Book Review

Christopher Flanders and Werner Mischke, eds., Honor, Shame, and the Gospel:

Reframing our Message and Ministry

Reviewed by Mano Emmanuel

Published in Global Missiology, www.globalmissiology.org, April 2021

Flanders, Christopher and Mischke, Werner, eds. (2020). Honor, Shame, and the Gospel: Reframing our Message and Ministry. William Carey Publishing, Pasadena, California, 240 pp., $17.99 paperback, $9.99 ebook, ISBN: 978-1-64508-280-4.

This book contains a veritable smorgasbord of topics related to honor and shame, contained in 15 articles. The writers take a multidisciplinary approach to the overall theme, and so readers are treated to a multifaceted exploration of the gospel and how to communicate it. Not many volumes on honor-shame will cover the breadth of these articles, whose topics include honor and shame in historical theology, a proposal for a grand narrative of scripture incorporating four value systems, and suggestions for a sensitive re-framing of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. The second section on the book contains topics addressed through concrete cases of cross-cultural mission and explore such situations as discipleship, sexual abuse, ethnic tensions, and displaced communities, showing how sensitivity to honor-shame can make the Church more effective in bringing reconciliation and healing to communities.

While being well-researched and scholarly, the essays are easily accessible for seminary students and those just beginning to inquire into honor-shame topics. The brevity of the chapters also means that they leave tantalizing questions of “what now?” and “what next?” for both the practitioner and the researcher. It is thus helpful that every chapter ends with questions for discussion or reflection that will prompt readers to go deeper and to consider how to apply what has been presented to their own situations. As the writers argue, it is not only those who find themselves ministering in contexts identified as honor-shame cultures that can apply the topics addressed in this volume. Indeed, elements of honor-shame dynamics are found in all societies, making this book a valuable resource for anyone concerned with communicating the gospel in today’s complex and changing world.