MB500: Culture and Transformation (4 units)
Sherwood
Lingenfelter, Professor of Anthropology
Winter 2004 Pasadena
DESCRIPTION:
In a world shrunk by
jet air travel, television, education, music, and internet connections,
understanding culture (what it is, how it works, and how to study it) is
increasingly crucial to church and mission ministries. These forces for globalization are not
neutral, nor are the counter forces of tradition. One of our missiological tasks
is to understand the complexities of society and culture and, through Christ,
seek to enable social and cultural transformation. The course will address the
questions of culture, cultural relativism and how the gospel is appropriate and
applied in pluralist societies. Students will gain a grasp of basic tools for
exegeting a culture and understanding how to conduct appropriate ministry in a
cross-cultural context. Through the analysis of case studies students will
explore how Christianity and its social expressions in the church may transform
or fail to transform people and their communities.
LEARNING
OUTCOMES:
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Explain the essential
characteristics of incarnational ministry
2. Describe their cultural bias
through profiles of their basic values and the social games of their family and
church
3. Articulate a ministry focus
statement that incorporates the tensions between bible and culture, and
incarnational and transformational ministry
4. Employing that ministry focus
statement, evaluate a case study of a ministry with reference to its
transforming (or failing to transform) the cultural values and practices of its
local communities.
COURSE
FORMAT:
Class sessions will
include lectures, discussions, and small group exercises.
REQUIRED
READING:
Reading
will be assigned from the required texts. In addition, each student will be
required to read a cultural case study to be selected by the student in
consultation with the professors and selected articles that will be made
available through the course syllabus.
Hiebert, Paul G. and Eloise Hiebert Meneses. Incarnational Ministry. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI: 1996.
Kraft, C. H. Anthropology for Christian
Witness. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996.
Lingenfelter, Judith E. and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter. Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and
Teaching. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI: 2003.
Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. and Marvin K. Mayers. Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal
Relationships. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI: 2003.
Shaw, R. Daniel. Transculturation: The
Cultural Factor in Translation and Other Communication Tasks. William Carey
Library, Pasadena, CA. 1988.
Tiplady,
Richard, ed. One World or Many? The Impact of Globalization on Mission.
William Carey Library, Pasadena, CA: 2003
ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Each student is required to read a cultural case study
and apply tools for cultural learning to analyze the case.
2. Each student will be required to write four (4) reflective essays of 5-6
pages each during selected weeks of the course. These essays will grow out of
the class lectures, discussions and required reading.
3. Each student will be required to do a Basic Values Questionnaire and a
questionnaire on the social game of one’s family and church life. These
questionnaires will be part of class discussion on these topics.
Grading: Papers will be graded on an A to F scale.
PREREQUISITE:
None.
RELATION
TO THE CURRICULUM: Required course for the MA Cross-cultural Studies (MA-CCS)
program.
FINAL
EXAM: None.