Abstract
In his Acknowledgments section at the beginning of this masterful volume, W. Jay Moon, now professor of church planting and evangelism at Asbury Seminary, Wilmore, KY, notes (ix) his debt to the mentorship of Mathias Zahniser, including the latter’s Symbol and Ceremony (1997), which he describes as the “original smell” of his approach here. Moon also describes the foundational nature of his own earlier monograph African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture (2009) for chapter 8 of this volume, finally expressing the hope that the reader will appreciate the “smell” of this book, too (x). If one were to pursue this olfactory metaphor, it seems that what Moon has produced here is a powerful work on the efficacy of utilizing elements of local culture and identity in the discipleship process. The result is replete with not merely a “smell” but the invigorating “aroma” of a finely prepared feast of scholarship and practical illustrations.
Many volumes have been written on the topic of cross-cultural communication, often with an eye to helping especially those from the West to learn to communicate clearly outside of their own cultural milieu. Moon takes a different direction here, with a distinctive focus not only on learning to practice discipleship across cultures but on learning from practices of other cultures in a manner that would bring some of this acquired wisdom for use in home cultures, too. As described in his narrative, Moon’s own encounter with fresh forms of discipleship in Africa led him to realize that “the monocultural discipleship approach is not enough” (6–7).
Utilizing numerous case studies from his own experience and from that of others, Moon provides an overview of the communicating and formational power of symbols, stories, proverbs, the performing arts (music, dance, and drama), and particularly rituals, as means by which, quoting Ronald Grimes (2000), meaning can be driven “deeply into the bone” (92). For Moon, this result is particularly important in that the discipleship process necessarily involves transforming and reorienting worldview (17–18), though Moon also notes that the worldview of disciplers will be similarly transformed through such intercultural encounters (17).
In his concluding chapters, Moon presents the reader with the importance of discipleship being holistic, creating a balance, but also deeply integrative, drawing together the cultural elements of economics and technology, social relationships, and ideology and beliefs, noting that an overemphasis on one of these will come at the expense of one of the other areas (210–26). Importantly, he also integrates the importance of prayer and spiritual battle into this balance, the better to avoid the pitfall that Paul Hiebert described as “excluded middle” issues (28–34).
In his penultimate chapter, Moon explores how this wisdom might apply in our Western postmodern context. He brings each element described earlier in the book into play in the process of discipleship. Moon had earlier discussed the importance of oral learners in many traditional societies (54–63). In this chapter he recognizes the reality of “secondary oral learners” but, following Jonah Sachs (2012), recognizes the emerging reality of digitoral learners, referring to those whose learning preferences are more electronic. These begin to exhibit some of the same learning preferences as those found in more traditional societies (234–36). Thus, having presented means of discipleship that are particularly effective around the world, Moon ultimately advocates bringing these home and integrating them into our discipleship processes in the West, too.
This volume is not merely a good book, but an important one. It is hoped that it will be widely utilized for years ahead by those who seek to encourage, as well as learn from, disciples and disciplers in many contexts.