Boubakar Sanou - A Biblical and Missiological Framework For Cross-Cultural Mission, Lobi Funeral in Burkina Faso

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Dissertations Graduate Research
2015
A Biblical and Missiological Framework for Cross-

Cultural Mission: A Case Study of the Lobi Funeral
Rites in Burkina Faso
Boubakar Sanou
Andrews University, [email protected]
This research is a product of the graduate program in Religion, Mission and Ministry PhD at Andrews
University. Find out more about the program.
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Recommended Citation
Sanou, Boubakar, "A Biblical and Missiological Framework for Cross-Cultural Mission: A Case Study of the Lobi Funeral Rites in
Burkina Faso" (2015). Dissertations. Paper 1572.
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ABSTRACT
A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR

CROSS-CULTURAL MISSION: A CASE STUDY OF
THE LOBI FUNERAL RITES IN BURKINA FASO
by
Boubakar Sanou
Adviser: Gorden R. Doss

ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
Dissertation
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
Title: A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CROSS-

CULTURAL MISSION: A CASE STUDY OF THE LOBI FUNERAL RITES IN
BURKINA FASO
Name of researcher: Boubakar Sanou
Name and degree of faculty adviser: Gorden R. Doss, PhD
Date completed: August 2015
Problem
Converts to Christianity in traditional contexts often face pressure to continue
traditional rituals and practices which sometimes contain unbiblical elements. Non-
selective performance of traditional practices can produce dual allegiance and syncretism.
Such is the case with Lobi Seventh-day Adventists concerning their traditional funeral
rites of passage. Some core elements of these traditional funeral rites, in which all
community members are expected to fully participate, conflict with biblical teachings on
the human condition after death.

Method
This dissertation starts by laying the theoretical and theological basis for
addressing the problem. The dissertation then uses ethnographic research of funeral rites
among the Lobi people of Burkina Faso to understand the biblical and missiological
issues they raise. The process of data collection during my field research was based on
observation of people’s behavior at a funeral ceremony and on a purposeful sampling of
16 participants for interviews to have a personal and deeper understanding of the Lobi
cultural and religious contexts in relation to funeral rites. I interviewed three Lobi
religious leaders, six Lobi Adventists who have taken part in traditional funeral rites
before becoming Adventists, two Lobi Adventists who continue to take part in traditional
funeral rites, four Lobi Adventists who are being pressured to participate in funeral rites,
and a Lobi Catholic priest who has published on Lobi funeral rites.
Results
My findings broadened my understanding of the religious and sociocultural
significance of the Lobi funeral rites as well as the challenges some traditional practices
pose to those committed to being fully biblical Christians. A biblical and missiological
framework was developed to address the challenges such traditional rites pose to
Christian mission in general and to Seventh-day Adventist mission in particular.
Conclusion
Given that the number of converts to Christianity among the Lobi of Burkina Faso
is only five percent of their population, the Joshua Project considers them to be an
unreached people group. If more Lobi are to be won to Christ and become mature
disciples, their real-life situations need to be understood and addressed both biblically
and missiologically. A well-planned ethnographic study is helpful in reaching this goal.
Biblical and missiological principles derived from such a process can also be generalized
to other cross-cultural mission contexts.

Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

A Dissertation
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Boubakar Sanou
August 2015
© Copyright by Boubakar Sanou 2015
All Rights Reserved
A dissertation
presented in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Boubakar Sanou
APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE
_______________________________ ______________________________
Faculty Adviser, Director of PhD/ThD Program
Gorden R. Doss Thomas Shepherd
Professor of Missions
_______________________________ ______________________________
Bruce L. Bauer Dean, SDA Theological Seminary
Professor of Missions Jiří Moskala
_______________________________
Teresa Reeve
Associate Professor of
New Testament
_______________________________
Stanley Patterson
Professor of Christian Ministry
_______________________________ ______________________________
Wilbert R. Shenk Date approved
Senior Professor of Mission History and
Contemporary Culture
To
Kurt, Margaret, Sarah, Amy, and Eric Unglaub,
Missionaries to the Lobi of Burkina Faso, 1993-2000
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter
1. OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Background of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Challenge to Christian Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Purpose Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Research Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Justification for the Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Delimitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Dissertation Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE LOBI

FUNERAL RITES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Socio-Cultural Context of the Lobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Brief History and Geographical Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Social Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Community Life and Social Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Status, Leadership, and Rites of Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Introduction to Rites of Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Birth Rites among the Lobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Initiation Rites among the Lobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Marriage Rites among the Lobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Conceptual Background of Lobi Funeral Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Concept of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Ancestors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Lobi Funeral Rites of Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
iv
Mourning the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Finding the Cause of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The Central Funeral Rites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The First Funeral Rite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Second Funeral Rite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3. DEATH AND FUNERAL RITES OF PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE . . . . . . . . 51
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Cultural Contexts of the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Cultural Values of Community in the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Cultural Values of Community in the Early Church . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Biblical View of Life and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Nature of Humans and the State of the Dead in the Bible . . . . 58
The Gathering to One’s Ancestors /People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Belief in the Afterlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Resurrection of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Rituals and Cultural Practices Surrounding Death in Scripture . . . . . . . 70
Mourning the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Burial Customs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Baptism for the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Forbidden Death-Related Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Cutting One’s Body for the Dead—Leviticus 19:28 . . . . . . . . . 80
Spiritism—Leviticus 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:10-13 . . . . . . . 81
Shaving the Head for the Dead—Deuteronomy 14:1-2 . . . . . . . 82
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CHALLENGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Description of Research Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Interviews with Lobi Religious Leaders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Interviews with Lobi Seventh-day Adventists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Members Who Took Part in Lobi Funeral Rites before
Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Members Who Took Part/Are Taking Part in Lobi Funeral
Rites after Becoming Adventists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Members Experiencing Pressure to Participate in Lobi
Funeral Rites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Observation of Public Behavior at a Funeral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Biblical and Missiological Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
The Fear of Evil Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Social Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Poor Discipleship of Some Converts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Lack of Worldview Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
v
Inconsistency of Some Church Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5. A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR

RESPONDING TO THE LOBI FUNERAL RITES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Critical Contextualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
God and Cultural Context of the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Contextualization in the New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
The Incarnation as a Foundation of Contextualization . . . . . . . 106
Christ as the Logos in John 1:1, 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
The Gospels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Jerusalem Council—Acts 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Process of Critical Contextualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exegesis of Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Exegesis of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Critical Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Functional Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Transformational Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Minimizing the Risk of Religious Syncretism in Mission . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Understanding Religious Syncretism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Factors Contributing to Religious Syncretism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Growing Acceptance of Religious Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Mission Approaches to Other Religions and Cultures . . . . . . . . 119
Inadequate Discipling of New Converts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
A Biblical Response to Religious Syncretism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Emphasis on Discipleship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Long-term commitment to the spiritual welfare and
growth of believers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Modeling a spiritual walk with God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Personal attention to believers’ spiritual needs . . . . . . . . . 124
The teaching of biblical truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Dimensions of Biblical Discipleship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Truth dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Allegiance dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Power dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Toward a balanced approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Theological and Missiological Perspectives on Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Working Definition of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
A Theological Perspective on Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
A Missiological Perspective on Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Creating Functional Substitutes for Lobi Funeral Rites . . . . . . . . . . 148
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
vi
6. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . 155
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Major Ethnic Groups of Burkina Faso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. Discipleship Supported by Its Truth, Allegiance, and Power Dimensions . . . . . . 137
3. The Relation between the Three Dimensions as Proposed by Charles Kraft . . . . 137
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My journey into the Doctor of Philosophy program began in August 2011.
Without the help of God and the many people he used to help my family, this journey
would have been impossible to accomplish.
I am grateful to God for all his provisions. The journey was difficult, sometimes
unbearable financially and emotionally, but God has always come up with a way of
rescue.
I express grateful thanks to Kady Sanou, my sister, for her love and support;
Serge and Chantal Sanou, our first hosts in the United States; Linda Bauer, who has been
a mother to my wife and me here in Berrien Springs, always tenderly caring for us; Bruce
Bauer, Peter and Jacobus Van Bemmelen, Loren and Ann Hamel, Allain and Georgette
Long, Rosemarie Anker, Steve Nash, Thomas Shepherd, Mabel Bowen, Bonnie Proctor,
Cheryl and Gorden Doss, Norman Doss, John and Rubi Snell, Rudi Maier, Hyveth
Williams, Yvonna Applewhite, Diana Rimoni, Emmanuel Harrison Takyi, Choi Gyeong
Chun, Kelvin Onongha, Haron Matwetwe, Wagner Kuhn, Christon Arthur, Chiemela
Ikonne, Marcellin and Esther Apiou, Claude and Katherine Apiou, Stéphane Saba,
Philippe and Aïcha Apiou, Frédéric Apiou, Gérard and Sandrine Bayili, William H.
Wright, Dafrassi Ouattara, Michael Adomako, Ugochukwu Elems, Emmanuel and
Oluwabukola Abar, Michael and Enid Harris, Clément and Fati Fassinou, and the donors
ix
to the PhD/ThD Scholarship Funds, for the various ways they have allowed God to use
them to be a blessing to my family.
I am appreciative of the spiritual support of my prayer group partners Sami Kam,
Sié Kam, Jean Jacques Manigni, Gérard Bayili, Gaston Ouédraogo, and Adamou Yoni.
They have prayed faithfully for my family every single Monday.
Pastor Ben Issouf Ouédraogo and Abbé Hervé Sansan Pooda have been very
instrumental in the success of my field research in Burkina Faso. Thank you very much.
Gorden Doss, Bruce Bauer, Teresa Reeve, and Stanley Patterson, my committee
members, have challenged and channeled my thoughts. They have helped me to be
balanced in thinking both biblically and missiologically. I am very grateful to them.
Finally, I am very thankful to my beloved wife, Sylvie, a true partner in ministry.
She has always encouraged me to aim high for the glory of God. I am grateful for her
love, support, and constant prayers.
x
CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION
Introduction
This dissertation is a study of mission within the Lobi cultural context in Burkina
Faso. The Lobi are an ethnic group living in three West African countries: southwestern
Burkina Faso, northern Côte d’Ivoire, and western Ghana. The Lobi are predominantly
ethno-religionists.1 This study aims at investigating the socio-cultural and religious
significance associated with the Lobi funeral rites of passage,2 evaluating these cultural
practices in the light of biblical teachings. It will then propose a biblical and
missiological framework for responding to them in order to facilitate a full acceptance of
the gospel and thus avoid syncretistic practices among Lobi Seventh-day Adventists.3
1
The Joshua Project, an organization dedicated to reaching people groups with the gospel, gives
the following statistics on the Lobi living in Burkina Faso: Population (528,000), Evangelicals (2.00%),
and Christian adherents (5.00%). Because the percentage of Evangelicals is only 2% and that of the
Christian adherents is only 5% among the Lobi, they are considered an unreached people group by the
Joshua Project (accessed December 7, 2014, www.joshuaproject.net/ countries.php?rog3=UV).
2
Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997),
94. She defines rites of passage as “ceremonies that accompany and dramatize such major events as birth,
coming-of-age initiations for boys and girls, marriage, and death. Sometimes called ‘life-crisis’ or ‘life-
cycle’ rites, they culturally mark a person’s transition from one stage of social life to another.”
3
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is present in Burkina Faso since 1971. But it was only in
1992 that two Adventist Frontier missionaries (Kurt Unglaub and Herbert Prandl) took the SDA message to
the Lobi. Their strategies consisted of establishing good rapport with villagers, helping them with basic
needs, and then Bible studies followed. Their first converts were baptized in 1994. Today there are about
438 Lobi Seventh-day Adventists in Burkina Faso.
1
Background to the Study
Prior to the advent of Christianity and Islam in Africa, the religious systems
developed by Africans formed the basis of their social and cultural life. Although this has
been to some extent modified by colonial and postcolonial experiences, these indigenous
religions continue to exist alongside and sometimes within Christianity and Islam and to
play an important role in daily experience. As most converts to Christianity are from the
African Traditional Religions (ATR) background, “it is not uncommon to find Bible-
believing Christians in Africa reverting to unchristian practices from time to time, and
especially, in times of felt needs and crises.”4
Because the gospel is always received from within one’s own cultural identity,5
those who leave ATR to join Christianity take with them, in large measure, their cultural
worldview, which is heavily influenced by traditional beliefs. A convert to Christianity or
Islam from an ATR background does not become a Christian or a Muslim with the same
experiences and challenges as someone from another part of the world. Just like converts
world-wide, African converts’ new religious practices remain colored by the culture in
which they grew up. This is so because when people come to Christ they are likely to
interpret the Scriptures through the filter of their own worldview, thus often tending to be
4
Zacchaeus Mathema, “Towards an Understanding of the African Worldview,” in The Church,
Culture and Spirits: Adventism in Africa, ed. Kwabena Donkor (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research
Institute, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2011), 38. See also Alexander Jebadu, “Ancestral
Veneration and the Possibility of its Incorporation into the Church,” Exchange 36, no. 3 (2007): 246-247.
According to him, the same religious phenomenon is also practiced in Asia, Latin America, Melanesia, and
Australia (among the Aborigines).
5
Timothy C. Tennent, Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first
Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2010), 186.
2
syncretistic by weaving non-biblical beliefs and practices from past religious systems into
the beliefs and practices of Christianity.6
In general, rites of passage are seen as very important moments in the social and
religious life of a community. Rituals related to funeral ceremonies, in particular, are of
utmost significance as they are believed to maintain the relationship between the world of
the living and that of the ancestors (the living dead). Together the living and their
ancestors form an ongoing community.7 As such, the relation between the living and the
dead stands out as one of the most fundamental features of traditional religious life.
James Amanze points out that “it is commonly believed that the ancestors still live,
though invisible, and that they are certainly present in the life of the individual and the
community. . . . They see everything, hear everything, are interested in the affairs of
human beings, and wish, above everything else, to be remembered.”8 The ancestors are
believed to be the guarantors of life and well-being,9 the representatives of law, order,
6
Gailyn Van Rheenen, Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts (Pasadena, CA: William
Carey Library, 1991), 95.
7
Teresa Cruz e Silva and Ana Laforte, “Christianity, African Traditional Religions and Cultural
Identity in Southern Mozambique,” in Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between
Christian and African Traditional Religions, ed. James L. Cox (Cardiff, UK: Cardiff Academic Press,
1998), 37.
8
James N. Amanze, “Christianity and Ancestors Veneration in Botswana,” Studies in World
Christianity 9, no. 1 (2003): 44.
Aylword Shorter, “Conflicting Attitudes to Ancestor Veneration in Africa,” African Ecclesial

9
Review 11, no. 1 (January 1969): 29. See also Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition
(London, UK: SCM Press, 1973), 193.
3
and ethical values in the community,10 and the intermediaries between the living and
God.11
African social structure also places an emphasis on community centeredness
rather than individualism. A sense of community and humane living are highly cherished
values of traditional African life. With this attitude toward life, it is “the community
[that] makes and produces the individual. The individual has no existence of his own
apart from the community’s.”12 The following saying best describes this social structure,
“I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am.”13 Full membership in the
community is synonymous with participating in its beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and
festivals; and “to be without one of these corporate elements of life is to be out of the
whole picture.”14 Because identification with the community is a primary virtue,
individuals generally find fulfillment in as much as they belong. Eugene Hillman
captures more vividly this sense of communal life in the following way:
In societies that are held together by strong kin relationships, individuality is rarely, if
ever asserted as an explicit value in itself. The person is not generally seen in
isolation from the community. Rather, his personal individuality is affirmed and
10
John S. Mbiti, African Religions & Philosophy (Oxford, UK: Heinemann, 1990), 82. Misfortune,
illness, and death in the community are often interpreted as the sign of the ancestors’ anger because of an
individual or family’s misconduct. Any time the ancestors’ authority is questioned, they in turn question
people’s lives.
Ignatius M. Zvarevashe, “The Problem of Ancestors and Inculturation,” African Ecclesial

11
Review 29, no. 4 (August 1987): 242. See also Edward Geoffrey Parrinder, Religion in Africa (Baltimore,
MD: Penguin Books, 1969), 69. It is believed that “just as a chief is approached through an intermediary,
so prayer may go to God through the ancestral spirits.”
Zablon Nthamburi, “Making the Gospel Relevant Within the African Context and Culture,”
12
African Ecclesial Review 25, no. 3 (June 1983): 163.

13
Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 106.
Ibid., 2. Because in some instances this means being severed from one’s context of security, it
14
makes many converts to Christianity vulnerable to syncretism and dual allegiance.
4
fulfilled only in relation to the good of others, and this is explicitly recognized as
normative, to the extent that the individual is expected to follow the socially
established patterns. In this sense, each man lives for others, and his personal
development is always community-oriented.15
Challenge to Christian Mission
The above overview highlights the current challenge to Christian mission in the
traditional African context. For Christian witness to be effective in this context, the
presentation of the gospel must not only be biblically sound but also “culturally relevant
and receiver-oriented thus minimizing rejection by and alienation of the people to whom
it is presented.”16 Further, “because the gospel cannot be heard in the abstract apart from
a cultural home,”17 God must speak to an African as an African, and not as a Middle
Easterner, a North American, or any other person outside of Africa.
Historically, Christian responses to the beliefs and practices of traditional
religions have taken one of four main forms: displacement, accommodation, fulfillment,
or substitution.18 The displacement paradigm “denies that there is anything that is of God
in non-Christian religions.”19 Its advocates judge every aspect of traditional religious
beliefs and practices to be idolatrous, and thus anti-biblical, and require converts to
15
Eugene Hillman, Polygamy Reconsidered: African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches
(New York: Orbis Books, 1975), 112.
16
Boubakar Sanou, “Motivating and Training the Laity to Increase their Involvement in Ministry
in the Ouaga-Center Adventist Church in Burkina Faso” (DMin diss., Andrews University, 2010), 42.
17
Dean Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005), 138.
Henry N. Smith, “A Typology of Christian Responses to Chinese Ancestor Worship,” Journal of

18
Ecumenical Studies 26, no. 4 (Fall 1989): 628.

19
Jabulani A. Nxumalo, “Christ and Ancestors in the African World: A Pastoral Consideration,”
Journal of Theology for Southern Africa no. 32 (September 1980): 6.
5
Christianity to make a complete conceptual and ritual break with them. They assume that
there is religious incompatibility between Christianity and traditional practices. 20
The accommodation model emphasizes the socio-ethical motives of traditional
beliefs and practices and permits Christian converts to actively participate in them.21 The
principle of accommodation presupposes the acknowledgment of neutral and naturally
good elements in non-Christian ways of life and insists that such elements should be
incorporated as an essential part of the local Christian community’s behavior.22 In some
contexts, this paradigm of mission often tends towards an uncritical acceptance of
traditional practices by the church as part of people’s cultural heritage that should be
respected.23 As a result, it is susceptible to opening the door to syncretism as Christians
continue to maintain beliefs and practices that stand in conflict with the gospel.24
The fulfillment model assumes that all the positive elements of traditional customs
already exist in the Christian tradition in a higher form, and therefore views traditional
rites as “a laudable preparation for Christianity’s more complete revelation, instead of as
a totally depraved system.”25 The fulfillment theorists are not content with merely
replacing old cultural forms with new Christian ones. They are also concerned with
20
Smith, “A Typology of Christian Responses to Chinese Ancestor Worship,” 629.
21
Ibid., 641.
22
Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), 67.
23
Paul Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
1985), 185; Mary Yeo Carpenter, “Familism and Ancestor Veneration: A Look at Chinese Funeral Rites,”
Missiology: An International Review 24, no. 4 (October 1996): 504.
24
Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries, 185.
25
Smith, “A Typology of Christian Responses to Chinese Ancestor Worship,” 638, 640.
6
finding approaches to satisfy the meanings behind the traditional rites as a way of
respecting the important motives that form the foundation of traditional practices.26 This
type of sympathetic evangelism is also susceptible to syncretism.
The substitution paradigm seeks Christian functional substitutes to replace what it
sees as valuable social and psychological functions of traditional rituals to satisfy the
function of old religious practices and thus fill the gaps left by eliminating non-biblical
practices.27 While the substitution model retains the theological exclusivism of the
displacement model, it nevertheless acknowledges that an inconsiderate Christian
approach to traditional religions builds up barriers that keep many people from fully
responding to the gospel. Biblically appropriate functional substitutes provide enough
cultural continuity along with the change to adequately convey Christian meanings and
forms within the traditional context. They also afford the best means of meeting felt
needs associated with rites of passage without creating cultural voids.28
This dissertation draws on principles of the substitution paradigm. Although this
paradigm of mission may have some weaknesses, it appears to be the most credible of the
four models. Using the critical contextualization approach, this paradigm emphasizes “the
importance of formulating, presenting, and practicing the Christian faith in such a way
that is relevant to the cultural context of the target group in terms of conceptualization,
expression and application; yet maintaining theological coherence, biblical integrity, and
26
Smith, “A Typology of Christian Responses to Chinese Ancestor Worship,” 639.
27
Ibid., 635.
28
Ibid., 635.
7
theoretical consistency.”29 It is essential that the universal message of the Word of God,
which transcends all cultures, be particularized in each ministry context.30
Statement of the Problem
African social structure puts considerable pressure on many converts to
Christianity to take part in ATR rituals, which most of the time include unbiblical
practices (e.g., sacrificing to the ancestors, divination, providing gifts to the deceased for
their journey to the land of the ancestors) in order to be accepted as full members of their
communities and tribes. Such situations can easily lead new converts to succumb to dual
allegiance and syncretism as they continue to practice elements of ATR. The Seventh-day
Adventist (SDA) Church in Burkina Faso is faced with the problem of understanding and
resolving the syncretistic challenges faced by both new converts and established
members in the Lobi context.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this research is to do an ethnographic study of the Lobi funeral
rites and then to propose a biblical and missiological framework for responding to the
challenges they pose to Christian mission. This will help the SDA Church make true
disciples and avoid syncretism and dual allegiance among its members.
Research Questions
Three main questions will guide this study:
Enoch Wan, “Critiquing the Model of the Traditional Western Theology and Calling for Sino-
29
Theology,” Chinese Around the World (November 1999): 13.

