Publications

C. S. Barefoot0215 views

Books

Hermeneutical Community: Pursuing Local Theology in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024.

Many Western initiatives exist for theological development in the majority world, but how often do practitioners from the West pause to examine the role they should play in that endeavor? Missions history and church history have revealed inadequacies of imposing foreign theology on local churches, yet the alternative of withdrawing from local theological development appears equally problematic. If, therefore, the outsider’s role is neither to impose theology nor withdraw from the task, then what is his or her role? Hermeneutical Community addresses this fundamental question and seeks to lay a sound missiological foundation for local theological development.

Essays

“The Expulsive Power of a New Narrative: Why the Biblical Story Must Displace Competing Alternatives.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 61.4 (2025): 72–80.

No one lives without a narrative. Rather, everyone lives in accordance with some story that forms and shapes their worldview. Christian ministers and missionaries—particularly those laboring to make disciples among all peoples—must account for this reality. True transformation requires the biblical narrative to displace alternate narratives as the integrating center of one’s faith and practice. Without such narrative displacement, our evangelism and discipleship efforts are compromised.

“Ecclesial Indigeneity and the Semantics of ‘Self’: Assessing Critiques of Rufus Anderson’s Indigenous Church Principles.” Great Commission Baptist Journal of Missions 4.1 (2025): 1–24.

Rufus Anderson’s indigenous church principles constituted a major shift in missiology in the mid-nineteenth century and continue to influence missionary methods. These principles, though embraced by many, have met with criticism from others who have been leery of semantic implications associated with Anderson’s indigenous church theory. Yet semantic critiques do not provide sufficient grounds for dismissing the substance and value of Anderson’s indigenous church principles for missionary practice. Such critiques—which have remained largely unchallenged in missiological literature—often betray a misguided view of the prefix self, interpreting it in ways Anderson did not intend. Ultimately, while semantics have contributed to both the misinterpretation and misapplication of those principles, a recovery of Anderson’s view of self can help reaffirm an enduring value for the three-self principles within missionary church planting today.

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“Local Ownership of the Theological Task.” Great Commission Baptist Journal of Missions 2.2 (2023): 1–16.

While some Majority World churches have, over time, become agents of their own theological convictions, many others have relied on borrowed theology from churches outside of their context. This precedent has tended to stunt the maturation of local churches and left them susceptible to theological syncretism. This paper highlights a way that missionary practitioners can address this issue and help local churches to become self-theologizing.

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