Crossing Cultures in Scripture by Marvin J. Newell

Crossing Cultures in Scripture by Marvin J. Newell ISBN-13: 9780830844739 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: InterVarsity Press Released: October 2, 2016

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a crosscultural book. Scripture is full of narratives of God's people crossing cultures in pursuit of God's mission. Biblical texts shed light on mission dynamics: Sarah and Hagar functioning in an honor-shame culture, Moses as a multicultural leader, Ruth as a crosscultural conversion, David and Uriah illustrating power distance, the queen of Sheba as an international truth-seeker, Daniel as a transnational student, Paul in Athens as a model of contextualization, and much more.

Missionary and missions professor Marvin Newell provides a biblical theology of culture and mission, mining the depths of Scripture to tease out missiological insights and crosscultural perspectives. This text is organized canonically, revealing how the whole of Scripture speaks to contemporary mission realities. Filled with biblical insight and missional expertise, this book is an essential resource for students and practitioners of crosscultural ministry and mission.


My Review:
Crossing Cultures in Scripture looks at the cross-cultural encounters described in the Bible and draws lessons from them for missionaries and those who work in cross-cultural contexts. The author illustrated his points with stories from his own experiences and those of other missionaries. I think this book would be useful for those who are interested in or newly involved in cross-cultural ministry.

The author started in Genesis and worked all the way through the Bible to Revelation. Some of the lessons were about understanding different cultures, like honor/shame societies, power-distance dynamics, and tribe-clan-family groupings. Most were lessons about embracing the culture you're working in and about circumstances you might encounter, like needing a favor (Abraham), the consequences of ignorance (Jacob), multicultural leadership (Moses), leading a despised cultural minority (Nehemiah), cross-cultural conflict resolution (Acts), and preaching to pagans (Acts).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.