Talking About Cultural Diversity in Your Church

Gifts and Challenges

Michael V. Angrosino

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Year: 2001
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780759116931
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

In the Great Commission, Jesus told his followers to 'go and make disciples of all nations'. But today, you don't need to be a missionary in another country to come across different cultures. In your neighborhood, school, workplace, and shopping area you probably run across many people with backgrounds vastly different from your own. To have an effective ministry in the U.S. today, outside or inside the church, Christians need to be aware of how people's culture affects the ways they think and live. Talking about Cultural Diversity in Your Church gives classes, workshops, or small groups the opportunity to discuss issues of multiculturalism. Presenting what culture means in the first part of the book shows how understanding and misunderstandings of culture affect American society. This beginning section encourages readers to be aware of their own cultural assumptions and how these assumptions color relations with others. It then highlights special skills for communicating between cultures and highlights the special challenges for religion in a pluralistic society. But the heart of the book is eleven case studies with discussion questions. These concrete cases allow participants to see about how their understandings of culture have real world implications. And the discussion questions let participants talk in meaningful ways about these difficult issues. If you want a useful discussion about multiculturalism in your congregation, you should take a look at Talking about Cultural Diversity in Your Church. Visit the author's web page

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Challenge of Cultural Diversity
• 1 Background Issues
• 2 Culture in Social Science Perspective
• 3 Reflections on Cultural Diversity
• 4 The United States as a Pluralistic Society
• 5 Special Challenges for Religion in a Pluralistic Society
• 6 Skills for Effective Intercultural Communication
• 7 A Case Study in Communication across Ethnic Borders
• 8 A Case Study in Religious Pluralism
• 9 A Case Study in Social Class and Social Responsibility
• 10 A Case Study in Gender Rights
• 11 A Case Study in Sexual Orientation
• 12 A Case Study in Aging
• 13 A Case Study in Disability and Community
• 14 A Case Study in Racial Attitudes
• 15 A Case Study in Language as Social Capital
• 16 A Case Study in Family Organization
• 17 A Case Study in Interfaith Cooperation
• Conclusions
• Notes
• References
• About the Author