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What Is Mission Theology?
-Charles Van Engen
van Engen, Charles. (1996). Mission on the Way; Issues
in Mission Theology. Introduction; What is Mission Theology? Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker
Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group: 17-31. (c) 1996
The introduction will briefly define what mission theology is and then proceed to examine five of its
essential characteristics: mission theology seeks to be multidisciplinary, integrative, definitional,
analytical, and truthful. But first a note regarding the rise of mission theology as a separate
discipline.
For the past thirty years mission theology has taken a backseat to mission practice, which, after the
two world wars and particularly in the 1960s, began to borrow heavily from the social sciences:
sociology, anthropology, linguistics, economics, politics, statistics, sociology of religion, and so
forth. Whether Roman Catholic, Orthodox, conciliar, evangelical, or Pentecostal/charismatic, the
major missiological agendas that dominated the scene after the early 1960s dealt primarily with
the strategy and practice of mission. Regardless of the theological tradition, missiology concerned
itself with a host of activist issues and agendas like the role of the church (its clergy, structures, and
members) in the mission enterprise, relevant economic and sociopolitical action, liberation,
evangelism, church growth, relief and development, Bible translation, theological education,
mission-church partnerships, church-to-church sharing of resources, dialogue with people of other
faiths, and the relation of faith and culture. Unfortunately, in the midst of such busy global
activism, the deeper questions of mission theology were too seldom asked. During the last ten
years this has begun to change, and people of all theological stripes in mission today arereexamining theological presuppositions that underlie the mission enterprise.
The discipline that reflects on these presuppositions is theology of mission or mission
theology.1
Prior to the 1960s, a number of prominent thinkers like Gisbert Voetius, Josef Schmidlin,
Gustav Warneck, Karl Barth, Karl Hartenstein, Martin Kahler, Walter Freytag, Roland Allen, Hendrik
Kraemer, J. H. Bavinck, W. A. Visser't Hooft, Max Warren, Olav Myklebust, Bengt Sundkler, Carl
Henry, and Harold Lindsell reflected on the theological issues of mission. However, if we seek to
find theology of mission as a separate discipline with its own elements, methodology, scholars, and
focuses, we find that theology of mission as such really began only in the early 1960s through the
work of Gerald Anderson. In 1961 Anderson edited The Theology of the Christian Mission, acollection of essays which I consider to be the first text of the discipline.
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Ten years later, in the Concise Dictionary of the Christian World Mission, Anderson defined the
main concerns of theology of mission as "the basic presuppositions and underlying principles which
determine, from the standpoint of Christian faith, the motives, message, methods, strategy and
goals of the Christian world mission. . . . The source of mission is the triune God who is himself a
missionary. . . . In this 'post-Constantinian' age of church history, mission is no longer understood
as outreach beyond Christendom, but rather as 'the common witness of the whole church, bringing
the whole gospel to the whole world'" (Neill et al. 1971,594).2
Mission Theology as Multidisciplinary
Mission theology is a difficult enterprise because its object of reflection is the entire field of
missiology, which itself is a multi- and interdisciplinary enterprise. For the sake of brevity, this
section will graphically represent and simply state a series of short propositions that describe the
multidisciplinary enterprise that is missiology and the way mission theology interfaces with it.
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Figure 2
Missiology as a Multidisciplinary Discipline
1. In the first place, missiology is a unified whole; it is a discipline in its own right, centered in Jesus
Christ and his mission (see figure 1). As the church participates in the mission of Jesus Christ, it
participates in God's mission in God's world through the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. While missiology is known to be a unified discipline, it is also a multi- disciplinary discipline
(see figure 2). As a multidisciplinary discipline, missiology draws from many areas of skill, cognate
disciplines, and bodies of literature.3
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3. Mission theology helps us clarify our proximity to or distance from the center, Jesus Christ (see
figure 3), and asks whether there is a point beyond which the cognate disciplines may no longer be
helpful or biblical.
4. Mission theology helps us reflect on the central idea (the habitus) which
integrates and motivates our missiology (see figure 4).4
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5. Mission theology helps us integrate who we are, what we know, and what we do in mission. It
helps us bring together and relate to the cognate disciplines of missiology our faith relationship
with Jesus Christ, our spirituality, our consciousness of God's presence, the church's theological
reflection throughout the centuries, a constantly new rereading of Scripture, our hermeneutic of
God's world, our sense of participation in God's mission, and the ultimate purpose and meaning of
the church (see figure 5).
6. Mission theology helps us move continually between the center and the outer limits of the
multiple cognate disciplines of missiology as we constantly seek integration, deepened
understanding, and mutual enrichment of the various disciplines as one discipline - missiology (see
figure 6).
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7. Mission theology serves to question, clarify, integrate, and expand the presuppositions of the
various cognate disciplines of missiology. In doing so, mission theology is a discipline in its own
right, yet it is not merely one of the petals alongside the others, so to speak, for it fulfils its function
only as it interacts with all of them (see figure 7).
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Mission Theology as Integrative
When mission happens, all the various cognate disciplines are occurring simultaneously. So
missiology must study mission not from the point of view of abstracted and separated parts, but
from an integrative perspective that attempts to see the whole all at once. One of the most fruitful
ways to do this involves perceiving missiology as the interlocking of three circles that bring
together all the various cognate disciplines we mentioned above (see figure 8). Theology of mission
encompasses three arenas: biblical and theological presuppositions and values (A) are applied to
the enterprise of the ministry and mission of the church (B), and are set in the context of specific
activities carried out in particular times and places (C).5
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The reader will see that the three circles are brought together by means of an integrating theme
that constitutes the central idea interfacing all three circles. The integrating theme might be the
people of God, reconciliation, the cross, compassion, church growth, or the glory of God (for other
examples see figure 4). It is selected on the basis of being contextually appropriate and significant,
biblically relevant and fruitful, and missionally active and trans- formational. It will help hold our
various ideas together - particularly when we are moving from circle A to circle B, that is, from a
rereading of Scripture to praxeological action-reflection in order to discover the missiological
implications of our rereading of Scripture.
To explicate the three-arena nature of the discipline, it will be helpful to speak of theology of
mission rather than mission theology. First, note that theology of mission is theology(circle A)
because fundamentally it involves reflection about God. It seeks to understand God's mission,
God's intentions and purposes, God's use of human instruments in God's mission, and God's
working through God's people in God's world.6
Thus theology of mission deals with all the
traditional theological themes of systematic theology - but it does so in a way that differs from how
systematic theologians have worked down through the centuries. The difference arises from the
multidisciplinary missiological orientation of its theologizing.
In addition, because of its commitment to remain faithful to God's intentions, perspectives, and
purposes, theology of mission shows a fundamental concern over the relation of the Bible to
mission. It attempts to allow Scripture not only to provide the foundational motivations for
mission, but also to question, shape, guide, and evaluate the missionary enterprise?7
Second, theology of mission is "theology of"a specific missional context (circle C). In contrast to
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much systematic theology, here we are dealing with an applied theology. Because of its
applicational nature theology of mission at times looks like what some would call pastoral or
practical theology. This type of theological reflection focuses specifically on a set of particular is-
sues-those having to do with the mission of the church in its context.
Theology of mission draws its incarnational nature from the ministry of Jesus, and always happens
in a specific time and place. Thus circle C involves the missiological use of all the social-science
disciplines that help us understand the context in which God's mission takes place. We begin by
borrowing from sociology, anthropology, economics, urbanology, the study of the relation of
Christian churches to other religions, psychology, the study of the relation of church and state, and
a host of other cognate disciplines to understand the specific context in which we are doing our
theology-of-mission reflection. Such contextual analysis moves us, secondly, to a more particular
understanding of the context in terms of a hermeneutic of the setting in which we are ministering.
This in turn, thirdly, calls us to hear the cries, see the faces, understand the stories, and respond to
the vital needs and hopes of the persons who are an integral part of that context.
A part of this analysis today includes the history of the way the church in its mission has interfaced
with a particular context down through history. The attitudes, actions, and events of the church's
mission that occurred in that context prior to our particular reflection will color in profound and
surprising ways the present and the future of our own missional endeavors. Thus we will find some
scholars dealing with the history of theology of mission.8 While not especially interested in the
theological issues as such, they are concerned about the effects of mission theology upon mission
activity in a particular context. They will often examine the various pronouncements made by
church and mission gatherings (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, ecumenical, evangelical, Pentecostal,
and charismatic) and ask questions, sometimes polemically, about the results for missional
action.9 The documents resulting from these gatherings become part of the discipline of theology
of mission.
