Learning at the Worldview Level

    The missionary must become a culture learner in order to perceive cultural diversity.  He must learn to look beyond superficial similarities to perceive the distinctive ways people pattern their cultural reality.  These distinctive patterns of reality are worldviews-models of reality which shape cultural allegiances and provide interpretations of the world.   Animistic perspectives become comprehensible to the missionary only when he understands the worldviews which validate and integrate cultural values and behaviors.

    Effective missionaries must accept two presuppositions of learning worldviews.  First, worldviews are so natural to insiders that they feel that all others perceive reality their way.  They are like the monocultural Americans previously described who feel everyone thinks and acts their way.  Worldviews are like the air we breathe-very important but taken for granted.  They are like eyeglasses.  One does not consider their importance until they are lost.  Since worldviews are largely implicit, the missionary must search for forums where the implicit is made explicit and develop methodologies for uncovering worldview meanings.  Second, worldviews can be perceived by outsiders at some times more easily than at other times.  This chapter describes the times when worldviews are made explicit, laid bare for the perceptive to grasp.

    How are animistic worldviews learned?  How can a missionary understand new belief systems?  Animistic worldviews can be effectively learned during times of crises; during rites of transition; through proverbs and myths; by contrasting "our" perceptions with "their" perceptions; and by analyzing how words   and sounds are organized and classified.

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.