David Bosch Research Articles

Three little movements in modern “mission”

René Padilla’s invitation to evangelicals worldwide, to take up integral mission, in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and the South African invitation to embrace “transforming mission” in cross-cultural ministries closely associated with the work of David Bosch and Klippies Kritzinger, were clarion calls to the global church, to turn back to the source of “mission,” which is Jesus, forming in his followers a new eschatological identity that empowers us to be witnesses who embody Christ’s good news of reconciliation. Among all who took up this invitation to realize an incarnational and contextual gospel, were evangelists in South Africa’s Students’ Christian Association, who created the SCA Cross-Cultural Missions’ Programme, or SCAMP, in 1979. This article is the first of three, which draw on a repository of memories catalogued through the discipline of oral history research; the writer’s own experience of training and teaching in the SCAMP programme; long-time friendships with many SCAMP people of the 1980s; a wide range of gathered archival primary sources; and published missiology and historiography, to construct a preliminary history of SCAMP during the 1980s at the zenith of the apartheid era. The narrative will be periodized into three distinct historical sequences, each of which may offer learnings for the contemporary church in its current understandings of “mission,” for a more incarnational, prophetic, and deeply empathic embodiment of Christian witness.

The Nature of Missiology as Public Theology

Two trends have emerged in theology and missiology in the recent decades, which are the interest in “publicness.” Many theologians, regardless of their specific expertise, are exploring the Christian faith in the public sphere. They began to pay attention to the social issues outside church, especially after the Pandemic. A similar phenomenon appears to missiology. After David Bosch, contemporary missiologists embark on dealing with public issues as themes of missiology. These current trends lead one to think about publicness of missiology. Indeed, the nature of public is in missiology. This can be recognized vividly through comparison of three elements in public theology and missiology: definitions of public theology and missiology, contextuality and intercontextuality, and interdisciplinarity and constructive theology as methodology.

Implikasi Pemahaman Tritunggal terhadap Perbedaan Pandangan tentang Misi

The correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity play an important role in the theology and praxis of believers. Unfortunately, these implications have not yet appeared in the church’s mission in which every believer is called to proclaims and live the truth of God -- something that cannot be separated from deeds and words. Not just thinking about the concept of going out to send. This article is an integrative effort that has been started by Lesslie Newbigin and David Bosch to change the paradigm of church mission in the world. This article shows that a relation between concept of Trinitarian and mission. With this attempt the church will be able to play a significant role and contextually without losing the important values of the Bible.

Believing in the future Missiology’s future prospects

This research attends to David Bosch’s (1995) last publication, Believing in the future: Towards a missiology of Western culture, and uses the work as a guide to formulate prospects for missiology as a theological discipline. Following Bosch, it uses an exploration of current events as a heuristic semiotic to discern the future of the church and to develop prospects for missiology. The ‘post-world’ we currently find ourselves in is described in the following terms: Post-COVID but pre-disaster; a Volatile, Unstable, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) — a Post-stable world; Post-industrial revolutions — the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); Post-stable climate. This is followed by the construction of missiology’s prospects, missiology for the “new normal”, suggesting several contours that may constitute the future of missiology. These include mission as theology and an expansion of the missio Dei ; The ecclesiological contour; The ecological contour; The 4IR as a new founding narrative; Public theology and faithful presence — the worthy walk of the missional community; Anticipatory leadership; Missional spirituality; and The rediscovery of joy.

A Prisoner of His Own Creative Imagination

David Bosch’s ecclesiology remains one of the most influential in missiological circles globally. This article sought to interrogate Bosch’s creative imagination, with particular reference to his missional ecclesiology and in particular his view on the church as an alternative community from a decolonial perspective. What prompted this study is the ambiguity and at times, contradictory posture or even what seems to be a betrayal of Bosch’s thought in comparison with his praxis. This article discovered that Bosch was not just a prisoner of his creative imagination, but also a prisoner of his faith, his views on truth, unity of the church, transformation, violence and reconciliation and of hope.

