EMQ » Jan – March 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 1
Arts in Conversation
Summary: Finding and encouraging Indigenous cultural expressions that harmonize with Christian faith rather than bringing in and teaching established Western cultural expressions has proven to be a far more effective means to spread the gospel. As Indigenous arts are encouraged, they are reshaping global Christianity and fulfilling God’s diverse, multicultural vision of the body of Christ.
By Jhonny A. Nieto Ossa
Local culture is the best tool to effectively communicate a message, but the church from colonial times to the present day has had a long road to understand and practice it. Many missionaries sent from Europe and North America to the world in the 1700s and until the mid-1900s discouraged the use of local arts because of their relationship with Indigenous beliefs and rituals.
They viewed local art with disdain, considering it uncivilized and of lower status. Indigenous arts were ignored or demonized. Instead, the custom was to export the culture and arts of the missionary and implement it. They used a bring it – teach it[i] model. They brought the Bible, hymns, liturgy, etc., in a language and forms that were foreign to the hearts of Indigenous peoples.
This created unnecessary barriers to gospel transmission. However, as missionaries have recognized that Indigenous arts can be harmonized with Christian faith, these barriers have fallen away. Faith in Christ has flourished.
