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.