MIDWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY TRANSFORMING WORLDVIEWS: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF HOW PEOPLE CHANGE A CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE DR33330 BIBLICAL MISSIOLOGY BY CHRIS CARR KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI DECEMBER 31, 2017 Hiebert, Paul G. Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding Of How People Change. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. 323 pages. $26.00. ISBN 978-0-8010- 2705-5. Kindle version. Introduction Paul Hiebert (1932-2007) served as Distinguished Professor of Mission and Anthropology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Illinois and also at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Before his American academic career, he served as a pastor and missionary in India. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota, as well as studying at Tabor College and Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary. He is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and books in the fields of evangelical anthropology and missions. He is considered to be the foremost evangelical and missiological anthropologist of the twentieth century. Hiebert was a prolific author and is known for his books Cultural Anthropology, Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, Anthropological Insights For Missionaries, Mission on the Way: Issues in Mission Theology (with Charles Van Engen), Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (with R. Daniel Shaw), The Gospel in Human Contexts: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions, and The Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts: Affirming Truth In A Modern/Postmodern World. Hiebert lays out a measured study exploring the philosophical, ontological, attributive, and historical foundations of worldview, as well as building a scaffolding for understanding its complexities. He offers a thorough examination of several worldviews that missionaries have engaged and continue engaging today, addressing the impact of each on Christianity and mission. A biblical worldview is outlined for comparison and contrast. Hiebert argues for gospel ministry that seeks to transform people's worldviews, offering firm suggestions how to do so. Synopsis In the introduction to his text, Hiebert asks the question “how can worldviews be transformed” and adds “if behavioral change was the focus of the mission movement in the nineteenth century, and changed beliefs its focus in the twentieth century, then transforming worldviews must be its central task in the twenty-first century.” (Kindle location 196; italics this writer’s) The need for transforming worldviews, with an attendant review of dominant worldviews, including multiple non-Western ones, plus concrete steps for accomplishing the necessary transformation toward the biblical worldview, is the thesis of Hiebert’s book. In chapter one, Hiebert addresses the conceptual origin of worldview and how it historically reflects strong German influence from Kant, Kierkegaard, Engels, and Dilthey. Such influence led to further study of cultures that shared similarities while also displaying stark contrasts. Such observations led to deeper and deeper study of the values and beliefs underlying culture. This in turn led to further exploration of the assumptions, categories, and logic used to define reality, eventually leading to crystallization of the understanding of ‘deep culture’ (251) that represents the underlying worldview. The author lists problems associated with the word ‘worldview’ and reviews the conceptual history of ‘culture’ and ‘worldview’ within the discipline of anthropology by presenting the contributions of seventeen anthropologists who have influenced particularly American viewpoints on culture and worldview definition. Hiebert then defines worldview as “the foundational cognitive, affective, and evaluative assumptions and frameworks a group of people makes about the nature of reality which they use to order their lives.” (478) He concludes the chapter by addressing the functions of worldview. Chapter two treats the synchronic aspects of worldview, epistemological assumptions, and affective worldview themes such as joy/sorrow, fear/revulsion, and awe/worship. (1170) Subsequently, Hiebert explores evaluative themes and diachronic aspects of worldview such as stories, narratives, and myths as the ‘memory of the community.’ (1306) He closes the chapter by stressing the missiological importance of studying worldviews in order to transform them thoroughly with the power of the gospel in order to avoid Christo-paganism. Chapter three explores the best ways to integrate the multiple ways of studying human worldviews. Synchronically, this includes the avenues of reductionism (scientific and theological), stratification (compartmentalization) with its attendant danger of an unhealthy dualism, integration (into a single theory), linear and systems causality (mechanical and organic), and the nature of worldview systems: cultural knowledge, material culture, patterns of behavior, signs, rituals, myths, belief systems, interconnectedness, cultural feelings/values, and the place of history in informing worldviews. In chapter four Hiebert presents methods for worldview analysis, stating “as we study a people’s culture, we must infer their basic assumptions from their explicit beliefs and practices.” (1794) In chapter five, Hiebert presents worldview analysis of small-scale oral societies, where “individuals are important only because they are interconnecting nodes in the larger webs of kinship… to be an autonomous individual is to be as good as dead.” (2151) In chapter six, the author explores the worldview of peasant societies. Hiebert points out that there are similarities between small-scale oral societies and peasant societies, with the peasant worldview embracing a key distinction concerning the use of land: “land ultimately belongs to the state,” (2495) in contrast with small-scale societies, which hold that land belongs to God. In chapter seven, the author assesses the modern worldview of the Enlightenment, its attendant values of freedom, equality, reason, rationality, and empiricism as the measures of truth and reality in breaking with the medieval worldview. This includes the reintroduction of Aristotelian dualism into Western thought patterns as a gauge of reality, leading to scientific truth being recognized as the only objective truth in a secular world that denies religious transcendence. (2875-2887) In chapter eight, Hiebert examines the worldview of postmodernism, in which human intellect and reason are no longer trusted to ‘resolve the crises of human life.’ (4437) The Enlightenment worldview’s displacement by postmodernism, according to Hiebert’s analysis, is due in large part to World Wars I and II that “destroyed this illusion of Western unity and progress.” (4423) In chapter nine, the author explores the worldview of (glocal) post-postmodernism, a globalization that is expressed via neoliberal expansionist capitalism and mercantilism. According to Hiebert, within this worldview a ‘critical realism’ (5397) has emerged which shows more humility than either modernism or reactionary post-modernism, in that “it affirms that there are entities existing independently of our perceptions or theories … it recognizes that our understanding of those realities is always subjectively interpreted by humans in their social, cultural, and historical contexts.” (5397) Chapter ten reflects Hiebert’s strong argument for the exclusive validity of the biblical worldview, beginning ‘with the person of Christ and the Scripture that points to Him.” (5568) A biblically critical realism is the crux of an authentic biblical worldview within the context of the hermeneutical community. (5703) Hiebert asserts that a Christian approach to critical realism is different from that of secular scholars due to God’s revelatory nature in Scripture and the assistance of the Spirit for understanding it. Chapter eleven presents Hiebert’s understanding of the nature of transformation and conversion in the cognitive, affective, and behavioral/moral realms. This occurs concretely by ‘surfacing’ the biblical worldview, asking outsiders their perception of our worldview, articulate the worldview globally and listen to non-Western believers’ evaluation of us, and via the creation of living rituals. Evaluation In his text, Hiebert is warmly evangelical, without a legalistic or overbearing spirit, as he follows a predictable Western logical/linear development of his hermeneutic. As he develops his hermeneutical foundation, he shows scholarly understanding of the applicable social sciences literature. As he develops his hermeneutical foundation, he displays impressive scholarly understanding of the major leaders and proponents of differing schools of thought, as well as the paramount ideas regarding segments of worldview theory. However, in his quest to be understandably thorough, it could appear occasionally to the worldview theory novice that Hiebert becomes bogged down in complex and nuanced terminology and technical phrasing that likely would be hard for much less experienced individuals to navigate within Hiebert’s distinctive and fusioned world of missiology and anthropology. Therefore, professors would need to use caution regarding to which academic audience they expose this book. Additionally, it would have been helpful for Hiebert to have distinguished the fundamental worldview differences in his emphasis upon conversion, and the biblical/theological conception of ‘regeneration’, especially in light of Hiebert’s emphasis at several places in his text regarding the danger of syncretistic Christo-paganism. The strategic place of biblical regeneration (being ‘born again’) within biblical worldview analysis, especially in comparison/contrast to competing worldviews, is not mentioned in connection with any of the 117 times that Hiebert mentions ‘conversion’ in his text---perhaps this is something that will be addressed in any future editions of the text. A proper focus on the new birth has significant, deep-seated ramifications at profound worldview levels beyond the typical focus on conversion, which characteristically spotlights more on changed external behaviors but often fails to address the specter of Christo-paganism Hiebert mentions several times. Hiebert makes an excellent and lucid case for ‘critical realism’ as a valid, robust evangelical worldview grid, betraying an excellent grasp of the deep missiological issues at hand and in question in advocating for the competency of a vigorous biblical worldview. This is a great strength of the book. In doing so the author avoids attacking persons or personalities and seeks to find middle ground for solutions between the extremes of modernism, post-modernism, and glocalization (and the worldviews of positivism and idealism). Such an approach provides a more realistic and practical matrix via which to address the increasing global mosaic of worldviews represented via transmigratory and diaspora people group movements across the planet in fulfillment of the spirit of Acts 17:26. Speaking to this theme, Hiebert cogently states “one thing is increasingly clear: the world is not moving toward greater homogenization.” (5181) Other strengths of the book include Hiebert’s liberal use of annotated footnotes along with pertinent personal ministry illustrations and helpful appendices for those of us who are more visual/conceptual thinkers. These include a comparison/contrast of USA/Indian worldviews. The very helpful first appendix (Model for Worldview Analysis) crystallizes Hiebert’s hermeneutic in comparative/contrasting visual form, whereas the third appendix (comparing/contrasting the thesis/antithesis of the modern and postmodern worldviews and the resulting synthesis of his favored global critical realism worldview) is a hearty tool that aids believers in speaking the gospel within and to the global worldviews that need an existential voice. The reference list at the end of the book mirrors Hiebert’s breadth and depth of command regarding the pertinent literature that speaks to the issues of worldview analysis and necessary biblical, theological, missiological, sociological, and anthropological dynamics involved in a vital worldview transformation necessary for new disciples of Jesus. Hiebert moves deftly in building his hermeneutical foundations within the first four chapters where he examines the concept of worldview, their characteristics, their human contexts, and the attendant methodologies for analyzing worldviews. He then seamlessly applies his foundational framework structure to analyze multiple historical and existing worldviews in chapters five through nine. His hermeneutic reaches its zenith in the final two chapters where he lays out a dynamic and defendable biblical worldview, providing a superstructure via global critical realism to empower an equally energetic application of the biblical worldview via concrete steps. These steps effect not merely cognitive transformation of individuals and their existing (defective) worldviews, but also affective, behavioral, and evaluative transformation in peoples’ lives, so that they become full-fledged, transformed followers of Jesus who are free from the incipient clutches of a weak, syncretistic Christo-paganism. Conclusion Hiebert’s text is his life-culminating masterpiece for those wanting and needing to understand the subtleties involved in trying to effect worldview transformation in favor of Jesus and His biblical worldview. Hiebert’s compendium offers exhaustive and pervading insights that complement and expand upon the helpful works of Lingenfelter (Transforming Culture), Lingenfelter and Mayers (Ministering Cross-Culturally), and Duane Elmer (Cross-Cultural Conflict) while filling in gaps in those works. Hiebert’s text, though now approaching ten years since its release, is well-positioned to continue speaking to and equipping believers who wish to navigate the ‘mazeways’ (5110) that individuals confront in today’s ever-increasing and hybridized global pluralism against the backdrop of a glocalized mosaic, especially pertinent in supercities and megacities with burgeoning ethnoburb diaspora populations in North America. 7