TRANSFORMING MISSION

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2 The American Society of Missiology Series, in collaboration with Orbis Books, seeks to publish scholarly works of high merit and wide interest on numerous aspects of missiology the study of mission. Able presentations on new and creative approaches to the practice and understanding of mission will receive close attention. For a complete list of titles already published in the The American Society of Missiology Series and available through Orbis Books, visit

3 American Society of Missiology Series, No. 16 TRANSFORMING MISSION Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION David J. Bosch

4 Founded in 1970, Orbis Books endeavors to publish works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit, and challenge the conscience. The publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of reconciliation and peace. The books published reflect the views of their authors and do not represent the official position of the Maryknoll Society. To learn more about Maryknoll and Orbis Books, please visit our website at Copyright 1991, 2011 by Orbis Books New concluding chapter copyright 2011 by Martin Reppenhagen and Darrell L. Guder Published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bosch, David Jacobus. Transforming mission : paradigm shifts in theology of mission / David J. Bosch. p. cm. (American Society of Missiology series ; no. 16) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN ; ISBN (pbk.); ISBN (rev pbk) 1. Missions Theory. 2. Missions Theory History of doctrines. 3. Christianity and other religions. I. Title. II. Title: Paradigm shifts in theology of mission. III. Series. BV2063.B dc CIP

5 For Annemie

6 Contents Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition By William R. Burrows Preface to the Series In Memoriam: David J. Bosch, Foreword Abbreviations Introduction. Mission: The Contemporary Crisis Between Danger and Opportunity The Wider Crisis Foundation, Aim, and Nature of Mission From Confidence to Malaise A Pluriverse of Missiology Mission: An Interim Definition Part 1 New Testament Models of Mission 1. Reflections on the New Testament as a Missionary Document The Mother of Theology Mission in the Old Testament Bible and Mission Jesus and Israel An All-Inclusive Mission And the Gentiles? Salient Features of Jesus Person and Ministry Jesus and the Reign of God Jesus and the Law (the Torah) Jesus and His Disciples Mission from the Perspective of Easter The Early Christian Mission The Missionary Practice of Jesus and the Early Church Where the Early Church Failed Were There Any Alternatives? 2. Matthew: Mission as Disciple-Making A Great Commission?

7 Matthew and His Community Contradictions in Matthew Matthew and Israel Matthew and the Nations Key Notions in Matthew's Gospel Teaching Them to Observe All The Sermon on the Mount God's Reign and Justice-Righteousness Make Disciples Modelled on Jesus, and Yet Matthew's Paradigm: Missionary Discipleship 3. Luke-Acts: Practicing Forgiveness and Solidarity with the Poor The Significance of Luke Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile in Luke-Acts The Difference between the Gospel and Acts The Gentile Mission in Luke 4:16-30 Encounters with Samaritans Luke's Great Commission The Jewishness of Luke Jerusalem To the Jews First, and to the Gentiles The Division of Israel A Tragic Story Gospel for the Poor And the Rich The Poor in Luke's Gospel And the Rich? Jesus in Nazareth Evangelist of the Rich? All Are in Need of Repentance Salvation in Luke-Acts No More Vengeance! The Inexplicable Volte-Face Isaiah 61 in the First Century AD Vengence Superseded! The Lukan Missionary Paradigm 4. Mission in Paul: Invitation to Join the Eschatological Community First Missionary: First Theologian Paul's Conversion and Call Paul's Missionary Strategy Mission to the Metropolises Paul and His Colleagues Paul's Apostolic Self-Consciousness Paul's Missionary Motivation

8 A Sense of Concern A Sense of Responsibility A Sense of Gratitude Mission and the Triumph of God The Apocalyptic Paul The Christian Church and Apocalyptic Apocalyptic's New Center of Gravity New Life in Christ The Nations Pilgrimage to Jerusalem Paul's Universalism Apocalyptic and Ethics The Law, Israel, and the Gentiles Paul and Judaism The Function of the Law Unconditional Acceptance The Problem of Unrepentant Israel Romans 9-11 The Church: The Interim Eschatological Community Ekklesia in Paul Baptism and the Transcending of Barriers For the Sake of the World The Pauline Missionary Paradigm 5. Paradigm Changes in Missiology Six Epochs The Paradigm Theory of Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shifts in Theology Paradigms in Missiology Part 2 Historical Paradigms of Mission 6. The Missionary Paradigm of the Eastern Church To the Jew First but also to the Greek The Church and Its Context The Church and the Philosophers Eschatology Gnosticism The Church in Eastern Theology Mission in Non-Roman Asia The Patristic and Orthodox Missionary Paradigm The First Paradigm Shift: An Interim Balance 7. The Medieval Roman Catholic Missionary Paradigm Changed Context