The Spirit and the poor in West Africa and Tanzania: A Pentecostal response to David J. Bosch’s “mission in the wake of the Enlightenment”

This article describes a pneumatological methodology of Christian mission in solidarity with the poor, which is exhibited by African Pentecostal-Charismatics in ministry in Tanzania and West Africa today. The methodology is drawn from the experiences of dreams and visions as they fund an approach rooted in two pneumatological essentials for mission praxis: (1) “poverty of spirit” as an epistemological requisite and (2) the power of Spirit for mission in an oppressive spirit-filled world. The thesis argued here is that this methodological approach to missions is evidence of the “creative tension” between mission and eschatology that missiologist David Bosch called for. As well, this en-Spirited missions motif critiques the rationalist neglect of experience Bosch lamented and satisfies as an example of what he envisioned as an “emerging ecumenical missionary paradigm.”

Pentecost as Facet of the Church-in-Mission or Culmination of the Missio Dei? A Pentecostal Renewing of Bosch’s (Reformed) Mission Theology

David Bosch’s Transforming Mission remains a landmark work now over a quarter of a century after its initial publication. With only one formal missiological response from the Pentecostal scholarly community to date, this essay seeks further reconsideration perhaps less from a strictly classical Pentecostal perspective than from one that takes the Day of Pentecost as a starting point for mission theology in the present ecclesial dispensation. Hermeneutical, historiographical, and theological contributions are offered, each intended to enrich and perhaps even fulfill the practically inexhaustible potential of our Reformed South African New Testament scholar’s legacy.

Plurality in the Theological Struggle against Apartheid

AbstractThe church struggle against apartheid remains a key case study in ecumenical public theology, with particular relevance for the Reformed tradition. The importance of Christian theology in both the justification of and opposition to apartheid is well known. Also, the process of ecumenical discernment for responding to apartheid became a significant marker in global ecumenical reflection on what today we might describe as public theology. However, the idea of a theological struggle against apartheid risks ironing out the different theological positions that oppose apartheid. This article highlights some of the attempts to analyze the theological plurality in responses to apartheid. Then it proceeds to present an alternative way of viewing this plurality by focusing on the way in which different classic theological questions were drawn upon to analyze apartheid theologically. Using as examples the important theologians David Bosch, Simon Maimela, and Albert Nolan, it highlights how apartheid was described as a problem of ecclesiology, theological anthropology, and soteriology. It argues that this plurality of theological analyses allows us to rediscover theological resources that might be of particular significance as race and racism take on new forms in either democratic South Africa or the contemporary world. Simultaneously, it serves as a valuable example in considering a variety of theological questions when theologically reflecting on issues of public concern.

Mission awakening in the Dutch Reformed Church: The possibility of a fifth wave?

The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) had a strong missionary DNA since the planting of the church. This missionary focus and fervour, however, ebbed and flowed during the history of the church. Saayman described that the mission upsurges in the DRC in four waves or ‘periods of extraordinary mission endeavour’. The current research aimed to develop this theory through a literature study on the sociopolitical context and the developments in the ecclesiology and missiology of the DRC since the planting of the church up to 2013. The research found strong evidence to define a fifth wave. The fifth wave was influenced by contextual changes (e.g. a secularising, a more integrated multicultural society and the realisation of the needs of the poor) and loss of influence and money by the DRC. Furthermore, the growth in the church’s missional identity can be seen in the following aspects: the influence of theologians like Lesslie Newbigin and David Bosch; a belief that mission is not something the church does but something the church is; a shift from a Christocentric theology to a Trinitarian theology; a holistic view of salvation; a commitment to the local context of the congregation and a focus on bringing healing to their local communities; and lastly, the success of the Gestuurde Gemeentes network and, more recently, the Mission Shaped Ministry training.

Standing where God stands: JNJ Kritzinger as an encountering missionary and missiologist

This article is written in order to pay tribute to one of the unsung heroes in the field of Mission and Missiology in South Africa, Johannes Nicolaas Jacobus Kritzinger. As a student of David Bosch, Klippies has always lived under his shadow. The same applies to his theology and praxes thereof. This article is aimed at providing an appraisal of Klippies’s theology in the public square as an encountering missionary and missiology whose transforming encounters impacted and changed the lives of many South Africans, Africans, and others in the global community. In the praxes of theology, Klippies chose to stand where God stands by not only fighting against the oppressive system of apartheid but also standing with the poor and marginalised, especially black South Africans.

