If you’re wanting a lighter explanation of the idea of “missiological fiction,” I recommend the video above. If, however, you’re interested in a deeper dive into the academic discipline of missiology, please read the paper below. It was accepted for presentation at the Evangelical Missiological Society national conference in Dallas in 2023.
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the novel, there are a few things in the paper that will reveal major plot lines.
EMPLOYING THE APOSTOLIC IMAGINATION TO TEACH MISSIONS THROUGH MISSIOLOGICAL FICTION
This paper will explore the potential of fiction to teach missions. In a similar way that the Bible storying approach impacts oral peoples around the world, creative stories illustrating the beauty of the gospel advancing across cultures can teach missiological content. Such stories can uniquely connect with some people in a way other teaching styles do not. In addition to the potential advantages of this approach, disadvantages and potential pitfalls will also be discussed.
My personal journey leading me to blend the worlds of missiology and fiction began with my then fourteen-year-old daughter embarking on a full-length novel. Impressed with her diligence and creativity, I decided I would try to write something myself as a way to join her. Deciding on a missions theme was obvious, but early into the process I realized the unique advantages of using fiction to illustrate truths I had been teaching in my class for years. I’ll discuss my recently published novel, Arman’s Freedom, throughout this paper. As I do so, keep in mind that it’s more than just a shameless plug for my book, but the current list of books of which I’m aware that fit this genre can be counted on one hand.
What is missiological fiction? There’s no agreed upon definition, therefore I will offer my own. A work of missiological fiction is a story illustrating truths typically taught in a Christian missions class. My personal interest is to help the reader understand other religious worldviews and to be challenged by seeing how the gospel translates into cultures throughout the world. Because this is a conference considering how to teach missions, I should add that the approach I’m suggesting is to have students read the book, then reference the story to illustrate the missiological truths covered in class. While I’m employing missiology throughout this paper, this is more about a proposal of ideas rather than presenting factual research (although anecdotal feedback will be referenced) since so little has been done in this area. More specifically, the ideas I am proposing ultimately lead to the greater objective of encouraging the development of a new genre in literature.
Concerns and Pitfalls
There are multiple concerns which could be raised about the prospect of a new genre of missiological fiction. First of all, there’s the potential for it to just become bad Christian entertainment. A story which fails to capture the attention and imagination of the reader will never accomplish its underlying purpose. Another pitfall is the potential for heresy and/or just poor theology in general. The Shack and Left Behind come to mind for me. Others may point to how This Present Darkness was instrumental in giving shape to the theology and practice of the Third Wave movement in dealing with spiritual warfare. Regardless of your opinion about these works, we should be hesitant to throw out a method because it has been used poorly. If that were the case, we would have to give up on preaching and teaching as well. The reality is that these books made an indelible impression on people who were not as likely to read a non-fiction theological work.
My greatest concern in proposing a genre of missiological fiction isn’t any of the above. Instead, it’s subtly forgetting to use the Bible as the primary tool to teach missions. Missions professors already have a reputation for being overly dependent on stories, so the temptation to rely on a compelling novel seems realistic. Once again, however, the answer is not to throw a good method out, but to keep it in its proper place.
The Affective Domain
Andrew Peterson, Christian musician and novelist, often says, “If you want someone to know the truth, tell them. If you want someone to love the truth, tell them a story.”[1] While he is not a missiologist, Peterson is getting to the heart of what missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert calls the “affective domain” of cultures.
One of Hiebert’s motivations in teaching what he called the “three domains of culture,” was to open the eyes of western missionaries who had been impacted more by Enlightenment Rationalism than they realized. They typically understood the cognitive aspects of a culture, which pointed to the rational content of what cultures consciously believed and taught. However, they would often either dismiss or misunderstand the affective domain of culture. This is where the emotions of a given people come into play through art, story, music, or any teaching that is designed to reach the heart. Hiebert argued that the evaluative domain of a culture – how they make decisions – is informed by both the cognitive and affective domains.
