John Howard Yoder as a Mission Theologian Joon-Sik Park

he work of John Howard Yoder (1927–97) has been ing, and fragmentary church situation in the region. In that T influential in the fields of Christian ethics and theology. environment he argued for Christian unity as a biblical call and It is noteworthy that Yoder also wrote extensively in the field of imperative. mission throughout his denominational and academic career. Believing in the biblical basis for the unity of the church, His writings on mission and evangelism, however, have not Yoder actively participated in the World Council of Churches in received the attention those on pacifism and ethical methodol- various roles for more than two decades. As William Klassen has ogy have, partly because a significant portion of them either were stated, Yoder “opened up the world of the Anabaptists, espe- published in denominational popular journals or remained un- cially their hermeneutics, to the ecumenical church.”6 published. Yet Yoder deserves to be considered and studied as a mission theologian, for his acute insights and reflections on The Radical Reformation and Christian Mission mission illumine fundamental issues and would contribute greatly to current debates in missiology. In this article describing his Yoder faithfully and untiringly developed his missiology from a missionary involvement and examining some of the major themes radical Anabaptist vision. He stressed the fact that, of all the in his mission theology, I intend to portray Yoder as a mission churches of the Reformation, the Anabaptists alone renewed and theologian who consistently drew on the Scriptures and on the retained the essential missional character of the church. He Radical Reformation tradition for unique insight and an alterna- correlated the absence of missionary thinking and practice in the tive perspective on issues of mission and evangelism. magisterial Reformation with its bondage to the state and subse- quent provincialism. Yoder’s Missionary Involvement Trusting that resolute attention to the historic free-church tradition would illuminate Christian missionary thought, Yoder The Oak Grove Mennonite Church in Wooster, Ohio, where delineated some of its distinctive marks in relation to mission. Yoder was reared, was progressive in its theology and polity and, First, the Radical Reformation rejected the Constantinian at the same time, was deeply evangelical, emphasizing evange- ecclesiology that identified baptized Christians with true believ- lism and conducting regular revival meetings.1 According to his ers, insisting instead that the church must be distinguished from mother, Ethel, Yoder professed his personal faith in Christ at age the world. It recovered the crucial importance of voluntary twelve. While studying at Goshen College, he regularly engaged personal decision in Christian faith; when the element of volun- in door-to-door evangelism. An evangelism partner vividly de- tary commitment is lost, the church comes to have no concerns scribed Yoder’s participation in evangelistic ministry: “John and beyond its own membership.7 I walked the streets of the Locust Grove community in Elkhart, Second, Radical Reformation churches recovered the place Ind., every Sunday morning to share the Good News about Jesus. of the peace message in the witness of the church. For Yoder a With Bibles in hand, this very intelligent young man and I peace witness is not a sectarian peculiarity but “something very knocked on doors and sat with low-income, poorly educated, central to [and] always a part of the Gospel.”8 The credibility of wonderful people and shared our lives. He was able to do this in mission and evangelism is inseparably related with love of one’s a beautiful way. I wish you could have heard his comments and enemy as a component of the gospel message. In particular, mass prayers.”2 killing of non-Christians in a war at the call of a government is “a In 1948, a year after his graduation from Goshen College, disobedience in the field of missions.”9 Yoder applied for an assignment with the Mennonite Central Third, the recovery of the peace message in mission would Committee. He was accepted, and from 1949 through 1954 he dictate a missional posture and practices appropriate to the worked in France as director of postwar relief and social work in message. Centuries of colonial domination by Christian nations that country, supervising the work of two children’s homes. had built walls that old ways of mission could not surmount. Then, while studying full-time at the University of Basel in 1954– Yoder believed that the only possible way left was to “get under 57, he was charged with a relief program of the Mennonite Board the wall.”10 The cross simply cannot be proclaimed from a of Missions and Charities in Algeria, following that country’s position of domination and violence, but from that of service and 1954 earthquake.3 After returning to America in 1957, he served humility, which is a distinctively free-church way of carrying out as an administrative assistant for overseas missions at the Men- mission. nonite Board of Missions (1959–65), and then as associate con- sultant (1965–70).4 Evangelism, Discipleship, and Social Concern From 1959 to 1966 Yoder was involved as a mission strategist in the Mennonite mission in Nigeria. There he developed a new The integration of evangelism and discipleship is another mark kind of postcolonial mission strategy for southeastern Nigeria. of the Radical Reformation mission. Yoder insisted that evange- According to Wilbert Shenk, “Yoder’s gifts of penetrating analy- lism and the demands of discipleship should not be separated. It sis, theological acuity, wide acquaintance with both ecumenical is wrong “to relegate matters of ethical concern to secondary or and evangelical missions, and awareness of the literature of the derivative status,”11 since such dualism implies that conversion day were crucial to the process.”5 Particularly his understanding with regard to the substance of morality is either postponed or of ecumenism was highly relevant to the very conflictive, confus- considered of lesser importance. Moral conversion encompass- ing both the content of ethical obligation and radical obedient Joon-Sik Park is the E. Stanley Jones Associate Professor of World Evangelism, commitment should take place at the same time with spiritual Methodist Theological School in Ohio, located in Delaware, Ohio. conversion. Yoder’s claim that ethical content is not to be set

14 I NTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 30, No. 1 aside for the sake of numerical growth is still relevant for contem- “to go neither farther nor less far than existing agreement per- porary churches, which often become captive to the success mits.”20 In other words, a different degree of unity is required in mentality of our culture. accordance with the nature of each common task. Faithful to his Yoder also did not allow any dichotomy between evange- Radical Reformation tradition, Yoder also insisted that the real lism and social responsibility. Reflecting on Jesus’ practices of ecumenical action be carried out not by mission agencies and healing and feeding, he maintained that Jesus neither expected task forces but by local congregations. Actual local gatherings for nor looked for any particular kind of results based on his physical worship and business are the place where that unity must be and material aid; he simply acted out of compassion. The impera- tested and experienced. tive for every Christian is thus to care about all the needs of the neighbor, whether physical or spiritual. There should be separa- Interreligious Dialogue tion between charity and missionary intention; missionaries are not to expect even “a sympathetic hearing” for their message as Although Yoder wrote less about interfaith relations and dia- a result of material aid. For Yoder, “mission and service work logue than he did about ecumenism,21 the depth of his insights should both be done. Neither should be done alone and neither and his vigor with regard to the issue of interreligious dialogue should be done for the sake of the other.”12 are significant indeed. Carefully examining the challenges posed by the resurgence of other faiths and contemporary responses to Congregational Missiology them, Yoder sought to provide an alternative perspective faithful to his Radical Reformation tradition and to his belief in the Yoder’s most significant contribution to the field of mission in particularity of the Gospel. particular and to that of theology in general is his passionate call For Yoder, Christians’ view of other religions is at the for recovery of the communal dimension of the church as an deepest level “a reflection or a projection of our faith.”22 Since, ethical and missional reality.13 He states that the redemptive however, the church’s accommodation to pagan culture and work of God in Jesus is to be understood as “the calling of a religion, which had begun in the second century, led to new people . . . from which both personal conversion and missionary depths of unfaithfulness under Constantine in the fourth cen- instrumentalities are derived.” Therefore, “the distinctness of tury,23 Christianity’s true encounter with other religions should the church of believers is prerequisite to the meaningfulness of start with the disavowal of Constantine, recovering and clarify- the gospel message.”14 ing its own identity. Yoder believed that a rejection of For Yoder, peoplehood and mission cannot be separated; Constantinianism would fundamentally alter our perspective in each upholds the genuineness of the other. The mission of the interfaith dialogue, since Christendom was formed more by church is first and foremost to be and to remain the “peculiar other religious cultures than by the Bible. people” that God has called it to be. Since the community of The marks of a non-Constantinian perspective include “con- believers is the form of the mission, Yoder called for “ the congre- cern for the particular, historical, and therefore Jewish quality gational structure of the mission” rather than “the missionary and substance of New Testament faith in Jesus.”24 Yoder traced structure of the congregation.”15 In fact, the Great Commission the beginning of the fall of the church back even further than “does not authorize sending by the church; it is the church that Constantine to its separation from Judaism in the second century is sent.”16 and its denial of authentic continuity between Judaism’s particu- lar vision and its own.25 That separation and denial resulted in the Ecumenical Unity church’s loss of uniqueness and particularity. Thus, for Yoder, the clarification of identity means returning to the vision of Mark Nation perceptively pointed out that “one way to read Abraham—”a radically historical alternative to a religious [ab- Yoder is that his whole life demonstrated his commitment to a stract and universal] vision of [the] cosmos”26—which was later ‘special ecumenical vocation’ and, often, an embodiment of fulfilled by the particular historical figure Jesus of Nazareth. ‘ecumenical patience.’”17 Yoder firmly believed that the unity of The error of the Christendom mission was not that it tied the church is a scriptural command and that, where there is no itself too closely to Jesus but that in actuality it denied him in its unity, the Gospel itself is at stake. alliance with imperialism and the use of violence. Thus, the The kind of unity Yoder envisioned is not simple agreement corrective would be “not to talk less about Jesus and more about that evades the truth question; it is, first, reconciliation at the religion, but the contrary,” that is, to radicalize “the particular point of difference or division through dialogue, prerequisite to relevance of Jesus, enabling dialogue through the content of the which are “a mutually recognized authority” and “the willing- message: the love of the adversary, the dignity of the lowly, ness to move, to change positions.”18 True conversation seeks repentance, servanthood, the renunciation of coercion.”27 For ways to face differences clearly, accepting both the claims of Yoder, Christians’ ultimate contribution in interfaith dialogue is Christ upon each party and the authority of Scripture as the court to get out of the way so that people of other faiths might see Jesus of appeal. Second, the unity is to be supranational, not subservi- more clearly and concretely. ent to nationalism. Third, unity in ethical commitment is as Prerequisite to interfaith dialogue is affirmation of “the central as unity in Christian teaching and worship: “if there be uncoercible dignity of the interlocutor as person and one’s soli- one faith, one body, one hope, there must also be one obedi- darity . . . with him as neighbor.”28 Furthermore, we must accept ence.”19 Fourth, the unity sought is not “a common denomina- the vulnerability of the gospel message in the sense that it must tor,” since a merger based on the attainable consensus functions remain noncoercive if it is to be valid. With such a posture, simply on the level of business administration or efficiency and mission and dialogue are not mutually exclusive alternatives; not of ecclesiology. each finds its validity only in relation to the other. This is because With regard to cooperation in ministry among churches, “respect for the genuineness of dialogue demands in both direc- Yoder stated that the degree of communion and shared ministry tions that there be no disavowal in principle of my witness is to depend on the level of reached agreement. The principle is becoming an open option for the other.”29

January 2006 15 “As You Go”: Migration and Mission economic burdens of the Third World countries and the corre- sponding accountability and responsibility for them on the part The major themes of Yoder’s missiology are woven together of the Western churches. most integrally in his vision of “migration as mission.” As early Although Yoder rightfully called for disavowal of as 1961 Yoder advocated “migration” as a new way of mission Christendom and criticized its past imperial missional practices, and evangelism in the postcolonial era.30 First, in order to know he failed to point out positive elements in the missional legacy of another religion, Christians must go to reside where it is prac- Christendom. Not everything done and left by Christendom has ticed so as to learn its language and culture and to live and been negative. It can safely be said that, in the expansion of struggle through the differences and the distance between sys- Christianity, God still graciously worked in and through and in tems. In going to a foreign country as immigrants, missionaries spite of Christendom’s wrongful vision and ways of mission and would intend to be nationalized rather than expecting eventually evangelism.34 Yoder recognized the Third World as “the theater” to return to their home countries. Their own language and of God’s missionary purposes but failed to see it as now the culture would not last more than one generation. center of Christianity and its churches as the primary agent of Second, people can learn to know who Jesus is only if Christian mission. He legitimately lamented the failure of disciples of Jesus come to them. Yoder suggested that migrant Christendom. God in his providence, however, has worked even through the fallible instrument of Christendom to accomplish his larger and greater redemptive mission for humanity. For this we In Yoder’s missional praise him. writings we see an integral Conclusion interrelation of missiology, John H. Yoder critically addressed major themes of missiology ecclesiology, and ethics. from an Anabaptist vision, persistently providing a unique alternative perspective on them based on his understanding of the particular character of Jesus and of the Christian mission. He missionaries should go in numbers sufficient to create a function- consistently referred to the Scriptures and to the Radical Refor- ing Christian fellowship, “yet not so large [as] to create a self- mation tradition for insight on current issues of mission and sufficient cultural island of their own.”31 A lone missionary or a evangelism. In numerous ways Yoder argued convincingly that small group of scattered missionaries would not be able to form “a more resolute attention to Free Church orientation might a visible community whose life together and practices of recon- illuminate our missionary thought in more places than some ciliation and service could be observed by the surrounding would have expected.”35 society. In his mission theology Yoder attempts to recover the en- Third, the witness of missionary migrants could be more compassing totality of God’s vision of salvation, since “nothing penetrating and transformative than that of traditional missions. less than the whole will of God for the whole man can be the They would seek to support themselves rather than relying on burden of our mission.”36 In his missional writings we see an financial support from churches at home; they would be willing integral interrelation of missiology, ecclesiology, and ethics. The to live at the economic level of people they serve. Yoder believed church as a distinct ethical community is to experience, proclaim, that “part of our Christian witness can be made only by way of and witness to the new reality of human fellowship. Thus the economy,”32 that is, through an example of honesty and reliabil- distinction between church and mission is inadmissible; the ity. Migrating missionaries, by their involvement in the local presence of the church is to be the message as well as its medium. economy, would be able to make such witness through their It is crucially important that our practice of mission and evange- daily contacts in work and marketplace. lism not be separated from the biblically grounded vision of the faithful church. Yoder on the Third World We must also give careful heed to Yoder’s call to give the peace message its legitimate place in Christian mission. Respon- Yoder’s missiology does not, however, appear to appreciate fully sible Christian mission implies not only passive avoidance of the unique place of the Third World countries in God’s grand violence but also active prevention of its use to attain any end. If scheme of redemptive mission. In “The Third World and Chris- we consider any person or group from the perspective of tian Mission,” he agreed that we should take the Third World mission—that is, with concern for their being able to respond to seriously as the theater of God’s missionary purposes. However, the proclamation of Christ—then clearly “it is impossible to kill he concluded that the missionary situation of the faithful church anybody as a solution to an ethical problem.”37 in any age and any place—even in overchurched suburbia in In the face of the resurgence of other faiths, Yoder’s under- North America—is that of the “third world.” For Yoder, “third standing of the gospel truth as particular yet communicable world” thus becomes a mood, not a place. provides a refreshing, worthy alternative to traditional ap- His statement certainly has merit in the sense that, in any proaches. He would not subordinate particularity and identity to missionary context, the Gospel is to be proclaimed from a posi- universality and communicability. “Instead of seeking to escape tion not of power and strength but of weakness and vulnerabil- particular identity,” said Yoder, “what we need . . . is a better way ity. It fails to recognize with full seriousness, however, the to restate the meaning of a truth claim from within particular particularity and uniqueness of the cultures in the Third World identity.”38 The truth claim should, however, be expressed from countries and their concrete experiences of, and struggles against, within the language and thought-worlds that a people inhabit various forms of oppression. When Yoder said that “‘the third and be made with utmost respect for their culture and religion. world’ is the world of our mission wherever we be,”33 he was in Often interreligious dialogue is pursued by intellectuals on the danger of neglecting and ignoring the particular political and level of abstract religious systems; what we need in interfaith

16 I NTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 30, No. 1 dialogue is to be particular and local rather than being hierarchi- ness” or apparent success is not to be equated with the progress cal and institutional. of God’s kingdom. On the other hand, when the church is Understanding the Gospel as the message of God’s accep- faithful, even failures should not call into question God’s ulti- tance of weakness, Yoder advocated that the practice of mission mate victory. As Yoder emphatically stated, “That God’s cause and evangelism be rooted in faithfulness rather than in effective- will triumph was decided on Easter morning.” Therefore “we do ness. He called for restoration of trust in the weakness of the not realize [Jesus’] victory; we manifest it.”39 Few in the second Gospel, which is the mark of the power of God, as well as for half of the twentieth century were more eager and faithful than abandonment of the success mentality. On the one hand, churches Yoder in calling the attention of the people of God to this great today need to remember that short-term “discernible effective- victory. Notes 1. The following biographical sketch of Yoder is based upon two works 22. John H. Yoder, “The Christian View of Other Religions,” prepared by Mark Thiessen Nation: “The Ecumenical Patience and Vocation for a class “Theology of Mission” at the Associated Mennonite of John Howard Yoder: A Study of Theological Ethics” (Ph.D. diss., Biblical Seminaries, 1970, p. 1. For Yoder the issue of the uniqueness Fuller Theological Seminary, 2000) and “John Howard Yoder: of Christianity “calls for inward critique and not for self justification”; Mennonite, Evangelical, Catholic,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 72 “uniqueness is not a possession or an advantage, but a call, a (July 2003): 357–70. vulnerability” (“The Finality of Jesus Christ and Other Faiths,” 2. Geraldine Harder, “Who Is to Blame for Misconduct?” Mennonite collected material from lectures and essays reproduced in the fall of Weekly Review, July 23, 1992, quoted in Nation, “John Howard 1983 for the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries course, Yoder,” p. 365. “Ecclesiology in Missional Perspective,” pp. 25–26). 3. Based on his experiences in Algeria, Yoder wrote a series of five 23. Yoder’s criticism was not so much of Constantine himself as of the articles in the Gospel Herald: “Islam’s Special Challenge to Christian age he inaugurated, in which the church, now allied with the state, Mission,” December 31, 1957, pp. 1142–43; “Islam’s Challenge to began a systematic denial of the Gospel. Mennonites,” February 4, 1958, pp. 110–11; “Our First Three Years in 24. John H. Yoder, “The Disavowal of Constantine: An Alternative Algeria,” February 18, 1958, pp. 158–60; “The War in Algeria,” Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue,” in Aspects of Interfaith Dialogue: March 18, 1958, pp. 254–56; and “Missions and Material Aid in Tantur Yearbook, 1975–1976, ed. W. Wegner and W. Harrelson Algeria,” April 1, 1958, pp. 306–7. (Jerusalem: Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological 4. Yoder’s unpublished writings during his service for the Mennonite Studies, 1979), p. 50. mission board include “Outline Commentary on Matthew 28:16ff. 25. Yoder understands part of the character of the Radical Reformation and Acts 1:8” (1961), “Anabaptist Understanding of the Nature and to be “a different relationship to the Jewish heritage of Christianity” Mission of the Church” (1967), “Leadership Training in Overseas (ibid.). See his “Judaism as Non-non-Christian Religion,” in his book Churches: A Study Prospectus” (1967), and “Creativity in Missionary of essays The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited, ed. Michael G. Personnel Administration” (1969). Cartwright and Peter Ochs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003). 5. Wilbert R. Shenk, “‘Go Slow Through Uyo’: A Case Study of Dialogue 26. Yoder, “Finality of Jesus Christ,” p. 23. as Missionary Method,” in Fullness of Life for All: Challenges for 27. Yoder, “Disavowal of Constantine,” p. 64. Mission in Early Twenty-first Century, ed. Inus Daneel, Charles Van 28. Ibid., p. 62. Engen, and Hendrik Vroom (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003), p. 334. 29. Ibid., p. 61. 6. William Klassen, “John H. Yoder and the Ecumenical Church,” 30. John H. Yoder, As You Go: The Old Mission in a New Day, Focal Conrad Grebel Review 16 (1998): 77. Pamphlet no. 5 (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1961). 7. John H. Yoder, “Reformation and Missions: A Literature Survey,” in 31. John H. Yoder, “Christian Missions at the End of an Era,” Christian Anabaptism and Mission, ed. Wilbert R. Shenk (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Living, August 1961, p. 14. Press, 1984), p. 48. 32. John H. Yoder, “Missionary Church,” Gospel Herald, January 8, 1963, 8. John H. Yoder, “The Place of Peace Witness in Missions,” Gospel p. 38. Herald, January 3, 1961, p. 14. 33. John H. Yoder, “The Third World and Christian Mission,” paper 9. John H. Yoder, “The Nature of the Unity We Seek,” Religion in Life 26 presented at the Inter-Seminaries Consultation, Elkhart, Ind., Jan- (1957): 219. uary 28–31, 1971, p. 10. 10. Yoder, “Place of Peace Witness,” p. 14. 34. I appreciate the comment of Wilbert R. Shenk, alerting me to the fact 11. John H. Yoder, “Experiential Etiology of Evangelical Dualism,” that a defense of Christendom—based on positive elements that, due Missiology: An International Review 11 (1983): 450. to God’s providence, are to be found in its missional legacy—could 12. Yoder, “Missions and Material Aid,” p. 307. “divert attention from the task of the theologian to struggle to 13. For further discussion of Yoder’s ecclesiology, see my “Ecclesiologies evaluate practice in light of the divine intention” (personal in Creative Tension: The Church as Ethical and Missional Reality in correspondence, January 3, 2004). Although I am aware that word- H. Richard Niebuhr and John H. Yoder,” International Review of ing similar to mine could be used by some as an excuse not to Mission 92 (2003): 332–44. respond faithfully and responsibly to the call to renewal of Chris- 14. John H. Yoder, “A People in the World: Theological Interpretation,” tian mission, such is far from my intention. in The Concept of the Believers’ Church, ed. James Leo Garrett, Jr. 35. Yoder, “Third World and Christian Mission,” p. 8. (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1969), pp. 258–59. 36. Ibid. 15. Ibid., p. 283, italics mine. 37. John H. Yoder, “Teaching Ethics from a Missionary Perspective,” in 16. Yoder, “Commentary on Matthew 28:16ff.,” p. 4. Occasional Papers of the Council of Mennonite Seminaries and the Institute 17. Nation, “Ecumenical Patience,” p. 8. of Mennonite Studies, no. 2, ed. Willard M. Swartley (Elkhart, Ind.: 18. Yoder, “Nature of Unity,” p. 216. Institute of Mennonite Studies, 1981), p. 99. 19. Ibid., p. 221. 38. John H. Yoder, “On Not Being Ashamed of the Gospel: Particularity, 20. John H. Yoder, “The Free Church Ecumenical Style,” Quaker Religious Pluralism, and Validation,” Faith and Philosophy 9 (1992): 290. Thought 10 (1968): 38. 39. Yoder, “Third World and Christian Mission,” p. 7. 21. Nation, “Ecumenical Patience,” p. 132.

January 2006 17 4 The article by Joon-Sik Park, “John Howard Yoder as a Mission Yoder as a Mission Theologian,” Mennonite Quarterly Review Theologian,” IBMR 30, no. 1 (2006): 14–17, drew upon his 78, no. 3 (2004): 363–83. The editors regret that acknowledgment previously published study, “‘As You Go’: John Howard was inadvertently omitted.

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