Foundations of Orality
Module 1
Explore God’s design for communicating among people created in His image. How can we communicate with higher impact and scale? We will discover how orality affects every aspect of communication.
Lesson 5: Ways of Expressing
This lesson will focus on the cluster related to ways of expressing, namely the orality traits of arts, symbols, and rituals.
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Symbols
🔗 Check out symbols on
Representations
We can define symbols as something present that represents something else, and they are, therefore, helpful as a connection between the visible, known, and unknown worlds.1
Symbols are arbitrary. Their meaning or what they represent is randomly assigned.2
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😃🤔🤯 Write down what you think the symbols above mean to you, then ask others what they think until you hear different meanings you didn’t think of.
📔 Read this story
The Baseball Cap
Alex loved wearing his baseball cap wherever he went. One day, while walking through the park with his mother, Alex spotted a man kneeling on a prayer mat, his cap still on his head.
“Mom, look!” Alex exclaimed, pointing at the man. “He’s wearing his cap while praying. Why can’t I wear mine in church?”
His mother paused, considering Alex’s question. “Well, different places have different rules, Alex. In our church, we take our hats off as a sign of respect. But let’s talk more about it at home.”
Later that evening, as they sat at the kitchen table, Alex brought up the topic again. “Mom, I’ve been thinking. I like how that man could wear his cap during prayer. I think I want to become a Muslim.”
Surprised by Alex’s revelation, his mother asked, “Why do you want to become a Muslim, Alex?”
“Because then I can wear my cap during service!” Alex replied eagerly.
Depending on our upbringing, we may have been taught that wearing a head cover is a symbol of submission, while in other places, people have been told that removing the headcover is a sign of respect. The same symbol can have opposite meanings in different cultures.
😃🤔🤯 Think about the traditional Christian meaning of the 🌈 rainbow and what the 🏳️🌈 flag represents today.
❗Note that the examples above illustrate a point and do not represent the opinions of the I-OS staff.
Properties of symbols
Victor Turner described three properties of symbols.3
Condensation
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Simply put, one symbol can have multiple meanings. A 🕊️ dove for example stands for peace, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ baptism, and Noah’s salvation.
😃🤔🤯 Think of other symbols from your culture with multiple meanings.
Unification
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Multiple symbols have the same meaning or similar meanings.
The 🕊️ dove, ☮️ peace symbol, and the ✌🏻 hand gesture all have a similar meaning.
😃🤔🤯 Again, think of symbols in your culture that have similar meanings.
Polarization
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Symbols with polarizing properties play a significant role in connecting our emotions and desires to our beliefs and values. These symbols evoke strong feelings and reactions within us, which in turn reinforce our convictions and ideologies. For example, certain symbols may evoke feelings of pride or loyalty, aligning with our beliefs and values, while others may trigger feelings of discomfort or opposition, challenging our existing convictions. Ultimately, these symbols serve as powerful tools for shaping our perceptions and guiding our actions based on our deeply held beliefs and values.
“Symbols help you want to do what you should do.”4
National flags, anthems, or company logos can be such symbols.
😃🤔🤯 Think about polarization symbols in your life. How are these symbols making you desire to become a better person?
Meaning of symbols
As seen with the 🌈 rainbow, meaning of symbols may change.
😃🤔🤯 List 5 symbols from your culture and 5 symbols from the Bible, each with their meaning.
The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18, NLT
Again, the same symbol can have different meanings for different worldviews.
Interpreting symbols
And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Luke 9:23, VOICE
For Christians, the cross symbolizes salvation. Many Muslims connect it with the medieval crusades of the Roman Catholic church.
😃🤔🤯 What did Jesus mean with the cross?
Words are symbols
Anthropologist Paul Hiebert said that: “Symbols refer not only to the conscious world of human thoughts and feelings. They also reflect the implicit assumptions people make about reality-in other words, their world view. This is particularly true of words, for language is the most powerful of symbol systems.”5
HOR: Symbols like words often need context for clarity. Pictures and metaphors are widely used.
LOR: Clarity is derived from the words themselves. Graphics and tables are often used as representations.
Missiologist Tom Steffen adds that since the Reformation, words have been given more importance, often making other symbols less significant.6
In the communication process, signs are symbols like words, pictures, metaphors, etc.7
😃🤔🤯 As signs are the only things transmitted, what can happen to the original meaning of the speaker in the mind of the listener?
In the Philippines, for example, the phrase “let’s eat” can have different meanings depending on the context.
Unlike at a party, when someone is simply having lunch, and you happen to pass by, saying “let’s eat” is not an invitation.
A shared understanding of the meaning of symbols is crucial for effective communication, particularly across different cultures.
Arts
🔗 Check out arts on
Art is everywhere
😃🤔🤯 Gather a few people and discuss the following 2 questions:
- Is everyone an artist?
- When does something become art? or, What makes art art?
📰 In light of your discussion, check out this article on how a 🍌banana taped to a wall sold over $6 million!
Kunst
The German word for art (Kunst) implies mastery. While everyone is born capable of producing art, not everything produced is art.
