Category Archives: The Global Gospel

Presenting the Gospel in Honor-Shame Cultures

Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Shame pathology, The Global Gospel

Presenting the gospel in honor-shame cultures.fwThe interview (below) was published in the October 2015 issue of Anthology, a publication of Missio Nexus. Marv Newell, Sr. Vice President of Missio Nexus, has been an endorser and advocate for my book, The Global Gospel. Marv’s enthusiastic support is what led to this interview, which is posted here with permission. Click here for the PDF. Thank you, Marv! To God be the glory!  –Werner Mischke

Mission Nexus articleWhat do you mean by a culture that is embedded in “honor and shame?” Just how do you define and describe these terms?

In Jerome Neyrey’ s book, Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew, he describes honor as “the worth or value of persons, both in their eyes and in the eyes of their village, neighborhood or society”. He says the “critical item is the public nature of respect and reputation.”[1]  Brené Brown says this about shame: It is “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging. … It’s the fear disconnection.”[2]

What ties these two definitions together is the social, relational or public aspect of the dynamics. Western philosopher René Descartes coined the phrase, I think, therefore I am. And one African theologian modified it to describe people in honor-shame cultures this way: I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.

This idea shows that in an honor-shame culture, people are really immersed and completely embedded in their community, and their sense of individuality is far less than how we perceive ourselves in the West.

What’s the difference between cultures that emphasize honor-shame and cultures more like ours that value guilt and innocence?

In guilt-innocence cultures I would say we are more law-oriented and individualistic. Kids grow up in the West with the phrase, What do you want to be when you grow up? Many of us have been raised to value individual dreaming and pursuit with minimal  regard for the opinion of the extended family or community. This is far less common in an honor-shame
culture. They are so embedded in their extended family and community.

Now, to be sure, the West is not completely individualistic and guilt-oriented—neither is the Majority World is completely group-and-shame-oriented. But without a doubt, in guilt-innocence cultures, we are a lot more individualistic, whereas people in honor-shame cultures are more collectivistic. Sometimes anthropologists call group-oriented cultures dyadistic—meaning the individual is embedded in the group.

Consequently, laws are not as important as relationships in honor-shame cultures. In the West, our society is ruled by laws. Honor shame-cultures do have laws, but there is a greater emphasis on relationships and how one is perceived in their community.

What are some of the blind spots that we in the West have toward cultures that have honor-shame as their pivotal cultural value?

When Westerners observe honor-shame values at work in other cultures, we normally see them as unethical. In other words, we only see the dark side of honor-shame. Now, to be clear, there is a dark side. We have become familiar with the honor killings that have taken place in some of our own cities in the West as people from south Asia and the Middle East have come to North America. And when someone from an honor-shame culture shames their family, sometimes violence and bloodshed is the result.

So if we are aware of honor and shame, it is almost always the dark and evil aspect that we
notice. The Bible plainly describes the source and the results of that evil. There is, however, a bright and glorious side to honor and shame throughout the Scriptures, which I examine extensively in my book.

As Christians we don’t see the honor-shame dynamics in our own Bibles. We don’t realize that there are twice as many occurrences in the Bible of the word shame and its derivatives than there are to the word guilt and its derivatives.

When we read the Bible we’re not alert to the myriad honor-shame dynamics in Scripture
because Westerners do not normally use that language—and more importantly, Western
theology has a blind spot about honor and shame. We don’t live with this awareness of honor and shame nearly to the degree that the authors of Scripture did.

Give us some biblical examples of honor and shame that you advocate permeates the Scriptures.

I’ll mention just three of the ten honor-shame dynamics we describe in the book. The first
dynamic is called love of honor. And that’s simply the recognition that people in the Ancient Near East had as a primary motivation—the pursuit of honor and glory. Jerome Neyrey quotes Aristotle who says: “Honor is clearly the greatest of external goods. It is honor above all else that that great men claim and deserve.”

The Roman Empire was saturated with values of honor and glory, so this is the social context and emotional environment in which the New Testament was written. So we see this love of honor, and correspondingly the fear of shame, to be something that goes from Genesis to Revelation.

