Before embarking in a graduate level online hermeneutics course at major East Coast evangelical university, the professionally narrated version of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible played through headphones in my ears. This introductory book illustrates nicely the concepts of hermeneutics; exposing the influence of culture, religion, race, ethnicity, and dualistic beliefs as they pertain to Biblical interpretation and cultural understanding.
Through the lenses of the two authors, who have each had significant cross-cultural experiences, they share their experiences of grappling to communicate and understand Scripture cross-culturally. Through their combined experiences, the authors share their blunders and frustrations in trying to convey Biblical truths across cultures. They revealed their own personal biases and the impact that these biases had on their own biblical interpretations. It is through these examples that a student beginning to study hermeneutics can learn not only the principles of biblical interpretation, but also attain awareness of their own cultural biases.
In the first chapter, the premise of the book was presented. The primary goal of this book was to remind, or convince, the reader of the book about the cross-cultural nature of biblical interpretation. Based on the collective cross-cultural experience of the authors, their perceptions were presented of the pitfalls in cross-cultural communication, especially communication of scriptural truth across cultures.
Praises
Written at an 11th grade level, the stories used to illustrate the points being made were told in a perspicuous style. Because the stories were mostly from the authors own collective experience, the stories were unique, illuminating, sometimes humorous, and often fascinating. One of the authors had spent a significant number of years as a missionary in Sulawesi, an Indonesian island north of Australia and to the west of Papua New Guinea. The other author shared from his personal experience in Europe.
As the chapters unfolded, the examples and stories nicely illustrated and contrasted the differences in western verses non-western culture, especially in the area of scriptural interpretation.
Before embarking on a section on criticism of this text, a bit of disclosure is necessary. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening book from the standpoint of it being a mirror reflecting my own cultural biases, and exposing my own western presuppositions. As a fellow sojourner who has spent time as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, not too geographically distant from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the stories that were told to illustrate the points of the book were like well-aimed arrows piercing into my consciousness.
However, prior to writing this review, the views of the supporters and detractors of this book, as published online on Amazon.com, were reviewed, causing me to consider this book far more critically.
Somewhat surprisingly, the editors tolerated a literary aberration where the authors used an atypical literary form when referring to their own experiences. This took the form of, “I (Randy)” or “I (Brandon)” to designate which author was sharing his (Randy)’s or his (Brandon)’s experience. At first this left me (Allan), a bit amused, but as the book progressed, the incessant use of this designation of authorship and experience seemed superfluous and somewhat irritating.
Although the stories were appropriate and entertaining, many of the stories were straw man arguments followed by far-reaching generalizations. To illustrate this point, an example of Edgar Allan Poe’s well-known short story, Tell-Tale Heart, was presented to convey that westerners “know right from wrong objectively, and we typically assume that our wrongdoings will find us out because our consciences won’t let us rest until we confess.”
However, this is itself an extreme over generalization of western thought, and certainly is not a cultural norm in American society. It is specious to claim that this attitude of guilty conscience is ubiquitous across all American culture. America’s most famous criminals: Al “Scarface” Capone, Charles Manson, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Ted Bundy, and Oklahoma City Bombing mastermind Timothy McVeigh would all be examples of criminals who appeared undaunted and entirely unrepentant by the crimes they committed. The examples of these famous American criminals quickly undoes the broad generalization of uniform criminal remorse presented by the authors. Another comparison would be to ponder the question, “Did former President Clinton ever express publicly his remorse over his adulterous affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky?” From a public perspective, other than his loss of credibility over this liaison with Miss Lewinsky, former President Clinton did not appear personally remorseful over this incident. The point here is that one cannot make an all-embracing generalization about an entire culture, assuming that everyone’s collective conscience is the same as the guilt-ridden murderer in Edgar Allen Poe’s fictional tale or former President Clinton’s liaison.
The authors made an extended argument that in non-western cultures, an individual does not feel shame if the misdeed remains publicly unexposed. The authors then make a long discourse about King David’s adulterous act with Bathsheba; but their entire discussion comes undone when King David admits in Psalm 51 that he did, in fact, have a guilty conscience all along. “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight.” (Psalm 51:3-4 NIV)
In another example, the authors make this statement, “While every generation likes to critique the previous one, it seems to us that Americans are becoming more self-centered.” Again, this is an extremely broad characterization of westerners, at a time when many other countries recognize the incredibly generous and selfless nature of westerners, often putting themselves in harms’ way to give and to serve. This poor characterization of America is indeed offensive.
