1. Intercultural encounters
Biblical pespective

2. Israel in the land of Canaan
Israel in Canaan
Either conquering the land of Cannan
Or emegerging from among the cananites
A relationship of confrontation and integration

3. Connaturality Confrontation Linguistic and social affinity
Similar code of law
Cultic similarity, though no idols , no child sacrifice
Similar feasts, temple construction
A canaanite would feel at home in israelite town
Opposition and holy war herem (Dt 7:1-5)
Cultural conflict implying social, political and religious dimensions
Incompatibility of religious perspectives
Clan egalitarianism Vs a hierarchical set up, mutual justice Vs royal absolutism

4. Israel’s identity developed in opposition to surrounding world-Egypt and Canaan
Cultural roots in West Asia, emerging from the realities around
Having developed identity, it borrows from the surrounding world. Eg. Kingship, temple building
Two elements: intercultural dependence and counter culture; osmosis and protest; links with as well as opposes the people living together differently.

5. Kings and prophets Kingship a form of cannanization of judaic tribe.
“Conquest of Jerusalem turned David, a tribal chief into a canaanite King and his people a canaanite city state”
Solomon as a merchant king in the style of merchant kings of Phoenician coast
Ahab and Jezebel stand for total assimilation to the ethos and policies of Phoenician cities
Prophets caution against going inthe “way of other nations”
New world vision and forms of cult
Israel’s identity in jeopardy
prophets react against the danger of assimilation
Nostalgia for pure yahwism
Elijah, Jeremiah, Amos...
Hosea in dialogue with the mythology of his day in a process of adaptation and polemic against mythology

6. Messianism as political acculturation-Isaiah
Isaih’s messianic oracles borrow s from the royal ideology of semitic world
Ezekiel upholds royal dynasty but condemns the shephers who have misused their powers to serve their interests. (34:1-10)
The tension between assimilation and dissimilation is present in the israelite culture.
Isaih and Hosea respresent the acculturation trent of normal times.
In times of excesses, prophets like Isaih, Amos and Jeremiah stood for yahwist authenticity.

7. Kings and prophets

8. Abraham and Moses- paradigm of cultural encounter
“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and your father’s house to a land that I will show you” Gen. 12:1)
Moses fled from the Pharoah and settled in the land of Midian (Exod: 2:15)

9. Abraham
His Roots in a people and a culture. Prologue to the Torah extends to the whole peoples (Gen. 5:1-32)
Departure: God calls away from his cradle to an undetermined land. It is also a conversion from idol maker to new religious vision
Land and journey. Contiuous exodus. Land and itinerary form two poles of Abraham’s life and Israel’s identity... Walking to a promised land

10. Moses
Princely education and a break from glorious Egyptian culture with its oppression of migrants.
departure to the unknown
Flight is not to another city, but to the desert . Deculturation
In the desert enter into median culture of Jetro. Acculturation.
Culture and counterculture, incarnation and rejection form part of relationship between cultures and faith in God.

11. Cultural world of New Testament
Palastinian Judaism
Messianic and apocalyptic expectations
Subcultures:
Sadducees
Essness
Zealotsp
Pharasees
the “peopleof the land”
Hellenistic culture
A complex cultural melting pot in which greek language, thought and way of life intermingled with local cultures and religions.
Influences from Mesopotamia, persia and even India
Even buddhist missionaries sent by emperor Asoka went as far as Egypt and Syriatrade centers like Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus were also ideological bazaars
Mystery cults

13. The word became flesh and dwelt in jewish culture
Jewish culture of Jesus
A Galilean villager jew
Galilean culture distant and different from that of Jerusalem
Speaking palestinian aramaic
Brought up under thoraic law
Practicing Hebrew cult and piety
Could read and expound scriptures
No indication of higher studies in urban centers
Used traditional forms of Hebrew rhetoric: wisdom sayings, parables, biblical quotes and other rabbinical forms

14. The Galilean Jew
Jesus was a jew fully belonging to the country and its culture
Among the many facets of jewish culture, he stands on the fringe of israelite mainstreams:
A Galilean rather than a Judean
A villager rather than the elite of the religious (jerusalem) or economic (Tiberias, Tarichaea) urban centers
An artisan-farmer than a priest, scribe or political leader
If at all he identifies with a group it is “the people of the land” (amei h’arets)
Jesus did not take a countercultural stand and identify with any of the opposition groups.
From within his culture he belongs to and in which he was born, he transcends the cultural and counter-cultural set patterns . Jesus stand for a new Israel after the heart of God