Other ways of defining art are related to its influence on society, and its recognition by others.
Difference in art
ALL cultures have art. However, the arts are used in different ways. Here are the tendencies of how HOR and LOR people use the arts:
HOR: People don’t just express themselves through the arts; they become part of it. Participation in the arts is not optional and is closely tied to their identity.
LOR: People use arts as a way of expressing themselves. Still, arts are often seen and used as a form of entertainment, and the audience are often simply observers.
Biblical art
😃🤔🤯 Check out 2 Samuel 6:14-15 and 2 Chronicles 2:4-6 and list all artforms you can find.
Especially in the Old Testament, God used many different art forms to communicate with His people. Surely you can think of other passages as well.
We are also called to use the arts in worship in the New Testament.
Let the word of the Anointed One richly inhabit your lives. With all wisdom teach, counsel, and instruct one another. Sing the psalms, compose hymns and songs inspired by the Spirit, and keep on singing—sing to God from hearts full and spilling over with thankfulness.
Colosians 3:16, VOICE
😃🤔🤯 Why must I use the arts in ministry? How can I integrate the arts in my ministry?
Additional resources
🎞️ Watch this webinar with Deborah Kim & David Ige about Ethnodoxology and check out the corresponding 📚 resource collection.
Rituals
🔗 Check out rituals on
Everyday tasks with meaning
Scribes and Pharisees: Why don’t Your disciples follow the traditions passed down to us? Why do they eat their bread with defiled hands?
Mark 7:5, VOICE
📔 Read Mark 7:1-23.
Note the discussion about ritual washing hands and the different meanings and perceptions of it.
😃🤔🤯 Make a list of 10 more rituals found in the Bible. 5 from the Old and 5 from the New Testament.
😃🤔🤯 Think about a few rituals in your culture. What is their significance?
Significance of rituals
😃🤔🤯 What are your thoughts about the significance of the crussifiction rituals of Roman Catholics in the Philippines as depicted below?
As it is with many cultures, rituals are powerful and important for these people.
HOR: People connect rituals with deep meaning and as a necessary social element.
LOR: Rituals tend to be optional and a “nice to have” but not a necessity.
Rites of passage
Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep researched rites of passage and describes how people transition from an old state (i.e., boy) to a new state (i.e., man) in 3 stages: separation, a transition period, and reintegration.8
Victor Turner further developed the concept and called the transition period liminality.9 After the liminal stage, the person emerges on the other side transformed from an old stage to a new stage with elevated status and different social roles.
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Watch this National Documentary, Boy To Man.
A break from the ordinary
For the next step, it’s important to prepare yourself and organize a few things:
- Find a quiet place (alternatively use 🎧headphones).
- Prepare a cup of 🍵tea or ☕coffee.
- Make yourself comfortable and relaxed.
- Close your eyes and focus on the text while you listen to the audio version of Psalm 34.
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Listen to Psalm 34.
😃🤔🤯 Take a few minutes and reflect on the “ritual” you just experienced. How did you feel? Describe your attitude going into this exercise and your mood going out of it.
Using rituals
Rituals take us from everyday life and put us into a different stage. It may be uncomfortable, confusing, or even disturbing, but in this stage, our senses are alert, and our mind is open. It is a place where transformation happens.
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Watch this webinar on OralityTalks as Jay Moon speaks about Oral Discipleship.
😃🤔🤯 What rituals of my people must I study, understand, and redeem?
Additional resources
🎞️ Watch this webinar with Jay Moon and Temna Meren on Oral Discipleship.
Footnotes
- 📖 W. Jay Moon, Intercultural Discipleship: Learning from Global Approaches to Spiritual Formation, Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2017), 33, 68. ↩︎
- 📖 Lothar Käser, Foreign Cultures: An Introduction to Ethnology, trans. Sutton Geoffrey (Nürnberg, Mittelfr: VTR, 2014), 32. ↩︎
- 📖 Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967). ↩︎
- 📖 W. Jay Moon, Intercultural Discipleship: Learning from Global Approaches to Spiritual Formation, Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2017), 71. ↩︎
- 📖 Paul G. Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1985), 146. ↩︎
- 📖 Tom A. Steffen, Worldview-Based Storying: The Integration of Symbol, Story, and Ritual in the Orality Movement (Richmond, VA: Orality Resources International, Center for Oral Scriptures, 2018), 117. ↩︎
- 📖 Paul G. Hiebert, R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tiénou, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1999), 241. ↩︎
- 📖 Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, Second edition (Chicago, IL; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2019). ↩︎
- 📖 Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Symbol, Myth and Ritual Series (Ithaca (N.Y.): Cornell University Press Cornell Paperbacks, 1977).
📖 Victor Turner, Betwixt and between: The Liminial Period in Rites de Passage (Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion, 1999).
📖 Victor Turner, “Betwixt and between: The Liminal Period on Rites de Passage,” in Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, ed. Arthur C. Lehmann, James E. Myers, and Pamela A. Moro, 7th ed (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 91–100. ↩︎
🎉Congratulations, you finished this lesson!
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