Third, theology of mission is specially oriented toward and for mission by the faith community
(circle B). The most basic reflection in this arena is found in the many books, journals, and other
publications dealing with the theory of missiology itself.10
However, neither missiology nor theology
of mission can be allowed to restrict itself to reflection only. As Johannes Verkuyl (1978, 6, 18) has
stated, "Missiology may never become a substitute for action and participation. God calls for
participants and volunteers in his mission. In part, missiology's goal is to become a 'service station'
along the way. If study does not lead to participation, whether at home or abroad, missiology has
lost her humble calling. . . . Any good missiology is also a missiologia viatorum - 'pilgrimmissiology.'"
Theology of mission, then, must eventually emanate in biblically informed and contextually
appropriate missional action. If our theology of mission does not emanate in informed action, we
are merely a "resounding gong or a clanging cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1). Intimate connection of
reflection with action is absolutely essential for missiology. At the same time, if our missiological
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action does not itself transform our reflection, our great ideas may prove irrelevant or useless, and
sometimes even destructive or counterproductive.
So the missional orientation that comes forth as a fruit of our theology of mission must translate
into action. And missional action always occurs in a context. This brings us back to circle C - and our
pilgrimage of mission-on-the-way begins again to reflect on a hermeneutic of the context, which in
turn calls for a rereading of Scripture that flows forth into new missional insights and action.
One of the most helpful ways to interface reflection and action is by way of the process known as
"praxis." Among the different understandings of this process,11
Orlando Costas's formulation (1976,
8) is one of the most constructive:
Missiology is fundamentally a praxeological phenomenon. It is a critical reflection that takes place
in the praxis of mission. . . . [It occurs] in the concrete missionary situation, as part of the church's
missionary obedience to and participation in God's mission, and is itself actualized in that situation.
. . . Its object is always the world, ... men and women in their multiple life situations. . . . Inreference to this witnessing action saturated and led by the sovereign, redemptive action of the
Holy Spirit, . . . the concept of missionary praxis is used. Missiology arises as part of a witnessing
engagement to the gospel in the multiple situations of life, to proclaim by word and deed the
coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ; this task is achieved by means of the church's
participation in God's mission of reconciling people' to God, to themselves, to each other, and to
the world, and gathering them into the church through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ by the
work of the Holy Spirit with a view to the transformation of the world as a sign of the coming of the
kingdom in Jesus Christ.
The concept of praxis helps us understand that not only the reflection, but profoundly the action aswell, is part of a theology-on-the-way that seeks to discover how the church may participate in
God's mission in God's world. The action is itself theological, and serves to inform the reflection,
which in turn interprets, evaluates, critiques, and projects new understanding in transformed
action. Thus the interweaving of reflection and action in a constantly spiraling pilgrimage offers a
transformation of all aspects of our missiological engagement with our various contexts. The
mission theologian takes the biblical text (circle A) utterly seriously.
It is equally true, as Johannes Verkuyl (1978, 6) has said, that "if study does not lead to
participation, . . . missiology has lost her humble calling." Thus we find that theology of mission is a
process of reflection and action involving a movement from the biblical textto thefaithcommunityin its context. By focusing our attention on an integrating theme, we encounter new
insights as we reread Scripture from the point of view of a contextual hermeneutic. These new
insights can then be restated and lived out as biblically informed, contextually appropriate
missional actions of the faith community in the particularity of time, worldview, and space of each
context in which God's mission takes place.
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Mission Theology as Definitional
One of the most crucial yet frustrating tasks of mission theology is to assist missiology in defining
the terms it uses. And within this enterprise the most central question has to do with how one may
define "mission" itself. What is mission? and what is not mission? The reader will notice that nearly
every chapter in this book will deal in some way or other with this question and its implications.
For the sake of brevity, and in the hope of helping the reader more fully understand subsequent
chapters, let me offer my own preliminary definition of mission:
Mission is the people of God intentionally crossing barriers
from church to non-church, faith to non-faith,
to proclaim by word and deed
the coming of the kingdom of God
in Jesus Christ;
this task is achieved by means of the church's participation
in God's mission of reconciling people
to God, to themselves, to each other, and to the world,
and gathering them into the church
through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ
by the work of the Holy Spirit
with a view to the transformation of the world
as a sign of the coming of the kingdom
in Jesus Christ.
Mission Theology as Analytical
The mission enterprise is complex enough just in terms of its practice. It becomes more complex
when we begin to examine the host of theological assumptions, meanings, and relations that
permeate that practice. For this reason, mission theologians have found it helpful to partition their
task into smaller segments. We noticed that Gerald Anderson's definition of mission uses the terms
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"faith, motives, message, methods, strategy, and goals." Similarly, in analyzing Eastern Orthodox
Mission Theology Today(1987) James Stamoolis organizes his work around "the historical
background, the aim, the method, the motives, and the liturgy" of mission as it takes place among
and through the Eastern Orthodox.
However, there is another way in which mission theologians have classified the various aspects of
their task. This method stresses the fact that mission is missio Dei - itis God's mission. So one finds
mission theologians asking about God's mission (missio Dei),12
mission as it occurs among humans
and utilizes human instrumentality (missio hominum), missions as they take many forms through
the endeavors of the churches (missiones ecclesiarum),13
and mission as it draws from and impacts
global human civilization (missio politica oecumenica).14
The missio Dei, which is singular, is pure in its motivation, means, and goals, for it derives from the
nature of God. The missio hominum is simultaneously just and sinful, related to fallen humanity,
and always mixed as to its motivations, means, and goals. The missiones ecclesiarum are plural
because of the multiplicity of the activities of the churches, the lack of unity among them, and the
mixture of centripetal (gathering) activities with centrifugal (sending) activities; another factor is
that their shape is heavily influenced by what is going on within the churches and the Christians
who form them. Finally, the missio politica oecumenica pertains to God's concern for the nations,
God's interaction through God's people with the civilizations, cultures, politics, and human
structures of this world, and the way Christ's kingdom mission always calls into question the
kingdoms of this world.
These are important distinctions. And a final one needs to be made. Mission is also both missio
uturorum and missio adventus. Missio futurorum has to do with the predictable results of God's
mission as it takes place in human history. Thus missio futurorum extrapolates into the future the
natural human results of the missions of the churches in the midst of world history. But the story of
mission is incomplete if it stops there. We must also include missio adventus. Adventus is the
inbreaking of God, of Jesus Christ in the incarnation, of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, of the Holy
Spirit in and through the church. Missio adventus is, then, God's mission as it brings unexpected
surprises, radical changes, new directions, almost unbelievable transformation in the midst of
human life: personal, social, and structural. God works in the world through both missio
uturorum and adventus. And in sorting out the theological issues of mission theology the mission
theologian needs constantly to be asking about their difference and their interrelation.
Once we have seen the two ways of classifying the aspects of mission theology, we will want to
bring the two systems together. I have attempted to do this in a "Working Grid of Mission
Theology" (see Figure 9). Notice that at each horizontal level of the grid there are at least five
different types of questions to be asked; for example, in regard to the motives of mission, there are
God's motivation, human motivation, the motivations of the churches, motivations in relation to
global civilization, and motivation in terms ofmissio futurorum as distinguished
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from adventus.Notice also that one can work vertically, asking, for example, how missio Dei, in
contrast with the other vertical columns, informs the motives, means, methods, and goals of
mission.
Clearly no one missiologist can do all that is represented by this grid. That is not necessary. Only
one or two of the many boxes may represent the area to investigate in a particular context at a
particular moment and in relation to specific actions of mission. However, I have been discovering
that the grid can both offer us simplicity of analysis by differentiating the topics to explore and
point to the complexity of the whole enterprise. My students and I have begun to see that almost
every master's thesis or doctoral dissertation in missiology naturally falls primarily into one of the
squares. Yet when the researcher begins to reflect in terms of mission theology as related to that
one narrow area, the investigation leads naturally to questions about many of the other areas
represented by the grid.
Missio Missio
Missio Missiones Politica Futurorum/
Missio Dei Hominum Ecclesiarum Oecumenica Adventus
Mission
Context
Agents of
Mission
Motives of
Mission
Means of
Mission
Methods of
Mission
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Goals of
Mission
Results of
Mission
Centripetal!
Centrifugal
Activities
Utopia/Future
Hope
Presence
Proclamation
Persuasion
Incorporation
Structures
Partnerships
Power
Prayer
Praise
Other?
Figure 9
Working Grid of Mission Theology
Mission Theology as Truthful
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In the social sciences, and in fact in all scholarly enterprises, one of the most important questions
has to do with the basis On which One can determine the validity and reliability of one's
investigation. In the social sciences that have heavily impacted missiology, normally the concept of
validity has to do with the question, "How can we be sure that we are collecting the right data in
the right way?" The concept of reliability, on the other hand, is understood to address the
question, "How can we be sure that if the same approach were taken again, the same data would
be discovered?"
However, in evangelical mission theology these questions are not the right ones. For the mission
theologian is not particularly concerned about the quality of the empirical data nor the
repeatability of the process so as to yield identical results. In fact, the opposite is true. Given that
the mission theologian studies God's mission, the data should always be new (and will sometimes
call into question earlier data), and the results should often be surprising.
Evangelical mission theology, therefore, offers a particular way of recognizing acceptable research.
The question of validity must be transformed into one oftrust, and the matter of reliability must be
seen as one oftruth. Thus these are the two major groups of methodological questions facing the
mission theologian:
Trust
Did the researcher read the right authors, the accepted sources?
Did the researcher read widely enough to gain a breadth of perspectives on the issue?
Did the researcher read other viewpoints correctly?
Did the researcher understand what was read?
Are there internal contradictions either in the use (and understanding) of the authors or in their
application of the issue at hand?
Truth
Is there adequate biblical foundation for the statements being affirmed?
Is there an appropriate continuity of the researcher's statements with theological affirmations
made by other thinkers down through the history of the church?
Where contradictions or qualifications of thought arise, does the mission theologian's work
adequately support the particular theological directions being advocated in the study?
Are the dialectical tensions and seeming contradictions allowed to stand, as they should, givenwhat we know and do not know of the mystery of God's revealed hiddenness as it impacts our
understanding of missio Dei?
These methodological questions lead to specific criteria to evaluate whether the result of mission
theology's work as it interfaces with missiology is acceptable:
Revelatory - Acceptable mission theology is grounded in Scripture.
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Coherent - It holds together, is built around an integrating idea.
Consistent - It has no insurmountable glaring contradictions, and is consistent with other truths
known about God, God's mission, and God's revealed will.
Simple - It has been reduced to the most basic components of God's mission in terms of the specific
issue at hand.Supportable - It is logically, historically, experimentally, praxeologically affirmed and supported.
Externally confirmable - Other significant thinkers, theological communities, or traditions lend
support to the thesis being offered.
Contextual - It interfaces appropriately with the context.
Doable - Its concepts can be translated into missional action that in turn is consistent with the
motivations and goals of the mission theology being developed.
Transformational - The carrying out of the proposed missional action would issue in appropriate
changes in the status quo that reflect biblical elements of the missio Dei.
Productive of appropriate consequences - The results of translating the concepts into missional
action would be consistent with the thrust of the concepts themselves, and with the nature and
mission of God as revealed in Scripture.
Theology of mission is prescriptive as well as descriptive. It is synthetic (bringing about synthesis)
and integrational. It searches for trustworthy and true perceptions concerning the church's mission
that are based on biblical and theological reflection, seeks to interface with the appropriate
missional action, and creates a new set of values and priorities that reflect as clearly as possible the
ways in which the church may participate in God's mission in a specific context at a particular time.
When mission theology is abstracted from mission practice, it seems strange and too far removed
from the concrete places and specific people that are at the heart of God's mission. Mission
theology is at its best when it is intimately involved in the heart, head, and hand (being, knowing,
and doing) of the church's mission. It is a personal, corporate, committed, profoundly
transformational search for always new and more profound understanding of the ways in which
the people of God may participate more faithfully in God's mission in God's world.
Footnotes:
1. I see the two terms "theology of mission" and "mission theology" as interchangeable. However, I
am beginning to find "mission theology" more appropriate than "theology of mission." In the
introduction I will use "theology of mission," particularly in the section on the integrative function
of the discipline. But "mission theology" will increasingly become the dominant term in this
volume.
2. Anderson attributes this phrase to the 1963 Mexico City gathering of the Commission on World
Mission and Evangelism/World Council of Churches. See Orchard 1964, 175.
3. The list of cognate disciplines from which missiology draws to describe, understand, analyze, and
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prescribe the complex nature of mission is long. Those represented in the diagram are only
illustrative. A more complete list might include biblical studies, church history, mission history,
systematic theology, contextualization, cultural anthropology, linguistics and translation, sociology,
the study of other faiths, dialogue with other faiths, studies of women in mission, sociology of
religion, social psychology, urban studies/anthropology and sociocultural analysis of the city,
socioeconomic and political analysis, ecumenics and studies of the world church, statistics and
futurology, evangelism, the history of evangelism, church growth, studies of missionary
congregations, dynamics of cross-cultural communication, relief and development, discipleship,
spirituality and spiritual formation, leadership formation, structures for mission, mission
administration, theological education, congregational renewal, history of revivals, cross-cultural
counseling, preaching, the missionary family, psychological issues of many types, ecclesiastics and
the relationship of churches, mission organization, mission funding, mission
promotion/recruitment/personnel, the relation of church and state, nominalism and secularization,
and others.
