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Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God: A Biblical Theology of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Race
Understanding God’s Design for Cultural Diversity
Humanity’s diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and races were intended to be a blessing from God. However, due to sin and rebellion, these differences often result in alienation, hatred, and even violence, becoming one of the most urgent problems facing the world. Cultural divisions are unfortunately common in the church, too. How can Christians embrace God’s purposes for diversity and experience renewal and unity as his people?
Steven Bryan presents a biblical framework for thinking about cultural identity and experiencing cultural diversity as a positive good that God intended. Writing from more than 20 years of experience in cross-cultural mission work in Ethiopia, Bryan examines historical and political aspects of nationality, ethnicity, and race. This practical examination of cultural ideologies—including multiculturalism, nationalism, and intersectionality—helps readers move from asking, Who am I? to Who are we? as God’s people.
Timely and Equips readers to understand God’s purposes for their cultural identity and bridge divides inside and outside of the church Explores contemporary issues including ethnocentrism, globalization, multiculturalism, and collective identity Explores the story of Scripture from creation to new creation to show how cultural identity is an important part of God’s design Written for pastors, ministry leaders, lay people, missionaries, and anyone who is grappling with the relationship between cultural identity and Christian identity
Humanity’s diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and races were intended to be a blessing from God. However, due to sin and rebellion, these differences often result in alienation, hatred, and even violence, becoming one of the most urgent problems facing the world. Cultural divisions are unfortunately common in the church, too. How can Christians embrace God’s purposes for diversity and experience renewal and unity as his people?
Steven Bryan presents a biblical framework for thinking about cultural identity and experiencing cultural diversity as a positive good that God intended. Writing from more than 20 years of experience in cross-cultural mission work in Ethiopia, Bryan examines historical and political aspects of nationality, ethnicity, and race. This practical examination of cultural ideologies—including multiculturalism, nationalism, and intersectionality—helps readers move from asking, Who am I? to Who are we? as God’s people.
Timely and Equips readers to understand God’s purposes for their cultural identity and bridge divides inside and outside of the church Explores contemporary issues including ethnocentrism, globalization, multiculturalism, and collective identity Explores the story of Scripture from creation to new creation to show how cultural identity is an important part of God’s design Written for pastors, ministry leaders, lay people, missionaries, and anyone who is grappling with the relationship between cultural identity and Christian identity
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 15, 2022
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October 28, 2022
Summary: A biblical study of cultural identity: ethnicity, nationality, and race.
Cultural identity has become a prominent topic of discussion. There is a growing movement in many countries contending that nations must be constituted of a singular cultural identity, ethnicity, and/or race. At its worst, it eventuates in genocide. In other contexts, an ideal of multiculturalism is upheld, celebrating diversity, yet often struggling to compose relations between diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial groups on any other term than power and any attempt to pursue a common ground is perceived as a move of power and an effort to colonize or assimilate.
Steven M. Bryan, a theological educator who spent twenty years among the ethnically diverse cultures of Ethiopia, believes our starting point must be the biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation. In this work, he surveys the contribution of the biblical corpus to thinking about cultural identity within the overarching purposes of God, reflecting on the relevance of this material to his own cross-cultural experience.
After articulating the contemporary issues, he sets forth his thesis, using the vision of Nebuchadnezzar of the idol of different materials with clay destroyed by the stone which becomes a mountain drawing the nations into a “people of peoples.” From creation to new creation, this has been the vision of God.
He traces this theme in the early chapters of Genesis, seeing humanity as created for cultural identity, reflected in the different cultures of the table of nations in Genesis 10. Babel is fallen humanity’s rebellion against the cultural mandate, an effort toward a totalizing uniformity, prevented by a God who intended diverse cultures to fill the earth rather than gather in one place to form a monoculture. The calling of Abraham as one, was the beginning of a plot to bring blessing to many, forming a people of peoples blessed by God. Yet this takes many twists and turns with the nation that arises from him, with nations declared herem in their idolatry, while others who embrace the one true God are included. And when Israel turns to idolatry, she too is separated, and then restored.
Matthew shows us a Messiah who heals the Canaanite’s daughter and feeds the four thousand, welcoming to his table those who evidence the faith of Abraham, although they are not Jews. Luke portrays the holy people, all who repent and believe, who needn’t become Jewish to become part of a new common culture–“the Way.” John portrays Jesus as the temple not made with human hands, an open house of prayer for all peoples to worship one God in spirit and truth. Paul forms churches as he goes first to the Jew and then to non-Jews, forming a people of peoples reflecting the new humanity. Finally in Revelation, we see the garden-city-temple of the new creation where the nations bring their treasures and the vision of a people of peoples is consummated.
In conclusion, Bryan considers the purpose of peoples within God’s plan for one new humanity and the significance for our current moment. It means our politics are shaped by the hope of the new creation, refusing either soft or hard forms of nationalism and a politics that cannot envision either the individual or a greater commonality beyond particular cultural identities. We allow for both multiple and common identity. We give up power in the pursuit of righteousness, creating a community of equals formed not by contests of power but the downward path of the servant Messiah. We become a holy people as we reciprocate hospitality, hosting one another without distinction at our tables. We become a people of peoples.
Rather than taking sides in our debates about cultural identity, Bryan shows how the scriptures able to navigate the contested waters between incommensurable cultural identities and imposed uniformity. He helps us see God’s intent for the mosaic of identities that comprise his new humanity in Christ and how this reflects the purpose of God from the beginning. This felt to me like an “all y’all” book, not only for the American context but for the many different contentions around cultural identity faced in the global church. And in a time where we tend to take our marching orders from the particular echo chambers we inhabit, Bryan invites us to the expansive biblical narrative reflecting God’s love for cultures and culture making being formed into the beautiful mosaic of a people of peoples.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
Cultural identity has become a prominent topic of discussion. There is a growing movement in many countries contending that nations must be constituted of a singular cultural identity, ethnicity, and/or race. At its worst, it eventuates in genocide. In other contexts, an ideal of multiculturalism is upheld, celebrating diversity, yet often struggling to compose relations between diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial groups on any other term than power and any attempt to pursue a common ground is perceived as a move of power and an effort to colonize or assimilate.
Steven M. Bryan, a theological educator who spent twenty years among the ethnically diverse cultures of Ethiopia, believes our starting point must be the biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation. In this work, he surveys the contribution of the biblical corpus to thinking about cultural identity within the overarching purposes of God, reflecting on the relevance of this material to his own cross-cultural experience.
After articulating the contemporary issues, he sets forth his thesis, using the vision of Nebuchadnezzar of the idol of different materials with clay destroyed by the stone which becomes a mountain drawing the nations into a “people of peoples.” From creation to new creation, this has been the vision of God.
He traces this theme in the early chapters of Genesis, seeing humanity as created for cultural identity, reflected in the different cultures of the table of nations in Genesis 10. Babel is fallen humanity’s rebellion against the cultural mandate, an effort toward a totalizing uniformity, prevented by a God who intended diverse cultures to fill the earth rather than gather in one place to form a monoculture. The calling of Abraham as one, was the beginning of a plot to bring blessing to many, forming a people of peoples blessed by God. Yet this takes many twists and turns with the nation that arises from him, with nations declared herem in their idolatry, while others who embrace the one true God are included. And when Israel turns to idolatry, she too is separated, and then restored.
Matthew shows us a Messiah who heals the Canaanite’s daughter and feeds the four thousand, welcoming to his table those who evidence the faith of Abraham, although they are not Jews. Luke portrays the holy people, all who repent and believe, who needn’t become Jewish to become part of a new common culture–“the Way.” John portrays Jesus as the temple not made with human hands, an open house of prayer for all peoples to worship one God in spirit and truth. Paul forms churches as he goes first to the Jew and then to non-Jews, forming a people of peoples reflecting the new humanity. Finally in Revelation, we see the garden-city-temple of the new creation where the nations bring their treasures and the vision of a people of peoples is consummated.
In conclusion, Bryan considers the purpose of peoples within God’s plan for one new humanity and the significance for our current moment. It means our politics are shaped by the hope of the new creation, refusing either soft or hard forms of nationalism and a politics that cannot envision either the individual or a greater commonality beyond particular cultural identities. We allow for both multiple and common identity. We give up power in the pursuit of righteousness, creating a community of equals formed not by contests of power but the downward path of the servant Messiah. We become a holy people as we reciprocate hospitality, hosting one another without distinction at our tables. We become a people of peoples.
Rather than taking sides in our debates about cultural identity, Bryan shows how the scriptures able to navigate the contested waters between incommensurable cultural identities and imposed uniformity. He helps us see God’s intent for the mosaic of identities that comprise his new humanity in Christ and how this reflects the purpose of God from the beginning. This felt to me like an “all y’all” book, not only for the American context but for the many different contentions around cultural identity faced in the global church. And in a time where we tend to take our marching orders from the particular echo chambers we inhabit, Bryan invites us to the expansive biblical narrative reflecting God’s love for cultures and culture making being formed into the beautiful mosaic of a people of peoples.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
December 14, 2022
Most people seem to assume that they know the answer to the question, “What are nations for?” and a similar query, “What are cultures for?” An American might well answer that it is to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or something along those lines. But as Christians who are drawn into the Kingdom of God by the grace of God, the answer goes deeper. Steven M. Bryan, professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield Illinois, has poured himself into a fuller answer to those two questions in his recently published, 288-page softback, “Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God: A Biblical Theology of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Race”. The aim of this volume “is to explore what Scripture has to say about God’s purposes not only for people but also for peoples.” This includes “individuals in families and families within peoples.” The reason for his focus is that “the relationship between peoples turns out to be a crucial, if often overlooked, feature of the biblical story” (14-5). Though it is an academic work, it is comprehensible by anyone who desires to delve into this important subject.
One of the beauties of the volume is how rich it is in biblical theology. Bryan takes God’s story, from Genesis to Revelation, and shows how the episodes of God’s story stand together, and many times stand inside each other, as he answers the two major questions of what nations and cultures are for. Readers will be gently schooled on seeing the bigger picture as they work through biblical details. I really appreciated his observations on the connections in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 between the construction of Israel, its deconstruction, and its reconstruction in Jesus. I also was delighted with his handling of the “devoted to destruction” theme in Joshua, especially how he masterfully shows that this is not about genocide but the destruction of national identities that were rooted in the worship of false gods. This was the very same outcome that happened to rebellious Israel (Chapter 5).
One of Bryan’s concerns is how many followers of Jesus “have found themselves implicated in a global resurgence of ethnonationalism – the belief that a nation should be culturally singular” (14). As he explains later, national populists “fuel a sense of group grievance with a belief that their racial, ethnic, or national identities were once rightfully dominant but are now threatened. In one sense, the nationalist form of identity politics poses the greater threat to a Christian way of thinking about the world because it not only embraces the notion that cultural groups are power identities but celebrates and pursues the dominance of one group over another” (100). He works hard to give a better, truly biblical remedy to such an ailing perspective.
And one of the author’s main conclusions is that “the biblical vision of unity requires diversity” (82). This pushes against the forces that want national and cultural uniformity, on the one hand, or that elevate cultural and national divergence on the other. By his own estimation, the most significant conclusion of the study “is that God’s purposes for humanity are realized in the formation of a people of peoples through the restoration of individuals to right relationship with himself and others” (252). God’s purpose for nations and cultures is not to eviscerate cultural particularity by squishing them into a one-size-fits-all mold, but “the cultural particularity of each people becomes what God intended as it takes its place within the whole – part of a community of blessing” (253).
What Bryan works out in this book was done in his engagement within the context of the multi-tribal country of Ethiopia over many years. And that backdrop adds a sense of weightiness to the whole work. And much of his reasoning is very helpful in an American context with the rise of Christian Nationalism, Critical Race Theory, Wokism, racism and jingoism. It is a biblically healthy response to each in ways that can open up the horizon and map out a path forward for God’s people.
“Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God” is a volume worth taking up and working through. Pastors, missionaries, seminarians, and those engaged in multiethnic mercy ministries should grab a copy. Libraries at Christian Colleges and Seminaries need to do so as well. I highly recommend the book.
My thanks to the author’s parents who gave me a copy as a gift. As his mother said, “Pastor, I think you’ll find that my son would agree with what you’re preaching.” There were no demands made on me, and so this evaluation is freely made and freely given.