A second honor-shame dynamic is purity. We see purity codes in the book of Leviticus, for
example—who is included and who is excluded. As someone moves toward holiness, they gain honor. As someone moves toward being common or unclean or even an abomination, they move toward exclusion and shame. [See article: “The Gospel of Purity”.]

If you want to see an example of how shame equates with uncleanness, look at Ezekiel 16.
You’ll see that God’s unfaithful bride is described in crude shameful terms. Plus, the dynamic of purity is part of the atonement in Leviticus and Hebrews. So purity is a key honor-shame dynamic in Scripture which beautifully relates to the gospel.

There is also the dynamic of what I call “honor-status reversal”. And by that, we mean
someone’s family, community, or people whose status is being reversed from shame to honor or from honor down to shame.

Consider the great stories of the Bible: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the
Exodus, Job, David—all are examples of honor-status reversal. Whether in the books of Moses, the historical books, the prophetic books, many of the Gospel stories and parables, or in the epistles, we see this dynamic of honor-status reversal appearing again and again. The climactic example is the story of Jesus Christ. Look at Philippians 2:5–11. There it is—honor-status reversal! That’s why I call this honor-shame dynamic a motif—we see it repeatedly in the Scriptures.

What are examples of a gospel presentation in which guilt-innocence and honor-shame are the focal messages?

I think most of us are familiar with the gospel presentation called The Four Spiritual Laws, which was developed decades ago by Campus Crusade for Christ. God has used this presentation mightily. I’ve met numbers of people who have said, “Hey, that’s how I got saved.” We don’t want to disesteem what God has done in using this great resource to introduce people to Christ. However, the very name of this gospel presentation—The Four Spiritual Laws—reflects a legal framework for the gospel. But it needs to be pointed out that we don’t have to articulate the gospel using laws. We can also articulate the gospel using stories. We don’t have to rely exclusively on propositional truth.

The Four Spiritual Laws is geared toward individuals. It talks about you as an individual and how you must make a faith commitment to Jesus Christ. Furthermore it talks about forgiveness of sins. In other words, all of us have behaved badly and we have committed sins for which we need forgiveness.

This may be distinguished from needing forgiveness—not just from our sinful behavior—but also from our sinful being. Behavior is more about guilt whereas our being is more about shame. It is not just our behavior—but also our being—which dishonors God. You can see this emphasis on sin as the dishonoring of God in Romans 1:23, Romans 2:23 and Romans 3:23.

So a Western gospel presentation like The Four Spiritual Laws focuses on a legal framework.  And we certainly affirm that the gospel can be articulated using a legal framework that focuses on forgiveness for sin as guilt and based upon laws of Scripture, propositional truth.

The Father’s Love Gospel Booklet, the gospel in the language of honor and shameIn contrast, consider a gospel presentation called The Father’s Love Booklet which we
developed a couple of years ago. It’s the prodigal son story in words and pictures. It shows how the prodigal son’s descent into sin and shame alienated him from his father. Then his father—in his desire to have his son reconciled back to his family—went out and met this prodigal as he came back from his shameful exploits. The father covered his son’s shame and restored his son’s honor. He covered him with his favorite robe. He gave him a ring signifying his honored place in the family and his authority. He gave him sandals for his feet. With outrageous love, the father restored the honor of his prodigal son.

And then the booklet has a bridge to the gospel of Christ using verses from Scripture like, “He who believes shall not be put to shame” in Romans 10. We show how the work of Christ on the cross demonstrates that God is like a father willing to suffer shame for us that we may be reconciled.

In your book you say, “Shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior whereas guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior. The pathology of shame for individuals can be terrible and impact generations, but when that pathology of shame impacts whole societies and nations it becomes truly horrendous.” What are some examples you’ve seen of how that is played out?

