Andrew Walls, former missionary and lecturer was the founder of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non- Western World (University of Edinburgh). He also was the founding editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. Walls was one of the first people to document a southward gravitational shift of the Christian Church. He first wrote about it in his essay “The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture” which was published in 1982 The aim of this paper is to assess and critique Walls’ analysis in his understanding of the relationship between Christianity and culture as revealed the essay above. It will do this by offering a summary of Walls’ argument before exploring Walls’ ideas light of scripture and the work of Niebuhr and others. Theological perspectives will be considered, and a conclusion will be given offering an overview of the strength and weaknesses of Walls’ approach.
Walls first published “The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture” in 1982, and it offers a reflection on how the Christian faith has found expression across time and culture over two millennia in ways that at times seem ‘repellent’ to one another. Starting with the first …show more content…
This principle runs counter to the particularising nature of the second principle Walls presents in his essay, The indigenizing principle. Walls sees this principle in operation in the ability of the Christian faith to indwell a culture, to find expression locally in a way that the believer can follow Jesus and retain membership of their own societal context. The indigenizing principle has a tendency to the particular, which associates Christians with things and people within their group.This idea is rooted in the reality that God accepts us as we are in our cultures and that Jesus wants to make his dwelling in our midst, amongst our culture. Walls
Walls first published “The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture” in 1982, and it offers a reflection on how the Christian faith has found expression across time and culture over two millennia in ways that at times seem ‘repellent’ to one another. Starting with the first …show more content…
This principle runs counter to the particularising nature of the second principle Walls presents in his essay, The indigenizing principle. Walls sees this principle in operation in the ability of the Christian faith to indwell a culture, to find expression locally in a way that the believer can follow Jesus and retain membership of their own societal context. The indigenizing principle has a tendency to the particular, which associates Christians with things and people within their group.This idea is rooted in the reality that God accepts us as we are in our cultures and that Jesus wants to make his dwelling in our midst, amongst our culture. Walls