Abstract
Exploring local articulations of theology and mission, the July issue of International Bulletin of Mission Research addresses a multitude of Christian contexts around the globe, including the Congo, Korea, Ghana, the UK, and Germany. The five articles demonstrate a variety of ways that scholars today approach the fields of Mission Studies and/or World Christianity as the contributors consider the role of biography and story in representing Christian history, the relationship of African churches to their missionary forebears and to newer charismatic movements, and the missional practices of both returned missionaries and long-established churches in Europe.
In the first article, Anicka Ruth Fast and Michele Sigg propose a new methodology for world Christian history that centers upon the collaborative work of local bibliography-writing and relational efforts to incorporate overlooked stories and empower Global South Christians—particularly in Africa—to write themselves into the history of their own Western missionary-initiated churches. The authors describe the series of bibliography writers’ workshops that they initiated with Mennonites in DR Congo under the auspices of the Dictionary of African Bibliography (DACB) and expanded to Ghana, Egypt, and Kenya. These intensive, ecumenical small-group workshops have led both to a new series of World Christianity textbooks and to a versatile set of eight principles for approaching Christian history. This work of researching, writing, and receiving the stories of Christian kin and forebears is, according to Fast and Sigg, “the work of the church in mission.” Their method is applicable far beyond the DACB’s focus on Africa and has potential to transform the study of World Christianity and mission.
The second article, by Samuel Kofi Boateng Nkrumah-Pobi, raises a similar concern for the way that African Christians—this time Ghanaian Presbyterians—navigate between the traditions of historic mission churches and rising charismatic, prophetic, and Pentecostal movements. The article focuses on the ways that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) has embraced neo-prophetism since the 1960s, while striving to still remain rooted in its Reformed theological tradition. Based on interviews with PCG members of various ages living in both rural and urban contexts, Nkrumah-Pobi identifies a tension between those (typically younger) members who are strongly drawn to charismatic practices and those members (generally of an older generation) who emphasize the need to maintain Presbyterian roots. He suggests that through continued development of its Bible Study and Prayer Group model the church can achieve a hybrid identity that bridges these two impulses.
In the third article, Volker Küster elevates the importance of story in Christian history and theology in ways that resonate with Fast and Sigg’s proposal. Küster focuses on the significance of Story Theology in the work of Korean theologian Suh Nam-Dong, who emphasized the minjung (common people or marginalized masses) as subjects of history and producers of theology. The article introduces storytelling as Suh’s chosen theological method, highlighting the ways that he incorporated different genres of story (classics, contemporary literature, real-life accounts) to give expression to the people’s suffering. Küster puts Suh into dialogue with the well-known Taiwanese theologian C.S. Song, who engaged with both Story Theology and Minjung Theology, and he argues that the work of these two theologians strongly intersected because of their attention to the stories of the oppressed. Finally, recognizing the need (which Sigg and Fast also name as a central dilemma for World Christianity) to confront gender biases in Asian contextual theology, the article concludes with attention to the ways that feminist theologians Kwok Pui-Lan and Joo Me Hur reconstruct the stories of Chinese and Korean women.
The last two contributions turn to European contexts that have been shaped by post-colonial and missionary legacies. In the fourth article, Anthony J. Stiff revisits the legacy of Lesslie Newbigin, the British theologian and missionary in India who is best known for the writings he published after his return to the UK addressing the church’s mission to bring the gospel to Western, post-Christian culture. Stiff identifies Newbigin’s missional narrative spirituality as a key aspect of his work that has been neglected. The importance of story emerges here, as well, in the article’s analysis of Newbigin’s attention to God’s story in scripture and its formative power for the church and individual disciples. Stiff situates Newbigin’s work within Narrative Theology by examining his engagements with Hans Frei and George Lindbeck. Then, looking to Newbigin’s three most widely-read books, the article underlines the missional character of his narrative spirituality (particularly when commenting on interfaith, cross-cultural, and sociological encounters) and his vision of the church sharing the gospel through performative spirituality.
Finally, Tobias Johannes Schuckert’s article engages the subject of mission in and from Germany by exploring the ways that the contemporary Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg understands and practices mission. Schuckert explains the historical context of this region in southwestern Germany and the demographic changes brought by immigration since the 1970s. Such changes have influenced the Evangelical-Lutheran Church’s approach to mission, as articulated in a 2024 document titled “Understanding Mission and Living as Church.” Schuckert analyzes the document as the product of two dominant and opposing factions within the denomination, one that defines mission as social action (including partnership and decolonization) and another that emphasizes evangelism (including preaching and invitation to conversion). How Christians think about mission in twenty-first century Europe, the article indicates, will depend on how well the church navigates such theological and ideological tensions.
Read together, the articles presented here offer an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between Mission Studies and World Christianity and to consider the variety of methodologies available to contemporary scholars in these fields. Generative questions emerge from this research: How do Global South Christians in historic mission churches produce theology and understand their own histories? What does mission look like within Western societies? To what extent are World Christianity and Mission Studies distinct and to what extent do these areas of study overlap? And, whether focusing on missional practices, contextual theology, or Christian history, how might our own scholarship incorporate storytelling to give voice to the minjung, to women, and to others who have been marginalized? With the rich variety of scholarship in this issue pointing to the realities and possibilities for studying mission and World Christianity today, it is my great pleasure to write this first editorial of my tenure on the IBMR Editorial Board.