This is an important distinction between guilt and shame. Social science research shows that guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior because people are motivated to apologize for what they have done. Consider the phrase, I did that horrible thing. For guilt-prone people the emphasis is on the words did and thing—the emphasis is on behavior.[3]

However, with shame-prone people, the emphasis is not on the bad thing I did—but on the bad person I am. So the phrase reads with an emphasis on “I”: “I did that horrible thing.” The research shows that whereas guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior, shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior. And when this is played out on the broad stage of human history, we see horrendous things happen.

For example, in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was deeply excluded and shamed by the international community. They had to pay back billions in reparations. It was impossible. Consequently, Germany was in a place of profound economic dysfunction and humiliation. My mother had been a teenager in Germany during World War Two. She told me that after the First World War, “We couldn’t even buy a loaf of bread.”

Hitler rose in power because he tapped into that German humiliation and shame. He also found a scapegoat—which of course was the Jews or other non-Aryan people. Hitler rebuilt their military and satisfied the longing of the nation to have their honor restored. The nationalist desire to overcome shame led to evil and violence on a monumental scale.

Another prominent example in the last century and continuing into current events has been the rise of Islamic terrorism, which I believe is large-scale honor competition. The Arab Muslim world has been shamed by the Western world in many different respects—at least that’s how they perceive it—and so their honor must be vindicated.

I was reading about the Al Qaeda representative in Yemen who took responsibility for the
Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. He plainly stated that this attack was a vindication to restore honor. He said they denounce the unbelievers who “insulted the chosen Prophets of Allah” and caused Muslims to “awake and roar out of rage.” The “heroes,” the killers in Paris, were then “assigned” to attack the Charlie Hebdo office in revenge.

“Congratulations to you, O Ummah of Islam, for this vengeance that has soothed our chests. Congratulations to you for these brave men who blew off the dust of disgrace and lit the torch of glory in the darkness of defeat and agony.”

We must understand that honor-shame dynamics are at the very root of what is happening in this clash between East and West—between religious fundamentalism, Islamic extremism, and our own Western culture—or we will not address it effectively. We’ve got to understand the root causes. We’ve got to realize that shame leads to hurtful, sinful behavior for individuals, families, societies, even nations. Christian leaders and missionaries must learn to teach and preach a gospel which speaks to honor-based violence.

You conclude that the gospel is already contextualized for honor-shame cultures. Would you explain that?

I agree with my friend Jackson Wu from China: “The gospel is already contextualized for honor-shame cultures.” This comes from our observations of honor-shame dynamics in the Scriptures that plainly overlap with verses concerning the gospel, salvation, Christ’s atonement, the resurrection, and what it means to follow Jesus.

This is exciting because when we think about the unreached and unengaged peoples of the world, when we think about the multitudes who have yet to receive the blessing of Christ—so many of them are from honor-shame cultures.

We can build on the legal framework of the gospel by including the honor-shame dynamics that are woven into the Scriptures. We can connect with the thought forms and honor-shame motivations of the people who have yet to receive the blessing of the gospel. We can discover that for many in the Majority World, their honor-shame values overlap with the pivotal cultural value of honor and shame in Bible societies—and that this overlap can be used to powerfully communicate the gospel.

This gives us fresh hope as we continue our work in the world Christian community to bless all the peoples of the earth and make disciples of all nations.

1. Jerome H. Neyrey, Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 15.

2. Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (New York: Gotham, 2012), 69.

3. See June Tangney and Ronda Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York: Guilford Press, 2002).

A great sermon on honor and shame

Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel
The glorious gospel sermon

My friend Sam Winfield (pseudonym) recently preached a sermon on honor and shame for the missions conference of a church in northern Indiana.

I love this sermon. It is some of the finest preaching I have heard concerning honor and shame in Scripture, how this relates to the gospel, and what it means for Christian world missions.

The title of Sam Winfield’s sermon is “The Glorious Gospel”.

Sam preaches on two of the ten key honor/shame dynamics which I describe in my book The Global Gospel. These two dynamics described in his sermon are 1) limited good, and 2) purity.

Sam shows how these dynamics overlap with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Plus, he gives great insight as to why the gospel is more glorious than we may have previously known.

