Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission

Review: Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and shame in Paul’s message and mission by Jackson Wu. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic Press, 2019

Eastern culture is a high context culture. What this usually means is that Eastern culture is very relational and communal, often described by the honor-shame framework. Within this framework, people in the East interacts with one another through the context of ‘face’ which is reciprocal and debt relationships within a power structure of hierarchy, loyalty, sacrifice, ascribed and achieved honor, and shame. This is often contrasted to the Western guilt-innocence framework. Jackson Wu (not his real name), a Westerner who have lived two decades in East Asia, examined Paul’s message and mission in Romans through the Eastern honor-shame framework. Jackson seeks to find “[h]ow did Paul’s theology serve the purpose of his mission within an honor-shame context?”(p.3).

Recent scholarship in ancient Near East (ANE) studies, and the new perspective on Paul (NPP) have placed Paul solidly in the Eastern honor-shame cultural context. East Mediterranean cultures are closer to the eastern cultures than to the present day Western cultures. The bible is rich with honor and shame narratives. Jackson’s project was to place Paul’s Romans into this honor-shame narrative. He identifies numerous passages that Paul’s overview of sin carries “far more honor-shame overtones than is often recognized.” (p.3). Jackson argues that it is the communal aspects of the Roman church that Paul is appealing to. And that in salvation “God’s reputation is at stake…if Christ did not die, God will be dishonored.” (p.3). Jackson argues that Christ is the filial son who restores honor to God’s kingdom and remove the shame from the human family.

While much of Romans can be understood from the aspect of relationship and community, and many passages do support that, the main concern is how Jackson deals with justification in Romans. Jackson suggests that justification may be explained by relationship as in the loyalty due to a king and to be justified means to restore back into the kingdom. However, in Romans 4-6, Paul’s understanding of justification was based on covenant keeping. Covenant is a metaphor more for a law court rather than a honor-shame setting. It will be difficult to understand justification in Romans without legal concepts of guilt and punishment. Credit must be given to Jackson for his attempt to explain justification as the process by which Christ regains God’s honor and glory. The honor-shame framework is based on privilege and power. To explain justification using the honor-shame framework is imply that Paul’s understanding of justification was just a process of manipulating privilege and power. Scot McKnight, in his contextual reading of Romans in Reading Romans Backwards, argues that Paul’s gospel was to deconstruct privilege and power in the lived theology of the church in Rome at that time.[1]

Jackson has contributed much to help the West to understand the Eastern worldview of honor-shame framework and his insights are invaluable. To study Paul and Romans through cultural and worldview perspectives are challenging.  Paul, though a well-trained Pharisee, grew up in a Greco-Roman world. He moves through both these totally different worlds with ease. The former are closer to honor-shame culture while the latter, guilt-innocence one. Paul addressed Romans to both Jews and Greek/Gentile. Jackson is helpful in guiding us to view Romans though the Eastern honor-shame lens. However, Paul’s message and mission in Romans, perhaps may be best understood only if we read it through both Eastern and Western eyes.

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[1] Scot McKnight, Reading Romans Backwards: A gospel of peace in the midst of empire, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019 p.68-76.

Random Musings on Lunar Chinese New Year Celebration

This year will be the the ‘Year of the Rat’ according to the Chinese Zodiac.

The greatest annual human migration on earth often goes unnoticed by the world. Every year, between January 10 to February 18, billions of Chinese people will rush home to celebrate the Lunar New Year Spring Festival with their families. This year CNN estimated 3 billion people are making the trip by rail, cars, air, and sea. This tradition to spend the dinner with their families (reunion dinner) on Chinese Lunar New Year Eve is the major festive event on the Chinese calendar. Spring is a time of new birth, where the old year is left behind, and a new year is welcomed. The Chinese will make sure all debts are paid before the year ends. This is similar to the Jewish Passover and Jubilee festival.

