MISSIO DEI: THE UNDERSTANDING AND MISUNDERSTANDING OF A THEOLOGICAL CONCEPT IN EUROPEAN CHURCHES AND MISSIOLOGY

Abstract

1. Introduction I feel honoured to have been asked to give a lecture at this mission congress that is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the world mission conference here in Willingen. There is certainly ample reason to celebrate. We celebrate not only the Willingen Conference of fifty years ago, but we also want to remember the dramatic developments in missiology during the second half of the last century that in many ways began in Willingen. The development that found its most extreme form in the 1960s and early 70s (1) involved a change from a more anthropocentric of mission to a more theocentric, and from a more ecclesiocentric perspective to a more cosmocentric. In the latter perspective, the world, both in its socio-political and religious dimensions, is at the centre of attention. The theocentric perspective was, of course, not new in the 20th century. It can already be found in Martin Luther's thinking about mission. The American Lutheran missiologist, James A. Scherer says, For Luther, mission is always pre-eminently the work of the triune God--missio Dei--and its goal and outcome is the coming of the kingdom of God. Luther sees the church, along with God's word and every baptized believer, as crucial divine instruments for mission. Yet, nowhere does the reformer make the church the starting point or the final goal of mission, as 19th-century missiology tended to do. It is always God's own mission that dominates Luther's thought, and the coming of the kingdom of God represents its final culmination. (2) Here, already, we encounter the three concepts that form a dynamic triangle in post-war missiological thought: missio Dei, the kingdom of God and the church. Much of the discussion is centred on how they relate, and the answers given diverge strongly. Before looking at the concept of missio Dei and the of it in a historical perspective, I may be allowed two comments on my theme. Firstly, missiology is a global ecumenical discipline. Some of the most important milestones of missiology in the 20th century were the great mission conferences that for the most part were global in scope. Hence, to restrict the discussion of missio Dei to European churches and missiology seems somewhat arbitrary. I shall, however, for the most part limit my comments to European missiologists, but I cannot promise not to have the larger picture in mind. Secondly, the words understanding and misunderstanding assume that something more than a historical perspective is required. In some sense, there is a right and a wrong one. This implies a normative perspective, and I will in this article present some normative positions. I would like to characterize them as Lutheran and evangelical. (3) 2. The origin and content of the concept missio Dei The term missio Dei has a long history that goes back to Augustine and relates to the doctrine of the Trinity, but this is not our main concern here. It is the use of the phrase in missiology that is our topic. Although one of the main reasons for the fame of the Willingen conference is the introduction of the concept of missio Dei, I have not been able to find the term in the documents from the conference itself. (4) It seems that it was Karl Hartenstein who, in his report from Willingen, coined the phrase when he spoke of mission as participation in the sending of the Son, in the missio Dei, with an inclusive aim of establishing the lordship of Christ over the whole redeemed creation. (5) To quote Hartenstein more fully, Mission is not just the conversion of the individual, nor just obedience to the word of the Lord, nor just the obligation to gather the church. It is the taking part in the sending of the Son, the missio Dei, with the holistic aim of establishing Christ's rule over all redeemed creation. (6) In my estimation, however, the emphasis in Willingen on a trinitarian basis of mission is even more important than the somewhat ambiguous phrase missio Dei. …