Sam speaks from many years of experience serving in North Africa and Europe as a missionary. You will like his clear teaching from God’s Word, combined with stories, spiritual passion, and practical application.

Thank you, Sam, for granting permission to put this on my blog.

Review of The Global Gospel in IBMR

Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

IBMR page

I am grateful for this review of my book The Global Gospel in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

The review was written by Simon Chan, Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore.

Dr. Chan’s review of The Global Gospel is actually the second part of a two-book review. You can access the book review here.

Shame is more pathological than guilt—here’s why, and why it matters

Bible study, Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Honor and shame, Shame pathology, The Global Gospel

shame vs guilt pathologyShame is more pathological socially

I was stunned. In my learning journey about honor and shame I knew I had to read extensively. And as I got into the first chapter in the book by Tangney and Dearing, Shame and Guilt, I was not prepared to discover this stunning truth:[1]

Guilt is about what behavior; it’s about what I’ve done.

But shame is about being; it’s about who I am.

Consider, for example, this sentence: I did that horrible thing.

The guilt-prone person says, “I did that horrible thing.” My behavior was bad.

But shame is different. The shame-prone person says, “I did that horrible thing.” The emphasis is not on my behavior, but on my core identity—hence, I am bad. Tangney called this “global devaluation”[2]—the idea is that one’s whole identity is corrupt, not just one’s behavior.

Tangney and Dearing unpack the significance of this in society. It’s based on more than 40 years of university research. Over and over again, the research points to this fact:

Guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior.

But shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior.

With guilt, there is a “desire to confess, apologize, or repair”. But with shame, there is a “desire to hide, escape, or strike back”.[3] This is what the research showed—forty-plus years of research, again and again.

Here’s how Tangney and Dearing describe  the difference.

The tension, remorse, and regret of guilt causes us to stop and rethink, and it offers a way out, pressing us to confess, apologize, and make amends. We become better people, and the world becomes a better place.

In contrast, shame appears to be the less “moral” emotion in several important regards. When people feel ashamed of themselves, they are not particularly motivated to apologize and attempt to repair the situation. This is not an emotion that leads people to responsibly own up to their failures, mistakes, or transgressions and make things right. Instead, they are inclined to engage in all sorts of defensive maneuvers. They may withdraw and avoid the people around them. They may deny responsibility and blame others for the shame-eliciting situation. They may become downright hostile and angry at a world that has made them feel so small. In short, shamed individuals are inclined to assume a defensive posture rather than take a constructive, reparative stance in their relationships.[4]

Shame is more pathological spiritually

From a theological and spiritual perspective, we believe as Christians that our guilt and condemnation before God as sinners is a vitally serious matter (John 3:18). Thus, we offer the gospel of Jesus Christ—forgiveness of our sins and hope of eternal life—as a cure for humanity’s condition of sin and guilt.

But the Bible says much more about sin. Sin is a more expansive and more personal problem than being guilty of breaking God’s laws. Consider just three verses in Romans 1,  2, and 3:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rom 1:21).

Here in Romans 1, sin is not defined as breaking God’s laws, but as dishonoring God’s Person. Therefore, sin is not abstract; it is a personal problem. Consider also …

You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law (Rom 2:23).

In this Romans 2 passage, Paul is addressing Jews and says that, yes, sin is “breaking the law”. But Paul amplifies the seriousness of sin by saying that in breaking the law, they “dishonor God”. God’s people were dishonoring God’s Majesty. Sin is disregarding God’s royal Kingship and regal authority. In an ultimate sense, we can rightly say that sin is shame.

One more verse—it’s one that many Christians are familiar with.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23)

Once again, sin is not defined as breaking God’s laws, but as something more expansive, personal, serious: falling short of God’s glory.

Here’s why this matters

Of course, humanity’s guilt before God is real. But the shamefulness of sin—its dishonor toward God—makes sin worse than we think. It’s not merely a violation of a divine moral code. Sin dishonors the One who is God Most High over all the universe, the holy King of all creation—the very Person who made us to enjoy him and live for his glory.

