Mission from the Margins

Abstract

AbstractThis paper proceeds from the premise that we are living in a time of fundamental change in the shape and structure of world Christianity. The background of this crisis is traced to the beginnings of the modern missionary movement, and it it discussed particularly as it has affected our understanding of the “missio Dei” and the teaching of mission at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Today, the crisis may be described in terms of the churches' relationship to globalization, on the one hand, and to religious and cultural pluralism on the other. The contrast between a Christian visum of the oikoumene and the neo‐liberal ideology of globalization, undergirded by American empire, has shaped the crisis in all of its forms. Mission from the margins suggests that the cutting edge for mission today and throughout the history of the Christian churched comes from movements emerging outside established Christian centres ‐ the African Initiated Churches, Pentecostal) all over the world, the rural churches of China. The “missio Dei” needs to be reshaped in the encounter of historic churches in the North with these movements in the South. This will help Christians resist the forces of globalization and empire, and to respond anew to the gospel message for today. This will also entail the recovery and renewal of missioiogy, mission studies and questions related to Christianity in a world of religious pluralism as these subjects relate to theological education in Europe and North America.