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Missional Theology’s Missing Ingredient
Abstract
Features of the “missional” conversation revolve around discussions of the ecclesial and divine mission. Largely an intra-Evangelical debate, with relevance to other traditions, this conversation has lacked representation from systematic theology. This article argues that the aim for diversity and listening to other voices that missiology excels at often stops short of seeing things as systematic theology might render them. The integrity of systematic theology’s voice as an exposition of the church’s confession renders structures that mark the manner of how gospel-exposition and mission really work insofar as the gospel defines things as they really are. As Christian theology claims Jesus’ lordship over all created realities, then, it functions to co-labor with the God of the Bible who is missionary and brings his people to participate in his action. Systematic theology then is missional in form, content, and aim, suggesting that mission is entirely what systematic theology is about.
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More than any other single invention, writing has changed the way people think (Ong 1982:78). As a result, literate learners often misunderstand the thought patterns and preferences of oral learners. Missionaries who are literate learners may overlook some of the most effective discipling practices in oral cultures. By viewing a funeral through the eyes of oral people, this article describes learning preferences for oral learners in order to reveal discipling practices that are more likely to transform oral learners to include songs, dances, rituals, dramas, stories, proverbs, and holistic development.
Cambridge Core - Theology - The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine - edited by Colin E. Gunton
The author argues that a closer and fresh reading of the Vatican II documents with an eye to the theme of mission might suggest that it is closer to the heart of the council's original intention than a cursory and dated reading might indicate. Indeed the church's mission is more urgent today than ever, given the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the Global South, massive migration to the Global North, and widespread secularism. Revisiting the council's documents can offer substantial help for developing a theology and practice for today's missionary church.
The author argues that a closer and fresh reading of the Vatican II documents with an eye to the theme of mission might suggest that it is closer to the heart of the council's original intention than a cursory and dated reading might indicate. Indeed the church's mission is more urgent today than ever, given the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the Global South, massive migration to the Global North, and widespread secularism. Revisiting the council's documents can offer substantial help for developing a theology and practice for today's missionary church.
This study explores the challenges and possibilities of using anthropological research methods in constructive systematic theology and ethics. This analysis is approached through a discussion of the methodological choices that the author has made in conducting her PhD research in an area that lacks the sources that are traditionally affiliated with systematic theology, written texts and documents. Aligning with a liberation theological call for listening to the voice of grassroots communities that may offer academia and society insights into promoting social justice, this study suggests that a gap that still exists between much of mainstream Western systematic theology and the liberation and postcolonial paradigms should be replaced by a critical, constructive dialogue. It is argued that as the center of gravity of Christianity has shifted to the Global South, Western academia needs to recognize the epistemological and methodological insights of theologians from the South. This analysis then continues to discuss the agency of a researcher who collects her or his data in the midst of a living community. In agreement with scholars such as Said and Appiah, this study highlights the subjective nature of any research and the need for the researcher to be aware of the factors that influence his or her perception. On a more practical level, the concepts of the Praxis Cycle and Grounded Theory as frameworks are introduced and demonstrated that these are of help in creating a functional way of combining anthropological and systematic theological approaches in order to do theology from below.
This article advocates improving the use of the social sciences in the field of missiology in the two main branches of American Protestantism, evangelical and mainline Christianity. The former branch needs to add sociology to the anthropology already being used in missiology and to stay in communication with these social scientific professional fields. The latter branch needs to add both sociology and anthropology to the theological-historical discipline already being used in missiology, especially in its theological seminaries. The reasons for the different approaches of the two branches are discussed. This is followed by recommendations to each branch for meeting the challenge of making a more effective use of the social sciences in aiding missiology to analyze the major shifts taking place in global religions, including Christianity. Notes on the potential contributions of the sociology of religion to missiology are added before concluding comments.
Proposals for the development of what has come to be called a missional hermeneutic reflect a range of basic notions about what such a hermeneutic is and how it affects biblical interpretation. In a set of recent conversations among biblical scholars, missiologists, and scholars in other theological fields, four distinct emphases can be observed for defining a missional hermeneutic: the missio Dei as the unitive narrative theme of the Bible, the purpose of biblical writings to equip the church for its witness, the contextual and missional locatedness of the Christian community, and the dynamic of the gospel's engagement with human cultures. In their convergence, these streams of emphasis provide foundations for the continuing development of a robust missional hermeneutic.
John Flett's proposal for a trinitarian understanding of the missio Dei that is rooted in the undivided being and act of God requires not only a theology of the church that cannot separate God's mission from the church's existence and purpose; it calls for a re-casting of the theological disciplines for the sake of missional formation of church leaders. For doctrinal and systematic theology, this would entail re-thinking the Nicene marks of the church. As a further step, Karl Barth's missional exposition of the gospel of reconciliation could prove to be the effective corrective to the missional reductionism of Western ecclesiologies.
This article examines the nature of systematic theology, arguing that systematicity is an intrinsic quality of all Christian theology, one stemming from the relationality of its subject matter, the Trinity and other things as they are related to the Trinity. The relationality of the divinely-created order reflects the ratio that is, on the Christian account, God ipse. Systematic theology is simply theology that reflects this ratio and the relations obtaining among creatures, and between creatures and their divine source, as well as the relationality of that source, the Persons of the Trinity.
Three types of systematic theology are distinguished, each with its own form, function, interests and location: ‘official’, produced by the institutional church; ‘ordinary’ theological reflection, engaged in by virtually all believers; professional-academic systematic theology. Viewed in the context of the theology of the church, official theology would benefit from a more realistic understanding of ordinary theologies. Academic systematic theology mediates between the other two, critically and constructively, and engages university disciplines likewise. It belongs within the sphere of the church but at some distance from the institution, and thus is usefully (though necessarily uneasily) located within the university.
- Chung
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