Cross-cultural communicators often overlook the importance of this affective dimension in the lives of ordinary people. Leaders stress the preaching of cognitive truth in church services, and downplay the importance of feelings in worship… People often leave the church with their heads full and their hearts empty. Most people make decisions on the basis of emotions and experience as much as on rational argument. On the other hand, stressing affectivity alone leaves people with their hearts full and their heads empty. Both cognition and affectivity are vital to religious life.[2]
In a recent presentation on culture at Beeson Divinity School, Gavin Ortlund offered the following observation: “Twenty years ago, the main question was ‘Is the gospel true?’ Today the question is, ‘Is the gospel good?’”[3] The former question answers the concerns of modernism. The latter question is born out of the objections of postmodernism. In a day and age where we are taught to be repulsed by the idea of trying to “convert” someone, especially other religious adherents, perhaps it be more impactful on a young Christian to provide a picture of how the gospel translates into a young Muslim’s life that strikes them as both good and beautiful. Instead of simply drawing up the math through rational biblical arguments as to why all people need Jesus, what if we immerse them into the mind and emotions of a sympathetic character who obviously needs the gospel of grace? Have missiologists taught students to employ the affective domain among unreached people groups and yet reduced its use in their own classroom to personal testimonies? I believe missions professors have room to learn from our own teaching.
Complexity and Clarity
Another advantage of well-told stories, relating to the affective domain, is that they can illustrate the complexity of truth to those who have dismissed a situation as black and white. Eudora Welty, who wrote short stories and novels about the American South, said that “a plot is a thousand times more unsettling than an argument, which may be answered.”[4]
For example, it’s one thing to make an argument about how the church should view and implement the Bible’s teaching of the Kingdom of God. It’s altogether different, however, to weave together a story of a church which exists for its own self-preservation coming face to face with a Muslim background believer who risked everything for the sake of Christ, even to the extent that he witnessed the murder of his own sister. This is one of the storylines from Jeff Christopherson’s novel, “Once You See: The Seven Temptations of the Western Church.” Christopherson, Executive Director for the Canadian Baptist Convention and Church Planting Canada, said the genesis of this book happened after he had started a church planting network and subsequently watched, year after year, as church planters with the best resources continued to come to an end of themselves. They were succumbing to common temptations, as seen in the title of the book, ranging from a dependence on attracting people through an excellent presentation of music and worship, a trust in staff which centered on talent, to a syncretism with politics. In a personal interview with Christopherson, he offered the following thoughts and observations:
We keep writing books on the same things and nothing changes. Why do we keep having the same conversations? People have been discipled to think what they think. Their version of mission is what they’ve seen and grown up with. You can’t compete and win with theological and philosophical kinds of arguments. You have to appeal to both the heart and mind. You have to write something where people see and emotionally feel.”[5]
The book is still new, but Christopherson has said that, compared to his other books, there is “no question that the reactions to this book are a lot stronger.”[6] The latter statement was from an interview in March. In an early October interview, Christopherson said that churches are buying the book in quantities and using it to train leadership teams. At a gathering in Vancouver last month, Cru gathered leaders from various ministries, including Focus on the Family and Alpha Canada, and organized breakout sessions around the seven temptations of the church described in “Once You See.” The week before that, he was in Philadelphia, where the Baptist Convention was employing the book for their annual convention. The hope is that the readers will be challenged in their thinking in a way that illustrates complexity where they had seen simplicity and, at the same time, brings clarity to the purposes of God.
In my own work, Arman’s Freedom, I use a person the reader comes to know and empathize with to illustrate the complexity of an individual’s worldview and to bring clarity to these global realities at the same time.[7] For many years now, I’ve attempted to teach students that most people in the world do not fit neatly within the religious label they claim.[8] Most people are a mix of competing worldviews, including monotheism, animism, modernism, and postmodernism. I’ve also proposed the theory that most people have a “first worldview” similar to how most multi-linguists have a “first language.” This is their default set of beliefs which they use to make sense of the world whenever possible. They pull from other worldviews, I argue, when their first worldview fails to adequately address a specific problem.
