Its subtitle reveals what it intends its reader to achieve: Communicating the Christian Message to People Who Don’t Read. As some of our students work in largely oral societies or among illiterate people, this book is an indispensable guide. The experienced author helps the reader understand oral communicators and contemporary oral communities and explains how Jesus ministered in a predominantly oral, event-oriented context before he details the original presentation of the Old Testament.
After showing the principles for communicating in oral societies, Box gives examples of how they can be implemented. A very important chapter, which is also relevant for our Cross-Cultural Leadership course, deals with the development of leaders in oral societies. Box does not neglect the place of literary for oral communities and finishes his book with a chapter on how to develop an effective communication plan for ministry to oral communicators.
This book is also helpful for those who minister in a literacy-oriented context because skills such as storytelling, arts, singing/chanting, poetry, dance, and drama increasingly appeal to the younger generation, which reads less and less and prefers visual presentations.
I concur with Charles Kraft who commented, “This is a brilliant book.”
Dr. Jörg Strate