9 The Individualization of Salvation The Ecclesiasticization of Salvation Mission between Church and State Indirect and Direct Missionary Wars Colonialism and Mission The Mission of Monasticism The Medieval Paradigm: An Appraisal 8. The Missionary Paradigm of the Protestant Reformation The Nature of the New Movement The Reformers and Mission Lutheran Orthodoxy and Mission The Pietist Breakthrough Second Reformation and Puritanism Ambivalences in the Reformation Paradigm 9. Mission in the Wake of the Enlightenment Contours of the Enlightenment Worldview Enlightenment and Christian Faith Mission in the Mirror of the Enlightenment Church and State Forces of Renewal The Second Awakening The Nineteenth Century The Twentieth Century Missionary Motifs in the Enlightenment Era The Glory of God Constrained by Jesus Love? The Gospel and Culture Mission and Manifest Destiny Mission and Colonialism Mission and the Millennium Voluntarism Missionary Fervor, Optimism, and Pragmatism The Biblical Motif Modern Missionary Motives and Motifs A Profile Part 3 Toward a Relevant Missiology 10. The Emergence of a Postmodern Paradigm The End of the Modern Era The Challenge to the Enlightenment The Expansion of Rationality Beyond the Subject-Object Scheme

10 Rediscovery of the Teleological Dimension The Challenge to Progress Thinking A Fiduciary Framework Chastened Optimism Toward Interdependence 11. Mission in a Time of Testing 12. Elements of an Emerging Ecumenical Missionary Paradigm Mission as the Church-With-Others Church and Mission Shifts in Missionary Thinking Missionary by Its Very Nature God's Pilgrim People Sacrament, Sign, and Instrument Church and World Rediscovering the Local Church Creative Tension Mission as Missio Dei Mission as Mediating Salvation Traditional Interpretations of Salvation Salvation in the Modern Paradigm Crisis in the Modern Understanding of Salvation Toward Comprehensive Salvation Mission as the Quest for Justice The Legacy of History The Tension between Justice and Love The Two Mandates A Convergence of Convictions Mission as Evangelism Evangelism: A Plethora of Definitions Toward a Constructive Understanding of Evangelism Mission as Contextualization The Genesis of Contextual Theology The Epistemological Break The Ambiguities of Contextualization Mission as Liberation From Development to Liberation God's Preferential Option for the Poor Liberal Theology and Liberation Theology The Marxist Connection Integral Liberation Mission as Inculturation The Vicissitudes of Accommodation and Indigenization Twentieth-Century Developments

11 Toward Inculturation The Limits of Inculturation Interculturation Mission as Common Witness The (Re)birth of the Ecumenical Idea in Mission Catholics, Mission, and Ecumenism Unity in Mission; Mission in Unity Mission as Ministry by the Whole People of God The Evolution of the Ordained Ministry The Apostolate of the Laity Forms of Ministry Mission as Witness to People of Other Living Faiths The Shifting Scene Postmodern Responses? Dialogue and Mission Mission as Theology Mission Marginalized From a Theology of Mission to a Missionary Theology What Missiology Can and Cannot Do Mission as Action in Hope The Eschatology Office Closed The Blurring of the Eschatological Horizon The Eschatology Office Reopened Extreme Eschatologization of Mission History as Salvation Eschatology and Mission in Creative Tension 13. Mission in Many Modes Is Everything Mission? Faces of the Church-in-Mission Whither Mission? Conclusion to the Anniversary Edition: The Continuing Transformation of Mission: David J. Bosch's Living Legacy: By Martin Reppenhagen and Darrell L. Guder The Work and Life of David Jacobus Bosch Beyond Biblical Foundations of Mission Theology of Mission as the Mission of Theology Africa and Other Contexts After Christendom: Mission to the West and the Emergence of Missional Theology Transforming the Study and Teaching of Mission Notes Bibliography

12 Index of Scriptural References Index of Subjects Index of Authors and Personal Names

13 In Memoriam David J. Bosch, On April 15, 1992, just one year after Transforming Mission was published, David J. Bosch died in an automobile accident in South Africa. At the age of 62, a preeminent Protestant missiologist, his contribution and influence in mission studies globally was immense. After missionary service in Transkei from 1957 to 1971, David was professor of missiology at the University of South Africa from He served as dean of the faculty of theology in and again in He was general secretary of the Southern African Missiological Society from its founding in 1968 and editor of its journal Missionalia from its inception in He served as national chairman of the South African Christian Leadership Assembly in 1979 and as chairman of the National Initiative for Reconciliation from 1989, as part of his tireless ministry to bring about reconciliation among racial, denominational, and theological groups in South Africa and across the world. A prolific author and eloquent lecturer, fluent in Xhosa, Afrikaans, Dutch, German, and English, Bosch lectured widely in Europe, Britain, and North America. His doctorate from Basel was in New Testament, and he brought profound biblical insights to his work in missiology. He was a bridge person, respected as much in the World Council of Churches as in the World Evangelical Fellowship and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. When Transforming Mission first appeared, it was received with critical acclaim, recognized as a monumental, magisterial work and a superb teaching tool. It was selected as one of the Fifteen Outstanding Books of 1991 for Mission Studies by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. But it is more than that. Transforming Mission is in a class by itself. It has become a standard reference in studies of the Christian world mission, perhaps the most widely used textbook in mission courses. David Bosch's magnum opus has become his enduring legacy to all who seek to understand, to serve, and to spread the cause of Christ in the world. One of my lasting memories of David Bosch is from his visit with me a few years before Transforming Mission was published. He had received an invitation to join the faculty of one of the leading seminaries in the United States as professor of world mission. As we walked along the ocean beach in Ventnor, New Jersey, he discussed the pros and cons of leaving South Africa and coming to this attractive post, where he could devote himself more fully to teaching and writing, removed from the stress and struggle going on in South African society, events in which he was deeply involved. I encouraged him to accept the invitation. But at the end of our long conversation, he said, No, I don't think I can leave my colleagues and the struggle in South Africa. It is a critical moment and that is where God has placed me. It was this kind of bold humility that characterized David Bosch, and it is what he calls for in Transforming Mission.

