09AR14-18

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Apologia Report 14:18

May 13, 2009

Subject: A solid, updated defense of the deity of Christ

In this issue:

ANTHROPOLOGY - its debt owed to missionaries

CHRISTOLOGY - equippers put Jesus in His place

FOLK RELIGION - Evangelical Missions Quarterly knocks one out of the

park with excellent guide to web resources

OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES - a savory presentation of the OT ancient Near

Eastern context

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ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology's Debt to Missionaries, by the University of Pittsburgh

Department of Anthropology [2] -- Australian reviewer Phillip M.

Fountain begins: "The relationship between anthropologists and

missionaries is a particularly intriguing one. It is full of the stuff

that is fertile ground for academic engagement, not least because a

certain overlap of interests coupled with long-standing tension. The

collection of articles found in Anthropology's Debt to Missionaries,

written predominantly by anthropologists, provides a valuable, though

somewhat limited, contribution to this often ignored, turbulent, but

also fascinating relationship.

"In the Preface, the editors note the 'long and persisting

acrimony' in the discipline of anthropology between apologists for and

castigators of missionary work. ... In contrast to these two dominant

approaches, the editors intended this collection as 'homage' to the

ways in which missionaries have contributed to anthropology. This

sympathetic approach is remarkable and refreshing. ... Taken

collectively, indeed the papers do draw attention successfully 'to the

importance of missionary endeavors for anthropology's development' by

indicating clearly the pivotal role various missionaries have played

in assisting, informing, and also creating anthropological texts. ...

"The collection has significant geographical and cultural gaps. It

has a strong bias toward Melanesia but no contributions that address

African, Australian, Polynesian, or South American contexts. There is

also no discussion of mission and anthropology among 'Western' or

European societies. Just as significant is the dominance of North

American voices. ... More regrettable, in my view, is the reductionist

interpretation of the category 'missionary.' [Leonard] Plotnicov's

definition - 'Christian religious organizations whose aim was to

convert peoples to Christian beliefs and practices' - is the default

conception throughout. ...

"It is also unfortunate that of those missionaries who are

discussed in the collection, the vast majority are white men. Possibly

this says more about anthropological stereotypes than it does about

missionaries themselves. Or perhaps it is rather a comment on the

nature of anthropological knowledge itself. ...

"The book makes a solid case for looking again at the relationship

between missionaries and anthropologists that has been long ignored or

derided." Christian Scholar's Review, 38:3 - 2009, pp389-391. [6]

CHRISTOLOGY

Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ, by

Robert M. Bowman, Jr., and J. Ed Komoszewski [3] -- reviewer Fred

Sanders opens: "The case as perceived by scholars for the deity of

Christ is stronger now than it has been for a long time, and those who

went through seminary more than a decade ago should take a moment to

update their notes. ...

"Putting Jesus in His Place does not simply reclaim ... lost

passages, revisit the standard debates, and bolster the old arguments

(though in many cases it does that, and persuasively); it publicizes

new arguments for demonstrating the deity of Christ, which have

previously been available only to scholars. ...

"Jesus does what God does. This is the foundation for his claim to

deity. N.T. Wright has recently helped his readers see this with his

massive narrative arguments, and Bowman and Komoszewski boil a lot of

Wright down to a manageable size. They also manage to hold onto the

more direct claims to deity that Jesus occasionally makes in the

Gospels, a task at which Wright himself is not always successful. ...

"Readers alert to the scholarly scene will recognize that the

authors reproduce at an accessible level the arguments of Richard

Bauckham ... and Larry Hurtado, among others. (Bauckham and Hurtado

are among the book's many endorsers.) ...

"Many are the temptations that face the popularizer: to destroy the

evidence by avoiding the hard arguments; to sound absolutely certain

when the evidence does not allow for certainty; to bully the audience

with erudition; to cite authorities in a credibility-mongering manner.

Bowman and Komoszewski avoid all of these, and deliver a highly useful

book." Touchstone, Apr '09, pp37-38. [7]

FOLK RELIGION

The current issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly (45:2, pp238-244)

summarizes the work behind EMQ's massive collection of web resources

on folk religion [1]. The authors, A. Scott Moreau and Mike O'Rear,

describe "five major sites that offer a variety of quality materials

on folk religions." They are:

1) Network for Strategic Missions Knowledge-Base

2) Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

3) Internet Sacred Texts Archive

4) select Wikipedia articles

5) select YouTube clips ("because so much of folk religious

practice needs to be seen and heard to be understood")

Again, all of these are most easily sourced from the EMQ folk religion

web page cited above.

The content is organized into the following categories:

1) Folk Religions in General

2) Asian forms

3) Latin American forms

4) African forms

5) Oceanic forms ("from Hawaii to Australia")

The average person on the street might easily lump all folk religions

into the "cult" category. Latin American forms are likely the most

recognizable subjects in this case (e.g., shamanism, Santeria,

Umbanda, and Voodoo). Yet, the authors have a lot to say about the

folk varieties within world religion contexts as well.

Lest it go under-appreciated, be sure to check out the link for

"The BBC H2G2 ... Big Religion Chart ... 'an attempt to summarize all

the complexities of religions and belief systems into tiny little

boxes on a single, quick-reference chart' for over forty religions -

including many folk religions. ... It is paralleled by the table on

ReligiousLinks.net, which links to over sixty religions, many of them

folk religions."

Once you've finished surveying the folk religion master page, check

out the rest of the site to see how massive the MisLinks effort is

overall.

OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES

Studying the Ancient Israelites: A Guide to Sources and Methods, by

Victor H. Matthews [4] -- Michael J. Williams begins his review:

"Trying to understand Old Testament texts apart from their ancient

Near Eastern context is a lot like trying to understand what a

meatball parmigiana sandwich tastes like by eating one, extracted,

sauceless meatball."

Williams continues with the food analogy by explaining that

Matthews describes the "ingredients that are indispensable for

experiencing the full flavor of Old Testament texts. These ingredients

include historical geography (chap. 1), archaeology (chap. 2),

processes and methods of other ancient Near Eastern literature (chap.

3), social sciences (chap. 5), and history-historiography (chap. 5).

Matthews describes why each ingredient is important to the recipe

because of the unique contribution it adds. ... Matthews not only

lists all the ingredients that must be present, but also warns of

their problems and limitations - helpful advice that should be

provided on all boxes of exegetical mix. ...

"This book is a helpful introduction to those ingredients, their

complexities, and some dangers in their application. Every responsible

Bible reader should be familiar with its contents." Calvin Theological

Journal, 44:1 - 2009, pp171-172. [5]

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Sources, Digital:

1 - EMQ Folk Religions resource page, <www.tinyurl.com/cu3wes>

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