The World in My Parish: Rethinking the Standard Missiological Model

Missiologists, borrowing from anthropology as practiced from the 1950s through the 1980s, have trained a generation of missionaries by using the “standard anthropological model.” Culture is portrayed as causative, but has no cause itself. Communication is portrayed as a transmission within a dyad, i...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rynkiewich, Michael A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Sage 2002
In: Missiology
Year: 2002, Volume: 30, Issue: 3, Pages: 301-322
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Missiologists, borrowing from anthropology as practiced from the 1950s through the 1980s, have trained a generation of missionaries by using the “standard anthropological model.” Culture is portrayed as causative, but has no cause itself. Communication is portrayed as a transmission within a dyad, involving no one else except God. Thus, the missionary problem is the communication of the gospel between two people from two different cultures. In fact, this is not the situation, if it ever was. Regional and global flows of ideas, goods, people, and beliefs have always breached the “boundaries” of seemingly self-contained cultures. People have never been slaves to the past. Instead, they selectively bring certain interpretations of the past to bear on everyday life. There have always been competing narratives about the nature of reality and the necessity of particular beliefs and actions. Contrary to the standard model, culture is contingent, culture is constructed, and culture is contested. The missionary situation is not as simple as it has seemed.
ISSN:2051-3623
Contains:Enthalten in: Missiology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/009182960203000302