My most recent article on Romans is now published! It is titled, “PAUL WRITES TO THE GREEK FIRST AND ALSO TO THE JEW: THE MISSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF UNDERSTANDING PAUL’S PURPOSE IN ROMANS” Check out the December issue of the Journal of Evangelical Theological Society (JETS 56, no 4). I’m grateful for JETS being willingness to publish it. I provide the link to the article for those who are subscribers. I’m not sure if JETS allows people to access individual articles... Read more
“Face” is simply another way of talking about honor-shame (荣辱, róngrǔ). So, what some words someone might actually say? (In my previous post, I gave an introductory Chinese lesson on the subject of “face.”) Directly using a phrase like “honor-shame” (荣辱, róngrǔ) is of course more abstract than “face” language. This is necessary when you are trying to explain certain “face” as a conceptual level. Remember, just become China is an honor shame culture doesn’t mean that people really “get... Read more
Previously, I introduced a method of interpretation that anyone could use, even when the only thing you have in a Bible.The five steps are summarized in this way: 述-印-境-提-释 (shù-yìn-jìng-tí-shì). I explained the first two steps. First, we restate the passage without interpreting it. Second, we make explicit our impressions. All readers have assumptions that must be checked. What’s next? 3. Context (情境, qíngjìng) *This step is so critical that I’m going to give an entire post to unpack what... Read more
Practically speaking, how do we interpret the Bible when we only have the Bible? This means no commentaries, no seminary education, no footnotes, etc. For Part 1 of the series “When You Only Have a Bible,” click here. Check out Part 2 talked about unhelpful but common approaches to interpretation. I have created a bookmark (in color or black-white) that lays out a process whereby anyone can interpret the Bible in a way that corrects problems I mentioned in the... Read more
Here is just one more little contribution to the bigger argument that glory, honor, and shame are major, massive, gigantic….in other words, big ideas in the Bible. However, I find from experience that people are more willing to listen if they hear a “theologian” say it than they are if a social scientist, historian, or a missiologist says it. Ok then. For those who want to hear a bit more from some theologians, I’ve given a little excerpt from a... Read more
This video is a perfect example of contextualization. Contextualization involves interpretation, communication, and application. This video is all about communication (with plenty of interpretive elements thrown in). Imagine how much effort it took for this comedian to learn Shakespearean English. He really had to internalize the expressions and their meanings. Cognitively, if not affectedly, he had to cross historical cultures. Contextualization is more than finding a few conceptual “bridges” or illustrations. It’s about entering into a new kind of... Read more
If we want to find the meaning of a biblical text, what things are not so helpful? For the first post in the series “When You Only Have a Bible,” click here. What Is Not Very Helpful People often learn an inductive approach to interpretation, which consists in three steps: “Observation, Interpretation, Application.” What’s the problem with this? It actually never tells you how to interpret the Bible. There is an “interpretation” step within the methodology itself. People are still... Read more
Christmas celebrates the way God took a global size problem and began solving it with one small child. When we see giant size problems, a lot of us have the same reaction––freeze up, wonder what we should do, and ultimately do very little. Over at Jason Johnson’s blog, he helps us do something about that. He has written a post called “Making Orphan Care Small.” Here is an excerpt–– Do for one child what you wish you could do for... Read more
How do we interpret the Bible when we only have the Bible? This means…no commentaries, theology books, footnotes, knowledge of original language, etc. In many (or most) missions contexts, resources are so limited. All people have is the Bible. In this series, I will lay out a method on interpreting the Bible that anyone can use, even if he or she is a new Christian, is uneducated, or lacks resources. This approach enables lay Christians to both test what they... Read more
I’ve said for a while that the two most critical needs for the Chinese church now are (1) theological education and (2) family ministry (marriage, parenting, etc.).Here’s one more reason I’ll say it again. The WSJ blog recently posted an article “A Chinese Father’s Most Important Job”. Here is an excerpt of it. When it comes to parenting, Chinese fathers say the most important role they play is that of the family chauffeur. In a survey of 500 Chinese fathers... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In