Abstract
Over three decades ago, Andrew Walls identified a set of principles that clarified why contextualization is a constant challenge: (1) the Gospel is designed to cross cultural borders, not eliminate them (translation); (2) as the Gospel crosses cultural borders, it always seeks to adapt to the culture so believers can feel at home (indigenization); and yet, (3) the Gospel also always calls for transformation, placing believers in tension with their culture (pilgrim). Traditional Ritual as Christian Worship: Dangerous Syncretism or Necessary Hybridity? represents the maturation of those principles with fresh theoretical and theological insights from editors R. Daniel Shaw and William W. Burrows and a fascinating set of case studies that are challenging in their contextual complexity.
The book opens with a chapter by each editor. Shaw’s chapter reveals how insights from cognitive anthropology and missiology converge to produce a theology of redemption for pre-Christian ritual and ceremony, while Burrows’s chapter wrestles with the theological and ecclesiological complexity of cross-cultural evangelism and inculturation. The most interesting development here is the argument that the ritual apparatus utilized in cultures around the world prior to the arrival of the Gospel should not be thought of as inherently anti-Christian and thus antithetical to the development of Christian worship (syncretism), but considered a witness to God’s advance work in the context and prime source material for pedagogical and ecclesiological purposes (hybridity). The case studies that follow are divided into two sets that provide interpretive evidence for this claim.
The first set of case studies is focused on how pre-Christian rituals and ceremonies have been adapted and transformed to enable Christian worship to feel authentic and relevant in each cultural context. As such, they serve to illustrate the indigenization principle of Walls as believers seek to welcome God’s presence in their midst. The second set of case studies reveals how Christians in non-Western contexts create meaningful worship experiences through symbols, movements, and metaphors unknown and unused in the West, effectively exploding the parameters of worship. In so doing, Walls’s pilgrim principle is exercised, prophetically challenging Western hegemony in worship practice and reminding all believers that what God is seeking in every case is transformation, not institutionalization.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough for students of missiology who are wrestling with the topic of contextualization, as well as for pastors of churches struggling with stagnation in their worship practice. Each chapter is creative in presentation, insightful in application, and deserving of theological discussion. The case studies by Nishioka, Bear, and Daimoi in particular are truly excellent. My only critique of the book is how hard some of the case study authors have to work to use “hybridity” language in their analysis. Sometimes it feels “tacked on” in the hope of connecting with the editors’ intent (Kuman 60, Hopkins 138, Nishioka 171), sometimes it is ignored altogether (Kim, DomNwachukwu, Haami, Dauermann), and at least once it is actually used in the negative as a substitute for syncretism (Malakyan 120). The truth is, while “hybridity” terminology enables the editors to nuance contextualization as an agricultural metaphor, the thread that actually ties the whole book together is the way each chapter is an exercise in “self-theologizing.” As such, the rich diversity of blooms that the Spirit has cultivated in worship gardens the world over is revealed, bearing witness to the beauty of people reading Scripture in light of their own culture’s questions.