Contextualisation 9/26/10 5:14 PM

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Contextualisation
By Michael J. Fast
Associated Canadian Theological Schools
Canadian Baptist Seminary
Langley, British Columbia, Canada
8 April 1994

Any reproduction must include acknowledgment of author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION
II. CONTEXTUALISATION DEFINED
III. PROCESS OF CONTEXTUALISATION
IV. PROCEDURES OF CONTEXTUALISATION
V. DANGERS OF CONTEXTUALISATION
VI. CONCLUSION
FIGURE 1
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. INTRODUCTION:

In Acts 15, we come across an interesting story. It describes the struggle that the early church had when
people from among the nations began to become Christians.1 Until that point, most converts to Christianity
had been Jews, who had a special code of conduct that had been handed down from generation to
generation. When new converts began coming into the church, however, many Christians of Jewish origin
expected them to begin following the same rules and regulations that they were. Paul, however, opposed
this teaching and confronted the Apostles in Jerusalem with the dilemma. Acts 15 describes the scene in this
way:
During this meeting, several arguments are made in favour of Paul
Š why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers
have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as
they are.3
James seconds Peter
The basic argument of Paul, Barnabas, Peter, and James is that the Jewish religious system is nothing more
than a set of customs.4 Thus, in the minds of these advocates, the Jewish ceremonial law is not binding on
the nations.

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In Acts 15, the church at Jerusalem comes to a decision--they decide in favour of Paul. As proof of their
final decision, they write a letter to the churches that states:
We have heard that some went out from us without our authorisation and disturbed you, troubling your
minds by what they said Š. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything
beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the
meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.5
Notice that, within this document, the key phrase is "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to
burden you Š.
All of this tells us one key thing about the early church
The modern missionary movement faces situations similar to Acts 15 everyday. Every time a Christian
becomes involved in cross-cultural missionary work he wrestles with how to divorce his own culture from
the gospel he preaches. How is the principle of Acts 15 carried out in the world of the twentieth century
missionary? How are the basic elements of the gospel distilled into truths that are transcultural? Erickson
says:
Once we have determined the essence of the doctrine, the next task is to give it a contemporary expression,
to clothe the timeless truth in an appropriate form Š one [way] is to find the present form of the questions to
which the specific doctrine offers answers.6
This is called

II. CONTEXTUALISATION DEFINED:

Contextualisation is the process by which the message of the gospel is removed from its setting in one
culture and transferred to another cultural setting. It does not say that the Bible is not relevant for everyone
in the world. Rather, it approaches the gospel with the understanding and belief that it is relevant for
everyone. The problem that contextualisation addresses is that of understandability not of relevance.

III. THE PROCESS OF CONTEXTUALISATION:

The process of contextualisation is one of the most important parts of evangelism. Carson says that not only
every culture, but also every generation within those cultures must examine the Scriptures in light of the
questions they would like answered so that the Bible becomes understandable to them.7
Contextualisation has three
The second horizon of contextualisation is the culture of the missionary. Just as the cultures within which
the writers of the Bible lived shaped their perceptions of the world and the Word of God, so also the culture
of the missionary shapes his understanding of the Bible. As Hesselgrave says,
The third horizon is the culture of the target group. The thinking processes of each person in the world are
controlled by the culture within which he or she was raised. Each culture has its own set of
As we look at the process of contextualisation, we must realise that the missionary must deal with crossing
two cultures with the gospel--crossing from the culture of the Bible to his own culture and then crossing
from his own culture to that of his hearers.11

IV. THE PROCEDURES OF CONTEXTUALISATION:

What procedure must be gone through in the contextualisation process? Since we are dealing with an issue
of crossing cultures we must be sure that our criteria are also transcultural.
Carson12 sets up a procedure in his paper entitled

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The next stage in the development of a new theology is to study historical theology.16 It is important to see
how Christians down through the centuries have interpreted the Bible and how they have contextualised it.
Equally important is the study of contemporary theology.17 Theology is not developed in a vacuum. Rather,
it is developed through mutual encouragement and study. As such, Western theologians should, instead of
imposing their theology on other cultures, encourage those cultures to look to the Bible for the answers to
their questions. In this way, a new theology will be developed for that culture, which will be of greater
benefit to the people than a theology designed for another culture. These new theologies may also give new
insight into the theological difficulties of the West.18
Carson brings up another good point, one which I did not find in other works, namely the condition of man
and the work of the Holy Spirit have a tremendous impact on the whole contextualisation process.19 Since
man is fallen in sin, any attempt he makes to contextualise the gospel will be fraught with difficulties. It is
only with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit that man can be assured that his efforts will not fail. In
addition to this, God has commanded man to spread the Gospel to the entire world--he will not leave us
hanging. In light of all this, the missionary must approach each day in prayer, asking for God
Carson left out some more practical matters, namely who exactly should be involved in the process of
contextualisation? Should it be the missionary or someone from the target culture itself? There are two
different opinions on this matter. Newbigin quotes the Chinese proverb,
The opposite viewpoint is held by Hesselgrave, who says that the only effective investigation of a culture is
the one done by members of that culture themselves.21 Only someone very familiar with the every aspect of
the culture is able to analyse it completely enough to develop a meaningful theology.

V. THE DANGERS OF CONTEXTUALISATION:

What guidelines are there for ensuring that the process brings forth a gospel that is both effective and true?
Where do we draw the line in the contextualisation process? How far is too far?
One danger is that the, while going through the process of contextualisation, the missionary may be
misunderstood by his supporters back home.22 A prime example of how this affects missionary work can
be seen in the experience of the Jesuits in China in the 1500s. In an attempt at contextualisation, the Jesuits
did not preach against ancestor veneration. When the Pope heard about it he recalled the Jesuits. The Pope
did not have a correct understanding of what was going on because he was not familiar with the cultural
differences between Chinese and Europeans. Instead of looking at ancestor veneration in light of Chinese
culture he interpreted it based on his own cultural understanding of the Bible. This misunderstanding led to
the pullout of the church from China.
A second danger of contextualisation is of going too far in adapting to the target culture and leading to
heresy. Hesselgrave says,
The third danger of contextualisation is that it might not go far enough in divorcing culture from the gospel.
Hesselgrave is very harsh on this matter; in fact he blames many African syncretistic religions on bungled
attempts at contextualisation!27 Jacobs sees evidence of not contextualising enough (if at all) in North
America, in things such as

VI. CONCLUSION:

In this paper we have seen the importance of the contextualisation of the gospel for use in cross-cultural
evangelistic efforts. Contextualisation deals primarily with living the Christian life, and not with salvation
per se. It seeks to make the gospel more understandable, not necessarily more acceptable, to those of a

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different culture. Acts 15 makes it clear, salvation is the same for every one, regardless of culture.
We have also looked at the definition of contextualisation, as well as the process and procedure by which it
might be carried out. finally we have looked at some of the dangers of the contextualisation process.

FIGURE 1

NOTES

1 This paper will not use the term ŒGentilesŒnations.

2 Acts 15:12. For another account of this event see Galatians 2:11-21.
3 Acts 15:10-11.
4 See Acts 6:14; 21:21; 26:3; 28:17. The word used here to describe the Jewish ceremonial law is etho, eo,
to, which is normally translated
5 Acts 15:24,28-29, italics added.
6 Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1985), 73.
7 D. A. Carson,
8 Carson, 10, uses this terminology; David J. Hesselgrave, Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally: An
Introduction to Missionary Communication, Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives Series (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Academie Books, Zondervan Publishing House, 1978), 72-75, refers to the
9 Hesselgrave, Communicating, 73.
10 Carson, 64.
11 Hesselgrave, Communicating, 75.
12 For another approach see Hesselgrave, Communicating, 84.
13 Carson, 65. See also William A. Dyrness, Learning About Theology From the Third World (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Academie Books, Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 29; Paul Tillich, Systematic
Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), vol. 1, 1-8, in Erickson, 73; Hesselgrave,
Communicating, 84.
14 Erickson, 75.
15 The purpose of Deuteronomy is stated in 1:5: Š
16 Carson, 67.
17 Carson, 68.
18 See especially William A. Dyrness, Learning About Theology From the Third World (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Academie Books, Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), passim; and Lesslie Newbigin,
Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 146-148.
19 Carson, 69.
20 Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 21.
21 Hesselgrave, Communicating, 84.
22 David J. Hesselgrave, Today
23 Hesselgrave, Today
24 Hesselgrave, Today

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25 Adrian Jacobs,
26 Jacobs, 33.
27 Hesselgrave, Today
28 Jacobs, 33. It is interesting to note that Jacobs, a native man, is pictured wearing a shirt and tie in a photo
accompanying the article!
29 See Hesselgrave, Today
30 Hesselgrave, Today
31 Adapted from Hesselgrave, Communicating, 73.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aland, Kurt, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren, eds. The Greek
New Testament with Dictionary. 3rd (corrected) ed. Stuttgart, Germany: United Bible Societies, 1983.

Bosch, David A. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. American Society of
Missiology Series, no. 16. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1991.

Carson, D. A.

Dyrness, William A. Learning About Theology From the Third World. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Academie
Books, Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1985.

Hesselgrave, David J. Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally: An Introduction to Missionary

Communication. Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives Series. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Academie Books,
Zondervan Publishing House, 1978.

________. Today

Jacobs, Adrian.

Liddell, [Henry G.] and Scott, [Robert]. Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
[1888].

Newbigin, Lesslie. Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986.

Newman, Barclay M. A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. Stuttgart, Germany:
United Bible Societies, 1971.

Shenk, Wilbert R. ŒCulture

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