30
Tennent, Invitation to World Missions, 334
8
1. What are some of the cognitive, affective, and evaluative meanings attached
to the Lobi funeral rites?
2. How does the Bible evaluate the issues related to Lobi funeral rites?
3. What approach to missions among the Lobi in regard to their funeral rites
would best facilitate the development of biblical Christianity?
Justification for the Research
Mission always takes place in particular contexts in which religion, culture, and
many other factors play significant roles in people’s approach to what matters to them.31
A thorough understanding of a people group’s cultural practices is therefore a
prerequisite to any effective cross-cultural communication of the gospel to them.32
By investigating the cultural meanings associated with one of the most important
rites of passage among the Lobi in Burkina Faso, evaluating them in the light of
Scripture, and proposing a biblical and missiological framework for responding to the
challenge they pose to Christian mission, this research has the potential to make a
significant contribution towards effective ministry and mission.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of this study builds on the models developed by Paul
Hiebert and Charles Kraft to address cross-cultural issues in mission as well as on the
categories developed by Ronald L. Grimes, Catherine Bell, and Victor Turner to describe
31
Sanou, “Motivating and Training the Laity,” 42.
32
Lloyd E. Kwast, “Understanding Culture,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement,
4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: Institute of International Studies,
2009), 397.
9
the structure, perspectives, and dimensions of rituals. This study of the impact of culture
on religious practices will be based on:
1. An exegesis of the Lobi culture. Paul Hiebert asserts that there are three basic
dimensions of culture: the cognitive, the affective, and the evaluative.33 Because
Scripture needs to penetrate and transform every aspect of an individual’s life, the Lobi
funeral rites have been studied using these three dimensions of culture.
2. A ritual exegesis of the Lobi funeral rites. According to Ronald L. Grimes, the
first prerequisite to understand a rite adequately is to fully describe that rite. He provides
a set of six categories that help in mapping the field of ritual. (a) Ritual space: where does
the ritual enactment occur? (b) Ritual objects: what, and how many objects are associated
with the rite? What is done with those objects? (c) Ritual time: at what time of the day
does the ritual occur? (d) Ritual sound and language: does the rite employ nonlinguistic
sounds such as animal calls, shouting, or moaning? What moods are avoided? (e) Ritual
identity: what ritual roles and offices are operative—elder, priest, diviner, healer? Who
participates most fully? (f) Ritual action: what kinds of actions are performed as part of
the rite? What are the central gestures?34 Grimes argues that “if we are to treat rites as
seriously as we do ethics and theologies, we must work with full, evocative descriptions,
not merely summaries of the values and beliefs implicit in them.”35 A detailed ritual
exegesis of the Lobi funeral rites will help highlight their socio-cultural significance.
33
Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries, 30-34.
34
Ronald L. Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies, 3rd ed. (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Ritual
Studies International, 2010), 19-32. See also Catherine Bell, Ritual Perspectives and Dimensions (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997), and Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-
Structure, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction, 2008).
35
Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies, 19.
10
3. A biblical exegesis of selected passages. This step is necessary to understand
the biblical principles about funeral rites to give a biblical and theological response to the
issues related to the Lobi funeral rites.
4. A biblical and missiological response to Lobi funeral rites. Although the
Word of God is supreme over each culture, the books of the Bible have been revealed and
written within specific cultures. Charles H. Kraft argues that “if the church is to be
meaningful to receiving peoples, it needs to be [as] appropriate to their cultural lives as
the early Church was to the lives of first century peoples.”36 In other words, Jesus’
religion is to be incarnated into every culture. The Willowbank Report also states that
“God’s personal self-disclosure in the Bible was given in terms of the hearers’ own
culture. . . . The biblical writers made critical use of whatever cultural material that was
available to them for the expression of their message.”37 Because the “universal
dimension of the gospel precludes any ethnocentrism or parochialism,”38 all genuine
communication of the gospel in missions should seek to make the gospel concepts and
ideas relevant to people within their own cultures.39 While firmly maintaining biblical
integrity, the church in its mission must also be resourceful and flexible in adjusting its
36
Charles H. Kraft, “Culture, Worldview and Contextualization,” in Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement: A Reader, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA:
Institute of International Studies, 2009), 402.
37
The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, “The Willowbank Report,” in Perspectives
on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne
(Pasadena, CA: Institute of International Studies, 2009), 508.
38
Andreas J. Köstenberger, “The Challenge of a Systematized Biblical Theology of Mission:
Missiological Insights from the Gospel of John,” Missiology: An International Review 23, no. 4 (October
1995): 456.
39
11
methods and procedures to the changing situations of the world in which it finds itself.
The relevance of the Church in any context depends on its ability to effectively address
the realities of the pressing socio-cultural problems encountered by its converts.40
Although all cultures are human and therefore corrupted by sin, we must
nonetheless recognize that the gospel can still be comprehended and applied from within
every culture.41 There is, however, the possibility of falling into syncretism in the process
of gospel transmission/translation. Therefore, Paul Hiebert advocates for an ongoing
critical contextualization.42
Methodology
Missiology is concerned with overcoming barriers to the full reception of the
gospel. Many of those barriers are cultural. For that reason, ethnographic descriptions
have been used to address the breadth of the cultural issues related to the Lobi funeral
rites of passage. In the process, library research, interviews, and observation of public
behavior at funerals have been conducted to provide a base for understanding the Lobi
social, cultural, and religious contexts. As missiological thinking should flow from
scriptural principles, selected biblical passages have been closely examined to give a
biblical and theological response to the issues related to human condition after death and
the traditional Lobi funeral rites.
40
Nthamburi, “Making the Gospel Relevant Within the African Context and Culture,” 162.
41
Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, and Timothy C. Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission:
Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2010), 268.
42
Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries, 186-190.
12
The process of data collection during my field research was based on observation
of people’s behavior at a funeral ceremony and on a purposeful sampling of 16
participants for interviews in order to have a personal understanding of the Lobi cultural
and religious contexts. I interviewed three Lobi religious leaders, six Lobi Adventists
who have taken part in funeral rites before becoming Adventists, two Lobi Adventists
who continue to take part in funeral rites, four Lobi Adventists who are being pressured
to participate in funeral rites, and a Lobi Catholic priest who has published on
Lobi funeral rites. All the participants in my interviews were adults.
Delimitation
This study of the Lobi funeral rites is limited to current practices and does not
probe deeply into their historical origin and how they may have evolved over the last few
centuries.
Limitations
The following are the limitations to this project: (1) there is a scarcity of written
resources dealing with funeral rites of passage as practiced by the Lobi in Burkina Faso;
(2) Many Adventists who are known to participate in death-related rites declined my
invitation for interviews; (3) The number of respondents (15) appears less than ideal; and
(4) My non-Lobi origins give me a certain bias in my approach to this study.
Dissertation Outline
This dissertation is structured around six chapters. The first chapter sets the
background of the study.
Chapter 2 discusses the religious, social, and cultural dimensions of the Lobi
13
funeral rites. Since in the Lobi context every aspect of life revolves around religion, this
chapter focuses on the impact of religious beliefs on everyday life in the Lobi context.
Important Lobi rites of passage are discussed with an emphasis on funeral rites, which are
believed to lead to a person’s elevation to ancestorhood, and on the role ancestors are
believed to play in the life of the community.
Chapter 3 examines death and funeral rites in the Bible with a special interest in
the biblical view of life and death, the rituals and cultural practices surrounding death,
and three forbidden death-related rituals in Scripture.
Chapter 4 reports on my field research. It also highlights five major biblical and
missiological challenges that need to be addressed for effective ministry and mission
among the Lobi.
Chapter 5 proposes a biblical and missiological framework for responding to the
Lobi funeral rites. The principles of this framework could also apply to studying any
group of people in order to ensure that the gospel presentation is both biblically coherent
and culturally relevant, thus minimizing the risk of religious syncretism.
Chapter 6 summarizes the dissertation, draws conclusions, and makes
recommendations for enhancing Seventh-day Adventist mission and ministry in cross-
cultural settings in general and among the Lobi in particular.
14
CHAPTER 2
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS
OF THE LOBI FUNERAL RITES
Introduction
The focus of this chapter is to describe the religious, social, and cultural
dimensions of Lobi funeral rites of passage. The description starts with the religious
context because religion is a fundamental element of Lobi life and is at the center of
every aspect of their social and cultural life. Everything undertaken by the Lobi is
informed by their religious beliefs.1 Mbiti rightly remarks that “Africans are notoriously
religious” to the point that “religion permeates into all departments of life so fully that it
is not easy or possible always to isolate it.”2
As primarily a religious activity, funerals play a very important role among the
Lobi as in the rest of traditional African contexts.3 The traditional Lobi society is
1
Hervé Sansan Pooda, interview by author, Gaoua, Burkina Faso, May 12, 2014. Hervé Sansan
Pooda is a Lobi Catholic priest based in Gaoua, Burkina Faso. He has done extensive work on the Lobi
funeral rites of passage. I had a long interview with him during my field research.
2
3
There are excellent sources dealing with similarities in funeral rites across many African
societies. I use some of these sources on shared African beliefs and practices in my description of the Lobi
funeral rites when I know from my experience of living among the Lobi and from my field research that the
Lobi share these general characteristics. These general characteristics of funeral rites in traditional African
contexts have also been cross-checked with the available primary sources dealing with the Lobi funeral
rites.
15
conservative in that it is their religious tradition that dictates the contours of all the other
aspects of life. The societal structures are believed to have been revealed to their
ancestors for whom they have great reverence and respect. Ancestors are believed to have
a continuing influence on the living community. Following the footsteps of their
ancestors is therefore perceived both as a privilege and a mandate. Society cannot fully
understand itself unless its members continue to learn and act upon what has been
transmitted to and by their ancestors. According to Hervé Sansan Pooda, among the Lobi
funerals are so important that they always supersede other scheduled social activities.4
Funerals bring more people together in Lobi villages than any other social event. All
other activities must be stopped in order to honor the dead.5 This makes relating to
funerals a key aspect of effective mission.
Socio-Cultural Context of the Lobi
Brief History and Geographic Location
According to history the Lobi migrated in successive waves from northwest
Ghana in search of fertile uncultivated land and settled in the southwestern part of
Burkina Faso and the northern part of Côte d’Ivoire. Today this people group is found in
4
Pooda, interview, May 12, 2014.
5
Hervé Sansan Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà chez les Lobi d’Afrique de
l’Ouest: Une Lecture Africaine de la Bible en Jean 11:1-44 (Sarrebruck, Germany: Editons Universitaires
Européennes, 2010), 7. In 2001 as Hervé Sansan Pooda and other priests were preparing to celebrate the
midnight Christmas Mass, it was reported that someone died in the village. Because of that death, only very
view of their parishioners showed up at the mass. Traditional religious practices have more importance to
many Lobi converts to Christianity. This is an example of the very entrenched syncretism among some
Christians (p. 8).
16
Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire.6 Hervé Sansan Pooda asserts that the details of
Lobi history remain a mystery due to the fact that they do not recount historical events;
historical preference is given to the memory of their rites.7 Some historians of the Lobi
assert that their society took shape in the mid-nineteenth century when the djoro (or jòrò),
a powerful socio-religious organization, was set up to ascribe the Lobi identity to their
community members by means of initiation.8
Figure 1. Major ethnic groups of Burkina Faso. Source: “Les communutés du Burkina
Faso,” accessed December 11, 2014, http://www.planete-burkina.com/ethnies_burkina
_faso.php.
6
Ama Mazama, “Lobi,” Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama
Mazama (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2009), 382. See also Jack Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors:
A Study of the Mortuary Customs of the Lodagaa of West Africa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
1962), 3-12, and Hervé Sansan Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà chez les Lobi d’Afrique de
l’Ouest: Une Lecture Africaine de la Bible en Jean 11:1-44 (Sarrebruck, Germany: Editons Universitaires
Européennes, 2010), 79-84.
7
Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà, 80.
8
Daniela Bognolo, Lobi (Milan: 5 Continents Press, 2007), 7-9 and Madeleine Père, Les Lobi:
Tradition et Changement, Tome 1 (Laval, France: Editions Siloë, 1988), 230-256.
17
Social Organization
There is no centralized political system among the Lobi.9 This very unique social
characteristic of the Lobi means that they have no village or ethnic chiefs, in contrast to
all other people groups in Burkina Faso. The major structural organizations are the
village, the clan (patriclan or matriclan), and the nuclear family10 but the patriclan and
matriclan remain the two major categories of social groupings. There are four matriclans
called car and about one hundred patriclans or kuon.11 The patriclan refers to the paternal
lineage and is said to have started with the jòrò initiation rites, that is, long after the
matriclan.12 As such, it is only at the initiation ceremony that a Lobi really discovers
his/her patriclan and its rules and regulations as well as its religious secrets.13 The
matriclans provide the Lobi with their roots. The members of a matriclan are united by
blood lines dating back to a common female ancestor.14 Positions of authority reside
within the patriclans, however “the jurisdiction of any one of these extends only to a very
limited number of persons.”15 The only clearly visible role of direct authority is at the
9
Jack Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors: A Study of the Mortuary Customs of the
Lodagaa of West Africa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962), 3.
10
11
Cécile de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi: Une société Bilinéaire du Burkina Faso et de
la Côte d’Ivoire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1987),
12
de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 175.
13
Jan Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” in Personhood and Agency: The
Experience of Self and Others in African Cultures, ed. Michael Jackson and Ivan Karp (Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), 151; Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà, 85; de
Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 192.
14
15
Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors, 7.
18
family level, between a father and his children.
In the absence of a centralized political system, the community is held together by
religious values under the custody of the elders, priests, and especially the custodian of
the Earth shrine (didar) who functions as the high priest for the whole village.16 The
office of the didar is an influential religious office because the didar is the one who
speaks for and represents the ancestors and mediates between them and the living.17 The
ancestors guarantee social order, protection, and well-being in every aspect of life to all
the inhabitants. The inhabitants of each village are thought to be further united by the fact
that they drink the same water, eat from the same land, and have common taboos.18
Community Life and Social Values
The Lobi social structure places an important emphasis on communal life.
Community centeredness is a highly cherished social value. Solidarity among group
members is the first and most important Lobi social value. The Lobi are known to be
united both in happiness and in misfortune. This high sense of solidarity obliges the
whole group to avenge a group member who is attacked or killed by another group.19
Generally,
In Burkina Faso, communities are closely knit together by a web of relationships and
other social structures that emphasize corporateness as against individualism. The
community makes and produces the individual. The individual has no existence of his
own apart from the community. . . . The culture knows no isolated individual. Man is
16
de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 133, 238.
17
18
de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 125.
19
19
man because he belongs. He is part of a larger family, clan or a tribe.20
The Lobi are very conscious of shame and honor. The ‘lobiduur or the ideal Lobi
is another revered social value. The concept of ‘lobiduur can be described as one who has
courage, excellence, honor, and good social reputation. It pushes each person to put
his/her honor, that of his/her immediate family, and that of his/her group above all other
social norms. A person with a good sense of ‘lobiduur takes good care of his/her family,
avenges his relatives, and participates fully in the community’s social and religious
events. Failure to live up to that ideal brings shame not only on the individual, but also on
his/her family and clan.21
Status, Leadership, and Rites of Passage
The traditional Lobi society is hierarchical in its structure just as its religious
universe is hierarchical. The progression of life is divided into stages, and transitions are
marked by well-defined rituals.22 Paul Hiebert, Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tiénou explain that
“these ‘life cycle rites’ transform persons from one level of identity to another, and in so
doing, give them a growing sense of worth and importance.”23 Because there are no
chieftaincy titles among the Lobi, status is mostly achieved through hard work and rites
of passage.24 Rites of passage are part of the socially recognized means through which
20
21
22
See Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: Oxford University Press,
1997), and Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine
Transaction, 2008).
23
Paul G. Hiebert, R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tiénou, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian
Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 98.
24
Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” 161.
20
individuals achieve status in their community25 because these rites mark the passage of an
individual from one stage to another and from one role or societal position to another.
Although birth is also a rite of passage, the three most important rites of passage that
confer status on individuals among the Lobi are initiation, marriage, and funeral rites.
These rites of passage are very important because of the social and cultural identity they
provide to the participants.26 Apart from ascribing social status and leadership roles to its
members through their participation in rites of passage, traditional African society also
believes that societal harmony is not possible without them.27 As such, rites of passage
take on significant implications for both the participants and their communities since they
“help define and redefine the community’s relationship to an individual and the
individual’s changing place in the community.”28
Introduction to Rites of Passage
Catherine Bell defines rites of passage as “ceremonies that accompany and
dramatize such major events as birth, coming-of-age initiations for boys and girls,
marriage, and death. Sometimes called ‘life-crisis’ or ‘life-cycle’ rites, they culturally
mark a person’s transition from one stage of social life to another.”29 The content of rites
of passage reveals societal values at their deepest level. Rites of passage hold the key to
25
Johnson Pemberton III, “Iconography,” Macmillan Compendium: World Religions (1998 ed.),
1:527-529.
26
Gailyn Van Rheenen, Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts (Pasadena, CA: William
Carey, 1991), 38.
27
Osadolor Imasogie, “The Nature of Rites of Passage in African Traditional Religion,” Ogbomoso
Journal of Theology 7 (December 1992): 14.
28
Wayne E. Oates, When Religion Gets Sick (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1970), 81.
29
Bell, Ritual, 94.
21
understanding how people think and feel about what matters to them and therefore form
the basis for interacting with their natural and social environments.30 The value of rites of
passage is found in the fact that they publicly declare that the socio-cultural order of a
society supersedes the natural biological order. In other words, “physical birth is one
thing; being properly identified and accepted as a member of the social group is another.
Likewise, the appearance of facial hair or menses does not make someone an adult; only
the community confers that recognition, and it does it so in its own time.”31
The Lobi attach great importance to their rite of passage. In the following pages I
discuss their birth, initiation, and marriage rites. Their funeral rites are then discussed
under the heading “Lobi Funeral Rites.”
Birth Rites among the Lobi
Birth is the first rite of passage every human being goes through. Among the
Lobi, no celebration is usually held for an unborn child. Birth is followed by the
seclusion of the mother and her child from all except close elderly women relatives. The
seclusion lasts three days when the child is a boy and four days when the child is a girl.
During this period of seclusion, the mother is thought to be unclean and also at the mercy
of evil spiritual forces. To keep these malevolent forces away from her and the child, she
must constantly hold a knife or a broom. To end the assigned period of isolation, the
mother and her child are ritually bathed and their heads shaved.32 It is only then that the
30
Turner, The Ritual Process, 6.
31
Bell, Ritual, 94.
32
Henri Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi (Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie, 1931), 309.
22
child is ceremoniously presented to the community and a name is given. 33 Sacrifices are
made to thank God and the ancestors for blessing the community with reproductive
success. They are also asked to watch over the child.34 The name given to a child at birth
is only temporary until he/she receives at initiation the name which confers on him/her
the supra-identity of Lobi. Once that happens, the individual ceases to be called by
his/her earlier name.35
Initiation Rites among the Lobi
The very first rite of passage that gives a recognized status to an individual in
traditional Africa in general and among the Lobi in particular is that of initiation. The
importance of this rite resides in the fact that it incorporates the young as full members in
the society. Initiation brings the individual a step closer to ancestorhood. An uninitiated
person cannot be ushered into the realm of the ancestors at death because he/she is not a
full Lobi.36 The transformation of children into responsible adults is a major function of
the initiation rites.37
33
Names are given following the children’s birth order from the same mother. Thus, in a
polygamous family several children bear the same name. See Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi, 312.
For example, for boys, the first is named Sié, the second is Sansan, the third is Ollo, and the fourth is Bébé,
etc. For girls the first is Yéri, the second is Mini, and the third is called Mèmè.
34
de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 174, 180-181. See also Katherine Olukemi Bankole,
“Birth,” Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (Los Angeles, CA:
SAGE, 2009), 124-125.
Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” 164; Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi,
35
314; de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 181.

36
37
Hiebert et al., Understanding Folk Religion, 100.
23
The Lobi initiation rite (dyoro or jòrò) is held once every seven years38 usually
from November to January.39 Because the dyoro takes place every seven years,
participants are of widely different age. One of the distinctive features of the djoro is that
everything having to do with it “is surrounded by great secrecy. In principle, no non-
Lobi, and no Lobi who has not yet been initiated into the dyoro, is allowed to know
anything about it.”40 This major collective initiation rite confers on all the participants,
“men and women, regardless of their origin, the supra-identity of ‘Lobi.’”41 Ovesen
further notes that it is participation in the dyoro “that makes a Lobi a Lobi.”42 Because
the dyoro is a collective initiation rite, it carries both social and religious connotations.43
Initiation rites are thus considered very important community values. By initiating its
young people into adulthood, “a society not only socializes its young by outwardly
moving them into new roles of social responsibility, but also transforms them inwardly
by molding their moral and mental disposition towards the world.”44
Initiation rites are educational school settings for training young people in the
38
Bognolo, Lobi, 8; de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 192.
39
Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi, 416.
40
41
Bognolo, Lobi, 8.
42
43
Père, Les Lobi, 275.
44
Benjamin C. Ray, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1976), 91.
24
skills of living useful and productive lives in their communities.45 Initiates are educated
in the responsibilities of adult life.46 The occasion usually marks the beginning of
acquiring tribal knowledge and wisdom that is only available to those who have been
initiated. It is a period of awakening to many things and a time to receive secret
instructions. Among the Lobi, the introduction to the art of communal living happens
when the group to be initiated withdraws from the community, usually for several weeks,
to live alone in a specific place.47 The tribal “curriculum” carries so much weight that a
person is not yet a full member of the community unless he/she has been initiated. All
those who have been initiated together form a lifelong peer group. Since the underlying
emphasis is on separation from childhood and incorporation into adulthood, no matter
how old an individual is, so long as he/she is not initiated, he/she is still considered to be
a child.48
The initiation into adulthood implies that “for the well-being of a society certain
facts of life must be mastered through the observance and participation in some rituals
before one can enter into adulthood. Therefore, the young adults must be ritually initiated
into adulthood, upon whom dwells the responsibility for social and spiritual well-being of
the community.”49 But beyond the mere necessity of mastering the important concepts of
45
Denis M’Passou, “The Continuing Tension between Christianity and Rites of Passage in
Swaziland,” in Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between Christian and African
Traditional Religions, ed. James L. Cox (Cardiff, UK: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998), 15.
46
47
48
de Rouville, Organisation Sociale des Lobi, 192; Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 119.
49
Ademola S. Ishola, “The Sociological Significance of the Traditional African Concept of Rites
of Passage,” Ogbomoso Journal of Theology 7 (December 1992): 27.
25
life, initiation rites also provide for the development of social norms as part of the
societal mores that are considered essential to the continued existence and the ongoing
solidarity and corporateness of the whole community.50 Initiates “are transformed from
passive to active members of the society, and entrusted with preserving social
traditions.”51
The initiation rite of passage may be seen as following a threefold ritual pattern
consisting of rites of separation, transition, and reincorporation, of which the middle
phase of transition is considered the most important.52 “In this phase people are
metaphysically and sociologically remade into ‘new’ beings with new social roles.”53
This transitional period is the time for “cultural indoctrination when cultural values and
worldview perspectives are especially explicit.”54 This phase of the initiation rite aims at
ensuring proper departure out of the prior status and proper identification with and
recognition in the new status.55 To be spiritually transformed, the Lobi initiates must first
be taken out of their usual profane world and ushered into the sacred world of initiation.56
According to Mbiti, the withdrawal of youth from society during African initiation rites is
50
Ishola, “The Sociological Significance of the Traditional African Concept of Rites of Passage,”
28.
51
52
53
Ray, African Religions, 91.
54
Van Rheenen, Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts, 37.
55
James L. Cox, “Ritual, Rites of Passage and the Interaction between Christian and Traditional
Religions,” in Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between Christian and African
Traditional Religions (Cardiff, UK: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998), xi.
56
26
interpreted as
a symbolic experience of the process of dying, living in the spirit world and being
reborn (resurrected). The rebirth, that is the act of rejoining their families, emphasizes
and dramatizes that the young people are now new, they have new personalities, they
have lost their childhood, and in some societies they even receive completely new
names.57
Another important feature of African initiation rites is that they provide the
initiates a ritual process for reviewing and repeating what their ancestors said, did, and
experienced as members of the same community. Initiation rites are therefore also
concerned with showing proper respect to the ancestors who must be revered as the
custodians of the tribal ethics. It is understood that without enlisting the ancestors’ active
involvement in community affairs, cultural unity would only be an illusion.58 Therefore,
every family in the tribe ensures that its members, at the age for initiation, take an active
part in the rituals because of the belief that
a society is in equilibrium when its customs are maintained, its goals attained and the
spirit powers given regular adequate recognition. Members of society are expected to
live and act in such a way as to promote society’s well-being; to do otherwise is to
court disaster not only for the actor but also for the society as a whole. Any act that
detracts from the soundness of society is looked upon with disfavor and society takes
remedial measures to reverse the evil consequences set in motion.59
Because initiation rites are seen as “a process of culture transmission and
community survival,”60 an individual’s failure to undergo the prescribed initiation rites
brings shame on his/her family and community as a whole and thus amounts to self-
57
58
Imasogie, “The Nature of Rites of Passage in African Traditional Religion,” 16.
59
Kwesi A. Dickson, Theology in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984), 62.
Mwalimu J. Shujaa, “Initiation,” Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and
60
Ama Mazama (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2009), 342.
27
excommunication from the entire life of the community. Any misfortune in the families
or clans will be interpreted as the ancestors’ unhappiness with this “moral disorder in
relationships”61 that resulted in the “disequilibrium of societal peace and harmony.”62 In
the traditional mind-set, such individuals are considered social isolates or deviants
because “to be cut off from relationships with one’s ancestors is to cease to be a whole
person.”63
Marriage Rites among the Lobi
Marriage is a universal rite of transition and is a means for a society to publicly
announce “the changes in the status of the bride and groom so that the people can make
appropriate adjustments in their behavior toward the couple.”64 Among the Lobi,
marriage is more than just a social matter or an affair between a man and a woman. It is a
binding contract that always involves at least two families and all their subunits
(extended family members). Marriage is also a deeply religious act because it involves
the ancestors.65 Upon marriage, the husband is invested with household priestly
61
Laurenti Magesa, African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1997), 81.
62
Ishola, “The Sociological Significance of the Traditional African Concept of Rites of Passage,”
28.
63
Jack Partain, “Christians and Their Ancestors: A Dilemma of African Theology,” The Christian
Century 103, no. 36 (November 26, 1986): 1067.
64
Ama Mazama, “Marriage,” Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama
65
Mazama (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2009), 409.
28
functions.66 He thus gains respect and he is listened to in his village.67 Since marriage is
intimately linked with procreation, and also for the reason that parenthood is one of many
criteria for a Lobi to become an ancestor at death, getting married is of utmost importance
in the traditional Lobi society.68 A very common cause of divorce is infertility on the part
of one of the partners.69 When a man dies, his brother usually marries the widow(s) and
thus spares her/them and her/their children a life of misery.
Conceptual Background of Lobi Funeral Rites
The Lobi religious universe is pyramidal: God is at the pinnacle, followed by
spirits and ancestors, and then humans at the base.70
The Concept of God
God is not an unfamiliar being to African peoples. The knowledge of God is
expressed and passed on from one generation to another through means easy to remember
such as proverbs, songs, people’s names, myths, stories, and religious ceremonies and
festivals. These means are so readily available that they predispose people, right from
childhood, to the knowledge of the reality of God’s existence. There is no set time when
66
67
68
Mahmoud Malik Saako, Samuel N. Nkumbaan, Christopher Boatbil Sormiteyema, and
Azerikatoa D. Ayoung, “Birifoh Belief System: Perspectives from Birifoh-Sila Yiri, Upper West Region,
Ghana,” Research on Humanities and Social Sciences 4, no. 3 (2014): 86.
69
Mazama, “Marriage,” 411. Women are usually the first to be blamed for a couple’s inability to
have children. People stop blaming them only if after divorce they remarry and have children. It is only
then that the blame is directed to the former husband.
70
29
people are taught about God.71 Although some African notions about God resemble some
biblical and Semitic ideas about God, 72 their dissemination in African societies is not
believed to be the result of their contact with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.73 An
important concept of God in traditional Africa is that he is perceived to be transcendent
but made immanent through the mediation of spirits and ancestors. His transcendence
makes him outside and beyond his creation. His immanence through the mediation of
spirits and ancestors makes him involved in his creation, so that nothing in the visible or
the invisible worlds is outside of him or his reach. Thus, although in general God is
placed on a transcendental plane, making it seem as if he is distant, isolated, and
inaccessible, he is nevertheless involved in humans’ daily affairs through closely
associated spiritual beings and natural phenomena.74
Tangba or Thãgbá is the word for God in Lobiri (the language spoken by the
Lobi). Although the same word can also mean rain, the two meanings are always kept
separate. To the Lobi, Tangba is the Creator of all forms of life, both visible and
invisible.75 Although Tangba is omnipotent, he is neither worshiped76 nor does he
directly intervene in the affairs of human beings.77 Because Tangba is the originator of
71
72
Such attributes include God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. See John S. Mbiti,
Concepts of God in Africa (London: SPCK, 1970), 3-18.
73
Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 29, 30.
74
Ibid., 29, 36.
75
76
Ibid., 149.
77
30
everything that exists, both visible and invisible, no one has the right to make an image of
him or try to confine him to space and time. Only some manifestations or powers that are
thought to emanate directly from Tangba (e.g., the thunder) can be represented and
worshiped.78 It is widely believed that God has left the running of the world in the hands
of the lesser gods. Sacrifices are made to the gods and ancestors who act as
intermediaries between Tangba and humans. But any sacrifice offered to them is offered
ultimately to Tangba. These beings are only the medium for sending sacrifices to God.
By worshiping these intermediary spirit beings, it is strongly believed that it is to Tangba
worshippers address their prayers.79
Spirits
The African religious ethos cannot be completely understood without considering
its concepts of the spirit world in addition to its concepts of God. This spirit world is
thought to be populated by masses of spirits.80 There are broadly two categories of spirits.
The first category of spirits is believed to have been created by God as a race by
themselves. The other category of spirits is believed to be the ancestors.81 Because the
spirits are unpredictable (they could be good but could also be bad depending on their
78
Père, Les Lobi, 206.
79
Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà, 85, 87.
80
81
31
humor), acknowledging and rightly worshiping them is a way in which equilibrium can
be maintained in the universe.82
Among the Lobi, the first category of spirits—those created by God as a race by
themselves—is called the tila. Worship among the Lobi is mainly centered on the tila
(spirits with human characteristics).83 The tila are represented by wooden, metal, or
ceramic statuettes. According to the Lobi, these statuettes and the shrines in which they
are sometime found represent the relationships between the spiritual and physical
worlds.84 The Lobi believe in a multitude of tila. A small sample is as follows: tila of the
river, of the cave, of the mountain, of the market, of the forest, etc. The most popular tila
among the Lobi are those of the thunder (thãgba), of the earth (dithil), of the matriclan
(wathil), and of the patriclan (thilkhaa).85
Ancestors
Kontin (plur. Kontina) is the term for ancestor(s) in Lobiri. It means “a great one”
or “an elder” and carries “connotations of importance, old age, and primacy.”86 The Lobi
practice a cult of their ancestors for the mediation role they play between the tila,
Tangba, and the living. “Highly respected elders are usually buried in the middle of the
family compound or in front of the family house rather than in the cemetery. This is to
82
Johannes Triebel, “Living Together with the Ancestors: Ancestor Veneration in Africa as a
Challenge for Missiology,” Missiology: An International Review 30, no. 2 (April 2002): 187-189. See also
Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (London, UK: SCM Press, 1973), 193.
83
84
Saako et al., “Birifoh Belief System,” 86.
85
Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà, 87; Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among
the Lobi,” 150.
86
32
keep them close to the family who are constantly being watched over by the dead elder or
ancestor.”87 The ancestors are regularly honored with animal sacrifices and libations. In
the typical traditional Lobi context, it is a taboo for responsible people to eat or drink
without first serving the ancestors, which is done by placing or pouring part of the meal
and the drink on the ground for the ancestors. Such actions show their belief in the
superiority of their ancestors in relation to human beings.88
In order to understand the importance of funeral rites in traditional Lobi societies,
one must first grasp the central traditional belief in ancestors and their influence over
every sphere of communal life. To the Lobi, a human being is made up of a soul (sie)
covered with skin or a body (yanggan). At death the body decays but the soul escapes
and is believed to continue its existence wandering as a ghost until it is released by the
final ceremony of the second funeral rite to go and join the ancestors.89 In this traditional
understanding of things, life does not end with death but continues in another realm.
Mbiti asserts that “without exception, African peoples [traditionally] believe that
death does not annihilate life and that the departed continue to exist in the hereafter.”90
As such, the concepts of life and death are not mutually exclusive concepts. “Through
death, what is this-worldly spills over into what is other-worldly.”91 The living and their
87
Sidonia Alenuma, “The Dagaare-Speaking Communities of West Africa,” Journal of Dagaare
Studies 2 (2002): 10-11.

88
89
Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors, 364, 371.
90
Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa, 264.
Augustine Kututera Abasi, “Lua-Lia, The ‘Fresh Funeral’: Founding a House for the Deceased
91
Among the Kasena of North-East Ghana,” Africa 65, no. 3 (1995): 448.
33
dead relatives (the ancestors) live in a symbiotic relationship because the community is a
continuum consisting of the living and the dead.92 The relation between the living and the
dead stands out as one of the most fundamental features of African traditional religious
life. The use of the word “ancestors” may generally refer to the dead progenitors of a
family, clan, or tribe, but in traditional religious understanding it mostly refers to dead
members of a family, clan, or tribe to whom the living members of the group continue to
pay regular cultic homage.
Ancestors play a very important role in family matters. The Lobi hold their
ancestors in high respect because of the belief that those who reach ancestorhood are
never dead but “continue to live in the other world of spirits and serve as media between
their relatives, the spirits and gods,” and are thought to possess the “ability to protect,
guide, and offer showers of blessing to the living.”93 Ancestors are thus thought to watch
over the lineage and to be involved with household matters.
Among the Lobi not every death automatically results in funeral rituals leading to
one’s incorporation into the company of his/her lineage ancestors.94 Several criteria exist
among the Lobi to determine the eligibility of a deceased person to move to
ancestorhood.95 A person attains ancestorhood generally on the basis of a long life and
moral superiority.96 Among the Lobi, as in many other African traditional contexts,
92
Amanze, “Christianity and Ancestors Veneration in Botswana,” 46.
93
Alenuma, “The Dagaare-Speaking Communities of West Africa,” 9.
94
95
Ibid., 223.
96
34
ancestorhood is synonymous with moral superiority and exemplary leadership. To be
elevated to the rank of ancestor, a person must possess certain qualities such as long life,
parenthood, physical integrity, morality, self-control, and proper death.97 The followings
deaths are considered bad deaths: death by drowning, lightning, suicide, or death in the
course of initiation. No funeral rites are held for such people.98 A sin that warrants a
denial of funeral rites for a deceased is the killing of a fellow patriclansman. There is no
provision for such a sin to be expiated. “In life, such a man is excluded from the
congregation of the ancestor cult and ritually prohibited from consuming any of the
sacrificial offerings; in death, he is totally and finally rejected from the clan.”99
In this traditional way of thinking, the relationship to the ancestors is fundamental
to the sense of selfhood and society.100 The widespread idea that the ancestors play a very
important role in the life of their surviving communities is rooted in the belief that the
human personality survives the death and decay of the body.101 “Regardless of their mode
of existence it is commonly believed that the ancestors still live, though invisible, and
that they are certainly present in the life of the individual and the community. . . . They
see everything, hear everything, are interested in the affairs of human beings, and wish,
Saako et al., “Birifoh Belief System,” 86, 88.

