Tag / religion

by daviddawson462742281

Vertical, Horizontal, and Circular Reconciliation

Major Ideas of Al Tizon’s Whole and Reconciled and Application to Ecumenism

Tizon (2018) proposes that in our diverse, fragmented, and globalized world the ministry of reconciliation is central to a current concept and practice of mission (p. xvi). The church’s mission must be holistic in a way that goes beyond uniting word and deed, but that puts the world back together (p. xvi). As a work of missiology, Tizon defines the term as the investigation of the point of contact between faith and culture which informs those who promote the fruitfulness of this interaction (p. 1). 

A globalized world needs to experience the love of God in the small actions of individual believers (p. 19). This world can be described as post-Christendom as the faith has lost coherence in societies significatively founded upon its influence. On the bright side, this reality makes the need for a mission of reconciliation a clear priority. Current post-colonial ideology poses a challenge to the church as it rightfully disassociates itself from shameful distortions of mission while seeking to restore the true biblical vision. The practice of collective repentance is proposed as a legitimate practice accompanied by practical restitution wherever possible. False and half gospels of bigotry, prosperity, apathy, and social liberation lead millions of sincere seekers astray from the essence of the biblical vision (p. 63). A kingdom vision can be summarized as manifest where God’s reign exists, resulting in reconciliation with God, with fellow humans, and with creation – vertical, horizontal and circular (p. 28-86). 

The biblical vision of human being is integral, consisting of body and soul as inseparable, ideally in communion with God, others, and creation (p. 98). The trinity is the foundation for the church’s mission as an expression of God’s nature, in wholeness, community, diversity, and reconciliation. As the church has spread across the globe this reconciling mission places it in a prime position to spread this intergroup healing wherever conflict exists. This mission is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit, sustaining joy in suffering and bringing holistic transformation. But such spirituality does not ignore the historic and present injustices that exist between human individuals and groups. Although the non-holistic concept of mission is largely a Western one, it has been largely exported to the church of the Global South, and therefore must be addressed across the globe. A complete vision of mission has developed through emphases such as societal transformation, signs and wonders, ecumenism, and social justice. This vision can be seen ultimately in Revelation 7 in what can be termed the Great Reconciliation (p. 112-168). 

Holistic mission cannot be reduced to a reconciliation of streams in Christianity that argue for the supremacy of evangelism versus social concern, beyond a balance between word and deed (p. 173). Again, the vision of integral mission must be vertical, horizontal, and circular – moving from a concept of Great Commission to Whole Commission. In conclusion, in a world of fragmented groups that shock against each other in a sea that all share, the church cannot ignore the mission of reconciliation. This must be done on the individual, intimate level of human relationships, not on big picture notions of ideological unity. This will require humility, vulnerability, confession, forgiveness, lament, and continuous steps towards justice. And all these efforts must be done in the fellowship of Christ’s body, not realized bey separate groups self-satisfied with their good works independent of their global brethren (p. 176-205). 

Questions After Reading

During the reading, I wondered about how the author’s experience has been different than my own as a person of color. As an immigrant to the U.S. from the Philippines, Tizon has experienced alienation and marginalization that a while male like me has not. Reading this book caused me to question how much I am aware of my privilege in US-American society, even as a missionary overseas for most of my life. Tizon does not shy from critical analysis of many aspects of Western Christianity, particularly US-American Evangelicalism. Tizon explores the extension of Western Evangelical doctrinal and practical phenomenon to missions. As a product of US-American missions I was stung by some of Tizon’s denunciations and wondered if he ran the risk of dishonoring a valuable legacy.

I wondered if certain aspects of Western Christianity that can be seen in the Global South – such as megachurches, individualism, and disembodied rationality – should be seen as the product of collaboration and synergy. Someone like Tizon and myself who have been steeped in the experience of US-American Christian institutions may erroneously diminish the agency of Global South Christianity as it has developed. Care should be taken against this type of reductive analysis even when the church of the Global South shares similarities to Western Christianity in several key areas. 

Implications for My Research on Iberian Postcolonial Ecumenism

I have been engaged in the Iberian diaspora world of Spanish and Portuguese speaking post-colonial nations from childhood through my career as a missionary. My research includes addressing questions of race and identity among descendants of both the colonizers and colonized in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. This is a vast demographic, but they are linked in ways that are particularly important for theories of race that still divide the world and the body of Christ. As I travel between Ibera and Latin America, I seek to bring awareness to the distortion in church history that resulted from the treaty of Tordesillas that gave the Spanish and Portuguese empires a colonizing mission directly from the Vatican. Tizon’s work is relevant to the question of the identity of the people of God as it was conceived by the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers. These sailors, traders, and missionaries received an identification that abolished the notion of Jew and Gentile described by Paul in Ephesians 2:12-17 as the new man. Instead of the body of Messiah being seen as the reconciliation of two formerly exclusive and adverse groups, the first division in the history of the church occurred. 

As I advocate at ecumenical gatherings of Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant, Messianic Jewish, and Pentecostal believers in Christ, the motif of mission as reconciliation is central. Tizon’s vision goes to the heart of what the ecumenical projects I serve in Europe and the Americas seek to address. However, I feel a sense of caution when critiquing the foundation of modern missions which I inherited. I consider myself to be someone standing on the shoulders of missionary giants who went before me. I am aware of the liability that the color of my skin and eyes, my language and my sex, all of these represent those of the Western Christian colonizer in all its ambiguity. Tizon’s work encourages me to seek constant awareness of the privilege I enjoy – even as to say these seems today like a politically correct troupe of self-abasement. However, Tizon’s contribution, in comparison to much postcolonial writing, is highly practical and specific. Therefore, this work provides me with not mere guilt and speculation of the sickness and wounds that are present in the global church today. Tizon provides a roadmap towards healing that Christians from many streams of the faith can follow. 

References

Tizon, Al (2018). Whole and Reconciled: Gospel, Church, and Mission in a Fractured World. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

by daviddawson462742281

Lessons from Latin America on Secularism and Religious Pluralism

Towards an Ecumenical Vision?

Escobar (2012) describes the Crisis of Christendom in Latin America during the 20th century in which “vigorous minorities committed to evangelize” have challenged the Catholic status quo (p. 175). Dillon (2015) describes a similar situation in the U.S., where religious affiliation in the U.S. has declined in its “social desirability, or, and, in the actual relevance of religious affiliation” (p. 346). Although the historical foundations of US-America and Latin America are different, they share the common experience of a decline in Christendom. The first wave of challenge to Catholic supremacy in Latin America came with elites who favored the influence of Protestant missionaries as a means of promoting democracy and pluralism (Escobar, 2012, p. 176). The second challenge to the Christian status quo in Latin America came through the growth of Pentecostals, especially among the poor. Escobar (2012) describes Pentecostalism as “a movement coming ‘from below’, with its own religious and social dynamism and great expansive power” (p. 178). The rise from 5% to 15% of the US-American population affirming Pentecostal affiliation (Jacobsen, 2015, p. 208-9) since the 1950s shows the dynamism of this movement in that nation as well. 

The growth of Protestantism in Latin America during the second part of the 20th century was part of the larger phenomenon of a “massive exodus” from the Catholic Church whose centuries old form was “unable to cope with the challenges of the fast pace of social change” (Escobar, 2012, p. 177). And although the Catholic Church tried to these demands, such as with an emphasis on the marginalized poor, the poor themselves opted for Pentecostalism (Escobar, 2012, p. 178). Jacobsen (2015) describes the waves of growing Pentecostalism in US-America as reflecting the “increasing emphasis placed on experience instead of theology in almost all American churches” (p. 209). 

The growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America and the Catholic church’s response indicates the nuanced approach needed when Christianity attempts to follow the culture. While some adjustments of theology and practice have been fruitful throughout church history, some have not. Another way to view the matter of adjusting to culture is to be realistic about the results that may come. Whereas some Catholic faithful welcomed the new focus on the poor, others still found it to be too institutionally centered. This is perhaps an example of where a particular church must realize that its attempts at contextualization cannot impede people from opting for another church’s approach. An ecumenical vision that accepts God’s work through the diversity of Christian expression helps the different churches avoid discouragement and competition. 

Lessons from a Marginalized Christianity

The trend in US-America shows a different type of individualism since the 1960s expressed in a “culture of freedom and critique rather than of conformity and deference to external authority” (Dillon, 2015, p. 351). And more recently, the millennial generation has been described as “a generation of tinkerers” that adhere to a “mosaic of diverse beliefs and practices that is characteristic of the religiously affiliated and non-affiliated” (Dillon, 2015, p. 354). Particularly among younger US-Americans, the preference to be called spiritual than religious or to embrace double belonging to multiple religions indicates a “newly diverse and spiritually fuzzy landscape” (Jacobsen, 2015, p. 212). 

The challenge of the Christian status quo is present in Europe, North and South America regarding Catholic and Protestant opposition to same-sex relations (Dillon, 2015, p. 357-8). In contrast, although abortion attitudes vary much within the US-American Christian population, they have proven to be “highly stable over time” showing little variation among generations. Dillon (2015) interprets this phenomenon as indicating that “moral issues raise moral and value questions for individuals irrespective of religious identity and affiliation status” (p. 361). 

It seems that the Latin American Christian situation can inform the similar US-American situation of reduced centrality of Christianity in culture and society (Dillon, 2015, p. 363). There are significant demographic differences, such as the Latin American division between rich and poor versus the US-American fragmentation of diverse ethno-political interests. But the Latin American Catholic church’s two-pronged approach to cultural change is a lesson for US-American Christianity. Latin American Catholicism has attempted to change where necessary at the same time as it retains many foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. The decline of mainline US-American denominations can be interpreted as resting in part from the undermining of biblical authority which gives a sense of security and identity to its members.  

References

Dillon, Michelle. (2015). Christian Affiliation and Disaffiliation in the United States: Generational and Cultural Change. 

Escobar, Samuel. (2012). Christianity in Latin America Changing Churches in a Changing Continent. In C.E. Farhadian (Ed.), Introducing World Christianity (1st Ed., pp. 171-185). Blackwell Publishing. 

Jacobsen, Douglas. (2015). North America. In Global Gospel. 

by daviddawson462742281

Different Legacies of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Colonial Missions 

Catholic Counter-Reformation Missions

During the 15-16th Catholic Spain and Portugal became the richest kingdoms in Europe (Cooper, 2016, p. 86). They were given papal authorization to appoint priests and bishops in the Americas, Africa, and the Asian colonies. The Italian church also greatly enriched from treasures coming from Spain and Portugal, even as it reeled from the effects of the Reformation. But through all the changes during and after colonialism, Catholicism still thrives and expands across world till the present (p. 86). 

The Treaty of Tordesillas pope divided all newly discovered land between Spain and Portugal, separating the West and East respectively (p. 94). The main Christian influence in Latin America to this day is Spanish and Portuguese Catholicism. In the Caribbean, exploitative colonization led some Spanish monks to criticize settlers treatment of native peoples. But many priests benefitted from slavery, which only ended with the coming of English and Dutch colonies. The coming of Protestantism fragmented the Islands along national and ecclesiastical lines. In Cuba, the enduring presence of African cults, the failure of Catholicism to connect with locals, and the church’s association with Spain lead to a very low percentage of Christians in Cuba today (p. 94-96). 

The Catholics dominated Central America during colonialism, building banks, convents, churches, schools, and towns. The Catholic church became the largest landowner through tithes and taxes, but this changed after individual nations gained independence and the separation of church and state (p. 98). Protestant missions established a church that favored liberalism versus Catholics conservatism. But in the 20th century the Catholic Church made peace with liberalism and was able to minimize Protestant influence (p. 100). 

In South America, the Spaniard Pizarro conquered the Aztec and Inca Empires. Religious orders flooded the continent and the Catholic Church amassed huge wealth at the same time it was manipulated by totalitarian regimes. However, some prophetic voices of critique emerged from within the church having “marginal success” at curbing exploitation (p. 101); Protestantism came in the 19th century, gaining converts primarily among the middle class. Pentecostals followed with greatest response from the poor, and together with liberation theology these movements have been most influential in Latin American Christianity. The colonial connotations among Pentecostals are limited because in countries like Brazil the emergence of independent native leadership was almost immediate (p. 101-102). 

Protestants Enter the Scene

In Oceania British colonists constructed a modern world in Australia and New Zealand in which Christianity was initially foundational (p. 114). Among the natives of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are some of the highest percentages of Christians in the world. This is remarkable since these island regions comprise one of the least evangelized parts of the world. Protestants were the first to send missions to Oceania n the 18th century followed by Catholics in the 19th century. Amidst a backdrop of historical isolation and warfare among diverse native peoples, Oceania is now united by Christianity, albeit influenced by rivalries of Protestant denominations (p. 114-115).

The end of slavery deprived Europeans of forced labor outside Africa, but within the continent colonial powers imposed forced labor upon indigenous peoples during the “Scramble for Africa” (p. 124). When the end of Western colonialism came, the church in Africa unexpectedly grew and spread once the Europeans left. Christianity reentered Africa in the 15th century with Islam already present. From the 17th to 20th centuries European (and later North American) Protestants came, with Portuguese missions in 16th century. But in the 20th century Africans dispossessed Europeans and established independent countries (p. 124-125). 

Formerly Christian Northern African is the region of greatest Muslim dominance in Africa today, but this transition occurred over centuries (p. 132). Western missions of the 19th century were seen as bringing a foreign, Western religion. Missions, however, were a small factor in the larger colonial project in North Africa, and those that did succeed were largely abandoned during decolonization after World War II (p. 132). 

Southern African countries today with Christian majority are those colonized by the English (p. 134). The Dutch Boers resented the English overlords when slavery abolished in the early 19th century. The Boers then embarked on the “Great Trek” out of British controlled areas seeing it as a form of biblical Exodus “leaving Egypt”. But those lands were inhabited by African tribes, and subsequent discovery of diamonds added to conflicts in the region. Afrikaners and British fought during the Boer Wars in late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading up to the establishment of an apartheid state with Dutch Reformed church approval. Western Africa is divided among Islam and Christianity because of Muslim conquest followed by Christian missions in the 15th century. The first Christian missions were the Catholic Portuguese along the coast, followed by the Spanish, Dutch and English (p. 135-136). 

