Gospel & Culture

1. COACH Institute of Intercultural Studies, Hyderabad
Gospel & Culture
Dr. Pothana

2. The Problem & Possible Solution

3. The Main Difficulties
that Friends have with the Christian faith
B. Historical difficulties
•The Christian testimony
•The Conquering mindset
•The Colonial Period
•The modern and post modern culture
of the “West”
C. Social difficulties
•Changing religion
•Group consensus – family decision
•Marriage etc.
D. Spiritual difficulties
A. Theological difficulties
•The Eternity – Many Friends want
to escape from eternity.
•Concept of re-incarnation
•The Deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ – He is a good holy man
One among other gods.

4. Obstacles to the communication
of the Gospel to Hethne
Indian Inquirers
External
Barriers
Allegiance
to Jesus
Christ and
Conversion
Name change
Foreign dress
Worship style
Western outlook
Festival celebrations
Marriage ceremonies
Birth and funeral ceremonies
Church architecture
Foreign language
Prayer forms
Family bond
Music
Eating beef

5. People would like
to become
followers of
Christ without
changing their
name and
culture. The main
barrier is not the
Christ but the
sociological factor.

8. Different Approaches to Witness to Friends
Confrontational Method: World-view Confrontation
Traditional Evangelical Method: Bible says…
Institutional Approach: Schools and hospitals
The Simple Gospel Approach: 4 spiritual laws
Pentecostal Power & Pragmatic Approaches: Miracles
Fulfillment Theory: Christ in Vedas
Inculturation Method: Catholics method
Homogenous Unit Principle: Community based Churches

9. Critical
contextualization
neither denies
the people’s old
cultural practices
nor accepts
them uncritically;
rather it deals
with the old by
studying and
critically
evaluating it in
the light of
Biblical norms

10. Balance

11. Gospel, Culture and Seva among
Indian Communities

12. Mahatma Gandhi’s critique of Christian conversion in his autobiography, An
Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1956).
“In those days Christian missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high
school and hold forth, pouring abuse on Friends and their gods. I could not
endure this. I must have stood
there to hear them once only, but that was enough to dissuade me from
repeating the experiment.
About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having been converted
to Christianity.
It was the talk of the town that, when he was baptized, he had to eat beef
and drink liquor, that he also had to change his clothes, and hence forth he
began to go about in European costume including a hat.
These things got on my nerves. Surely, thought I, a religion that compelled
one to eat beef, drink liquor and change one’s own clothes did not deserve
the name. I also heard that the new convert had already begun abusing
the religion of his ancestors, their customs and their country. All these
things created in me a dislike for Christianity.”
Gandhi’s
Critique –
Conversion as
Anti - ‐ Hindu
religion,
culture &
nation
Is it true?

13. “English Christ”
“It is true that the people of India have been satisfied,
in some measure, with what they have heard and read
about Jesus, but they have been disappointed in a
much greater measure. For England has sent us, after
all, a Western Christ. This is indeed to be regretted.
Our countrymen find that in this Christ, sent by
England, there is
something that is not quite congenial to the native
mind, not quite acceptable to the genius of the
nation. It seems that the Christ that has come to us is
an
Englishman, with English manners and customs
about him, and with the temper and spirit of an
Englishman about
him.” [K.C. Sen]

14. “Jesus, the Bread of Life”
“Before the bread of life (the Christian
faith) came to our part of Africa, it
stayed in Europe for over a thousand
years. There the Europeans added a
plastic bag (their own customs) to the
bread. And when they came to
southern Africa, they fed us the bag
along with the bread. Now, the plastic
bag is making us sick! The plastic is
theirs. We know that God planned for
us to receive the bread just as he
planned for them to receive it. We can
remove the plastic and enjoy the
bread.” [Professor B. Makhathini of the
University of Swaziland]

15. Need for Culturally Relevant Ministry
1. The translatability and transculturality of
the gospel
2. Cultural and contextual embeddedness of
the people and communities
3. The cultural diversity and plural ethos of
India
4. The anti Christian negative propaganda
5. The changing missiological scenario in
India
6. The alarming attrition among many new
believers
The incarnational model and mandate of Jesus Christ
[JohnD
1r.P
:ra
1bh
4uS
,ing
2h
0:21]
Indian version: Jesus @ the well

16. What is Culture?
• Culture as “way of life of a group of people”
• Culture as “mental map” and “software of the mind”
Biblical view of Culture
• God has created Humans with the capacity to create culture
• Humans create culture, which in turn shapes them.
• Humans are both good [created in the image of God] and bad
[fallen].
• Therefore all cultures have both good and bad elements.
• No single culture is fundamentally good or fundamentally bad.
Gospel’s Engagement with Culture
• Therefore, the gospel affirms what is good, condemns
what is bad and transforms the whole culture.

17. Four Flawed Views of Culture
1. The Elitist View
(The Other has no culture)
2. The Ethnocentric View
(The Other has culture but is not
developed as mine)
3. The Exorcist View
(The Others’ culture is demonic
and evil)
4. The Exotic View
(The Others’culture is divine
and good)

18. Paul’s Attitude towards Culture
2. Relativizing Culture
4. Transforming Culture
3. Confronting Culture
1. Affirming Culture
1 CORINTHIANS 9
19 Though I am free and belong to no
one, I have made myself a slave to
everyone, to win as many as possible.
20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win
the Jews. To those under the law I
became like one under the law (though I
myself am not under the law), so as to
win those under the law. 21 To those not
having the law I became like one not
having the law (though I am not free
from God’s law but am under Christ’s
law), so as to win those not having the
law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to
win the weak. I have become all things
to all people so that by all possible
means I might save some. 23 I do all this
for the sake of the gospel, that I may
share in its blessings.

20. Two Models of Missions:
Sowing Seed: Effective contextualization Transplanting: Ethnocentric Attitudes, Easy Methodology

21. Some practical ways…
Prayer : Effective key to open the doors
Reaching Hethne through Hethne
Intentional friendship with Hethne: Nishkama Karma
Engaging in social life of Hethne
Engage in religious life of Hethne
Home based prayer groups
Share your Spiritual experiences
Offer help in their struggles
Let them see your spiritual strength

22. Dr. Pothana
bhaktapothana@gmail.com