97
98
Pooda, interview. May 12, 2014.
99
100
Partain, “Christians and Their Ancestors: A Dilemma of African Theology,” 1069.
Edwin W. Smith, “The Idea of God among South African Tribes,” in African Ideas of God: A
101
Symposium, ed. E. W. Smith (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1950), 86.
35
above everything else, to be remembered.”102 Following are three key roles played by the
ancestors.
First, the ancestors are believed to be the guarantors of life and well-being and as
such, they are incorporated in the community network of relationships. According to
Johannes Triebel, the phrase “living together with the ancestors,” which also includes
their veneration, summarizes the traditional African cultural and religious identity.”103
Triebel further argues that in the traditional African mind-set,
The ancestors are here, they influence our lives, and we depend on them. Our well-
being and possible misfortune are related to them. Fear and hope are like two poles
that characterize the dependence on the ancestors. Living together with the ancestors
means fear and hope at the same time. . . . Everyone who neglects the relationship to
his or her ancestors endangers his or her life, indeed the life of the whole community.
The wrath of the ancestors can cause misfortune, illness, hunger, and death. It is
therefore necessary to ensure their favor and benevolence towards the living and thus
to preserve the stream of life.104
The notion of fear and hope is based on the belief that at death people carry along
their personalities to the next life. Consequently, “if it is an angry father who dies, one
expects him to be a rather angry ancestor. If family members had a short-tempered elder
as their head, they become particularly careful in making certain that after he is dead he is
not annoyed, knowing that he always was a man who became annoyed very easily.”105
However, the most significant element in the ancestors’ interaction with the world of the
living is that they are also “irrevocably committed to the well-being of their lineage and
102
103
Triebel, “Living Together with the Ancestors,” 187.
104
Ibid., 187, 189.
105
36
its continuance.”106 In other words, while on one hand the ancestors can cause
misfortune, on the other hand they can grant fortune, well-being, life, and good living.107
Therefore, it is quite wrong to conclude that ancestor veneration is based only on fear and
the desire to escape suffering and harm.
Second, the ancestors are the representatives of law, order, and ethical values in
the community. “They are the guardians of family affairs, traditions, ethics and activities.
Offense in these matters is ultimately an offence against the forebearers who, in that
capacity, act as the invisible police of the families and the communities.”108 Punishment
is the ultimate result of every offense against the ancestors and their commands.
Therefore, misfortune, illness, and death in the community are often interpreted as the
sign of the ancestors’ anger because of an individual or family’s misconduct. Any time
the ancestors’ authority is questioned, they in turn question people’s lives. To repair an
incident with the ancestors (e.g., to heal sickness, to prevent further cases of misfortune)
and re-establish lost harmony, offerings are made as reconciliation to appease them.
Hence, it is “only by respecting the ancestors and giving them their offerings [either to
have good fortune or to repair misfortune], only by respecting the laws and orders set by
them will one have a successful life.”109
Third, the ancestors act as intermediaries between people and God because of
106
Aylward Shorter, “Conflicting Attitudes to Ancestor Veneration in Africa,” African Ecclesial
Review 11, no. 1 (January 1969): 29.
107
Idowu, African Traditional Religion, 193.
108
109
37
their close association with the living and their proximity to God. It is believed that “just
as an African chief is approached through an intermediary, so prayer may go to God
through the ancestral spirits.”110 Messages to God are entrusted to ancestors who know
God in a way not possible for any human being. Ancestors are able to occupy this
intermediate position because of their ability to “‘speak’ a bilingual language of human
beings whom they recently ‘left’ through physical death, and of the spirits to whom they
are now joined, or of God to whom they are now nearer than when they were physical
men.”111
With such a high position associated with ancestorhood, it is considered a curse in
traditional Lobi context for someone to be denied funeral rites. Such a person is
considered lost for his/her soul will be an eternal wanderer without any possibility of
joining the ancestors and having peace. This is a major reason why funeral rites carry
such important socio-cultural significance among the Lobi.
Lobi Funeral Rites of Passage112
Because of the general belief among the Lobi that there is life after death, funeral
rites are elaborate ceremonial occasions as they are considered to be the indispensable
means by which human beings pass from the land of the living to that of the ancestors.113
110
Edward Geoffrey Parrinder, Religion in Africa (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1969), 69.
111
112
This section draws heavily from interviews (especially with Hervé Sansan Pooda) and
observation during my field research.
113
38
There are three main stages in the Lobi funeral rites: mourning the dead, finding the
cause of death, and the funeral rites themselves.
Mourning the Dead
In the traditional African context in general, death is not merely a family affair. It
is a matter of public concern both far and near. Among the Lobi whenever a person is
thought to be on the verge of death, the senior male in the compound sends boys or young
men to personally inform all his/her close relatives. This is a solemn call for them to
attend the dying person during his/her last moments. In a person’s last moments, he/she
must be sitting up and if at all possible be in the arms of a close kinswoman.114
Lobi funeral ceremonies are moments of intense demonstration of emotions.
When a person dies, the ancestors are quickly consulted to know if the deceased person’s
funerals should be done in the prescribed way. A baby chicken is sacrificed to them. If
the sacrificed baby chicken falls on its back, it symbolizes the ancestors’ agreement for
people to proceed with the funeral rites. If it falls forward, it means the ancestors are not
in favor of the person having funeral rites. In the case of the ancestors’ agreement,
women start wailing and lamenting very loudly to alert neighbors and the village as a
whole about the death that has just occurred.115 Because funerals are communal events,
men use gun shots to alert surrounding villages. Messengers are sent far and near to
inform other relatives and friends. The xylophone is played to spread the news and also to
indicate, depending on the particular tune, whether the deceased is a man or a woman. All
114
115
39
those who hear the funeral xylophone notes, be it faintly, have an obligation to attend the
funeral. Failure to do so may be taken as an indication of possible involvement in the
death.116
Finding the Cause of Death
In African societies there is a belief that there once was a very close relationship
between God and humans; a relationship compared to that of a loving father and his
children. God either lived among humans or visited them very frequently.117 Several
myths are told about how the happy relation between God and his creatures came to an
end.118 According to the Lobi oral tradition, Tangba “withdrew from the world because
he was getting increasingly annoyed with the quasi constant fighting among men over
women.”119 Several unfortunate consequences such as “the loss of immortality,
resurrection, rejuvenation, and free food, in addition to the coming of death and
suffering”120 resulted from the broken relationship between God and humans. Death first
occurred and continues to occur as one of the consequences of this separation.
Nevertheless, God is not believed to be behind every death. Every human death is
thought to also have other unnatural/supernatural causes.121 In the traditional context,
116
117
118
Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 94-97.
119
Mazama, “Lobi,” 382.
120
121
40
every death thus has a hidden cause that must be known before the deceased is buried.122
For example when someone dies of a snake bite, the snake is perceived not as the cause
of the death but rather as an intermediary agent.123 While mourning goes on, many
attempts are made to determine with some degree of certainty the cause of death. This
may be done by recourse to divination,124 or the dead person is carried by two men on
their heads and he/she is asked to lead the carriers to the person responsible for his/her
death. They believe that the carriers are moved by an irresistible force/energy/power and
obey all the deceased person’s promptings. There is a specific code through which people
know if the deceased person says yes or no to the questions being asked.125
To the Lobi death is never natural nor accidental: “Why has it not happened
yesterday? Why not in two days? Why has it happened today?”126 Death always occurs
through an intermediary agent. Witches, sorcerers, ancestors, or other supernatural beings
are the primary causes of death. However, the attribution of a death to ancestors and other
supernatural beings does not always mean that they themselves directly caused the death
of the person. It means that because of an offense done against them they have simply
withdrawn their protection from the person so that he/she became an easy prey for
witches, workers of curses, and sorcerers. As such, the ancestors and supernatural beings
122
Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi, 319-320.
123
124
Ibid., 210.
125
126
41
are the cause of death by withdrawing their protection over people and thus permitting
either mystical or non-mystical aggression.127
There are four possible causes of death. The first cause of death is largely
attributed to magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. This means that someone is almost always
behind the cause of someone else’s death. Second, a powerful curse placed on someone is
believed to be able to bring about death. As a result of these beliefs about the main causes
of death, most deaths are perceived to be cases of homicide. The third possible cause of
death is attributed to ancestors and other spirits. Ancestors and spirits are believed to
cause death whenever they are offended. An improper burial ceremony or a failure to
follow prescribed rites may be reasons for the ancestors’ wrath. Death by snakebite,
accident, or by any disease is likely to be attributed to these three first causes. What has
to be established is the person/ancestor that was connected with the intermediary agent,
snake, accident, or disease.128
In theory the fourth and least likely cause of death occurring among the Lobi is
attributed to God. Death as an act of God usually is considered when the deceased person
is a child who dies before being weaned129 or one who has lived a very long life, in which
127
128
Ibid., 208.
129
Ibid. Such a child “is not regarded as a human at all, but as a being of the wild that has come to
trouble the parents with this pretense of mortality.”
42
case it is considered a natural death.130 Nevertheless in practice, the attribution of a death
to God is very uncommon.
The Central Funeral Rites
Funeral rites seem to vividly express the deepest concepts people have about life.
In traditional African thinking, “dead people are not dead at all. Death is only a
transitional state to a spiritual life free from material hindrances.”131 Death is spoken of
as a departure, a setting out on a journey, a transition to ancestorhood. Nevertheless,
whenever it occurs, “the soul of the deceased must undergo a series of spiritual
adjustments if he or she is to find a secure place in the afterlife and continue to remain in
contact with the family left behind.”132 Funeral rites are performed to reduce the effect of
the sudden loss as well as a means of facilitating the process by which the deceased joins
the community of the ancestors. A traditional funeral is believed not only to help the
deceased reach their “fathers” (i.e., enter the ancestral world) but also to “have a
tomorrow” (i.e., a continuation of life in the lineage).133 This is the community’s
expressed desire for kinship continuity and solidarity even in death. The community’s
survival is crucial and rests on the strict observance of proper burial and funeral rites to
help the deceased make a good and successful journey to the ancestral world to join those
130
Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 151. Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors, 208-
209 points out that “the death of a man whose sons have themselves begotten sons is thought of in a
different way. Such a person has reached the end of his allotted span. He is too weak to arouse the anger of
shrine, ancestor, or mortal.”

131
132
Benjamin C. Ray, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1976), 140.
Abasi, “Lua-Lia, The ‘Fresh Funeral’,” 448, 450, 451.

133
43
who ensure life and well-being, and who become intermediaries to the living.
There are two stages in Lobi funeral rites: the first funeral rite (bii) and the second
funeral rite (bobuur).
The First Funeral Rite
Once it is has been determined through divination that the deceased person
deserves a funeral rite, the first funeral rite automatically starts. This gives room to even
more laments because the deceased who is allowed to have a funeral was a good person.
The deceased is first placed in a room surrounded by family treasures. The funeral rituals
officially start when the “owner of the grief”134 throws twenty cowries on the ceremonial
xylophone. Other mourners and well-wishers also throw their cowries at the feet of the
deceased.135 Cowries are provisions for the deceased’s expenses in his/her journey to the
land of the dead, especially for the ferryman to ensure the crossing of the river which is
believed to separate the land of the living from that of the dead.136 Family members
further interrogate the deceased in an attempt to find the cause of his/her death. The
deceased is then ceremonially bathed by ritual specialists and dressed in his/her most
beautiful garments and taken to a public place where more people may have easy access
to express their honor to him/her.137 The deceased is always seated facing the east, the
134
“The closest patrikinsman of a man, the father, brother, or son, or the husband of a married
woman is known as the senior mourner (kutuosob, “the owner of the grief”) and is ultimately responsible
for seeing that the [funeral] ceremony is properly performed” (see Goody, Death, Property and the
Ancestors, 49).
135
136
137
Labouret, Les Tribus du Rameau Lobi, 319, 321.
44
direction to the land of the dead, surrounded by the wealth of his/her family. More gifts
are provided for the journey to the land of the dead. Other gifts and messages are
entrusted to him/her for the ancestors.138
Funeral ceremonies continue throughout the night, and similarly to the Dagaare-
speaking communities described here, usually
involve musicians, mourners and the assembled villagers and guests from
neighboring villages. The music group usually consists of xylophonists, drummers
and singers. The singers improvise, recreate and reproduce through their songs the
history of the family up to the death that resulted in the separation. The theme of the
songs is a combination of the deeds and sorrows of the family. The best singer is one
who can stir the maximum level of grief in the chief-mourners (the closest relatives of
the diseased) by his choice of words. The effect of the words of the singers is echoed
and amplified by the tunes of the xylophones and the sounds of the drums, moving
the community to grieve freely. Wailing, screaming, groaning, running, jumping,
dancing and singing are all acceptable ways of expressing grief. Shedding of tears is
highly recommended and admired. The chief-mourners are expected to shed a lot of
tears and behave in a way that stirs sympathizers to share the grief to the fullest by
shedding as many tears as possible.139
The funeral rituals continue for one, two, or even three days. During this time a
new grave is dug or a family tomb is reopened after a baby chicken has been sacrificed to
ask the permission of the earth to bury the deceased. The decision of when to bury the
dead person is always the prerogative of the chief mourner. When that is done, intense
wailing and gun shots are performed as a sign of their farewell to the deceased. After the
burial of the dead, a stick (gboo) representing him/her is placed in the house. This
reminds family members that although the dead person is not physically visible, he/she is
still part of the family. Another night of funeral vigil is often held after the burial. Gifts

138
139
Alenuma, “The Dagaare-Speaking Communities of West Africa,” 9-10. The Dagara, Birifor,
and Lobi communities share many common religious concepts. I have personally observed such scenes
during my field research.
45
continue to be received. But this time they serve to pay for the expenses of the
xylophonists, the drummers, and the gravediggers.140
To mark the end of the first funeral rite, the close relatives of the deceased are
shaved as a further sign of bereavement but also to show that they honor the dead
relative. The widow/widower and orphans start another period of bereavement. All of
them are whitewashed because it is assumed that any association with death is a threat to
the whole community. As such, those connected with the deceased (surviving spouse(s)
and orphans) have to be cleansed of the defiling effects of their contact with him or her.
The whiteness of the clay is seen as counteracting any death-related uncleanliness. Sexual
intercourse and any close relationship between husband and wife are viewed as the
sharing of the dirt of each other’s bodies.
Whitewashing is said to free a surviving partner and orphans from any defilement
received from the deceased. Unless the rite of whitewashing is performed it is believed
that the dirt of the deceased partner will kill the surviving partner if he/she becomes
involved in sexual intercourse with another partner. Whitewashing must be done to clean
the dirt of the dead partner in order to enable the surviving spouse to have sexual
intercourse with any other partner without risking death.141 Orphans whitewash their
foreheads and wear strings of cowries over their shoulders.142 Although both widow(s)
and widower are whitewashed, there is inequality between them regarding the length of

140
141
Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors, 183-193.
142
Ibid., 101.
46
this cleansing ritual. A widower does not undergo prohibition for as long as a widow does
for two main reasons: (1) society does not expect a man to remain celibate for a long
period especially if he has other wives and (2) a woman’s funeral rite is concluded in a
much shorter time than that of a man.143 Widows are particularly considered ceremonially
unclean. They remain mostly secluded for the whole length of time between the first and
the second funeral rites. They are not permitted to shower. For widows, whitewashing is
both a means of purification and of preventing the dead husband from coming back and
attempting to have sexual intercourse with them.144
Before the second phase of funeral rites, a lengthy course of action is undertaken
to resolve all potential problems likely to hinder the journey of the deceased to the land of
the dead. Diviners are invited and consulted in the compound of the deceased to reveal all
the prescriptions to be observed. The time between the first and the second funeral rites
can be two weeks to one whole year.145
The Second Funeral Rite
When all the hindrances to the journey of the deceased to the land of the ancestors
have been ritually removed, the second funeral rite (bobuur) can begin. This phase may
last between one to four days, or more, depending on the social status of the deceased. On
the first day of the second funeral rite it is not uncommon to still hear some lamentations
and wailing. But this quickly gives way to rejoicing on the second day. People rejoice
143
144
145
Ibid.
47
because they will soon have another mediator between them and other supernatural
beings and God. A number of animals are sacrificed to send the deceased on his/her
journey. The members of the community do their best to convince the older ancestors to
welcome this new one in their midst. Once these sacrifices are made, the taboo that
quarantined the widower, but more especially the widow(s) and orphans is lifted and thus
they are fully reintegrated into the community.146 The second funeral rite ends with the
carving of the shrine of the new ancestor which is added to that of the previous ancestors
and the sharing of his/her property among his/her relatives. Among the Lobi,
The process of transmission, which begins at death, is a gradual one, for the dead man
retains many of his rights until the final ceremony has been performed. As a ghost
(nyããkpiin), he continues to hold some of the exclusive rights he held in life; it is only
when he becomes an ancestor spirit (kpiin) and takes up permanent residence in the
Land of the Dead that these rights can be taken over by the heir. Even then the dead
man retains certain of his former interests, and he is still the social father of any
children born to his widows who have been taken in leviratic marriage. . . . The whole
system of sacrifice to one’s forebears is linked, by the LoDagaa themselves, to the
perpetual claims upon property.147
Conclusion
Full membership and fulfillment in the Lobi context, as it is in many other
traditional African contexts, come to individuals as they participate in family and
Pooda, La Mort Comme Voyage Vers L’Au-delà, 108-109.

146
147
Goody, Death, Property and the Ancestors, 328. Among the Lobi, women also have right to
inheritance. For example, if the deceased person is a woman, her cooking utensils and cloths are shared by
her uterine (full) sisters and daughters. But any wealth accumulated in form of cowries, money, and
livestock goes to her uterine (full) brothers and sons. In the case of a deceased man, the direct inheritors are
usually his full brothers and sons. In traditionally Lobi thought, capital can only be accumulated by men;
however, the male inheritors are expected to use this wealth for the benefit of their sisters and also for that
of the deceased woman’s husband (pp. 328-357).
48
community relationships (beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and festivals).148 Society knows no
separation between social and religious life. In the traditional mind-set,
To be human is to belong to the whole community, and to do so involves participating

in the beliefs, ceremonies, rituals and festivals of the community. . . . A person cannot
detach himself from the religion of his group, for to do so is to be severed from his
roots, his foundation, his context of security, his kinships and the entire group of
those who make him aware of his own existence. To be without one of these
corporate elements of life is to be out of the whole picture.149
In many instances, an individual’s failure to participate in some cultural practices
amounts to self-excommunication from the entire life of the community. Because the
social penalty for refusing to participate in some community rituals could be stiff, many
people, out of fear of spirits and the penalty for not participating in important rites of
passage prefer to follow the traditional customs.150
To the traditional Lobi mind-set it seems evident that life is meaningless without
participation in the prescribed rites of passage. This is so because it is participation in
such rites that gives a Lobi the Lobi identity.151 However, in spite of having the Lobi
identity, if one cannot be joined to his/her ancestors at death, his/her whole achievement
in this life amounts to nothing because he/she will forever be separated from his/her
people. This belief is better captured as follows:
The world of the deceased whose memory is honoured through generations contrasts
with the world of those who will never enjoy the rank of ancestor, some because the
proper funeral rites were not performed, others because they died an unnatural death
(for example by drowning or snake bite) and are therefore considered to be punished
148
Christopher Partridge, Introduction to World Religions (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press,
2005), 127.
149
150
Charles H. Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2008), 33.
151
Bognolo, Lobi, 8; Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” 164.
49
by the ancestors. Lastly, the ancestralisation process may not have been properly
carried out. The spirits of this category of dead are forced to wander.152
Each family and clan member must therefore be involved in securing the future of
the rest of the family and clan members; and this means properly contributing for their
well-being both in this life and the hereafter.153
This chapter has reviewed the religious and socio-cultural significance of the Lobi
funeral rites. The focus of the next chapter will be on death-related practices in Scripture.
152
Bognolo, Lobi, 11.
153
Ibid., 10.
50
CHAPTER 3
DEATH AND FUNERAL RITES OF PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE
Introduction
Ritual theorists are in agreement that “the circumstances around a rite’s
performance are crucial to determining the rite’s effect and significance.”1 This chapter is
a study of practices surrounding death in the Bible. It will consider cultural contexts and
explore the biblical view of life and death, ritual practices surrounding death, and three
forbidden death-related practices in Scripture. It should be remembered that all scholars
approach these issues with their presuppositions on life and the human form of existence
after death. After analyzing various scholars’ views on each of these points, I conclude
each section with my perspective as a Seventh-day Adventist.
Cultural Contexts of the Bible2
In ancient Israel, religious and social identity was closely tied.3 Jewish people
found their identity in the fact that they belonged both to God and to one another. This
1
Richard E. DeMaris, The New Testament in Its Ritual World (New York: Routledge, 2008), 12.
2
In this discussion, I am well aware that there is significant cultural variation between Genesis and
Revelation as well as commonalities.
Kent L. Sparks, “Religion, Identity and Origins of Ancient Israel,” Religion Compass 1, no. 6
3
(2007): 587.
51
was also true in the Jewish cultural milieu at the time of the New Testament.4 Because of
the communal nature of funeral rites of passage in traditional societies, this section will
focus on the cultural values peoples in the Bible placed on the concept of community in
order to better understand their relational concepts and how these might have influenced
their view about death and its related rites.5
Cultural Values of Community in the Old Testament
The cultural context of the Ancient Near East (ANE) served as the incubator of
biblical peoples’ thought and literature.6 Core values of the ANE culture were based on a
“shame and honor” paradigm. In coherence with their communal structure, they assumed
that individuals should have proper esteem and value not only in their own eyes, but also
in the eyes of their community.7 This was expressed in several ways, but mainly through
a group-centric identity, a corporate solidarity, and interdependent collaboration.8
The ANE culture emphasized the corporate nature of human existence and
experience. ANE peoples never thought of valuing the individual separate from the
4
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation, rev. ed.
(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999); David A. DeSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity:
Unlocking New Testament Culture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000).
5
Other factors that shaped funeral rites in the Old and New Testaments are discussed under
“Biblical view of Life and Death” and “Rituals and Cultural Practices Surrounding Death in Scripture.”
6
Henry Jackson Flanders, Robert Wilson Crapps, and David Anthony Smith, People of the
Covenant: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 50.
7
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2006), 530.
8
John Pilch, Introducing the Cultural Context of the Old Testament (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press,
1991), 49, 97, 98.
52
community.9 Individuals belonged to their groups and their doings reflected those
groups.10 This understanding was likely what led Haman’s hatred of Mordecai to be
projected towards Mordecai’s people (Esth 3:5-6). Individuals were viewed as important
to the extent that they were participants in the larger group of which they were a member.
In such community-centeredness, people had a strong sense of their relationship to others
because they were bound together by strong kinship ties. Life was not perceived as
something to be shaped according to the needs of each individual. Individuals were only
what they were as links in families, deriving their lives from the family, sharing it with
the family, and leaving it to be continued in posterity.11
The importance of kinship is widely expressed in biblical literature. “X the son of
Y” lies as a thread throughout the Old Testament. The use of surnames to identify an
individual’s link to families is foreign to the Old Testament. The Old Testament way of
identifying individuals allowed their family connections to be established in a more
comprehensive fashion (e.g., “Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of
Kish, a Benjamite” Esth 2:5).12 People looked at themselves as part of a family, a clan, a
tribe, and then a nation. It was of great importance to know who one’s relatives were. In
the periodic absence of a centrally-organized system to enforce law and order and to
punish wrongdoers, “a person’s safety was a function of the group to which he or she
belonged, and in times of war it was the duty of those who were related to each other to
9
Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Faith, 528.
10
John Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed. (London: Westminster, 1981), 93.
11
Flanders et al., People of the Covenant, 143-144.
12
John Rogerson and Philip Davies, The Old Testament World (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall, 1989), 45.
53
stand together.”13 People lived with a deep sense of solidarity between individuals and
their social group, in which the group had obligations to protect individuals from harm
(Gen 35), injustice, and poverty (Lev 25:14-31, 35-43, 47-55).
In the ANE context, societal structures were believed to have been revealed to
their ancestors for whom they had great reverence and respect, for they were thought to
have continuing influence on the living community. 14 Apart from that, they also believed
that evil spirits were associated with human suffering. “To the ancient mind such
sicknesses as the plague or pneumonia or liver ailments came on without any external
physical cause such as an animal bite or a wound. They were explained by accusing evil
spirits of creating the illness, or even by suggesting that God himself sent it as a
punishment (Ps 39:10-11).”15 These beliefs also influenced the Israelites16 although they
believed that ultimately the power over life, sickness, and death lays in the hands of
God.17 The corporateness of the society included the living, the ancestors, evil spirits, and
God. God’s revelation to Israel in the ANE cultural context points to the important fact
that “God demonstrates his respect and appreciation for human culture by working
through it rather than above or outside it.”18
13
Rogerson and Davies, The Old Testament World, 46.
14
Flanders et al., People of the Covenant, 165, 166.
15
Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press,
1984), 249.
16
In Lev 16 Azalel is described as a desert demon to whom the Israelites’ sins were sent yearly on
the Day of Atonement.
17
Boadt, Reading the Old Testament, 249.
18
Ibid., 159.
54
Cultural Values of Community in the Early Church
The cultural background of the Early Church was a combination of Hellenistic
civilization, Roman rule, and Jewish faith and culture.19
The Greek conquest of Palestine left a permanent mark on Jewish life.20 In
expanding his empire, Alexander the Great intended more than a mere military conquest.
Because he considered the Greek way of life to be best for all, he desired to create a
Hellenized world by using several tools: (1) he brought with him poets, philosophers, and
historians, (2) he encouraged his soldiers to intermarry with native women so as to create
one race, (3) he made Greek the universal language, and (4) he actively encouraged
religious syncretism whereby local deities were identified and then merged with the gods
of the Greek pantheon.21 These Hellenistic influences gradually eroded the traditional
Jewish culture of the Old Testament era.
Rome was very preoccupied with political power which it achieved either by
violence or by extending the right of citizenship to members of military colonies, former
soldiers, and local personages.22 It had a very hierarchical social structure from the family
to the state level. In the family, the father had absolute authority over the material,
financial, and religious affairs of the entire household, and also determined whom his
children married. Children were expected to obey and honor their parents as one would
honor the gods, and as such they continued to be obligated to them even after they moved
19
Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation, 21.
20
Gary M. Bruce, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene L. Green, The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey
of the New Testament Within its Cultural Contexts (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 26.
21
Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament, 24.
22
Ibid., 26.
55
out of the family home. Harmony, not equality, was perceived as the highest goal in
family life and society. To achieve harmony, individuals were expected to stay in their
respective places in society.23
In this context, personhood continued to be connected to group values. Honor and
dishonor were foundational social values. Their focus on shame and honor meant that
“they were particularly oriented toward the approval and disapproval of others. This
orientation influenced individuals to strive to embody the qualities and to perform the
behaviors that the group held to be honorable and to avoid those acts that brought
reproach and caused a person’s estimation in the eyes of others to drop.”24
The multicultural environment of the first century was quite challenging in that
each group defined what was honorable or dishonorable according to its own distinctive
set of values and beliefs. While these values sometimes overlapped, they also frequently
clashed. The same behavior that one group held up and rewarded as honorable could be
censured and viewed as an insult or disgraceful by another group, and vice versa.25 This
was a disturbing contradiction for a Jew living outside of Judea:
If he lives by the Torah, he will be honored and affirmed as a valuable member of the
community by his Jewish peers, but he will also be regarded with contempt and even
find his honor openly assaulted by the majority of the Greco-Roman population. . . .
If he desires the approval and affirmation of the members of the Greco-Roman
culture (and the opportunity for advancement, influence and wealth that networking
in that direction can bring), he may well abandon his strict allegiance to Jewish
values. This was the course chosen by many Jews during the Hellenistic period. Most
Jews, however, chose to remain faithful to their ancestral law and customs, and to
preserve their culture and its values. To do so, they had to develop strategies for
23
Bruce, Cohick, and Green, The New Testament in Antiquity, 90, 91, 345.
24
David A. DeSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 35.
25
Ibid., 37.
56
keeping themselves and their fellow Jews sensitive to Jewish definitions of the
honorable and, at the same time, insulated from non-Jewish verdicts concerning
honor and dishonor.26
This combination of different cultural mind-sets under one political rule shaped
the matrix in which the Christian church was formed. Judaism provided the roots of
Christianity although it came to regard the Christian faith as a pernicious heresy;
Hellenism provided the intellectual soil in which Christianity grew although it considered
its beliefs as philosophical nonsense; and Roman imperialism provided the protection that
opened the possibility for its growth although it regarded it as an impractical weakness.27
Because of its Old Testament roots, the Early Church continued to emphasize
kinship as a core value. But in this new community, kinship was no longer defined in
terms of blood lines and ethnicity but rather in terms of shared faith and fellowship with
God. The church was an environment of inclusion, acceptance, and open unity without
discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or social status (Gal 3:28). Membership was
open to all on the basis of professing faith in Christ as Savior and the public
demonstration of complete allegiance to Christ through water baptism (Acts 2:37, 38).
The Early Church expressed its values of corporate solidarity and kinship through the use
of the body of Christ and family motifs to describe the interdependence between its
members, and to convey the close bond that enabled them to treat each other as family
members (Rom 12; 1 Cor 12; Eph 4; Gal 6:10; Eph 2:19; 1 Tim 3:15; 1 Pet 4:17). This
new understanding of family kinship was no longer based merely on blood relationships
26
DeSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity, 39.
27
Merrill C. Tenney, Exploring New Testament Culture: A Handbook of New Testament Times
(Iowa Falls, IA: Word Bible Publishers, 2000), 67, 68.
57
but more importantly on what might be called common character.28 Their concern was
not power but the development of a lasting sense of interdependence and corporate
solidarity among believers. This interdependence suggested that each member of the
body had a unique role to play, and yet was dependent upon all other members.29
Biblical View of Life and Death
The Nature of Humans and the State of the Dead in the Bible
Before considering death and the state of the dead in Scripture, it is important to
reflect briefly on what Scripture says about the nature of human beings. The creation
story gives an account of the origin of life on earth. Two key texts are considered: Gen
1:26, 27 and Gen 2:7.
At creation, humanity was given the special status of being created in God’s
image:
Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish
in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground. God created mankind in his own
image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen
1:26, 27, emphasis added)
The same concept is reiterated in Gen 5:1 and Gen 9:6. Genesis 5:1 simply states
that “when God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God” (emphasis
added). Genesis 9:6 gives the very first clear implication for humanity being created in
God’s image. It states that it is because humanity is created in the image of God that
human beings should not shed the blood of one another: “Whoever sheds human
28
John Driver, Images of the Church in Mission (Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 1997), 142.
Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community (Exeter, UK: Paternoster Press, 1980), 64.
29
58
blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made
mankind” (emphasis added).
The image and likeness of God in humans has been the subject of many
interpretations among scholars. Is image and likeness the same or are they referring to
two different things? Is it physical, mental, or spiritual? Although this is not the focus of
this dissertation, I concur with the view that “bearing God’s image does not imply so
much resembling God [physically] as representing Him. Man is God’s collaborator (Gen
2:4-6, 15) and lieutenant (Pss 8:3-8; 115:6).”30 The likeness of God in humans refers to
“the representational functions of humans” which include “everything that enables
humankind to rule over their sphere as God rules in His.”31 The creation in the image and
likeness of God sets humanity apart from other creatures, because only humanity (man
and woman) has been granted this special status. Although no clear clues are given as to
the features of the likeness of God, God’s image in human beings and the dominion that
was given them over other creatures (Gen 1:26) probably have to do with humanity’s
relationship both to other creatures and to God the Creator. In other words, people were
created as relational beings.32 Also, because the Bible further says that God is spirit (John
4:24), it seems safer to see the image of God in humans in terms of their spiritual
Aecio E. Cairus, “The Doctrine of Man,” in Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, ed.
30
Raoul Dederen (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2000), 208.

