I have completed a series of posts about seeing the five basic culture scales through the lens of honor & shame—illustrated with Scripture passages. With each post I suggested ways that westerners can better understand and serve their cross-cultural partners. Below is a simple directory of the posts I wrote.
Concerning the five culture scales through the lens of honor and shame / related key Scripture
- Equality/Hierarchy / 1 Samuel 24
- Direct/Indirect: Part 1 / Part 2 / Matthew 12:8–15, 23
- Individual/Group / Deuteronomy 3:23–29
- Task/Relationship / Luke 10:38–42
- Risk/Caution / Genesis 12:1–3
A related post is entitled: Ascribed honor versus achieved honor: what does it mean for cross-cultural partnerships?
I want to credit two authors for their significant influence:
- Brooks Peterson’s Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other Cultures, is a key work cited in this series. Peterson focuses on the behaviors and his book provides the comparison list for each of the culture scales.
- My primary resource for understanding honor and shame cultures—and the cultures of the Bible is Jerome H. Neyrey’s Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew. The opening chapters alone provide an excellent overview of the prominence of the honor and shame values which are entrenched in the eastern world, beginning with the ancient world of Greece and Rome.
If you have any comments about this series, please use the comment/response fields below.
