1 Reverse Contextualization: Articles by Ralph D. Winter in Chronological Order 2 Contents The Retreat of the West (Originally Fuller lectures published as The Unfolding Drama of the Christian Movement. n.d., Chapter 15. (1979) (Foundations Reader, 237-40). http://www.foundationscourse.org/uploads/documents/reader/32_retreat_of_west.pdf Christology and Missions? (IJFM 2:4, October 1984). http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/02_4_PDFs/2_4Winter.pdf “Mission 2000”: Towards a Strategy of Closure (IJFM 2:1, 1985). https://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/02_1_PDFs/2_1%20Winter%20Mission_2000%20fixe d.pdf My Pilgrimage in Mission (IBMR, April 1995) (Frontiers in Mission, 22-25 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf Editorial Comment on De-westernization (Mission Frontiers, November-December 1996). http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/editorial-comment64 A Blindspot in Western Christianity? Transcription of a talk given on June 23, 1999 (Foundations Reader, 319-22). http://www.foundationscourse.org/uploads/documents/reader/45_a_blindspot.pdf Role of Western Missions (1999) (Frontiers in Mission, 114-17). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf Basic Concepts (2000) (Frontiers in Mission, 26-27). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf When God Doesn’t Make Sense: Seminar April 10, 2000 (Frontiers in Mission, 171-72). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf Group Self-Deception, Seminar February 7, 2003 (Frontiers in Mission, 181-84). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf 3 Who Is Saved? Correspondence with David Hesselgrave (2003) (Frontiers in Mission, 161-63). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf The Greatest Mistake in Missions (2004) (Frontiers in Mission, 164-66). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf In Pursuit of the Full Gospel (2004) (Frontiers in Mission, 167). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf What Is a Christ-Centered Church? (2004) (Frontiers in Mission, 168). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf 12 Frontiers of Perspective (2005) (Frontiers in Mission, 28-40). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf The Bible and Saving Faith (Seminar, June 2005). Transcribed from audio CAS1026. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ebf0dbd2667ae6f5 25e30c7/1589579197694/The+Bible+and+Saving+Faith.pdf Beyond Transformation: An Ancient Syncretism as a Handicap to a “Public Theology,” Chicago, American Society of Missiology, June 2005 (Frontiers in Mission, 279ff). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf The Gospels from a Global Perspective (2006) (Foundations Reader, 101-05). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ed13d18cfba127f3 c41f09d/1590770998243/Foundations+Reader.pdf Planetary Events and the Mission of the Church Donald McClure Lectureship, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Ralph D. Winter, Monday, October 3-4, 2005 (Frontiers in Mission 286-307). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf Growth of the Church in Judea and Samaria: Acts 3–12 (2006) (Foundations Reader, 117-20). 4 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ed13d18cfba127f3 c41f09d/1590770998243/Foundations+Reader.pdf The Post-Exilic Period. (2006) (Foundations Reader, 79-82). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ed13d18cfba127f3 c41f09d/1590770998243/Foundations+Reader.pdf To the New Asian Society of Missiology: Greetings from the West: Twelve Mistakes of the West (2007) (Foundations Reader, 247-51). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ed13d18cfba127f3 c41f09d/1590770998243/Foundations+Reader.pdf Beyond Christianity (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 17). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf The Classical Renaissance (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 10). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf Collapse of Colonialism, The Rise of Globalization (2008) (Foundations Course Lecture 15). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf The Emerging, Expanding Church (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 9). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf Frontier #1: Restoring God’s Glory (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 19). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf The Future of Evangelicals (2008) (Frontiers in Mission, 327-43) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035c3cc46c79701 edfd23b/1594055796725/Frontiers_in_Mission%2B4th%2Bed%2Bcopy.pdf Indicators of the Future (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 18). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf Seizing the Future (2008) (Foundations Course, Lecture 20). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5f035f239f9286585 9c06885/1594056486339/Foundations%2BLectures.pdf Who Is a True Christian? (Winter’s last writing, 2009) 5 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ec42ea3017338073 2231767/1589915300294/Who+Is+a+True+Christian%3F.pdf Random Ralph Winter Quotes https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3157f3b40b9d21a8096625/t/5ebf123b556b0017c de37431/1589580354097/Random+RDW+Quotes.pdf 6 The Retreat of the West Chapter 15, The Unfolding Drama of the Christian Movement. 1979) http://www.foundationscourse.org/uploads/documents/reader/32_retreat_of_west.pdf This topic, “The Retreat of the West,” is the name of the first chapter of a book I wrote some years ago entitled, The Twenty-Five Unbelievable Years. There is not much value in my just repeating what is in that chapter. It would be of greater advantage if I should enlarge the context of this phenomenon of “The Retreat of the West.” Defining the West The West, of course, is a rather silly word. What is west of what on the globe? Everything is west of something. We are talking about a cultural West. Western culture is predominantly a Christianized phenomenon. It does not mean that Westerners are Christians, except in culture. It does mean that a Westerner is a person whose ethical judgments, worldview, philosophy, and cosmology, have been predominantly the result of Westernization. That is, the person has been shaped by the Hellenistic (non-Christian), the Judeo-Christian, and the Western European Christian experience. Eastern Christians are also “Western” in the larger sense of Western culture. In other words, Russians are part of the Western cultural tradition. When the Russians cross over into China, they are Westerners, even if they are living in Siberia (north of China). China is non-Western, because Chinese thinking and culture, at least prior to Mao Tse-tung, was for the most part unaffected by the West. Communism itself is a Western phenomenon. Westernization has taken place, not only through missionary penetration of the provinces of China, but every single card-carrying communist is a Westernizer. His materialism derives from Christianity. That much, and many other things, we have in common with communism. The ravages of communism across the world, as an atheistic, anti-religious system, are to a great extent just bizarre perversions of a Christian inheritance. Christianity is the most materialistic of all known world religions. In fact, it may have no choice because, as one great theologian said, “God was the first materialist.” He created the unfathomable atom, along with sub-atomic particles which hold together all this complexity that is beyond our comprehension. God created it all! He took that entire molecular, inorganic chemical reality, played a tune on it, whence came a whole new series of chemical combinations, called the organic chemical universe. Then from those chemicals he brought forth life forms of all kinds, like those unimaginably tiny little creatures,