EMQ » January–March 2018 » Vol. 54 Issue 1
Book Review
Restored to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Shame
Paul H. DeNeul, ed.
William Carey Library, 2017, 259 pages, $17.89
Reviewed by Cory Wilson, pastor at City Church, Cleveland, Ohio, and adjunct of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio.
In the 1950s Eugene Nida and Ruth Benedict led the way in bringing awareness to the dissimilar roles of fear, shame, and guilt across cultures. This, along with the rise of cultural competence in missiology, has led to awareness of important realities. First, the significant amount of Western cultural baggage attached to Christianity in cross-cultural work, and second, the presence of cultural bridges and common grace in cultural contexts previously not exposed to the gospel.
It is these two realities that largely frame this installment of the SEANET (a network for Christian workers in South, East, Southeast and North Asia) series. This work draws “from the expressions and insights found from within the context of the Buddhist world” related to fear, guilt, and shame (xii). The goal is to equip more guilt-oriented Christian workers for future encounters with differing worldviews.
The book divides its 11 chapters into three sections, Understanding Fear, Guilt, and Shame Cultures; Communicating in Fear, Guilt, and Shame Cultures; and Restoring to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Shame. This framework provides a logical progression in working through issues related to fear, guilt, and shame and mission work. This along with the diversity of contributors’ voices ranging from North America, Europe, and various parts of Asia are the strengths of the book.
As with any edited work, there will be chapters and perspectives that will be more valuable than others, but each offers a helpful contribution to equipping Western practitioners in Asian contexts. One theme that should be appreciated is the recognition that every culture maintains elements of guilt, shame, and fear, although one may be more prevalent than the others.
Additional helpful elements of the book are Timothy Hwang Taeyun’s chapter on “How to Communicate the Gospel in a Shame Culture”, and the insightful charts by Alex Smith, and Christian Gabre breaking down how guilt, shame, and fear play out in a cultural context and how Christ comes to restore each in his life, death, and resurrection.
The book is not without controversy. The appropriate method of contextualization remains a controversial topic within the evangelical community, particularly in the insider movement. Addressing the specifics of the insider movement is beyond the scope of this book, but each author is naturally working from his or her own framework of contextualization.
David Lim’s suggestion that those who witness “Christus victor” in a power encounter over deities and spirits can convert to Christianity and be baptized and need not be exposed to the atonement aspect of Jesus’s work immediately is one of the more provocative statements in the book and one of the more theologically problematic (118).
Regardless of one’s opinion on the various examples of contextualization that are offered throughout the book, each author stresses the centrality of Jesus as the solution to our fear, guilt, and shame. Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection, is the one that restores these back to power, innocence, and honor. This is something that all Christians can agree on.
For further reading:
Benedict, Ruth, 2006. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. New York: Mariner Books.
Georges, Jayson, and Baker, Mark D. 2016. Ministering in Hono-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical Essentials. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
