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Insider Jesus: Theological Reflections on New Christian Movements
Christianity Today's 2017 Book of the Year Award of Merit - Missions/Global ChurchAmidst the variegated spread of global Christianity, followers of Jesus are showing up in unexpected places. Today we hear of culturally embedded insider movements, Jesus followers in the folds and creases of Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and other cultural fabrics. They elude our conventional theological categories and elicit wonder and debate. Are these authentic expressions of Christian faith? And if so, how should we understand them? William Dyrness brings a rare blend of cultural and theological engagement to his reflections on these insider movements. Could it be that our own understanding of what God is doing in the world is culturally shaped and needs recalibrating? How might the story of Israel and the early emergence of Jewish followers of Jesus provide helpful perspective on what we are seeing today? What is God already doing amidst a culture and people before the missionary arrives? And how might American Christians need to rethink the nature of religion? Within the present ferment and conversation, Dyrness's probings and reflections open up a theological space for exploring these questions anew.
- GenresChristian
249 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 2, 2016
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About the author
William A. Dyrness
51 books10 followersWilliam A. Dyrness (DTheol, University of Strasbourg; Doctorandus, Free University) is dean emeritus and professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and is the author of several books on global theology.
Dyrness' specializations include theology and culture (especially theology and the visual arts), Protestant vision since the Reformation in relation to the visual arts, non-Western theology, Christian apologetics, global theology, Interfaith aesthetics.
Dyrness' specializations include theology and culture (especially theology and the visual arts), Protestant vision since the Reformation in relation to the visual arts, non-Western theology, Christian apologetics, global theology, Interfaith aesthetics.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 15, 2020
While a good book with important observations on allowing people to find ways to learn to live with Jesus and witness to him in their own cultures, it is written for academics so don't expect an easy read. Christianity when it meets other cultures tends to forget that we bring our culture into our faith so we expect others to take on our culture with Christ but this book questions whether that is even a reasonable expectation. We need as Peter did to see the work of the Holy Spirit and say if God is here we can not argue that they are not saved and I think this is part of this book's point.
November 10, 2017
This was voted best mission book of 2016 by Christianity Today. This book helped open my eyes to the history of missions & current thought on missiology. Excellent case studies from global missionaries, questions such as - are we worshipping the same God, what is syncretism & other questions that challenged my thinking. Also, the overwhelming idea of God’s omnipresence- we are not bringing God to a certain location, but rather, He is everywhere & actively working in all cultures.
March 4, 2019
This is not what I was expecting - it was better! I was expecting just a discussion of the C1 to C6 spectrum, which was actually barely mentioned. Instead this went into the theology of culture and how God uses and redeems aspects of culture. I'm not sure I came away with definitive answers, but I think that's ok. It was a helpful process for me to think through, even if I didn't understand the whole book.
December 15, 2016
In the midst of the explosion of Christianity around the world, some strange and unusual expressions of faith are emerging.
Adherents of other religions are following Jesus in great numbers—while remaining in the religious community they grew up in! Some Muslims believe in and follow Isa al Masih (Jesus the Messiah) while continuing to go to their Mosque and practice Islam. Hindu and Sikh followers of Jesus meet in Yeshu Satsangs (Jesus Gatherings) while remaining in their religious communities.
Some missionaries are very disturbed by these insider Christians, as they are called, fearing syncretism and suspecting these are cults. Others see this as a great movement of God’s Spirit. William Dyrness does not seek to make a judgment about particular controversial groups of believers so much as seek to give a theological basis for understanding what might be going on. This is what animates William Dyrness’s category-breaking and category-making book.
If God is Lord of the whole earth, he asks, if God made every human, made humans for relationships with each other and with him, and if God is at work sustaining everywhere, if anything good has its origin in God, then isn’t God involved in the full-orbed cultures of the world? And can’t we and insiders find what is good and valuable in those contexts? As Dyrness says, “God is everywhere active in such cultural processes, upholding the order of things, sustaining its processes, and seeking, wooing, and calling by the Spirit those who will worship him” (p. 36).
Many of us have a hard time seeing this because we are heirs of the Reformation which emphasized heart and mind over against embodied cultural practices. One downside of this (which modernist and Enlightenment tendencies intensified) is that religion has for many decades now been portrayed as something private, separate from the public sphere. Indeed, many contend that private religion should have no bearing on culture or society.
Most of the rest of the world, however, sees no division of private and public, of religion and society. For them, it is not strange at all that religious leaders should guide public life.
Because we Westerners already see religion and culture as separate spheres, we see no problem asking converts to leave their culture and side with Christianity. But that may in fact uproot them from what God has already been doing in them and in their cultures. We may be working against God instead of with him. If God is at work in the world’s cultures, and if our Western view is truncated, is it fair then to require others to reject completely their culture, family, traditions, and all sense of identity to become Christians?
