating narratives, as the speaker connects events into a sequence in order to act on them later and impress meaning upon their listeners (Reissman, 2008, p. 3). Events perceived by the speaker are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience” (p. 3). Important to notice is that narrative is always social, i.e. “there is always an audience (real or imagined, the other or even the self) and that fact shapes the structure and determines the purpose of the narrative” (Clark, 2010, p. 4). 

Sarbin (1993) describes our world as “story-shaped” (p. 63), full of “folklore, myth, popular culture (carried by modalities such as movies, television, YouTube, music, and the like), social scripts, religious traditions and parables, political discourses, history, literature”, and so on (Clark, 2010, p. 4). All these forms embody cultural values providing “libraries of plots. . .[that] help us interpret our own and other people’s experience” (Sarbin, 1993, p. 59). These narratives “establish what constitutes normalcy by defining reasonable causality and plausibility” (Linde, 1993). 

Personal Narrative Exercises

Some educators have used imaginative role-playing to help learners encounter a tangible experience, by pretending they were someone else in a different context (Marunda-Piki, 2018, p. 109). Research indicates the effectiveness of narrative exercises where adult learners tell stories “using plenty of gestures, facial expressions, and a degree of dramatization using tone of voice and mime (Sawyer, 1965; Colwell, 1980; Grainger, 1997). 

Christian educators have used narrative learning to help students understand the stories they believed about themselves considering Christ’s work on the cross” (Foote, 2015, p. 118). The call to a new life of faith is seen as “a call for Christians to rethink their thinking”, citing Scripture attesting to how the world has blinded the unbeliever from the light of the gospel (II Cor. 4:4). Emphasis is placed on the believer’s new life in Christ (II Cor. 5:17), and their call to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2) (Foote, 2015, p. 118). 

Asking adult learners to write narrative essays about their lives is a means of “connecting what they have learned from current experiences to those in the past as well to possible future situations” (Foote, 2015, p. 120). According to Kolb’s experiential learning model, “concrete experiences can lead to personal reflection on the experience. This reflection then leads to abstract conceptualization, which might manifest itself in a set of conclusions or rules of thumb derived from the experience as well as insight into applicable theories or other concepts” (Colvin, 2012, p. 94). Since adults form their identities through their experiences, by critically reflecting upon prior learning through written narratives students can “reshape and renew their identities” (Foote, 2015, p. 121). 

Psychologists use therapeutic interventions that involve “the co-construction of healing narratives in the face of personal, moral, and social adversity” (Lieblich, McAdams, and Josselson , 2004). In White and Epston’s (1990) narrative therapy process clients are helped to re-story their lives, editing the plot to better serve them. This helps the client distinguish different stories to the problem narrative that led them into therapy. Frank (1995) identifies three types of illness narratives: “restitution narrative centers around the (hoped for) return of good health; the chaos narrative has no center—it is disturbingly lacking in coherence and therefore in sense making; and the quest narrative seeks to use the illness to gain something of value”. 

Clark and Rossiter (2008) argue that the nature of experience is always prelinguistic, “it is ‘languaged’ after the fact, and the process of narrating it is how learners give meaning to the experience” (p. 64). Therefore, it is via the construction of narrative that experience becomes accessible, and the way it is constructed determines the meaning it will have for the individual or group. (Clark and Rossiter, 2008, p. 64).

Clark and Rossiter (2008) developed three modes of narrative learning. In the learning journalassignment, participants articulate what they are learning “in a sustained, regular way” by journaling (p. 67). Participants enter a conversation between themselves and the learning material in focus, connecting prior experiences with new ones, comparing prior assumptions with new ideas. In concept-focused autobiographical writing, students write a paper with their life story as the subject, to “construct a narrative of their life experience, which must cohere in terms of a given concept and illuminate that concept” (Clark and Rossiter, 2008. P. 68). In instructional case studies, a problem is presented that must be solved or an issue to be addressed, “and this is the location of the learning because the problem or issue is complex, reflecting real-world practice” (Clark and Rossiter, 2008. P. 68). The point is less finding the solution to the problem than discovering “how to decide what to do” (Clark and Rossiter, 2008. P. 68). They are “learning to think like practitioners, which involves putting theoretical concepts in conversation with prior experience to come up with new insights and interpretations” (Clark and Rossiter, 2008. P. 68).