Moreover, when we consider the fact that shame is more pathological than guilt in society—that is, shame produces more harm, more pain, more moral disease, more violence, more fractured families, more international conflict, more bloodshed—we are left with a compelling need:

Since shame is more pathological than guilt—both socially and spiritually—we must learn to communicate the gospel of Christ as more than a cure for sin-and-guilt, but also as a cure for sin-and-shame.

Yes, the atonement of Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem of guilt and condemnation from God. But what if the atonement was also the covering of our shame and the restoration of our honor before God?{5]

Wouldn’t this be more attractive for persons and peoples who are saturated by the cultural value of honor and shame—including multitudes in the Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim worlds?

Wouldn’t this be a more global gospel?

 This blog post is excerpted in part from my book, THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World.

1. June Tangney and Ronda Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York: Guilford Press, 2002), 25.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 180.
5. How the atonement of Christ overlaps with ten different honor/shame dynamics is the subject of Section 3 of my book, The Global Gospel.

We can, we MUST remove the Western blind spot about honor and shame. Here’s how:

Bible study, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Ministry tools and resources, The Global Gospel

The Bible is loaded with honor and shame. This makes sense since the societies of the Ancient Near East had honor and shame as their pivotal cultural value.

So understanding honor and shame in the Bible is vitally important because 1) it helps us to properly interpret the Bible, and 2) it helps us understand and relate to our multicultural world. This issue is magnified when we realize that the vast majority of the world’s unreached peoples are from honor/shame cultures.

guilt vs shame graphBut we in the West can hardly recognize the honor/shame dynamics in Scripture—even though there are more than twice as many references in the Bible to the word shame and its derivatives than the word guilt and its derivatives (see graph at right).[1]

Why this blind spot? John Forrester writes as a pastor:

We Western pastors have a blind spot. In a word, that blind spot is shame. We don’t learn about shame in seminary. We don’t find it in our theological reading. We don’t recognize it on the pages of Scripture. We don’t see it in our people. Shame is just not part of our pastoral perspective.[2]

Why do so many pastors have this blind spot? Because shame has not been a subject of theological inquiry.

One way to examine the degree of theological importance of a particular word is by looking at theological dictionaries. I went to Phoenix Seminary and did a little research at the library. My question was simple: In the available theological dictionaries, is there an entry for guilt and also an entry for shame?

Here’s what I found. The dictionaries are listed in order of the year they were published.[3]

Bible dictionaries guilt vs shame

This survey shows that it was 1996 when shame appeared as an entry in Elwell’s redo of his 1984 version. Interestingly, neither of the dictionaries published in 2000 had an entry for shame. The massive Global Dictionary of Theology by Dyrness and Kärkkäinen has an extensive entry for shame. But (sadly) the vast majority of Western pastors would not likely use a theological dictionary with a global scope.

What can we do to remove this blind spot in Western theology? Five suggestions:

1. Look for honor/shame as you read the Bible. You must read the Bible extensively in order to see how pervasive is honor and shame in the Bible. Regular reading of Scripture is essential. I started on my own journey of understanding honor/shame in the Bible by simply underlining and highlighting words and verses that included words or dynamics about honor and shame. You, too, can be on this learning journey, whenever you read your Bible.

2. Check out my free resources. You’ll find a variety of free stuff in various media: Gospel booklets, video, PowerPoint, articles, and even a skit—all focused on honor/shame dynamics and how it relates to cross-cultural ministry.

3. Subscribe to blogs about honor/shame written by evangelical mission leaders. In addition to my site, I especially recommend these two:

These sites have a wonderful growing array of free resources.

4. Read my book, THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World. I break down nine honor/shame dynamics in the Bible societies—and one motif—and show how these dynamics overlap with verses about the gospel, the atonement of Christ, and salvation. This book attempts a comprehensive understanding of honor/shame in the Bible and what it means for the world Christian movement. It is a book for educators, thought leaders, trainers and key leaders. It is not an easy read, but if you take it slow, it might transform how you read the Bible, how you preach and teach, how you communicate the gospel, and how you collaborate with others in the global church.