A couple of years ago, I developed a visual model to help students further grasp this idea beyond the abstract explanation, but it still lacked something. I’m convinced the void was filled through fiction. In Arman’s Freedom, the protagonist is a young Iranian man who moves to Malaysia to pursue an education in journalism hoping to eventually escape Iran permanently. As the story progresses, it becomes clear he has various competing worldviews which significantly influence his thinking. On the one hand, he hasn’t rejected his belief in God. He’s only rejected the version of Allah pushed down his throat by the Iranian “Government of God.” His continual feelings of guilt and shame, coupled by his fear of punishment illustrate that God is still a reality for him.
On the other hand, there is a deep desire to cling to a vague idea of God preventing him from being confused as a terrorist. From the pluralistic writings of the ancient Persian poet, Rumi, to today’s “coexist” axiom, the reader can discern that his primary worldview may be postmodernism. His love of democracy and truth in journalism, among other things, illustrate that modernism is also tugging on his heart.
As I am taught the worldview section of my class, Introduction to Christian Missions, this past Spring, I was able to refer to Arman and his various life experiences to connect the concepts into my students’ hearts and minds. The conversation became more personal because they felt like Arman was someone they knew. “I found myself praying for Arman,” said one of my students. By using the ability of story to clarify the complex, while also appealing to the affective domain, my students will more likely be able to remember the worldview lessons than if I taught another way. The results of an anonymous survey about Arman’s Freedom, though it was just one class, were encouraging. One student wrote, “Having this book is a nice change of pace from our normal non-fiction readings. I loved discussing it in class in connection with related principles from the worldview discussion.” Other students both agreed and also made it clear that the lessons in the book weren’t clear until I began using it as a reference in class.
Perhaps the potential effectiveness of missiological stories shouldn’t surprise us since our Master Teacher employed parables to accomplish similar goals. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like” precedes enough of the parables to let the hearer know that this is a major point behind most of what he is teaching. When the disciples asked why he taught in parables, “he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 13:11). Stories such as the Prodigal Son, for example, tell us more about God’s kingdom than what could be accomplished through a rational argument. It would have been easy for the listener to simply agree with the Pharisees, some of whom were undoubtedly present as Jesus introduced the parable, when they insisted that sinners deserve punishment. While this is true, Jesus personalizes the abstract with a rebellious son and a father who welcomes him back with lavish displays of affection. The hearers have now been “unsettled,” as Eudora Welty put so well, by a plot that not only carries the aroma of the Kingdom of Heaven, but also forces them to see themselves as either the prodigal or the older brother. They are no longer hearing an argument. They are in a story.
Contextualization
Stories can also be an effective means to provide an effective background upon which to place the conceptual principles of contextualization. The teaching of contextualization must be rooted in Scripture in such a way that students are convinced both of the Bible’s relevance to all people and that the Bible itself teaches us to consider culture as we are communicating the gospel. Most leaders who teach missions will also use case studies from the past and present to further help students learn their own cultural biases as they try to apply truth to a different context. These practices, together with insights from applied anthropology, form the basis for biblical contextualization. Below, I will consider how missiological fiction can complement – not replace – these practices by providing examples from Arman’s Freedom. While this focus on contextualization is a distinct section of my paper, I’m not leaving the impact of the affective domain. I believe that encountering these principles in the context of a character you love, who is in a situation that is heavily “unsettling,” will help students remember them.
