Stealing their culture and religion? Uses (and abuses?) of cultural and religious artistic contextualization

To what degree do Christian mission workers, teachers, artists, and others evaluate the negative impact their contextualization has on others? Over the past four decades there has been no shortage of discussion and debate among Christians about contextualization. Much, if not most of this debate regards if and how contextualization efforts can remain faithful to the gospel and how to defend it against real or perceived critics. The most feared critics in these debates, however, are normally the Christian leaders looking over mission workers’ shoulders at their contextualized work. And whereas faithfulness to the gospel is certainly an important issue to consider, what is often not considered, at least to the same degree, is what scholars often call the inappropriate ‘appropriation’ of other’s practices. Thus in this article I seek to address some of the negative ways non-Christians may experience Christian contextualization, particularly when this involves a community’s cultural and religious resources. I will provide a brief overview of some of the issues involved and how contextualization may inadvertently become appropriation. I conclude with some questions that can begin to help mission workers who contextualize the cultural and religious practices of other communities do so in ways that seek to minimize harm to others and to the mission worker’s Gospel witness among them.