5. Check out the Jan/Feb issue of Mission Frontiers magazine. The magazine is devoted to the subject of honor and shame and features a variety of authors and perspectives.

If we want our gospel message to better resonate with honor/shame peoples—so many of whom remain resistant to Christianity and remain unreached—we MUST contextualize that glorious message in the language of honor and shame.

1. Diagram adapted from “Figure 1.05: Words in the Bible derived from ‘guilt’—versus ‘shame’”, The Global Gospel, p. 47. Original research by Bruce Nicholls, “The Role of Shame and Guilt in a Theology of Cross-Cultural Mission,” Evangelical Review of Theology 25, no. 3, (2001): 232; as quoted by Timothy C. Tennent in Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think About and Discuss Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 92–93.
2. John A. Forrester, Grace for Shame: The Forgotten Gospel (Toronto: Pastor’s Attic Press, 2010), 9.
3. This chart is taken from my book, The Global Gospel, p. 46: “Figure 1.04: Entries for “guilt” and “shame” in theological dictionaries”.

Parts of this blog post were excerpted from THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World.

You CAN contextualize the gospel in the language of honor and shame

Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

I had the privilege of doing a workshop today for ISI (International Students Inc) at Phoenix Seminary. It was a dynamic, electric time of interaction and learning from one another. I am so grateful for the opportunity. Here’s the presentation I used (below).

It was also great to sell numerous copies of The Global Gospel as well as several packs of “The Father’s Love Booklet”.

I am observing a real hunger among people engaged in cross-cultural ministry to understand how the Bible’s pivotal cultural value of honor and shame relates to serving people in our world today.

Interview on the “Deeper Waters” podcast about The Global Gospel

Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

Interview with Werner MischkeNick Peters has a series of podcasts in which he interviews Christian leaders and authors. Nick’s blog is called “Deeper Waters.”

I was recently interviewed by Nick concerning my book The Global Gospel. You can listen to the interview / podcast here.

I am grateful for Nick’s enthusiasm for my book, and his willingness to conduct an interview with me.

Top 12 ideas from The Global Gospel

Honor and shame, The Global Gospel
The_Global_Gospel.305Here is a list of top 12 concepts from The Global Gospel:
  1. Western theology has a blind spot about honor/shame; this is true in part because in systematic theology textbooks, guilt is an often-referred-to matter of theological inquiry, while shame is virtually ignored as a matter of theological inquiry. This is true despite the fact that in the Bible, the word shame and it’s derivatives is more than twice as common than the word guilt and its derivatives.
  2. Guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior whereas shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior; this is why a gospel message that focuses exclusively on sin and guilt is by default less transformational than a gospel message that also addresses sin and shame.
  3. Honor/shame dynamics are inherent to the gospel; the gospel is already contextualized for honor/shame cultures.
  4. Western theology is influenced by Western values of guilt and individualism; therefore we tend to articulate the gospel in exclusively legal terms for individuals. Western theology is not culturally neutral; it is shaped in part by Western values.
  5. The Bible’s own purity language can be used to articulate the gospel as cleansing for defilement in addition to forgiveness for sin. We may call this “the gospel of purity.” See article at this page.
  6. The following is a form of Western colonialism: To teach the Bible in the Majority World in a way that reinforces Western values of innocence/guilt and individualism while ignoring Majority World values of honor/shame and collectivism which are also found in Scripture.
  7. Western theology has given the world a presentation of the gospel unwittingly influenced by its own Western values. In so doing, the culture of the Bible and the culture of the recipient peoples have often both been marginalized, resulting in unnecessary obstacles to faith in Christ.
  8. Honor-status reversal is a motif of the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation.
  9. While some Westerners may recognize honor/shame values in the non-Western world, they almost always seen these values as unethical. Thus, they throw out the baby with the bathwater, not realizing that there is a beautiful side of honor/shame in the Bible which is truly bright and glorious.
  10. There are five motivations for mission: 1) Theocentric motivation: The glory of God. Anthropocentric motivations—two negative and two positive. The negative: 1) Hell, and 2) Lostness. The positive: 1) Personal honor, and 2) People-group honor.
  11. God actually shares his glory with persons and peoples; at the end of the Story, while Christ is being worshiped by all peoples and nations, the persons and peoples who comprise the family of God are also glorified in the process.
  12. One of the ways to biblically understand salvation is this: Salvation is the relocation of one’s honor (identity) into the regal Person of Christ, his kingdom, and his regal family the church. This is why “the honor is for your who believe” (1 Peter 2:7). This sets the believer free from the sinful behaviors of honor competition to live ethically superior lives, reflecting the life of Jesus.