15. Jesus’ disciples
Jesus disciples came from the diverse subcultures of his society
It was an intercultural group
Without jesus and adherence to his Kingdom values, they will fall apart.
When Jesus died, the community also disperesed
The risen Lord once again constitutes the community
The early Church after Pentecost was all the more intercultural

16. Paul and his inter-cultural world
A Jew from Tarsus, a Hellenistic town of Asia minor
Educated in Jerusalem under Gamaliel
A Roman citizen
Committed to his religion as a convinced pharasee
Familiar with Hellenism, mystery cults, Gnosticism
Envisaged an eschatological universalism
But an anguish of heart to see israel rejecting the Goodnews
Marvel at the faith of pagan Christians

17. Paul’s critical stance
Discovery of righteousness that comes from God
Encounter with christ pales all pride of belonging to the chosen people
Sinai theophany is pale before the Glory of God in the face of Christ (2 3:7-10)
God’s righteousness and grace supasses the righteousness of law. Rom 3.
Lw of the Spirit surpasses the law of flesh (Rom 7)
Splendour of human cultures is of fading nature

18. Paul’s hellenistic upbringing prepared him to take the Gospel to the nations and travel to a wider world.
With him gospel entered the urban greco Roman world.
The rural mission strategy of Jesus going from village to village now took a new orientation suited to the new environment.
Paul supplied the language, thought, life and action required for it
Reaching new territories meeting new cultures he opened new vistas and gace christian faith a new breadth and new depth

19. Cross- cultural Interaction models of Paul and Luke
Greek origin born in Antioch
Physician
A companion and disciple of Paul
Positive stand to surrounding world
Perception of a continuous flow of divine grace in an ongoing history of salvation
Emphasize convergence and predisposition rather than contrast and disruption
The surrounding milieu is not “heathen”, but a world “groping” (Acts 17.27)
Fully jew formed under Gamaliel
Fully greek well versed in greek thinking and culture
In preaching Apocalyptic condemnation of the old world
In practice pastoral approach using the cultural richness of the people using both jewish and greek resources
In him the cultural components worked in synergy. Other times they complemented or corrected each other. His thinking and language drift from one cultural field to another

20. Cross- cultural Interaction models of Paul and Luke

21. Colossian Crisis and response
Letter to colossians a classic example of faith encountering of cultures
Danger of heresy and syncretism
Theological reading of christian faith in a new language
Context of encounter of Greco-Roman-buddhist-hindu world visions melting in the trade cities of Asia minor
Various mystery cults and gnostic philosophiesa
Importance to angels and cosmic powers
Spiritual ideas of haevenly domains, dominions, thrones, principalities, powers etc needed to be addressed by christians
Pleroma (fullness): a terms from gnostic or stoic background was used by heretics
Ta panta (all things) to refer to cosmic totality.
Christians found in Christ the the summit of revelation and cosmic plenitude
Emergence
Emergece of cosmic theology, a new language for the easter religions to understand the mystery of Christ

23. Book of Revelation
In the same geographical area and at the same period , a different approach amidst suffering and persecution
Negative attitude combined with the esoteric apocalyptic style
In the line of prophetic denouncement
Another response of the early church to the cultural environment

25. Two contrasting approaches
Luke-Acts-Colossians
An attempt to come in terms with the richness of Greco-Roman culture
Christ the first born of all creation is the principle of cosmic cohesion (col.1.17) and the source of reconciliation and peace which is initiated in the church
Primary of christ is a shared plenitude: it flows into cosmic plenitude
Revelation in line with the prophets and the Macabees condemn sin in all its forms.
It combats the evils of the society and culture
Christ, the lord of lords excercise power against his enemies.
Reconciliation at the end of time.
Primacy of Christ over against the world and ends in annihilating victory
Both Share similar christology. Christ is the first born (Rev.3.14; Col.1.15), the principle of creation (Rev.3.14; Cil. 1:15-18): his lordship extends to cosmos.