Indigenous Faith: Living a biblically healthy life in the context of an indigenous culture...

by Craig Stephen Smith

How does an indigenous person define the boundary lines in which to live out their faith in Christ in the context of an animistic culture? What are those boundary lines, and who or what should define them for an indigenous Christian? Should each culture be interpreting Scripture through their own cultural prism, or are the Scriptures alone authoritative and sufficient to speak to every human culture with transcendent truth?

There is a growing movement in modern evangelicalism that is bringing confusion to the worldwide indigenous church that seeks to incorporate the sacred objects and cultural forms of that culture. The need exists to bring clarity to the confusion and truth to the table to help preserve the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Craig Stephen Smith seeks to answer these questions from God’s Word in his book, Indigenous Faith.

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 11, 2019

Reviews

[Grant Fawcett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much appreciated Smiths attitude and purpose in writing this book. I think, generally speaking, that I agree with his premise. I did find some of his hermeneutics spurious and founded in presupposition instead of good exegesis.

[Abbey Schmucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Whitemans Gospel, by the same author. I liked this one better.

It was written to dispel the notion of syncretism in Native American churches, and I read it mainly for educational purposes.

However, it was a new perspective for me and it got me thinking about my faith and culture in ways I never had before. I found that very enlightening.

I started by slogging through it for education and ended by bingeing on it and underlining long sections and putting lots of little stars and questions in the margins, which is a sign a book is making me think. It was a challenging read.

I started out really disliking the writing style, but it grew on me.