14 Preface to the 20th Anniversary Edition WILLIAM R. BURROWS In the years since 1991, when David Bosch's long-awaited masterpiece Transforming Mission was first published, it has achieved such wide recognition that not without reason adjectives such as classic and magisterial have been applied to it. Moreover, in the twenty years between the first printing of the original Orbis edition and this 20th Anniversary Edition, translations have been published in Chinese, Korean, French, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and Hungarian, not to mention a South Asian edition published in India. Meanwhile, other translations are currently underway into German, Czech, Turkish, and Polish. David Bosch did not live to see the fruits of his labor disseminated beyond boundaries no one could have predicted in early During Holy Week, on April 15, 1992, four days before Easter, David died in a road accident. David and I formed what may have been one of the first international friendships born with new technology as the midwife, before we met each other on a rainy spring day in In the two years before Transforming Mission was published, before had become common, we were constantly faxing one another with questions, suggestions for revisions, criticisms of the text, and so forth. In the Orbis files, the record of our growing friendship is five inches thick. We met face-to-face for the first time in April 1991 and talked nearly non-stop for ten hours before my wife and I dropped him off in New Haven at the Overseas Ministries Study Center. I never saw David again, but I knew that I had worked with and had become friends with a man whose great holiness and immense learning expressed what God had accomplished in a great heart. It is an honor to pay tribute to a saint and doctor of the church and to commend a new edition of his missiological masterwork to a new generation of readers. And it is especially pleasant to point to the splendid final chapter authored by Martin Reppenhagen and Darrell Guder. They place David and Transforming Mission in context. They bring into relief its salient features and make us aware of the main currents of both praise and criticism of the book. Most of all, they bring up-to-date the missionary task of both theology and the church in the third millennium. As the editor at Orbis who worked with David in honing the message and preparing his book for press, it has been gratifying to see this book achieve such success and recognition. For the Maryknoll Society that sponsors Orbis and for my colleagues at this Roman Catholic press, it is especially gratifying that a book that comes out of the Reformed tradition has become a truly catholic success across the globe. Some reviewers have complained that Transforming Mission pays insufficient attention to Africa and to writings on mission from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. On the surface there is merit to those criticisms, but I think the reception of the book and the number of translations attests to the fact that, while writing primarily with explicit reference to European and American scholarship, Bosch has written a classic and not a merely Western work. Nor should it be forgotten that the heart that attained the catholicity that his book is praised for was formed in the midst of struggles for justice in the South Africa he so loved. Literary critics differ on the question of what constitutes a classic as opposed to a work of more limited value, but one thing can certainly be said. Classics such as the Bhagavad-Gita, the Torah, the Tao-te Ching, the Gospel of John, and Plato's Republic become so not by eliminating what is culturally particular to reach a lowest common denominator that everyone can agree on. That is a

15 particularly modern fallacy. Instead, the true classic intensifies and epitomizes concrete particulars in concrete language in a way that touches any intelligent reader of that text, no matter the cultural home of the reader. Nor does the universality of the message of a classic mean that readers must agree with it. One may think, for instance, that the Bhagavad-Gita is completely mistaken in propounding its message without denying its power to disclose universal themes in human life across the ages in every culture. It is too early to know if Transforming Mission will become a major Christian classic such as the Confessions of Augustine, which gains new readers in every age. Few if any scholarly books do which ought to make academics and academic book editors modest about their accomplishments. But even if five hundred years from now this book is viewed as a minor classic, its significance for our age can scarcely be exaggerated. I think the reason for this is because David Bosch's breadth of both spiritual and intellectual gifts allowed him to participate in and synthesize what is at play since the post-world War II world's travails revealed the feet of clay, first of Western culture, then of its appropriations of the Christian ideal, and most recently the false pretenses of the great systems of politics and economics that 20 th century idealists predicted would end human suffering. Though written in the ashes of modernity's holocaust, Transforming Mission is an irenic book. The reader will search in vain for angry post-colonial rhetoric. Nevertheless, it is a book whose every page moves beyond the hegemony of Western theological reductionism. In reopening the eschatology office, to use David's ironic phrase in Chapter 12, he retrieves a universe in God's cosmic scale where truth is revealed in paradox and irony, where God weighs history on a scale in which every culture and human enterprise including theological and Biblical studies and the ecclesiastical plans we devise to achieve what we take to be God's purposes are relativized without being treated as unimportant. In Transforming Mission such classic Christian themes express the genius of Calvin and his Institutes, retrieving them in contemporary idiom to help make Christians a more catholic people. The reason Transforming Mission has been translated into so many languages and is now being brought out in an anniversary edition is precisely because David Bosch leads us so skillfully through theological underbrush to an oasis in which God is free to be God. God, of course, is always free. It is we humans who build up illusion-creating systems that tame God's mystery to make God safe for us, for our institutions, our political ideals and for our professional guilds. The title, Transforming Mission is a play on words, a word-game that brings into relief the tension between transforming ideas about mission (in the sense of broadening and extending our concepts of God's action and our vocation in the world), on the one hand, and, on the other hand, our participation in God's mission as a reality that will, one hopes, transform the world's people to open their hearts to see and participate in God's reign. To participate in that mission, as David wrote in another book, requires a spirituality of the road (Bosch 1969). It involves putting ourselves in a place where God's Spirit will lead us along paths that, left to our own devices, we could not imagine and would not choose. Seen through this prism, Transforming Mission is a book for a post-colonial world. Written in the midst of the struggles of South Africa that so epitomize the search for justice and peace amidst structures bequeathed by colonialism a struggle in which he was vitally engaged it is a book understandable only from within the horizon of the Western captivity of Christianity that he knew was doomed and whose hegemony he longed to see end. David Bosch's book reminds me of the kenosis of Jesus at Calvary. Jesus did not cease to be a first-century Jew when he was executed, but in passing through death he became the concrete, universal Christ in his resurrection. David Bosch leads his

