Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective

This is a summary of "Cultural Anthroplology: A Christian Perspective" by S. A. GrunlanCultural Anthropology is a useful tool for the missionary in crossing cultures to share the gospel. This discipline is a science concerned with discovering order in God’s creation. These discoveries help the missionary when entering another culture, which is the very nature of the work of the missionary. Cultural Anthropology helps the missionary gain a perspective about culture that will enable him/her to enter another culture with the least amount of culture shock. It will also prepare the missionary to enter the new field as a learner first instead of a teacher and to be able to find a proper status in the new culture.Anthropology is the study of humans in order to understand them in many different contexts and it is a behavioral science in studying people in the real world. A key concept in anthropology is the study of culture. Culture is the learned and shared attitudes, values, and ways of behaving of people as they live together in society. In culture, people agree together in the ways of meeting the seven basic needs as defined by Malinowski. These are needs of metabolism, reproduction, bodily comforts, safety, movement, growth, and health. Cultural Anthropology deals with culture as a whole and its related systems. These studies are important to several areas of mission work including Bible translation and de-culturalizing theology in bringing the message in a contextualized manner. Anthropology developed over time under different venues beginning with Herodotus who studied non- Greek cultures. Then it developed further under Darwin and under Franz Boas who developed the concepts of fieldwork for the study of anthropology. Later Missionary Anthropology developed to assist the church in crossing cultures for the work of missions. Enculturation is the learning process whereby children and adults internalize their culture thereby developing their identity in the group. This process occurs early in life through habituation and later through different forms of education. Acculturation is the learning of the appropriate behavior and concepts in another culture not the person’s original culture. In this process, culture shock can occur wherein the person has a negative emotional response to the new culture from mismatched cues and norms between the person’s old and new culture. Assimilation occurs as the person in the new culture takes on the total lifeway of the new culture realizing that he/she may never return to the old culture.An important aspect of study in this discipline is the study of language. One aspect of communication is verbal which uses sounds and systems to develop grammar and syntax. Language is also symbolic and its purpose is to communicate abstract concepts from one person to another. All languages are able to express any abstract concept. Language is the servant of the culture and thereby language acquisition relates to understanding that particular culture. Communication also includes nonverbal language, which uses symbols to transfer signals. Learning to interpret these nonverbal cues is an important part of communication. Several other important aspects of Cultural Anthropology are the economy and technology of a culture as well as the function of role and status in a culture and marriage and family issues. Added to this are studies of kinship, the network of social relationships and the understanding of the internal workings of these systems. There is also the study of groups and communities in the culture and the means used for social control in these communities. Religion is an important aspect of culture studied in anthropology to help in contextualizing the gospel for new cultures. Cultural relativism helps overcome ethnocentrism. It is the concept that the mores of that culture must be viewed in regard to that culture not ones home culture. This does not undermine Biblical authority it gives biblical principles direct application to each culture rather than through the lens of the culture of the missionary.
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Response -
Concerning the book "Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective." I found his writing to be very straightforward in his presentation of Cultural Anthropology in connection to the work of Christian missions. He included Christian and Biblical perspectives throughout his writing in the midst of his presentation of the science of anthropology. He brought a good balance. I thought his concepts about Biblical authority and cultural relativism were particularly insightful and helpful. Throughout he book he kept his eye on how this will help the missionary. He mentions this discipline as a tool for missions and the church. I agree that these concepts would give great benefits to the church and misson work in general. To the church so the church could understand that we are consumed in our own culture that has real baggage for the gospel in this country first before we take it to the nations. I work with many pastors who think that missions is doing the same thing you do here only you travel in a an airplane first. This is very problematic. The gospel must be deculturized first even as far as methods and social concepts before it can effectively be taken to other cultures.The only negative with the book is that sometimes his abundance of examples became cumbersome. It made the material a little more difficult to "take in." I realize that Spurgeon says that illustrations are windows to let light into your message but there were just too many windows - in my opinion.