Abstract
“Heaven, Earth, and Human” by Jae-Im Kim.
At roughly the same time as the rise of the modern missionary movement, academic fields were being divided up into increasingly specialized disciplines as the modern research university gained ascendency in Europe and North America. Theology also had to respond to this trend, and Schleiermacher’s pioneering proposal for dividing theology into philosophical, historical, and practical tasks eventually gave way to the fourfold paradigm of biblical, historical, systematic/doctrinal, and practical theology, which is still common in seminaries and divinity schools. In his Brief Outline, Schleiermacher locates his “theory of mission” under practical theology, but elsewhere he describes mission as an aspect of historical theology and also relates it to philosophical ethics. While addressing a moment and context very different from our own, Schleiermacher presciently saw mission as an integrating factor for theology.
Some of us go further to claim that intercultural mission helps keep theology alive, “as a bird in flight,” to borrow a famous image from Karl Barth. However, with some notable exceptions, most theologians have been reticent to address the daunting theme of mission in the context of world Christianity. Missiologists often have found friendlier conversation partners among anthropologists and historians than with theologians. Yet, while remaining open to a broad range of nontheological disciplines, the practice and theory of Christian mission must never lose its core relationship to theology.
We come now to our current issue, which opens with Stephen Bevans’s extended review of John Flett’s Apostolicity: The Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective. Bevans calls Flett’s Habilitationsschrift “a landmark work that deserves serious attention not only from missiologists but also from systematic theologians.” We have given this piece first place because Flett’s fresh proposal situates mission or missional theology within a Christocentric and dynamic understanding of apostolicity, which gives serious consideration to the rich cultural diversity of world Christianity. It is our hope that Flett’s approach to apostolicity will invite a lively discussion about what it means to communicate the Gospel across cultures today, and we look forward to hosting that discussion in future issues of the IBMR.
Following this theological discussion, Kenneth Ross and Todd Johnson introduce their forthcoming ten-volume Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity, which will accompany their acclaimed Atlas of Global Christianity (2009). They describe the background, scope, and methodology behind this ambitious work and outline the first volume, on Sub-Saharan Africa, which is due out this spring. Next, Steve Sang-Cheol Moon presents the latest demographics on missions from Korea, referencing survey research on the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. Along with respondents to the survey, we also need to ponder what the fusion of physical, biological, and digital technologies in a “transhuman” era might portend for mission practice.
Janet Carroll reports on the Maryknoll China Educators and Formators Project, which recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with a keynote by Robert Schreiter entitled “The Universal Church and the Church in China: Reconciliation in Unity.” To date, this impressive project has enabled advanced training for 138 church personnel from forty-nine dioceses in China. Continuing with China, Soojin Chung’s essay “The Missiology of Pearl Sydenstricker Buck” offers a nuanced evaluation of the life and thinking of this former Presbyterian missionary who got caught in the crossfire of the fundamentalist-modernist debates of the 1930s.
Edward Smither’s article on Cyril, a ninth–century Byzantine theologian and missionary, considers Cyril’s approach to theological dialogue with Muslims and Jews and, from these ancient encounters, suggests some principles for Christian engagements with Muslims today. Gary Burge’s legacy article on Kenneth E. Bailey (1930–2016) outlines the career and contributions of a gifted New Testament scholar, professor, and Presbyterian missionary, whose long years in the Middle East enabled him to open up the cultural background of the New Testament in a way that has decisively shaped subsequent biblical scholarship. Charles Van Engen’s pilgrimage in mission weaves together his childhood as a missionary kid in Chiapas, Mexico, education in the United States and the Netherlands, and calling to a distinguished career that continues to exemplify a seamless integration of mission practice and theology, leadership training, and church administration. We conclude with Helen Boursier’s piece that calls U.S. churches to ally with Central Americans fleeing violence, a call that is especially fitting in light of current events.
