Developing Theology Through Narrative

Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters

by Tom Steffen and Ray Neu

Character Theology provides a natural, universal way for the world to engage God through his chosen cast of characters. As the media eras continue to change (oral to print to digital-virtual), too many Bible scholars, and consequently pastors and Bible teachers in the West and beyond, lack capability to effectively communicate Scripture to Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. These generations find little if any relevance in the Christianity promoted by those stuck in modernity’s sticky abstract systematic theology. Character Theology relates, sticks, and transforms these generations. Why? Because people grasp and engage God most naturally and precisely through his interaction with biblical characters and their interaction with each other! Characters communicate the Creator’s characteristics. The roadmap to the recovery and expansion of Christianity in the twenty-first century will be through Bible characters.

The Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity

by Tom Steffen and William Bjoraker

Have Western exegetes turned an Eastern book into a Western one? Has our fondness for a fixed printed text capable of being analyzed with precision and exactitude blinded us to other hermeneutic possibilities? Does God require all people to be able to analyze grammar to interpret Scripture? Does God assume all people can interpret Scripture through oral means? The authors recognize the effects of centuries of literacy socialization that produced a blind spot in the Western Christian world–the neglect by most in the academies, agencies, and assemblies of the foundational and forceful role orality had on the biblical text and teaching. From the inspired spoken word of the prophets, including Jesus (pre-text), to the elite literate scribes who painstakingly hand-printed the sacred text, to post-text interpretation and teaching, the footprint of orality throughout the entire process is acutely visible to those having the oral-aural influenced eyes of the Mediterranean ancients. Could oral hermeneutics be the “mother of relational theology”?

Making Disciples of Oral Learners

Lausanne Occasional Paper 54

From the time of the Gutenberg Bible, Christianity “has walked on literate feet” and has directly or indirectly required literacy of others. However, 70% of all people in the world are oral communicators ‒ those who can’t, don’t, or won’t learn through literate means. Four billion in our world are at risk of a Christless eternity unless literate Christians make significant changes in evangelism, discipleship, leader training and church planting.

Making disciples of oral learners means using communication forms that are familiar within the culture: stories, proverbs, drama, songs, chants, and poetry. Literate approaches rely on lists, outlines, word studies, apologetics and theological jargon. These literate methods are largely ineffective among two-thirds of the world’s peoples. Of necessity, making disciples of oral learners depends on communicating God’s word with varied cultures in relevant ways. Only then will the gospel be able to reach to “the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

by Walter J. Ong

This classic work explores the vast differences between oral and literate cultures offering a very clear account of the intellectual, literary and social effects of writing, print and electronic technology.

In the course of his study, Walter J. Ong offers fascinating insights into oral genres across the globe and through time, and examines the rise of abstract philosophical and scientific thinking. He considers the impact of orality-literacy studies not only on literary criticism and theory but on our very understanding of what it is to be a human being, conscious of self and other.

This is a book no reader, writer or speaker should be without.

Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change

by Paul G. Hiebert

In the past, changes in behavior and in belief have been leading indicators for missionaries that Christian conversion had occurred. But these alone—or even together—are insufficient for a gospel understanding of conversion. For effective biblical mission, Paul G. Hiebert argues, we must add a third element: a change in worldview. Here he offers a comprehensive study of worldview—its philosophy, its history, its characteristics, and the means for understanding it. He then provides a detailed analysis of several worldviews that missionaries must engage today, addressing the impact of each on Christianity and mission. A biblical worldview is outlined for comparison. Finally, Hiebert argues for gospel ministry that seeks to transform people’s worldviews and offers suggestions for how to do so.

Translating the Message: the missionary impact on culture

by Lamin Sanneh

Since its original publication Translating the Message has transformed common perceptions of mission, showing how the process of “translation” has made Christianity a preserver, rather than a destroyer of indigenous languages and cultures. This thoroughly revised edition, drawing on the latest scholarship, refocuses the original thesis and adds illustrations and new tables of translation.

Beyond Literate Western Models: Contextualizing Theological Education in Oral Contexts

edited by Samuel E. Chiang and Grant Lovejoy

International Orality Network

Informal controlled oral tradition and the Synoptic Gospels

by Kenneth E. Bailey

Themelios 20.2 (January 1995): 4-11.

Introdução à antropologia missionária (Portuguese)

by Ronaldo Lidório

This work addresses the crucial role of Anthropology in the context of missions. In a globalized world, where coexistence between different cultures and subcultures is increasingly close and common, Anthropology has proven to be an indispensable tool for all those involved in the great task that Jesus placed in our hands. Therefore, the author seeks to show how to apply anthropological knowledge to the context of missions and evangelization. He also proposes methodologies that will help missionaries or evangelists to study and better understand the social segment with which they work, whether urban, rural, or tribal, in their own context or in another culture.