Cctlslooa• Etlo• New Directions T Was Said of the First-Century

A quarterly publication of the Overseas Ministries Study Center Vol. '3, No.2 continuing the Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library April, 1979 cctlSlooa• etlO• New Directions t was said of the first-century. Athenians that they"spent article-witness to the fact that "God was not a stranger in Africa I their time in nothing except telling or hearing something prior to the coming of the missionaries," and demonstrate that new" (Acts 17:21). Most of us cannot afford that luxury-nor African Christianity today is by no means the passive recipient of would it be responsible in any age to disregard the wisdom of the western theological formulations. past. Yet new directions are important considerations, and it is Dr. A. J. van der Bent provides a critical survey of current merely cynical to declare that there is nothing new under the sun. periodicals on dialogue with people of other faiths and ideologies The Occasional Bulletin is pledged to keep its readers abreast of the that is a useful guide to available resources about the ongoing most current missionary developments and scholarship throughout process-and new directions-of interfaith dialogue on all six the world. continents. In this issue we continue our series on "Mission in the 1980s" with an article by Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P. The short-term future is often more difficult than the long term to predict, and we welcome this Roman Catholic perspective on the decade just ahead in a task we all share. The rise of independent churches is hardly a novelty, espe cially in Africa, but the new direction Andrew F. Walls advocates 46 Mission in the 1980s is in our attitude toward such movements: to reconsider their place Thomas F. Stransky within the history of religion as a whole and that of African 48 The Anabaptists of Africa? The Challenge of the Christianity in particular. He concludes that "in the end, the African Independent Churches history of African Christianity will be a single story, in which the Andrew F. Walls missionary period is only an episode." 53 Theological Trends and Issues in the Christian World Harvie M. Conn here analyzes present trends and issues in Mission As Seen from a North American Perspective mission on the basis of a questionnaire submitted to a broad cross Harvie M Conn section of people from quite different missiological orientations. The responses indicate that despite continuing widespread. dis 58 Liberation and Evangelization-Some Historical and agreement on certain issues we may all need to revise our carica Theological Footnotes tures and stereotypes of one another. Gabriel Fackre Gabriel Fackre's historical and theological "footnotes" on lib 61 The Legacy of J. N. Farquhar eration and evangelization actually pursue one of the liveliest Eric J. Sharpe debates in missiological circles today. He insists that to recognize 65 The Theology of John Mbiti: His Sources, Norms, and the validity of both liberation and evangelization is the most Method elemental step away from fragmented. and reductionist missionary fohn W Kinney practices, and toward the fullness of mission. 68 On the Article of John W. Kinney: A Comment In "The Legacy of J. N. Farquhar," Eric J. Sharpe discusses a fohn Mbiti missionary leader in the first quarter of this century whose direc tions were precisely 'toward the concerns of today's interreligious 69 The Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and dialogue. Sharpe advocates a rediscovery of Farquhar's exacting Ideologies in Current Periodical Literature standards-not in order to apply yesterday's solutions to today's A. J. van der Ben! problems, but to bring the best thinking and deepest feelings into 73 To Orbis, With Thanks our own interfaith and intercultural encounters. Rober! McAfee Brown One clear direction that we have repeatedly signaled in the 76 Book Reviews Occasional Bulletin is the growing importance of Third World voices 85 Noteworthy in missiological thought. John W. Kinney's reflections on the 86 Dissertation Notices theology of John S. Mbiti-and Dr. Mbiti's own response to that 88 Book Notes of issionaryResearch Mission in the 1980s Thomas F. Stransky he assigned title is convenient for a mission prophet's economic issues. The 1980s will see new threats to whatever T platform. But if we compare each decade's anticipated religious freedom is now enjoyed. agenda as offered in the January issue of mission journals, revues, In fact, the growing secularization of value systems, especially and zeitschriften for 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960'and 1970, then reread through urbanization, and the increase of governmental pressure them ten years later, they appear as either pride-tempters or, more on those who are not "100 percent with us," will, in many newer often, embarrassments to the authors and editors. nations, demand a quality of Christian commitment not experi Amid these 2000 words, I could put a question mark after enced before. most sentences. I blue-penciled them out, and let the reader pre 4. The moratorium debate will no longer be an either/or sume the question marks. issue, which in its harsh, oversimplified demands has at least made its point. It will quicken co-responsibility in the allotment of 1. At a more quickening pace will be the emergence of the money and the placement of personnel. The dominating power "ThirdtChurch't-c-as both a geographical and a historical reposi and lobby struggles will be within the churches more than between tioning, away from the Northern Atlantic/Eastern European/Med them and mission agencies/societies. If there be a strict morato iterranean areas, to Latin America/Africa/Asia-in having influ rium somewhere, it will be imposed by a few visa-granting gov ence over theological articulations, ethical stances, spiritualities, ernments, no matter what missiologists debate. church disciplines, artistic expressions, interchurch cooperation, 5. The holy dissatisfaction with the more obvious dysfunc and structural forms of "home" and IIforeign" missions. tional patterns of mission ministry appears already in the 1970s: How much this Third Church will become the church of the especially, the stress on ordination over service; a false profession future, as well as the future of the church, will depend largely on alism with emphasis, in practice, on prestige positions rather than those decisions of the 1980s taken in all six continents. Any complementary functions; the concentration of leadership among theology of history (in that context, a theology of mission) which those "highly educated" according to western standards of theo predicts irrevocable "Christian progress" would be naive. logical education. Through the less dependent and more secure 2. These objective realignments are already causing a muta generations of leadership, these dysfunctional patterns will fade tion in the psychological climate in which mission has been carried more quickly. Ministry in mission will become less elitist; more out. During the last two decades, the euphoric self-confidence of emphasis on laity formation as distinct from the training of lay the western churches and mission groups has rapidly been re church workers. Grassroots training of more diversified church placed by a general missionary discouragement and doubt, erratic workers, paid or voluntary, will be judged equal in importance to and easily rationalized fumblings, masochistic guilt, and self-cen higher forms of seminary training (although a disproportinate tered neo-isolationism-and thus, overall fatigue. Whereas in the amount of monies will continue to be budgeted for the latter). nonwestern world, the churches have witnessed a new dynamism, 6. The "church growth movement," i.e., the quantitative ex self-confidence, and a will to find their own way into tomorrow's pansion in a mission context, will be taken more seriously by all world. the churches, as a conscious policy matter dealt with in theory, The 1980s will see in the western churches and mission groups strategy, and administration. Church growth will no longer be a less uptight and humbler self-assurance about their role and overly identified with restricted presumptions or theories (e.g., responsibility in world mission. Six-continent partnership in mis "free church" or "faith group" evangelism); or with North Ameri sion will move beyond the slogan to at least modest taken-for can/European missionary agencies; or with specific institutions granted practices. and personalities (e.g., Fuller School of World Mission; Donald 3. But in the Third Church, self-confidence, still often adoles McGavran 'and Peter Wagner). Calmer and less belligerent pros cent, will become chastened, more mature. The 1960s and 1970s and cons will mark the examination of specific theories and meth were marked by the new mystique of "nation-building," espe odologies. cially in Africa; and mission was being integrated into that general process. Now, new nations are no longer so innocent, nor are the 7. Mission theology in the 1970s mirrored the emphasis of churches therein. The immediate postindependence honeymoon is that decade's theology in general-method more than content. One over. no longer assumes there is only one right way to reflect on what Authoritarian regimes will continue to put pressure on the mission is and should be in practice. The 1980s will see more doing churches (liThe Church is a state within the State, and so endan of mission theologies through various methods; more content-theol gers national unity"), as Christian consciousness and conscience ogies and less monotonous we-need-to-dewesternize-the-enter become more sensitive and sophisticated in social, political, and prise. And this development will be enhanced by a new generation of theologians, most of them yet unknown: the successors to John Mbiti, E.W. Fashole-Luke and Peter Sarpong, Choan-Seng Song and Kosuke Koyama, Jose Miguez-Bonino, juan Segundo and Thomas F.

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