Reviews

The Global GospelReviews of The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World

The Gospel Coalition’s Themelios, December 2016

The Global Gospel was reviewed in the December 2016 issue of Themelios. The review was written by Christopher Flanders, professor of intercultural studies at Abilene Christian University. You can access the book review here. Here is the last paragraph:

Mischke’s The Global Gospel is informed and poignant. Throughout this delightful volume, Mischke’s writing is clear and arguments forceful. I have only one small critique. The book needs greater engagement with theological voices alongside his well-researched section on biblical materials. Despite this minor shortcoming, The Global Gospel should be required reading for all who serve in non-Western cultures. It will also profit those who desire to rethink the gospel’s reception in Western culture. This book will surely prove to be a foundational text against which subsequent books on honor, shame, and the gospel will all be judged.

IBMR: International Bulletin of Missionary Research, October 2015

The Global Gospel was reviewed in the October 2015 issue of International Bulletin of Missionary Research. The review was written by Simon Chan, Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore. You can access the book review here.

EMQ: Evangelical Missions Quarterly, January 2016

The Global Gospel was reviewed in the January 2016 issue of EMQ. The review was written by Soojin Chung, PhD student, Boston University. The review is available for online subscribers of EMQ. For EMQ subscribers, the link to the review is here.

Here is an excerpt (by permission of EMQ and Soojin Chung):

Both theoretical and practical, this well-researched volume is a fine addition to the study of cultures based on honor and shame. It also serves as a practical guide to missionaries, pastors, and lay leaders in providing crucial information regarding cross-cultural communication. What differentiates this book from other anthropological or missiological studies on honor and shame is its direct exegesis on biblical texts. While previous books provided a firm foundation on the culture of honor and shame, the primary source was not the Bible itself. In that regard, Mischke contributes immensely to the field of mission studies and mission practice.

The full review is here. Below is an excerpt:

Maybe one of the best books I’ve read recently was The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World by Werner Mischke. It took me a while to work through it, partly because it generating so many new questions and new thoughts.

There are many books and resources out there that call for deeper and more thoughtful contextualization of theology and ministry methodology. This is one of the few books I’ve seen really try to take a clear shot at contextualizing evangelism and discipleship for the non-western world. Half of the book is theory and theology, but the other half is comprised of concrete efforts to take that knowledge and move it to real, useful approaches to evangelism.

The full interview is here. The concluding paragraph is below.

Still, this is the kind of book I wish every pastor would read. It is an excellent introduction to this kind of thinking for those who might not be familiar with it at all. If we could reclaim this, we would not only have much more vibrant Christian lives, but we would also be able to understand the Bible and the historical Jesus far better than we do. In fact, while some have said there could be a fourth quest for the historical Jesus starting with taking the Gospel of John more seriously, I believe the next real quest for the historical Jesus will involve learning to understand Jesus from a majority world perspective.