EMQ » April–June 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 2
By Jackson W.
Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic Press, 2019
231 pages
USD $20.00
Reviewed by Mark A. Strand, professor, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota.
What happens when a person moves to another country, learns the local language, and immerses him or herself deeply into the culture? The person’s perspective changes. This is one of the mysteries of Christian missionary service. One goes out with training and a message to deliver, but when one begins reading the Word of God from within the new cultural context, one reads the Bible differently. This is the process by which author Jackson W. came to read Romans with new eyes.
W. has written extensively on the topic of honor and shame in Chinese ministry contexts. He uses the honor and shame framework in contrast to a Western focus on innocence and guilt. A western emphasis on guilt focuses on penal substitution as the description of how sinful people are reconciled to God. On the cross, the guilt of humans is assuaged by Christ paying the price in their place, thus declaring them innocent of their sin. In contrast, shame dominates in a collectivist culture, where sin is seen as bringing dishonor to one’s heavenly Father. This results in shame because the sinner has failed to give Him the glory He deserves.
According to W., the book of Romans is best understood from an honor and shame perspective. He summarizes the book of Romans as follows. Those who dishonor God feel shame. On the cross Christ experienced the ultimate shame, in the place of humans. This act allowed the Father to accept those who have been in this way justified and replace their shame with honor. Honor is also conferred by being unconditionally welcomed into a community, the family of God. Honor-shame cultures do not neglect sin, but see sin as rooted in relationships more than rules.
In Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes, W. exegetes each chapter of Romans, building his case that the shame framework provides a needed complement to the concept of penal substitution, and resonates more directly with Chinese people’s shame-based response to sin and separation from God. W. advocates for the honor-shame approach to redemption as a corrective, not a replacement, of the guilt-innocence framework of traditional Western theology.
Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes is thoroughly referenced, with copious footnotes within the chapters, 21 pages of references, three indexes (author, subject and Scripture), and a Discussion Guide with chapter questions. This book would be of interest to anyone ministering in a Chinese context. However, the new slant this book takes on understandings of sin, redemption, and the collective nature of the church, would be of interest to any students of the Bible. Most readers will benefit from reading the book with others and using the discussion questions.
Jackson W. is not without his critics, but he is to be commended for gazing upon Scriptures with Eastern eyes, to see if truths may have been missed due to an exclusively Western perspective. This book will challenge your assumptions and give you a more full-orbed perspective on reading Scripture and knowing God.
For Further Reading
Bailey, Kenneth E. 2008. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
Chan, Simon. 2014. Grassroots Asian Theology; Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
