Racism Awareness in Mission: Touchstone or Cultural Blind Spot?

Abstract

In his history of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, Brian Stanley suggests that contemporary use of “culture” in mission may be vulnerable to the same critique as was the use of “race” in the colonial missions. However, sensitivity to culture and context in postwar and postcolonial missiology has encouraged diversity, interculturality, and movements for greater equity. Drawing from contemporary missiology and critical race theory, this article asks whether attention to “culture” and “context” has mitigated racism in mission or tended to obscure it.