Category: Honor
Last month, I heard this story from Bob Lupton, founder of Focus Community Strategies and author of Toxic Charity. Their ministry adopted a “Toys for Tots” drive during the holidays. Churches would gather presents, then bring them to people in …
How Dignity Resolves Conflict
“Our desire for connection is deep in our genes. We are living in a false state of alienation. The quality of our lives and our relationships could be vastly improved if we learned how to master the art and science …
3 Ways To Apply Restorative Justice
Our previous post introduced the idea of restorative justice. Here are three applications of restorative justice. 1-Cross-Cultural Relationships Here is a common scenario Western missionaries face: When I confronted a national believer over the problem of _________, he felt shamed and …
Putting Honor Into Action
Christian mission mediates God’s honor into the world. The church is the very means by which people experience and understand the glory of God. We are God’s instrument for overcoming shame. Communicating God’s honor happens relationally, not just verbally. How …
Honor-Shame in Jude and 2 Peter
Andrew M. Mbuvi (Ph.D., Westminster) is Associate Prof. of Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics at Shaw University Divinity School. His latest book is a commentary on Jude and 2 Peter (NCCS: Cascade, 2015). In this post, he summarizes the honor-shame dynamics …
The Meaning of God’s Grace
Dr. John Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University. His latest book Paul & The Gift (Eerdmans, 2015) is being hailed as “pioneering” and “ground-breaking.” At the recent Society of Biblical Literature, several people called it “the most important book on Pauline …
“Honor > Life,” Says Humanity
Honor is not a matter of life and death. It is more than that. Respect from the community is more important than life itself. The human craving for honor is so great, people would rather die with honor than live …
The (New) Honor Market
The post is a satire. Do you struggle with shame? Do you find it hard to be an honorable person? Welcome to The Honor Market—the 21st-century way to manage your social status. Effective January 1, 2016, the website HonorShame.com has become …
Jesus’ Death, for Muslims
How is Jesus’ death good news for Muslims? Ten years ago this month EMQ published my article, “A Muslim Theology of Jesus’ Birth and Death.” Though it was well before I began thinking in “honor-shame” terms, I was surprised to see how much my ideas were already …
Jesus’ Miraculous Healing Honor
Zech Hogan, a student from my class at Eternity Bible College, developed this 3-minute video about Jesus’ healing of the bleeding woman. Zech offers a great example of “Honor Christology.” For being a short video, it is quite amazing. I appreciate his creative and impactful …
How Jesus Atones For My Shame
Guest Mako A. Nagasawa is a campus minister at Harvard and Boston College with the New Humanity Institute, and founding director of New Humanity Institute.“Don’t you know how much I sacrificed for you???” Those words shaped my sense of self, …
Can a Truck Make You Handsome?
In case the previous three posts (Appiah video, Jesus’ teaching, discipleship in 1 Peter) did not clarify the idea of “honor code,” this Chevy truck commercial surely will. They show pictures of the same exact guy, one with a truck and the other …
The Apostolic Honor Code (1 Pet)
How does God’s Kingdom reshape morality and ethics in honor-shame contexts?The most common proposal for Christian’s ethics in shame-based contexts is something like, “People should not care about other people’s opinions, but just do what is right. Get rid of all vestiges …
How Jesus Changed the Honor Code
Was Jesus teaching an “honor code”? One dimension of Jesus’ earthly ministry was helping people realign their notions of “honorability” and “shamefulness” with God’s values of honor and shame. Jesus’ teachings reveals how people access true and eternal honor from God …
Do You Want to Change the World?
“Honor is very important in bringing about change in the world.” If you want to bring about change in the world, I suggest this engaging 3 ½ minute video “The Honor Code” with Princeton professor Anthony Kwame Appiah.In his book …
Yahweh’s Counter-Cultural Honor
Guest Ron Mudge (Ph.D., Concordia Seminary) has served as a missionary to Ivory Coast and Togo, West Africa (1996-2006), and is presently the Rouse Associate Professor of Pre-Seminary Studies at Concordia University Wisconsin. Here is a summary of his article, …
HonorEthics.org
HonorEthics.org is an interdisciplinary academic website devoted to the study of honor as an ethical virtue. Those working to develop a biblical ethic and theology for honor-shame contexts will want to follow this blog. I learned about HonorEthics.org when they posted, …
God’s New (Testament) Face
“I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.” (Ez 39:29). New Covenant saints behold the face of God as never before.The knotty passage of 2 Cor …
Culture Profile: Botswana
Sandra Freeman has served with her husband in Botswana since 2001 doing discipleship and business mentoring. How is honor-shame manifested in Botswana? Honor and shame are all over, but here are three simple examples.In child rearing—a child does not ‘get into trouble’ …
5 Types of Honor-Shame Cultures
Q: What do honor-shame cultures and wine have in common? A: They both have terroir! Honor and shame cultures always have a unique flavor depending on the context. For example, East Asians response to shame by withdrawing, whereas Middle Easterners will defend their …