Includes bibliographical references (pages 639-656) and indexes.
CONTENTS NOTE
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Part I : Communication and mission -- 1. Communication, the missionary problem par excellence -- 2. Man, the communicating creature -- 3. The legacy of Rhetoric to Christian communication : Rhetoric and homiletics -- Rhetoric and communication theory in its larger dimensions -- 4. Perspectives from the science of communication : A basic model of the communication process ; Primary, secondary, and the tertiary sources ; Respondents and their responses ; The encoding and the decoding processes ; Verbal and nonverbal codes ; Communication channels and media feedback ; Noise ; Communication and Context -- 5. The problem of meaning : A thumbnail sketch of some discussions on meaning ; What happens when symbols "Mean"? ; Where is meaning to be found? ; The meaning of religious symbols ; How can we determine what verbal symbols mean? -- 6. Why do missionaries communicate? : The New Testament case for persuasion insights from communication theory ; Conclusion to Part I.
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Part II : Communication and culture -- 7. The role of culture in communication : The cultural barrier to missionary communication ; "Multiple Rhetorics" and intercultural communication ; Understanding culture ; Understanding cultures -- A three-culture model of missionary communication -- 8. Christ and His communicators confront culture : The tension between Christ and culture ; Culture--the high view ; Cultural relativism ; Analyzing the respondent culture ; transforming culture -- 9. Contextualization--its theological roots : What word shall we choose? ; The genesis of a new word ; So what does "contextualization" mean? ; Contextualization--a brief theological analysis -- 10. Cross-cultural communication--classic categories and paradigms : The speaker of source of the missionary message ; The content of the missionary message ; The style of the missionary message -- 11. Cross-cultural communication--contemporary categories and paradigms : The "seven dimensions" of cross-cultural communications ; Cultural distance -- 12. Respondents of other cultures : Cross-cultural identification ; respondent activities ; Respondent response ; Conclusion to part II.
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Part III : Worldviews--ways of perceiving the world -- 13. Worldviews and cross-cultural communication : Culture and worldview ; Defining "worldview" ; Categorizing worldviews ; Characterizing worldviews ; Biblical theology and the Christian worldview ; communicating Christ in the contexts of non-Christian Worldviews -- 14. communicating Christ into the naturalist worldview : Characterizing the naturalist worldview ; Communicating into a naturalist worldview -- 15. Communicating Christ into the tribal worldview : Defining the tribal worldview ; Characterizing the worldview of sub-Saharan Africa ; Communicating Christ to people with a tribal worldview -- 16. Communicating Christ into the Hindu-Buddhistic worldview : The ideas and development of Hinduism ; The ideas and development of Buddhism ; Communicating Christ to Hindus and Buddhists -- 17. Communicating Christ into a Chinese worldview : The worldview of ancient China ; The contributions of Lao-tzu and Confucius ; The Indian and Chinese worldviews compared ; The Chinese worldview and the communication of Christ -- 18. Communicating Christ into other monotheistic worldviews : The challenges of Judaism and Islam ; Communicating Christ to Muslims and Jews -- 19. Communicating Christ into the worldviews of syncretism and multireligion : Syncretism ; Multireligion ; Conclusion to Part III.
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Part IV : Cognitive Processes--Ways of thinking -- 20. The importance of how we know what we know : "Thinking about thinking" ; Cognitive process ; Cognitive maps ; The "mind of a people" -- 21. Cultural differences and the cognitive process : The bisystemic approaches of S.L. Gulick and F.S.C. Northrop ; The trisystemic approach of F.H. Smith -- 22. Conceptual thinking and the Western missionary -- 23. Communicating Christ in cultural areas where intuitional thinking predominates : Mystical thought ; Understanding intuitional thinking ; Communicating Christ to intuitionalists -- 24. Communicating Christ in cultural areas where concrete relational thinking predominates : Tribal peoples as concrete relational thinkers ; Chinese people as concrete relational thinkers ; Understanding concrete relational thinking ; Suggestions for communicating Christ to concrete relationalists ; Conclusion to part IV.
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Part IX Motivational resources--Ways of deciding -- 42. From persuasion to elenctics : Have we the right? ; Have we the resources? -- 43. Psychology, Ethnopsychology, and mission : Motivation and cultural patterns ; Points of contact ; Missionary appeals -- 44. Motivation, decision making, and conversion : Decision and nondecision orientations ; Group conversion and consensus decision making ; Conversion and decision making as point and process ; Profit equals reward minus cost ; The correlation between motivation for conversion and Christian attainment -- 45. Receptivity and missionary response : Timing Sequence ; Relevance ; Conclusion to part IX.
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Part V : Linguistic Forms--Ways of expressing ideas -- 25. The importance of language -- 26. Why bother to learn the language? : Language as a vehicle for Gospel communication ; English as a lingua franca for missionary communication ; The importance of learning the language of the receptor culture -- 27. Learning about language learning : Understanding language and languages ; Approaches to language learning ; Learning a language by "Cultural submersion" -- 28. What can we learn from language? : The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ; Linguistic mirrors of culture ; The relationship between language and receptivity ; Conclusion to part V.
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Part VI : Behavioral Patterns--ways of acting -- 29. From Plato and Aristotle to Edward T. Hall : The traditional approach to communication behavior ; The approach of Edward T. Hall ; Types of "silent language" behavior -- 30. The missionary and behavioral norms : Obedience to the will of God ; Accommodation to cultural norms ; When in Rome and in doubt -- 31. Seven Aspects of the "behavioral dimension" : Physical characteristics ; "Body language" ; "Touching behavior" ; Space speaks ; Time talks ; Paralanguage ; Artifacts and environment -- 32. Where the action is : Conclusion to part VI.
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Part VII Social structures--Ways of interacting -- 33. Communication and societal orientations -- 34. Status and role : The status and role of the missionary communicator ; Who are my respondents in relation to other members of their society? -- 35. Kinship: Kindred and lineage -- 36. Nonkinship groupings : Class in the Philippines ; Neighborhood associations in Japan -- 37. Urban and rural societies : City societies ; Peasant and tribal societies -- 38. Free and totalitarian societies : Conclusion to part VII.
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Part VIII : Media influence--Ways of channeling the message -- 39. Media have their own "messages" : "Media" and "message" according to McLuhan ; Types of "Media" and their "Messages" ; Learning from McLuhan -- 40. Using Simple Media : The potential of aural media ; Talk and chalk ; Drama, ritual, music, and dance -- 41. Using syndetic media : Separating fact from fiction ; The print media ; The electronic media ; Platform media ; Other media ; Mixing and matching media ; The importance of interpersonal communication ; Conclusion to part VIII.