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- Shame-Conviction and Guilt-ConvictionChristopher Flanders (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is associate professor of missions at Abilene Christian University. He served as a missionary in Thailand for eleven years. This post is from his recent article This post is based on his article, “Bringing Shame upon an Honored Missiological Paradigm: A Study of Conviction and Elenctics,” IJFM 37 (2020). …
- deSilva’s Classic Book, 2nd Ed.David deSilva’s book Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity is a sort of cult classic in terms of honor-shame and NT backgrounds. I still remember reading the book on a camping trip in 2006 and thinking on each page, “This makes so much sense!” Because it is such a tremendous work, I’m glad that deSilva has revised …
- Seeking God’s Face—A New HS Book with Practical ReflectionsJackson Wu and Ryan Jensen have authored a new book, Seeking God’s Face: Practical Reflections on Honor and Shame in Scripture. Many people will enjoy the devotional and challenging content. This post is one of the 101 practical reflections. When Feeling Ashamed Is Not a Bad Thing Look up to the bare heights, and …
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- Adding “Guilt” to the BibleTranslation is difficult work. A major issue in translating texts is that the two languages reflect two different cultures, or ways of looking at reality. So words and concepts do not always translate perfectly across cultures. Translators must make many choices to best reflect the original meaning. However, sometimes one’s own cultural assumptions can find …
- Developing Communities with Redefined Honor & ShameMark Baker’s new book, Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community without Judgementalism, will be helpful for anyone interested in developing healthy church communities. The problem is that many churches are really good at drawing lines. As a result, some people learn how to be “good Christians” by just following the rules, while others experience shame for …
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- Defending ShameGuest Dr. Te-Li Lau is an Associate Professor of New Testament at TEDS and author of Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul’s Letters (Baker Academic, 2020), from which this post draws. We live in an age where many consider shame to be destructive and harmful. Brené Brown appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday and …
- Confronting Lying in HS CulturesAjith Fernando has published a recent article titled “Confronting Lying Biblically in Honour- and Shame-Oriented Cultures” (Evangelical Review of Theology, 2022) This a topic many people struggle to address with truth, wisdom, and love. As he has for decades, Ajith Fernando brings together strong biblical exegesis and insightful missiology. The article can be downloaded for …
- John Owen on Salvation from ShameThe 17th-century English Puritans had an intense commitment to biblical teaching on sin, salvation, and genuine conversion. They brought their attention to both the guilt-innocence and honor-shame themes in Scripture. Just as for the guilty sinner in the hands of an angry God pardon at the cross was an immeasurable treasure, so also for the …
- Mercy in Honor-Shame ContextsCharles R. Harle (MS, Oregon State University) lived and taught ESL for a year in China then for 18 years worked with colleges and universities in China to recruit, train and place native English speaking ESL teachers. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines mercy as “compassion or forgiveness shown to toward someone when it is within …
- Hospitality: The Theological MeaningHospitality—the welcome and provision of guests and strangers—was important in the ancient world. It remains an important aspect of honor-shame cultures. The previous post explained what hospitality accomplishes at a social level. This post introduces the NT teaching on hospitality. The NT instructs believers to be hospitable. The action is commanded by three different authors. …
- Hospitality: The Social MeaningHospitality is a significant aspect of honor-shame cultures. Many people know this through personal experience. When you visit someone from a Majority World culture, you receive a lavish and generous welcome. Besides the quality of hospitality, the quantity is also significant. People visit each other regularly, and “just sitting for tea” is common. This post …
- The 3D Gospel in 11 Languages!The 3D Gospel is now available in 11 different languages. I am grateful for the global interest and eagerness of translators to complete the projects. Most interesting to me is the variety of cover designs. The visual styles reflect how cultures communicate the same idea in different ways. Same words, but different colors and fonts (and …
- Paul & and the Power of Grace (Book Review)John Barclay’s Paul & the Gift (Eerdmans, 2015) has been widely hailed as “the most important book” in New Testament studies in 40 years. Now, for the benefit of many, Barclay has published an accessible and practical version—Paul & the Power of Grace (Eerdmans, 2020, pp. 159). According to Barclay’s reading of grace in Paul, …
- An Update about HonorShame.comThe tagline for HonorShame.com is “resources for Majority World ministry.” The aim of the website and blog has been to equip people with ideas and resources to better understand the pivotal roles of honor-shame in culture, theology, and ministry. From 2014 through 2020, weekly blogs generated new insights and global conversations about honor and shame. …
- “Honor” in the New TestamentThe main New Testament word for honor is timē. The word refers to the value of an object. In material transactions, the word means “price” or “a sum (of money).” For example The tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver (Acts 7:16 NRS). “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie …
- “Shame” in the New TestamentThe New Testament uses a variety of words to speak about shame. This post discusses main three roots for shame. This first pie chart shows the various Greek terms behind the word “shame” in the NRSV. The primary NT word for shame is aischuné (αἰσχύνη). The word can mean “ashamed,” “shamed,” and/or “shameful.” These nuances …
- Honor-Shame and Relativism: What Evangelicals Don’t Get about Donald TrumpGuest Dr. Stan Nussbaum is an independent mission coach, researcher, and author. His latest project is SYNC. No culture is pure honor-shame, pure guilt-forgiveness, or pure power-fear. All are mixes and all change over time. American culture is a guilt-forgiveness culture in the process of drifting toward honor-shame. American evangelicals typically perceive the cultural change …
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- Shame in the Old TestamentShame is a hot topic in the Old Testament! To convey the concept of shame, the OT uses at least ten different words over 300 times. With many different words, shame is the proverbial ice in Eskimo culture. Several verses in the Bible pile up the shame words (Psa 31:11; 79:4; Jer 50:2), but Psalm …
- Honor in the Old Testament“How heavy are you?” In Western contexts, this question can be offensive. But in honor-shame cultures, the very question can be a gesture of respect because their mindset often assumes “weight=honor.” Here are a few examples from Central Asia. The slang word for a man’s gut is “authority.” The word for skinny is “sick,” and …
- 7 Problems with Defining “Honor” & “Shame”What do the words “honor” and “shame” mean? What is their theological meaning? These questions are surprisingly complex, for the several reasons listed here. This post explains 7 challenges with defining “honor” and “shame.” Honor and shame are invisible. The terms are social constructs, abstract ideas that exist only inside of people (FYI, that does not …
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