About-face transformation: Learning to embrace honor, shame, and face

Abstract

Recent theology, biblical studies, and missiology have increasingly focused discussions on issues involving honor, face, and shame. These studies often highlight how traditional western perspectives on the self, social honor, and emotions of self-assessment (i.e., pride, guilt, shame) differ from those in the Majority World. A critical piece of effective engagement with such issues involves a change in orientation regarding these common attitudes and understandings. This article outlines some of the significant issues involved in a personal journey of such an about-face transformation and provides key suggestions that can enable willing participants to undergo a similar type of change.