31
Ibid., 208.
32
Moshe Reiss, “Adam: Created in the Image and Likeness of God,” Jewish Bible Quarterly 39,
no. 3 (July-September 2011): 184.
59
nature.33 For Reiss, the image and likeness of God in humans are located in “some
spiritual quality or faculty of the human person.”34 In a nutshell, the creation of humans
in the image of God, the highest conceivable status, affirms their dignity and worth.35 Our
true identity is first and foremost found in the fact that we are created in God’s image.
Genesis 2:7 gives the two basic components of every human being, namely a
physical body and the breath of life which is immaterial: “The Lord God formed a man
from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living being.” Scholars have also debated whether at death the body and spirit
have an independent existence. Two main groups have emerged out of these debates.
Scholars such as H. David Lewis, Wayne Grudem, Gary R. Habermas, and James
P. Moreland believe in the immortality of the soul on the basis of texts such as: “The dust
returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccl 12:7),
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of
the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28), and the parable of the
rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). For them, between death and the resurrection,
believers are in some kind of conscious state of intermediary existence. Lewis states that
“throughout the centuries Christians have believed that each human person consists in a
soul and body; that the soul survived the death of the body; and that its future life will be
33
“In Our Image” [Gen 1:26], Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC), rev. ed., ed.
Francis D. Nichol (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1976-1980), 1:216.
34
Reiss, “Adam: Created in the image and Likeness of God,” 185.
35
Ibid., 181.
60
immortal.”36 Wayne Grudem unpacks the nature of the immortal soul by defining death
as “the temporary cessation of bodily life and a separation of the soul from the body.
Once a believer has died, though his or her physical body remains on the earth and is
buried, at the moment of death the soul (or spirit) of that believer goes immediately into
the presence of God with rejoicing”37 (emphasis added). Gary R. Habermas and James P.
Moreland push this concept a step further by stating that in the intermediary state “the
person enjoys conscious fellowship with God while waiting for a reunion with a new,
resurrected body”38 (emphasis added).
For other scholars such as Joel Green and Edward Fudge, the body and the spirit
cease to exist until the resurrection of the dead. Green states that
death must be understood not only in biological terms, as merely the cessation of
one’s body, but as the conclusion of embodied life, the severance of all relationships,
and the fading of personal narrative. It means that, at death, the person really dies;
from the perspective of our humanity and sans divine intervention, there is no part of
us, no aspect of our personhood, that survives death.39
Although Eccl 12:7 says that at death the spirit (ruach) returns to God,
in not one of the 379 instances of its use throughout the OT does ruach denote an
intelligent entity capable of existence apart from a physical body, so far as man is
concerned, and it must therefore be clear that such a concept is without basis as the
teachings of the Scriptures themselves are concerned (see Gen. 2:7; 35:18; Num.
5:14; Eccl. 3:19-21; cf. on Num. 5:2; 9:6). That which here returns to God is simply
36
H. David Lewis, Christian Theism (Edinburgh, Scotland: Clark, 1984), 125.
37
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 1994), 816.
38
Gary R. Habermas and James P. Moreland, Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for
Immortality (Wheaton, IL: Good News Publishers, 1998), 222.
39
Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible (Grand Rapids:
Baker Academic, 2008), 179.
61
the life principle imparted by God to both man and beast (see on Eccl. 3: 19-21,
where ruach is translated “breath”).40
For Edward Fudge, a human being is an indivisible whole. The soul and the spirit
are not parts into which a human may be divided. The soul refers to the living human
individual; in other words, human beings do not have souls, they are souls. The spirit is a
constant reminder that humans have their source in God.41 He further asserts that the
consistent witness of the Old Testament is that when a person dies, it is the entirety of
their soul that dies (Ezek 18:20).42
Scholars who say that no part of humans survives death argue that it was only
when God breathed the breath of life into the inanimate body of Adam that it became a
living being/soul (Gen 2:7).43 This is the point of view from which this dissertation is
written. There is a difference between “breath of life,” ruach, and “soul,” nephesh, in
Gen 2:7. The soul “denotes man as a living being after the breath of life entered into a
physical body formed from the elements of the earth.”44 This is supported by the fact that
the account of Gen 2:7 says that “man became a living soul. Nothing in the Creation
account indicates that man received a soul—some kind of separate entity that, at Creation
40
“The Spirit” [Eccl 12:7], Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC), 3:1104.
41
Edward William Fudge, The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the
Doctrine of Final Punishment, 3rd ed. (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011), 27.
42
Ibid.
43
“A Living Soul” [Gen 2:7], Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC), 1:223.
44
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A Biblical
Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines (Washington, DC: Ministerial Association, 1998), 82.
62
was united with the human body”45 (emphasis in the original). Also, humans were only
given conditional immortality at creation, as attested to by Gen 2:15-17: “The LORD God
took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the
LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it
you will certainly die’” (emphasis added). Adam and Eve’s conditional immortality was
changed to mortality when they disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen 3).
Death is simply the reversal of the process of creation. At death, the breath of life is
withdrawn from the living being/soul,46 and “when that happens, the person dies. He or
she ceases to exist. The ‘soul’ is no more because the living person is no more.”47 Other
Bible passages also highlight the fact that the dead are in an unconscious, nonexistent
state (Eccl 9:5, 6), a state of unconscious sleep (John 11:11-13), and the next thing they
will be conscious of will be when Christ returns and raises them either to eternal life
(1 Thess 4:13-17) or to eternal damnation (Matt 25:46).
The Gathering to One’s Ancestors/People
Several passages in the Bible make mention of people being gathered to their
ancestors at death (Gen 15:15; 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:29-50:10; Gen 50:24-24). What did it
mean for the Israelites to be gathered to their ancestors when they died? Scholars have
diverging views as to what this phrase means.
45
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Adventist Believe, 81-82.
46
“A Living Soul” [Gen 2:7], SDABC, 1:223.
Bryan W. Ball, “The Immortality of the Soul: Could Christianity Survive without It?” Ministry
47
Magazine 83, no. 5 (May 2011): 15.
63
For Philippe King and Lawrence Stager, “the biblical expression ‘to sleep with’
and ‘to be gathered to one’s fathers’ refer to secondary burials within the family tomb,”48
that is, the deceased were temporarily placed in a grave until complete decomposition and
the skeletal remains were then collected and added to those of relatives who died before.
King and Stager base their argument on Huldah’s prophecy to King Josiah, “I will gather
you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace” (2 Kgs 22:20). Their emphasis is
thus on “you will be buried.” They further argue that the references “to sleep with” and
“to be gathered to one’s ancestors” are to be understood in terms of the continuing
relationship existing between the living and the deceased. Family burials had important
implications for the maintenance of that relationship. The deceased’s well-being in the
afterlife depended upon the descendants’ preservation of the patrimonial estate. . . . The
afterlife of the ancestors was contingent upon the association of parents, posterity, and
property.49 King and Stager’s argument means that Israelites practiced family tomb
burials to perpetuate their patrimony and to keep the family ties unbroken even in death.
Stephen Cook holds a similar view by pointing out that because it was thought
that priests would be defiled by contact with corpses (Lev 10:6; 21:1, 10-12; Ezek 44:25),
funerary matters were not part of their duties. Thus, total care for the dead was the duty
of the family and clan. Israelites therefore turned to their kin networks, not temples or
priests, as their source of comfort, security, and hope of afterlife.50 In early Jewish
48
Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2001), 365.
49
Ibid., 365.
50
Stephen L. Cook, “Death, Kinship, and Community: Afterlife and the ‫ ח ס ד‬Ideal in Israel,” in
The Family in Life and in Death: The Family in Ancient Israel, ed. Patricia Dutcher-Walls (New York: T &
T Clark, 2009), 111.
64
thinking, death could be resisted and ultimately vanquished “through faith in the bonds
and ties of lineage and land-vested community. . . . They [family bonds and ties to
ancestral territory] are so permanent, in fact, as to transcend Sheol’s power and to point
to Sheol’s ultimate defeat.”51 For the Israelites, “death meant the final change of address
from the family home of the living to the family home of the dead.”52 This kinship-
consciousness transcended even death as
internment in a family tomb on family-owned land was of the utmost urgency (see
2 Kgs 9:10; Jer 8:2; 16:4 22:19; 25:33). Kin should lie buried together, traditional
Israelites believed, especially closely related kin (see, e.g., 2 Sam 17:23; 19:37;
21:14; 1 Kgs 13:22). This insured that after death family members would not be
alienated from the insulating ties of communion with their kin.53
Pnina Galpaz-Feller also adds that “burial in a family tomb denoted permanence
and a connection with the community. Sons’ eventual burial in their ancestral grave
symbolized continuity and connection to one’s roots.”54 Thus, even in death a kin-group
longed to remain interconnected according to the same family and lineage ties that bound
them in life.55 Such was probably why Jacob, while in Egypt, desired to be buried with
his fathers in the cave in the field of Machpelah where Abraham and Isaac were buried
(Gen 49:29-33; 50:1-10), or for Joseph making the sons of Israel swear an oath that they
51
Cook, “Death, Kinship, and Community,” 106.
52
E. Bloch-Smith, “From Womb to Tomb: The Israelite Family in Death as in Life,” in The Family
in Life and in Death: The Family in Ancient Israel, ed. Patricia Dutcher-Walls (New York: T & T Clark,
2009), 128.
53
54
Pnina Galpaz-Feller, “‘And the Physicians Embalmed Him’ (Gen 50.2),” Zeitschrift für die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 118 no. 2 (2006): 210.
55
65
would carry his bones out of Egypt to the promised land when God delivered them,
which they did (Gen 50:24, 25; Exod 13:19).
However, according to Philip S. Johnston, “gathered to one’s fathers” does not
refer to people’s death or burial in family tombs since “gathered to one’s fathers” is
mentioned alongside the allusion to their death and burial (Gen 49:33; 50:13) and also
because burial in a family tomb did not occur for some Israelites such as Moses, David,
and Manasseh who were not buried in family tombs.56 Rather, he asserts that the phrase
“gathered to one’s people” likely “indicates joining one’s ancestors in the afterlife.”57 In
this case, family members do not have to be buried in the same tomb to preserve their
kinship relations in death.
My conclusion of the discussion on the nature of humans and the state of the dead
in the Bible is that “death is an unconscious state for all people.”58 As such, no part of
humans survives death. At death, the body and the spirit cease to exist until the
resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Christ (1 Thess 4:16-17). This has a
direct implication for my perspective on “gathered to one’s people.” If no part of humans
survives death, before the resurrection of the dead there is no form of afterlife in which
the dead continue to interact. The expression “to be gathered to one’s
ancestors/people/fathers” is a Hebrew figure of speech (euphemism) which simply means
56
Philip S. Johnston, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 34.
57
Ibid.
58
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 387. See
Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief number 26.
66
“to die” and be buried just as one’s forefathers were buried.59
Belief in the Afterlife
Various scholars assert that many early Israelites apparently believed in some
form of life after death. This belief may have been developed from death-related concepts
in the Mesopotamian and Canaanite cultures. Some scholars argue that the burial customs
in the biblical world shed some light on Israelite belief about the afterlife.60 King and
Stager are of the view that it was widely believed among early Israelites that “although
death marked the end of life on earth, the deceased continued an ethereal existence in
Sheol or in the family tomb. In other words, death is not extinction but transition to
another kind of existence in Sheol.”61 According to Rachel Hallote, when people died in
ancient Israel, their roles in their community and family changed but did not disappear.62
Ralph Gower adds that in the early Israelite history, people generally believed that at
death they would be “gathered to an underworld (Sheol), where people were shades (or
shadows) of their past.”63 For King and Stager, Sheol was not thought of as a place of
punishment but as an exile from God, that is, those in Sheol had no contact with the
divine presence. This new form of existence was a deplorable one to the Israelites for
“Go to Thy Fathers” [Gen 15:15], Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC), 1:314,
59
315.
60
See section on Burial Customs below.
61
King and Stager, Life in Biblical Israel, 374.
62
Rachel S. Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the Biblical World: How the Israelites and
Their Neighbors Treated Their Dead (Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, 2001), 30.
63
Ralph Gower, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2005), 67.
67
whom the essence of life was the ability to praise God.64 Bible passages such as the
following point out the inability of the dead to praise God from Sheol: “For the grave
cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot
hope for your faithfulness” (Isa 38:18); “Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?” (Ps 6:5); “I am set apart with the dead, like the slain
who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. . . .
Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?” (Ps 88:5, 11).
Hallote therefore concludes that “if God does not remember the dead [Ps 88:4-5], clearly
being dead was not desirable.”65
To make the existence in Sheol less deplorable, the dead were provisioned by the
living for continued life;66 “relatives brought furnishings, vessels, and food stuffs into the
tomb with the dead soul’s body. Clay lamps in great numbers aimed to fend off Sheol’s
dark shroud. Such deposits, typical of Hebrew burials, show the concern of the living for
the well-being of the dead.”67 Providing the dead with everyday personal objects suggests
that these were thought to be useful for them in their new form of existence. This points
to the fact that the cult of the dead was one of the features of ancient Israelite society.68
64
65
Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the Biblical World, 53.
66
Bloch-Smith, “From Womb to Tomb,” 125.
67
68
Naomi Steinberg, “Exodus 12 in Light of Ancestral Cult Practices,” in The Family in Life and in
Death: The Family in Ancient Israel, ed. Patricia Dutcher-Walls (New York: T & T Clark, 2009), 92. See
also Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the Biblical World, 64.
68
Hallote asserts that “the Cult of the Dead was probably one of the most active domestic
cults of the biblical period.”69
Scripture is very clear: The dead lie unconscious in their graves (Ps 88:5, 11;
Eccl 9:5, 6). This is why God undoubtedly prohibited any attempt to establish contact
with the dead.70 With this revelation, it is strange that some Israelites were still actively
involved in honoring those who know nothing and who no longer have a part in what
happens among the living.
The Resurrection of the Dead
If there ever was a belief in a form of life after death among the Israelites, Daniel
provided a significant correction with the revelation that “a resurrection would occur—
some to eternal life and some to eternal punishment (Daniel 12:2).”71 Although Dan 12:2,
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others
to shame and everlasting contempt,” is the first unambiguous reference to the bodily
resurrection of the dead, though there were hints to belief in the resurrection of the dead
prior to this.
The dramatic image of the valley of dry bones brought back to life in Ezek
37:1-14 seems to point to God’s promise of resurrecting the dead, especially in v. 13:
“Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring
you up from them” (emphasis added). Another hint to the physical resurrection of the
69
Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the Biblical World, 54.
70
See section on “Forbidden Death-Related Rituals” below.
71
Gower, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times, 67.
69
dead is found in Isa 26:19: “But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise—let
those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the
morning; the earth will give birth to her dead” (emphasis added).
Up to the time of the New Testament there were still different views as to the
resurrection of the dead. Some, like the Sadducees, did not believe in the resurrection of
the dead (Matt 22:23; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27), while the majority seemed to believe in a
corporate resurrection of Israel’s dead.72 Even Jesus’ inner circle of disciples seemed to
have found his resurrection from the dead incomprehensible. According to Mark 9:9-11,
when Jesus was coming down the mountain following his transfiguration he gave orders
to Peter, James, and John “not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had
risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what ‘rising from the
dead’ meant” (emphasis added). Green argues that “this may have been because Jesus
apparently spoke of the resurrection of an individual (that is, his own resurrection),
whereas resurrection-belief in contemporary Judaism was corporate in its emphasis.”73
Jesus later resurrected a widow’s son (Luke 7:11-150), Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:40-56),
and Lazarus (John 11:1-44) to show the possibility of an individual’s resurrection.
Rituals and Cultural Practices Surrounding Death in Scripture
Scripture makes mention of several death-related practices. This section will
focus on mourning the dead, burial customs, baptism for the dead, and three forbidden
death-related practices in Scripture.
72
Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life, 145.
73
Ibid.
70
Mourning the Dead
Mourning was an integral part of death rites. It was thought to be a way of
honoring the dead. The occurrence of death was almost always accompanied by a time of
wailing and intense lamentation (2 Sam 1:11-12; Acts 8:2).74 The wail was an
announcement to neighbors that a death had taken place. Family members, friends, and
neighbors usually joined this lamentation.75 In biblical times, “not to be mourned was a
sign of punishment.”76 Familiar biblical passages include: David mourning his son
Absalom (2 Sam 18:19-33), Jairus’s daughter’s death (Mark 5:38), and mourning during
and after the burial of Stephen (Acts 8:2). Rich families often hired professional
mourners, generally women, to lament during funeral ceremonies (Jer 9:16-18; Amos
5:16). To further express that they were grief-stricken, people also wore sackcloth (camel
or goat hair cloth garments) (2 Sam 3:31), beat their breast (Jer 32:9-12; 41:5-6), sat on
the ground (Lam 2:10), and tore their garments (2 Sam 1:11-12; 3:31; Job 2:11-13). The
dead were mourned for a week or longer (Deut 34:8; 1 Sam 31:13; Job 2:11-13).
Jeremiah speaks of a funeral meal being provided to close the period of mourning (Jer
16:7).
Burial Customs
In biblical times, burial usually took place quickly after a person’s death, usually
74
King and Stager, Life in Biblical Israel, 372, 373.
75
Angela Standhartinger, “‘What Women Were Accustomed to Do for the Dead Beloved by
76
Them’ (Gospel of Peter 12.50): Traces of Laments and Mourning Rituals in Early Easter, Passion, and
Lord’s Supper Traditions,” Journal of Biblical Literature 129, no. 2 (2010): 560.
71
the same day.77 Nevertheless, “a burial never took place on a Sabbath or holy day (John
11:39; 39:31.”78 The proper burial of the dead was a fundamental concern in biblical
times. It was dishonorable and even an insult to a dead person if his/her body was
allowed to remain unburied and decay or be desecrated above the ground.79 This was
particularly perceived as “a disgrace and a sign of divine judgment.”80 As a sign of divine
punishment, king Jehoiakim, Jezebel and Ahab’s descendants were to be improperly
buried: “Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of
Judah: ‘They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not
mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’ He will have the burial of a
donkey—dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem’” (Jer 22:18-19).
Concerning Jezebel, it is written that “‘dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of
Jezreel.’ ‘Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds will
feed on those who die in the country’” (1 Kgs 21:23-24).
There were three types of burial places: natural caves (Gen 25:9; 49:31; 50:13;
John 11:38), artificially made caves (sepulcher; see Gen 49:29-32; Judg 8:32), or in
simple graveyards. Although cremation was practiced by the Phoenicians who were
Israel’s neighbors, “the Israelites considered it as an act of desecration.”81 The only
mention of cremation was when the people of Jabesh Gilead “took down the bodies of
77
78
79
James M. Freeman, The New Manners and Customs of the Bible (Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos,
1998), 32, 33.
80
81
Ibid., 364.
72
Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned
them. Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and
they fasted seven days (1 Sam 31:12-13). The rejection of cremation as a means of burial
may have been tied to the belief that “man originated from the dust of the earth and to
there he shall return. Therefore the body of the dead must reunite with the dust and earth
from which it came.”82
When burial took place in natural caves, these were subsequently enlarged and
provided with chambers where the bodies could be put. Because of the limited number of
caves and also because members of the same family wanted to be buried in the same
tomb, several dead were often buried in the same cave (e.g., Sarah, Abraham, Isaac,
Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob were buried in the same tomb [Gen 23:14-16; Gen 25:9; 49:31;
50:13]; Gideon and Samson were each buried in their father’s tomb [Judg 8:32; 16:31]).83
When the bodies had decayed the bones were removed and placed in a heap on
the floor or deposited in a pit or ossuaries (stone jars) in order to make room for further
burials.84 The simple graveyards were always located at the outskirts of residential areas.
Exceptions were made for royalty who were usually buried within the city (2 Kgs 2:10).85
Bodies were often covered with spices before burial (John 19:40). However this was not
the same as the embalmment practiced by the Egyptians. The Israelites did not practice
embalmment. Pnina Galpaz-Feller argues that because embalmment was the exclusive
82
Galpaz-Feller, “And the Physicians Embalmed Him,” 209.
83
84
85
73
domain of the Egyptians in the ancient world, the embalmment of Jacob (Gen 50:2) was
an adoption of Egyptian practices rather than a way to preserve his body so that it could
be well kept for burial in the land of Israel. No special significance was given to
preservation of the human body at death among the Israelites,86 contrary to the Egyptians
for whom the practice of embalmment was linked with the belief that there was continued
existence after death and that without the body being preserved intact, there could be no
further existence after the passage from this world to the next.87
According to the laws of the Pentateuch relating to ritual cleanness and
uncleanness, the Israelites could contract uncleanness through contact with dead bodies
(Num 5:2-3; Lev 21:1-4, 11). Whereas uncleanness conveyed by touching an unclean
thing usually lasted until evening (Lev 15:1-11, 19-24), touching a human corpse made
one unclean for seven days (Num 19:11). Since touching dead bodies would make priests
ceremonially unclean thus excluding them from their duties in the sanctuary, they were
not to be involved in burial rites except for those of their close relatives, that is, their
mother, father, son, daughter, or unmarried sister (Lev 21:1-3). The high priest was not to
enter a place where there was a dead body or make himself ceremonially unclean even
for his father or mother (Lev 21:11). Ceremonial uncleanness placed any person under
the threat of divine retribution, even death, if that person were to approach the sanctuary
without purifying themselves (Lev 15:31; 22:3-9; Num 19:13). Uncleanness and the
threat associated with it remained until the necessary steps for purification were taken
86
Galpaz-Feller, “‘And the Physicians Embalmed Him’ (Gen 50.2),” 209, 211.
87
Pnina Galpaz-Feller, The Exodus from Egypt: Reality or Illusion (Exodus 1-15) (Tel Aviv:
Schocken, 2002), 13.
74
(Lev 17:16; Num 19:12-13). As a result, “where contraction of impurity occurred, it was
obligatory that the unclean person avoid that which is holy and take steps, involving the
rituals for disposal of impurity [e.g., Lev 16:3-4; Num 8:5-8; 19:1-20], to return to a state
of cleanness.”88 That might have been a reason why funerary matters were generally the
duty of the bereaved family and clan.89 The rules of purity in connection with dead bodies
convey in a symbolic way that the God of life is completely separated from anything that
has to do with death. They also highlight the concept of the holiness of God. The purity
laws suggest that “mortality involved in the birth-death cycle of human beings is opposed
to divine holiness, which is characterized by life.”90 Consequently, “the unclean are
excluded from the tabernacle, the symbolic dwelling place of God (Num 5:3; Lev
15:31).”91 Furthermore, just as sacrificial offerings were to be without defect (Lev 1:3,
10; 3:1, 6; 4:3), God’s people were also to worship him with their lives devoid of
impurities.
Baptism for the Dead
A new death-related ritual, baptism for the dead, is introduced in 1 Cor 15:29:
“Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the
dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” (emphasis mine).
What is baptism for the dead and why were people observing this rite? The proper
88
Joe M. Sprinkle, “The Rationale of the Laws of Clean and Unclean in the Old Testament,”
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43, no. 2 (2000): 641.
89
Stephen L. Cook, “Death, Kinship, and Community,” 111.
90
Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 659.
91
Sprinkle, “The Rationale of the Laws of Clean and Unclean in the Old Testament,” 649, 652.
75
understanding of baptism for the dead has been a continuing challenge to New Testament
scholars. No single interpretation of this form of baptism has gained a general
consensus.92
Richard DeMaris contends that baptism on behalf of the dead was a peculiar
Corinthian practice that was little known elsewhere in the early church. He argues that as
such, baptism on behalf of the dead should not be called a Christian practice. He points
out that “Christianity, along with its sister religion, Judaism, was only forming in the first
and second centuries. So to label first-century phenomena Christian or Jewish is
historically inaccurate.”93
In the introduction of his study on 1 Cor 15:29, Bernard Foschini posits that “the
phrase baptizesthai hyper tōn nekrōn of 1 Cor. 15:29 has always been obscure. It can
justly be labeled as a ‘crux interpretum.’ An all around satisfactory explanation of the
words has never ceased to tantalize exegetes.”94 In the same vein, Richard Carlson
comments that “despite dozens of proposed solutions, the reference itself [baptism for the
dead] is simply so obscure and our knowledge so limited that we cannot discern what this
rite actually involved or meant.”95 He concludes by stating that whatever “baptism on
behalf of the dead” may have meant, it is presented by Paul as a baptismal rite done in
92
DeMaris, The New Testament in Its Ritual Context, 57.
93
Ibid., 13.
94
Bernard Foschini, “Those Who Are Baptized for the Dead” 1 Cor. 15:29: An Exegetical
Historical Dissertation (Worcester, MA: Heffernan Press, 1951), 1.
95
Richard P. Carlson, “The Role of Baptism in Paul’s Thought,” Interpretation 47 (July 1, 1993):
261.
76
anticipation of the resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Christ.96
For Mormon scholars such as Roger D. Launius and Robert E. Clark, baptism is
an indispensable means of salvation; in other words, to be saved, a person must be
baptized. They understand the phrase “baptism on behalf of the dead” as referring to the
baptism of dead people by proxy, that is, a vicarious rite practiced by the living for the
benefit of the physically dead. Launius writes that “those who had died without accepting
the gospel will be taught after death, and others could be baptized on earth in their
stead.”97
Following the same line of argument, Clark argues that
because baptism is a physical ordinance, it has to be performed in the flesh. Those

who have died without an opportunity to hear the gospel and be baptized thus need
some means of access to this ordinance. This is accomplished by having a baptized
member of the church stand as proxy for the deceased individual, allowing his or her
body to be baptized for and in behalf of the one who no longer has a body.98
Another scholar, Daniel Joyce, is in full agreement with the Mormon view. He
emphasizes the proposition hyper (for) in baptizesthai hyper tōn nekrōn and concludes
that this “shows us that what is done is done for the dead and not for the living.”99
If among the Corinthian believers “baptism for the dead” meant baptism for the
dead by proxy, DeMaris contends that they might have been influenced by the Greco-
96
Carlson, “The Role of Baptism in Paul’s Thought,” 261.
Roger D. Launius, “An Ambivalent Rejection: Baptism for the Dead and the Reorganized
97
Church Experience,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 23, no. 2 (Summer 1990): 62.
Robert E. Clark, “Baptism for the Dead and the Problematic of Pluralism: A Theological
98
Reconfiguration,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 30, no, 1 (Spring 1997): 108.
99
J. Daniel Joyce, “Baptism on Behalf of the Dead: An Interpretation of I Corinthians 15:29-34,”
Encounter 26, no. 2 (Spring 1965): 273.
77
Roman religious environment prevalent in Corinth. He points out that
both ancient Greek and Roman societies devoted considerable resources to the dead,
in part for fear of them but primarily because the living were thought to be obligated
to help the deceased become integrated into the realm of the dead. Such help was
crucial, for the moment of death was thought to mark only the beginning of a long
and sometimes difficult transition to the next world. In Greece this help began with
proper mourning and burial rites and continued for some time in the form of periodic
commemorations of the deceased, such as festivals. Remembering the dead also
involved visiting the grave, a visit that might include sacrifices and feasts held for
them. A few Greek graves even had feeding tubes so that blood offerings and
libations could be communicated directly to the deceased. Many of these practices
appear to reflect a belief that the dead could benefit directly from actions performed
on their behalf.100
If “baptism for the dead” meant baptism for the dead by proxy to the Corinthian
believers, it is their concern for the well-being of their dead relatives or friends that might
have led them to syncretize their Christian faith.
Other scholars such as Bernard Foschini and Joel White reject the idea that
baptism for the dead refers to a baptism by proxy for the well-being of the dead.
Although Foschini started his argument by stating that the phrase “baptism for the dead”
was obscure, he concludes by arguing that the word “dead” in baptism for the dead
should be understood as one’s own dead body, and as such, the phrase baptism for the
dead can be understood as referring to baptism for the benefit of one’s own self, that is, to
be part of the everlasting glory promised by God (Rom 6:26).101
Joel White seems to interpret the proposition “for” (hyper) in “for the dead” as
meaning “because of,” “for the sake of,” or “on account of” the dead. With this
100
Richard E. DeMaris, “Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29):
Insights from Archaeology and Anthropology,” Journal of Biblical Literature 114, no. 4 (Winter 1995):
663.
101
Foschini, “Those Who Are Baptized for the Dead,” 97, 98.
78
understanding, 1 Cor 15:29 will therefore read, “Now if there is no resurrection, what
will those do who are baptized because of/for the sake of/on account of the dead? If the
dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized because of/for the sake of/on account
of them?” For him, baptism for the dead was not a vicarious rite but rather refers to the
rite of regular baptism undertaken by some people as a result of their affection and
respect for those who are now dead.102
Regardless of the suggested interpretations of 1 Cor 15:29, it is important to not
lose sight of the fact that the apostle Paul is likely not recommending the practice of
baptism by proxy for the dead. It is more likely that he is simply referring to an existing
practice among Corinthian believers who had copied this heretical practice from
pagans.103 It would be unlikely for Paul “to cite a pagan or heretical practice in support of
a fundamental Christian doctrine.”104 Further, Paul could not have argued in favor of a
belief that the dead could benefit directly from actions performed on their behalf by the
living based on his arguments in Rom 14:12 that “each of us will give an account of
ourselves to God,” and “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that
each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether
good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10). Romans 14:12 and 2 Cor 5:10 highlight the fact that when it
comes to salvation, we are all accountable for ourselves. When someone dies, nothing
can be done by the living to change one’s fate before God. Death marks the close of
Joel R. White, “‘Baptized on Account of the Dead’: The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:29 in Its
102
Context,” Journal of Biblical Literature 116, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 498.
DeMaris, “Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29),” 663.
103
“Baptized for the Dead” [1 Cor 15:29], Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC),
104
6:807.
79
individual human probation. Finally, baptism requires an act of faith; each person must
personally believe in Christ and confess their sins (Acts 2:38; 8:36, 37; Mark 15:16). In
harmony with the New Testament theology of baptism (Acts 2:38; 8:36, 37; Mark 15:16)
and the main theme under discussion here (the resurrection), the phrase “those who are
baptized for the dead” likely refers to people who, after the death of a Christian friend or
relative, are motivated to be baptized in order to be united with them at the resurrection.
Forbidden Death-Related Rituals
Israel was strictly forbidden by God to practice several death-related rituals.
Among these were cutting their bodies for the dead, cutting their hair as a sign of
mourning, and involvement in spiritism. This section will consider the reasons for these
prohibitions.
Cutting One’s Body for the Dead—

Leviticus 19:28
Various laws are outlined in Lev 19. The main reason why the Israelites needed to
obey these laws is given in v. 2, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them:
‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19 is therefore a call to
imitate God by embracing a lifestyle of holiness. Mark Rooker observes that Lev 19
“perhaps better than any other [chapter] in the Bible, explains what it meant for Israel to
be a holy nation.”105 The prohibitions contained in the laws outlined in Lev 19 were
intended to set Israel aside as a holy nation. Holiness meant imitating God rather than
105
Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus. The New American Commentary, vol. 3A (Nashville, TN: Broadman
& Holman Publishers, 2000), 250.
80
their surrounding nations. Leviticus 19:28 says, “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or
put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” This speaks against “pagan mourning
practices involved in ancestor worship.”106 In pagan mourning rituals, mourners often cut
their body and shed their blood to appease the demons from tormenting their dead.107
Mourning the dead was not forbidden to Israelites, “only its identification with the pagan
rites carrying idolatrous connotations.”108
Spiritism—Leviticus 20:6, 27;

Deuteronomy 18:10-13
Leviticus 20 continues with the holiness theme begun in Lev 19. The motivation
for keeping the laws outlined here is given in vv. 7, 8, and 26: “Consecrate yourselves
and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am
the LORD, who makes you holy. You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy,
and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Because Yahweh is the God of
Israel, they must be holy. Verses 7 and 8 also point out that the Israelites are called to
protect their holy status from defilement. Refraining from practices in which the dead are
consulted or worshiped (v. 23; Deut 18:10-13) is indispensable for attaining holiness
(Lev 20:6, 27).109 To remain in the land God gave them (v. 22), the Israelites were to be
106
Roy Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI:
Walter C. Kaiser, “The Book of Leviticus,” The New Interpreter’s Bible (NIB) (Nashville, TN:
107
Abingdon, 1994), 1:1135.

