How can the Christian faith be translated into new languages and into new cultural forms? How much of Christian faith is culturally conditioned and how much is universal? What role should the Bible play in encouraging or in limiting diverse expressions of Christian faith? What does it mean to speak of the gospel as truth in a world that declares that religious speech can never be true, but only "true-for-me"?

These are some of the hermeneutical questions that arise as the church enters into its missional calling. Brownson explores these questions in an effort to understand how the church can engage in cross-cultural hermeneutics in clear and effective ways. He looks at the way in which the New Testament writers functioned hermeneutically--how they attempted to interpret the gospel as it crossed cultural boundaries in the diverse contexts of the first century, concluding with a discussion of contemporary use of a missional hermeneutic.

James V. Brownson is the James and Jean Cook Professor of New Testament and Academic Dean at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI.