Mystery and multiculturalism: Should the musterion of Ephesians 3 encourage multiculturalism in South African churches?

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Mystery and multiculturalism: Should the musterion of Ephesians 3 encourage multiculturalism in South African churches?
 
Creator Henry, Desmond Soal, Darryl
 
Subject Missiology; New Testament mystery; multicultural; multiculturalism; missiology; culture; globalism; local churches
Description The objective was the examination of the musterion of Ephesians 3, whether it encouraged multiculturalism in South African churches. The knowledge gap was to find further biblical direction for churches experiencing cultural transitions and demographic changes. The research method was a qualitative analysis of biblical texts, as applied specifically in a South African setting, with global implications. The significance would be the cultural transitions of churches from homogeneous, local churches into culturally heterogeneous, local churches. Further questioning the homogeneous unit principle (HUP) in the light of Scripture, especially Ephesians. The results found that the musterion in Ephesians 3 pointed to the Holy Spirit’s original intension for multicultural local churches. This mystery was found to be the witness of the church in this world and cosmically, to allay fear and prejudice. Further research is recommended into addressing the fears of globalisation in local churches. The contextual context affected local churches in post-Apartheid South Africa and many local churches around the world experiencing globalisation. These findings affect possible blind spots in theological studies in the New Testament, cross-cultural care in Practical Theology, Missiological findings for church growth and church planting, along with sociological findings in multiculturalism.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article deals with concerns for New Testament, missiology and practical theology. It challenges the homogenous unit principle in the light of Pauline discourse and synthesises research to form a contextual response to the need for multiculturalism in South African churches.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor North-West University
Date 2021-08-05
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v42i1.2191
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 42, No 1 (2021); 9 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2191/4894 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2191/4895 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2191/4896 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2191/4897
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Desmond Henry, Darryl Soal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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