108
Ibid.
109
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22, The Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 1684.
81
pure by refusing to consult mediums or spiritists.110 Although divination and ancestor
worship were common practices in the nations surrounding Israel,111 the Israelites were
not to consult the occult world because they were given a better revelation by God.112
Shaving the Head for the Dead—

Deuteronomy 14:1-2
In line with God’s demands in Lev 19 and 20, Deuteronomy also sets forth
specific guidelines for holy living. Deuteronomy 14:1-2 “speaks of holiness as a quality
that Israel possesses.”113 Although shaving the hair is not completely forbidden by
Scripture, as a holy people, the Israelites were not to do so in connection with mourning
rites for the dead. Such “activities were practiced by pagans especially during times of
mourning for the dead.”114 Just as physical contact with a corpse was deemed defiling
(Lev 11:24-40), so was any spiritual attempt to establish contact with the dead.115
Commenting on Deut 14:1-2, Daniel Block notes that “non-Israelites believed the
deceased continued to exercise both beneficent and malevolent power over the living, and
that the favorable influence of departed ancestors could be secured through mortuary
rites”116 such as cutting their bodies or shaving their heads for the dead.
110
Rooker, Leviticus, 271.
111
Gane, Leviticus, Numbers, 341.
Kaiser, “The Book of Leviticus,” 1:1135.

112
113
Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI:
114
Rooker, Leviticus, 262.
115
Block, Deuteronomy, 344-345.
116
Ibid., 344.
82
The three forbidden mortuary rites surveyed above share the common reason why
the Israelites were not to practice them. Because the Israelites belonged to a holy God,
they were to guard themselves against any form of the cult of the dead.
Conclusion
Community-centeredness was of utmost importance to the Israelites. They not
only promoted it among the living, they also hoped for its continuation in death. Proper
death and burial rituals were perceived as the means of making kinship relationships
transcend life.
The Israelites’ concern for the well-being of their dead, their hope to be united
with them, and the influence of their pagan neighbors may have led some to practice the
cult of the dead as a means of keeping the doors of communication open between the
living and the dead. This was practiced either out of fear of retribution from the dead or
out of a desire to seek their guidance since they were believed to know everything.117 As
a result, although the official religion of Israel condemned and even tried to eradicate any
form of attempted contact with the dead (Lev 19:28, 31; 20:6, 27; Deut 14:1-2; 18:10-
11), the practice persisted in spite of the threat of severe punishment (e.g., Lev 18:29;
20:27). By defiling themselves with the cult of the dead, the Israelites erased the
differences between them and their polytheistic Canaanite neighbors.118
If “baptism for the dead” in 1 Cor 15:29 was understood and practiced by the
Corinthian believers as baptism for the dead by proxy, it is likely that their concern for
117
Hallote, Death, Burial, and Afterlife in the Biblical World, 60, 61.
118
Ibid., 64.
83
the well-being of their dead loved ones may have led them to syncretize their Christian
faith. If this was the case, they might have been influenced by the Greco-Roman religious
environment in which considerable resources were devoted to the dead to help them
transition to the realm of the dead.119
The next chapter will report on my filed research findings and the challenges that
were brought to light in the process.
119
DeMaris, “Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29),” 663.
84
CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CHALLENGES
Introduction
I spent the month of May 2014 in Burkina Faso doing field research in three Lobi
communities concerning their funeral rites of passage. I conducted interviews and
observed a burial service. My findings broadened my understanding of the sociocultural
significance of the Lobi funeral rites as well as the challenges they pose to Christian
mission among the Lobi.
Description of Research Process
I interviewed three Lobi religious leaders, and 12 Adventists. Each of the
respondents was interviewed individually. The Adventists I interviewed were divided
into three groups: (1) those who had taken part in the Lobi funeral rites before becoming
Adventists, (2) those who had taken part in the Lobi funeral rites after becoming
Adventists, and (3) those who are currently being or who have been pressured to
participate in the Lobi funeral rites.
Interviews with Lobi Religious Leaders
The three Lobi religious leaders I interviewed were asked six questions. Their
answers were the same for the first four questions. Diverging views emerged in their
85
answers to questions 5 and 6. Following are the questions I asked and the synthesis of the
answers that were provided.
Question 1—What is the Lobi people’s perception of death?
Death is the fate that awaits all humans. No one can live without one day “tasting”
death. Death creates a disharmony between humans. When a person dies, their relatives
always inquire about the causes of death. In most of the cases, it is revealed that a
“wicked” member of the community caused the death. This revelation inevitably creates
disharmony and bitter relationships among members of the community. They also believe
that the dead are not dead; they have only moved to another form of existence from
which they continue to participate in the affairs of the living. They are still with us. They
hear us.
Question 2—Is death always of a natural cause?
All three Lobi religious leaders believe that there is no natural illness and
therefore no natural death. Illness and death always have hidden causes: a wicked person,
a spirit, or an offended ancestor. It is the responsibility of the deceased’s relatives to find
out who, and never what, killed him/her. The cause of death can be known through
divination or by directly interrogating the dead person.
Question 3—Why do you perform funeral rites for those who die?
Funeral rites are performed for one main reason: for the dead person to get to
balbulah (the abode of the ancestors) and be accepted by the ancestors as one of them.
Balbulah is thought to be a perfect replica of this life but with better living conditions.
Without funeral rites, the dead may not reach balbulah.
The land of the living and that of the dead (ancestors) is separated by a river. If
86
dead people’s funerals are not done according to the prescription handed down by the
ancestors, they cannot cross that river and get to balbulah. There is no rest for such dead
people. They will spend their entire existence as wandering spirits who hurt the living.
Question 4—Are funeral rites done for every single person who dies?
Funeral rites are not automatically done for every person that dies. When a death
occurs, the ancestors are consulted to find out if the deceased deserves funeral rites. No
funeral rite is performed for people who die at the dyoro (initiation rites). Such people are
not welcome in balbulah. The relatives of those who die by lightning, drowning, or
suicide must appease the ancestors and the earth before their dead can be buried. If the
ancestors and the Mother Earth are not appeased, the community will suffer a drought.
Death by lightning, drowning, or suicide is viewed as a bad death (an improper way of
dying). There is, therefore, no funeral rite for this category of death.
Also, not all funeral rites lead to the ancestralisation of the dead. To become an
ancestor, one should live an exemplary life (e.g., not a witch), be initiated, and be married
with children.
Question 5—Do you think that all Lobi, whatever their religion, should fully take
part in these rites? Why?
Two opposing views emerged during my interviews with the three Lobi religious
leaders.
Two of the religious leaders said that when they die, they do not want their
children who are of other religious faiths to be forced to perform the rites associated with
the traditional Lobi funerals. These leaders feel that if they did not oppose their children’s
conversion to other religions, there is no reason for the children to submit to the
traditional Lobi funerals at their (parents’) death. However, both of the leaders insisted on
87
only one thing: all their children, irrespective of their faiths, should, at least, be present at
their funerals and help each other to take care of the well-wishers.
The third religious leader is of the view that all true Lobi must fully participate in
their parents’ funeral rites, i.e., throwing cowries to their parents’ dead bodies, shaving
their head as a sign of bereavement, and whitewashing their bodies. He expects all his
children, irrespective of their religion, to submit themselves to the way of the ancestors at
his death. I explicitly asked him if he expects that from his four children who are
Seventh-day Adventists. He answered that at his death, all his children, including those
who are Seventh-day Adventists, “must lay aside their acquired religious beliefs and fully
submit themselves to the Lobi tradition.” He insisted that it is a duty of all his children to
honor him and make him happy both in this life and in death. For him, a child who
refuses to do so has neglected and even denied him his honor and will inevitably suffer
the consequences of his unhappiness in this life. Besides, he threatened to not welcome
them in balbulah.
Question 6—How should the community view and treat children who refuse to
submit to tradition at their parents’ funerals?
Here again, the first two religious leaders said that the community should respect
each person’s religious choice. The third religious leader believes such children should be
excommunicated because they turned their back on the ways of their society.
Interviews with Lobi Seventh-day Adventists
Members Who Took Part in Lobi

Funeral Rites before Conversion
Six members were interviewed who had taken part in Lobi funeral rites before
becoming Adventists but who refuse to do so after their conversion. The five questions
88
each respondent was asked and the synthesis of their answers is as follows.
Question 1—What motivated you to participate in funeral rites?
All the respondents said that they were told from a young age that this was the
right way of being a Lobi. A true Lobi was described to them as one who strictly follows
the traditions handed down to the community by the ancestors. Full participation in one’s
parents’ funerals is the clearest way for a child to demonstrate that he/she truly honors
them.
There was also a subtle threat that led them to take part in all the rites. The
respondents were told that if they refused to participate in people’s funeral rites, the
community would not participate in their parents’ funerals. This caused their parents to
put more pressure on them. They were also told that their participation in other people’s
funerals was an investment they were making toward their own funerals. In other words,
for someone to have good funerals, they had to participate in other people’s funerals.
Finally, they were told that if they refused to submit to tradition at the death of their
parents, or husbands, they would be rejected and would not succeed in life.
Question 2—What would have happened if you had refused to participate?
Members of the deceased’s family who refuse to submit to the way of the
ancestors bring shame on their entire family. Such people are seen as rebels against
society. They are rejected and even accused of being responsible for the death.
Question 3—Why do you refuse to participate in Lobi funeral rites today?
Three main reasons were given why this group of Adventists would no longer
participate in the traditional Lobi funeral rites: (1) the biblical teaching that the dead are
unconscious and aware of nothing that happens among the living, (2) the unbiblical
89
practices associated with traditional funeral rites such as divination, interrogation of the
dead, and the shaving of the head in honor of the dead person, and (3) a desire to be
examples of faithfulness to other church members.
Question 4—What helps you stand firm?
All of the respondents said they will continue to stand firm because of their faith
in God, two said the example of a faithful few help them to stand firm, and two others (a
man and a woman) said they will continue to stand firm because of their faith in God and
also because they have already experienced God’s power as superior to that of local
deities.
I asked these last two respondents to relate how they experienced God’s power.
The woman lost her husband several years ago and refused to perform the traditional
funeral rites such as having her head shaved and her body whitewashed. Not long after,
she fell critically ill. People started saying that she was so sick and would soon die
because she refused to submit herself to the way of the ancestors. She requested that the
church pray that God may use her illness to glorify his name by showing to the whole
community that he can save those who trust him from the curses of other gods and
ancestors. The church prayed, and she was completely healed; to the amazement of
everybody in her village. She told me that she has never been threatened again. She uses
her story to encourage others to remain faithful to Christ.
The second respondent told me that one of his clan’s taboos forbids him from
touching a monkey. To make ends meet, he asked an Adventist missionary to employ him
as his house helper. The missionary had several monkeys and one of his duties was to
take care of them. One day as he was feeding the monkeys, one broke loose and ran into
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the village and took refuge on top of the idol that is in his father’s shrine. When he tried
to enter into the shrine to catch the monkey, onlookers told him that he was going to die.
He stopped right there, said a prayer, and went in and caught the monkey and went back
to the missionary’s house. Early the next morning, people waited to hear news of his
death. Seeing him alive and well, they confessed that he serves a powerful God. That
incident strengthened his faith and continues to help him stand firm for his faith.
Members Who Took Part/Are Taking

Part in Lobi Funeral Rites after
Becoming Adventists
In my interviews, only two respondents (a man and a woman) told me that they
have been involved in the traditional Lobi funeral rites. I was told about others who
frequently do, but they refused to meet me for an interview. What surprised me was that
the man is a former employee of the church and the woman is married to a prominent
church leader currently employed by the church.
I interviewed them individually. Below is the synthesis of their answers to my
questions.
Question 1—What motivated you to participate in funeral rites in spite of being

an Adventist?
The woman told me that she was compelled to do so by her family at the death of
her father. She said she had no choice but to shave her head in honor of her dead father.
(Her husband told me that he will also do so at the death of his father). The second
respondent told me that he has always taken part in funeral rites because of the following
reasons: (1) tradition requires it of him, (2) his love for the Lobi culture, (3) he wants his
funerals to be done according to the Lobi tradition, and (4) he believes that the dead are
not dead.
91
Question 2—Are there practices conflicting with biblical principles? If yes,
describe them.
All the respondents said that there are practices in the traditional Lobi funeral rites
that conflict with biblical principles. They mentioned divination, interrogating the dead,
throwing cowries at the deceased’s feet to help them pay their way to balbulah, shaving
the head in honor of the dead, and dancing for the dead as unbiblical practices. This was
when I learned that people vigorously dance at funerals as a way of sending the deceased
on their journey to balbulah.
Question 3—Do you regret participating in these rites? Why?
The female respondent regrets not being able to stand firm for her faith. She told
me that after her father’s funeral, she fell sick and she attributes that to her unfaithfulness
to God. The church prayed for her and she was healed.
The male respondent has no regret for his continual participation in funeral rites.
He insisted that it is the right thing to do for every true Lobi.
Question 5—Should other Lobi Adventists participate in funeral rites? Why?
On the basis of her experience, the female respondent said that Adventist should
not participate in the traditional funeral rites because the core rites are incompatible with
biblical teachings. She also pointed to the fact that God’s power is able to protect
believers against evil powers.
The male respondent insisted that all real Lobi must obey their tradition in general
and at the death of their parents in particular. He concluded that there is nothing wrong
with that although he is well aware that traditional funeral rites contain unbiblical
elements.
92
Members Experiencing Pressure to
Participate in Lobi Funeral Rites
Four church members who are currently being or have been pressured to
participate in Lobi funeral rites were interviewed in this last category. All of them have
categorically refused, despite pressures and threats, to take part in the traditional Lobi
funeral rites. I wanted to further understand the type of pressure they were experiencing,
as well as, what they thought would help them stand firm in their faith. Following is the
synthesis of my interviews with them.
Question 1—What kinds of pressures are you experiencing now to participate in

funeral rites?
I have discovered that all the respondents in this category have emotional and
financial pressures. At least two are still dependent on their families for basic needs such
as food and school fees. These members are being accused of preferring their Christian
faith to their families and their community. Some said that they are not even considered
to be Lobi; they are referred to as “Dioula,” another tribe that currently resides in their
village. One of the respondent has been told that he was not doing well in his business as
the result of the curse he incurred by refusing to perform the required rites at the death of
his father. Another respondent has even been told that his eternal salvation was at stake
for refusing to honor his father and the tradition.
Question 2—Why do you refuse to participate in funeral rites?
The four respondents base their refusal to participate in the traditional Lobi
funeral rites on the fact that the core rites (first and second funeral rites) all contain
unbiblical practices. They consider participating in these rites as a violation of God’s
Word and one of the main beliefs of the church. They pointed to the following as what
93
they see as contradicting their Adventist beliefs: divination and interrogating the
deceased to find the cause of death, throwing cowries to the deceased as a way of
contributing to the success of their journey to balbulah (the land of the ancestors),
dancing to set the deceased on their journey to balbulah, head shaving as a sign of
mourning and honoring the dead, and whitewashing the widows and orphans as a way of
protecting them against harm from the deceased (this implies that the dead are not really
dead).
Question 3—What helps you resist the pressure?
The respondents mentioned the following as those things that help them resist the
pressure to take part in funeral rites: faith in God, desire to be faithful to God, the
encouragement from other church members, the example of other church members,
desire to be an example to others, and the power of God to protect.
Question 4—How long can you refuse participating in the traditional funeral rites
for the sake of your religious beliefs?
The respondents said they have counted the cost of discipleship and that they
were willing to continue to suffer for their faithfulness to God.
Question 5—What kind of support are you hoping for from your church leaders?
The respondents in this group of interviewees expect church leaders to lead by
example, i.e., stand firm for their faith; conduct “good” Bible studies to ground members
in the Word of God, invest time and resources in discipling new converts, and identify
with other members in times of crisis.
Observation of Public Behavior at a Funeral
The last day of my field research, I traveled with my informant to conduct further
interviews in another Lobi village. Upon arrival, we were informed that a death had just
94
occurred in a neighboring village. A nine-year-old boy had died after a long illness. His
father is an Adventist but his mother is not. Usually funeral ceremonies take place in the
paternal compound but this was not so in this case. I was told that when the boy died in
the hospital, his mother ran straight to her parents’ compound. Because the husband had
not paid the dowry, it was compulsory that his son’s corpse be taken to his in-laws.
When we arrived there the body was laid on a bed under a tree surrounded by
women. Men and women sat far apart from each other. Women were the ones wailing,
walking to and fro, beating their chest or with both hands on their heads. I was told that it
was a distinctive sign of misfortune. I met the boy’s mom and presented to her my
condolences. I was also led to his dad who was sitting almost alone under a tree. He was
visibly in pain for losing his only child but also because none of his next of kin could be
in charge of his son’s funerals. Since the deceased boy’s mother was not an Adventist and
his father had not paid the bride price, the mother’s family was to decide on the type of
funeral ceremony they wanted for him. After some discussion between a group of
Adventists and the woman’s family, it was decided that the boy’s funeral would be led by
Adventists. This was a big relief for the church for two reasons: there would be no animal
sacrifice and the boy’s father was not going to completely lose face.
Once the church was granted permission to conduct the funeral service, a prayer
was said and the choir began singing. Songs were accompanied with drums and clapping
of hands. My translator told me that the songs express sorrow for the loss but also hope
for the resurrection of the dead. After about 45 minutes of singing, the district pastor
preached on the state of the dead and the hope of the resurrection. After the sermon,
another prayer was said and the corpse was taken with the bed and we walked to the
95
cemetery. A graveyard service was conducted before the burial. We returned home after
the burial to present our condolences to the wife’s family. Before departing, church
leaders contributed money for the family.
Biblical and Missiological Challenges
On the basis of my field research, I see at least five major reasons why some Lobi
Adventists continue to take part in their traditional funeral rites: (1) the fear of evil
powers, (2) societal pressure, (3) the poor discipleship of some converts, (4) lack of
worldview change, and (5) the inconsistency of some church leaders. All five of these
reasons make it easy for some members to succumb to syncretism in times of crises.
The Fear of Evil Powers
The fear of evil powers among the Lobi is very palpable. Shrines dedicated to
deities and spirits are present in homes and public places in the villages. Every
misfortune is interpreted as the spirits’ unhappiness with humans. In times of crises, the
natural tendency is to pay these deities and spirits “their dues” to ensure their favor and
benevolence.1 In such times, it is not uncommon to find church members reverting to
unchristian practices as their last resort to meet some existential needs. Power objects
(e.g., amulets) are worn, sacrifices are made, rituals are performed, and people of power
(e.g., diviners) are consulted in an attempt to ward off evil powers in order to be
successful in life.
Triebel, “Living Together with the Ancestors,” 187-189.

1
96
Societal Pressure
Societal pressure to conform to tradition is exercised on individuals in five main
ways: (1) In the traditional Lobi context, the whole of life is community centered. As a
result, it is thought that the Lobi identity is inseparable from participation in community
rituals.2 (2) Church members who still depend on their non-Adventist families for
meeting their daily needs often succumb to the societal pressure to conform to traditional
customs and practices. (3) Since becoming an ancestor also depends on the proper
performance of specific rites in which immediate family members of a deceased must
take part, some parents threaten to curse their children in case they refuse to follow
tradition at their death. (4) The social penalty for refusing to participate in some rituals
could lead to the rejection of or complete indifference toward those who dare to defy
tradition. (5) Misfortunes in the community are sometimes interpreted as the consequence
of the ancestors’ unhappiness with some community members’ failure to respect and
obey them.3 Also, failure to take part in funeral rites may be taken as an indication of
possible involvement in the death.4 Therefore, because of the fear of being blamed for the
death of a person or for the community’s hardships, some people prefer to submit to
tradition.
Poor Discipleship of Some Converts
The discipleship process of many Lobi converts to Adventism may be biblically
Bognolo, Lobi, 8, and Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” 164.
2

3
4
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faithful to some extent but not culturally appropriate. Emphasis is only put on the
cognitive knowledge about biblical truth. Although important, doctrinal clarity does not
effectively speak in this context to people’s existential needs of protection from curses
and evil spiritual powers. Also, despite the fact that emphasis is put on doctrinal
correctness, it is usually done hastily, with the event of baptism marking the end of the
process. This poor discipleship of converts is unable to help them stand firm for their
faith in times of crises.
Lack of Worldview Change
Worldview is the underlying, deep-level, unconscious, and unchallenged
assumptions about reality upon which culture is built. It determines beliefs, ideas,
feelings, and values which are manifested in visible behaviors, structures, and various
products in the society. Before people adopt a new approach to life, they must experience
dissatisfaction with the status quo, know of a better way, and see how to take the first
steps.5
The implication of this in cross-cultural ministry context is that we should not be
content with changes in converts’ behavior as the single sign of conversion. Such changes
are important but they do not necessarily mean that underlying beliefs have changed.
Conversion must also involve a transformation of beliefs, feelings, ideas, and values.
Further, if the process of conversion stops at a change in beliefs, ideas, feelings, values,
5
Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness, 11-31; see also Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming
Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2009).
98
and behavior, and the underlying worldview is not transformed, in the long run converts
will fall back into syncretism.6 This is why one of my respondents still believes that the
dead are not dead and therefore continues to take part in traditional funeral rites. In the
Christian experience, discipleship is a lifelong process and not merely an event that
happens at or before baptism. This is why discipleship and mentoring are vital for the
spiritual growth of converts.
Inconsistency of Some Church Leaders
It is possible for church leaders to cause other believers to stumble in their faith
(Matt 18:6-7). Jesus’ warning to his followers, “So you must be careful to do everything
they [the teachers of the law and the Pharisees] tell you. But do not do what they do, for
they do not practice what they preach” (Matt 23:3), also points to the likelihood of new
converts being influenced by church leaders whose lives are inconsistent with church
principles. The Lobi community members do not understand why some Adventists are
seen at the forefront of funeral rituals while others refuse to be involved. Whenever any
member refuses to take part in funeral rites, they are often reminded of the fact that some
of their church leaders do not have any problem to do so. Some of my interviewees have
been rebuked by their family members for refusing to take part in funeral rites on the
ground that they were not better than other church members and leaders who did so. In
the absence of the support of good role models in the church, some converts do not have
any chance of withstanding societal pressure to conform to tradition.
6
See Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews.
99
For an effective mission and ministry in the traditional Lobi context, it is essential
to address the above challenges to discipleship. The next chapter will focus on proposing
a biblical and missiological framework for responding to the Lobi funeral rites.
100
CHAPTER 5
RESPONDING TO THE LOBI FUNERAL RITES
Introduction
The biblical revelations were intended to reform or transform the beliefs, values,
and practices of the peoples to whom they were first addressed as well as in subsequent
generations who would choose to follow them.1 In real life situations, missionaries face
many problems when it comes to issues dealing with the correlation between the gospel
and human cultures.2 Throughout the history of Christian missions, one of the challenges
has been how to be sensitive to different cultures and remain faithful to biblical principles
at the same time. Unfortunately, sensitivity to local cultures has sometimes
overshadowed faithfulness to biblical principles. Nevertheless, there is still a need to find
ways of being both biblically faithful and culturally relevant in transmitting the principles
of the Word of God. If we put emphasis only on biblical coherence, “we are in danger of
being ineffective messengers at best, and at worst of communicating a gospel that is
misunderstood and distorted.”3 In mission, we need to present the gospel in such a way
1
Rick Brown, “Contextualization without Syncretism,” International Journal of Frontier Mission
23, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 127.
2
3
Ibid., 141.
101
that if people reject it, it should not be because it is a misunderstood gospel. Terry Muck
and Frances Adeney emphasize that the contextual complexity of many ministry and
mission settings requires the use of different approaches instead of a one-size-fits-all
approach. To them the biblical record shows that “every time the gospel engages a
cultural setting it does so in a unique way.”4
The focus of this chapter is on developing a biblical and missiological framework
with principles that could apply to studying any group of people in order to make the
gospel presentation both biblically coherent and culturally relevant, thus minimizing the
risk of religious syncretism.
Critical Contextualization
Contextualization has been defined in several ways over the decades. I find the
following two definitions of contextualization to be the most comprehensive in relation to
my study of the Lobi people group.
Michael Pocock, Gailyn Van Rheenen, and Douglas McConnell define
contextualization as
the process whereby Christians adapt the forms, content, and praxis of the Christian
faith so as to communicate it to the minds and hearts of people with other cultural
backgrounds. The goals is to make the Christian faith as a whole—not only the
message but also the means of living the faith out in the local setting—
understandable5 (emphasis in the original).
For David Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen, contextualization is the “attempt to
communicate the message of the person, works, Word, and will of God in a way that is
4
Terry Muck and Frances S. Adeney, Christianity Encountering World Religions: The Practice of
Mission in the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 34.
5
Michael Pocock, Gailyn Van Rheenen, and Douglas McConnell, The Changing Face of World
Mission: Engaging Contemporary Issues and Trends (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 323.
102
faithful to God’s revelation, especially as it is put forth in the teachings of Holy Scripture,
and that is meaningful to respondents in their respective cultural and existential
contexts.”6 Contextualization is therefore a missional strategy concerned with finding
appropriate means and methods of presenting the principles of the never-changing Word
of God in the contexts of an ever-changing world in such a way that these principles are
correctly understood by each context. As such, contextualization is not a one-time event
but an ongoing process.
A number of reasons are given by scholars in favor of the practice of
contextualization in mission and ministry. There are also arguments given to discredit the
practice because of the risk of syncretism that might be associated with it. However, as
stated by Dean Flemming and Paul Hiebert, contextualization is not an option in view of
the fact that no single cultural expression of the gospel is ultimate,7 because “all cultures
can adequately serve as vehicles for the communication of the gospel.”8 It has been also
argued that contextualization is part of God’s missiology from the time of the fall,9 and
that “properly understood, the Bible is a record of contextualized revelations; a record of
the way God interacted with humans in space-time history in the totality of their
contexts.”10
6
David J. Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1989), 200.
7
Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 138.
8
9
Richard W. Engle, “Contextualization in Missions: A Biblical and Theological Appraisal,” Grace
Theological Journal 4, no. 1 (1983): 86.
10
R. Musasiwa “Contextualization,” Dictionary of Mission Theology, ed. John Corrie (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 67. See also Stephen B. Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002).
103
What is argued here is that although the message of Scripture is timeless, its
interpretation and application is not. In other words, to interpret and apply the message of
the Bible properly, we must not only seek to understand the context of the original
hearers but also that of its contemporary audiences. Emphasizing the missiological and
theological reality of contextualization, Stephen Bevans emphatically states that among
fallen, limited human beings, “there is no such thing as [‘pure’] theology; there is only
contextual theology.”11
In this section I briefly explore God’s dealings with people in their cultural
contexts in the Old and New Testaments. Insights gained from those sources will help to
respond both biblically and missiologically to some of the challenges posed by the Lobi
funeral rites to Christian missions.
God and Cultural Context of the Old Testament
God worked with the Israelites within the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultural
context. In order to lead them where he wanted them to be, God’s revelation was
embedded in the language and culture of ANE peoples. Andrew Hill and John Walton
point out that in his interactions with the Israelites,
God also chose to accommodate aspects of his revelation to the cultural conventions
of the ancient Near East. . . . An interesting illustration of this cultural conformity in
divine revelation entails the laws protecting against a husband’s jealousy for a woman
suspected of adultery (Num. 5.11-31). In Mesopotamian laws, the accused party took
an oath before the gods (e.g., the river god, Id) and then plunged (or was thrown) into
the river. The gods would see that justice prevailed, determined by whether the
defendant was spared (denoting innocence) or was caused to drown (denoting guilt).
Although the procedure for the Hebrew “adultery test” was more enlightened than the
11
Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology, 3.
104
Mesopotamian river ordeal, it was still a male-dominated legal tradition in that the
test was given only to a female.12
God also modified the ANE customs of blood vengeance, in which the near
kinsman of the victim was obligated to avenge the death of his deceased relative by
killing the manslayer. He instructed Moses and Joshua to establish cities of refuge for
those guilty of the crimes of involuntary or accidental manslaughter (Num 35:9-28; Deut
4:41-43; 19:1-13; Josh 20). Hill and Walton comment that “the institution of the cities of
refuge was unique in the ancient world and elevated Hebrew social and moral life to a
higher plane than the surrounding nations.”13
Although God chose to reveal himself to Israel in the context of ANE culture, he
also expressed his freedom to work outside the cultural norms of that time. God always
legislated against existing practices that downplayed human dignity. An example of God
overturning ANE customs in his dealings with Israel was his decision to give an
inheritance in the promise land to Zelophehad’s daughters (Num 27:1-11; 36:1-13). The
custom of not giving shares to daughters in the family estate was apparently a standard
practice among the Hebrews as well (Deut 27.15-17). Human sacrifice is another ANE
religious practice that God prohibited the Israelites to partake in (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5).
A basic mission principle demonstrated in God’s dealing with Israel in the ANE
context is that in a cross-cultural setting, missionaries should be mindful of the fact that
not all cultural practices are evil. Whatever is not against biblical principles should be
12
Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 2009), 157-158.
13
Ibid., 156-157.
105
kept, some practices can be redeemed by modifying them, but anything against the
teachings of Scripture should be discarded.
Contextualization in the New Testament
The early church was also faced with the dilemma of relating the gospel to local
contexts. Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit they were able to transcend cultural
boundaries in fulfilling the mandate to take the gospel to the ends of the world. Scholars
see several examples in the New Testament as precedents to the practice of
contextualization in contemporary mission. The following four are explored here: the
incarnation of Christ as a foundation of contextualization, Logos in reference to Christ,
four gospels instead of one, and the decisions of the Jerusalem Council.
The Incarnation as a Foundation

of Contextualization
Richard Engel sees Christ’s incarnation in the first century Jewish cultural setting
as a perfect model of contextualization. He observes that Christ’s incarnation as a human
being serves as a foundation of “contextualization of God’s message without
compromise. By means of the incarnation God perfectly contextualized his
communication (cf. Hebrews 1-2). He met his target culture where it was and as it was”14
(emphasis added). Alluding to Jesus’ incarnation as a foundation of missiological
contextualization, Gorden Doss argues that Christ’s “life style would have been
somewhat different had he been incarnated into another culture.”15 Finally, for Allan
14
Engle, “Contextualization in Missions,” 93.
Gorden R. Doss, “The Jerusalem Council,” in Adventist Responses to Cross-Cultural Mission:

15
Global Mission Issues Committee Papers, vol. 2, 2002-2005, ed. Bruce L. Bauer (Berrien Springs, MI:
Department of World Mission, 2007), 192.
106
Neely, the prologue of John’s Gospel, especially verses 1 and 14, is foundational for
understanding the meaning and implications of contextualization. He asserts that the
fuller context of John 1:1, 14 “suggests that in Jesus, God identified thoroughly with
humankind, and that God came in Jesus for the express purpose of disclosing not only
God’s love but also God’s salvific intent for the world (3:16-17).”16 Just as Jesus was
incarnated into human culture, so the Apostles applied the incarnational model to the
teaching of his Gospel.
Christ as the Logos in John 1:1, 14
John begins his gospel by introducing Jesus as “the Word” (Logos). At the time of
John, the word logos was loaded with different meanings. To the Jews, the logos
“conveys the notion of divine self-expression or speech (cf. Ps. 19:1-4)”17 or an agent of
creation (Ps 33:6). To Greek philosophers, the logos was the principle of reason that ruled
the world.18 With these different understandings, it was unthinkable for Greeks to say that
“the Logos became flesh,” (John 1:14) because for them “the separation of the divine
spirit and the mundane world (flesh, sarx) was an axiom of belief.”19 For that reason, to
say that Jesus took on flesh was to suggest an image of lowliness.20 For Jews it was
Alan Neely, “Incarnational Mission,” Evangelical Dictionary of World Mission, ed. A. Scott
16
Moreau (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 474.