16 reader to the horizon that reveals Christian mission to be far deeper and more subversive than expanding the size of the church or leading a social revolution. The transforming mission of the Christ propels the followers of Jesus into the highways and byways of the world. Its prime criterion for truth is not mere conceptual fidelity to Bible and tradition but the authenticity of the disciple who allows the Spirit of Christ to lead. In that dynamic, truth takes on a transformative event-character. To the extent that doctrines are true, they are subordinate to the living mystery of a church animated by the Spirit to be Christ's body in the world. Christianity is real to the extent that the follower of Jesus repents, turns to the Christ, and allows the Spirit to transform himself or herself. The disciple finds in Christ in the communion of saints and the church a verification principle deeper than words. In Bosch's vision, theology and spirituality can be distinguished but they cannot be separated. At another level Transforming Mission recovers the universal horizon of God luring us beyond ourselves and becomes, paradoxically, an invitation to particularize our theology, missiology, ecclesiology, and spirituality. The universal only becomes real in the concrete and particular, and the concrete and particular are where we, as cultural beings, are reared in particular traditions, formed according to the genius of concrete linguistic and cultural horizons. And today, whether one likes the word globalization or not, we live in a world of inter-cultural and cross-cultural global interchange. David Bosch's vision of transforming mission is one where the followers of Jesus are in vital dialogue with all persons of good will as transformations are understood, judged, and acted upon in the light of faith. No line of separation between inner life and the public forum can be drawn, for all life, including the life of faith, is political. Yet that gives Christians no license to consider themselves superior. Instead, in David's vision of mission in bold humility, one seeks to serve. In the concluding pages of his book, Bosch reminds us that for the New Testament the Cross is not just the end of the earthly life of Jesus, it is the revelation of the process wherein God's son is led through death to life to become a model to be emulated by those whom he commissions. What we seek to contextualize, in other words, are not cultural forms of religiosity but culturally appropriate ways of dying to self and rising to manifest God's life-giving love.

17 James A. Scherer, Chair Mary Motte, FMM Charles R. Taber ASM Series Editorial Committee

18 GERALD H. ANDERSON Preface to the Series The purpose of the ASM Series now in existence since 1980 is to publish, without regard for disciplinary, national, or denominational boundaries, scholarly works of high quality and wide interest on missiological themes from the entire spectrum of scholarly pursuits, e.g., biblical studies, theology, history, history of religions, cultural anthropology, linguistics, art, education, political science, economics, and development, to name only the major components. Always the focus will be on Christian mission. By mission in this context is meant a passage over the boundary between faith in Jesus Christ and its absence. In this understanding of mission, the basic functions of Christian proclamation, dialogue, witness, service, worship, and nurture are of special concern. How does the transition from one cultural context to another influence the shape and interaction between these dynamic functions? Cultural and religious plurality are recognized as fundamental characteristics of the six-continent missionary context in East and West, North and South. Missiologists know that they need the other disciplines. And those in other disciplines need missiology, perhaps more than they sometimes realize. Neither the insider's nor the outsider's view is complete in itself. The world Christian mission has through two millennia amassed a rich and welldocumented body of experience to share with other disciplines. The complementary relation between missiology and other learned disciplines is a key of this Series, and interaction will be its hallmark. The promotion of scholarly dialogue among missiologists may, at times, involve the publication of views and positions that other missiologists cannot accept, and with which members of the Editorial Committee do not agree. Manuscripts published in this series reflect the opinions of their authors and are not meant to represent the position of the American Society of Missiology or of the Editorial Committee for the ASM Series. The committee's selection of texts is guided by such criteria as intrinsic worth, readability, relative brevity, freedom from excessive scholarly apparatus, and accessibility to a broad range of interested persons and not merely to experts or specialists. On behalf of the membership of the American Society of Missiology we express our deep thanks to the staff of Orbis Books, whose steadfast support over a decade for this joint publishing venture has enabled it to mature and bear scholarly fruit.

