Honor and Shame:
How culture limits our understanding and ability to communicate the good news
How do different cultures shape the way people think? How can we better understand their way of thinking in order to clearly communicate the gospel to them? How does the Bible itself speak in cultural terms different from our own?
Roland Muller’s book “Honor and Shame” shines helpful light on those questions. A Canadian who spent years living in the Middle East, Muller explains why some cultures see no sense in some of the ways western Christians articulate the gospel. More significantly, he shows portions of the Bible we overlook because of our own cultural way of thinking. Both Testaments speak not only to guilt-innocence cultures like ours in the west, but also to the eastern shame-honor cultures and to tribal fear-power cultures.
Muller’s examples of our western formulas for simplifying the gospel indicate that we may be missing some of the good news. And we may be unintentionally communicating ideas contrary to the Bible. (Regardless of culture, we may do that whenever we emphasize guilt and ignore the shame and fear that people need to be freed from every bit as much as they need justification and forgiveness.)
In other words, Muller shows that we need to understand culture not only to fulfill the Great Commission, but also to more fully appreciate the salvation that we claim to have. Here is an excerpt from the book:
“All through the Bible, references are made to shame and honor in various forms. The Bible tells us to honor God, our parents, elders, Christian leaders, and government leaders. It even talks about certain things being more honorable than others. In all, there are more than 190 references to honor in the Bible, while the various forms of the word ‘guilt’ are mentioned only forty times, and only seven of these are in the New Testament.
“The Bible also addresses shame, mentioning it over one hundred times, but simply counting the word ‘shame’ is not enough. There are many underlying principles in the Bible that deal with shame and honor, and these demonstrate how God moves us from a position of shame to that of honor. . . .
“Jehovah God could raise his people from a position of shame in Egypt to one of honor among the nations. Leviticus 26:13 states, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.’
“This is the overall message of the Bible. It is not just the story of God redeeming His people (a legal thought), but it is also the story of God raising his people from a position of shame to the ultimately honorable position of joint-heirs with Christ. . . .
“God is the one who can elevate people from a position of shame to that of honor. No one can elevate himself. This is the unwritten rule of the East. Everyone knows their place, and must stay in it. The message of the Gospel is that God has the power and the desire to elevate man from his lowly position to a place of great honor. ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame’ (I Peter 2:6).”
Excerpt From: Müller, Roland. “Honor and Shame, Unlocking the Door.” Copyright © CanBooks 2013. iBooks.
visit Roland Muller Books