Recently many of my civilian Christian medical colleagues were voluntarily serving at an emergency field hospital (EFH), twelve miles from the battlefront in Mosul, Iraq. When injured Sunni and Shiite Muslims would wake up in the recovery room following emergency trauma surgery, nearly without exception these patients were bewildered to find western Christian doctors and nurses caring for them and loving them. These injured soldiers and civilians verbally inquired as to why these western Christians would put themselves in harms’ way to come and to care for them and bandage their wounds. There exists a plethora of examples in every society of selfishness and selflessness; but broad generalizations are inappropriate characterizations of cultures.
After closing the back cover of the book, there was a disturbing sense that this was not a book about cross-cultural biblical interpretation, but rather an overly critical viewpoint of westerners, and implication that western interpretation of scripture is somehow inferior to a non-western interpretation. Whose lenses provide the best optics through which to view and interpret Scripture? The lenses through which one contemporary culture views Scripture are unlikely to confer any significant advantage compared to the lenses through which western culture views and interprets Scripture.
Classical biblical hermeneutics has to do with the understanding of the original authors’ intended meaning and how the original first century audience would have comprehended that message. Biblical hermeneutics is not about a contemporary cross-cultural understanding of biblical texts. This book is more a book of how other cultures may interpret, or misinterpret, Scripture, based on their own cultural values and biases. But it would be specious to claim that interpreting Scripture through non-western eyes is superior to interpreting Scripture through western-eyes.
Perhaps an alternative title would have been more appropriate for this book. Cross-Cultural Awareness for Christian Missionaries: Removing Cultural Blinders would seem far more appropriate; however, this suggested alternative is not nearly as eye-catching as Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes with several of the letters turned intentionally backward.
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes is an introductory book on cross-cultural awareness. The authors are correct in reminding the reader, “we need to remember that all people everywhere have their own cultural blinders.” This book nicely illustrates many of these cultural differences, but at the cost of over-simplification and indiscriminate generalizations, some of which are offensive to western readers. Although the stories told illustrate their points nicely, their arguments are rather shallow. There is no need to debase western culture in order to make the points that the authors intended.
This book might be well suited for a young missionary who is about to embark on an international mission trip where they will be exposed to their inaugural cross-cultural experience; especially if this is going to involve sharing their faith and discussing Scripture in another country. A young missionary on their maiden voyage overseas, who is interested in cultural sensitivity, would likely benefit from reading this book, as it would aid their effectiveness in cross-cultural communication of the Gospel and cross-cultural Scriptural understanding.
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Wise guidance about how Western culture causes us to misread Scripture
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2019
I value the Bible as God’s Word. If you do to, I recommend you read this book to expand how you think about the connections between your language/culture and the language/culture that produced each of the books in the Bible. Richards and O’Brien write in accessible English, offer interesting Biblical and real life examples, and portray a humbleness that invites readers to consider how to remove cultural blinders to better understand the Bible.Because I read a translation of the Bible in English, it is easy for me to forget that every word in the original languages does not have a one-to-one relationship to a word in English. This does not mean the Bible is not trust-worthy, but it does encourage us to interact with the Biblical text in wise ways. This book helps us understand the cross-cultural nature of biblical interpretation.The authors write “The core conviction that drives this book is that some of the habits that we readers from the West (US, Canada and Western Europe) bring to the Bible can blind us to interpretations that the original audience and readers in other cultures see quite naturally.” (15) They discuss examples of these habits in three sections of their book: cultural assumptions that are obvious, less obvious, and unobvious.Glaring and obvious cultural issues include “mores—unquestioned moral views of a group,” “race and ethnicity in the Bible,” and ‘language---how vocabulary, syntax, and grammar affect a culture.” The story about the little boy unknowingly cursing is a great example of mores! The racial implications of the next chapter speak well to current debates in the church about immigration. I loved the discussion of language.Less obvious cultural issues they present include “individualism and collectivism—does the Bible teach we are each the captain of our own soul?,” and how 'time is valued differently" in different cultures. The section on "Honor/Shame and Right/Wrong” was eye-opening to me and worth the price of the book.Unobvious (because they are hidden behind or beneath other values and assumptions) cultural issues they present include: Should we be rule based or relationship based? What is really a virtue in the Bible?What does it say about me that I seek to be in the center of God’s will?So much more could be included in this review, but reading this book positively affected my desire to regularly engage with God’s word, listen more closely to sermons, and deepened my prayer life. Thanks Richards and O’Brien!
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2019
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