Russian Orthodox Expansion

In Central Asia expansion of Russian empire brought Orthodox faith from the years 1500 to 1900 followed by era of religious repression under the USSR (p. 143). Eastern Asia saw the “Christian century” in Japan with Catholic missions from 1549-1650. This, however, was followed by expulsion of missionaries as the church was accused of being involved in political subversion. During this time from 5 to 6 thousand Christians were massacred. In Southeastern Asia the Portuguese, Spanish and French brought Christianity in 16th century with the Dutch and Germans bringing Protestantism in the 19th century. The pope granted Portugal religious jurisdiction over the East and Spain in West with the treaty of Tordesillas. The legacy of colonialism and Christian missions in Western Asia includes the domination of the church by foreign rulers for centuries – Islamic, Western Christian, and Ottoman. Many Christians ended up converting to Islam because of religious oppression. Although Christianity in Asian continues to grow consistently, it still largely bears association with Western imperialism (p. 144-154). 

References

Cooper, D. (2016). Introduction to World Christian History. IVP Academic.

by daviddawson462742281

Short-term Missions in a Postmodern, Postcolonial World

Various social institutions and sociological theories influence cross-cultural engagement. A postmodern anthropology looks at economics, development, religion, and social class. In this text, I will look at some sociological theories examining short term missions (STM).

Economics and Development

Christian anthropologist Mike Rynkiewich (2011) analyzes postmodernism and postcolonialism in his book Soul, self, and society. Attempts to provide a form of international assistance engage dynamics of reciprocity and exchange. A gift gives symbolic representation to a relationship, having “value and meaning beyond its appearance” (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 81). Colonialism embodied the category of exchange known as redistribution, where goods move toward a center and then out from it. Globalization has brought the market exchange model where individuals bring their wares to a common market – physically or online – and seek exchange. Anthropologists have increasingly critiqued the notion that development and modernization are equivalent, and that advances in technology represent the most important aspect of development (Rynkiewich, p. 82-84). 

Practitioners of STM should be sensitive to each one of these paradigms of economics and development. Attempts by richer nations to help poorer ones as an expression of Christ’s love must not ignore the cultural dynamics of reciprocity and exchange. STMs runs the risk of inadvertently using colonialism’s paradigm of redistribution by acting as if Christ’s kingdom is centered in the sending country. This colonial association of Christianity with a particular culture – most notably the West – has been so destructive and yet runs the risk of being reproduced in the Global South. What makes students of church history think that the temptations of power will not affect the megachurches of the Global South. Why wouldn’t new emergent poles of Christian power assume that they are now the true people of God, as did the Portuguese and Spanish, Christened by the pope in the 15th century to colonize the New World (Coben, 2015)?

Perhaps the most accessible starting place for STMs in addressing cultural perspectives on economics and development is reciprocity and exchange. The giving of gifts is a universal mode of interaction between groups potentially symbolizing and communicating “the value of a relationship between groups” (Caillé, 2013). Reciprocity generally emerges through the “obligating social indebtedness” created by participants independent of the “coercive power of an external social institution” (Carrier, 1991). The spiritualization of reception is a process that “converts unequal material gifts from foreign hosts into spiritual understanding among STM travelers” (Addler & Offutt, 2017, p. 600). What is perceived as repayment takes the form of “spiritual gifts of self-understanding, growth, and awareness”. For example, American travelers in foreign countries become “aware of the blessing or bounty of their current life”. This is a hopeful example of how international partnerships can be done in a way that is “made meaningful across inequality” (Addler & Offutt, 2017, p. 612-617). 

Concept of Religion

STM must also consider the prominence of the Western concept of religion in the development of modern missions. It can be argued that the concept of religion as a belief system chosen by the individual is a Western construct. What Westerners conceived of as religion when they met with spiritual practices and traditions overseas was, for the indigenous peoples, a “way of life” consisting of many beliefs and practices that cannot be separated from each other (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 99). For most peoples in human history, beliefs and rituals were understood as part of everyday experience, connected to land and community. To these premodern civilizations, spiritual forces were more conspicuous and evident than to the enlightened Westerners (p. 99). And contra the secularization hypothesis of the 20th century that predicted the demise of religion, the everyday reality of spiritual forces continues to be the majority opinion of the world population (Riesebrodt, 2000). Thus, STMs must account for the disruption that can occur when integral aspects of an individual or community’s identity are denigrated by the proclamation of the Christian gospel.

In a postcolonial world, STMs must abandon old paradigms of cultural development from simple to complex, used to justify Europe’s position “at the top of the ladder” (p. 99), simply because of their military superiority. Evolutionary theories of religion that posit progression from animism to polytheism and ultimately monotheism depict primitive peoples being benevolently guided to enlightenment by Western tutors (p. 101). But Western theories of the function of religion as a means of social cohesion and facing adversity negate humanity’s deep connection to spiritual belief and practice. Many in the West are content with explications of religion that provide a pretext to ignore it. But practitioners of STM must recognize the importance of the “middle range of religion” (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 106) – the immanent, mystical experience of spiritual phenomena in the daily life of most Majority World cultures. 

The encounter of different cultural groups can cause the social constructions of each to come undone (Offutt, 2011, p. 805). As STM practitioners engage in the local world-building activities of indigenous peoples, they much take care not to cause harmful disruption. Hosts and travelers can mitigate against such damage by seeking “common stocks of knowledge” shared between them. What is shared can begin at the level of global culture such as international sports and then move to shared Christian beliefs. Once rapport is established between traveler and host, more profound dialogue can ensue as trust has been established (Offutt, 2011, p. 805). 

One ambitious STM model that has emerged is multicultural joint teams which recognizes that mission is now truly “from everywhere to everywhere”. This strategy mobilizes teams from two different cultures and perhaps different denominations. The two groups are then sent to a third cultural context where it is hoped that new forms of missional engagement may emerge. Another aspiration is that this practice bring reconciliation to cultural and denominational differences (Mulieri, 2020). 

Caste, Class, and Ethnicity

Rounding off this analysis, STMs must take account of caste, class, and ethnicity in its cross-cultural endeavors. Westerners may sneer at the concept of caste in Asia, but the idea of hierarchy is found in the West as well. The difference is that in most societies religion is used to provide the explanation and justification for social inequality (Rynkievich, 2011, p. 115). Ambiguity related to the conversion of indigenous peoples to Christianity for social advancement is something STM participants should be aware of. Since most STMs have come from richer countries endeavoring to serve poorer ones, the reality of class difference must also be considered. The influence of Western concepts of class associated with income, residence, profession, and education has come into stark conflict with non-Western communities concepts of identity. The Western concept of ethnicity has arisen in the colonial confrontation between different cultures, languages, and customs. Ethnic identity has been formed not within a community with certain biological, linguistic, and geographical connotations, but through this community’s interaction with others. As STM participants go into the world, they must consider how the context of caste, class, and ethnicity can undermine cross-cultural relationships (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 117-123).

Research indicates that STM can help foster a “thicker global civil society within Christianity” (Offutt, 2011, p. 810). STM still currently consists of most Western teams and long-term missionaries going into the Majority World. But those Majority World churches that do send STMs feel enabled to engage in missions themselves locally and internationally. STMs result in the establishment of “overlapping networks that criss-cross the globe” establishing “higher levels of trust” between cultures. Unfortunately, research also indicates that STMs from the new non-Western centers of Christianity often have little or no intercultural training resulting in cultural misunderstandings and offenses (Offutt, 2011, p. 810). 

Other research, however, indicates that harmful attitudes about ethnicity are hard to mitigate against in the context of STMs (Huang, 2019, p. 55). International travel offers helpful challenges to the identity of STM participants. However, the inherent privilege of STM participants is often invisible to themselves. This level of privilege has led some to the conclusion that STM has little potential to reduce participants’ prejudice. More optimistic voices suggest STMs seek to be aware of the power and privilege of its participants and the “invisible ways” these “penetrate their organization”, intentionally embracing “ways that counter these tendencies” (Huang, 2019, p. 68-70). 

References

Adler, Gary J. & Offutt, Stephen (2017). The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action: How Reciprocity and Inequality Are Managed in Religious “Partnerships”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 56(3):600–619

Caille ́, Alain (2013_. Anti-utilitarianism and the gift-paradigm. In Handbook on the economics of reciprocity and social

enterprise, edited by Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zamagni, pp. 44–48. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Carrier, James. 1991. Gifts, commodities, and social relations: A Maussian view of exchange. Sociological Forum

6(1):119–36.

Coben, L. A. (2015). The Events that Led to the Treaty of Tordesillas. Terrae Incognitae, 47(2), 142–162. Complementary Index. https://doi.org/10.1179/00822884.2015.1120427

Huang, Lindsay A. (2019). Short-Term Mission Trips: Developing the Racial and Ethnic Consciousness of White Participants. Journal of Sociology and Christianity, Volume 9, Number 2

Mulieri Twibell, Simone (2020). Contributions, challenges, and emerging patterns of short-term missions. Missiology: An International Review, Vol. 48(4) 

Offutt, Stephen (2015). The Role of Short-Term Mission Teams in the New Centers of Global Christianity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50(4):796–811

Riesebrodt, M. (2000). Fundamentalism and the Resurgence of Religion. Numen, 47(3), 266–287.

Rynkiewich, M. (2011). Soul, self, and society: A postmodern anthropology for mission in a postcolonial world. Cascade Books.

by daviddawson462742281

How Europe Became the Center of Christianity Over 15 Centuries

In his book Introduction to World Christian History, Derek Cooper (2016) explores the underappreciated history of the church beyond Europe and North America. At the turn of the first millennium, Christianity began to fade in the eastern and southern Mediterranean world while it simultaneously grew in its western and northern parts (Cooper, 2016, p. 66). The crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in 800 marked was a watershed moment in the fusion of the Germanic and Roman cultures through a common faith and an imperialistic mindset. The other great part of European Christianity was the Byzantine Empire which had evangelized Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Macedonia, Moldavia, Serbia, Romania, and Russia. But as the Byzantine Empire declined it became vulnerable to the Muslim threat. Western Catholicism in contrast would expand into Africa, Asia, and eventually the Americas by the 15th century (p. 66). 

Eastern Europe was either Catholic or Orthodox based on the link to the Holy Roman or Byzantine empires. Further east in Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine was mostly Orthodox while the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia were Catholic (p. 67). Internal missionary battles existed between Catholics and Orthodox along the fault lines, particularly intense in Bohemia (p. 68). Although this competition could be seen as undermining Christianity in Europe, I believe it contributed to the intensification of its influence. 

Northern Europe was the last part of the continent to be evangelized, except for the British Isles (p. 69). The last areas to convert were Scandinavia and the Baltics, and in the latter all nations had adopted Christianity as the state religion by the 14th century. The conversion of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden came through the conversion of their kings who then instituted religious authoritarianism opposing religious diversity. Thus, in the North the influence of Christianity flowed from its connection to political power (p. 69-70). 

Christianity had been in Southern Europe since the 1st century. In the Southwest Catholicism was supreme, holding the sword in the left hand and Scripture in the right uniting conquest and evangelization (p. 71). The Franks and Romans wed their powers under Charlemagne who, along with his successors, employed pious but violent imperial missionary efforts. From the 8-14th centuries Many Balkan kingdoms adopted Eastern Orthodox as official religion even as Byzantine Empire collapsed. In Serbia, the presence of Catholics and orthodox were grounds for future conflicts, eventually becoming predominantly Serbian Orthodox. The Balkans today are roughly one third Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim. Serbian association with Orthodox Christianity made them not convert as willingly as groups with weaker national churches, such as Bosnians. Again, here in the South the evidence of the power of church survival and its connection to political power is evident (p. 71-73). 

The battle between Christianity and Islam continued in Western Europe decades after the Battle of Tours. The Carolingian Dynasty was blessed by the papacy, thus guaranteeing the survival of the Franks. This alliance became the basis of the Holy Roman Empire and led to crusades in Holy Land and Europe. But later, struggles would arise in the West between the papacy and monarchs (p. 74). Medieval monastic reform movements such as the Cluniacs and Cistercians spread from France across Europe playing a central role in education and evangelization. Fringe Christian protest groups emerged which were either suppressed or eventually approved by Rome, such as Dominican and Franciscan orders that invigorating the church. Urbanization and the decline of feudalism led to the creation of secular Christian universities derived from the cathedral schools Charlemagne had established. Scholasticism emerged in Paris with figures like Aquinas and other “spell-binding professors”, which some thought was “rotten” but eventually developed into the liberal arts education. The Black Death caused “widespread religious anxiety and despair” and the papal controversies contributed to the Hundred Years War between England and France in the 14th century (p. 74-77).

Thus, despite internal and external challenges, Europe became center of Christianity after second millennium, congealing by the 15th century into respective religious borders: Catholic Southwest, Northwest, and West versus Orthodox in the Southeast and Northeast (p. 77). 

References

Cooper, D. (2016). Introduction to World Christian History. IVP Academic.

by daviddawson462742281

Missiology for Plural Realities and Plural Christianties

In the 1980s, anthropology took a postmodern turn expressed in deconstruction and a “loss of certainty” in the social sciences and philosophy (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 12). In the West, the individual was traditionally thought of as the “basic unit of society”. But neuroscience has increasingly cast doubt upon the objectivity of the individual’s perception of reality. It turns out that people do not perceive the world “as it is”, but in a highly fragmented and subjective way (p. 16-17). Thus “grand theories” of early anthropologists came to be seen as founded more upon their own Western philosophical tradition than observable human practice (p. 20). In my highly culturally diverse context of Western Europe, Christian witness that makes sweeping claims about the world are expected to come with the disclaimer, “in my opinion”. 

Since the emergence of anthropology as a discipline, a variety of successive attempts have been made to define culture. Some modern anthropologists believed that cultural differences could be explained by a universal evolutionary process. From a Western perspective, the peoples of the world could be conceived as moving from being savages, to barbarians, to civilized (Whiteman, 2020, p. 2). Another extrapolation from the notion of cultural evolution held that societies processed from “magic to religion to science” (p. 2). But the Darwinian theory was countered by historical particularism which argues that “historical, geographic and environmental factors” cause cultural development rather than a uniform evolutionary trajectory (Whiteman, 2020, p. 2). Later, missionaries found the interpretive definition of culture helpful, which defines culture as consisting of symbolic forms used to communicate and propagate knowledge and feelings about life (p. 3). These symbols may appear to have a straightforward meaning but have deeper meanings only discoverable through extensive field study (p. 4). In Portugal where I live, the religious symbols of Catholicism are present everywhere. As an Evangelical, it is easy for me to interpret Catholic architecture and liturgical art superficially versus seeking a thick understanding such as Geertz would recommend (Hua Cai, 2024). 