17
Andreas J. Köstenberger, John (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 25.
18
Charles L. Campbell, “John 1:1-14,” Interpretation 49, no. 4 (October 1995): 395. See also B. E.
Reynolds, “Logos” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green (Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic, 2013), 523-526.
19
Gary M. Burge, John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000),
59.
20
G. L. Parsenios, “Incarnation,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green (Downers
Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 400.
107
blasphemous to state that “the Logos was God,” (John 1:1) i.e., inferring “some personal
identity between the Logos and God.”21 It was also shocking for Jews to hear that the
Logos became flesh and made his dwelling among human beings because “the verb for
dwelling is employed in the Greek Old Testament for the tabernacle of God. In other
words, Christ is the locus of God’s dwelling with Israel as he had dwelt with them in the
tabernacle in the desert (Ex. 25:8-9; Zech. 2:10). Hence the glory of God, once restricted
to the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34), is now visible in Christ (John 1:14b).”22
In this religiously pluralistic context it was a risky creativity for John to introduce
Jesus as Logos to his audience (both Jews and Gentiles) since each group would be
inclined to understand it from their cultural perspective. For John however, “the different
understandings proved to be the key to begin a creative dialogue with his context and
explain the Jesus tradition through this dialogue.”23 In this dialogue, John leads his
audience to understand the Logos not only as a divine creative attribute or as a simple
principle of order in the universe, but as a full divine being alongside God. John’s
strategy demonstrates the necessity of using cultural concepts, for example, names for
God, but infusing them with biblical meaning over time in order to make the
proclamation of the gospel contextual, effective, and meaningful. For Andreas
Köstenberger, in John 1:1-18, John does contextualization by employing universal terms
such as “word” and “light” to engage adherents of religions and worldviews in his
21
Burge, John, 54.
22
Ibid., 59.
D. R. Sadananda, “The Johannine Logos: Interpreting Jesus in a Multi-Religious Context,” in

23
Reformed Theology, ed. Wallace M. Alston Jr. and Michael Welker (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans, 2007), 367.
108
religiously pluralistic context.24 A missional principle derived from this precedent is that
the presentation of the timeless message of Scripture must be done “by using the cultural
forms, words, and symbols of a people in order to better present that timeless message.”25
The Gospels
Why did four biblical authors take it upon themselves to tell the story of Jesus?
Flemming answers this question by pointing out that
If modern Gospel studies have taught us anything, it is that the four Evangelists have
narrated the story of Jesus according to their own theological and literary concerns
and in light of how they perceived the needs of their readers. We might even say that
the four Gospels are ‘four contextualizations’ of the one story. The Gospels, then,
form an important piece of the total picture of how the Christian message is
reexpressed for new audiences in the New Testament.26 (emphasis added)
The same story was packaged by each author in a different way for the
consumption of a specific audience.
The Jerusalem Council—Acts 15
By the time of Acts 15, many Gentiles had come to faith in Christ. Their
conversion to Christianity raised some fundamental theological questions. According to
the account of Acts 15, one of the issues the early church struggled with was how to
admit Gentile believers into full church membership. Was circumcision to be part of the
terms on which Gentile converts were to be admitted? After a lengthy discussion they
agreed that the Jewish “cultural specificities need not cross over the cultural bridge to the
24
Köstenberger, John, 31.
25
Bruce L. Bauer, “Avoiding Comfortable Syncretism by Doing Critical Contextualization,” in
Adventist Responses to Cross-Cultural Mission: Global Mission Issues Committee Papers, vol. 2 (Berrien
Springs, MI: Department of World Mission, 2007), 246.
26
Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 234.
109
Gentiles.”27 Later Paul wrote that “circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is
nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts” (1 Cor 7:19). Although the council
refrained from asking Gentile believers to be circumcised and adopt a Jewish way of life
as a prerequisite to full church membership, they were however required “to abstain from
food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual
immorality” (Acts 15:29). Gentiles were allowed to live by their own cultural norms as
long as those norms were not in conflicts with core biblical teachings.
The early church thus chose cultural diversity over cultural uniformity in faith
expression. As a result of this agreement, “church life for Greek disciples was different
from church life for Jewish disciples,” and “the cultural differences that exist[ed]
between Jewish believers and other believers no longer formed a barrier preventing
fellowship between them.”28 A fundamental principle of the Jerusalem Council’s
proceedings is that in our cross-cultural missionary endeavors, we always need to
distinguish between our cultural baggage and biblical principles.
Process of Critical Contextualization
“Critical Contextualization” is a term coined by Paul Hiebert in his attempt to
answer the following question: “What should people do with their old cultural ways when
they become Christians, and how should the missionary respond to these traditional
beliefs and practices?”29 In doing critical contextualization, “old beliefs and customs are
27
Gorden Doss, “The Jerusalem Council,” 195.
28
Brown, “Contextualization without Syncretism,” 128.
29
110
neither rejected nor accepted without examination. They are first studied with regard to
the meanings and places they have within their cultural setting and then evaluated in the
light of biblical norms.”30
The recognition by a local congregation of the need to deal biblically with certain
aspects of their lives is the prerequisite to doing critical contextualization. Critical
contextualization is done following four main steps as outlined by Hiebert: exegesis of
culture, exegesis of Scripture, critical response, and functional substitutes.31 The
members of the local congregation directly affected by a change should be actively
involved in the whole process because of their knowledge of the deeper and hidden
meanings associated with their cultural practices. This is the reason critical
contextualization should never be attempted in solo by a pastor/missionary on behalf of a
local congregation.
Exegesis of Culture
The exegesis of culture is done by uncritically gathering, describing, and
analyzing all available information on specific cultural practices such as songs, gestures,
dance, etc. The purpose of this first step is to understand the cultural practices being
examined, not to evaluate or disapprove them. Any criticism of these cultural practices
will prevent the people concerned from openly talking about them for fear of being
condemned.
30
31
Ibid., 186-190.
111
Exegesis of Scripture
The exegesis of the Scriptures is undertaken to understand the biblical teachings
about the cultural practice under consideration. In this step, the local congregation is led
in Bible studies in relation to the question at hand. This step is vital because if the local
congregation does not clearly apprehend and accept the biblical teaching related to their
cultural practice, they will not be able to effectively deal with any unbiblical elements
associated with it.
Critical Response
At this stage of the process, the local congregation critically evaluates their
cultural practices in the light of biblical teachings and makes a decision regarding what to
do about them. In most cases, cultural practices will be kept if there are no unbiblical
elements present. They can also be modified to infuse them with explicit Christian
meanings, or simply rejected if they prove to be unbiblical. Once again, it is important
that the pastor/missionary avoids making the final decision for the congregation. If he/she
does so, the congregation is likely to give a public consent to the decision but continue to
practice them in secret. If the local congregation makes the decision to reject the
unbiblical elements in their cultural practices, they would then be much more likely to
ensure corporately that the decision arrived at is enforced.
Functional Substitutes
The last step in the process of critical contextualization is concerned with creating
a contextualized Christian form of the unbiblical cultural practice. This may involve
creating new symbols and rituals to communicate biblical principles in forms
understandable to the local context.
112
Transformational Ministry
Because change often tends to be short-lived due to the natural tendency to slip
back to the status quo,32 another step, transformational ministry, is needed in addition to
Hiebert’s four steps to enable the local congregation to successfully manage its transition
to the new state. In this step, the missionary/pastor functions as a mentor to gently and
constantly remind and encourage the congregation to apply the decisions corporately
arrived at through the process of critical contextualization. This may involve attending
funeral ceremonies and studying the Bible together as a way of encouraging one another
to stand firm on biblical principles. Although this step will take time, it is indispensable
to allow the changes decided on to become permanent. Because critical contextualization
is an ongoing process, there also needs to be a constant evaluation of the actions taken by
the congregation.
Minimizing the Risk of Religious Syncretism in Mission
Religious syncretism is frequently mentioned in the Bible. In many ways the Ten
Commandments are God’s instructions against religious syncretism because the first three
commands (Exod 20:1-7) charge the Israelites “to distinctively stand before God without
reliance on any other gods.”33 Just as the Israelites were warned against rejecting Yahweh
and serving other gods (Deut 11:16; 2 Kgs 10:23), so too were New Testament Christians
warned against dual allegiance and syncretism (Matt 6:24; 1 Cor 10:14; Rev 22:15).
32
Lyle E. Schaller, The Change Agent: The Strategy of Innovative Leadership (Nashville, TN:
Abingdon Press, 1972), 86.
33
Gailyn Van Rheenen, “Modern and Postmodern Syncretism in Theology and Mission,” in The
Holy Spirit and Mission Dynamics, ed. C. Douglas McConnell (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1997), 173.
113
Syncretism is a worldwide religious challenge. According to Michael Pocock, “all
peoples and religions exhibit syncretism”34 (emphasis added). Unfortunately, when the
influence of syncretism in the church is discussed, many tend to see it happening outside
Western Christianity as if the Western form of Christianity is immune to syncretism. But
Andrew Walls and Scott Moreau argue respectively that “syncretism is a greater peril for
Western than African or Indian Christians, and less often recognizable for what it is.”35
They also point out that “syncretism of some form has been seen everywhere the church
has existed.”36 In other words, syncretism is a threat found among Christians universally
as they express their faith either within their own cultures or cross-culturally. One might
debate whether or not Western Christianity is inherently in greater peril of syncretism.
This may be so because for centuries Western Christianity’s historic role as the dominant
form of Christianity has bestowed on it a seal of orthodoxy that is too often unchallenged;
forgetting that the West’s slide into secularism can be seen as a form of syncretism.
This section discusses three major factors contributing to religious syncretism and
then offers a biblical and missiological response to the threat in contextualizing the
gospel in the Lobi context.
34
Michael Pocock, “Introduction: An Appeal for Balance,” in Missiology and the Social Sciences:
Contributions, Cautions and Conclusions, ed. Edward Rommen and Gary Corwin (Pasadena, CA: William
Carey, 1996), 10.
35
Andrew F. Wall, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Books, 2002), 69.
A. Scott Moreau, “Syncretism,” in Evangelical Dictionary of World Mission (Grand Rapids, MI:
36
Baker Books, 2000), 924.
114
Understanding Religious Syncretism
Scrutinizing literature on religion and missions reveals definitions of syncretism
with subtle differences. Synthesizing some of these definitions of syncretism is the focus
of this section. André Droogers and Sidney Greenfield offer a brief but succinct history
of syncretism. They point out that the term
“syncretism” was first used by Plutarch to describe the temporary coming together of
the quarreling inhabitants of Crete in the face of a common enemy. . . . The Greek
word from which the English “syncretism” is derived refers to people joining
together, in this case in battle. Erasmus later employed it metaphorically to refer to an
agreement between people with seemingly disparate opinions. The new reference
centered on ideas and beliefs. Seventeenth-century theologians then gave it a negative
connotation by using it for what to them was the undesirable reconciliation of
Christian theological differences. Syncretism for them became a threat to “true”
religion. To this negative judgment a more neutral view was added in the second half
of the nineteenth century when students of the history of religions began to use the
word to acknowledge the mixing of religious elements from diverse sources,
including Christianity that had occurred and continues to take place.37
Religious syncretism is generally defined today as the blending of different
(sometimes contradictory) forms of religious beliefs and practices. Gailyn Van Rheenen
defines syncretism as “the reshaping of Christian beliefs and practices through cultural
accommodation so that they consciously or unconsciously blend with those of the
dominant culture. . . . Syncretism is the blending of Christian beliefs and practices with
those of the dominant culture so that Christianity [drops its distinct nature and] speaks
with a voice reflective of its culture”38 (emphasis in the original). For Lynn D. Shmidt,
“A person who draws from two or more belief systems at the same time is guilty of
37
André Droogers and Sidney M. Greenfield, “Recovering and Reconstructing Syncretism,” in
Reinventing Religions: Syncretism and Transformation in Africa and the Americas, ed. Sidney M.
Greenfield and André Droogers (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 27-28.
Van Rheenen, “Modern and Postmodern Syncretism in Theology and Mission,” 173.
38
115
syncretism. He or she is reaching for the best of two religious worlds.”39 While in Van
Rheenen’s definition it is possible for a church as a whole to succumb to syncretism
through cultural accommodation in its effort to be relevant to the culture in which it bears
witness, in Shmidt’s definition it is individual believers who are to be blamed for drawing
from non-Christian belief systems.
In the Dictionary of Asian Christianity, Mark Mullins addresses the difference
between standard usages of “syncretism” in the social sciences and in missiology. He
points out that the term
“syncretism” is usually understood as a combination of elements from two or more

religious traditions, ideologies, or value systems. In the social sciences, this is a
neutral and objective term that is used to describe the mixing of religions as a result
of culture contact. In theological and missiological circles, however, it is generally
used as a pejorative term to designate movements that are regarded as heretical or
sub-Christian.40
In his definition of syncretism, Mullins points out that it is not everyone that sees
syncretism as a negative phenomenon, and in agreement with Van Rheenen he sees
contact with a new culture as one of the possible contributing factors of religious
syncretism.
In the Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Scott Moreau presents a more
nuanced definition of syncretism. He defines syncretism as the
blending of one idea, practice, or attitude with another. Traditionally among

Christians it has been used of the replacement or dilution of the essential truths of the
gospel through the incorporation of non-Christian elements. . . . Syncretism of some
39
Lynn D. Shmidt, “How Much Syncretism Is Allowed?” Evangelical Missions Quarterly
(January 2013): 27-28.
40
Mark R. Mullins, “Syncretistic Movements,” in Dictionary of Asian Christianity, ed. Scott W.
Sunquist (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2001), 809-810.
116
form has been everywhere the church has existed. We are naïve to think that
eliminating the negatives of syncretism is easily accomplished.41
Throughout the rest of this discussion, religious syncretism refers to the blending
of non-biblical elements from another tradition into the beliefs and practices of
Christianity.
Factors Contributing to Religious Syncretism
Several factors are known to contribute to religious syncretism. Three of these
factors are discussed here: the growing acceptance of religious pluralism, mission
approaches to other religions, and inadequate discipling of new converts.
Growing Acceptance of Religious Pluralism
That the world has become a religiously plural place is a fact that cannot be
denied. People of diverse ethnic origins and many dissimilar religious commitments live
and share public life together. This globalization has put major world religions within the
reach of almost everyone today. Worldwide migration patterns, international travel and
trade, progress in communications technology, and international media activities have
introduced people to nearly all religious traditions. Mission is no longer from the West
alone; Islam and Eastern religions are also dynamically engaged in missionary work.42
This has resulted in the option of cafeteria-style choices in the area of religion with many
people picking and choosing from among various religious traditions and practices to
“Syncretism,” in Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, ed. A. Scott Moreau (Grand Rapids,
41
MI: Baker Books, 2000), 924-925.

42
Roger E. Hedlund, “Religious Pluralism: Fact and Issue,” in Many Other Ways? Questions of
Religious Pluralism, ed. M. Bage, R. Hedlund, P. B. Thomas, Martin Alphonse, and George David (New
Delhi, India: Printsman, 1992), 13.
117
meet their personal needs.43 If all religions are equally valid ways to salvation as some
argue,44 then a cocktail of religious beliefs and practices is even better. As a result of this
religious globalization, religious traditions outside of Christianity and Judaism are no
longer treated as “the work of the Devil.” Modern scholarship not only promotes many
positive features of other religions, it also claims that “all religions, including
Christianity, are relative. . . . [and that] every religion is considered equally valid.”45
Religious pluralism is thus built on the assumption that the different religious
traditions are complementary rather than contradictory. As a direct result of this call for
cooperation among various religious cultures, there is a growing positive public attitude
to other religions. Religious pluralism, especially in the West, seems to have become a
spiritual adventure46 to the extent that Claude Geffré even affirms that “the religiosity of
the Western person of our times is spontaneously syncretistic.”47 Pressure for syncretism
comes from two directions: from non-Christian religions and from within Christianity
itself. When Christian thinkers also advocate a pluralistic theology of religions, thus
43
Amy Frykholm, “One Person, Two Faiths: Double Belonging,” Christian Century, January 25,
2011, 20.
44
P. B. Thomas, “Any Other Name? A Response to Dialogical Theology,” in Many Other Ways?
Questions of Religious Pluralism, ed. M. Bage, R. Hedlund, P. B. Thomas, Martin Alphonse, and George
David (New Delhi, India: Printsman, 1992), 28.
45
Ibid.
46
Yossi K. Halevi, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search for Hope with
Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002), 9.
Claude Geffré, “Double Belonging and the Originality of Christianity as a Religion,” in Many
47
Mansions? Multiple Religious Belonging and Christian Identity, ed. Catherine Cornille (Maryknoll, NY:
118
asserting the subjectivity of Christian belief statements, the Church cannot but be under
the threat of religious syncretism.48
Mission Approaches to Other

Religions and Cultures
Christian mission to other religions and cultures has sometimes gone to two
opposing extremes. One extreme consists of the denial “that there is anything that is of
God in non-Christian religions.”49 The other extreme is that in some contexts, both cross-
culturally and intra-culturally, Christian mission has indiscriminately accommodated
local cultures and religions.50 Both of these approaches—displacement and
accommodation—have negative effects on the types of Christianity they produce.
The indiscriminate rejection of old religious practices either creates a void that is
filled by imported practices leading to the gospel being misunderstood and rejected, or
the old religious practices simply go underground.51 Whenever old religious practices go
underground, believers assent to orthodox Christian beliefs and join in the public
denunciations of their old religious forms, but privately retain their loyalty to them
especially in times of serious crises.52 This reversion to old religious practices is a direct
result of the displacement model’s exclusive focus on doctrinal and rational arguments in
48
Thomas, “Any Other Name?” 28.
49
Jabulani A. Nxumalo, “Christ and Ancestors in the African World: A Pastoral Consideration,”
JTSA no. 32 (September 1980): 6.
50
51
Ibid., 184, 188.
52
Partain, “Christians and their Ancestors,” 1067.
119
contexts where existential issues rather than clarity and orthodoxy are the most important
considerations.53
The accommodation paradigm tends towards an uncritical acceptance of traditional
practices by the church because they are thought to be part of a people’s cultural heritage
that is cherished.54 However, these traditional practices often contain syncretistic non-
biblical elements from the receptor culture.55 This happens both in cross-cultural and
intra-cultural missions. Van Rheenen sees the root cause of syncretism here in the fact
that the church too often accommodates to the worldviews of its time. For him,
syncretism frequently begins apologetically: The Christian community attempts to

make its message and life attractive, alluring, and appealing to those outside the
fellowship. Over a period of years the accommodations become routinized, integrated
into the narrative story of the Christian community and inseparable from its life. . . .
Syncretism thus occurs when Christianity opts into the major cultural assumptions of
its society.56
As such, the accommodation model indirectly minimizes change in the lives of
converts whereas the gospel challenges people individually and corporately to turn from
their unbiblical practices. This paradigm thus opens the door to syncretism as Christians
continue to maintain beliefs and practices that stand in conflict with the gospel.
In view of the above, both accommodation and displacement as mission
approaches to other religions and cultures potentially promote religious syncretism.
53
Klaus Nürnberger, “Ancestor Veneration in the Church of Christ?” Journal of Theology for
Southern Africa no. 129 (November 2007): 66.
54
Mary Yeo Carpenter, “Familism and Ancestor Veneration: A Look at Chinese Funeral Rites,”
Missiology: An International Review 24, no. 4 (October 1996): 504.
55
David J. Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models
(Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2000), 1.
56
Van Rheenen, “Modern and Postmodern Syncretism in Theology and Mission,” 173.
120
Inadequate Discipling of New Converts
Some converts to Christianity revert to their previous religious practices or reach
out to new non-Christian practices in times of crises. This reversal sometimes comes as
the result of an inadequate discipling process before and after their acceptance into
church membership. Because of this faulty discipleship process, converts do not
experience completeness in Christ that is both culturally appropriate and biblically
faithful. As such, it becomes difficult for them to continue to stand firm on Christian
principles especially if some of their pressing needs are not yet met.
The use of a baptismal model of mission rather than a discipleship model is
another cause of religious syncretism. In the baptismal model, success is seen to have
been achieved upon baptism. In the discipleship model, baptism is an early part of a long
and continuing process. In a baptismal model of mission, much discipleship is hasty and
incomplete. Many of those who show interest in becoming Christians are taught and then
baptized; the event of baptism often marks the end of the discipleship process for some of
them. Once in full church membership, some converts are no longer shown the same
degree of personal attention the church gave them prior to their baptism. It is implicitly
assumed that the rest of the process will be taken care of by weekly sermons and prayer
meetings. Unfortunately the sharing of Christian principles in Sabbath sermons or during
the mid-week prayer meetings usually does not effectively address the deep issues some
of the converts are struggling with.
Discipleship is not synonymous with simply presenting biblical truth no matter
how crucial that truth is. The process of discipleship involves more than just an
information transfer about doctrinal correctness. It requires a personal relational
121
investment in the learner by one or more mature Christians that allows for molding,
mentoring, counsel, and conversational instruction over a significant period of time.
A Biblical Response to Religious Syncretism
Emphasis on Discipleship
The threat posed by syncretism is not so much with the converts’ old religious
beliefs and practices as it is with the underlying assumptions on which these old beliefs
are built. People will not give up on their old beliefs so long as those old beliefs remain
the only working alternatives they have.57 The only solution is for the gospel to not only
change former beliefs but also to transform the converts’ worldviews. If this does not
happen the new beliefs will continue to be reinterpreted in terms of the old worldviews.58
A biblical model of discipleship is key to worldview transformation.
A good biblical model of discipleship is portrayed in 1 Thess 2:7-13. This text
presents discipleship as a process of spiritual parenting. In that passage Paul uses the
parent-child metaphor to describe principles of discipleship by referring to familiar things
of life which both the direct recipients and the wider readership of the epistle were
conversant with. This parent-child metaphor is still a powerful means of impressing on
people’s minds important spiritual principles about Christian discipleship. A brief
analysis of this passage reveals the following four components of biblical discipleship.
57
Ellen Van Velsor and Wilfred H. Drath, “A Lifelong Developmental Perspective on Leader
Development,” in Handbook of Leadership Development, 2nd ed., ed. Cynthia D. McCauley and Ellen Van
Velsor (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004), 390.
58
Paul G. Hiebert, R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tiénou, “Responding to Split-Level Christianity and
Folk Religion,” IJFM 16, no. 4 (Winter 1999/2000): 177.
122
Long-term commitment to the spiritual welfare and growth of believers. “Just
as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you” (vv. 7 and 8, emphasis
added). Paul and his missionary team cared for the believers in the congregations they
established as a mother cares for her children. This would have involved tenderly and
patiently teaching the Thessalonians to walk with God. They demonstrated intentional
commitment to the spiritual growth and welfare of believers.
Modeling a spiritual walk with God. “Surely you remember, brothers and
sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to
anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of
how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed” (vv. 9 and 10,
emphasis added). The missionary team strove to be role models to the new believers. If
Hampton Keathley’s perspective on discipleship is correct, about 90 percent of what a
disciple learns or applies is caught from the discipler’s life rather than from his/her
teaching. As a result, he argues that “we should place our emphasis on being a friend and
let people see how we deal with things, how we study, how we pray, how we love, etc.
We don’t want to just give him all the facts. We need to allow him to see how we work
through various issues and help him work through the issues himself.”59 Without any
doubt, this was what happened in Jesus’ discipling ministry of the Twelve and his other
early followers who so faithfully imitated him that when those who had observed them
found no other way to call them but Christians (Acts 11:26).
Hampton Keathley IV, “Discipleship Overview,” Bible.org, accessed November 22, 2014,
59
www.http://bible.org/article/ discipleship-overview.
123
Personal attention to believers’ spiritual needs. “For you know that we dealt
with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and
urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory”
(vv. 11 and 12, emphasis added). They gave believers individual attention and instruction
as a father would do to his children with the intention to help each of them with unique
needs. They understood that each believer’s uniqueness meant individual attention.
Hampton Keathley illustrates this need for personal attention as follows.
When we bring a newborn home from the hospital, we don’t just put down the infant
and say, “Welcome to the family, Johnny. Make yourself at home. The towels are in
the hall closet upstairs, the pantry is right here, the can opener is in this drawer. No
crying after 10 p.m. If you have any questions there are lots of people in the family
who would love to help you so don’t be afraid to ask.” You laugh and say that is
ridiculous, but that is what usually happens to new Christians. Someone gets saved
and starts going to church but never gets much personal attention. We devote 18 years
to raising our children, but don’t even spend six months helping a new Christian get
started in understanding the spiritual world. As a result, many people have been
Christians for many years, but have not grown very much. Hebrew 5:12 refers to this
phenomenon. So, new believers need someone to give them guidance and help them
grow. Like a newborn, they need some personal attention.60
Another important insight highlighted in Keathley’s illustration is that discipling
converts requires a significant investment of time. It is not an event limited to a two to
three week evangelistic series or something that is taken care of in a formal teaching
setting (e.g., baptismal class). This makes mentorship inseparable from discipleship.
Beside the formal teaching settings, spiritual mentors should be available to share their
spiritual journey and experiences (both positive and negative) with new converts.
The teaching of biblical truth. “And we also thank God continually because,
when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a
60
Keathley, “Discipleship Overview.”
124
human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who
believe” (v. 13). Conforming themselves to the command of Matt 28:19-20, Paul and his
companions made the Word of God an essential element of the Thessalonians’
discipleship process.
The passage in 1 Thess 2:7-13 clearly shows that although the teaching of biblical
truth was essential, it was not the sole component of Paul’s missionary team’s
discipleship model. While the teaching of biblical truth is an essential component of
discipleship because a convert cannot fully mature spiritually without understanding
biblical principles, it must also be acknowledged that a convert may have considerable
biblical knowledge and yet remain spiritually immature. For this reason the teaching of
biblical truth must always be balanced with other components of biblical discipleship
such as an intentional commitment to the spiritual growth and welfare of new believers, a
modeling of a spiritual walk with God, and personal attention to each believer’s spiritual
welfare and growth needs. Congregational and small group teaching and personal
attention of the believers are needed to encourage them along the road to their Christian
maturity. Just as a baby needs an additional amount of attention, new converts also need
someone to provide them with attention and guidance in the maturation process.
Dimensions of Biblical Discipleship
Christian witness and discipleship are associated with truth, allegiance, and power
dimensions. Each of these three dimensions has its specific concern. The concern of the
truth dimension is to counter ignorance or error in order to bring people to a correct
understanding about Jesus Christ. The concern of the allegiance dimension is to bring
people to undivided commitment and growing obedience to God. The power dimension,
125
sometimes referred to as spiritual warfare or the Great Controversy, is concerned with
releasing people from Satan’s captivity and bringing them to freedom in Jesus Christ.61
Although each of these three dimensions has its specific concern, all three need to be
interrelated for wholistic spiritual growth.
Truth and allegiance dimensions have generally been emphasized more than the
power dimension in Christian witness. This approach to spiritual growth thus seems to
show preference to these two dimensions instead of stressing that all three are necessary
for holistic Christian maturity. Too often little if any attention is paid to the power
dimension as if Christian discipleship rests only on the truth and allegiance one
confesses. Such a strategy does great damage by neglecting an essential pillar—power—
on which Christian discipleship must also rest. By neglecting the power dimension, the
focus is on cognitive knowledge about God and some aspects of the Christian life without
any tangible experience of these aspects in everyday life.62
The purpose of this section is to point to the need for a move from an unbalanced
emphasis on cognitive belief to a balanced use of all three dimensions in Christian
witness and discipleship.
Truth dimension. The truth dimension has to do with cognitive understanding of
biblical truth. Before surrendering their lives to Christ, people need a certain level of
understanding of scriptural truth. Jesus spent an important part of his ministry in the
61
Charles Kraft, “Three Encounters in Christian Witness,” in Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: Institute of
International Studies, 2009), 446.
62
Charles H. Kraft, “Contextualization in Three Crucial Dimensions,” in Appropriate Christianity,
ed. Charles H. Kraft (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2005), 102.
126
teaching of truth (e.g., the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5-7; the parables: Luke 15;
18:1-14; 19:11-26; Matt 11:1; Luke 4:31-32; John 15:1-17). His intention was for his
hearers to grow in their understanding of the person and will of God in order for them to
have a better relationship with him. However, he focused more on knowledge grounded
in relationship and experience with God than on head knowledge alone (John 8:32;
15:1-10). In John 4:23, Jesus couples the cognitive and experiential dimensions of truth
as the formula for the identity of true worshippers by stating that “Yet a time is coming
and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (emphasis added).
Although Pentecostals tend to lay the emphasis on power, truth is the dimension
usually emphasized among Seventh-day Adventists. Unlike Jesus, Christian witness tends
to focus heavily on cognitive knowledge assuming that people who hear about the
various aspects of the Christian life will have sufficient reasons to convert to Christ.
Unfortunately, there is no automatic transfer from knowledge about Christian beliefs and
lifestyle to the actual experience of these aspects of Christianity. The cognitive and
informational dimensions of truth, although necessary, are often strongly emphasized to
the detriment of relational and experiential truth. In most cases, people’s minds are filled
with pieces of information thus leading to “an intellectual understanding of
Christianity,”63 and thereby forgetting that “whenever the Scripture speaks of knowledge
and truth, it is referring to experiential knowledge and truth, not merely the intellectual
63
John Wimber and Kevin Springer, Power Evangelism (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 187.
127
byproducts of these factors”64 (emphasis in the original). A related problem is that when
Christian witness focuses primarily on fighting error by pointing out truth, it often pays
little attention to discipleship and mentoring. Also, with the rigorous intellectual task of
Bible study very often employed by the truth dimension, students of the Bible can easily
fall “into reliance on study rather than reliance on the Holy Spirit.”65 As a result, converts
are not taught how to apply their intellectual knowledge to their day-to-day challenges.
Allegiance dimension. Many biblical teachings are primarily concerned with the
believer’s relationship to God. Throughout the Scriptures, God constantly calls people to
commit themselves to him as their primary allegiance. The relationship dimension of
discipleship is thus focused on growing in an intimate relationship with God. Hearing and
accepting the truth cognitively as it is in the Bible is not the end of the Christian
experience. After consenting to the truth that the Bible teaches, converts need to
constantly pay close attention to their experiential growth in Christ (2 Pet 3:18). One of
the dangers in spiritual growth is making truth and faith something that is merely
discussed rather than something that moves us into allegiance to Christ. Although the
goal of the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) is to make disciples by teaching them to
obey the truth as it is presented in Scripture, disciples are made only when converts
pledge full allegiance (commitment and obedience) to Christ and continue to do so every
day of their lives. In contrast, members too often are people who have made an
intellectual assent to a body of truth and who have been baptized without any further
64
Kraft, “Contextualization in Three Crucial Dimensions,” 107.
65
Wimber and Springer, Power Evangelism, 187.
128
follow up toward full commitment to the lordship of Christ. Ellen G. White insists that
unless believers choose only the disposition of Christ, that is, unless Christ’s interests are
identified with theirs, they are not fit to be called disciples.66 For that reason, the
allegiance dimension is a vital piece of Christian experience; for without this continual
commitment and obedience to Christ, there is no spiritual life.
Loyalty to Christ is a lifelong process that starts at conversion and moves the
convert into a more intimate relationship with Christ and other believers. The goal of this
process is to grow in the likeness of Christ. As this happens, the new and growing
relationship with Christ replaces any other commitment that was primary in the convert’s
life before he/she met Christ. This is evident in Christ’s call to make him first in
everything. He is radical in his call to discipleship, “If anyone comes to me and does not
hate [love me more than] father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes,
even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Charles Kraft
expresses well the uniqueness and the importance of the allegiance dimension of the
Christian life in comparison to its truth and power dimensions by pointing out that
The allegiance-relationship dimension is quite distinct from the other two dimensions.
For example, no one becomes a Christian simply through knowledge or power. As
James says, even demons have enough understanding to cause them to tremble in fear
(Jas. 2:19). They have all the knowledge they need but none of the relationship
required for salvation. Yet we are often taught to witness primarily by increasing the
person’s knowledge, as if knowledge is going to bring him/her into the Kingdom. …
We can’t simply click into a relationship on the basis of what we know.67
66
Ellen G. White, Selected Messages Book 1 (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1958), 110.

