Lesson 4

Question 1

The worldview is ____ the culture

Answer 1

within

Question 2

define worldview

Answer 2

the principal way a given people define what is real in everyday existence

Question 3

A main reason for the difference between the Navajo and the Christian idea of progress is….

Answer 3

Navajo belief in the circularity of existence

Question 4

Why must cross-cultural missionary communicators take seriously the culturally determined worldview of the people with whom they are trying to communicate?

Answer 4

because these people take their worldview seriously

Question 5

How does Hesselgrave relate worldview to the words “see” and “know”?

Answer 5

a worldview is the way people see the world, the way they know it to be

Question 6

Robert Redfield’s definition of worldview is “the way we see…

1
God in relation to ourselves
2
God in relation to the universe
3
ourselves in relation to all else
4
ourselves

Answer 6

3

Question 7

List the 3 categories of worldviews discussed in the section

Answer 7

materialistic or naturalistic
religious
in-between

Question 8

How does hesselgrave characterize worldviews?

Answer 8

in terms of their basic understanding of supernature, nature, humanity, and time

Question 9

Circle each TRUE statement.

1
When a respondent decodes a message, the decoding is based on his or her worldview.
2
few missionaries have been ignorant of what is happening in the decoding process of their respondents
3
Christ adapted His messages to the worldviews of His respondents
4
Peter did not find it necessary to adapt his message at Pentecost to the worldview of his respondents
5
Paul did not adapt his message in Athens (Mars Hill) to the worldview of his respondents

Answer 9

1, 3

Question 10

Circle each TRUE statement. It is impractical for a Christian missionary to invite his or her non-Christian respondents to lay aside their own worldview and temporarily adopt the Christian worldview because…

1
few of them are able to do it
2
it is impossible for them to do it
3
few of them who could do this are willing to do it

Answer 10

1, 3

Question 11

State how cross-cultural Christian missionaries can approach their non-Christian respondents in keeping with their missionary calling and the realities of culture.

Answer 11

by contextualizing the Christian message into the worldview of their respondents

Question 12

Using the discussion of preevangelism, describe what cross-cultural missionaries must do in reaction to what their respondents believe about existence and the nature of reality

Answer 12

the missionary must adapt to those beliefs

Question 13

Contextualization includes 4 steps:

Answer 13

definition, selection, adaptation, application

Question 14

Which contextualization step (definition, selection, adaptation, application) is this?

making the message compelling and personal

Answer 14

application

Question 15

Which contextualization step (definition, selection, adaptation, application) is this?

noting and adjusting to special concerns of the worldview

Answer 15

adaptation

Question 16

Which contextualization step (definition, selection, adaptation, application) is this?

choosing aspects of the whole truth to fit time limitations and other circumstances

Answer 16

selection

Question 17

Which contextualization step (definition, selection, adaptation, application) is this?

bridging the distance between divine truth and cultural error by contrasting them with each other

Answer 17

definition

Question 18

list 4 characteristics of the naturalist (atheist, etc) worldview and how these characteristics are regarded.

Answer 18

• the supernatural: disregarded or dismissed as some less-developed stage of evolution
• nature: sometimes regarded as kind to humanity and sometimes as an enemy of humanity
• humanity: regarded as existing by a chance arrangement of atoms
• time: regarded as the element that solves all problems (unending)

Question 19

Select each TRUE statement. The study of philosophy and apologetics will help missionaries to…

1
show naturalists that one unbelieving system usually cancels out another
2
offer naturalists a defense of the Christian faith
3
declare to naturalists that Christ is the Wisdom of God
4
openly disclaim the basic tenets of the naturalist

Answer 19

1, 2, 3

Question 20

State why missionaries should not go beyond their knowledge and abilities in their attempt to communicate Christ through reasoning.

Answer 20

to do so would cause bad arguments that their audience would hold against them and against the Christian faith

Question 21

Definition of a religious worldview

Answer 21

“a worldview that involves a linking of nature, man, and history to the supernatural

Question 22

In regards to the ideas of Jahnheinz Jahn and John Mbiti regarding the African worldview, circle each TRUE statement.

A
Jahn’s emphasis on “force” as a key concept to describe the African worldview is evidently stronger than Mbiti’s.
B
Mbiti evidently disagrees with Jahn’s idea that for the African the whole of existence is a religious phenomenon.
C
Jahn’s emphasis on “time” as the key to understanding the worldview of Sub-Saharan Africa is evidently stronger than Mbiti’s.
D
Evidently, both Jahn and Mbiti believe that in Africa, religion is understood as pertaining to being.
E
If Jahn has overstated his case, Mbiti probably has done the same.

Answer 22

A, D, E

Question 23

State what Mbiti says about the phenomenon in African animism that Westerners called “ancestor worship.”

Answer 23

He calls it “remembrance of ancestors”

Question 24

animism definition

Answer 24

a belief in spiritual beings concerned with human affairs and capable of helping or harming human interests; attributes life and an indwelling spirit to all material forms of reality

Question 25

To which group of forces in Jahn’s categories of African belief should the Japanese kami be related?

Answer 25

the Muntu group

Question 26

Describe 4 realities of God that Paul communicated to the people of Lystra and Athens through “points of entry” into their tribal worldview.

Answer 26

God’s power as demonstrated by the healing through Paul of the lame man at Lystra

God’s patience as implied in Paul’s reference to His overlooking ignorance

God’s goodness in providing rain, seasons, and so forth

God’s revelation or unveiling in the sense of being made known as indicated by Paul

Question 27

It is clear that those who hold to the tribal worldview believe…

1
much more strongly in the supernatural than those who hold to the naturalist worldview
2
a little more strongly in the supernatural than those who hold to the naturalist worldview
3
as strongly in the supernatural as those who hold to the naturalist worldview
4
less strongly in the supernatural than those who hold to the naturalist worldview

Answer 27

1