Global Kingdom, Global People

Melba Padilla Maggay

Description

In an age of unsurpassed globalization, Melba Maggay reminds us of the beauty of unique cultures no matter how small their imprint on the world may seem. Yet these cultures do not exist in isolation, but have a complex interrelation with one another, be they monoliths such as western capitalism or subsistence communities like El Nido on the island of Palawan, the home of the author’s ancestors.
This rich global tapestry is a gift from God, yet not without imperfection, sin or hardship. It is these realities to which we must apply the gospel in our own lives and in missiology. This book gives a prophetic call to proclaim the good news and do justice in and towards every culture under the sun, while demystifying some of the major narratives that inform worldviews across the globe today. And it is the kingdom of God for every tribe, tongue, people and nation that brings true global unity.

Informations

• Publié par: Langham Creative Projects
• Date de parution: 28 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783681990
• Langue: English

Extrait

Melba Maggay has written an enthralling account of how the living, written word of God can be applied creatively to many of the most pressing problems confronting the modern world. Taking some of the crucial biblical passages that speak of God’s acts of creation, the consequences of humanity’s rejection of God, God’s plan for a new community of people restored to fellowship, and the final end of history, she shows imaginatively just how contemporary the whole biblical story proves itself to be. She is sure in her grasp of the historical and linguistic background to the text, relating it constantly to its own context. Melba has a most engaging style of writing, with many arresting turns of phrase. The result is a book whose (often poetic) prose is a delight to read. Readers will find this a refreshingly novel, inventive and compelling demonstration of the art of communicating to a thoroughly perplexed generation, across cultures and nations, the biblical explanation of human reality.
Dr J. Andrew Kirk Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre, Amsterdam
Global Kingdom, Global People is a brilliant book capturing well the author’s experience in a place of pain; this is tough research and honest reflection on a biblical theme and perspective. It draws the reader to seriously consider a personal and collective response to contemporary global missional challenges.
CB Samuel Theological Advisor The Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief (EFICOR), India
Global Kingdom, Global People is a sweeping, probing reflection on what it means to follow Christ in our day by a senior evangelical missiologist who reads very widely and writes brilliantly. Thoroughly immersed in her local setting in the Phillipines, Dr Maggay illuminates and critiques the way globalization works today, combining a creative analysis of a broad sweep of biblical texts with contemporary socio-economic analysis. An important voice.
Ronald J. Sider
Senior Distinguished Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry, and Public Policy Palmer Seminary at Eastern University, Pennsylvania, USA
Global Kingdom, Global People is a splendid little book full of insight into, and cogent reflection on, Scripture and full of conviction and compassion. Countless works have been written on the themes of culture, globalization and mission; the most jaded literary palate will find something fresh and interesting or inspiring from this one and not least from the illuminating comments from Melba Maggay’s Philippine context.
Andrew F. Walls
University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University and Akrofi-Christaller Institute, Ghana
Melba Maggay offers us a penetrating interweaving of the biblical text with key issues of our contemporary world. Academically rigorous, and authoritative in its sweep, the book offers us a cosmic grasp of history, while remaining contemporary and relevant in its application to our world today. She opens up the biblical story with flair and imagination, bringing the themes of mission, globalization and culture alive in a fresh and detailed way. Her breadth of scholarship peppers the text with insights, exposing cultural myths and inviting her readers into a more thoughtful Christian perspective. The result is a crucially important book, written through the experience and reflections of a very fine writer.
Elaine Storkey
Former President of Tearfund
As we have come to expect from Melba Maggay, she gives us not just political dreams or ready answers but her own journey of engaging the stark realities of the real world of human beings and her own honest grappling with real issues and struggles therein. Such issues would not just leave us alone to chart our own Christian course. Christ’s followers remain on earth not merely to build our own programme, structures, mission or institutions in self-isolation, but to do so in relevant and effective conversation and engagement with the rest of humanity. Today’s followers of Christ must not just live faithfully but to do so with understanding and informed consideration for a multicultural world .
GOH Keat Peng
Honorary Vice-President of IFES
Former Head of World Vision Malaysia
Activist and Campaigner

Global Kingdom, Global People
Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World
Melba Padilla Maggay

© 2017 by Melba Padilla Maggay
Published 2017 by Langham Global Library
An imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
ISBNs:
978-1-78368-198-3 Print
978-1-78368-200-3 Mobi
978-1-78368-199-0 ePub
978-1-78368-201-0 PDF
Melba Padilla Maggay has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78368-198-3
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and an author’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth, and works referenced within this publication or guarantee its technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

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Contents

Cover


Foreword Love Is Local


Introduction The Way We Live Now


Primal Identities and the Challenge of Multiculturalism


The Myth of a Global Redistribution of Wealth


Global Dreams and the Global Church


Part I


1 Revisiting the Cultural Mandate


Imaging God


The Mandate for Our Time


2 Dominion and Communion


More Than a “Higher Animal”


Made for Work


Sovereignty or Solidarity?


3 The Fallout of the Fall


Legends of the Fall


4 Culture and the Nations


Death’s Tender Mercy


The Curse of Rootlessness


The Origin of Nations


5 The Tower of Babel


The Meaning of the City


A Landlocked Homogeneity


A Babel of Tongues


Part II


6 Sojourners Together


Not Exactly Alien


Migrant Rights, Pluralism and Cultural Integrity


Sojourners Together


7 Living as God’s People in Alien Cities


Facing the Reality of Exile


The Promise of Restoration


Rootedness and Resistance


The Meaning of Our Exile


8 Remembering Zion: Longing for a Lost Homeland


By the Waters of Babylon . . .


Imprecations against Babylon


Hearing the Pain of Exile


No Chosen People


The Power of Memory


9 A Vision of a New Economy


The New Mask of Mammon


“Every Man under His Fig Tree”


Intimations of a Desired Future


Part III


10 Jew to the Jew, Greek to the Greek: The Jew-Gentile Social Crisis


“Jew to the Jew,” or the Case for Identification


Greek to the Greek, or the Case for Cultural Abstention


A Willing Subjection to Cultural Norms


11 Communicating Cross-Culturally, or Why We Can Not McDonaldize the Gospel


Primal Identities and Social Integration


Culture-Specific Gospel Themes


On Deep and Surface Structures


12 From Every Tongue and Tribe and Nation: On Being Global and Incarnational


Re-centering on the Lamb


A Great Cloud of Witnesses


A Multicultural Hymn


Going Truly Global


Postscript The “Prince of the Power of the Air,” or Why It Is Time to Put the Monsters at the Center


“A Spirit That Always Denies”


A “War of Perception”


Put the Monsters at the Center


Bibliography


About Langham Partnership

Endnotes
Foreword
Love Is Local
On the northernmost tip of Palawan, the westernmost island in the Philippines, lies the community of El Nido, “The Nest.” It is so named because the birds’ nests used in Chinese soups are harvested from the high limestone cliffs nearby. Besides scro