Theology Of Mission Research Articles

Trojice a pokoj mezi lidmi

The article reacts to a document by the International Theological Commission on Trinitarian monotheism and its opposition to violence. The author points out numerous imperfections in methodology and facts within the document. The article criticizes the imperfections and consequently attempts to supply deficiencies. The core of the article is an analysis of the notion that three divine persons subsist in one divine nature. The author demonstrates certain serious problems which are hidden within this notion, while presenting W. Kasper's and M. Bordoni's critical approach to P. Schoonenberg's views from the 1960s and 1970s. The article contains in summary not only clarifications of certain aspects of the theological reflection concerning the unity of humanity, but also an appeal to colleagues to join up with the letter addressed to the International Theological Commission which would express the view of Czech theologians regarding the last achievement of the Commission.

Ježíšovi učedníci na cestě k pokoji mezi národy

The article deals with the newest document of the International Theological Commission the Trinity and the Unity of Humanity. Christian Monotheism and its Opposition to Violence. Concretely, its use of the Bible is analyzed. The document focuses, on the one hand, on the most important biblical message: God initially offers salvation to Israel, and consequently to the whole of humankind; he overcomes the law of revenge through the cross of Jesus Christ and does so without compromising truth and justice. It discusses, on the other hand. the violence in the Old Testament too superficially and completely neglects all controversial pericopes of the New Testament (e.g. the cleansing of the Temple, the prophecy about bringing fire to the earth). If the International Theological Commission does not deal with these issues, it risks a criticism of being too eclectic and presenting Christianity in an embellished, but unreal way.

Dialectical Theology as Theology of Mission: Investigating the Origins of Karl Barth's Break with Liberalism

Based on a thorough investigation of Karl Barth's early writings, this article proposes a new interpretation of dialectical theology as fundamentally concerned with the issue of mission. Documents from 1914 and 1915 show that the turning point in Barth's thinking about mission – and about Christian theology in general – occurred, at least in part, in response to a largely forgotten manifesto published in September 1914. This manifesto appealed to Protestants around the world to support Germany's cause in the war on the grounds that they would be supporting the work of the Great Commission. Barth's reaction to this document sheds light on the missionary nature of dialectical theology, which pursues an understanding of God and God-talk that does not conflate the mission of the church with the diffusion of culture.

“Mission and Evangelism” (1982) and “Together Towards Life” (2013)

Since its establishment in 1948 the World Council of Churches (wcc) has produced and approved two position statements on mission and evangelism: Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation (1982); and Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (2012). This article compares and analyses these documents. It deals with six selected topics: vocabulary; (primary) sources; the connection between world history and mission and church history; systematic mission theology (especially the doctrine of the Trinity); mission spirituality; and the encounter with the adherents of other religions and beliefs. Both documents make the World Council and its member churches more aware of the missionary obligation. The main difference between the documents is the shift from a Christ-centered to a Spirit-centered view on mission and evangelism.

대럴 구더의 선교적 신학과 교회론

Darrell Guder aims to transform from mission and theology to missional theology. For that process, he emphasizes that Christians should get out of the legacy of Christendom and the reductionism of the gospel. The theology of Christendom rarely concerns mission as a major discipline. And the gospel has been reduced to mainly provide an individual salvation in North America. In fact, salvation and witnessing of the gospel cannot be separated but many Christians accept the benefit of the gospel but barely take a vocation of witnessing. Guder claims, “the concern of missional theology is that this central commitment to evangelization should itself be defined by the following conviction: the very call to follow Christ is a call to become a fisher of people, an invitation to join God’s mission and become part of the witness to the inbreaking reign of God”(Guder, 2006:3). For Guder, the definition of missional hermeneutics is “the basic assumption undergirding our interpretation of all New Testament literature: the missional vocation of each community, their sense of themselves as called into being for the continuation of apostolic witness”(Guder, 2007:108). Guder reinterprets the Nicene Marks with an apostolic emphasis to revitalize the struggling mainline denominations of the church in North America and the stagnate state of the ecumenical movements. Guder argues that the contemporary challenge for Christianity in North America is the transformation from church with mission to missional church. It does not means that the churches in the North America have to do more foreign missions or focus only on home missions. Rather, he claims the churches should recover the nature of church, which is the mission of God. Each church should be recognized her vocation of witnessing the gospel in any given situation. For doing that she needs continuous conversion by the Holy Spirit in Christ.