67
129
Power dimension.68 The Bible contains a series of divine power manifestations.
Two of the prominent Old Testament power demonstrations are found in Exod 5-12
(Moses and Pharaoh) and in 1 Kgs 18 (Elijah and the prophets of Baal). Jesus’ ministry
also included power demonstrations in order to challenge and defeat the powers of Satan.
In fact, his whole ministry was a power demonstration because he was at the center of the
Great Controversy.69 When John the Baptist sent his disciples to inquire from Christ,
“Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 5:20), Jesus
did not answer them with rational arguments. He rather used a demonstration of God’s
power in healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and giving sight to the blind (Luke
5:21).
Spiritual warfare was a natural part of Christ’s ministry.70 According to Luke, it
was Jesus’ usual practice to heal the sick and deliver people from demon possession soon
after entering a new territory (Luke 4:33-35, 39; 5:13-15; 6:6-10, 18-19). Because people
in his ministry context were very concerned about spiritual power, he approached them at
the point of their concern. He even instructed his disciples to use the same method
whenever he sent them to prepare the way for him (Luke 9:1-6; 10:19).
A number of accounts in Acts show that power demonstrations were also a natural
part of the apostles’ ministry. John Wimber and Kevin Springer assert that “when first-
68
The discussion of the power dimension of discipleship is lengthy compared to that of the
previous two because this is one of the most important issues in mission in animistic contexts in general
and in the Lobi context in particular.
69
Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1940), 257.
70
Paul G. Hiebert, “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle,” in Perspective on the World Christian
Movement, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: Institute of International
Studies, 2009), 407.
130
century Christians came to a new town, signs and wonders followed.”71 These power
demonstrations either gave credibility to the content of their preaching or at least drew
attention to their ministry. In Acts 3:1-9 Peter and John healed a lame beggar and vv. 11-
26 show how this event gave Peter an audience and how he capitalized on the opportunity
to share Jesus Christ. Acts 5:12-16 records that one of the things that attracted people to
the early church was the expressions of the power of God at work in the apostles’
ministry. Acts 8:4-8 gives a vivid account of the result of power demonstrations in
Philip’s ministry in Samaria,
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went
down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard
Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.
For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or
lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (emphasis added)
Just like these biblical peoples, most of the peoples today also see the world as
inhabited by evil spirits that cause trouble if they are not appropriately dealt with.72 As
such, the use of power demonstrations in mission is still necessary for both initial
conversion and discipleship. Power demonstrations are also a vital part of the building up
of the church.73 Animism with its strong emphasis on spiritual power is becoming more
and more attractive to adherents of the major world religions. Its influence is seen in
other religious movements such as New Age, folk Islam, folk Hinduism, Buddhism, and
even among many professed Christians. Animistic beliefs are structured around the
71
72
Charles H. Kraft, “Spiritual Power: A Missiological Issue,” in Appropriate Christianity, ed.
Charles H. Kraft (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2005), 362.
73
Rick Love, “Power Encounter Among Folk Muslims: An Essential Key of the Kingdom,” IJFM
13, no. 4 (October-December, 1996): 194.
131
understanding that “the physical world is interpenetrated with spiritual forces both
personal and impersonal to the extent that objects carry spiritual significance and events
have spiritual causes.”74 People who come from these power-oriented religious contexts
are occupied with spirit powers, charms, and amulets because they believe they are at the
mercy of evil spirits, demons, the evil eye, curses, and other spiritual forces. They live in
a constant state of fear of retaliation of the spirits, or the harm an enemy can place on
them through some form of spiritual power.75 As such, they are more concerned about
healing, deliverance, and protection than they are about truth. Therefore, “the Christ who
is the remedy for their fears will often be more attractive than the Christ who saves them
from their sins.”76
With the majority of the world, including most of the adherents of the major
world religions, involved in animistic practices,77 it is crucial to give due consideration to
the issue of redemptive power demonstrations in Christian witness. In many instances the
success of Christian witness depends on it.78 On the one hand, when converts from an
animistic background “find within Christianity little or none of the spiritual power they
crave for the meeting of their needs for healing, blessing, guidance, even deliverance
from demons, they continue their preChristian practice of going to shamans, priests,
74
Dean C. Halverson, ed., The Compact Guide to World Religions (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany
House, 1996), 37, 38.
75
Halverson, The Compact Guide to World Religions, 50.
76
Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness, 488.
77
Charles H. Kraft, “Appropriate Contextualization of Spiritual Power,” in Appropriate
Christianity, ed. Charles H. Kraft (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2005), 377.
78
Rick Love, “Church Planting Among Folk Muslims,” International Journal of Frontier Missions
11, no. 2 (April 1994): 88.
132
diviners, temples, shrines, and the like for spiritual power.”79 This compromises their
loyalty to God and makes their Christianity syncretistic. On the other hand, some
traditional societies such as the Lobi put a lot of pressure on their members irrespective
of their religious beliefs to take part in some practices that contain unbiblical elements.
John Mbiti points out how the African social structure places an emphasis on community
centeredness instead of individualism:
To be human is to belong to the whole community, and to do so involves participating

in the beliefs, ceremonies, rituals and festivals of the community. . . . A person cannot
detach himself from the religion of his group, for to do so is to be severed from his
roots, his foundation, his context of security, his kinships and the entire group of
those who make him aware of his own existence. To be without one of these
corporate elements of life is to be out of the whole picture.80
What Mbiti expresses is very similar to the concept of ‘lobiduur mentioned in
chapter 2. Since full membership and fulfillment in such contexts come for individuals as
they participate in family and community relationships (beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and
festivals),81 some converts to Christianity succumb to dual allegiance and syncretism as
they continue to practice elements of their former religion. Because the social penalty for
refusing to participate in some community rituals could be severe, many people, out of
fear of the penalty prefer to follow the custom.82 This being the reality in which many
sincere Christian converts find themselves, it is abnormal and even totally unacceptable
that the power dimensions of biblical teaching continue to be ignored in Christian witness
79
Kraft, “Spiritual Power,” 361.
80
81
Partridge, Introduction to World Religions, 127.
82
Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness, 33.
133
and discipleship. Spiritual warfare is a reality that Jesus did not ignore in his ministry. He
did not see Satan and demonic forces as myths and superstition. He saw these forces as
real enemies from which people needed to be set free.83
Things will be different for converts from an animistic background only when
they experience the Christian God as a God of power able to control the enemy spirits
and how they interfere in their lives. The worldview of animistic converts to Christianity
does not get transformed just by hearing about God’s power but by experiencing it
personally, for it is “spiritual power to heal, bless and to overcome the power of demonic
spirits that have held animists captive for generations, that really speaks to them.”84
According to Alan Tippett, in a power-oriented society, change of faith must be power-
demonstrated because many animists need a visible demonstration of the superior power
of God to become Christians.85
Many converts from animism feel that some of their former practices, though
clearly unbiblical, are still important in their struggle for human existence both spiritually
and materially.86 As such, the church cannot afford to just condemn these practices as a
denial of the Christian faith. With animism being a worldwide phenomenon, if the
church sticks to the approach that emphasizes only the truth and allegiance dimensions in
Christian witness, Christianity will be speaking to the majority of its converts in alien
83
C. Peter Wagner, Spiritual Warfare Strategy: Confronting Spiritual Powers (Shippensburg, PA:
Destiny Image Publishers, 1996), 119-136.
84
Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness, 483, 486.
85
Alan Tippett, People Movements in Southern Polynesia: Studies in the Dynamics of Church-
planting and Growth in Tahiti, New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa (Chicago, Moody Press, 1971), 81.
86
134
tones. While the Church is right in decrying the unbiblical beliefs and practices
associated with dual allegiance and syncretism, it also needs to find effective and
biblically appropriate ways to demonstrate that the God of the Bible is more powerful
than other gods and spirits. In animistic contexts where spiritual power is a primary
concern, redemptive power demonstrations are the clearest way to establish the
superiority of God over their many spirits and gods.87
While firmly maintaining biblical integrity, the church in its mission must also be
resourceful and flexible in adjusting its methods and procedures to the different contexts
of the world in which it finds itself. The Church needs to realize and accept that “a
Christianity that [merely] talks about and promises spiritual power but leaves out the
experiencing in this area . . . leaves itself open to the problem of dual allegiance.”88
Unless converts from animistic backgrounds experience a powerful Christianity, many of
them will “continue to seek out the old power sources to satisfy their fears and needs.”89
When it comes to dealing with spiritual powers, those involved in Christian
witness need to understand that Satan cannot be fought with cognitive knowledge alone.
Satanic powers cannot be effectively challenged only by biblical knowledge and truth.
They must be opposed by the power of God. Christian witness is done only in part when
it simply points out the errors of other religions and fails to deal with the spiritual powers
87
Tippett, People Movements in Southern Polynesia, 81. See also Kraft, Anthropology for
Christian Witness, 452.
88
Charles H. Kraft and Marguerite G. Kraft, “Communicating and Ministering the Power of the
Gospel Cross-Culturally: The Power of God for Christians Who Ride Two Horses,” in The Kingdom and
the Power, ed. Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993), 350.
89
Bruce L. Bauer, “A Response to Dual Allegiance,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly (July 2008):
342.
135
that drive these faiths. Satanic powers must be fought with the power of Christ for those
under their influences to be converted and freed. The truth that sets free (John 8:32) is an
experienced truth and not just an intellectual one.90
The Bible describes our world as including Satan and other demonic beings. Ellen
White also asserts that no one “can doubt that satanic agencies are at work among men
with increasing activity to distract and corrupt the mind, and defile and destroy the
body.”91 She adds that, unfortunately,
while the world is filled with these evils, the gospel is too often presented in so
indifferent a manner as to make but little impression upon the consciences or the lives
of men. Everywhere there are hearts crying out for something which they have not.
They long for a power that will give them mastery over sin, a power that will deliver
them from the bondage of evil, a power that will give health and life and peace. . . .
The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation [of
the power] of Christ.92 (emphasis added)
Toward a balanced approach. Christian discipleship can be likened to a three-
legged stool. Just as a three-legged stool needs all three legs to stay balanced, Christian
discipleship must solidly rest on all its dimensions—truth, allegiance, and power. Truth
90
See C. Peter Wagner, “Missiology and Spiritual Power,” in Paradigm Shifts in Christian
Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and Spiritual Power, ed. Charles E. Van Engen,
Darrell Whiteman, and J. Dudley Woodberry (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 91-97; J. Dudley
Woodberry, “Power and Blessing: Keys to Relevance to a Religion as Lived,” in Paradigm Shifts in
Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and Spiritual Power, ed. Charles E. Van
Engen, Darrell Whiteman, and J. Dudley Woodberry (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 98-105; John
Travis and Anna Travis, “Deep-Level Healing Prayer in Cross-Cultural Ministry: Models, Examples, and
Lessons,” in Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and
Spiritual Power, ed. Charles E. Van Engen, Darrell Whiteman, and J. Dudley Woodberry (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 2008), 106-115; Tormod Engelsviken, “Spiritual Conflict: A Challenge for the Church in the
West with a View to the Future,” in Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology,
Communication, and Spiritual Power, ed. Charles E. Van Engen, Darrell Whiteman, and J. Dudley
Woodberry (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 116-125; and Kraft, Worldview for Christian Witness,
488, 489. See also Kraft, “Spiritual Power,” 363.
91
Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1909), 143.
92
Ibid.
136
and allegiance dimensions of discipleship are not the only dimensions portrayed in
Scripture.
Jesus spent most of his time teaching truth. . . . As He taught, though, He constantly
invited people into greater and greater allegiance to Him and His Father. In
conjunction with the teaching of truth and the appeals for allegiance, He regularly
freed people from the enemy’s captivity through His use of God’s power.93
Instead of the truth and power dimensions supporting the allegiance dimension as
suggested by Kraft (figure 2), I submit that it is all three—truth, allegiance, and power
dimensions—that are intended to support the believer’s discipleship (figure 3).
Figure 2. The relation between the three dimensions as proposed by Charles Kraft. From
Charles H. Kraft, “Contextualization in Three Crucial Dimensions,” in Appropriate
Christianity, ed. Charles H. Kraft (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2005), 104.
Figure 3. Discipleship supported by its truth, allegiance, and power dimensions.
93
Kraft, Anthropology for Christian Witness, 452.
137
The truth dimension (cognitive knowledge) is the appropriate antidote for
ignorance and/or error. The allegiance dimension (commitment to Jesus Christ) is what is
needed to replace any other previous commitment in a person’s life and keep him/her
from dual allegiance. Together, the truth and allegiance dimensions also help a person to
relate better to others and to self. The power dimension (spiritual warfare) is the
appropriate antidote for satanic captivity and harassment. Effective Christian witness is
not a matter of either/or when it comes to appealing to these three dimensions because
we can’t fight a wrong primary allegiance with either knowledge or power. We can
only fight one allegiance with another allegiance. Likewise, we cannot fight error or
ignorance with either an allegiance or with power. These must be fought with
knowledge and truth. So also with power. We cannot fight power with knowledge or
truth, only with power. In other words, we fight allegiance with allegiance, truth with
truth, and power with power.94
There is a need to use all three dimensions together, not separately in missionary
witness. The need for the interconnectedness of the three dimensions of discipleship is
well expressed as follows:
People need freedom from the enemy to (1) open their mind to receive and
understand truth (2 Cor 4:4) and (2) to release their wills so they can commit
themselves to God. However, they can’t understand and apply Christian truth, nor can
they exercise power, without a continuing commitment to God. Nor can they maintain
the truth and their allegiance without freedom from the enemy won through continual
power encounters. We constantly need each of the three dimensions in our lives.95
Biblical Christianity emphasizes truth, allegiance, and power. Western
Christianity, which influences the rest of the Christian world, is very strong on the truth
dimension, a little weak on the allegiance dimension, but very deficient in dealing with
94
95
Kraft, “Three Encounters in Christian Witness,” 448.
138
spiritual powers.96 For wholistic Christian witness, none of the three dimensions can be
de-emphasized or neglected. Though prominent in Scripture, truth is never an end in and
of itself. It is always balanced by concern for an intimate relationship with God and his
power (Mark 10:17-27). The same is true when it comes to spiritual power; it is always
balanced by a concern for a relationship with God and his truth (Luke 10:15-20). Any
evangelistic strategy that promotes the power dimension without giving sufficient
consideration to the truth and allegiance dimensions is not biblically balanced. Not
everyone who saw or even experienced power events in Jesus’s ministry turned to him in
faith (Luke 17:11-19). Therefore, there must be balance and interdependence between the
three dimensions.
Truth, allegiance, and power dimensions of discipleship appear both implicitly
and explicitly throughout Jesus’ ministry. In his ministry, power demonstrations were a
means to an end, that is, discipleship, not ends in themselves. Through his teaching and
power demonstrations, Jesus’ aim was to lead people into a saving relationship with God.
Theological and Missiological Perspectives on Culture
Working Definitions of Culture
Scores of definitions of the term culture have been offered in the social sciences.
Two of the definitions that are the most relevant to my study are discussed below.
Paul Hiebert defines culture as “the more or less integrated system of ideas,
feelings, and values and their associated patterns of behavior and products shared by a
96
139
group of people who organize and regulate what they think, feel, and do.”97 In other
words, culture is a set of assumptions, beliefs, values, understandings, and meanings held
in common by a society and used to guide their perceptions, judgments, and behaviors in
their day-to-day life.
For Louis Luzbetak, culture is “a dynamic system of socially acquired and
socially shared ideas according to which an interacting group of human beings is to
adapt itself to its physical, social, and ideational environment”98 (emphasis in the
original). Culture determines the rules according to which a person is to interact with
others in a group. Three significant characteristics of culture in this definition are:
(1) culture is dynamic, that is, culture constantly changes; (2) culture is socially acquired
(learned) rather than biologically determined or race-restricted; and (3) culture is a
system of strategies for coping with a group’s environment.
A Theological Perspective on Culture
In his book Christ and Culture, Richard H. Niebuhr presents five paradigms as
possible attitudes of Christians to culture: Christ against Culture, Christ of Culture, Christ
above Culture, Christ and Culture in Paradox, and Christ the Transformer of Culture.
These models portray culture in generalized terms as a monolith to which a Christian
must take a single attitude.99
The “Christ against Culture” position perceives an opposition between Christ and
97
98
Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), 74.
99
Richard H. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951).
140
human culture. It stresses that “whatever may be the customs of the society in which the
Christian lives, and whatever the human achievements it conserves, Christ is seen as
opposed to them, so that he confronts men with the challenges of an ‘either-or’
decision.”100 In other words, true Christians must be very serious about holiness, which
means withdrawing from the world into separate communities of believers.101 The
majority of the early cross-cultural missionaries, including Adventists, viewed the
religious piety of Africans as wholly erroneous and some even regarded it as their duty to
wipe it out and replace it with a transformed character.102 This position should have led
them to reject their own cultures also. The indiscriminate rejection of traditional customs
was often rooted in the missionaries’ ethnocentric tendency to associate the gospel with
their own culture and, as a result, they judged all other cultural ways as bad. Although it
is clear that Christ is against some elements of every culture, this paradigm’s “call for
separation tends to minimize the potential influence that Christianity may have for good
upon society.”103
The advocates of the “Christ of Culture position” perceive God’s total approval of
human cultures through the incarnation of Jesus whereby he entered the history and the
100
Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 140.
101
Thomas K. Johnson cites the Old Order Amish made up of descendants of Swiss and Alsatian
Anabaptists of the 16th century as a contemporary example of the advocates for the “Christ against
Culture” paradigm. “Christ and Culture,” Evangelical Review of Theology 35 (2011): 4-7.
102
Stefan Höschele, Christian Remnant—African Folk Church: Seventh-day Adventism in
Tanzania, 1903-1980 (Boston, MA: Brill, 2007), 262. See also Felix Chingota, “A Historical Account of
the Attitude of Blantyre of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian towards Initiation Rites,” in Rites of
Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between Christian and African Traditional Religions, ed.
James L. Cox (Cardiff, UK: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998), 147.
103
Rick Allbee, “Christ Witnessing to Culture: Toward a New Paradigm between Christ and
Culture,” Stone-Campbell Journal 8 (Spring 2005): 18.
141
particularities of the Jewish culture, learned to speak their language, ate the same food as
his contemporaries, dressed the way they did, and attended their social events. For them,
Jesus is “a great hero of human culture history; his life and teachings are regarded as the
greatest human achievement; . . . he confirms what is best in the past, and guides the
process of civilization to its proper goal.”104 This position thus tends toward an uncritical
accommodation of cultural values as it often feels no great tension between the church
and the secular world.105 By making little distinction between Christ and culture, it also
tends to drift towards humanism, animism, or whatever the prevailing view is in a given
culture.106
The “Christ above Culture” paradigm seeks to stay away from both an uncritical
accommodation to culture and a complete denial of the validity of culture in the process
of gospel transmission. While it elevates and validates the positive dimensions of culture,
it rejects the cultural values that are antagonistic to the gospel.107 Nevertheless, this
paradigm hardly acknowledges that even though God exists outside of human culture, the
Scriptures reveal that “he is willing to enter human culture and work through it in order to
engage in meaningful communication with humans.”108
The “Christ and Culture in Paradox” position is that of the dualists. By making a
104
105
Tennent, Invitation to World Missions, 161.
106
Paul G. Schrotenboer, “Christ and Culture,” Evangelical Review of Theology 22 (October
1998): 319.
107
Paul Louis Metzger, “Christ, Culture, and the Sermon on the Mount Community,” Ex Auditu 23
(2007): 35.
108
Glenn Rogers, The Bible Culturally Speaking: The Role of Culture in the Production,
Presentation and Interpretation of God’s Word (Bedford, TX: Mission and Ministry Resources, 2004),
31.
142
sharp distinction between the temporal and spiritual life, and between the reign of Christ
and human culture,109 this paradigm is unable to reach a meaningful synthesis of
Christians’ attitude to culture.110 It struggles with the acknowledgment that although the
world is in a fallen state, God still “uses human culture as a vehicle for interacting with
humans.”111
Niebuhr’s last paradigm, “Christ the Transformer of Culture,” “recognizes the
corruption of culture but is optimistic and hopeful about the possibility of cultural
renewal. Culture is perceived critically as perverted good, but not inherently evil.
Conversion makes it possible for human beings and culture to move from self-
centeredness to Christ-centeredness.”112
A Missiological Perspective on Culture
The “in the world” but “not of the world” concepts in John 17:14-18 constitute the
basis of the recurrent problem involved in the discussion of Christians’ attitude to
culture.113 Because the followers of Christ are not of the world, many Christians have
taken a negative attitude toward culture. But because believers are also reminded of the
fact that they are in the world, some see the need for Christians to interact with their
culture. There is thus an ongoing conflict among Christians on what their attitude should
109
110
Allbee, “Christ Witnessing to Culture,” 19.
111
Rogers, The Bible Culturally Speaking, 27.
112
Guenther, “The ‘Enduring Problem’ of Christ and Culture,” 217-218.
113
Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2001), 15.
143
be toward culture. In their struggle with the practical, everyday issues of life, Christians
are confronted by the dilemma of how to be “in the world” but not “of the world.”114
Therefore, an understanding of the role of culture and the Christian attitude toward it is of
great importance both in determining what the Bible says and in communicating the
Bible’s message in meaningful terms that are understandable by people in various
cultures.115 My proposed Christian perspective on culture builds on Charles H. Kraft,
Timothy C. Tennent, Paul G. Hiebert, and Glenn Rogers’s perspectives on the role of
culture in the presentation of the gospel.
Charles Kraft argues that Jesus’ incarnation into the cultural life of first-century
Palestine to communicate with people is sufficient proof that “God takes culture seriously
and . . . is pleased to work through it to reach and interact with humans.”116 Kraft
assumes that God created humanity with a culture-producing capacity and “views human
culture [although tainted by sin] primarily as a vehicle to be used by him and his people
for Christian purposes, rather than an enemy to be [always] combated or shunned.”117
The “do not love the world or anything in the world” of 1 John 2:15-16 and “the whole
world is under the control of the evil one” of 1 John 5:19 are not a call to reject culture
but rather a call to refrain from participation with Satan in his use of one’s culture. God’s
Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective (Grand

114
Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 74.
Eunice Okorocha, “Cultural Issues and the Biblical Message,” in Africa Bible Commentary
115
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 1467.

116
Kraft, Anthropology for Christian Witness, 33.
117
Charles H. Kraft, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Biblical Theologizing in Cross-Cultural
Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis books, 2005), 81.
144
true attitude toward culture is that he “seeks to cooperate with human beings in the use of
their culture for his glory. It is allegiance to the satanic use of that same culture that he
stands against, not the culture itself”118 (emphasis in the original). Although God is
above culture as it is warped by the pervasive influence of human sinfulness, nevertheless
“culture [like individual temperaments] is not in and of itself either an enemy or a friend
to God or humans. It is, rather, something that is there to be used by personal beings such
as humans, God, and Satan.”119
Timothy C. Tennent also argues that God acts in a redemptive way within human
culture as its author and sustainer. He views the incarnation of Jesus as not only a
revelation of God to humanity but “God the Father’s validation of the sanctity of human
culture. . . . The true union of God and man in one person is the ultimate rebuke against
the secularization of culture”120 (emphasis in the original). He nevertheless warns against
the uncritical divinization of culture.121
Hiebert also affirms that every culture has positive elements that can be used by
Christians as well as aspects which express the demonic and dehumanizing forces of evil
that must be challenged.122 Nevertheless he strongly maintains that
all authentic communication of the gospel in missions should be patterned on biblical

communication and seek to make the Good News understandable to people within
their own cultures. All cultures can adequately serve as vehicles for the
communication of the gospel. If it were not so, people would have to change cultures
118
Kraft, Christianity in Culture, 83.
119
Ibid., 89.
120
Tennent, Invitation to World Missions, 179, 181.
121
Ibid., 181.
122
145
to become Christians. This does not mean that the gospel is fully understood in any
one culture, but that all people can learn enough to be saved and to grow in faith
within the context of their own culture.123
The passages in 1 John 2:15-16 (“do not love the world or anything in the
world”) and 5:19 (“the whole world is under the control of the evil one”) are not the
only biblical references concerning the attitude of God or Christians toward “the
world.” The Greek word kosmos for “world” used in 1 John 2:15-16 and 5:19 is also
the word employed in John 3:16 in reference to the world as the object of God’s
abundant love. Kosmos is also the word Jesus used in his intercessory prayer for his
disciples in John 17:14-18:
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of
the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out
of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
In this prayer, Jesus does not ask the Father to take his disciples out of the world,
but rather to protect them from the evil one as they remain in the world. Although Jesus
also prays for his disciples’ holiness (“Sanctify them by Your truth,” v. 17) and calls us to
holiness and warns us not to be conformed to this world, he nevertheless wants his
followers to be in the world. “Probably Jesus recognized that the real problem with
worldliness is not something ‘out there in the world,’ but rather something deep inside
ourselves—our own unbelief, pride and ingratitude toward God. All this could easily
come along with us, if we try to withdraw from the world into holy communities.”124
123
Johnson, “Christ and Culture,” 5.

