Practicing Evangelism from the Belly of the Beast: Transcendence and Transgression in the Missiologies of M.R. Shaull and O.E. Costas

Abstract

AbstractThis article uses the missiologies of Richard Shaull and Orlando Costas as correctives to evangelical methods of evangelism that tend to be a‐historical, a‐cultural and imperialistic. The article also criticizes North American civil religion as a phenomenon that legitimizes conservative politics and denigrates and dilutes Jesus's message of radical discipleship. First, Shaull is used as a missionary model of someone who throughout his career took the poor and oppressed as the starting point for missiological reflection. He challenged Christians to transcend and transgress those church structures that are counterproductive to the reign of God. Orlando Costas's contextual evangelism from the “periphery” is also used as a corrective to evangelical mission that tends to spiritualize Christ and lacks serious social engagement. The article concludes with a visionary strategy of confrontation against power structures and a new way of moving forward based on those at the margins.