선교 공동체로서의 농촌교회와 통전적 선교 가능성 연구 - 농촌교회의 통전적 선교를 위한 필수요소

The rural community in Korea today is emerging as the mission field where despair/hope, crisis/opportunity, and hopelessness/possibility coexist. The aging and declining phenomenon gives despair, crisis, and hopelessness to the rural community today, but the growing number of the peasantry returned to farming and environment-friendly agriculture product provides hope, opportunity, and possibility both to the rural community and to the rural church. This study begins with the following questions: “Are there some rural churches that carry out the holistic mission successfully in this mission field in Korea?” “If so, what are their motivation, purpose, characteristics, and problems that should be resolved?” “What kinds of insights and lessons can be gained from their common characteristics?” “How can those common characteristics be applied to other rural churches as a principle?” To answer these questions in the perspective of the holistic mission, the writer first discusses ‘the theology of holistic mission,’ ‘the missional church,’ and ‘John Wesley’s holistic mission practice.’ After studying six case churches that effectively exercise holistic mission in rural area, the writer sorts out seven essential characteristics from them. They are (1) the permanent resident rural pastor; (2) the missional ecclesiology (missional self identity); (3) the understanding of the needs of the local community; (4) the incarnational mission; (5) the holistic mission; (6) the valance of the inside and the outside mission of the church; (7) the organic solidarity among the rural church, the urban church, the seminary, and the headquarters of the denomination. The writer contends that these seven characteristics are the essential factors for rural churches to carry out the holistic evangelizaiton more effectively in the rural community in Korea

Book Review: Church of Scotland, Theological Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry and Church of England, Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality (The Pilling Report)

Book Review: Church of Scotland, <i>Theological Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry</i> and Church of England, <i>Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality (The Pilling Report)</i>

In prayer and pains, through faith in Christ: The life and ministry of John Eliot

While William Carey (1761–1834) is often hailed as the “Father of Modern Missions” for his innovative work in India and for advancing the modern theology of missions—particularly in his commitment to respect the indigenous culture—he nevertheless drew heavily on the work of those who had preceded him in the work of missions. Among his predecessors was the “Apostle to the (American) Indians,” John Eliot (1604–1690). For his part, Eliot was also the product of his predecessors, especially in his adoption of the then-popular notion of civility before conversion. However, Eliot was also an innovator to whom the world of missions owes a great debt. His commitment to learning the indigenous language (Algonquin), creating a written language and a grammar of it, and translating the Bible into it are worthy of special note, as is his commitment to training indigenous pastors and teachers. The ministry of Eliot informs the foundational tenets of contemporary missiology.

The Groaning Earth and the Greening of Neo-Pentecostalism in the 21st Century Ghana

From the angle of theology of mission it is imperative for the Christian faith to respond to the complex environmental challenges facing Africa. In this article, I explore the attitudes and responses of Ghana’s Charismatic churches, as a case study of neo-Pentecostal responses to Ghana’s environmental challenges. I further explore some theological and ethical imperatives that require neo-Pentecostals to integrate environmental protection into their missions agenda in today’s Ghana, in order to become environmentally friendly, as their “mission of reconciliation” requires of them. I argue that, as required by their theology of mission, Ghana’s neo-Pentecostals must reconcile with the earth and “be of the earth” through a re-interpretation of their “mission of reconciliation”. Source data for this work are both secondary and primary, utilizing both participant observation and analysis of interviews with selected neo-Pentecostal members and leaders in Ghana.

Book Review: Theology of Mission: A Believers Church Perspective

Book Review: Theology of Mission: A Believers Church Perspective

The meaning of baptism for the community of Jesus Christ. A declaration of the Theological Commission

The meaning of baptism for the community of Jesus Christ. A declaration of the Theological Commission

A Study on Outline and Orientation of the Public Mission Theology

A Study on Outline and Orientation of the Public Mission Theology

“Keep up the agitation” - Rev. Jerry Forshey and a KKK Cross from Jackson, Mississippi

