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i’m taking online master’s classes, and most of the time i think i’m a little over my head. but every now and then i see that i am a lot over my head.

anyway, topic was this: each of the gospels in the bible were written for a different group with a different cultural context, which is why there are so many differences. the meat is the same, but the seasoning and preparation and presentation are different.

question was this: how would you write a gospel that is seasoned/presented for the cultural context in which you live or minister? what would you emphasize about Jesus?

my response:

I minister to a lot of college-aged people, many of them are students, but a good variety of them are either working or looking for a job. A lot of them deal with uncertainty in what they should study, what they should do, what they will do if they cannot find work, what if what they want to do ends up being awful, what if they still live with their parents when they’re 30, etc. These seem to be pretty general questions of purpose and direction.

I think that a Gospel written for their cultural context might emphasize the fact that Jesus has a plan, that He is not scared of what happens because He is bigger and stronger and smarter than the problem. Jesus plan involves doing something that is very important, that is crucial to human existence, beyond the realm of “just me.” And because of that it is better and more rewarding than anything that “just I” could have done or thought of on my own.

I do not know for sure if I am fully grasp the concept of how to write Gospels for different cultures, although I get what Driscoll means when he explains that each of the four (Biblical) Gospels were written for a different cultural group. I am still trying to wrap my mind around it, though.

Adam

i’m pretty sure i came up short on that answer, and i definitely left some important things out. but the question was just “where would i start.”

so what about you? what aspect of Jesus would you emphasize? where would you start? think about it.

Posted on September 9th, 2009 by deWeb
Filed under: Uncategorized