Around the world Christian churches face the challenge of folk religions. Missionaries brought formal Christianity and assumed that traditional religions would die out as the gospel displaced animistic beliefs and practices. Today it is clear that old ways do not die out, but instead remain largely hidden from view. Christianity has become an overlay, coexisting with folk beliefs in an uneasy tension. How is the Christian church to respond?

The authors, drawing on their years of experience, offer a compelling model that accounts for the continued persistence of folk religions. Arguing that Western missionaries have failed to take these traditions seriously, they present a richly detailed portrait of the belief systems and practices that characterize folk religions.

Effective evangelization requires that the message of the gospel be made relevant and understandable to a particular society. Difficulties arise when missionaries attempt either to suppress the practice of folk religions or to assimilate native rites and rituals uncritically.

In every culture, the authors argue, successful evangelism must present a biblical response that takes account of such belief systems and the respective practices that express those beliefs. This volume provides modern missionaries with sound principles for developing a serious Christian response to prevailing folk religions.

This is a book for all Christians to read who are serious about deep-level spiritual transformation. Our cultural upbringing often hides from our awareness areas of life that need to be confronted by the gospel. Reading this book will help uncover aspects of our own worldview and practice that are more informed by North American culture than by the kingdom values of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are few resources available, apart from living in a cross-cultural context, that can do what this book can accomplish. Can a person worship Christ on Sunday and visit a witch doctor on Mondaymorning for a healing remedy? This is the question Hiebert and his colleagues deal with in an effort to uncover what people really believe in a variety of cultures. They demonstrate how Christian missionaries have often forced folk beliefs underground when they actually thought they had rooted them out. They do a masterful job of providing the framework of a biblical response to a number of issues ranging from ancestor veneration to shaman soul flight.–Clinton Arnold

Here is a book that really does what the title suggests: It effectively helps Christians understand and respond to the beliefs and practices of folk religion, at home and abroad.–Gerald H. Anderson, director, Overseas Ministries Study Center