Customer Reviews

Honor and Shame: Unlocking the Door

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book after it came highly recommended by the president of the Evangelical Missions Society, and several college professors - and I do not regret it in the least. Rolland Mueller enables us to see beyond our cultural eye-glasses by laying out the anthropological concept of guilt based, fear based and shame based societies.

As Westerners shaped by logic, philosophy, rhetoric and a theological system developed by lawyer/theologians, our views are based on guilty vs. not guilty. Our presentation of the Gospel thus is laid out in legal system terms- guilt, redemption, paying the price for iniquity, etc. However, the rest of the world thinks much differently: Asian and Middle Eastern societies tend to focus on shame and honor, African and many tribal cultures focus on fear.

The author then proceeds to demonstrate that God is not only concerned with humanity's guilt, but that salvation was meant to resolve our problems of guilt AND shame AND fear. A portion is dedicated to viewing the effects of the fall through the three cultural mindsets (sin brought guilt, shame and fear into the world), which is Biblically rooted. The book shows how Christ's death on the cross was meant to redeem mankind from their guilt, shame and fear and bring them into a correct relationship with God in each of these areas. Finally, special notes are made concerning how these truths relate to evangelism and missions. An excellent book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who knows a person from a different culture!

This book contains some good thinking and useful pictures and principles. Numerous times I said, "Yes, that's how it is!" I have seen these things play out in many different countries.

On the other hand the book has several limitations, most of which come from its method of publication. XLibris is what we would have once called a "Vanity Press," offering printing more than editing. Those kind of things are more mainstream than they once were, but they keep a book from being the best it could be. Having an editor is a good thing! This book would be more helpful and more influential if someone academic had held the author's feet to the fire and made him give credit to his sources through footnotes, etc. There is a good bibliography/suggested resources section, though.

For such a small volume it is rather expensive as well.

Muller has come out with a new book that combines these ideas and those from several other books he has written; I wonder if he has addressed some of these weaknesses?

Honor and Shame takes a look at the way cultures base their behaviors. The theme is very interesting and helpful for anyone working with Honor/Shame styles. I wish that the book included more anecdotes and stories to support the thesis. There were a couple of good examples like the response when a lifeguard blows a whistle.

The first edition of this book is written with an evangelical religious audience in mind. The second edition, is included as part of Muller's new book: The Messenger, the Message and the Community. This book is available from Amazon and also other online booksellers. Muller's website gives more information as well. The second edition (2010)replaces the earlier 2001 edition.

It is unfair to present material as important as this without footnotes. A reader should be able to verify information an author presents, especially when the author claims that lying is an important part of Arabic culture.

PS I did investigate this claim, and it is true that Muslims are allowed to lie in certain situations, but it would have been easier to verify if I had known from the start where Muller gets his quotes of Middle Age Muslim theologians such as Al-Ghazali (read Ghazali's "Reliance of the Traveller").

The reader above needs to understand the concept of taqiyya in Islam. Hamid Enayat, Muslim historian at Oxford, writes taqiyya has "in practice become the norm of public behaviour among all Muslims... whenever there is a confilice between faith and expediency." In other words, it's OK to lie, if there is a goal to be acheived. Even more, one hadith says that Mohammed said lying is allowed in three cases: when a man speaks to his wife to please her, in war, or to put things right between people. The first allowance shows a deep disrespect for women - but of course, feminists are NOWHERE to be seen on this... just like for Juanita, Paula, Gennifer, Kathyrn and Monica. Come feminists... do something useful - for ONCE! Q2:195 states "and make not your own hands contribute to (your)destruction but do good" - this verse also is seen as supporting taqiyya. As the Barnabus Fund says, taqiyya in Islam allows all kinds of dissimilitude, as long a Islam is being furthered. So, a Muslim can lie about Islam due to taqiyya, if there is an end to be gained for Islam. E.g., Hamid Ali, who ran the Ad Madina mosque in Beeston, UK, publicly condemned the July 2005 bombings in London - however, a Bangladeshi reporter later secretely taped a conversation with him in which he said the bombings were "good" and praised the bombers.

More taqiyya: There was interfaith harmony in Islamic Spain. Well, sure... if you converted or agreed to be a super-taxed dhimmi (read that: 3rd class citizen). Muslims invented science - well, not exactly. Our numerals came west via the Arabs, but they cobbed them from the Syriac Christians. Same thing with "science": Yes, much of the science was **written** in Arabic - but the writers themselves were Christians and Jews. E.g., the first Arab medical book was written by a Christian priest and then put by a Jewish doctor into Arabic in 683 AD, and the vast mass of science was simply appropriated from the Nestorian Christians by the Muslims.

Oh well, the list could go on, but just like those that were "useful idiots" for Lenin and Stalin, we have the politically correct types today doing the same thing. Ya gotta wonder how happy the radical leftists and gays will be when Muslims march in and take over San Francisco, dont you!