Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change [Paperback]

Paul G. Hiebert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2008

In the past, changes in behavior and in belief have been leading indicators for missionaries that Christian conversion had occurred. But these alone--or even together--are insufficient for a gospel understanding of conversion. For effective biblical mission, Paul G. Hiebert argues, we must add a third element: a change in worldview. Here he offers a comprehensive study of worldview--its philosophy, its history, its characteristics, and the means for understanding it. He then provides a detailed analysis of several worldviews that missionaries must engage today, addressing the impact of each on Christianity and mission. A biblical worldview is outlined for comparison. Finally, Hiebert argues for gospel ministry that seeks to transform people's worldviews and offers suggestions for how to do so.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Transforming Worldviews is, in many respects, the capstone of Paul Hiebert's work. This book provides valuable insights to all people who engage in God's mission in the varied contexts of the world in this century. It is Hiebert at his best. A superb contribution to missiology. A lasting legacy!"--Tite Tiénou, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School"Transforming Worldviews is Hiebert at his best! For the first time, all of his major missiological insights--from set theory in church growth to the flaw of the excluded middle to critical contextualization--are integrated into a single volume. Transforming Worldviews, in which Hiebert wrestles with one of the most difficult concepts for us to understand and explain, is a fitting exclamation point to a career in which some of the most important evangelical missiological thinking of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries was done."--A. Scott Moreau, Wheaton College; editor, Evangelical Missions Quarterly"Paul's wide-ranging scholarship, profound faith in Jesus Christ, deep insight, creative thinking, and wholehearted commitment to world evangelization are all evident here. Paul is a mentor, teacher, and guide to all of us involved in thinking about the mission of the church. This book is a wonderful example of his stimulating thought. Everyone interested in communicating the gospel among today's multiplicity of cultures will want to listen to what Paul Hiebert says in this book."--Charles Van Engen, Fuller Theological Seminary; founder and president of Latin American Christian Ministries"The late Paul Hiebert's work on worldviews is mission anthropology at its best. This book is his final testimony to the centrality of worldview transformation at the heart of biblical conversion. It is an instant classic--clear, readable, useful, and compelling."--Dana L. Robert, Boston University School of Theology"If you could pick one missiologist to sort out the tangled mare's nest that surrounds the word/concept worldview, it would be Paul Hiebert. In Transforming Worldviews, Hiebert does not disappoint. Once again he surveys the landscape majestically, explains clearly, and proposes wisely and faithfully."--Terry C. Muck, Asbury Theological Seminary

About the Author

Paul G. Hiebert (1932-2007) was distinguished professor of mission and anthropology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and previously taught at Fuller Theological Seminary. He also served as a pastor and missionary to India. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota and was the author or coauthor of numerous articles and books in the fields of anthropology and missions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801027055
• ISBN-13: 978-0801027055
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic and important work, May 29, 2008

By 

Michael K. Severe (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Paperback)

Transforming worldviews covers a full range of anthropological ideas and applies them to the concept of worldview. Scholarly in nature, its tone is readable and it applies important and diverse disciplines and concepts to thinking about worldview. This book is a major contribution. It is not just discussion of worldview but how worldviews are formed, how they may be critiqued and how they can be transformed. Very interesting discussions and applications of modernism, postmodernism, semiotics (sign theory), cultural analysis, and "glocalization." Plenty of illustrations and charts that assemble, systematize, illustrate and make understandable a vast array of information.

This book broke away from the typical simple and unhelpful discussions of worldview and places it within its scholarly debate and research. Hiebert deftly applies worldview to Christian missions and church work. He offers significant and helpful insights into ourselves and our culture as well as ways to engage and change.

Personally this work challenged my perceptions of worldview, knowledge and culture while introducing me to many new disciplines and concepts.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easier Said than Done, October 19, 2010

By 

M. Edwards (Taichung, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Paperback)

Out of the 30 books I've read so far this year and the 6 or 7 of a theological/missiological nature, this is the meatiest of all (It's probably also one of the fattest at 333 pages). I would highly recommend it not just for Christian international workers, but especially for North American pastors and Christian workers as well, as all too often we are completely blind to the assumptions that lie behind our worldviews as they persist unchallenged in our host cultures.

Beginning with the concept and characteristics of worldviews, the late Dr. Hiebert then moves on to discuss worldviews of small-scale oral societies, peasant societies, modern and postmodern worldviews, and finally, the "glocal" worldview. He then sums up by discussing what a biblical worldview is and how worldviews are transformed.

I found Hiebert's treatment of what he calls "critical realism" (as opposed to positivism and instrumentalism) to be one of many nuggets in the book. Simply put, there must be a great measure of correspondence between the world outside and the worlds we construct inside for us to survive in the world. Human knowledge does not consist of photographs of reality (as positivism suggests) or of collages (as instrumentalism affirms) but of montages and maps that can be tested to determine their truthfulness.
The pictures on pages 318-319 vividly illustrate how different configurations can be imposed on the raw data of our experiences and how people grow in their perception of worldview. The short discussion in the last chapter on people movements and "muliti-individual" conversions was also something I can continue to keep in my mind in my ministry context here.

I am reminded that our role as agents of change is "neither that of the conservative nor that of the anarchist" but that of a subversive agent - to seek to transform worldview gradually from within and to bring people back under the allegiance of the true Lord (p. 322). One way to transform worldviews in the resistant rural society where I am presently living (which reflects aspects of all of the worldviews listed above) might be in focusing to bring change to the families of foreign brides, to help them find stability as entire families are discipled in Jesus Christ.

Certain parts of this book were a little tedious to wade through, and large sections dealing with modernity and postmodernity were expanded treatments of what I learned before from other books and from Hiebert's fellow Trinity professor Tite Tienou 20 years ago when he was at Alliance Theological Seminary. Nevertheless, as I fan through the pages of the book again now I see I underlined multiple sentences on almost every page. Although it will take some time for you to get through, this book will definitely challenge you to think!

Once curiosity that caught my attention is that apparently neither in the chapter about the biblical worldview, nor anywhere else, does Hiebert seem to address the topic of hell. This may be because he prefers to talk in relational and fuzzy categories rather than intrinsic and digital sets (read the book if you do not understand what these terms mean) and in turning away from idols and turning always each day toward the Lord (e.g. "does Jesus remain the ultimate reference point in our understanding of the kingdom? p. 279). Nevertheless, I found the apparent absence of any reference to hell a bit curious.

My only other complaint is that this book does not really talk about how to transform worldviews, as the topic suggested. This is not a how-to book. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the process was that easy?

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Look at How People Changed, March 16, 2011

By 

Bror Erickson "Your Brother in Christ" (Tooele Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Paperback)

It had been some time since I read any Hiebert. I looked forward to receiving this book, but was rather disappointed with it in the end.
I found a few things helpful. As a critique of western or North American culture and its weaknesses and biases, I found it to be good.
As a rule, if there is a chapter titled the same as the book, that is the chapter to read first. This stands true in the book under consideration. It may have been a better book if he had just left it at this chapter. There is a great discussion there on the use of rituals being beneficial to the transformation of world views, something Lutheran pastors might take to heart in consideration of the Liturgy. However, this chapter is at the end of the book, and one might not get there if one does not know better than to read the rest of it.
The first chapter and its investigation of the concept of "Worldview" was interesting.
His investigations of non-western worldviews, might leave one to think there are the worldviews of those in India, and then the modern western worldview, and not much else worth considering.
The chapters between the first and the last suffer from tedious length, and a penchant for quoting the same material numerous times.
Rather than being "An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change." It is more an account as to how cultures have changed, with very little reflection as too what actually brought that about.
Added to this he lets his own baptistic, or Anabaptistic theological biases show through in a way that makes a Lutheran want to puke, in that he tends to equate conversion with change in behavior. One does not actually have to give up smoking or drinking to be a Christian. Paul considered the Corinthians to be Christians because they were baptized, (1 Cor. 6) even though many of them were guilty of sexual immorality. For sure he chastised them for their sins. But he never ceased to address them as saints. He would not think a person to be ready for baptism because they had given up on tobacco, but because they are sinners in need of forgiveness.