5 Levels of Honor-Shame Understanding

People approach honor-shame in five different ways. These can be organized as stages people progress through as their understanding grows. The five phases are painted with a broad brush, and each person has their own learning journey. Yet, here is a common pattern that I have observed.

0. Unaware

At the beginning, people simply do not recognize honor and shame, at any level. This does not mean that honor and shame do not exist. They always exist, to some degree, in every culture. People at this level encounter the realities of honor and shame but without conscious awareness. They are the proverbial fish in water. Such people include Westerners in a new cultural context, or people raised in an honor-shame context. Honor and shame are around them, but go unrecognized.

1. Culture

Most people (though certainly not all!) begin to reflect on culture at some point. This is the proverbial “ah-ha moment” when people start to see why cultures do what they do. Social values and assumptions become evident. Behavior gets located with a broader schema of meaning. This is the basic level of cultural awareness. Most people learn about honor and shame through an organized training or direct encounters with such a culture.

The longer an expatriate lives in an honor-shame culture, the better they learn to discern its nuances and impact. Generally speaking, people raised in collectivistic cultures learn about honor and shame (at a conscious level) when they step outside of their culture.

2. Scripture

The cultural insights that a person gleans about honor-shame cultures transfer over to the Bible, a collection of texts written in ancient honor-shame cultures. People notice the words such as honor and shame in the Bible (“For I am unashamed of the gospel”) and notice honor-shame dynamics in stories (Luke 15). Knowing the cultural background of the Bible improves our interpretation. People who learn about honor and shame at this level speak about the Bible “coming alive” or “being in color.” It feels euphoric to see new aspects of Scripture.

3. Ministry

When people see honor-shame in a culture (Level 1) and in the Bible (Level 2), they naturally want to bridge the two worlds. This means applying biblical truths about honor and shame to cultural context (1+2=3!). Honor and shame can impact ministry. Understanding honor-shame can help us develop better relationships and present the gospel in a more compelling manner.

In my estimation, most Christians who learn about honor and shame do so for the sake of ministry effectiveness. As a result, they plateau at Level 3 and do not progress. To be honest, for many years, this was my approach, even as I taught about honor and shame.

4. Theology

In this more reflective phase, honor-shame begins to transform our understanding (not just presentation) of the gospel. This involves a fuller, more biblical understanding of key theological ideas from an honor-shame perspective. For example, God is infinitely honorable and glorious; sin involves dishonoring God; Jesus’s death honored God and removed shame; salvation involves adoption into God’s family. The story of salvation-history and theological topics are imagined less in legal/individualistic terms and more in collectivistic/relational terms. One’s understanding of who God is and how he works in the world changes. This level sounds easy, and many people can parrot such ideas, but it is difficult to theologize, or intuitively think, from an honor-shame perspective. Like speaking another language, it can take years to become proficient. However, your investment in learning is worth the payoff.

5. Worship

Honor and shame, I propose, lay at the heart of our relationship with God. Christian spirituality involves shaping our hearts to properly grant honor. Human hearts tend to over-honor base things (i.e., the self, pleasure, and comfort) and under-honor things of worth (i.e., others, God). Growing in Christ involves more fully understanding and embodying God’s worth throughout our lives. In other words, we are to glorify God in all things. Our lives honor to right things, and our hearts begin to align with God’s will. In this way, honor-shame enables us to better know and experience God himself. Honor-shame enhances our perspective of not only cultures, relationships, Bible passages, or theological ideas, but also the God who stands behind and above those things.

Implications

Here are three implications of this model.

1. Teach all 5.

When teaching Christians about honor-shame, include all five dimensions. Do not simply teach honor-shame to improve cultural insights, biblical exegesis, or ministry techniques. Levels 1–3 are great and essential, but not sufficient. As far as possible, draw people into theology and worship.

2. Learn forwards; live backwards

We learn about honor-shame in sequence, progressing from Level 0 to Level 5. However, it is best lived and applied in reverse, beginning from Level 5. My approach to honor-shame has increasingly focused on the final levels. If I get worship and theology correct, then my ministry and relationships more naturally align with God’s purposes.

3. Honor-shame as a journey.

Understanding honor-shame dynamics in the various facets of our lives, including relationships with others and with God, is a matter of the heart. It’s not learning a ministry technique but undertaking a journey to develop our hearts. In this process, we grow in our self-awareness and the reality of God.

I’m not sure what to make of this, but the five levels I’ve outlined above align with the stages of spiritual development presented in The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich. These are 1) recognition, 2) learning/growing, 3) production/ministry, 4) a journey inward/examination, and 5) a journey outward with a renewed sense of God’s being.

To learn more, see Werner Mischke, The Global Gospel, pp 329–30, or Steve Hawthorne, “The Honor and Glory of Jesus Christ: Heart of the Gospel and Mission of God” (an 80-minute recorded presentation).