Rice and bread: Metaphorical construction of reality. Towards a new approach to world view

This dissertation seeks to develop an alternative approach toward world view to Charles H. Kraft's and Paul G. Hiebert's approaches in order to describe the imagery aspects of world view and the nature of meaning construction. It focuses on the role of metaphor in the cognitive process of meaning construction and its relationship to world view.;This study will examine and evaluate Kraft's and Hiebert' s models of world view. Since these models are deeply imbedded in cognitive anthropology and symbolic anthropology, the comparison of these models is followed by the discussion of world view theories developed in these two schools of anthropology. There are three unsolved issues with which their approaches do not sufficiently engage: (1) the actual processes of constructing reality, (2) the figurative aspect of world view, and (3) the nature of meaning. It is also argued that these issues relate to code theory inherited from cognitive and symbolic anthropology.;This dissertation shows various insights for examining the unsolved issues. In order to develop a model for rhw processual aspect of reality construction, contemporary theories of metaphor are significant because they are particularly developed on the bases of critical assessment of code theory. For the figurative aspect of world view, schema theory in contemporary cognitive anthropology and trope theory in contemporary symbolic anthropology are introduced. The author presents "process-mode-product framework" for understanding: (1) the process of constructing reality, (2) culturally conditioned pattern or mode in the processes, and (3) the figurative nature of culturally constructed knowledge (product) which affects the individual's process of constructing reality.;The process-mode-product framework is applied to describing two world views. One is the world view of traditional Japanese culture, since it is crucial for understanding the local evangelical church in Japan. The figurative dimensions of the world view constructed through rice (rice cultivation and rice consumption in rituals) are paid special attention. The other is the world view(s) constructed in the members of the Corinthian Church focusing on the relationship between the eating practices and imagery aspects of their social and religious realities. The author also examines how Paul tried to transform the Corinthians' world view symbolically represented in their eating practices.;Finally, this dissertation aims at clarifying what is meant be understood to be meaning and what its significance is for mission theories, especially for contextualization, according to the process-mode-product framework. Since contextualization theories are more closely related to code theory (e.g., communication approach by Kraft and critical semiotic approach by Hiebert), this study may provide insights for overcoming certain weaknesses inherited from this code approach. In so doing, what Paul did in the Corinthian Church is applied to Japanese local churches. The dissertation asserts the significance of the role of metaphor for communicating the gospel contextually and transforming receptors' world view and lives.