- / Anthropos Institute / Recommended Reading
- / February 10, 2026
Darrell L. Whiteman, Crossing Cultures with the Gospel. Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2024. 255+XVI pp. ISBN 978-1-5409-6046-7.
Stanisław Grodź, Anthropos Institute
Darrell L. Whiteman, an experienced and recognised Methodist missiologist, is not a stranger to the SVDs, mainly through his Melanesian engagement (also the Foreword written by Miriam Adeney starts with a sort of homage to Luis Luzbetak).
The text is presented in a form of a talk/lecture which at times sounds too straightforward. The fact that the author addresses mostly the North American Protestant audience may also pose a hurdle. Nevertheless, the issues he addresses are valid not only for the North American Protestant missionaries and he is not oblivious of the Roman Catholic missiological perspective.
Many (hopefully most?) readers of Arnoldus Nota may find this book repeating of what they already know. If that were the case, reading the text would do no harm. Those who experienced and overcame the problems which Whiteman addresses, may still find his book inspiring and be challenged to reconsider their perspective on the issues, which cannot be solved once and for all. For those who (surprisingly) skipped learning about these matters during their time of formation or later preparation to their missionary ministry in a particular context, it may be a necessary introduction (and help).
Despite the books on that topic published earlier (Nida, 1954; Luzbetak, 1963; Kraft, 1979; Hiebert, 1985), Whiteman sees a need for addressing the issue of cross-cultural Christian witness anew:
“As we move into the postcolonial era, and as the former mission fields are increasingly becoming a global mission force, I often see the same lack of cross-cultural understanding and awareness as was too often characteristic of previous generations of missionaries. Confusing the gospel with their own culture or their denomination’s interpretation of the gospel is a rampant problem everywhere I’ve observed cross-cultural ministry.
I have written this book to challenge you, the reader, to confront your ethnocentrism, to discover how much of your understanding of biblical truth has been shaped by your culture, and to adjust your lifestyle to one that is more appropriate for cross-cultural ministry where you live. I’ve also written to encourage you, to remind you that God has not left God’s self without a witness in every culture, among every people group, at every era of human history. It is God’s mission in the world that we join, not our mission. We can also be encouraged by the fact that Jesus promised to be with us throughout the process of crossing cultures with the gospel.
Another way I hope to encourage the reader is through my in-depth discussion of the problem of culture shock. I’ve given a fair amount of space to discussing it because every cross-cultural witness goes through it in one form or another.” (p. XVI).
