Intercultural Studies (IC)

This course will introduce students to the discipline of anthropology from a Christian perspective helping them to more easily adapt to a variety of cultures. Students will investigate the influence that language, class, gender, social organization and authority, family relationships, education, and ideologies can have upon a culture. Students will also be able to identify how a Biblical worldview impacts the study of peoples and cultures around the world.

Students will engage concepts of world evangelism related to the Biblical concepts of spiritual warfare (angelology, prayer, and holy living), Christian suffering, and potential martyrdom. They will explore the impact persecution has played throughout church history and is playing today in many parts of the world.

Cultural adaption for translators will focus on the needs of potential, full-time, cross-cultural missionaries and Bible translators. The course will help students understand how to prepare for intercultural stress, the difficulties involved with raising a family overseas, and the difficulty related to a personal walk with God when little accountability is present. Students will discover tools for coping with the difficulty of cultural adaption both when moving to a cross-cultural situation and when returning to the original culture.