19 Foreword The title of this book first suggested to me by Eve Drogin of Orbis Books is ambiguous. Transforming can be an adjective describing mission. In this case, mission is understood as an enterprise that transforms reality. Transforming can, however, also be a present participle, the activity of transforming, of which mission is the object. Here, mission is not the enterprise that transforms reality, but something that is itself being transformed. I must admit that I had some misgivings about the suggested title. Then, one day, I discussed it with Prof Francis Wilson of Cape Town University who, together with Dr Mamphela Ramphele, coordinated the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa. Wilson pointed out to me that the title of their book on the project, Uprooting Poverty, reflects the same ambiguity. It depicts poverty as something that uproots while, at the same time, articulating the challenge that poverty is something that has to be uprooted. Since this discussion I have had peace of mind about an ambiguous title for my own book! The ambiguity in the title in fact reflects the subject matter of the book very accurately. With the aid of the idea of paradigm shifts I am attempting to demonstrate the extent to which the understanding and practice of mission have changed during almost twenty centuries of Christian missionary history. In some instances the transformations were so profound and far-reaching that the historian has difficulty in recognizing any similarities between the different missionary models. My thesis is, furthermore, that this process of transformation has not yet come to an end (and will, in fact, never come to an end), and that we find ourselves, at the moment, in the midst of one of the most important shifts in the understanding and practice of the Christian mission. The study is, however, not only descriptive. It does not set out merely to portray the development and modifications of an idea, but also suggests that mission remains an indispensable dimension of the Christian faith and that, at its most profound level, its purpose is to transform reality around it. Mission, in this perspective, is that dimension of our faith that refuses to accept reality as it is and aims at changing it. Transforming is, therefore, an adjective that depicts an essential feature of what Christian mission is all about. A few observations about the genesis of this book may be in order here. In 1980 I published Witness to the World: The Christian Mission in Theological Perspective. At the formal level, the present book deals, to some extent, with the same subject matter as my book of a decade ago. That book has been out of print for a number of years, and I originally set out to write a revision of it. It soon became clear, however, that I had outgrown my previous book and that, in any case, a book for the early eighties would not address the challenges of the early nineties. Too much had happened in the eighties, in respect of theology, politics, sociology, economics, etc. Of course, there are essential continuities between my previous book and the present one, just as there are continuities between the world of the early eighties and that of the early nineties. Some of these continuities, together with the important discontinuities, are I hope reflected in the present study. The writing of this book has preoccupied me since at least In 1987 the University of South Africa, together with the (South African) Human Sciences Research Council, made a research grant available which enabled me to spend six months of virtually uninterrupted research at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. I would like to express my gratitude to my university and the

20 HSRC for the grant, but also to Princeton Theological Seminary and its president, Dr Tom Gillespie, for providing me and my family with accommodation as well as superb resource facilities. For the successful completion of my writing project I am deeply indebted to more people than I could possibly mention by name. Some of them, however, have to be singled out. I am thinking of my colleagues in the Department of Missiology at the University of South Africa Willem Saayman, J. N. J. ( Klippies ) Kritzinger, and Inus Daneel, together with our two splendid secretaries, Hazel van Rensburg and Marietjie Willemse who have not only continually stimulated my own theological thinking but have also created space and time for me to pursue my research. Other friends and colleagues who have also read sections of my manuscript and interacted with me on its contents include Henri Lederle, Cilliers Breytenbach, Bertie du Plessis, Kevin Livingston, Daniël Nel, Johann Mouton, Adrio König, Willem Nicol, Gerald Pillay, J. J. ( Dons ) Kritzinger and several others. Some of them also participated in the January 1990 meeting of the Southern African Missiological Society which was devoted to my theological oeuvre (cf J. N. J. Kritzinger and W. A. Saayman [eds], Mission in Creative Tension: A Dialogue with David Bosch. Pretoria: S. A. Missiological Society, 1990]). It is indeed a joy to work with such colleagues! A word of appreciation should also go to Orbis Books for its readiness to publish this book. Eve Drogin, Senior Editor at Orbis, guided me through the early stages of writing and of negotiations with the publishers. My sincerest thanks to her. During the final and crucial stages of preparing and editing the manuscript, William Burrows, Orbis's Managing Editor, took personal charge. His detailed and incisive commentary on my first draft revealed to me his superb qualities as skillful editor, articulate theologian, and sensitive interlocutor. Subsequent communications between us confirmed my first impressions. Nobody could have wished for a better editor. The book appears in the American Society of Missiology Series. I deem this a great honor and wish to express my gratitude to the members of the editorial committee (the names of Gerald H. Anderson [New Haven] and James A. Scherer [Chicago] should be singled out in this respect) and, in fact, to the entire American Society of Missiology. I have had the privilege of attending several of its annual meetings and will always cherish those memories. Last but not least: This book is dedicated to my wife of thirty-something years, Annemarie Elisabeth. For several years she has had to put up with the writing of this book and to forfeit holidays as well as adequate support from me in family and other matters. She remained encouraging and understanding, however, and was, throughout, the help meet on whom I could bounce off my ideas and from whom I could always expect intelligent and sympathetic feedback. I owe her more than I can express in words.

