1 These Greek letters and ancient Greek Christian symbols represent the theology, history, and philosophy of missiology. The circle represents a given cultural setting where the Christian faith (  ) is superimposed. It represents the implementation of the philosophy on a given context.

2 All Scripture passages are taken from the HCSB.

3 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages are from the HCSB.

4 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages are taken from the HCSB.

5 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture passages are taken from the ESV.

6 Rev 1:6 says Jesus made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.

7 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture passages are taken from NKJV.

8 From this point on, the dates adjacent to the names of outstanding missionaries refer to the time of their arrival on their fields of service.

9 Much of this chapter is a revision of a paper, “Garden or Wilderness: The Mission to America in Historical and Personal Perspectives,” published as an appendix to Charles Chaney’s The Birth of Missions in America (South Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1976), 289–304.

10 All Scripture passages are taken from the NIV.

11 Southern Baptist missionaries in China developed similar reactions to the established system subsidizing national workers. T. P. Crawford argued for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a nonsubsidy plan worldwide. For a time, the Nevius and Crawford families lived in the same Chinese province, and their wives engaged in similar types of women’s ministries. The degree to which the men influenced each other’s thought is not clear. Several elements of Crawford’s thought parallel those of Nevius, but Crawford was not as successful in promoting his views among Southern Baptists, likely because of his bellicose temperament (Hyatt 1976, 52–54, 68). Crawford’s missiological views have been wrongly assessed in that their origins were not in the Landmark controversy that swept the Baptist Convention in the second half of the nineteenth century (see Estep 1994, 153, for clarification of this historical error). Nevertheless, Crawford tried to introduce nonsubsidizing indigenous thinking to the Foreign Mission Board’s China work at or about the same time Nevius was doing so in the American Presbyterian work (Crawford 1903).

12 For Roman Catholic consultations, see Gaudium et Spes and Ad Gentes in Austin Flannery, Vatican Council II: The Concilliar and Post Concilliar Documents (North Port, NY: Costello Publishing Co., 1975). In addition to Vatican II, the consultations in Medellin and Puebla have made the greatest contribution toward contextual reflection among Roman Catholics. See, Joseph Gremillion, ed., The Church and Culture since Vatican II (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985). For Protestant ecumenical consultations, see D. K. Kim, “Contextualization of Theology,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1984). For other conferences, see John Desrochers, The Social Teachings of the Church (Bangolore: Sidma Press, 1982). Among evangelical Christians the first major consultation dealing with the subject of contextualization was the Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization. See J. D. Douglas, ed., Let the Earth Hear His Voice: International Congress on World Evangelization, Lausanne, Switzerland (Minneapolis: World Wide Publications, 1961).

13 As will be seen, three distinct groups were involved in the development of contextual theologies: (1) Roman Catholics, e.g., Helder Camara, The Desert Is Fertile (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976) and Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1974), Juan Luis Segundo, The Liberation of Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976); (2) Ecumenical Protestants, e.g., José Míguez-Bonino, Christians and Marxists: The Mutual Challenge to Revolution (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1975); and (3) evangelical Protestants, e.g., C. René Padilla, El Evangelio Hoy (Buenos Aires: Certeza, 1975).

14 A neighboring Cameroonian people group, the Nso’, believe the fon is “sacred” as well. “The Fon is looked upon as the link between the living and their ancestors and the gods. It is he who sacrifices and communicates with the gods by the intermediary of the late afon and by which fertility and concord are brought to the land. His person is sacrosanct” (Mzeka 1978, 28). Parallel thought is evident in other traditions regarding links between a high god and an earthly ruler. Ancient archaeological evidence, dating to at least 1200 BC, indicates that traditional Chinese religionists spoke “frequently of a Supreme Ruler in Heaven called ti, or shang ti. Ti is written with a graph that later becomes the title of the Chinese emperor” (Thompson 1996, 3).

15 For example, the Western missionary may brush aside questions of the demonic and the dark side of the spiritual world because some Westerners “demythologize” supernatural elements in their Bibles, whereas the traditionalist brings this as a live issue with him from his worldview and perhaps even his firsthand experiences.

16 For a graphic illustration of the patterns of reaction, see early and late versions of a systematic chart in Turner (1979, 9, 103). See Barrett (1968, 49–51) for a description of the same “independency” phenomenon.

17 For examples of how the term cult may be defined and used by various disciplines, see William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, “Cult Formation: Three Compatible Models” in Religion and Religiosity in America (New York: Jefferey K. Hadden, 1983), 37. Bainbridge and Stark define from a sociological perspective cults as “social enterprises primarily engaged in the production and exchange of novel and exotic compensators.” Margaret Thaler Singer, a psychologist, defines a cult as “a group that forms around a person who claims he or she has a special mission of knowledge, which will be shared with those who turn over most of their decision making to that self-appointed leader.” Cited in Cults in Our Midst (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995).

18 Among the most helpful introductions, from an evangelical perspective, to the New Age movement are: Elliott Miller, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989); Groothius Douglas, Unmasking the New Age (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1986); Groothius Douglas, Confronting the New Age (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1988); Karen Hoyt, ed., The New Age Rage (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1987); Russell Chandler, Understanding the New Age (Dallas: Word, 1991); James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, eds., Perspectives on the New Age (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992). See also John P. Newport, The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).

19 This quote has been attributed to J. K. Van Baalen, The Chaos of the Cults (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 14.

20 Scripture passages are taken from the HCSB unless otherwise indicated.

21 In Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Daniel B. Wallace notes, “Eph 4:11 seems to affirm that all pastors were to be teachers, though not all teachers were to be pastors.” Thus, the terms overlap but are not identical.

22 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages are taken from the ESV.

23 Portions of this chapter first appeared in the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (Winter 2005): 34–49. Much of the section on exorcism was first published at www.chucklawless.com and www.churchcentral.com/blogs/catholics-exorcisms-and-evangelicals. Used by permission.

24 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages are taken from the HCSB.

25 Some portions of this chapter originally appeared in Keith Eitel, “The Cacophony of Silence: Rising Global neo-Pentecostalism, World Christianity, and the Southern Baptist Convention.” http://theologicalmatters.com/2013/04/16/the-cacophony-of-silence-rising-global-neo-pentecostalism-world-christianity-and-the-southern-baptist-convention.