A common denominator in postmodern conceptions of culture is that it is a means people use to adapt to their environments (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 20). “Entangled in language”, culture gives shape to the phenomena of our world, in a process that is learned and shared (p. 21,22). And culture is “peculiar” as a lens we acquire for seeing and interpreting the world while soon forgetting that culture is a “social construct” (p. 22). The linguistic turn of modern philosophy in the work of Wittgenstein and others ended up not offering a universal conception of language. I find this evident in my conversations with Europeans about spiritual matters as strident affirmations regarding the correct use of terms is perceived as arrogant. 

Postmodern anthropology critiques a modern ethnocentrism that seeks to understand non-Western cultures through its own unique perspective (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 24). Cultural relativism, pioneered by anthropologist such as Franz Boas holds that each culture possesses knowledge which is original and constitutional, only to be understood within its own context (p. 25). I agree with the approach of methodological relativism which seeks to keep prejudices from distorting the interpretation of culture. Judgement is suspended initially while the anthropologist seeks to understand a culture. But aspects of a culture that undermine justice, for example, should be judged at the right stage of research, but not prematurely (p. 25). Even the most postmodern interlocutors I encounter in Portugal generally agree to the appropriateness of some degree of judging cultural phenomena. 

While modern anthropology tended to treat culture as something existing apart from human beings, the postmodern turn deconstructs culture by restoring agency to human beings (Rynkiewich, 2011, p. 30). This account reminds us that culture doesn’t do anything, people do. However, people’s actions are always contingent on their environments (p. 30). A constructivist view like this holds that while culture has powerful influence over people, it is also contingent on the materials and agency of people (p. 31). I find this perspective helpful in dialoguing with a population who values individual freedom and the subjectivity of human experience. As I witness to my experience of Christ to another human being – no matter what culture they represent – a constructivist account unites us in our shared experience of making sense of the world with the resources available. 

It has been argued that what unites postmodernism is: 

a commitment to a set of cultural projects that privilege heterogeneity, fragmentation, and difference and a widespread mood in literary theory, philosophy, and the social sciences that question the possibility of impartiality, objectivity, or authoritative knowledge (Whiteman, 2000, p. 5). 

It is easy to see why the postmodern turn in anthropology has received much criticism. Its attack on the objectivity of ethnography undermines the scientific legitimacy of anthropology as a field (p. 6). The obsession with polyvocality (multiple versions of reality or truth) and reflexivity threatens to make anthropologists overly anti-objectivist and introspective (p. 6,7). 

I believe that the concept of culture should still be used by missiologists as a heuristic descriptive device which acknowledges that culture is “contested, contingent, constructed, contextual, complex, changing, and creative” (Whiteman, 2000, p. 9). What is problematic is when missionaries use the concept of culture “prescriptively instead of descriptively”, such as in essentialist paradigms of people groups and honor/shame cultures (p. 9). We do a disservice to the field of missions studies when we try to reduce the complexity of the cultural phenomenon of our world in ways that “papers over complexity and camouflages important and critical differences in human beings” (p. 9). Polycentric missiology is a promising paradigm which recognizes the existence of “plural realities” and even plural Christianities (p. 9-10). If we hope to be able to combat racism and ethnocentrism, we must embrace the beneficial points of postmodernism such as cultural relativism without relinquishing critical thought (p. 10). 

References

Hua Cai. (2024). The predicament of social sciences in the 20th century: A dialogue with Clifford Geertz’s essay “Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture” (Part I). International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, 8(1), 1–20. Directory of Open Access Journals. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41257-023-00102-2

Rynkiewich, Michael A. (2011). Soul, Self, and Society: A Postmodern Anthropology for Mission in a Postcolonial World. Cascade Books  

Whiteman, D. (2020). The Concept of Culture in Missiology: To abandon or adapt considering the rise of postmodern anthropology. Biola University. 

by daviddawson462742281

Anthropology has Moved on, Should Missiology?

Claude Stipe’s (1980) analysis of anthropologists’ negative attitudes towards missionaries is based on two prevalent assumptions. These are that “primitive cultures are characterized by an organic unity and that religious beliefs are essentially meaningless” (p. 166). Based on functionalism, the organic-unity concept sees primitive cultures as possessing an internal equilibrium and integrity. Therefore, unless internally motivated, cultural change amounts to “upsetting a delicate machine” (Colson, 1976, p. 267). This anthropological perspective posits that options are bad for pristine ancient cultures. But inconsistently, options are good for the West to “free ourselves, and our peers, from constraining tradition” (Colson, 1976, p. 276). 

The religion as meaningless concept can be connected to the experience of most early anthropological writers on religion. Not surprisingly, this was negative, and probably led to their subsequent attitudes towards religion (Stipe, 1980, p. 167). By discrediting primitive religion as “outmoded superstition” of a prescientific age (Evans-Pritchard, 1972, p. 205), higher religions can also be dismissed (Stipe, 1980, p. 167). The religion as meaningless position holds that its study should focus “on the rites rather than the beliefs” (Radcliffe-Brown, 1952, p. 155). Since religion does not produce an integrating theory of the world, human experience of the divine can be dismissed as a manifestation of the “supreme archetypal social relationship” (Horton, 1971, p. 96). This would explain anthropologists dislike of missionaries, who take seriously the religious beliefs of the cultures they encounter which anthropologists have rejected (Stipe, 1980, p. 168). 

A more helpful attitude today on the part of both missionaries and anthropologists has been proposed. Since both hold positions regarding truth and a desire to protect the people they work among, missionaries and anthropologists can build relations based on these similarities (Salamone, 1977, p. 409). 

The concept of culture as “homogenous and patterned” and attempts to totalize culture “from one small community into a country and even a continent” has led missiologists to an exaggerated focus on understanding and changing worldview (Yip, 2014, p. 401). Globalization has led to a view of cultures as fragmented and non-discrete, overlapping each other resulting in a lack of clear-cut boundaries (Yip, 2014, p. 403). Postmodern missiologies are needed that focus on the multicultural and diasporic (Yip, 2014, p. 403). A helpful anthropology of religion is bricolage – that a person’s beliefs are a loose assortment of diverse sources (Vroom, 2003, p. 74). Based on postmodern concepts of instrumentalism and idealism, a missiology can be formed that recognizes the limitations to scientifically knowing the cultural “other” whether such a reality exists (Hiebert, 1999, p. 51,37,38). Yip’s (2014) polythetic and progressive contextualization helpfully recognizes the variations and exceptions present in any culture (p. 408). This approach recognizes the presence of diverse subgroups within a culture as well as its constant mutation (p. 409). 

Another helpful suggestion for missiology within a global community constantly in flux is that the field of study be placed within applied theology (Rynkiewich, 2020, p. 336). This subfield sees to “utilize anthropological knowledge and skill for practical human needs” (Luzbetak, 1988, p. 34). By observing applied anthropology in other fields such as medicine, missiologists can identify different critical phases (Rynkiewich, 2020, p. 341). Medical anthropology progressed from assuming that culture was the problem to the people are the problem. Finally, the conclusion was reached that we are the problem (Rynkiewich, 2020, p. 338). The first two phases can be seen in missiology up to present, but not the third critical phase, that we are the problem (Rynkievich, 2020, p. 340-1). Returning to Yip’s (2013) polythetic and progressive contextualization approach, postmodern missions training should focus on teaching research methods and data analysis (Rynkiewich, 2020, p. 343-4). Challenges to contextualization include migration, cultural hybridity, multilingualism, and multiculturalism (Rynkiewich, 2020, p. 345), all of which require a missiology focused on constant inquiry and adjustment of theory and praxis. 

References

Colson, Elizabeth (1976). Culture and progress. American Anthropologist, 78:261-71.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1972). Religion and the anthropologists. Practical Anthropology, 19:193-206. (Originally published in Blackfriars 41[480]:104-18, April 1960.)

Hiebert, P.G. (1999) Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts. Trinity Press International.

Horton, Robin. 1971. African conversion. Africa 41.

Luzbetak, Louis J. (1988). The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology. Orbis Books

Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952). “Religion and society,” in Structure and function in primitive society. Edited by A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Free Press.

Rynkiewich, Michael A. (2020). The Challenge of Teaching Mission in an Increasingly Mobile and Complex World. International Bulletin of Mission Research, Vol. 44(4) 

Salamone, Frank A. (1977). Anthropologists and missionaries: Competition or reciprocity? Human Organization, 36.

Stipe, Claude E. (1980). Anthropologists versus Missionaries: The Influence of Presuppositions. Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 2

Vroom, H.M. (2003). Bricolage and fullness: on multiple participation. In Daneel I, Engen C Van

and Vroom HM (eds) Fullness of Life for All: Challenges for Mission in Early 21st Century. Rodopi

Yip, George (2014). The contour of a post- postmodern missiology. Missiology: An International Review, Vol. 42(4)

by daviddawson462742281

The Forgotten History of the Asian Church

I have been aware that Christianity emerged through interaction with existing cultural and political systems. However, most of my study has been on the influence of Western culture and politics on Christianity. But looking at the development of the church from 1st to 7th centuries outside the West reveals other directions Christian doctrine and practice can take. East Syrian Christianity was dominant in Asia – though not tolerated by the church of the Roman Empire – and West Syrian Christians were dominant in Africa (Cooper, 2016, p. 13). These different branches of Christianity emphasized their differences rather than what they had in common. The most foundational point of contention was interpreting how Christ’s humanity and divinity related to each other (Cooper, 2016, p. 13). As we think of evangelism today, diverse forms of global Christianity should spend more energy seeking consensus that reasons to not collaborate. 

I was unaware of the interaction of Christianity with other religions outside the West. Christianity experienced intense challenges from other religions in Asia where it originated (Cooper, 2016, p. 15). By the fourth century, Christianity was thriving in several parts of the Middle East (p. 20). More theological diversity existed in Middle Eastern Christianity compared to Byzantine, Constantine’s chosen capital which became the core of church doctrine and practice (p. 17, 21). Christianity in Central and Eastern Asia was arguably “the most evangelistic of any tradition in the early and medieval church”. Unfortunately, the study of early Christianity in these regions is “still in its infancy” (p. 23). 

Although the legacy of the church’s political privilege in the West after Constantine is ambiguous, the consensus is that it helped Christianity’s survival in the region. In contrast, because Chinese Christianity was attached to the court of the Tang dynasty, it did not survive the transition to the Sung dynasty (Cooper, p. 25). Christianity spread to Africa by second half of first century, producing some of the most important Christian figures and writings (p. 28). Before 7th century Muslim invasion, several African kingdoms adopted Christianity as the official religion (p. 29,33). Bur the Ethiopian church was allowed a level of freedom by Islamic conquerors (Cooper, 2016, p. 34). The history of non-Western Christianity yields a richer resource for learning to share the gospel in our pluralistic world. These early brothers and sisters had to negotiate the expression of their faith in Christ often from the margins of society or as diplomatic emissaries. 

Because of unfamiliar terms such as Nestorian and Jacobite, we can perceive the Eastern and African churches as obscure sects of “alien religions” instead of vibrant streams of Christian faith (Jenkins, 2008, p. 20). It is well known that the spread of Christianity to the West was facilitated by Roman roads and defended sea routes as well as the widely spoken Greek and Latin languages. But the lands east and northeast of Jerusalem also had familiar trade routes, leading through Syria, Mesopotamia, to the far East (p. 21). Although the history of Christianity in Western Europe is more familiar to most, Jerusalem is closer to Central Asia than France (p. 22). The church-state alliance in Rome and Constantinople created persecution of Christians living under the rule of the rival Persian superpower (p. 23). But operating outside the purvey of Rome was beneficial for Christian sects condemned by the Catholic and Orthodox establishments. So other Christians living on the frontiers of the Empire had to flee to peripheral regions that became “fertile territory for religious innovation and interaction”. The Nestorians and Jacobites in Asia were two alternative churches that rivaled the Orthodoxy of Constantinople. The Persian Empire was happy to protect these “potential enemies to Roman power”, and. Nestorian missionaries had success in China and India (p. 23, 26-7). In the post-Christian West, the church can learn much from early non-Western Christianity on how to live out our faith from a place of humble witness. When cultural and political powers oppose the spread of Christianity, cultivating the art of religious diplomacy and dialogue can make survival, even flourishing, possible. 

Each Christian tradition that emerged offered their adherents experiences that appealed to the senses, with Monasticism as the highest form of spirituality (Jenkins, 2008, p. 29). Mystical practice, however, declined in the West as the institutional church grew in the Roman Empire (p. 29). The Eastern churches opposed dependence on mere human reason, although they were enthusiastic about learning (p. 30). Eastern Christian scholars admired and credited the contributions of other cultures, and they highly influenced emerging Islamic science and philosophy (p. 31). Whereas Roman and Byzantine Christianity adapted to mainstream culture distancing itself from Semitic roots, Eastern Christianity was “founded in a Semitic tradition” closer to the apostles (p. 32). The latter were keenly aware that Biblical events had occurred in the part of the world where they lived (p. 33). The Eastern churches had to engage with diverse cultures and religions which they accommodated in various ways and degrees. There Buddhist and Christian monasteries were often located next door to each other, and often collaborated. Contrary to popular conceptions, the written record of Eastern Christianity shows a conservative approach to Scripture and a “distinctively Christian message”, despite drawing upon interactions with Buddhism and Islam (p. 35). 

I believe that recuperating the diversity of Christian devotion and service is key to making our message more attractive to the world in the third millennium. After 2000 years of church history, many adherents of diverse Christian traditions are fatigued with the rote practice and doctrine they have grown to take for granted. As we discover the variety in the historical body of Christ, I believe we will be inspired to express the vision of his kingdom in innovative and compelling ways. 

References

Cooper, D. (2016). Introduction to World Christian History. IVP Academic.

Jenkins, Philip. (2008). The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—And How It Died. Harper Collins.

by daviddawson462742281

Your Discipleship Experience through an Anthropological Lens

Discipleship in Jesus Movement Missions Subculture in Sociological Reflection

Anthropology of religion investigates the diversity, commonalities, and relationships among religions (Eller, 2007, p. 2). As such, anthropology is a science concerned with explaining religion as a social or physical phenomenon (Eller, 2008, p. 11). Although anthropology presumes a human source to religious phenomena, a Christian can agree that religion is social because it is an aspect of society (Eller, 2008, p. 9).

Charles Kraft (1999) describes Jesus’ approach as honoring a people’s culture and worldview as opposed to wresting it from them (p. 386). It appears that no culture or worldview is “perfectly adequate either to the realities of biology and environment or to the answering of all of the questions of a people” (Kraft, 1999, p. 387). This article intends to briefly explore my experience of Christian discipleship using a social science perspective. This brief emic ethnography applies Delmos Jones’ advocacy for cultural insiders studying their own communities (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 44). I see this study of discipleship from an anthropological approach as an opportunity to demonstrate the values and deficiencies of my experience. The anthropological method seeks to define a phenomenon “in terms of something else (…) something other than itself” (Eller, 2008, p. 11). This is not the default perspective most practitioners of a religion use to analyze their own tradition. 