One of the beauties of the volume is how rich it is in biblical theology. Bryan takes God’s story, from Genesis to Revelation, and shows how the episodes of God’s story stand together, and many times stand inside each other, as he answers the two major questions of what nations and cultures are for. Readers will be gently schooled on seeing the bigger picture as they work through biblical details. I really appreciated his observations on the connections in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 between the construction of Israel, its deconstruction, and its reconstruction in Jesus. I also was delighted with his handling of the “devoted to destruction” theme in Joshua, especially how he masterfully shows that this is not about genocide but the destruction of national identities that were rooted in the worship of false gods. This was the very same outcome that happened to rebellious Israel (Chapter 5).
One of Bryan’s concerns is how many followers of Jesus “have found themselves implicated in a global resurgence of ethnonationalism – the belief that a nation should be culturally singular” (14). As he explains later, national populists “fuel a sense of group grievance with a belief that their racial, ethnic, or national identities were once rightfully dominant but are now threatened. In one sense, the nationalist form of identity politics poses the greater threat to a Christian way of thinking about the world because it not only embraces the notion that cultural groups are power identities but celebrates and pursues the dominance of one group over another” (100). He works hard to give a better, truly biblical remedy to such an ailing perspective.
And one of the author’s main conclusions is that “the biblical vision of unity requires diversity” (82). This pushes against the forces that want national and cultural uniformity, on the one hand, or that elevate cultural and national divergence on the other. By his own estimation, the most significant conclusion of the study “is that God’s purposes for humanity are realized in the formation of a people of peoples through the restoration of individuals to right relationship with himself and others” (252). God’s purpose for nations and cultures is not to eviscerate cultural particularity by squishing them into a one-size-fits-all mold, but “the cultural particularity of each people becomes what God intended as it takes its place within the whole – part of a community of blessing” (253).
What Bryan works out in this book was done in his engagement within the context of the multi-tribal country of Ethiopia over many years. And that backdrop adds a sense of weightiness to the whole work. And much of his reasoning is very helpful in an American context with the rise of Christian Nationalism, Critical Race Theory, Wokism, racism and jingoism. It is a biblically healthy response to each in ways that can open up the horizon and map out a path forward for God’s people.
“Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God” is a volume worth taking up and working through. Pastors, missionaries, seminarians, and those engaged in multiethnic mercy ministries should grab a copy. Libraries at Christian Colleges and Seminaries need to do so as well. I highly recommend the book.
My thanks to the author’s parents who gave me a copy as a gift. As his mother said, “Pastor, I think you’ll find that my son would agree with what you’re preaching.” There were no demands made on me, and so this evaluation is freely made and freely given.
October 24, 2025
This is a helpful biblical theology of the concept of nations (peoples) throughout Scripture and its implications for diversity. This definitely has a missional component to it, which is helpful in considering an approach to a new era of doing missions alongside the global church.
Although I agreed with the author’s position that the local church is the manifestation of unity in diversity, the presence of that teaching in the book was minimal. Thus, my one critique (or maybe hope for a future book) is that something as important as the local church on this subject deserved more attention.
I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to better understand a biblical theology of culture and diversity of nations.
Although I agreed with the author’s position that the local church is the manifestation of unity in diversity, the presence of that teaching in the book was minimal. Thus, my one critique (or maybe hope for a future book) is that something as important as the local church on this subject deserved more attention.
I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to better understand a biblical theology of culture and diversity of nations.
February 25, 2024
Excellent biblical theology of unity in diversity (i.e., humanity characterized by various ethnic, national, racial expressions) in contrast to the twin errors of violence or uniformity. Though one will not agree with all of the details of his exegesis, overall clearly written and well-argued.
October 5, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, and he filled my mind with a lot to consider as I read through the Bible. I wish the last chapter was longer—it felt rushed.
Read
May 28, 2023“without the gospel, the quest for justice simply becomes a zero-sum dispute about power between groups in which equality is always pursued and never gained.” (pg. 256)
March 21, 2024
4.5/5 I honestly was pleasantly surprised with this book. I picked it up on a Kindle sale just to check it out. I think this was a balanced and helpful biblical theology. I certainly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews