June 30, 2025
by Dr. Larry Caldwell, Chief Academic Officer
As most of us are already aware, one of the driving forces around Kairos University is delivering theological education that is “affordable, accessible, relevant, and faithful.” We’ve done a pretty good job on the “affordable” and “accessible” pieces, and hopefully everything we do is “faithful” to truths of the gospel. It’s the “relevant” piece that sometimes is a bit harder to grasp.
Theological education that is relevant can be looked at from several vantage points. One of the most obvious is adapting assignments that are appropriate to specific ministry contexts. Another is seeking theological clarity through the rigor of “case studies” in our reflections in community sessions. One of the more difficult vantage points, however, is this: How do we make the Bible relevant for our ministry contexts? Of course, we do this through our excellent Bible-related learning experiences, but even more is needed. This “more” is the emphasis that Kairos places on “cultural exegesis” and “contextual projects” that allow ministry relevance to come to the forefront of our thinking.
I’ve been grappling with how to make the Bible more relevant for my over 40 years of teaching in seminaries worldwide, as well as in my many articles on the topic. I’ve learned much over the years, though as is true for all of us, I’m still learning. My latest attempt at answering this question can now be found in my new textbook, The Bible In Culture. Reading the Bible With All the World Using Ethnohermeneutics (William Carey Publishers, July, 2025). In this book I attempt to answer the question: How can believers in cross-cultural, multicultural, and multigenerational contexts faithfully read and apply Scripture in a way that honors both the biblical text and their unique cultural contexts? In the book, I introduce readers to the discipline of ethnohermeneutics, a revolutionary yet biblical approach to reading Scripture with, rather than for, the world.
Drawing from my decades of experience living cross-culturally, I attempt to demonstrate that every culture has its own tools for understanding meaning and show how God uses these to communicate the truth of his word. God desires his word be relevant and, furthermore, gives us some biblical guidelines for how that might be done. My approach is rooted in observing how Jesus, Paul, and others in the early church interpreted Scripture and in following their examples. Through real-life illustrations, insights, interactive activities, and case studies, I try to help us to discover how we can also read, interpret, and make relevant God’s word in our own ministry contexts. This book is written to challenge our assumptions about the interpretive task—encouraging and equipping us to rethink how the Bible can be made more relevant within every people group in every cross-cultural, multicultural, and multigenerational context.
If the topic of relevancy in theological education is of interest to you, I encourage you to read this book for yourself. If you are interested in a copy at a pre-publication discount of 25% for either a paper or an electronic copy, just click here. After you’ve added your copy to the cart, enter the discount code: PREBIC25. Click apply.
May God bless you as you attempt to be more relevant in your own journey of discipleship.