04.06.08

does context matter?

Posted in gospel, hermeneutics, learning, mission, pluralism, theology at 4:06 pm by len

Andrew Jones posts in response to the newly raging debate on this question. He writes,

“When John MacArthur reportedly said a few weeks ago at the Shepherds Conference that “contextualization is a curse” and “the apostles went out with a complete disdain for context”

. . . I said nothing.

“When his sidekick Phil Johnson followed it up with “Regarding contextualization, Paul did not adapt his message to the values and beliefs of the culture the Athenians lived in”

. . . I went on pilgrimage to my inner monastery and renewed my vow of silence.”
Lol. Yes, he’s pretty funny in person also. Ok. It is very, very tempting to make some disparaging remarks here. I’ll just say this.. it is not possible to mount a coherent argument that context does not matter. Jesus was born and lived as a Jew among Jews. Rumor has it that he spoke Hebrew. Rumor further has it that Paul among the Greeks spoke Greek. Hmmm.

Andrew comes to the point with these great lines:

“When some missionaries went to Africa with complete disdain for contextualization, they brought pipe-organs with them so the natives could worship God properly, without their nuances of culture.

“When some missionaries went to North America with complete disdain for contextualization, they took away their native dances and forced the converts to learn English so that they could worship God properly, in the correct language, and without their nuances of culture.

“WE WERE BLIND TO OUR COLONIAL ABUSE BECAUSE WE WERE BLIND TO THE IMPACT OF OUR OWN CULTURE ON THE GOSPEL WE CARRIED.”

It’s really simple: the lenses through which we view reality affect what we see. Worse, some of us eventually confuse the maps we use with the territory itself. This is another reason why change is so difficult. We have to first see our seeing. As Richard Rohr beautifully put it, “The mind only takes pictures with the film with which it is loaded. “

3 Comments »

  1. Mike O said,

    April 7, 2008 at 7:39 am

    If John MacArthur was in sports, would he own the Toronto Maple Leafs? :)

  2. Lenses : Redefine…. said,

    April 9, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    [...] And again some really good stuff from Len: It’s really simple: the lenses through which we view reality affect what we see. Worse, some of us eventually confuse the maps we use with the territory itself. This is another reason why change is so difficult. We have to first see our seeing. As Richard Rohr beautifully put it, “The mind only takes pictures with the film with which it is loaded. “ [...]

  3. Lenses : Redefine…. said,

    April 9, 2008 at 12:11 pm

    [...] And again some really good stuff from Len: It’s really simple: the lenses through which we view reality affect what we see. Worse, some of us eventually confuse the maps we use with the territory itself. This is another reason why change is so difficult. We have to first see our seeing. As Richard Rohr beautifully put it, “The mind only takes pictures with the film with which it is loaded. “ [...]

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