While I am sympathetic to the direction Dyrness is going, I think he unfairly makes the Reformation his main whipping boy. Certainly the Greek influence on the early centuries of the church is also key (though Dyrness mentions this belatedly on pp. 142-43). When Judaism had no creed except possibly for the very brief Shema, how else can we explain the proliferation of fixed summaries of belief from the Apostles’ Creed to Athanasius? The Reformation stood in the long tradition of the early church in this regard.
Dyrness also could have strengthened his case by considering the story of Naaman who asked for and received forgiveness in advance from Elisha for continuing to go to the pagan temple on his return to Damascus (2 Kings 5). In addition, some of his more theoretical considerations could have been placed in an appendix.
The book helpfully includes fascinating case studies from recent history and is full of many provocative questions. For example, were first-century Christians actually insiders within Judaism? Overall Dyrness raises significant implications about how we see our own culture and our own faith as well as Christianity around the world. As a result he has provided us with one of the most important and thought-provoking books of the year.
Adherents of other religions are following Jesus in great numbers—while remaining in the religious community they grew up in! Some Muslims believe in and follow Isa al Masih (Jesus the Messiah) while continuing to go to their Mosque and practice Islam. Hindu and Sikh followers of Jesus meet in Yeshu Satsangs (Jesus Gatherings) while remaining in their religious communities.
Some missionaries are very disturbed by these insider Christians, as they are called, fearing syncretism and suspecting these are cults. Others see this as a great movement of God’s Spirit. William Dyrness does not seek to make a judgment about particular controversial groups of believers so much as seek to give a theological basis for understanding what might be going on. This is what animates William Dyrness’s category-breaking and category-making book.
If God is Lord of the whole earth, he asks, if God made every human, made humans for relationships with each other and with him, and if God is at work sustaining everywhere, if anything good has its origin in God, then isn’t God involved in the full-orbed cultures of the world? And can’t we and insiders find what is good and valuable in those contexts? As Dyrness says, “God is everywhere active in such cultural processes, upholding the order of things, sustaining its processes, and seeking, wooing, and calling by the Spirit those who will worship him” (p. 36).
Many of us have a hard time seeing this because we are heirs of the Reformation which emphasized heart and mind over against embodied cultural practices. One downside of this (which modernist and Enlightenment tendencies intensified) is that religion has for many decades now been portrayed as something private, separate from the public sphere. Indeed, many contend that private religion should have no bearing on culture or society.
Most of the rest of the world, however, sees no division of private and public, of religion and society. For them, it is not strange at all that religious leaders should guide public life.
Because we Westerners already see religion and culture as separate spheres, we see no problem asking converts to leave their culture and side with Christianity. But that may in fact uproot them from what God has already been doing in them and in their cultures. We may be working against God instead of with him. If God is at work in the world’s cultures, and if our Western view is truncated, is it fair then to require others to reject completely their culture, family, traditions, and all sense of identity to become Christians?
While I am sympathetic to the direction Dyrness is going, I think he unfairly makes the Reformation his main whipping boy. Certainly the Greek influence on the early centuries of the church is also key (though Dyrness mentions this belatedly on pp. 142-43). When Judaism had no creed except possibly for the very brief Shema, how else can we explain the proliferation of fixed summaries of belief from the Apostles’ Creed to Athanasius? The Reformation stood in the long tradition of the early church in this regard.
Dyrness also could have strengthened his case by considering the story of Naaman who asked for and received forgiveness in advance from Elisha for continuing to go to the pagan temple on his return to Damascus (2 Kings 5). In addition, some of his more theoretical considerations could have been placed in an appendix.
The book helpfully includes fascinating case studies from recent history and is full of many provocative questions. For example, were first-century Christians actually insiders within Judaism? Overall Dyrness raises significant implications about how we see our own culture and our own faith as well as Christianity around the world. As a result he has provided us with one of the most important and thought-provoking books of the year.
April 21, 2017
An extremely thoughtful overview and critique of "American/Euro" missions movements in recent history. Dyrness brings a much-appreciated knowledge of historical movements and how these have impacted the Western worldview. In such a slim book, it's amazing how much ground Dyrness covers.
If you are interested in a thoughtful, nuanced overview/reflection on how we have spread the Gospel in our culture, then you can't get much better (especially in such a small book) than "Insider Jesus."
If you are interested in a thoughtful, nuanced overview/reflection on how we have spread the Gospel in our culture, then you can't get much better (especially in such a small book) than "Insider Jesus."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews