EMQ » July–September 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 3
By E. Randolph Richards and Richard James
InterVarsity Press, 2020
281 pages
US$28.00
Reviewed by Brent H. Burdick, DMin, Adjunct Professor of Missions, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Director of the Lausanne Global Classroom.
The Bible was written in cultural contexts that functioned under the societal structures of kinship, patronage, and honor/shame. If the Bible is to be understood as the original authors intended and as the people to whom it was written would have understood and interpreted it, these cultural values cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, as authors E. Randolph Richards and Richard James note in Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes, Westerners tend to read Scripture through the eyes of individualist culture and miss much of the deeper level meanings that were intuitively understood in biblical collectivist cultures. Thus, reading Scripture with individualist eyes can lead to misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and misapplications of the Bible.
This book is a follow-up to Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes written in 2012 that looks at “removing cultural blinders to better understand the Bible” (from the title of that book). Individualist Eyes develops that same theme but goes deeper and names individualism as the key cultural blinding force in the West that contributes to biblical misreading. An individualist-based society does not understand collectivist social constructs such as kinship, honor/shame, and patronage, which are found throughout both the Old and New Testaments. These constructs shape the narratives and teachings of Scripture, and they are examined closely in Individualist Eyes. Numerous biblical examples are included which show how individualist interpretations of Scripture inhibit attaining the originally intended meaning of the collectivist biblical authors.
The book is extremely insightful on two levels. First, it is helpful for students of Scripture to gain an awareness and understanding of collective societal functioning in the interpretation of Scripture. Collective concepts are foreign to most individualists and not understanding them can lead to misreading the text. The authors acknowledge that there is a difference between ancient and modern-day collectivism, but the difference is smaller between ancient and modern collectivism than it is between modern-day individualism and modern-day collectivism. Second, the authors share fascinating personal experiences as they describe modern-day collectivism cross-culturally. Cross-cultural workers will therefore gain a greater awareness of collectivist worldviews as they read, which will help in generating more effective evangelism, Bible teaching, and ministry. The value of an individualist understanding biblical collectivism for Bible study, ministry, and cross-cultural engagement cannot be overstated.
If the book lacks anything, it is a discussion of how to tell when a collectivist worldview is in play in a Bible passage so misreading as an individualist can be avoided. Though there are many Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries available, a listing of resources that highlight collectivism in the Bible would be helpful. Still, as with Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, this book will have great impact in leading readers to a transformative awareness of the importance of seeing Scripture through collectivist eyes. It is a must-read for all individualists who read and teach the Bible and desire to interpret and apply Scripture more closely to its original collectivist context.
For Further Reading
Richards, E. Randolph, and Brandon J. O’Brien. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Barriers to Better Understand the Bible. InterVarsity Press, 2012.