Conclusion

            The most compelling idea in my study of narrative learning is that people either see their lives as coherent and meaningful or chaotic and absurd. What a tragedy for people who find themselves in a story whose beginning, middle, and end don’t make any sese or have purpose. The Bible states that everyone was created for a purpose (Eph. 2:10; Ps. 139:14-16), a simple message but one that so many distraught and alienated people need to know. 

            Unfortunately, the Bible is full of stories of people who knew God whose stories began so promisingly but ended up in tragedy. These were the followers of God, the heroes of the faith. If we can learn to see our lives in the perspective of the God who shapes and forms, forgives and redeems, we should always be able to find hope. 

References

Bateson, M.C. (1994). Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way. New York: Harper Collins. 

Bruner, Jerome S. (1990) Acts of Meaning (the Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures) , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Clark, M. C., & Rossiter, M. (2008). Narrative learning in adulthood. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 2008(119), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.306 

Clark, M. C. (2010). Narrative Learning: Its Contours and Its Possibilities. Part of a Special Issue: Narrative Perspectives on Adult Education, (126), 3–11. https:// doi.org/10.1002/ace.367 

Cohler, B. J. “Personal Narrative and the Life Course.” In P. B. Baltes and O. G. Brim, Jr. (eds.), Life-span Development and Behavior. New York: Academic Press, 1982. 

Colwell, E. (1980) Storytelling (London, The Bodley Head).

Colvin, J. (2012). Earn college credit for what you know (5th ed.). Chicago, IL: Kendall Hunt.

Czanniawska, B (1997). Narrating the Organization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Foote, L. S. (2015). Re-Storying Life as a Means of Critical Reflection: The Power of Narrative Learning. Christian Higher Education, 14(3), 116–126. Academic Search Premier.

Frank, A. W. The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. Chicago: University of 

Chicago Press, 1995.

Goodson, I. F., Biesta, Gert., Tedder, M., & Adair, N. (2010). Narrative Learning. Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/biola-ebooks/detail.action?docID=487967

Grainger, T. (1997) Traditional storytelling in the primary classroom (Leamington Spa, Scholastic. 

Lieblich, A., McAdams, D. P., and Josselson, R. (eds.). Healing Plots: The Narrative Basis of Psychotherapy. Washington, D.C.: APA, 2004.

Linde, C. Life Stories. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.Liu, X. (2015). Narrative Generates a Learning Spiral in Education: Recognition, Reflection, and Reconstruction. International Journal for Leadership in Learning, 1(3). ERIC. 

Polkinghorne, D. (1995) ‘Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis’, in J. A. Hatch and R. Wisniewski (eds) Life History and Narrative , London: Falmer.

Polkinghorne, D. (1998). Narrative Knowing and the Human Science. Albany: SUNY

Press.

Riessman, C. K. Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2008.

Sarbin, T. R. “The Narrative as the Root Metaphor for Contextualism.” In S. C. Hayes, 

C. J. Hayes, H. W. Reese, and T. R. Sarbin (eds.), Varieties of Scientific Contextualism. 

Reno, Nev.: Context Press, 1993.

Sawyer, R. (1965) The way of the storyteller (New York, The Viking Press); original work published 1942. 

White, M., and Epston, D. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: Norton, 

1990.

 [DD1]Considering how personal narratives explain deviations from cultural patterns. In their personal narratives, participants could explore how they explain their involvement in Jewish-Christian reconciliation initiatives. (ONM)

 [DD2]Important albeit obvious point: our personal narratives are the result of the interaction of our own experiences and thoughts about them and the mutuality of these experiences and reflections within our cultures. 

 [DD3]Participants can be asked who are the most important “receivers” to their self narrative and narrative of Jewish-Christian relations (ONM), as well as as how this audience affects the narrative?