Charles Kraft - Christianity in Culture

Let me recommend a book that was first published in 1979: Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing in Cross-Cultural Perspective by Charles F. Kraft. Kraft published the book from his missionary experiences and for use in in his classes in Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Mission.

Kraft sees the aim of his book as helping us to communicate more effectively the Christian message in a multicultural world. His work grows out his frustration as a missionary because "much of the theology taught to us n our home churches, Bible schools, and Christian colleges, a and seminaries turn out to be extremely difficult to use in cross-cultural context in the form in which we learned it."

So Kraft's initial audience is cross-cultural witnesses for Christ, but he also sees as a second audience those whose primary interest is in theological methodology.

Kraft's work addresses such question as:

• What is the relationship between biblical content and the linguistic symbols in terms of which it is presented?
• How clearly can we see revealed truth?
• What is the core of Christian truth that we mus communicate to all peoples and what is peripheral?
• What is relative and what is absolute in Christianity?

In a subsequent post, we'll visit Kraft's two ethnotheological models and how they can be employed in faith communities.