Translation, Incarnation, and the Ethics of Faith-Based Development A Review of Philip Fountain’s The Service of Faith: An Ethnography of Mennonites and Development

Abstract

This review[1] engages Philip Fountain’s The Service of Faith: An Ethnography of Mennonites and Development as a significant contribution to contemporary conversations on Christian relief and development practice. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience in grassroots development and humanitarian response in Indonesia, the reviewer approaches Fountain’s ethnography through a theological hermeneutic attentive to recurring motifs that shape moral imagination and institutional practice. The review affirms Fountain’s analysis of how the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) negotiated faith, identity, and development amid interfaith, postcolonial, and donor-driven pressures, with particular attention to translation as a guiding metaphor. At the same time, it raises critical questions about the ethical sufficiency of guesthood as a dominant image for Christian presence. In dialogue with biblical theology and missiological scholarship, the review proposes neighboring—understood through an incarnational account of translation—as a more theologically grounded and ethically demanding framework for Christian development work that sustains accountability, vulnerability, and long-term commitment.

[1] This review article, written by Lindy Backues, is almost identical to the one published in the On Knowing Humanity Journal under the title “Beyond ‘Guesthood’: ‘Translation,’ ‘Traveling,’ and ‘Neighboring’ as Animators of Authentic Christian Development” (Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2026, https://doi.org/10.62141/okh.v10i1.244).  See Philip Fountain’s response in this issue.