Anthropology and Faith: Challenges to Missiology

The use of cultural anthropology in missiology has expanded considerably in the past quarter century. The author looks here at what the nature of that relation has been, suggesting three phases in the development of that relationship. He goes on to look at two theological problems—cultural relativism and cultural universals—and how anthropology might help theology and missiology with them. He closes with four suggestions about how the two disciplines might work more closely together.¹