The seasons of death and rebirth is deeply ingrained into the Chinese culture due to their close observation of the four seasons. The ancient Chinese are monotheistic. They worshipped a one god called Shang Di, whose attributes are very similar to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Unfortunately, under the Emperor Qin Huang Ti, the dragon replaced Shang Di as the centre of worship, and he himself became the ‘ancestral dragon’. The dragon in Chinese culture is regarded as good and beneficent, unlike the dragon/serpent in the West. Thus the Chinese people were deceived and underwent generations of intense suffering and pain under the Deceiver. We have only to look at their long history of suffering under their Dragon Emperors, warlords, and recent history under the Communists.

Every Lunar Chinese New Year brings a theme of hope. A new year with a fresh start. The possibility of being better than the previous year. That is why it is such an important Chinese festival, and why so many Chinese make their annual long journey home. Some will travel days or weeks. It is to be with family at the close of the old year and to welcome, hopefully, a better year with family. During the New Year day, the Chinese wish each other “Gong Hei Fat Choy” meaning “wishing you prosperity in health and wealth”.

Every New Year brings hope of spiritual renewals. Isaiah noted that the Messiah will deliver the people from darkness, including the Chinese people!

Isaiah 49:12 (NKJV)  “Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.”

The Hebrew word Sinim in the Masoretic Text means Chinese. Most scholars found it strange that Isaiah mentioned Chinese, so they looked around for a similar sounding tribe. They found a tribe, the Syennites, who lived near the Aswan, which is in the  south.

Isaiah 49:12 (NIV) “See, they will come from afar—  some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”

The only reason Aswan was chosen is because the translators and scholars were trying to fit everything into the context of what Isaiah was saying. Isaiah mentioned north and west. It was the translators and scholars who chose the Syennites (south) instead of the Chinese (east). It is strange that they did not look east. Nevertheless, Jesus will deliver the Chinese people from the darkness and this new decade will see a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit among a country which is unleashing another level of persecution on Christians and other religious traditions. Out of this refining fire will come a stronger Church; one purified by suffering and pain. The Lunar Chinese New Year brings hope. Hope for new beginnings, new life, and a prosperous new year.

 

in Malaysia and Singapore, the Overseas/Diaspora Chinese celebrate Lunar Chinese New Year with their friends of other ethnic groups by tossing a salad called Yee Sang

Review of Lim’s Life and Ministry of John Sung

Lim Ka-Tong, 2012, The Life and Ministry of John Sung, Singapore: Armour Publishing

This is a timely and much needed book in English on the biography of evangelist John Sung who played such an important part in the revivals in China and South East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Unfortunately, John Sung is not well known or even remembered among the contemporary churches in Asia except for a few. Among these are those who actually met Sung and whose lives were changed as a result of that meeting. Even now six decades later, these people can remember Sung clearly and with joy their remembrance of their encounter with God as a result of this meeting.

The last significant biography of John Sung was by Leslie Lyall which was written 50 years ago! Lim Ka-Tong’s biography is a distinctive improvement with more new information from Sung’s diaries and letters. Lim, presently a pastor in Texas, is a graduate of Singapore Bible College, Dallas Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary. In this book which covers Sung’s early formative years, the short 12 years of ministry and his dying years. Significantly it covers the five phases of his life; water (reimmersion, 1927-1930), door (opening, 1931-1933), dove (time to soar, 1934-1936), blood (wartime spiritual warfare, 1937-1939) and tomb (pastoral years, 1940-1944).

Lim’s book explores the impact of Sung’s ministry in the context of prewar and wartime China and South-East Asia, the Chinese worldviews and Sung’s own personal spiritual development. He does this by answering five questions:

(1)   What shaped John Sung? How did John Sung become John Sung?

(2)   In what ways did contextual elements contribute to the prominence of John Sung’s ministry and his lasting influence?

(3)   How did John Sung’s ministry contribute to the growth and indigenization of Chinese Christianity?

(4)   How did John Sung make such a great impact in so brief a time?

(5)   Why has John Sung been slighted by historical scholarship, despite his pivotal influence on Chinese Christianity?

In this book, Lim has succeeded in helping us to understand this complex and driven servant of God. He shows us the constant struggles Sung had in his spiritual life and his ‘unconditional’ surrender of everything to God. It is a hard lived life of seeking God and seeking his will in making choices. These choices including a life of comfort in the United States or poverty in China, ministerial ‘success’ or itinerary wanderings, theological conservatism (fundamentalist) or liberalism, being a ‘Chinese’ Chinese or a Western educated Chinese, and living a kataphatic or apophatic Christian spirituality. It is a result of these struggles that Sung was able to have such an impact in his ministry.

This is a highly readable and interesting book and a must for all Christians especially for those who want to appreciate the Asian and Chinese Christian heritage.

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Redeemed by Fire: Christianity in China

Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China
Xi Lian
Yale University Press, 2010

An excellent review and article is written by David Lyle Jeffrey (Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities at Baylor University) published by Books and Culture (web version)

Numbering the flock is a concern of Lian Xi’s Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China. More prominent is his detailed taxonomy of its variegated strakes and spots over the last century. This book will be an important source for Sinologists, church historians, and China-watchers among the Christian laity, even though it is limited in its scope to those movements which derive from or can be loosely associated with more or less indigenous Protestant popular movements of the last century.

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Confucian Spirituality

Tu Wei-Ming was born in mainland China, studied in Taiwan, and pursued an academic career at Princeton and UC Berkeley. Now a professor of Chinese history and philosophy at Harvard University, he teaches and writes about Confucianism. He is a proponent of “the theory of Cultural China,” an attempt to be Chinese within a global context.

http://www.uctv.tv/player/player_uctv_bug.swf

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Out of China 2012

A movie review from my friend Andy who lives in Shanghai. A unique prespective from someone living in China.

Just when Hollywood seems to run out of box-office hits, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 succeeded in turning the tide. While raking in millions of dollars, the movie stands out in attracting the most disparaging reviews, ranging from “a total waste of time” to “two thumbs up”. Coming from the same Director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, what makes 2012 so different from other disaster movies?

First, timing is everything. Unlike others catastrophic movies, like Armageddon or The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 predicts that the world is coming to an end within 3 years time. By adding an imminent period to the earth’s biological clock, the movie proves to work immensely well with an audience living under the sword of Damocles of the still unraveling global financial turmoil. From Wall Street to Main Street , bankers to brokers, fear has been the overriding emotion for the past two years – the fear of losing our jobs, our homes, and our livelihoods. Also, against the backdrop of “rain of biblical proportions” in Lake District , UK (as reported by BBC) and the recent talking heads reporting from Copenhagen , the time is ripe to take a hard look on earth-shattering disasters. Instead of providing a solution, however, 2012 deepens the fear, adding a twist to all the deliberation and empty talks. Sorry folks, this is it, there is no way of avoiding the end of the world.

Then, the place is the second twist. Unlike Armageddon, where the all American Bruce Willis joined hands with NASA to save the world, China played savior in this Hollywood sci-fi. Also, while the climatologist turned Whitehouse advisor (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) first discovered the world’s deadline in India and reported to the begrudging Whitehouse – as usual – it was China who acted on the delivery. At the end of the day, it was China who saved the world in 2012 – a new trick indeed! China , with her jaw-dropping technology and seamlessly orchestrated plan, not to mention her far-sightedness, patience, and inclusivity provided refuge for people from all nations, tribes and tongues. And in this case, China sacrificed herself in the process of saving the world. I was told that the original version has two scenes where the Great wall was swept away too but I did not see it in my version. Another trick inserted by the Director was, of the seventy over cities in China , it was not Beijing or Shanghai which was chosen for the secret location to build the ship but the mountainous Tibet . Three paradoxes are played out vividly here: (1) the strong and mighty like the Second-in-Command of the United States of America and the Queen of England came to seek refuge from the fragile, marginalized and often misunderstood savior; (2) In saving the world, the savior needs to sacrifice himself; (3) It was not in the capitol cities where the savior was hidden, but the quiet outskirt.

But what is the Plan? This, I believe, is what really distinguishes Emmerich’s latest flick from the rest, his previous ones included. Taking a leaf from Genesis – the first book in the Bible, the Plan is to have every living creature and some carefully selected people preserved in a very big ship when the world stops evolving following the deluge. In the Bible, the big ship was called the Ark , and it was built by a man called Noah (Genesis 6 – 9).

