Roland Muller - Honor and Shame, Unlocking the Door

Honor and Shame

Unlocking the Door

Third Edition

2013

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Scripture quotations: Those marked (NLV) aretaken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., WheatonIllinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations: Those marked (ESV) arefrom the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright @ 2001 byCrossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used bypermission. All rights reserved.

Print history: The first editions of thisbook were published under three separate covers: Tools for MuslimEvangelism (2000), Honor and Shame, Unlocking the Door(2000) andCreating Christian Community (2005). The first edition of MMCcombined these books under one cover and was printed in 2006. Thisbook is the second edition of the combined books.

First Edition: 2001

Second Edition: 2006

Third Edition: 2009

Fourth Edition 2013

ISBN: 978-1-927581-02-5

Smashwords Edition

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Visit http://rmuller.com for more informationor to leave comments and suggestions.

Every individual is different. He or she is aunique mixture of person, personality, religion, culture, andbackground. I strongly believe that there is no such thing as ageneric key that will unlock the spiritual door to every personslife. Any missionary who dreams of saying the magic words that willsuddenly open the eyes of an individual to the truth of the Gospel,is merely dreaming of a way to avoid the hard work ofunderstanding, empathizing and effectively communicating theGospel.

There are, however, special keys that we musthold and exercise if we are to do this work of understanding,empathizing and communicating to people in different cultures. Overthe years missiologists have offered us a variety of these keyssuch as redemptive analogies and chronological teaching. It ismy belief that understanding common-ancestor worldviews is one ofthese important keys. Since the first publication of the book:Honor and Shame, Unlocking the Door, positive responses havepoured in from all corners of the globe. I trust what is written inthese pages will challenge and inspire you.

Explaining the Gospel to people who holdanother worldview is never easy. If we are to be truecross-cultural communicators, we must endeavor to understand howthe Gospel is applicable to other cultures.

This book examines three common-ancestorworldviews and challenges Christians to approach their audience ina culturally appropriate manner. I would encourage you to carefullyread through this material even if you are familiar with the termsworldview and culture. May God bless you as you read throughthese pages and may He give you the wisdom you need to discoverwhat is relevant to the people God has placed in your path.

ChapterOne

As Christians we will want to share thegospel message in a way that is understandable and relevant to ournon-believing friends. If we are to be truly effectivecross-cultural communicators we should understand the worldview ofour friends and be able to communicate effectively within thatworldview.

In the last decade, the subject of worldviewhas become a standard topic of study in most Christianinstitutions. It has become a handy tool to explain why Christiansthink and act differently from other people. Hundreds of popularbooks have come out on the subject, and Christians in North Americaand England have started to adopt the term worldview as if itwere a biblical term. However, there are many models of worldviewin existence and not everyone agrees what makes up a worldview.

A worldview is simply a model of how a groupof people live, think, and relate. Charles Kraft puts it this way,The worldview is the central systemization of conceptions ofreality to which the members of the culture assent (largelyunconsciously) and from which stems their value systems. Theworldview lies at the very heart of culture, touching, interactingwith, and strongly influencing every other aspect of the culture.(Christianity in Culture, Maryknoll Orbis Books, 1979, Pg.53)

Worldview, the deep level of culture, is theculturally structured set of assumptions (including values andcommitments/allegiances) underlying how a people perceive andrespond to reality. Worldview is not separate from culture. It isincluded in culture as the deepest level presuppositions upon whichpeople base their lives. (Kraft, Pg. 385)

G. Linwood Barney (1937) introduced theconcept of four layers of understanding as one moves into the heartof analyzing another culture. When we first consider a culture weare initially impacted with peoples behavior. Once we work throughthis, we are faced with their values and next the underlyingbeliefs that underlie these values. At the very heart of Barneysfour layer model is worldview. However, it is at this level, thevery heart of worldview, that sociologists have struggled toexplain what worldview is. As a result a number of differentscholars have presented various suggestions.

Four-Layer Model, G Linwood Barney(1937)

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804) most likely coined the term worldview. He was one of theforemost thinkers of the Enlightenment and is considered one of thegreatest Western philosophers of all time. He introduced a numberof concepts, among them the word weltanschauung, literallymeaning ones look onto the world. This term implied allencompassing, unifying and underlying principles that define anapproach to all aspects of life. Richard Kroner wrote a book aboutthis term titled Kants Weltanschauung. It was published inGerman in 1914 and in English in 1956. It was through this book,that the term worldview first came into more common usage in theEnglish speaking world.

Kant however, did not really believe thateveryone possessed a worldview, but rather that everyone wasseeking a worldview.

Sigmund Freud summed it up this way: