Cite
Bock, Darrell L. “A Theology of Cultural Intelligence.” Southwestern Journal of Theology 64, no. 2 (2022): 35–50.
Jeremy
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Contribution::
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FirstAuthor:: Bock, Darrell L
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Title:: A Theology of Cultural Intelligence
Year:: 2022
Citekey:: bockTheologyCulturalIntelligence2022
itemType:: journalArticle
Journal:: Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume:: 64
Issue:: 2
Pages:: 35-50
LINK
Abstract
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Notes
Accession Number: ATLAiREM220606000510; Hosting Book Page Citation: Southwestern Journal of Theology; , 2022; Language(s): English; Issued by ATLA: 20230508; Publication Type: Article;
Annotations
Imported: 2025-02-28 1:31 am
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Cultural intelligence requires knowing our calling as well as the real nature of our battle. The spiritual nature of the conflict means we must utilize both a spiritual perspective and divinely appointed resources
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1. Ephesians 6:10–18. The key text is verse 12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
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Christians fight a battle in a fallen world. Scripture often speaks of the world as being opposed to the things of God and, as a result, opposed to believers.
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People are not the enemy. They are the goal. When Jesus sent forth his disciples with the Great Commission in Matt 28:18–20, he said to go into the world and make disciples. He did not say, “Go into the church and be disciples,” or “Withdraw from public space.” He sent the church into the public space, armed for battle with spiritual resources that only God and the gospel provide through Christ.
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In the culture-war approach, we have all too often grown misguided in the mission, making people the enemy. In that faulty execution of our assignment, we’ve not only failed to accomplish the call of making disciples, but we have actually damaged the church by robbing it of its good news.
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As soon as we shed the relational distinctives that are the church— the call to love our enemies and to live authentically with integrity and grace—w
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look like any other special-interest group. Then people will choose cultural options with their own special interests in mind.
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There is nothing to fear in the battle, for the spiritual resources we have are great and the identity we have is unshakable. Our assignment is to draw on those resources rather than rely on those that make us more like the world. We do so by engaging intelligently with people who think differently than we do, not by despising or disrespecting them, but by seeing them as hostages in need of rescue. When we act like the world and perceive them as enemies, our rescue mission goes off course and we lose our spiritual advantage.
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The next part of the verse is even more amazing. “But do not be terrified of them or be shaken” (1 Pet 3:14b NET). There is no cause for fear as we engage, even though we can anticipate rejection and injustice.
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The church often fails by focusing so hard on the challenge that the hope gets lost. We so wish to highlight what is wrong in the world that we mute the hope that God has made available, or we defer that hope to the future alone. Yet this hope starts now, in this life.
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The only way for good news to be good news is for the good news to be in the message!
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In 3:17, Peter explains why we can conduct ourselves in this way: “For it is better to suffer for doing good [yet another mention of injustice!], if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” We are not to respond to the world in kind, even in the face of unjust responses. Disciples engage and show a different way of relating, even to those who reject them. This is part of how we love our enemies in a distinctive way.
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Our speech should help things to settle—and to settle down. It should be constructive in dealing with issues, not destructive by engaging in personal insult.
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Cultural intelligence says our love is most distinctive when it includes all people.
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Yet Paul’s one word to summarize what his ministry is about is reconciliation. Peter used the word hope in a similar way in 1 Peter 3, but in 2 Corinthians the result of salvation is being focused on. God saves us to reconcile us to him and to others.
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ociety’s problem, as a spiritual issue, is deeper than any political ideology.
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We show our care for people by engaging with their lives and what is going on inside them, being aware of what troubles them and why. We help people when we do not just argue but show them that there’s a different way to live. One of the best ways to do that is to listen and care.
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Cultural intelligence calls us to see ourselves as ambassadors representing God, not so much as citizens of a particular earthly nation or political view, but as citizens of his kingdom. Our mission is to offer an invitation, pleading with any tribe and every nation to reconcile to God, showing love to any and all people.
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Cultural intelligence avoids unnecessary disputes and engages in ways that are gentle. It also allows God to own the results of a conversation and trusts that by engaging faithfully and patiently, we are offering the non-believer an opportunity for a life-changing escape.
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Engagement can lose its effectiveness when we lose sight of the primary objectives of our mission. A mission that is poorly defined or that incorrectly identifies what is most central can take us off a productive conversational path and may even result in real damage. The church’s recent path may have unintentionally produced such damage because our mission has been misdirected. People are not the enemy but the goal.
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Finally, cultural intelligence teaches us to understand that the gospel is the real answer for ultimate human transformation. Every other answer has severe limits.
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