124
146
Therefore, 1 John 2:15-16 and 5:19 should not be interpreted as a call to reject culture.
Read together with John 17:14-18, these texts are better understood as a call to live in
real contact with culture without letting one’s identity, thoughts, priorities, feelings, and
values be controlled by it. God not only redeems people from the godlessness of their
cultures (1 Pet 1:18, 19) when they accept Christ as their Savior, he also sends his people
back into the same godless cultures as light bearers to work with him for the cultures’
transformation. In other words, while we continue to be in contact with the culture,
our identity, thoughts, priorities, feelings, and values should be continually sanctified
by the truth—the living Word of God. And as such sanctified people, Jesus sends us
into the world in a way that is similar to how the Father sent Jesus into the world. We
can probably summarize the central thrust of this biblical text [John 17:14-18] by
saying: Jesus wants us to be in the world but not of the world for a very specific
purpose: He has sent us into the world as hearers and bearers of the Word.125
(emphasis in the original)
God is not bound by culture. In his interactions with human beings, he can choose
to limit himself to the capacities of culture because of human finiteness or transcend
cultural limitations. Because human beings are created in the image of God, their cultures
can be seen as God’s creative design; but because of the far-reaching effects of sin, all
human cultures are sin-tainted. However, despite the effects of sin, God’s revelation still
occurs within the particularities of human culture.126 God’s revelation of himself in the
Old and New Testaments took place within the context of human cultures. Today as well,
God’s self-disclosure still encounters people within their specific cultural settings with
the gospel sitting in judgment over all cultures and calling all of them to change. Glenn
125
Johnson, “Christ and Culture,” 6.
126
Tennent, Invitation to World Missions, 172, 173.
147
Rogers sums up this vital fact by pointing out that
God interacted with Abraham, Israel, and the Prophets, with Jesus, with the apostles,
and with every one of us (including you and me) not in some otherworldly or
heavenly context, but in the context of this material world, a world of human culture.
. . . God uses human culture as a vehicle for interaction and communication with
humans because human culture is the only context in which humans can
communicate. This is not because God is limited. It is because humans are limited.
Human culture is the only frame of reference humans have. If God wants to
communicate with humans it must be within the framework of human culture.127
A crucial point to take note of is that sin neither invalidates the Christians’
cultural mandate nor excuses Christians from fulfilling their God-given mission of
participating in the redemption of fallen humanity. The Christian expectation of future
glory and complete redemption has implications for believers’ attitude toward culture.
The salt of the world metaphor (Matt 5:13) is an evangelistic call to intermingle with the
world and transform it. As disciple-makers and ambassadors for Christ (Matt 28:18-20; 2
Cor 5:20) and salt and light of the world (Matt 5:13-16), it is not possible to visualize the
Christian movement apart from human culture.128 “Just as Jesus incarnated himself into
Jewish culture, so his religion is to be incarnated into every culture.”129
Creating Functional Substitutes for Lobi Funeral Rites
Functional substitutes refer to the new Christian ritual forms and practices created
at the end of the process of critical contextualization to replace the unbiblical elements
associated with traditional practices. Without them, the mere rejection of old customs will
127
Rogers, The Bible Culturally Speaking, 27, 28.
128
Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, 17, 57.
129
Gorden R. Doss, “Shifting Worldviews in Encounter of African Traditional Religion and
Christianity” (paper presented at the Fifth Annual Andrews University Seminary Scholarship Symposium,
Berrien Springs, MI, February 2009), 1.
148
create a cultural void leading to the rejection of the gospel as foreign, or the old practices
will simply go underground.130 Biblically faithful and culturally relevant functional
substitutes thus minimize the risk of syncretism as well as the cultural and social
dislocation created by the rejection of the whole or parts of traditional rituals.131
Prescribing specific functional substitutes for the traditional Lobi funeral rites is
against the philosophy of critical contextualization and beyond the scope of this
dissertation. The creation of functional substitutes is the final step of the process of
critical contextualization and must necessarily involve the Lobi believers as a
hermeneutical community. However, my life experience and my research lead me to
make some tentative suggestions.
My research shows that the following features of Lobi funeral rites are major
issues: divination associated with finding the cause of death, throwing cowries at the feet
of the deceased to fund their afterlife, carving an ancestral shrine at the end of the second
funeral rite, shaving the heads of the deceased’s close relatives, and whitewashing the
orphans, widows, and the widower. Each of these elements of their funeral rites needs to
be either discarded, modified, or reinterpreted. But before taking any action, a
comprehensive Bible study on death as the foundation for biblical funeral services should
be conducted with the Lobi believers.
What is a Lobi Adventist to do in the event of the death of a relative or during
funeral rites? The following suggestions could be considered for each of these core
130
131
Tissa Weerasingha, “Karma and Christ: Opening Our Eyes to the Buddhist World,”
International Journal of Frontier Missions 10, no. 3 (July 1993): 103.
149
practices of the Lobi funeral rites:
1. Divination to find the cause of death. This practice needs to be completely
discarded because the Bible clearly condemns any attempt to contact the dead (Lev 20:6,
27; Deut 18:10-13). Instead of using nonbiblical methods as a means to come to terms
with the loss of a dear one, members should be encouraged to put their faith in God and
the hope of the resurrection of the dead. It also should be emphasized that as the result of
sin, death is inevitable in this life.
2. Throwing of cowries at the feet of the deceased. This practice assumes that
people take on another form of existence after death and that the living relatives should
ensure the deceased’s journey to the land of the ancestors by giving them cowries to pay
for whatever is needed during this journey to balbulah. The practice of throwing cowries
could be modified as follows: At the end of the mourning period, a freewill offering
could be collected and prayed over for the welfare of the widow/widower and orphans in
place of providing cowries to the dead for their journey to balbulah. If the deceased could
see what is being done, they would be very gratified to know that their family is being
cared for.
3. Carving of an ancestral shrine. A Christian memorial service could be
organized, after which a picture of the deceased could be framed and kept in a designated
room of the family house to remind the living relatives to learn from the life experiences
of their deceased loved one. If the deceased had made any special wishes for the welfare
of their family, such as the need to live in unity, solidarity, and commitment to God, these
wishes should also be framed and placed beside their picture.
4. Shaving the head of the deceased’s relatives. This is another practice that
150
needs to be discarded on the basis of Deut 14:1-2. Although shaving the hair is not
completely forbidden by Scripture, as a holy people, the Israelites were not to cut their
hair in connection with mourning rites for the dead. Any attempt to establish contact with
the dead is deemed by God as defiling.132 Because many people shave their head as a sign
of mourning to prevent any kind of retaliation from the deceased, a special time of prayer
and dedication should be observed to ask God to protect the deceased’s relatives against
any form of attack.
5. The practice of whitewashing. This practice is done to protect the
widow/widower and orphans against the attack of evil spirits. To meet this need of
protection, the widow/widower and orphans could be dressed in white, symbolizing their
protection by Christ’s righteousness. A special prayer session also should be organized
for them. During this special time of prayer, the pastor and church elders should lay their
hands on the widow/widower and orphans, anoint them, and pray that the power of the
Holy Spirit will surround and continually protect them. In addition, the widow/widower
and orphans should be encouraged to make a spiritual recommitment to God.
Conclusion
No form of Christianity is immune to religious syncretism. The growing
acceptance of religious pluralism, some mission approaches to other religions and
cultures, and the inadequate discipling of new converts are some of the major
contributing factors to religious syncretism. To safeguard the church against this
problem, it is essential to always engage in mission with a well-defined biblical and
132
Block, Deuteronomy, 344-345.
151
cultural model of discipleship, a balanced Christian perspective on the role of culture in
the presentation of the gospel, and an appropriate way of dealing with people involved in
religious syncretism. Also, the church must always encourage growth toward maturity in
the Christian life. In other words, the presentation of the gospel as the gift for personal
salvation always must be done with the corresponding call to discipleship.133
The gospel is always received from within one’s own cultural identity,134 making
it very difficult to assimilate a new idea except in terms of other ideas and concepts one
already has.135 As such, it is very difficult to be relevant in our Christian witness if we do
not know and address the issues with which the people we are trying to reach are
wrestling. I agree with Jonathan Campbell when he argues that “the Gospel is often held
captive by cultural ideologies, traditions and structures. In order for the Gospel to spread
across cultures, it must be set free from the control of any single culture.”136 Just as David
did not let the weight and encumbrance of Saul’s armor hinder him as he approached
Goliath, “we must continually identify and remove those factors that inhibit the Body of
Christ from moving freely . . . [and] guard against anything that might violate New
Testament patterns of mission that lead to the movement of the gospel across cultures.”137
Because truth, allegiance, and power dimensions are present in God’s activities in
Paul E. Pierson, The Dynamics of Christian Mission: History through a Missiological

133
Perspective (Pasadena, CA: William Carey International University Press, 2009), 319.
134
Tennent, Invitation to Word Missions, 186.
135
Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Books, 2002), 35.
Jonathan Campbell, “Releasing the Gospel from Western Bondage,” IJFM 16, no. 3 (Winter
136
1999/2000): 167.
137
Ibid., 170.
152
the human sphere, and because spiritual warfare is a lifelong battle in every person’s
life,138 it is vital that all three dimensions be taken into consideration together, not
separately. It is also important for all of these dimensions to be contextualized, that is,
they need to be appropriate to the socio-cultural setting in which Christian witness takes
place.
Since the Bible teaches that demonic activities will increase in the last days
(1 Tim 4:1; Rev 16:13-14), Christian witness and discipleship will not be fully “biblical
or relevant to most of the peoples of the world without a solid approach to spiritual
power.”139 Because most of the peoples of the world are power oriented, it is essential
that Christian witness also takes into account the spiritual power dimension in its
presentation of the gospel. Jesus commands his disciples to make other disciples by
teaching them to obey everything he commanded (Matt 28:19, 20). What he commanded
includes both what he said and what he did; and “prominent among the numerous things
that Jesus had explicitly commanded his disciples to do was to minister, hands-on, with
spiritual powers.”140 Nevertheless, the power dimension of the gospel must never be
presented or used at the expense of a proper emphasis on the truth and allegiance
dimensions. Nor should an emphasis on truth and allegiance dimensions be made while
neglecting the spiritual power dimension.
There is no shortcut in wholistic Christian witness and discipleship. In order to be
138
Ellen G. White, My Life Today (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1980), 313.

139
Wagner, “Missiology and Spiritual Power,” 93.

140
153
effective, we cannot deviate from Jesus’ ministry example, for it is “Christ’s method
alone [that] will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men
as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their
needs [he did not discriminate the needs to minister to], and won their confidence. Then
He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’”141
Although every culture needs to be transformed by the Spirit and the Word of
God,142 it is still essential that the communication of the gospel, in whatever setting,
seeks to make the gospel concepts and ideas relevant to people within their own
cultures.143 However, the need to be culturally appropriate always should be closely
coupled with an in-depth analysis of the Scriptures. Because “people can only understand
that which is part of their cultural frame of reference,”144 the presentation of the gospel
must be both biblically sound and culturally relevant in order to be meaningful to the
receiving peoples.
The next chapter will summarize the dissertation, draw conclusions, and make
some recommendations for enhancing effectiveness in cross-cultural mission.
141
White, The Ministry of Healing, 143.
142
Pierson, The Dynamics of Christian Mission, 257.
143
144
Rogers, The Bible Culturally Speaking, 65.
154
CHAPTER 6
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The focus of this dissertation has been on the study of the traditional Lobi funeral
rites in Burkina Faso with the aim of proposing a biblical and missiological framework
for responding to the challenges these rites pose to Christian mission in general and to
SDA mission in particular. The development of this framework took into account three
facts: (1) mission is primarily God’s prerogative, (2) the Bible remains the foundational
handbook to guide the church’s involvement in mission, and (3) human culture continues
to be the arena of mission.
Because God is the prime mover of mission, everything undertaken by the church
in mission needs to be strongly grounded in the Word of God, by carefully examining and
learning from the way God interacted with previous generations. Since human culture is
the arena of mission and thus greatly impacts the receptiveness of new thought and
behavior, the presentation of the gospel also must be culturally relevant. This helps
minimize the rejection of the gospel as foreign. Biblical coherence and cultural relevance
in mission enhance the nurture of new believers and thus significantly minimize the risk
of religious syncretism and dual allegiance among church members.
Summary
The traditional Lobi are very religious. Religion is a central element of their life
155
and informs every aspect of their social and cultural life. Among the Lobi, rites of
passage are seen as very important moments in the social and religious life of the
community. It is through participation in these rites that an individual achieves social
status and leadership roles in the community. Rituals related to funeral ceremonies, in
particular, are of utmost significance. Because of the general belief among the Lobi that
the dead are not actually dead and therefore that there is life after death, funeral rites are
elaborate ceremonial occasions because they are considered to be the indispensable
means by which human beings pass from the land of the living to that of the ancestors
(the living dead).1 It is thought that if at death an individual cannot be joined to their
ancestors, their whole achievement in this life amounts to nothing because they will be
forever separated from their people. As a result, each family and clan member must be
involved in securing the future of the rest of the family and clan members; and this means
appropriately contributing for their well-being both in this life and the hereafter.2
To the traditional Lobi mind-set, life is meaningless without participation in the
rites of passage prescribed and overseen by the ancestors. This is so because it is
participation in such rites that gives a Lobi the Lobi identity.3 The societal pressure that
this puts on church members leads some to succumb to syncretism and dual allegiance in
order to be fully accepted as members of their community. The full participation of some
church members in the traditional funeral rites results in three things: It weakens the
witness of the church in their community, it increases societal pressure on other members

1
2
Bognolo, Lobi, 10.
Ibid., 8; Ovesen, “Initiation: A Folk Model among the Lobi,” 164.

3
156
who refuse to participate, and it creates conflict between church members who choose to
participate in funeral rites and those who choose not to.
A biblical and missiological framework for responding to traditional customs and
practices is therefore needed to help the universal gospel become particularized in the
Lobi setting without compromising its core principles.4 This concept is found in God’s
dealings with Israel in Old Testament times whereby in some cases he worked through
the Ancient Near Eastern culture rather than above it, while in other cases he completely
opposed some of their cultural practices.5 The incarnation of Christ in the cultural
context of first-century Palestine is a witness to God’s willingness to work with a human
point of reference. In his ministry, Jesus also applied the same principles while
addressing the good news of God’s reign to the specific context of the Jewish culture, not
as a mere abstract concept or only as an ambiguous future reality but as a present truth
that could meet their deepest felt needs.6 Likewise, the early church understood that all
gospel communication is a contextual event, and that as such, the unchanging truths of
the gospel cannot be effectively “experienced, celebrated, or communicated without
being culturally embodied.”7 According to 1 Cor 9:19-23, without compromising the
divine insistence upon repentance and faith, Paul’s method of presenting the gospel
varied depending on the people he was trying to reach.8
4
5
Hill and Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 157, 159. For a full discussion, see chap. 3.
6
7
Ibid., 338.
8
David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: North America and Beyond (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 150.
157
The contextual approach to missions is therefore not about producing a
domesticated version of the gospel or diluting the gospel to make it suitable for the
people we seek to reach. It is about seeking appropriate means of critically adapting the
never changing Word of God to the ever changing world in which the church ministers,
in such a way that the gospel “speaks to the total context of the people to whom it is
addressed.”9 Today also, if the Church really wants to impact more than the surface level
of people’s lives, it has no choice but to balance biblical integrity with relevancy in the
cultural context of the people it seeks to reach with the gospel.
Conclusion
Mission has generally been associated with the activity of the church. This
misconception has often caused the Christian Church to see itself both as the initiator of
and authority for mission. Jürgen Moltmann addresses this misunderstanding by pointing
out that “it is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the
mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church.”10 In other
words, the missionary movement of which the church is a part has its source in the Triune
God.11 Rightly understood, therefore, mission is primarily God’s prerogative. It is about
God and his redemptive purposes and initiatives in the world, totally apart from any
actions, tasks, strategies, and initiative undertaken by the Church. Hence, “mission is far
9
Timothy George, Galatians, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman and
Holman, 1994), 321.
10
Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic
Ecclesiology (London: SCM Press, 1977), 64.
11
Georg F. Vicedom, The Mission of God: An Introduction to a Theology of Mission (St. Louis,
MO: Concordia, 1965), 5.
158
more about God and who He is than about us and what we do.”12 The story of Jonah, the
headstrong prophet, is another biblical example that highlights the fact that missio Dei
“precludes any ethnocentrism or parochialism in the way the contemporary church carries
out its missionary task.”13 This story is also a constant reminder that the God of mission
is neither limited to nor will at any time succumb to the reluctance of the church to
change. When it comes to mission, God is too big to be confined to any denomination’s
quest for orthodoxy.
The twenty-first-century Christian Church needs a reconversion to God’s concept
of mission to humanity. This was both the experience of the Apostles and the key to the
early church’s success in mission. Acts 10 is a biblical example of a double conversion.
Cornelius and his family were converted to faith in Jesus as the Messiah; Peter and
subsequently the leaders of the early church (Acts 15) were reconverted in the sense that
submitting to the Holy Spirit, they accepted that God is free to use any means he chooses
to expand his kingdom. This helped widen their missionary focus.
Because the Church is only graciously invited to participate in God’s redemptive
action, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Church’s primary purpose is not about
expanding its realm through numerical growth or any other means, but to be an emissary
of the kingdom of God. To achieve that, Scripture, missiology, and ecclesiology need to
be placed in the right perspective. Without the Scripture, mission would not be only
impossible but inconceivable. It is Scripture that assigns the responsibility to be involved
12
13
Köstenberger, “The Challenge of a Systematized Biblical Theology of Mission,” 456.
159
in mission, gives us the gospel to be proclaimed in mission, instructs us on how to
proclaim it, and gives the assurance that the gospel is God’s power for salvation to every
believer.14 At the same time, missiology should shape our particular construction of
ecclesiology for a specific culture and not the other way around.15 Acts 10 and 15 are
biblical examples of how the early church’s involvement in mission helped shape their
ecclesiology. Without the Apostle Paul’s involvement in mission, there would be little of
what we now call the New Testament.
God’s missionary passion to save the world (John 3:16) calls into question all
human prejudice and preconceived ideas about human cultures. As such, any endeavor
made by the Church on behalf of God must be based on a sound biblical theology of
mission. Also, for the reason that mission always takes place in a particular context, all
genuine communication of the gospel in missions should seek to make the gospel
concepts and ideas relevant to people within their own cultures. While firmly maintaining
biblical integrity, the Church in its mission also must be resourceful and flexible in
adjusting its methods and procedures to the changing situations of the world in which it
finds itself.
Although mission and ministry in traditional contexts also must focus on the
importance of giving allegiance to Jesus Christ and being grounded in biblical truth, the
contents of mission and ministry need to be packaged in such a way that they speak to
14
John R. W. Stott, “The Living God Is a Missionary God,” in Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement, 4th ed., ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: Institute of International
Studies, 2009), 21.
Eugene Bunkowske, “How Does God Build His Kingdom? A Case Study Approach,”
15
Missio Apostolica 20, no. 1 (May 2012): 30.
160
people’s existential needs of healing, protection from curses and evil spiritual powers,
and people’s yearning for blessings in every aspect of life. The Church needs to realize
and accept that “a Christianity that [merely] talks about and promises spiritual power but
leaves out the experiencing in this area . . . leaves itself open to the problem of dual
allegiance.”16 Unless the Church presents a powerful Christianity, many of its members
will “continue to seek out the old power sources to satisfy their fears and needs.”17
Recommendations
The following seven recommendations are made in connection with several
challenges brought to light in the process of writing this dissertation:
1. Emphasize a discipleship model of mission. Jesus’ last command to his
disciples was “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age” (Matt 28:19-20). The goal of the Great Commission is clearly to make disciples.
Teaching and baptizing those who believe are the means of achieving this goal.
Unfortunately, the baptism of new converts is generally perceived as the goal and
the measure of success in many missionary engagements. Apart from the focus on the
fundamental beliefs of the church, little teaching is done after baptism to steadily nurture
new converts. The assumed typical method of discipleship in this model of mission is
16
Kraft and Kraft, “Communicating and Ministering the Power of the Gospel Cross-Culturally,
350.
17
Bauer, “A Response to Dual Allegiance,” 342.
161
theoretical and strongly leans towards passively listening to sermons with very little
intentional and practical hands-on instruction of converts. Emmanuel Egbunu rightly
remarks that “the neglect of thorough follow-up to conserve the fruits of evangelism has
been the major factor for the prevalence of untaught Christians whose ideas of
Christianity are a travesty of biblical discipleship.”18
Unless disciples are made, that is, converts are taught and see the need of obeying
all the things Christ has commanded, there always will be syncretism and dual allegiance
in the Church. An antidote may be in a shift from baptism as the measure of success in
mission and ministry to an emphasis on long-term teaching and mentoring (beside weekly
sermons) for discipleship. For example, there can be a two year formal discipleship plan
for new converts. This should be a comprehensive discipleship curriculum. Beside a
doctrinal instruction, new converts need to also be taught about personal spiritual life
development, family life, and how to deal with particular cultural issues they are
confronted with, etc.
2. Develop a biblical theology of conversion. There is more to conversion than a
simple intellectual ascent to a body of doctrines. Conversion is also not about skillfully
manipulating people’s emotions so as to gain a certain kind of commitment to the church.
Because conversion is generally perceived as an event in time, “the significance of
process and development in Christian conversion is often neglected.”19 If conversion was
18
Emmanuel Egbunu, “To Teach, Baptize, and Nurture New Believers,” in Mission in the 21st
Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission, ed. Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross (Maryknoll, NY:
Frank D. Macchia, “Towards Individual and Communal Renewal: Reflections on Luke’s

19
Theology of Conversion,” Ex Auditu 25 (2009): 93.
162
mainly a single event, it would seem strange for Christ to turn to Peter after the final
supper and tell him, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I
have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back
[converted], strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). According to Markus
Bockmuehl, conversion here denotes “a moral and spiritual re-orientation.”20 Because
Peter was already a disciple, Bockmuehl further adds that “one surprising implication of
Luke 22:31-32 is that even on the last night of Jesus' ministry the evangelist evidently
regards Peter’s “conversion” still to be in the future rather than the past.”21 Therefore,
rather than being a static category, Christian conversion should be understood as a
dynamic one.22 As such, a well-defined biblical theology of conversion is needed for a
balance between a believer’s response to God and the activity of God in the life of that
believer.
3. Make use of a balanced approach to mission that includes power encounter.
Mission is more than just preaching a set of correct doctrines no matter their importance.
A mere intellectual assent to a body of correct doctrines is not enough to make a convert
a disciple of Christ. A balanced discipleship includes both correct doctrinal knowledge
and character development. In some instances, character development cannot happen
unless people are first set free from the power of Satan.23 For this reason, ministry and
20
Markus Bockmuehl, “The Conversion of Simon Peter,” Ex Auditu 25 (2009): 46.
21
Ibid., 47.
22
Stephen J. Chester, “Romans 7 and Conversion in the Protestant Tradition,” Ex Auditu 25
(2009): 135.
23
163
mission must necessarily combine the truth, allegiance, and power dimensions of the
gospel. This pattern in Jesus’ ministry is shown in Matt 4:23-25:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good
news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill
with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having
seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the
Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Jesus skillfully combined the proclamation of the gospel with the demonstration
of the power of God to set people free from the power of Satan. It is important to note
that before Jesus stated the Great Commission, he assured his disciples that “all authority
(exousia) in heaven and on earth” had been given to him and was available to them as
they went and made disciples: “I am with you always” (Matt 28:18, 20). The disciples
likely understood that their ministry was to be patterned after that of Christ. It is no
wonder that “the book of Acts reveals that the disciples went out and spread the good
news in the same fashion as Christ: by combining proclamation and demonstration of the
kingdom of God. The apostles not only taught what they heard but also did what Jesus
did.”24
Although power demonstrations are not an end in themselves, through them
people experience the power of God as greater than that of evil spirits and local divinities.
They help confirm the claims of the Bible as the Word of the only true God and thus
strengthen the converts’ allegiance to Christ.25 Wimber and Springer capture the
24
Tormod Engelsviken, “Spiritual Conflict: A Challenge for the Church in the West with a View to
25
the Future,” in Paradigm Shifts in Christian Witness: Insights from Anthropology, Communication, and
Spiritual Power, ed. Charles E. Van Engen, Darrell Whiteman, and J. Dudley Woodberry (Maryknoll, NY:
164
importance of signs and wonders in mission and ministry this way: “In power
evangelism, resistance to the Gospel is overcome by the demonstration of God’s power,
and receptivity to Christ’s claims is usually very high.”26
With the warning that demonic activities will increase in the last days (1 Tim 4:1;
Rev 16:13-14), in order for Christian witness and discipleship to be relevant to most of
the peoples of the world, witness and discipleship must necessarily reflect a solid
approach to spiritual power.27 To be relevant in many contexts in general and in the Lobi
context in particular, the Church needs an objective answer to the following question: If
power demonstrations were an essential part of both Christ’s and the early church’s
ministry, why are they absent from ours today?
4. Facilitate open discussions in local churches on the impact of syncretism and
dual allegiance on the witness of the Church. Church members in the Lobi context are
divided on the question of whether or not to participate in traditional funeral rites. While
some members fully participate in them, others categorically refrain from participation
because of the non-biblical elements they contain. This lack of unity among members,
due to the practice of syncretism and dual allegiance by some members, affects the
witness of the church. The witnessing done by members who stand firm for their faith is
weakened or overshadowed by the behavior of other members who see no problem in
participating in cultural practices that go against biblical principles. It is therefore
important that open discussions on the impact of dual allegiance and syncretism on
Christian witness be facilitated in local churches. This has the potential of being “a truth
26

27
165
and reconciliation” forum as well as a discipleship program that also will help address
other issues related to funeral rites of passages such as the need to develop functional
substitutes.
5. Develop functional substitutes for non-biblical cultural practices. The mere
rejection of traditional practices often creates a cultural void that can either lead to the
rejection of the gospel as foreign, or that can cause the practices to simply go
underground.28 Functional substitutes, new Christian ritual forms and practices, need to
be created to replace the non-biblical elements associated with traditional practices.
Biblically faithful and culturally relevant functional substitutes will minimize the risk of
syncretism as well as the cultural and social dislocation created by the rejection of the
whole or parts of traditional rituals.29 New symbols and rituals need to be developed to
communicate biblical principles in forms understandable to the Lobi context. The process
of developing functional substitutes for the traditional Lobi funeral rites needs to be
facilitated by the Burkina Faso SDA Mission and must actively involve the members of
various local Lobi congregations because of their knowledge of the deeper and hidden
meanings associated with their cultural practices. Involving the members directly affected
by this change helps to ensure that the new Christian symbols and rituals survive over
time.
6. Help church members attain economic independence. The societal pressure to
conform to all aspects of a group’s cultural practices is unbearable especially for church
28
29
Tissa Weerasingha, “Karma and Christ: Opening Our Eyes to the Buddhist World,”
International Journal of Frontier Missions 10, no. 3 (July 1993): 103.
166
members who are financially or materially dependent on non-Christian members of their
families or community. In some cases the help these members receive from others is
withdrawn once they decide to turn their backs on traditional practices that contradict
their Christian faith. The fear of being abandoned by their families coupled with the local
church’s inability to meet their basic needs leads some converts into syncretism and dual
allegiance.
In addition to spiritual empowerment, if members are also economically
empowered, they would have a greater chance to withstand societal pressure to conform
to non-biblical elements associated with some cultural practices. In this case, mission and
sustainable economic development need to go hand in hand. The Burkina Mission, the
Adventist Development and Relief Agency,30 and the local Dorcas Society31 can partner
and provide church members with both entrepreneurial skills and means to run
sustainable income-generating activities.
7. Introduce a course on cultural anthropology in our theological institutions.
Effective pastoral ministry is not built only around the ability to do good biblical
exegesis. If theology is really “centered in the process of reflecting on and applying
biblical truth to a particular situation,”32 the exegesis of the context in which the biblical
text is to be applied cannot be ignored as separated from the process of doing theology. It
is only by associating the exegesis of culture to the exegesis of biblical texts that our
30
The official development and relief agency of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church.
31
A local church organization with a mission to help the less fortunate members.
Jon Dybdahl, “Doing Theology in the Doctor of Ministry Program,” https://www.andrews.edu/

32
sem/dmin/about/theological-reflection/ (accessed January 12, 2015).
167
theology will be both equipped to answer questions that our parishioners are asking and
to confront different cultures with God’s revelation in a way they can respond to and
make intelligent decisions in favor of that revelation. It is not out of context to say that a
useful theologian is one whose theology is relevant to their context. All gospel workers
therefore must be equipped with tools to exegete their ministry context with the same
rigor they apply to exegesis of biblical texts. This double exegesis will help them
successfully address the cognitive, affective, and evaluative dimensions of people’s lives.
168
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A Biblical and Missiological Framework for Cross-

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations

A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR

Adviser: Gorden R. Doss

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Title: A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CROSS-

Name of researcher: Boubakar Sanou

Name and degree of faculty adviser: Gorden R. Doss, PhD

Date completed: August 2015

Converts to Christianity in traditional contexts often face pressure to continue

the human condition after death.

observation of people’s behavior at a funeral ceremony and on a purposeful sampling of

My findings broadened my understanding of the religious and sociocultural

Christian mission in general and to Seventh-day Adventist mission in particular.

and missiologically. A well-planned ethnographic study is helpful in reaching this goal.

to other cross-cultural mission contexts.

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR

Presented in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE

Kurt, Margaret, Sarah, Amy, and Eric Unglaub,

Missionaries to the Lobi of Burkina Faso, 1993-2000

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

2. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE LOBI

3. DEATH AND FUNERAL RITES OF PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE . . . . . . . . 51

4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CHALLENGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

5. A BIBLICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR

1. Major Ethnic Groups of Burkina Faso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2. Discipleship Supported by Its Truth, Allegiance, and Power Dimensions . . . . . . 137

My journey into the Doctor of Philosophy program began in August 2011.

would have been impossible to accomplish.

Wright, Dafrassi Ouattara, Michael Adomako, Ugochukwu Elems, Emmanuel and

them to be a blessing to my family.

I am appreciative of the spiritual support of my prayer group partners Sami Kam,

They have prayed faithfully for my family every single Monday.

members, have challenged and channeled my thoughts. They have helped me to be

balanced in thinking both biblically and missiologically. I am very grateful to them.

Finally, I am very thankful to my beloved wife, Sylvie, a true partner in ministry.

love, support, and constant prayers.

OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION

ethno-religionists.1 This study aims at investigating the socio-cultural and religious

missiological framework for responding to them in order to facilitate a full acceptance of

especially, in times of felt needs and crises.”4

worldview, which is heavily influenced by traditional beliefs. A convert to Christianity or

the beliefs and practices of Christianity.6

religious life of a community. Rituals related to funeral ceremonies, in particular, are of

Aylword Shorter, “Conflicting Attitudes to Ancestor Veneration in Africa,” African Ecclesial

African social structure also places an emphasis on community centeredness

community is synonymous with participating in its beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and

whole picture.”14 Because identification with the community is a primary virtue,

individuals generally find fulfillment in as much as they belong. Eugene Hillman

Ignatius M. Zvarevashe, “The Problem of Ancestors and Inculturation,” African Ecclesial

African Ecclesial Review 25, no. 3 (June 1983): 163.

makes many converts to Christianity vulnerable to syncretism and dual allegiance.

Challenge to Christian Mission

Easterner, a North American, or any other person outside of Africa.