21 Abbreviations AG Ad Gentes (Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity [Vatican II]) CMS Church Missionary Society (Anglican) CWME Commission for World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches CT Catechesi Tradendae (Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul II, 1979) Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians EN Evangelii Nuntiandi (Apostolic EATWOT Exhortation of Pope Paul VI, 1975) FO Faith and Order (Commission of the World Council of Churches) GS Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [Vatican II]) IMC International Missionary Council LC The Lausanne Covenant (produced by the International Congress on World Evangelization, Lausanne, 1974) LCWE Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization LG Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [Vatican II]) LMS London Missionary Society ME Mission and Evangelism An Ecumenical Affirmation (World Council of Churches Document on Mission and Evangelism, published in 1982) NA Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non Christian Religions [Vatican II]) NEB New English Bible NIV New International Version (of the Bible) RSV Revised Standard Version (of the Bible) SPCK Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel SVM Student Volunteer Movement WCC World Council of Churches WEF World Evangelical Fellowship WSCF World Students Christian Federation

22 Introduction Mission: The Contemporary Crisis BETWEEN DANGER AND OPPORTUNITY Since the 1950s there has been a remarkable escalation in the use of the word mission among Christians. This went hand in hand with a significant broadening of the concept, at least in certain circles. Until the 1950s mission, even if not used in a univocal sense, had a fairly circumscribed set of meanings. It referred to (a) the sending of missionaries to a designated territory, (b) the activities undertaken by such missionaries, (c) the geographical area where the missionaries were active, (d) the agency which despatched the missionaries, (e) the non-christian world or mission field, or (f) the center from which the missionaries operated on the mission field (cf Ohm 1962:521). In a slightly different context it could also refer to (g) a local congregation without a resident minister and still dependent on the support of an older, established church, or (h) a series of special services intended to deepen or spread the Christian faith, usually in a nominally Christian environment. If we attempt a more specifically theological synopsis of mission as the concept has traditionally been used, we note that it has been paraphrased as (a) propagation of the faith, (b) expansion of the reign of God, (c) conversion of the heathen, and (d) the founding of new churches (cf Müller 1987:31-34). Still, all these connotations attached to the word mission, familiar as they may be, are of fairly recent origin. Until the sixteenth century the term was used exclusively with reference to the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, of the sending of the Son by the Father and of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son. The Jesuits were the first to use it in terms of the spread of the Christian faith among people (including Protestants) who were not members of the Catholic Church (cf Ohm 1962:37-39). In this new sense it was intimately associated with the colonial expansion of the Western world into what has more recently become known as the Third World (or, sometimes, the Two-Thirds World). The term mission presupposes a sender, a person or persons sent by the sender, those to whom one is sent, and an assignment. The entire terminology thus presumes that the one who sends has the authority to do so. Often it was argued that the real sender was God who had indisputable authority to decree that people be sent to execute his will. In practice, however, the authority was understood to be vested in the church or in a mission society, or even in a Christian potentate. In Roman Catholic missions, in particular, juridical authority remained, for a long time, the constitutive element for the legitimacy of the missionary enterprise (cf Rütti 1972:228). It was part of this entire approach to view mission in terms of expansion, occupation of fields, the conquest of other religions, and the like. In Chapters 10 to 13 of this study I will argue that this traditional interpretation of mission was gradually modified in the course of the twentieth century. Much of what follows will be an investigation of the factors that have led to this modification. Some introductory remarks may, however, serve to set the scene for our investigation, not least because more than ever before in its history the Christian mission is in the firing line today. What is new about our era, it seems to me, is that the Christian mission at least as it has traditionally been interpreted and performed is under attack not only from without but also from within its own ranks. One of the earliest examples of this kind of missionary self-criticism is Schütz (1930). Another and even more trenchant censure of mission, particularly as it was conducted in

23 China, was conducted by Paton (1953). Similar publications followed. In one year alone, 1964, four such books appeared, all written by missiologists or mission executives: R. K. Orchard, Missions in a Time of Testing; James A. Scherer, Missionary, Go Home!; Ralph Dodge, The Unpopular Missionary; and John Carden, The Ugly Missionary. More recently, James Heissig (1981), writing in a missiological journal, has even characterized Christian mission as the selfish war. These circumstances alone necessitate and justify reflection on mission as a permanent item on the agenda of theology. If theology is a reflective account of the faith (T. Rendtorff), it is part of the task of theology critically to consider mission as one of the expressions (however warped an expression it may be in practice) of the Christian faith. The criticism of mission should not, in itself, surprise us. It is, rather, normal for Christians to live in a situation of crisis. It should never have been different. In a volume written in preparation for the 1938 Tambaram conference of the International Missionary Council (IMC), Kraemer (1947:24) formulated this as follows, Strictly speaking, one ought to say that the Church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it. This ought to be the case, Kraemer argued, because of the abiding tension between (the church's) essential nature and its empirical condition (:24f). Why is it, then, that we are so seldom aware of this element of crisis and tension in the church? Because, Kraemer added, the church has always needed apparent failure and suffering in order to become fully alive to its real nature and mission (:26). And for many centuries the church has suffered very little and has been led to believe that it is a success. Like its Lord, the church if it is faithful to its being will, however, always be controversial, a sign that will be spoken against (Lk 2:34). That there were so many centuries of crisis-free existence for the church was therefore an abnormality. Now, at long last, we are back to normal and we know it! And if the atmosphere of crisislessness still lingers on in many parts of the West, this is simply the result of a dangerous delusion. Let us also know that to encounter crisis is to encounter the possibility of truly being the church. The Japanese character for crisis is a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity (or promise ); crisis is therefore not the end of opportunity but in reality only its beginning (Koyama 1980:4), the point where danger and opportunity meet, where the future is in the balance and where events can go either way. THE WIDER CRISIS The crisis we are referring to is, naturally, not only a crisis in regard to mission. It affects the entire church, indeed the entire world (cf Glazik 1979:152). As far as the Christian church, theology, and mission are concerned, the crisis manifests itself, inter alia, in the following factors: 1. The advance of science and technology and with them, the worldwide process of secularization seem to have made faith in God redundant; why turn to religion if we ourselves have ways and means of dealing with the exigencies of modern life? 2. Linked to the former point is the reality that the West traditionally not only the home of Catholic and Protestant Christianity, but also the base of the entire modern missionary enterprise is slowly but steadily being dechristianized. David Barrett (1982:7) has calculated that, in Europe and North America, an average of 53,000 persons are permanently leaving the Christian church from one Sunday to the next. He confirms a trend first identified almost half a century ago, when Godin and Daniel (1943) shocked the Catholic world with the publication of France: pays de mission?, in which they argued that France had again become a mission field, a country of neo-pagans, of people in the grip of atheism, secularism, unbelief, and superstition. 3. Partly because of the above, the world can no longer be divided into Christian and non-