All of these points are thoroughly based on the broad panorama of Scripture as well as the work of a large number of scholars—while incorporating more than 450 footnotes.

Learn more about The Global Gospel here.
Purchase The Global Gospel from Amazon: Kindle or hardcover.

How shame fuels violence—get two free chapters from The Global Gospel

Shame pathology, Terrorism, The Global Gospel

Blood and honorWith the horrific events in Paris, many are wondering WHY? Even from a distance, the culture clashes we are dealing with are gut-wrenching and terrifying. How are we to respond?

The connection between honor/shame and violence, war,  and bloodshed is something I explore extensively in my book, The Global Gospel. I pull no punches concerning the truly dark and demonic side of honor and shame as it is explained in the Bible—and represented in world history and current events. (I also write in-depth on the gospel of Jesus as the cure.)

Cover.200I am offering a free two-chapter excerpt from The Global Gospel. These two short chapters will help you understand the connection between shame and violence. To download this excerpt, click here.

The two chapters are:

Chapter 5: Does It Hurt or Does It Heal? This chapter deals with the fact that guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior, whereas shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior. Plus … What does this imply for Christian ministry?  /  A missing piece in Reformed theology?  / Shame is experienced in different ways  /  The need to cure both guilt and shame

Chapter 6: The Pathology of Shame in Our World: This chapter explores the incredibly significant role of shame in world history and current events …  Shame as fuel for genocide in Nazi Germany  /  Shame as fuel for terrorism in the Muslim world  /  Honor-based violence in the family unit  /  Is all shame bad?  /  Nathanson’s Compass of Shame—four poles—1) Attack self, 2) Attack other, 3) Avoidance, 4) Withdrawal.

These two chapters are not all I have in The Global Gospel about the powerful link between shame and bloodshed—along with how the Bible addresses this sinful pathology. In fact, I estimate it is only about 20 percent of what I have to say on the subject. But this two-chapter excerpt will get you started.

To download your free two-chapter excerpt from The Global Gospel, click here.

To learn more about The Global Gospel, download other free resources, or discover various purchase options, visit the book website: Click here.

The Global Gospel—now available

Global Christian mission, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

Cover.200The Global Gospel is now available. You can get the book at The Global Gospel website—click here. Or you can get the book at Amazon.com. Get the hardcover edition here, or the Kindle edition here.

The Global Gospel describes how the honor/shame dynamics common to the Bible and many Majority World societies can be used to contextualize the gospel of Christ so it will be more widely understood and received.

With more than 85 diagrams and charts that contribute to a comprehensive examination of honor/shame in the Bible, The Global Gospel is a call for theological dialog and missional creativity rooted in the ancient paths of Scripture and the relational honor of our King.

Two special learning opportunities

In the past year, there has been a surge of interest related to the topic of honor/shame in the Bible and what it means for cross-cultural ministry. Here are two important ways you can learn more:

  1. Read a variety of views about honor/shame in Mission Frontiers magazine. The Global Gospel guides the theme (honor/shame) for the current issue of Mission Frontiers (Jan/Feb 2015). You can order bulk quantities here.
  2. Participate in an online workshop series through Missio Nexus, which has scheduled me for four webinars in February based on The Global Gospel.