Bøger i American Society of Missiology Monograph serien

Life is a pilgrimage. For the Senufo of Cote d''Ivoire, life consists of following the kologo, that is the path, the road, or the way. As such, kologo is a key Senufo term that speaks of the directions people choose to follow in life. A central aspect of following the Christian pathway among Senufo believers occurs through music. Music serves as a major communication vehicle that speaks profoundly into the people''s lives. Thus, Pathways in Christian Music Communication addresses the problem of contextualization of Christianity in Africa via the use of a people''s indigenous music. It focuses on the significance of culturally appropriate songs for effective communication of the Gospel within the African context. In providing a history of the development of Christian songs among the Senufo, a musical analysis of the songs and music culture, identifying communication theory at work within the music-making process, and a content analysis of an emerging Senufo lyric theology, King shows the pivotal role that a people''s cultural music plays in integrating a people''s worldview and daily lives with biblical teaching. Finally, King examines the influence and effect of songs in communicating the Gospel by showing how the ""pathway of a song"" leads to changes of allegiance to the living God and transformed lives. Although set in West Africa, essential principles and guidelines for doing ethnomusicological studies within missiology lies at the heart of this work.

This study examines an indigenous phenomenon of the Hindu devotees of Jesus Christ and their response to the gospel through an empirical case study conducted in Varanasi, India. It analyzes their religious beliefs and social belonging and addresses the ensuing questions from a historical, theological, and missiological perspective. The data reveals that the respondents profess faith in Jesus Christ; however, most remain unbaptized and insist on their Hindu identity. Hence, a heuristic model for a contextualized baptism as Guru-diksha is proposed. The emergent church among Hindu devotees should be considered, from the perspective of world Christianity, as a disparate form of belonging while remaining within one''s community of birth. The insistence on a visible church and a distinct community of Christ''s followers is contested because the devotees should construct their contextual ecclesiology, since it is an indigenous discovery of the Christian faith. Thus, the "Christian" label for the adherents is dispensable while retaining their socio-ethnic Hindu identity. Christian mission should discontinue extraction and assimilation; instead, missional praxis should be within the given sociocultural structures, recognizing their idiosyncrasies as legitimate in God''s eyes and in need of transformation, like any human culture.

Negotiating Identity addresses the missiological problem of why the Hakka Chinese Christian community in Taiwan is so small despite evangelistic efforts there for more than 140 years. Christofferson explores the tensions between being Hakka and being Christian in northwestern Taiwan and discusses what both Hakka non-Christians and Christians are doing and saying in the context of these tensions. This ethnographic study uses the lens of social constructionism and consequently offers an example of how social science scholarship can help missionaries and other Christian workers to gain significant insights into the thoughts, feelings, and actions of those living in their ministry locations. Of interest is Christofferson''s conclusion that the missiological perspective which puts a primary focus on ministering to a "people group" is inadequate for explaining and engaging the complexities encountered in many ministry settings. He suggests that an awareness of the way people are negotiating their identities can help Christian workers to better understand and strategically engage people in a variety of ministry contexts throughout the world.