4. Missiologists have differed in the integrating idea or phrase they have chosen to use as the
center of their missiology. Examples of integrating ideas would include the conversion of the
heathen, the planting of the church, and the glory of God (Gisbert Voetius), the Great Commission
(William Carey), the lostness of humanity (Pietism), the praise of God (Orthodox missiology), the
people of God (Vatican II), making disciples ofpanta ta ethne (Donald McGavran), the God of
history, God of compassion, God of transformation (David Bosch), the kingdom of God (Arthur
Glasser), and humanization (the World Council of Churches), Among other integrating concepts are
the pain of God, the cross, bearing witness in six continents, ecumenical unity, the covenant, and
liberation,
5. The three-arena nature of missiology is not original with me. A number of others, particularly
those who deal with contextualization from a missiological perspective, have highlightedsomething
similar. See, e.g., Nida 1960; Miguez-Bonino 1975; Coe 1976; Conn 1978; 1984; 1993a; 1993b;
Hiebert 1978; 1987; 1993; Glasser 1979b; Kraft 1979; 1983; Kraft and Wisley 1979; Fleming 1980;
Coote and Stott 1980; Schreiter 1985; Branson and Padilla 1986; Tippett 1987; Luzbetak 1988;
Shaw 1988; Gilliland, ed., 1989; Hesselgrave and Rommen 1989; San- neh 1989; William A. Dyrness
1990; Bevans 1992; and Jacobs 1993.
6. See, e.g., Niles 1962; Vicedom 1965; Taylor 1973; Verkuyl 1978, 163-204; and Stott 1979.7. See,
e.g., Glover 1946; G. Ernest Wright 1952; Gerald H. Anderson 1961; Boer 1961; Blauw 1962; Allen
1962a; George Peters 1972; Costas 1974a; 1982; 1989; De Ridder 1975; Stott 1975b; J. H. Bavinck
1977; Newbigin 1978; VerkuyI1978, ch. 4; Bosch 1978; 1991; 1993; Gilliland 1983; Van Rheenen
1983; William A. Dyrness 1983; Senior and Stuhlmueller 1983; Hedlund 1985; Spindler 1988;
Gnanakan 1989; Glasser 1992; and Van Engen 1992b; 1993. A combined bibliography drawn from
these works would offer an excellent resource for examining the relation of the Bible and mission.
8. See, e.g., Bassham 1979; Bosch 1980; Scherer 1987; 1993a; 1993b; Glasser and McGav- ran 1983;
Glasser 1985; Utuk 1986; Stamoolis 1987; and Van Engen 1990.
9. See, e.g., McGavran 1972a; 1972b; 1984; Johnston 1974; Hoekstra 1979; Hedlund 1981; and
Hesselgrave 1988. One of the most helpful recent compilations of such documents is Scherer and
Bevans 1992.
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10. Examples of some readily accessible works include Sundkler 1965; J. H. Bavinck 1977;
Verkuyl1978; Bosch 1980; 1991; Padilla 1985; Scherer 1987; Verstraelen 1988; Phillips and Coote
1993; and Van Engen et al. 1993. Clearly the most comprehensive work, which will be considered
foundational for missiology for the next decade, is Bosch 1991.
11. See, e.g., Robert McAfee Brown 1978, 50-51; Vidales 1979, 34-57; Spykman et al. 1988, xiv,
226-31; Schreiter 1985,17,91-93; Costas 1976, 8-9; Boff and Boff 1987, 8-9; Scott 1980, xv;
Leonardo Boff 1979, 3; Ferm 1986, 15; Padilla 1985, 83; Chopp 1986, 36-37, 115- 17,120-21;
Gutierrez 1984a, 19-32; 1984b, vii-viii, 50-60; and Clodovis Boff 1987, xxi-xxx.
12. Georg Vicedom brought the term missio Deito the attention of the world church before and
during the 1963 Mexico City meeting of the Commission on World Mission and Evange- lism/World
Council of Churches. See his Mission of God(1965).
13. The discussion in conciliar circles over whether to use "mission" or "missions," and the
subsequent change in the name of the International Review of Missions to International Review of
Mission, were the fruit of confusion between God's mission, which is one, and the enterprises of
the churches ("missions"), which are many.
14. See, e.g., VerkuyI1978, 394-402.
Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials by various contributors & Urban
Leadership Foundation, for The Encarnacao Training Commission. Last modified: July 2010