I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in our struggle for freedom Some have been kicked out of their churches, and lost support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. These men have been leaven in the lump of the race. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times.-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Letter From A Birmingham Jail, April 1963REV. GERALD E. FORSHEY Chicagoan, but not by birth. He in Long Beach, California in 1932, the son of casino pit boss. Influenced by Methodist ministers while attending UCLA, Forshey decided to train for the ministry at the Iliff School of Theology after graduation. He went to Denver as a blue collar kid with expanding horizons. He left seminary with a theology and sense of mission that would shape his life and work. He also met and married his wife Florence, who came to study in Denver from her home in Mobile, Alabama.2Chicago became their home in 1958, when Rev. Forshey took an assignment as pastor of the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church, mixedrace, inner-city parish near Lincoln Park. In ways that Jerry and Florence Forshey could not possibly have foreseen, their lives would be intertwined with those of thousands of other migrants headed to Chicago, most of them African American coming from the Deep South. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, half million migrants came to Chicago and their arrival affected nearly every aspect of city life.Like many other migrants, Rev. Forshey was entranced by the big city and all it had to offer. He witnessed the explosive growth under Mayor Richard J. Daley that included the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the construction of the expressway systems, new mass transit lines, convention center, and the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, as well as the opening of the then tallest building in the world-Sears Tower.Forshey not starry-eyed idealist; he spent years working in string of Methodist congregations as the white pastor in racially mixed or all-black congregations. Rev. Forshey lived in neighborhoods that were going through rapid racial change, and his approach to the ministry shaped by the experiences of his congregants, both black and white. The black migrants' very presence forced existing residents and institutions to change-often in wrenching, and soul-searching ways in the face of ingrained patterns of racism. He watched as his African American congregants scrambled to find housing in city where strict racial segregation maintained through custom, coercion and sometimes violence.3Because of his ministerial appointments, Forshey came to devote himself particularly to the cause of civil rights. Not only did he see the problems encountered by his own parishioners, but he also saw connections to the southern Civil Rights Movement. He arrived in Chicago just few years after the 1954 Supreme Court decision desegregating schools (Brown v. Topeka, KS Board of Education) and the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott that catapulted the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to national prominence.Forshey moved to action by the challenges posed by segregation in housing, education, and jobs in Chicago, but he heeded the call of national civil rights leaders and became part of church desegregation efforts in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Spurred on by his experiences in Chicago and Jackson, Forshey worked for the desegregation of the Methodist Church. Separated before the Civil War over the issue of slavery, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church merged in 1939. It new denomination born segregated. …

Refugees as Guests and Hosts: Towards a Theology of Mission among Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Abstract This article aims to develop a theology of mission in the context of refugees and asylum seekers, using the Australian situation as an illustration. It suggests that hospitality is the most appropriate approach to such a theology of mission. Ten dimensions of hospitality are explored: defense of human rights, political action, settlement assistance, sanctuary, being welcoming multicultural churches, intercultural learning, interfaith dialogue, awareness of the ethics of welcome, meals and personal friendship, and openness to a transforming divine presence.

Africae Munus and the Challenges of a Transformative Missional Theological Praxis in Africa’s Social Context

This article takes the theme of Pope Benedict’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Africae Munus, on reconciliation, justice and peace in Africa as its starting point. It analyses how the commitments of African Christians at the Second African Synod (2009) can be realized through a transformative missional theological praxis. This theological approach is proposed as a deeper concern on how to bring about the fruits of the eschatological harvest of God’s kingdom to bear on the present complex African social context. This article proposes two ways of doing this: The first is a socio-theological analysis of Africa’s social context, and the second is showing how to mine the spiritual, religious, cultural, human, and material resources of Africa. The article proposes an outline for an African transformative missional theology and a praxis of African development built on such a theology.

The Living and True God, The Mystery of the Trinity by Luis F. Ladario (review)

The Living and True God, The Mystery of the Trinity J. Harold Ellens The Living and True God, The Mystery of the Trinity Luis F. Ladario, (New Revised Translation) Miami: Convivium, 2010. 492 pp. pb, npi. Luis F. Ladario is a Spanish Jesuit theologian and a Roman Catholic Archbishop currently serving as the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith at the Vatican. He has been a professor of theology at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome since 1984. Prior to that he was a professor at the Comillas University hala Madrid, and from 1992 to 1997, he was a member of the International Theological Commission and has been the General Secretary of that commission since 2004. He has published a volume on Theological Anthropology, three volumes on Hillary of Poitiers, one on the Trinity, one on Christology, and one on Jesus as the universal savior. This present volume has 12 chapters. Chapter one is an introduction. It asserts that God as revealer is the primary subject of theology and the Christian idea of God is an original idea, and thus unique. Although trinity is an obscure concept, God‐as‐Trinity is the character at the center of Christian faith. Systematic Theology is a special kind of address to the question of the nature and function of God that differs from Biblical Theology in its constructs and formulae. Chapter two addresses the esoteric distinction and relationship between the Economic Trinity and the Immanent Trinity. This includes the scholastic discussion of the question, explicates the manner in which the OT prepares for the NT articulation of the function of the trinity in revelation, and probes the manner in which this applies to real life experience. Then Ladario moves into Christology and the Biblical Theology of Incarnation. Thus chapter three concerns the divine revelation in the life of Jesus. This author's explication of the theological issues in the orthodox view of Jesus, God the father of Jesus, Jesus as Son of God, God as father of all humans, and what it means that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In discussing the baptism of Jesus and the voice from heaven that anointed him for his vocation, the author addresses the problem of adoptionism, preexistence, and humanness in Jesus as the incarnation of the Logos. One gets the impression that he prefers the notion of Jesus' adoption into his vocation at his baptism, but he reviews objectively a variety of current views on the issue. Ladario makes quite a large matter of the question of the revelation of God as Trinity in the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ, interpreting that discussion mainly in terms of his theology of resurrection as revelation. This section on Christology moves seamlessly into the ministry of God as Spirit, conforming to the pattern of the Apostolic Creed. He addresses the specific topics of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts on the one hand, versus the Gospel of John and the Pauline Epistles on the other in explicating the personal nature and relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. A transitional excursus leads Ladario into further discussion of the OT revelation of God as Triune in terms of the role of the Name of God, The Angel of the Lord, and the emphasis of the early Church upon orthodox trinitarian theology and dogma. The excursus sets up the discussion of the ancient church and the theological debates between the Apostolic Fathers, the Apologists, the Heresiologists such as Irenaeus of Lyon, and the doctrinal controversies in the Arian Crisis, the Council of Nicaea, Alexandria versus the Syrian Church, and the Eastern versus the Western Church. The expected key figures of the ancient church are all dealt with in detail, person by person, winding up with the Cappadocian Fathers and the finalization of trinitarian orthodoxy. Part two of this volume addresses Systematic Theology and issues dealing with the internal life of God, between the three persons. The themes are those of the Nicene Creed: divine essence, Logos, persons, natures, wills, passion, and cognition. He cites Augustine, Aquinas, Barth, Rahner, and E. Jungel. While his prose are imaginative and highly readable, Ladario's approach is thoroughly scholastic and orthodox...