Theology as a language for mission: on claiming incognito contributions from beyond the discipline

Mission and theology are intimately related. This might not have seemed so obvious in the nineteenth century when practical considerations were paramount, but it was growing clearer in the twentieth as complex interactions among denominations and with other world religions required more careful reflection. David Bosch duly notes the trend, calling it “Mission as Theology,” the twelfth element of “An Emerging Ecumenical Missionary Paradigm” ( Transforming Mission, 489–498). The question is whether this trend has found its fulfillment. A certain narrowness of vision persists in missiological conversations, which risks neglecting mission-worthy insights from theologians and exegetes outside the field strictly defined. Unless theologians identify themselves publicly as missiologists or their subject matter as missiologically related, they risk not being noticed by the missiological community. Two examples of this will be noted in this article: systematic theologian Gerhard Forde who rarely talks overtly of mission but makes a passionate contribution towards its effective practice; and New Testament professor Roy Harrisville of modest experience in overseas mission who probes a worldview-rupturing effect of Christ pertinent to any interfaith dialogue. The need for a mechanism for the fulfillment of the trend Bosch noted will be argued, and some possibilities proposed.

Mission’s public engagement: The conversation of missiology and public theology

The recent development of public theology, the formation of the Global Network for Public Theology, and active scholarly discussions through the platform of the International Journal of Public Theology demonstrate that there is significant interest in the public engagement of theology in contemporary society. Public theology could be identified as critical, reflective, and reasoned engagement of theology in society to bring the kingdom of God, which is for the sake of the poor and marginalized. As David Bosch suggests, mission transforms society and at the same time the concept of mission is being transformed as the church interacts with the wider society. This article aims first to highlight some key features shared by missiology and public theology; second to discuss ways and means to enhance each discipline in its engagement in society, particularly as regards the common good; and third to explore a possibility of “public missiology” or “missiology of public life” in the context of secular and multicultural societies.

Conflicting models for mission and reconciliation: Future perspectives

The debate between proponents of the ecumenical movement on the one hand and the evangelical movements on the other, often led to different models of reconciliation. On the one hand, social upliftment was regarded as essential in any view on reconciliation. Without a deeply entrenched “social gospel” no reconciliation was deemed possible. Evangelicals, on the other hand, were of the opinion that no reconciliation is possible without conversion and acceptance of the atonement in Christ. This debate has since waned, because both groups have in some instances accepted views from the other side, as stated by David Bosch. However, differences remain in the models for reconciliation, even in the South African church communities. Emphases on social justice and restitution viewed from a specific theological point are often contrary to the view that true reconciliation is only possible if the church proclaims conversion to God and the acceptance of the atonement in Jesus, who is the only Saviour. Evaluating the essence of reconciliation, as put forward by Paul in the Letter to the Romans, might give an acceptable view for future reconciliation.

The transformative vision: Public witness and the poiesis of Christian social transformation

With reference to social science research and the work of David Bosch and Max Stackhouse, this article argues that the energy for Christian communities to act in socially transformative ways is strengthened and enhanced by attending to poiesis. The concept poiesis is explored in the light of social science research on effective social movements and this is related to the Christian practice of liturgy. Liturgy is used as a broad heuristic concept that represents the creative and imaginative energy of Christian faith in its gathered communities, its telling of inspiring and transformative stories, and its engagement of its context with a vision for a better world. There is a need to enhance the hermeneutic cycle of “see–judge–act” with the inspiring vision of poiesis that will move Christian communities to action for social change.

A Missiology of the Road: Early Perspectives in David Bosch’s Theology of Mission and Evangelism, written by J. Kevin Livingston

A Missiology of the Road: Early Perspectives in David Bosch’s Theology of Mission and Evangelism, written by J. Kevin Livingston

The use of οἰκονομία for the missional plan and purpose of God in Ephesians 1:3-14

ABSTRACT The term οἰκονομία is used in the Pauline epistles with a specific nuance. It is Paul who uses it specifically as a missional term. He uses οἰκονομία in Ephesians for the missions activity of God, the missio Dei (Eph 1:10), his own mission activity and the proclamation of the gospel (Eph 3:2) and for the missions activity of the church. The mission of the church is discernible through a missional hermeneutic and reading of Ephesians and the identification of the missional calling of the church. In this paper it is my contention that οἰκονομία is an important term in a missional reading of the epistle to the Ephesians. This paper will focus on the importance of the word οἰκονομία for missions in Ephesians. The use of οἰκονομία as a missional term in the epistle to the Ephesians will support the proposal that οἰκονομία is to be read as a missional term in all of its occurrences in the Pauline Epistles. The contention of this article is that a missional hermeneutic should be employed when we read the Pauline epistles because Paul’s mission undergirds and shaped the text. This article will serve as an introduction to a series of articles in which the purpose of the letter to the Ephesians will be revisited. David Bosch employed a missional hermeneutic in the reading of Luke (cf. Bosch 1991:88, 104). It was a bold and controversial claim within biblical studies. It led to insights and steps taken toward a missional reading of Matthew and Paul. The insights of Bosch have led to the development of a missional hermeneutic that has continued to move forward toward a more consistent expression

Book Review: A Missiology of the Road: Early Perspectives in David Bosch’s Theology of Mission and Evangelism

Book Review: A Missiology of the Road: Early Perspectives in David Bosch’s Theology of Mission and Evangelism

Missiology: Rise, demise and future at the university

Although a latecomer as discipline, missiology had an impressive rise in the history of theology. Gustav Warneck’s “Evangelische Missionslehre (1897-1903)” resulted in missiology being regarded as an extremely influential discipline. This was not at all strange as Christian mission was a worldwide endeavour and accepted as the most important calling of the church. Throughout the 1900s missiology and missiological conferences continued to be the centre of theological discussions. With the political emancipation of Africa and the East, the whole concept of missions was challenged and this led to the demise of missiology as a discipline at universities. Influential missiologists, such as Johannes Verkuyl and David Bosch, published works of high theological value, but it seemed as if sociological, cultural and interreligious studies displaced missiology at university. Many seminaries are still putting up a brave fight to save missiology, but at university level it seems that classical missiology as discipline is being displaced. The future of missiology must, however, not be regarded as obsolete, but rather as an irreplaceable part of theology and faith.

Faith Matters: Towards a Public Missiology in the Midst of the Ecological Crisis

Abstract: The article examines public missiology in the light of the ecological crisis by situating public missiology in the larger context of public theology. It responds to the challenge of finding ways for Christian communities to act in the light of climate change. It notes developments in public theology, as well as the rise and dominance of a consumer capitalist economic story that frustrates action for the integrity of God's creation. It identifies public missiology with a locus in public theology. It distinguishes public missiology as the discipline that involves the church in active engagement. Drawing on the seminal thought of David Bosch and the work of Gregory Leffel in public Christian activism, the article argues for five dimensions in public missiology, which are inextricably intertwined. They include a public disposition of ongoing repentance, a humble and prayerful engagement within Christian community, an active engagement with the ecological crisis in the world (evangelism in community), a public telling of the story of the meaning of God's creation (proclamation), and a call to turn toward action for the integrity of creation (conversion). Out of the interplay of these dimensions, through theological reflection and careful consideration of critical social theory, a new public missiological story is to be woven that can capture the imagination of people, both of faith and no faith, to action for a healed creation.

The church as alternative community and the struggle for liberation in the work of David Bosch

The church as alternative community remains a key aspect in understanding the work of David bosch, while some of the most important critique of his work emerged from liberation theology. by exploring Bosch’s use of the relationship between Jesus and the Zealots in his reflection on the alternative community, the article will argue that Bosch not only sees his own work as standing close to that of liberation theologians, but also that Bosch worked with a very narrow interpretation of liberation theology. Also under discussion are some aspects of what Bosch believed the role of this alternative community should have been amidst apartheid, while the lack of concrete analysis for how this might contribute to the liberation of people is emphasized.