Redemptive Analogies
Missionaries faced with the task of explaining the gospel to people in radically different contexts have often found bridges embedded within the culture itself. Don Richardson became known for the book, Peace Child, in which he recounts being a missionary in New Guinea wrestling with how to share the gospel with tribes who are perpetually at war. Eventually he discovered a practice where two tribes would give one of their children to the other tribe to be raised as one of their own. In such a scenario, it would guarantee that neither tribe would be likely to attack the other. Richardson then used this practice as a means to contextualize the gospel message, saying that God has given us his Son as a “peace child.”[9] In later years, Richardson popularized the term “redemptive analogy” and wrote about how such comparisons are used throughout Scripture, including Paul’s employment of the “altar to the unknown God.”[10] While all analogies break down at some point, there are often practices and stories within other cultures that can be used to point to the gospel.
Missiological fiction provides the opportunity to explore redemptive analogies in a unique way. This became clear to me as I discovered something related to Chaharshenbeh Suri, the Iranian practice of jumping over fire during the annual Nowruz (New Year) festival. During the festival has ancient roots related to Zoroastrianism, there is a song that is sung or chanted before the jump, while looking at the fire. This song has clear redemptive qualities.
“Take my sickly yellow pallor (or, pastiness). Give me your rosy glow.”
This expressive desire for new life became the central metaphor for communicating the gospel in Arman’s Freedom. As a fan of The Chronicles of Narnia, I wanted to use Chaharshenbeh Suri to appeal to those who, like me, enjoy Christian fiction. I connected the “rosy glow” metaphor, therefore, with C.S. Lewis’s famous story of Eustace Scrubbs, whose selfishness and greed turned him into a dragon. In his misery and shame, Eustace tried to use his claws to tear off the dragon skin, but all he managed to do was cause himself a great deal of pain and depression. When Aslan tears into him, however, it’s worse at first, but soon the pain gives way to joy as Eustace realizes he’s been turned back into a boy.[11] This well-known and beloved story is a beautiful illustration of how we cannot save ourselves through our own effort nor do we accomplish sanctification by works, but all are in need of the saving grace of Jesus.
In my novel, Arman is plagued by scars which he earned through foolish behavior while jumping over fire the year before in Iran. His actions, which he understands to be sinful, had substantial consequences for both he and his family, causing them all to live with deep shame. For many months, Arman had been hiding his three scars while desperately hoping they would heal on their own. His wounds, and his inability to make them heal, serve as a constant reminder of his sin.
While in a dream, Atrin, who represents Jesus, tells him to jump over a fire (You would need to read the book to understand why). Before doing so, Arman realizes that the ancient chant of “Take my sickly yellow pallor. Give me your rosy glow” feels more like a prayer. Taking the leap, time slows to an impossible crawl. At first he is visually reminded of his sins and assumes that he is about to be eternally judged. Then something very different happens.
A flame shot out of the fire like orange lightning. It entered into the scar on Arman’s ankle, shot up his left leg, through his torso, and into the wound on his chest, which was now emanating a dark yellowish glow. It flew out of his chest and slammed into his face, knocking his head backward. It coursed through his flesh and bones with an immobilizing force, drawing the very air out of his lungs. And yet, he began to understand that this was not a hopeless pain. It was more like a doctor wrenching a dislocated shoulder into place.[12]
It is my hope that this parable connects with lovers of fiction in a way that both makes the gospel beautiful and helps them see how to find redemptive analogies in other cultures, such as those heavily governed by shame and honor, in order to make the gospel known.
Shame/Honor Gospel
One of the most rewarding sections of my missions class is teaching about shame/honor (SH) cultures and how to understand the gospel through a different lens. It’s a challenging task considering the fact that we in the West are primarily used to understanding the message of Jesus through a guilt/innocence (GI) approach only. My own journey in growing to appreciate the breadth of SH in the Scriptures began with a degree in missions and progressed with life and ministry in Southeast Asia. Even after moving back to Birmingham, teaching missions, and years of working with adult Chinese students in a Bible study, the SH gospel was like feeling around the fuzzy edges of an amoeba in the dark and trying to explain what was in my hands.
The basic methods I’ve used to teach SH gospel begin with an introduction to Jayson George’s 3D Gospel, a video entitled “Back to God’s Village,”[13] followed by looking into Scripture to see what is clearly there, but is sometimes invisible to us. The conversations have been beneficial, but I never know how much is going to stick. After all, I know how long it’s taken me to appreciate the beauty of what the Bible has to say about shame and honor. With that in mind, one of my main goals with Arman’s Freedom was to illustrate these stunning realities.
The story begins with a young Iranian desiring to get a journalism degree in Malaysia then move to the West following graduation. He desires both freedom and the respect of those who share his similar values toward democracy and religion. One of his greatest fears is to be associated with Islamic extremism or anything related to the oppressive “Government of God” in his home country. His embrace of religious pluralism is one way of distancing himself from the people and institutions he hates. His worst nightmare comes true, however, when his cousin is involved in a terrorist plot to blow up the Petronas Towers. Arman, guilty by association, becomes the most wanted man on the planet. To make matters worse, a moment is captured on video of Arman in his white shirt, in the midst of the collapsing building, making a split-second decision to save his own life instead of the life of a child. Fortunately for the child, a man in a green shirt became a hero when he grasped the baby stroller just in time. As for Arman, the label of “coward” is piled upon the other accusations of being a murderer. While on the run, he must grapple with the new reality that, not only is he considered a reject by his own government, but now he is despised by the Iranians and global citizens whose opinions he holds dear. In addition to his own horrible predicament, Arman is also paralyzed by the thought of the shame inflicted upon his parents, knowing full well that their lives have been destroyed.
Speaking of his parents, Arman already carried deep shame because of sinful actions committed during Chaharshenbeh Suri while still in Iran. The scars don’t remind him of the cost to himself only, but the shame and financial ruin inflicted on his parents as well. Western novels and movies do not linger on consequences faced by parents of the protagonist, so this storyline is striking. The relational consequences with Arman’s parents and the world are tangible realities throughout. Even before Arman is imprisoned, his intense loneliness is always present.
Eventually Arman is captured, not by the police, but by the actual terrorists themselves. Placed in a pitch black cell, Arman encounters another prisoner named Atrin, who we eventually come to know is Jesus. Atrin earns Arman’s respect, first by listening with empathy, then by revealing supernatural knowledge of Arman’s struggles and sin. In a conversation on the theme of freedom, Atrin points out the fact that Arman could be released from jail, allowed immediate entry into any country of choice, but would never be free from the sting of shame that hangs over his reputation. Almost everyone will still believe he’s a terrorist, not to mention that they have all seen the video of him clinging to his own life instead of helping the child. He can never be free.
As gunfire erupts outside of the prison, Atrin tells Arman to grab the shirt he had taken off due to the heat and follow him. After Atrin points Arman toward the staircase that will lead him out of the dungeon, he does something that is completely inexplicable. Atrin willingly gives himself up. With no time to dwell on it, Arman continues to sprint until he is miles away from his former captors. He enters a mostly empty restaurant in the middle of the night and sees a news report that the suspected terrorist had given himself up and reveals that it was not Arman whom they were seeking after all. Atrin had fully confessed both to complicity in the terrorist plot and to being the one in the white shirt who had clung to his own life instead of saving the child. The authorities were still looking for Arman, but not to punish him. Rather, they want to thank him for being the hero who saved the child’s life from the crumbling tower.
Arman eventually looks down in disbelief only to realize that he was wearing the same green shirt as the hero who saved the child. Atrin had intentionally switched shirts with him and taken on all of his shame. This did not simply have the effect of erasing the negative consequences of jail. It provided him with a new identity that both restored and greatly improved his relationship with the people whom he loved. It also had the effect of Atrin’s father now being covered in the shame of his son. It’s a gift that is so stunning, confusing and seemingly unfair that Arman almost immediately questions how he could possibly accept it.
Such is the beauty of the gospel, as illustrated in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son shames the father in ways that are almost unimaginable in their culture. He comes back only to ask if he could be a servant. The father eschews the cultural expectations that he would expel the shame by rejecting the son. Instead, he willingly takes on the shame by running to the son and embracing him. Instead of simply being forgiven, he is brought a robe, a ring for his finger, and is thrown a party designed to both welcome him back and restore his identity as the honored son in the sight of the community.
Through a purely GI lens, the gospel can only be understood as God releasing us from the penalty of our actions. The SH lens illustrates both an additional aspect of our sin – the shaming of our Heavenly Father – and the extraordinary gift of honor in being his forgiven and beloved children. The honor goes beyond our individual feelings. Our new status is both a present and future reality in the sight of fellow princes and princesses.
We often teach righteousness as Jesus exchanging our sinful and dirty shirt for a perfectly spotless one. This is helpful to understand how we are cleansed of our sin, but the full reality is much greater, as illustrated by Arman’s new green shirt. We aren’t simply released from what we have done. We get credit for what Jesus has done to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Jayson Georges, author of 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures, writes, “God exchanges our old status as unclean, worthless, and inferior outcasts for the status of pure, worthy, and honorable children. Those who follow Christ to the cross of shame will also follow him into resurrection glory.”[14]
As I used Arman’s Freedom in class to explain these truths, I saw the lights switch on as they offered their own relevant thoughts, both from the novel and from Scripture. It is my hope that these lessons will remain more deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of my students as the result of employing the affective domain through an extended parable.
HISTORICAL FICTION
Missiological fiction also wields the potential to help us understand global Christianity. Much has been made of the belief that the fastest growing church in the world is inside Iran.[15] My own experience in Malaysia is that they were the most open people group to the gospel of anyone I encountered. The first response of a Christian to such an explosion of the gospel should be thankfulness to God. A missiological response is to also ask, “Why are they so open?”[16] I already had a general idea, but as I studied the history of Iran since the Revolution in 1979, it became clear that there were unique factors that could be effectively taught through the use of historical fiction.
In contrast with non-fiction history, the novelist has the advantage of taking the most significant and remarkable historical events to use as a storyline which places the main characters directly inside them. By doing so, Arman’s Freedom is able to both explain why Iranians are open, not only to the gospel, but to other non-Islamic worldviews as well. In addition, a depiction of life for Christians inside Iran is also provided.
THE APOSTOLIC IMAGINATION FOR THE FUTURE OF FICTION
I’ve used examples only from Once You See and Arman’s Freedom because that’s close to all that I’m aware of that fits the category of what I envision as “missiological fiction.” In conclusion, I’d like to employ the apostolic imagination to offer a few ideas of what this could look like in the future.
When it comes to theologically informed fiction, fewer writers are more influential among seminarians than Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow, for example, is an extraordinarily thoughtful narrative which critiques how modern ways of farming exploited the land and made it difficult for farmers to make a living in a way that also contributed to healthy relationships in society.[17] Old Testament professor Paul House, while showing his appreciation for Berry, writes, “I’m glad we have writers who can help us know when we unwittingly mimic unbiblical patterns.”[18]
While I also appreciate Berry’s writings and some of his famous quotes, I’m also mindful that no one will read Jayber Crow and be inspired to go the unreached peoples of the world. This is not a critique as much as a simple statement of fact. A writer cannot cover every topic and missions is not Berry’s wheelhouse. I bring him up to imagine what it would be like if someone with a similar worldview and gift for writing would take up the pen to write an earth-saturated tale with one of the following storylines:
- A rural pastor from a midwestern farming town becomes a missionary in sub-Saharan Africa to train pastors in a Bible school. As he learns the culture, he comes face to face with the reality that the peoples’ local resources are being pillaged by Chinese officials who are paying off unscrupulous indigenous government employees. Understanding that their way of life is about to be changed forever, the missionary is now faced with unexpected difficulties in how he is to teach.
- A Chicago woman leaves her home in the 1960s to become a missionary among a people who work for British tea plantations in the secluded mountains of northern India. There is no clear plotline, nor is it a “page turner.” Just a story about a woman who learns over a period of decades what it looks like to be the hands and feet of Jesus as she lives a life of being deeply rooted in community.
Another possibility for missions fiction is a genre of short stories. After all, there’s nothing new about case studies in missiological texts. What would it look like if we simply increased their length, detail, and overall appeal to those who love fiction?
Lastly, it would seem helpful to American Christians who aren’t aware of how God is at work among diaspora peoples around the world to read a missiological diaspora novel. I stated above that the church inside Iran is reported to be the fastest growing in the world. Conversions to Christianity among the Iranian diaspora are also a common phenomenon. Perhaps I need to send Arman to London.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, 2001.
Bradley, Mark. Too Many to Jail: The Story of Iran’s New Christians. Oxford: Monarch Books, 2014.
Georges, Jayson. 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures. Appleton, ME: Time Press, 2017.
Hiebert, Paul G, Shaw, R. Daniel, Tienou, Tite. Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.
Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chronicles of Narnia. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1952.
Parks, David. Arman’s Freedom. Hartselle, AL: Soncoast Publishing, 2022.
Richardson, Don. Peace Child. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2005.
Articles
Richardson, Don. “Redemptive Analogy.” In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 4th ed., edited by Steve Hawthorne and Ralph Winter, Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2009.
Internet
HonorShame: Resources for Global Ministry, “Back to God’s Village.” Accessed March 24, 2023, https://honorshame.com/videos/#close.
House, Paul. “Wendell Berry and the Revitalized Pastor.” Accessed March 18, 2023, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wendell-berry-and-the-revitalized-pastor/.
MacKenzie, Sarah. “How Reading Stories Helps Children Love the Truth.” Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/reading-stories-children-love-truth/.
Welty, Eudora. “Must the Novelist Crusade?” In The Atlantic, October 1965. Accessed March 24, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1965/10/must-the-novelist-crusade/659181/.
[1] Sarah MacKenzie, “How Reading Stories Helps Children Love the Truth,” accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/reading-stories-children-love-truth/. While he uses this quote often, he is not the originator and is not sure where he heard it first.
[2] Paul G. Hiebert, R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tienou, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 37.
[3] Gavin Ortlund, lecture at Beeson Divinity School, February 14, 2023.
[4] Eudora Welty, “Must the Novelist Crusade?” The Atlantic (October 1965): accessed March 24, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1965/10/must-the-novelist-crusade/659181/
[5] Jeff Christopherson, phone interview by author, February 28, 2023.
[6] Ibid.
[7] David Parks, Arman’s Freedom (Hartselle, AL: Soncoast Publishing, 2022).
[8] One of the ways I seek to accomplish this is by requiring all students to sit down with someone from another religious background who grew up outside of the U.S. and ask them questions related to family, culture in general, and religious worldview. For about eight years straight, every class has illustrated that consistency in religious worldview is the exception rather than the rule.
[9] Don Richardson, Peace Child (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2005).
[10] Don Richardson, “Redemptive Analogy,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 4th ed., edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 430-436. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009.
[11] C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chronicles of Narnia (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1952).
[12] Ibid., 263.
[13] “Back to God’s Village,” accessed March 24, 2023. https://honorshame.com/videos/#close
[14] Jayson Georges, 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures (Time Press, 2017), p. 40.
[15] I’ve found multiple resources quoting Operation World to confirm this, but the link is no longer available.
[16] For example, in Mark Bradley’s 2014 book, Too Many to Jail, he goes to great length to explain how cultural, religious, and historical factors have contributed to the Iranian people’s openness to the gospel.
[17] Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2001).
[18] Paul House, “Wendell Berry and the Revitalized Pastor,” accessed March 18, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wendell-berry-and-the-revitalized-pastor/
David Parks 
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