Contours of Culture
Mission Conversion
by Ken Myers
About halfway into his book Foolishness to the Greeks, Lesslie Newbigin presents a claim that illumines the relationship between the book's title and its subtitle: The Gospel and Western Culture. What is it that makes the gospel foolish to our own (and not just the first century's) cultural moment? "From the point of view of our contemporary culture, the claim that God raised Jesus from the dead is irrational. It cannot be incorporated into the existing plausibility structure. . . . It must be regarded as the esoteric belief of a community . . .