Had Emmerich been following China ’s aeronautical developments for the past few years, he would have named the spaceship Shenzhou ba hao. But, wait, why the Noah’s Ark Plan? The 54 year-old German director graduated from University of Television and Film Munich with a thesis entitled the Noah’s Ark Principles back in 1981.

Well, why then, did Emmerich choose China to play the unnamed Noah? Wouldn’t California – the hometown of Hollywood which is also governed by a Megastar-turned-Governor – the perfect blend to play savior? Pundits who suggest the quick answer of 1.3 billions cinema goers has got it only half right, for many – myself included – watched it through DVDs brought from the streets here in China.

Do the Chinese believe in the Bible? According to Emmerich, the answer is a resounding “yes”.

Random musings and reflections on life, God and all that stuff (movies, comics, science fiction, spiritual formation, Christian education, biomedical ethics, post modern parenting, books, theology and philosophy)

God’s Preparation of the Church in China

Going to Ground
On the eve of World War II, John Sung swept China and South East Asia with revival, a final preparation for Christianity underground.
By Carolyn Nystrom

In 1935, a Chinese preacher in his mid 30s stood on a makeshift stage in Singapore conducting a Presbyterian-hosted revival. Chinese theologian Timothy Tow, a boyhood convert of that week, described John Sung as “attired in a light white Chinese gown . . . with a shock of black hair flapping his high forehead, he was jabbing away … ‘You ought to die, to die!'” Sung then proceeded to act out and shout out the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Finish this article from ChristianHistory.net.

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Lottie Moon in China

The Little Woman with the Big Legacy
A tough and determined missionary, Lottie Moon called an entire denomination to a greater participation in the Great Commission.
By Catherine Allen

In her life as a missionary in China, Lottie Moon stood barely more than four feet tall. In death, she weighed about 50 pounds. Her impact on the history of missions, however, has been enormous.

Finish this article from ChristianHistory.net.

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The New Asian Hemisphere

Kishore Mahbubani (2008), The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, New York: PublicAffairs

Kishore Mahbubani is the Professor of Public Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His previous books carry the interesting titles of Can Asian Think? and Beyond the Age of Innocence.

In this book, Kishore, a former diplomat explores the reaction of the West especially the United States towards the shift of global power to the east. By 2050, the world’s three largest economies will be in Asia: Japan, India, and China.

Kishore’s thesis is that the east like to replicate, not dominate. This was always so with Asian and Western countries. However much depends on the response of the United States. If the United States are willing to share and not dominate, then there will be much benefit to everyone. However if the United States decide to try to dominate the rising economies, there will be much chaos.

History unfortunately has shown that the Western response when threatened by the east was always a retreat into protectionism and attacks. The Japan-bashing of the 1980s, have been replaced by India-bashing of the 1990s (due to outsourcing) and now we have China-bashing in the 2000s. Looks like we are in a stormy ride.

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From Moses to Mao, A Man and his Art

Christianity Today (Web only) 2008

From Mao to Moses
Artist He Qi, born again in China’s Cultural Revolution, is painting a new peaceful identity for the Chinese church.
Susan Wunderink, with reporting by Gary Gnidovic posted 4/25/2008 09:26AM

A teenager at the launch of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese artist He Qi (pronounced huh chee) is fast gaining world recognition for his paintings, which are almost exclusively depictions of biblical events.

The witty, reverent paintings are full of the symbolism of Beijing Opera, medieval-style hidden messages, and modernist plays on perspective and time. And He is introducing a new idiom for biblical art, one influenced by, but not part of, the European traditions. His website says, “He hopes to help change the ‘foreign image’ of Christianity in China by using artistic language, and at the same time, to supplement Chinese art the way Buddhist art did in ancient times.”

He’s work is gaining more and more attention in the West. He has exhibited in the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong, as well as in mainland China. In 2006, Overseas Ministry Study Center collected his work in Look Toward the Heavens, and he is now working on an ambitious project: an illustrated Bible. It’s an unlikely project for the son of a non-Christian mathematics professor.

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watch powerpoint slideshow here

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