A Theology of Mission of Authur T. Pierson and his Ministry

A Theology of Mission of Authur T. Pierson and his Ministry

Being Church in the Midst of Pagodas

AbstractThe Protestant Christian existence in Myanmar can be characterized by three significant phases: the first phase led by foreign missionaries; the second led by foreign missionary-trained local pastors; and the current third phase in which the local Christian churches need to be theologically and missiologically rooted. Despite its two hundred years of existence in the nation (since Adoniram Judson’s mission in 1813), Christianity remains alienated in society, primarily because of Christians’ exclusion from the national religion, Buddhism. Taking the third phase as a major concern for a theology of mission in the twenty-first century in Myanmar’s pluralistic context, where the churches exist in the midst of the Buddhist pagodas, I will propose a theology ofembraceas a missiological response to the problem ofexclusion.

Augustine on redemption in Genesis 1�3

Many theologians, including those concerned with theology of mission, frame the dramaof God�s story and mission (missio Dei) through the three major acts of creation, fall andredemption. Others add that the new creation ought to be regarded as a fourth act. Althoughthis framework describes the entire biblical narrative, creation, fall and the hope of redemptionare, of course, quite present in the first three chapters of Genesis. In this article, I endeavouredto engage with the commentaries of the African church father Augustine of Hippo (354�430 CE) to grasp his thoughts on redemption in Genesis 1�3. In his Genesis works, Augustinewas primarily concerned with clarifying the doctrine of creation and, relatively speaking, hadfar less to say about redemption. That said, Augustine was, quite interested with Scripture�sstory of redemption in his magnum opus De Civitate Dei [City of God]. Thus, in this article, Iexplored two major questions: firstly, why did Augustine pay so little attention to redemptionin Genesis 1�3? Secondly, how did he articulate and relate redemption in these chapters? Itwas shown that whilst his primary focus was to articulate creation, his thoughts on redemptionwere probably limited some because of the insufficiency of his Old Latin Bible translation andperhaps because of other distractions in ministry. Furthermore, it was argued that Augustine�sdoctrine of redemption was a subset of his discussion on creation � specifically, that the secondAdam (Christ) brought new life to God�s image bearers affected by the fall of the first Adam.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: My aim was to establish Augustine�sthoughts on redemption as a point of dialogue for theologians of mission endeavouring toclarify a theology of mission. As most mission theologians do not consult Augustine in theirwork and as most early Christian scholars do not read Augustine missionally, this studyoffered fresh insights for both groups of scholars.

Lack of Faith and Its Effect on the Validity of the Matrimonial Consent of the Baptized

In this article, the author examines the lack of faith and its effects on the validity of the matrimonial consent of the baptized. The question can be presented as follows: If one lacks faith in marriage as a sacrament, how can he or she celebrate the sacrament validly? He starts first by recalling certain principles of the papal magisterium which then have been elaborated in Rotal jurisprudence. The question as such is not new: it was also alluded to in certain propositions discussed by the International Theological Commission in their meeting of 1977. The available information on the two synods on the family (2014 and 2015) seems to indicate that there is a renewed or ongoing interest in the theme.