Book Write-Up: Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures

Jayson Georges. Ministering in Patronage Cultures: Biblical Models and Missional Implications. IVP Academic, 2019. See here to purchase the book.

This book is written in the same vein as Jayson Georges’s previous book, Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures, only this book focuses on patronage. As in Honor-Shame, Georges draws on his own and others’ international experience to show how Christians can minister in non-Western cultures without unnecessarily and unintentionally offending people. Things that appear innocent in the West can come across as offensive in Majority World cultures, for Western presuppositions are different from those of Majority World cultures. On the issue of patronage, the West is rather individualistic, whereas the Majority World is built on long-term, reciprocal, and mutually-beneficial relationships, which is what patronage essentially is. An honor-shame mindset permeates patronage, as both patrons and clients seek to gain honor and avoid shame before each other and the broader society.

Patronage has more of a biblical focus than Honor-Shame. Georges shows that patronage is a concept that permeates Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. God is the ultimate patron, to whom people owe their allegiance. Georges’s discussions illuminate sections of Scripture that may baffle some readers. For instance, there is Jesus’s enigmatic parable about the unjust steward in Luke 16:1-13, in which an unjust steward reduces people’s debts to his master in an attempt to save his own job. According to Georges, both honor-shame and patronage underlie this parable. The unjust steward was gaining friends (clients) by doing the debtors a favor, and these debtors were thereby obligated to him. Meanwhile, were the master to return the people’s debts to their higher levels, he would have been shamed as a patron, so he had to uphold what his steward did. The steward was tying the master’s hands with the patronage and honor-shame systems, thereby saving his own job.

At the same time, Georges talks about where Scripture diverges from the standard patronage system. Patronage said that people should help those who can help them back, whereas Jesus taught love for enemies and giving without expectation of payment. In addition, God shows love to people who have dishonored him, so God’s act of grace runs contrary to a patronage concept that is based on reward and obligation.

The book could have been clearer on two issues. First, there is the issue of divine grace. On the one hand, Georges seems to argue that God’s grace runs against a patronage mindset. On the other hand, he appears to contend that it coincides with a patronage mindset, for patrons did people favors (grace), and people responded with their allegiance to the patron (faith), just as occurs in the Gospel. This is relevant to current Christian debates about free grace and the role of good works in salvation, as some Christians present grace as less than totally free and accompanied with strings and obligations, just like the patronage system. Both currents—-the Gospel as pro and anti-patronage—-have elements supporting them. Paul does distinguish grace from law and depicts God as more generous than a lot of patrons, yet Paul also holds that certain sins can disqualify people (even Christians) from the Kingdom of God.

Second, Georges could have more clearly tied his anecdotes to the concept of patronage. In Honor-Shame, it was clear how the stories related to honor-shame and what Westerners did wrong. In Patronage, that was not as clear. How exactly does a person helping someone else in a particular way, for example, step on the complex patronage networks? Georges was fairly clear, but he could have been clearer.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.