My experience of Christian discipleship has been in the context of Evangelical-Pentecostal cross-cultural missions. I am a third-generation missionary, associated most significantly with Youth With a Mission which my family helped pioneer in the 1960s. Reflecting on my spiritual formation, the central paradoxical paradigms of the worldview I received were multiculturalism and Judeo-Christian monotheism. The church was the global community of those who acknowledge God and call upon His grace. A certain ambiguity existed regarding the salvation of those who never hear the message of Christ’s sacrifice for sin. Although I doubted and strayed from the church in my youth, I eventually came to embrace this gospel and the missionary vocation.

Symbolic Place – Rugged City and Rugged Nature

Geertz (1993) describes religion as “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic” (p. 90). Symbol here refers to “any object, act, event, quality or relation which serves as a vehicle for a conception” (Geertz, 1993, p. 91). And cultural patterns are “systems of symbols which lie outside the individual organism (…) in that insubjective world of common understandings into which all human individuals are born” (Geertz, 1993, p. 92). 

Anthropologists describe placemaking as a unique type of storytelling that links the physical environment with sacred stories (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 139). These stories recall history, build community, and explore ethical questions (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 142). In this sense, a particular Los Angeles neighborhood was formative to my cultural values and later, my Christian faith. When I tell people that I am a missionary kid, they usually imagine that I was raised in a Majority World context. However, as a New Zealander, my father was called to urban missions in Los Angeles. My father loved the city, which he saw as having a unique personality and for which a great spiritual battle was waged between good and evil. The city was not an impassable monolithic reality but a vast body of communities where God’s people could build His kingdom for the common good. 

My brothers and I were raised in a neighborhood that was predominantly African American and later Hispanic. This bears on discipleship because the example of Christian witness I saw in my father was one of deep engagement in the local community where our family was a cultural outsider. From childhood, I experienced the categorization of people in their social environments into what is known as ingroups and outgroups (Schmid, 2018, p. 1797-84; Stephan & Stephan, 2015, p. 429-35). My family and the community of the missions training base across the street represented ingroup members, characteristically providing security and a sense of belonging (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012, p. 203). The music and language of the larger community represented outgroup members, towards whom I felt the typical emotional and psychological detachment (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012, p. 306). 

Another example of placemaking involved my father taking my brothers and I to engage in adventurous activities in the ocean and mountains. In particular, the beaches of California, Hawaii, and New Zealand as well as the mountains of Yosemite where my grandparents had a vacation home. Being a Kiwi raised near a private patch of rainforest and coast, my father taught us that an urbanite unfamiliar with the wonders of nature lacked an essential aspect of their humanity. One way of getting back to what it meant to be human was to engage in vigorous individual sport/play such as surfing, fishing, hiking, rock-climbing. I use the word sport tentatively because competition was something very foreign to the values my father instilled in us. We never played any sports involving balls or teams, and we didn’t even play board games at home. Play in nature was esteemed as far superior to the vain pageantry and violence central to urban culture. 

The Myth of Gospel of External Diversity and Internal Purity

At the heart of the Christian religion lies “a sacred story that reflects and reinforces a community’s worldview” (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 139), known in the social sciences as myth. From an anthropological perspective, human lives are not determined by a single author, there is no inherent plot structure, but a myriad of stories that have been constructed by human minds (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 140). Nevertheless, human beings tend to imagine their life story as if  following such an arranged thread or scheme (Zunner-Keating, 2020, p. 140). The concept of myth challenges a Christian’s faith in the foundational presuppositions of their religion. However, my father always instilled in me an appreciation for the apophatic nature of Christian theology. That is, an essential part of my discipleship was learning to accept that no humanly articulated concepts can adequately describe a God who transcends all our descriptions. 

My father instilled in me that the greatest present danger in our world was actually false Christian religion. What could be more damaging than a distortion of the universal means for human restoration? Part of my discipleship was learning that Evangelical-Pentecostal Christianity deserved the postcolonial criticism I learned in the Los Angeles public schools system. Thus, my discipleship agreed with anthropologists that “the historical erasure of the experiences of less powerful groups serves the function of shaping our global culture and global mentality in favor of the most powerful” (Trouillot, 1995, p. 6 [ZK p. 148]). As a member of the North American Evangelical-Pentecostal church, I represented themajority religious power structure of the nation. 

Our missions training community emphasized cultural sensitivity and evangelistic humility while maintaining conservative Christian views. In YWAM, attempts to engage a pluralistic world did not mean a denial of the reality of sin. From a missiological perspective, impurity and defilement have been described as when “something is out of place, an order or system has been violated”, or when “contamination has occurred resulting in certain alienating consequences” (Morrison, 2018, p. 117). Sin was indicted as the root cause of pollution or uncleanness, with Jesus emphasizing the inner life as the primary generating locus. Therefore, cleansing comes through receiving forgiveness of sin in one’s heart from a pure Savior who was willing to be “identified as unclean in order that he might bring cleansing” (Morrison, 2018, p. 121). My discipleship experience was consistent with this missiological conception. 

The Ritual of Cross-cultural Kingdom Service

Anthropologists describe ritual as “a prescribed set of actions that employ symbols to reenact the deepest beliefs, feelings, and values of a people” (Kimball, 2008, p. 48; Hiebert, 2008, p. 98). Research indicates a three-stage ritual structure consisting of separation, transition, and reincorporation (Moon, 2017, p. 92) which I experienced on missions trips with my father.  These trips involved separation akin to what Turner (1995) describes as “anti-structure”: a distinct departure from the routines and structure of daily life (p. 106-7). Experiencing my father’s missions work and seeing him operate in influence and honor had a profound impact on me. The transition stage involved Turner’s concept of liminality– derived from the Latin limen meaning threshold – which describes the feeling of being in between (Turner, 1995, p. 106-7). Reincorporation occurred when I would return to my daily routine in Los Angeles. In many rituals, reincorporation is celebrated in a group setting with a meal or party. This powerfully bonds the newly initiated individual to the community and its religion (Moon, 2017, p. 95). These trips with my father lacked this bonding aspect of reincorporation. It was a jarring and disorienting experience to return to my daily context without any community recognition of the rite of passage I had experienced. I had come to a much deeper appreciation of  the values of our missionary community, but this easily washed away because there was little symbolic reference point. I do remember, however, when on a trip with my father to Switzerland he gave me a beautiful pocket knife. I’m sad to say I lost or gave it away at some point without understanding its significance. 

Religious Specialists and Religious Organization

Anthropologists refer to a religious specialist as “one who devotes himself to a particular branch of religion or, viewed organizationally of a religious system” (Vallier, 2023, p. 1). The status of these experts is culturally defined in relation to whether the “transhuman controlling power” is “personal or impersonal” (Vallier, 2023, p. 1). In the case of North American Evangelical Christianity, the otherworldly power is regarded as personal, i.e. God. In this case, Anthropologists use the cultural phenomena as religion rather than magic (Vallier, 2023, p. 1). 

The most significant religious specialists in my discipleship context were missionaries. These men and women influenced my perspective of mainstream Evangelical-Pentecostal institutions. A distinction has generally been made by anthropologists between “two polarities of religious specialization” (Vallier, 2003, p. 1). Weber contrasted priests and prophets associating the former with the maintenance of permanent and ordered structures that relate to the gods (Vallier, 2003, p. 1). In contrast, the prophet is described as a charismatic individual who disrupts the liturgical project which the priest oversees (Vallier, 2003, p. 2). The missionaries who I looked up to as heroes were reformers and revivers of the institutional church. Their example instilled in me a bias towards leaders who were charismatic outsiders rather than bureaucratic administrators or slick salesmen. It seemed obvious to me that the latter two types were predominant in the Evangelical-Pentecostal church of North America. According to the prophetic motif, the missionary leaders I knew employed the toolkit of religious specialists in traditional religions. Like shamans, healers, and diviners the missionaries exercised the full range of New Testament spiritual gifts such as healing, predictive prophecy, and miracles (Hiebert, 1999, p. 324-6). 

The nature of the missions agency I was raised in is like new religious movements, described by anthropologists as arising from marginal groups that denounce inconsistencies and limitations of old religious forms. Although eventually these NRMs gain society’s acceptance and form their own institutions (Hiebert, 1999, p. 333). The initial vision of YWAM was waves of young people inundating the nations with the gospel. The founders of YWAM challenged what they considered an overly slow, formal, and academic process of becoming an Evangelical-Pentecostal missionary within the denominations. YWAM developed a model of doing and learning in short-term cycles. Growing up around this paradigm of ministry instilled in me a deep value of the missional praxis of the mobile church. In that context it was articulated – at times with diplomatic sensitivity and others somewhat arrogantly – that the local church was overly occupied with maintaining its existing demographic and liturgy. I don’t mean to imply that this false dichotomy describes YWAM in general, but it was an attitude I perceived at times.

According to researchers of NRMs, revitalization movements such as YWAM tend towards a “new steady state” (Eller, 2007, p. 175), which will eventually cede to another cycle of disruption, innovation, and diffusion. I joined the mission in 1993 where my process of discipleship continued in the form of training for full-time cross-cultural ministry. Having completed 30 years in YWAM in 2023, hopefully I can make some constructive observations regarding the discipleship I received in this movement. 

One of the liabilities I see in YWAM is that its financial model was developed during the revival and apocalyptic excitement of the Jesus Movement in 1970s North America. I don’t doubt that God lead the founders of YWAM to develop a faith-based structure where each missionary is a self-employed entrepreneur responsible for raising their own support. I see the fruit of this model as self-evident, with over 20,000 missionaries currently serving globally. But I do wonder whether more flexibility and innovation are needed today’s missionaries. Bi-vocational and self-sustaining models for missionaries are controversial and have had mixed results in many organizations. But the same impetus that birthed YWAM – facilitating the sending of missionaries – is manifest in new ways such as the difficulty to raise funds exclusively from local churches and denominations. I have personally heard many missionaries from YWAM and other organizations express the opinion that the financial support models of pioneer generations need some adjustments. In my formative years as a missionary, most of the leaders I sought to emulate were family men who travelled 1/3rd of the year or more. This was necessary to raise funds and recruit for the ministry as well as for their personal support. As a Gen-Xer, my view is that the minority of us who have survived the long-haul of missionary service have had to embrace a much more egalitarian partnership with our wives. And many of us have developed out-of-the-box ways to supplement the traditional sources of missionary support. 

Research shows several aspects of NRMs that attract new adherents such as the novel environment, smells, colors, foods, lifestyle, and most of all the camaraderie (Healy, 2011, p. 9). 

Studies show that these experiences help secure participants’ membership in NRMs even when they have serious doubts (Healy, 2011, p. 11). I believe that as a type of NRM missionary organizations can be dangerous because of their potentially coercive quality. As a movement such as YWAM grows, its validity is reinforced and participants are dissuaded from leaving or questioning because of the personal investment they have made (Healy, 2011, p. 12). For this reason, someone discipled in a context like YWAM needs to be firmly exhorted to seek their own guidance from the Lord rather than entrusting their future to an organization. After all, a missions organization exists primarily to send people out not to care for their personal security and well-being. 

Magic and Witchcraft in Evangelical-Pentecostal Reflection

As repeatedly mentioned so far, the phenomena related to my discipleship experience happened within an Evangelical-Pentecostal context. Christian and secular Westerners alike often express contempt for Majority World communities that attribute this-worldly events to supernatural forces. This attitude ignores that witchcraft and magic are not a negation of natural causes but an attempt to understand why they happen to certain individuals (Keener-Zeating, 2020, p. 91). Anthropologists study how folk religions use magic and sorcery to deal with situations such as deviant behavior, adversity, and injustice (McPherson, 2008, p. 272-8). Research also demonstrates how phenomena such as spiritual possession are used by marginalized groups to subvert oppressive power structures (Ong, 1988, p. 32). 

My missionary mentors taught me to respect the reality of the needs and forces involved in magic and witchcraft in folk religions as well as major religions that also address mid-level issues. The Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition has many faults, but one of its strengths is its rejection of a Western two-tiered view of reality that deals with the empirical world in naturalistic terms and with ultimate questions in theistic terms (Hiebert, 1982, p. 43). My experience of Christianity was one where the mid-level issues of supernatural but this-worldly beings and forces was an integral part of a biblical worldview (Hiebert, 1982, p. 43). But how my Evangelical-Pentecostal mentors modeled proper engagement with this-worldly supernatural phenomena had many flaws and inconsistencies. 

My mentors did not neglect critical analysis of pagan magic and sorcery. This critical approach is akin to research by missiologists on the use of divination such as Alan Howell. Howell’s research (2012) argues that divination is unable to solve the problems of a community when it is central to their system of responding to illness (p. 132). Howell’s (2012) work points out the deficiency of a split-level Christianity that speaks to abstract theological questions but ignores mid-level questions regarding illness, demonization, and other adversities (p. 133). 

A legitimate split exists in the mind of most Christians in my tradition between two sources of power in the cosmos – that of God and of the Devil. Anthropologists point out that this same dichotomy led to the witch hunts of early modern Europe (1450-1700). Zeener-Keating (2020) attributes such phenomena to “mobility theory” by which community leaders look for solutions because they are “stuck in a bad situation, such as a famine” (p, 92). Anthropologists have also identified the use of the “witchcraft accusation” as a “cultural tool that is used to punish individual who do not conform to society’s expectations” (Zeener-Keating, 2020, p. 89). Heibert (1999) describes a similar phenomenon in Folk religions where interpersonal conflicts boil over into accusations of witchcraft after extended periods of non-resolution (p. 151).

 Conclusion

This research has helped me see the liabilities and benefits of the means of discipleship I experienced as a son of missionaries. I hope that the fact that I embraced the missionary vocation is indicative of the inspiring nature of the environment I was brought up in. It was in this context of missionary training that I came to understand the gospel from first principles until this day. I have participated in many other contexts of Christian formation through ecumenical crossing denominational and national borders over the past 30 years. I come to see the inconsistencies of my own spiritual formation as I admire the riches of wisdom in other faith traditions. But I end this emic native anthropological study of a particular experience of Evangelical-Pentecostal missions with a feeling of gratitude. I believe God’s providence placed me in a rich context for flourishing of the soul if one simply cultivates a tender and teachable heart. 

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