24 Christian territories separated by oceans. Because of the dechristianization of the West and the multiple migrations of people of many faiths we now live in a religiously pluralist world, in which Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and adherents of many traditional religions rub shoulders daily. This proximity to others has forced Christians to reexamine their traditional stereotypical views about those faiths. Moreover, the devotees of other faiths often prove to be more actively and aggressively missionary than the members of Christian churches are. 4. Because of its complicity in the subjugation and exploitation of peoples of color, the West and also Western Christians tends to suffer from an acute sense of guilt. This circumstance often leads to an inability or unwillingness among Western Christians to give an account of the hope they have (cf 1 Pet 3:15) to people of other persuasions. 5. More than ever before we are today aware of the fact that the world is divided apparently irreversibly between the rich and the poor and that, by and large, the rich are those who consider themselves (or are considered by the poor) to be Christians. In addition, and according to most indicators, the rich are still getting richer and the poor poorer. This circumstance creates, on the one hand, anger and frustration among the poor and, on the other, a reluctance among affluent Christians to share their faith. 6. For centuries, Western theology and Western ecclesial ways and practices were normative and undisputed, also in the mission fields. Today the situation is fundamentally different. The younger churches refuse to be dictated to and are putting a high premium on their autonomy. In addition, Western theology is today suspect in many parts of the world. It is often regarded as irrelevant, speculative, and the product of ivory tower institutions. In many parts of the world it is being replaced by Third-World theologies: liberation theology, black theology, contextual theology, minjung theology, African theology, Asian theology, and the like. This circumstance has also contributed to profound uncertainties in Western churches, even about the validity of the Christian mission as such. Naturally, these and other factors also have a positive side, and much of the last part of my study will be an attempt to identify this. It is, in fact, the thesis of this book that the events we have been experiencing at least since World War II and the consequent crisis in Christian mission are not to be understood as merely incidental and reversible. Rather, what has unfolded in theological and missionary circles during the last decades is the result of a fundamental paradigm shift, not only in mission or theology, but in the experience and thinking of the whole world. Many of us are only aware of the crisis we are facing now. It will, however, be argued that what is happening in our time is not the first paradigm shift the world (or the church) has experienced. There have been profound crises and major paradigm shifts before. Each of them constituted the end of one world and the birth of another, in which much of what people used to think and do had to be redefined. Those earlier shifts will also be traced in some detail, insofar as they had a significant bearing on missionary thought and practice. It will, furthermore, be proposed that such a paradigm shift does not to paraphrase Koyama confront us only with a danger but also with opportunities. In earlier ages the church has responded imaginatively to paradigm changes; we are challenged to do the same for our time and context. FOUNDATION, AIM, AND NATURE OF MISSION The contemporary crisis, as far as mission is concerned, manifests itself in three areas: the foundation, the motives and aim, and the nature of mission (cf Gensichen 1971:27-29). As regards the foundation for mission, one has to concede that, for a long time, the missionary

