CONTEXTUALIZING THE ONE GOSPEL IN ANY CULTURE: A MODEL FROM THE BIBLICAL TEXT FOR A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Abstract

Although there is only one gospel (Gal 1:6–8), evangelicals find it difficult both to answer the question, “What is the gospel?” and thus to contextualize it. Many people concur with the idea that Scripture must be central and decisive in contextualization. Moving beyond this basic principle has proven more difficult. Hundreds of books, articles, essays, and blog posts mull over the relationship between the Bible and culture. Despite such labor, evangelicals struggle to develop methods of contextualization that both recognize the Bible as supremely authoritative and reveal God’s truth in ways that make sense in diverse settings, not importing a foreign culture under the guise of the “gospel.”