Conclusion
Each of the methodologies of culture learning designated on this website is identificational. The new missionary is learning culture as he begins to actively evangelize on the field, interrelating with the people in their environment and in their language. A missionary cannot learn a culture from a book or from meeting people in a Western institution.
When I first arrived on the field, I did not know how to learn culture in an organized way. I struggled for years and picked up cultural views piece by piece. Newer missionaries using methodologies similar to those on this website have been much quicker to perceive culture and thus preach the word more effectively.
Copyright
©2000 by Gailyn Van Rheenen -- excerpt from Communicating Christ in
Animistic Contexts (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1996)
All rights reserved. If you wish to copy this information, please e-mail
Dr. Van Rheenen.