25 enterprise had to make do with a minimal basis. This emerges, inter alia, from the publications of both Gustav Warneck ( ) and Josef Schmidlin ( ), respectively the founders of Protestant and Catholic missiology. Warneck, for instance, distinguished between a supernatural and a natural foundation for mission (cf Schärer 1944:5-10). As regards the first, he identified two elements: mission is founded on Scripture (particularly the Great Commission of Matthew 2:18-20) and on the monotheistic nature of the Christian faith. Equally important are the natural grounds for mission: (a) the absoluteness and superiority of the Christian religion when compared with others; (b) the acceptability and adaptability of Christianity to all peoples and conditions; (c) the superior achievements of the Christian mission on the mission fields ; and (d) the fact that Christianity has, in past and present, shown itself to be stronger than all other religions. The reflections on missionary motives and the aim of mission were often equally ambiguous. Verkuyl (1978a:168-75; cf Dürr 1951:2-10) identified the following impure motives : (a) the imperialist motive (turning natives into docile subjects of colonial authorities); (b) the cultural motive (mission as the transfer of the missionary's superior culture); (c) the romantic motive (the desire to go to far-away and exotic countries and peoples); and (d) the motive of ecclesiastical colonialism (the urge to export one's own confession and church order to other territories). Theologically more adequate but in their manifestation often also ambiguous are four other missionary motives (cf Freytag 1961:207-17; Verkuyl 1978a:164-68): (a) the motive of conversion, which emphasizes the value of personal decision and commitment but tends to narrow the reign of God spiritualistically and individualistically to the sum total of saved souls; (b) the eschatological motive, which fixes people's eyes on the reign of God as a future reality but, in its eagerness to hasten the irruption of that final reign, has no interest in the exigencies of this life; (c) the motive of plantatio ecclesiae (church planting), which stresses the need for the gathering of a community of the committed but is inclined to identify the church with the kingdom of God; and (d) the philanthropic motive, through which the church is challenged to seek justice in the world but which easily equates God's reign with an improved society. An inadequate foundation for mission and ambiguous missionary motives and aims are bound to lead to an unsatisfactory missionary practice. The young churches planted on the mission fields were replicas of the churches on the mission agency's home front, blessed with all the paraphernalia of those churches, everything from harmoniums to archdeacons (Newbigin 1969:107). Like the churches in Europe and North America, they were communities under the jurisdiction of full-time pastors. And they had to adhere to confessions prepared centuries before in Europe, in circumstances and in response to challenges fundamentally different from those that faced the young churches of India or Africa. At the same time they were regarded as remaining under the tutelage of Western mission agencies, at least until the latter should decide to grant them a certificate of maturity, that is, until the younger churches had proved that they were fully self-supporting, selfgoverning, and self-propagating. It was this ecclesiastical export trade that caused Schütz to cry out in protest, The house of the church is on fire! In our missionary outreach we resemble a lunatic who carries the harvest into his burning barn (1930:195 my translation). Schütz located the problem not outside, on the mission field, but in the heart of the Western church itself. So he calls the church back from the mission field where it did not proclaim the gospel but individualism and the values of the West, back to become what it was not but should be: church of Jesus Christ in the midst of the peoples of the earth. Intra muros! he shouted, the outcome is determined by what happens inside the church, not outside, on the mission field.

26 Because of the inadequate foundation and ambiguous motivation of the missionary enterprise few advocates and supporters of mission were able to appreciate the challenges presented by Schütz or, twenty-three years later, after the missionary dêbâcle in China, by David Paton (1953). Most felt content with the performance of Western agencies. In fact, their accomplishments were, ironically, often used to undergird the shaky foundations of mission; looking with approval upon the practice of mission, the champions identified their missionary projects with what they saw in the pages of the New Testament, which in turn became the theological justification for the continuation of the enterprise. By means of such circular reasoning, the success of the Christian mission became the foundation for mission. Other religions were regarded as moribund; they would all soon disappear. To mention a couple of examples of this reasoning: In the year 1900 the General Secretary of the Norwegian Missionary Society, Lars Dahle, having compared statistics of the numbers of Christians in Asia and Africa in 1800 and 1900 respectively, was able to devise a mathematical formula which revealed the growth rate of Christianity, decade by decade, during the nineteenth century. It was only logical that Dahle would apply the formula also to successive decades of the twentieth century. On the basis of this he could calmly predict that, by the year 1990, the entire human race would be won for the Christian faith (cf Sundkler 1968:121). A few years later Johannes Warneck, son of Gustav Warneck, wrote a book entitled Die Lebenskräfte des Evangeliums (2d impression 1908), in which he demonstrated the power of the Christian mission vis-à-vis other faiths. The American translator of the book was even more sanguine than Warneck himself had been: he published it under the title The Loving Christ and Dying Heathenism (1909). Indeed, Christianity's successes proved its superiority! Today, however, we know that those optimistic predictions were unfounded. There are no longer any signs of what J. Warneck called dying heathenism. Virtually all world religions display a vigor nobody would have credited them with some decades ago. The confident predictions of Dahle and others concerning the triumphal march and imminent total victory of Christianity have come to nothing. The Christian faith is still a minority religion, at best holding its own in relation to the overall world population. And if Christianity is no longer successful, is it still unique and true? FROM CONFIDENCE TO MALAISE It is circumstances like these that have led to the confidence about imminent victory being replaced by a profound malaise in some missionary circles. Toward the end of his life Max Warren, for many years General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society in Great Britain, referred to what he termed a terrible failure of nerve about the missionary enterprise. In some circles this has led to an almost complete paralysis and total withdrawal from any activity traditionally associated with mission, in whatever form. Others are plunging themselves into projects which might just as well and more efficiently be undertaken by secular agencies. Again, in some Christian circles there is no sign of such a failure or nerve. Quite the contrary. It is business as usual as regards the continuation of oneway missionary traffic from the West to the Third World and the proclamation of a gospel which appears to have little interest in the conditions in which people find themselves, since the preachers only concern seems to be the saving of souls from eternal damnation. Here the right of Christians to proclaim their religion is beyond dispute since the Bible clearly commands world mission. To even suggest that there is a fundamental crisis in mission would be tantamount to making concessions to liberal theology and to doubting the abiding validity of the faith once handed down to us.