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Books Related to Christianity Rediscovered Vincent J. Donovan - ISBN: 0334028558
Christianity Rediscovered - what a find! - Rated
"Suppose you were a missionary and you realised how questionable the whole system was. And yet suppose you believed in Christianity, believed that Christianity has something to say to the world... What then? What would you do?"
I'd hardly got to the end of the first page of this book when I recognised that sinking feeling in my belly. No, not disappointment. It was that feeling of, "Why, why, why did nobody recommend this book to me 10 years ago?!" I've been absolutely gripped by Vincent Donovan's story of reaching out to the Masai of East Africa. Having visited Tanzania last year (and climbed Kilimanjaro with the help of a Masai guide) the descriptions in the book really came to life for me.
But this is far more than a heart-warming tale. Donovan's searing critique of modern missionary methods really struck a chord with me. But anyone can find faults can't they. So what impressed me was the way that Donovan, more lucidly, poignantly and sensitively than anyone else I've come across, distills and translates the Christian message for a new cultural context. Unlike many contemporary missionaries to 'emerging culture' he never plays fast and loose with the gospel. Rather he patiently and faithfully uses the verbal transmission of seed form Christian concepts to grow new redeeming hope in the minds and hearts of those he's called to reach. As the preface to the 3rd edition (2001 by Lamin Sanneh) so ably discusses, this book has huge implications for the church in every global context, especially in the West. So have you read it yet?
Away With Western Influences - Rated
If you are prepared to lay aside your view that God is an Englishman and that Jesus was a blue-eyed arian, you will be blown away by this book.
Vincent J. Donovan, was a Catholic Missionary in Kenya among the Masai people during the late 60's, and he realised that although they had been there about hundred years and done lots of 'good work', there were virtually no conversions. He realises that all they have done is 'import' their western Chritianity, and he comes to believe that every culture created by God has, withing its own culture, all it needs to believe in Jesus if someone will only tell them. So he started a really radical outreach which blew away all of the traditionally accepted forms of 'mission' and focussed on the communities. He laid out a 5-year plan to reach all of the communities of the Masai and simply tell them about Jesus and Salvation in the context of their own culture rather than a culturally western influenced Christianity. At the end of his 12 month 'telling' he gives them the choice to choose or reject the message. As simple as that. It is a disturbing book in that it lays out quite clearly that pretty much all of 'modern' mission (i.e. the last 150 years) might just have got it all wrong, and in some instances, devastatingly so. A difficult read if you have a rigid mind-set about Christianity and Mission. A revelation otherwise. As I read it I found myself thinking YES, YES, YES. This is what Christianity is all about.
