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1/26/2021 Global Missiology English Current Issue Vol. 18 No. 1 (2021): January - Missiology as Leaven This issue explores a wide array of topics, just as leaven penetrates every part of dough into which it is placed. Published: 2021-01-26 Issue Editorial Missiology as Leaven J. Nelson Jennings DOCX PDF HTML Contextualization “The Trinity Is Not Our Social Program” and the Social Arian Temptation: Recovering from Mortifying Spin – Contextualization Gone Awry 4 (Christology) (Part II) Mark R. Kreitzer DOCX PDF HTML Spiritual Dynamics Globalization and the Language of Worship: Is the Spread of English a Boon or a Bane? Marcus Dean DOCX PDF HTML Diaspora Studies ojs.globalmissiology.org/index.php/english 1/3 1/26/2021 Global Missiology English When ‘Go’ Becomes ‘Stay’, One Is Left to Ask, ‘Where Do We ‘Go’ from Here?’ Viewing the ‘Go’ of the Great Commission as a Command to Contextualize the Gospel to the Nations! Joey R. Peyton DOCX PDF HTML Research Methodology Inquire, Introspect, Involve: The Inquiry 2020 and Christian Missions in India J. N. Manokaran DOCX PDF HTML Relational Study A Relational Aid to Multicultural Fields: Cultural Metacognition Fred Lewis DOCX PDF HTML Muslim Studies An Investigation of the Social Identity of Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) in Bangladesh in Light of the Set Theory, Critical Contextualization, and Self- Theologizing Teachings of Paul Hiebert (Part II) Peter Kwang-Hee Yun DOCX PDF HTML Missiological Paradigm God’s Plan for the Fullness of Time: Overhauling Ralph Winter’s “Ten Epochs” and “Three Eras” Models (Part I) J. Nelson Jennings DOCX PDF HTML ojs.globalmissiology.org/index.php/english 2/3 1/26/2021 Global Missiology English Review & Preview Duane Miller, I Will Give Them an Everlasting Name: Pastoral Care for Christ’s Converts from Islam Philip Hill DOCX PDF HTML View All Issues ojs.globalmissiology.org/index.php/english 3/3 Editorial Missiology as Leaven J. Nelson Jennings Published in Global Missiology, www.globalmissiology.org, January 2021 He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened’ (Matthew 13:33). The articles in this issue exemplify how missiology instinctively operates like leaven. The authors probe a kaleidoscope of topics, thus collectively exploring a striking array of kingdom arenas. Jesus’s parable of how leaven spreads throughout flour, illustrating how God’s kingdom spreads its presence and effects into all aspects of creation, points to how every area of life and the world is open to missiological inquiry. A quick rundown of the articles’ titles shows the leaven of missiology widely at work: “Inquire, Introspect, Involve: The Inquiry 2020 and Christian Missions in India” “A Relational Aid to Multicultural Fields: Cultural Metacognition” “Globalization and the Language of Worship: Is the Spread of English a Boon or a Bane?” “When ‘Go’ Becomes ‘Stay’, One Is Left to Ask, ‘Where Do We ‘Go’ from Here?’ Viewing the ‘Go’ of the Great Commission as a Command to Contextualize the Gospel to the Nations!” “God’s Plan for the Fullness of Time: Overhauling Ralph Winter’s ‘Ten Epochs’ and ‘Three Eras’ Models (Part I)” “‘The Trinity Is Not Our Social Program’ and the Social Arian Temptation: Recovering from Mortifying Spin – Contextualization Gone Awry 4 (Christology) (Part II)” “An Investigation of the Social Identity of Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) in Bangladesh in Light of the Set Theory, Critical Contextualization, and Self- Theologizing Teachings of Paul Hiebert (Part II)” “Book Review: I Will Give Them an Everlasting Name: Pastoral Care for Christ’s Converts from Islam” These articles fan out into the social sciences, interpersonal relationships, various ethnic and geographic settings, linguistics, biblical exegesis, theology, history, interreligious conversion, visual models, pastoral care, worship, psychology, social ethics, and a number of other fields. The several multi-part articles attest as well to the considerable depth that missiological studies must often go in their various areas of exploration. God’s mission is to redeem all parts of his complex world: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Some analysts have understandably reacted, “If everything is mission, nothing is mission.” Others have pointed out that the missio Dei and missions are not the same, the latter pointing specifically to Christians’ participation in God’s kingdom mission. These concerns notwithstanding, the study of God’s mission and of Christian missions - missiology - necessarily spreads into all arenas of God’s worldwide, world-penetrating kingdom presence and activity. Missiology looks widely while centering on the evangel, as Chris Wright has pointed out Global Missiology - Vol 18, No 1 (2021) January 2 (Wright 2014). This issue’s articles likewise center on the gospel of Jesus while working their way hither, yonder, and in all sorts of directions, exemplifying the leaven of missiology. Enjoy, critique, interact, and probe widely. References Wright, Chris (2014). “Integral Mission and the Great Commission: ‘The Five Marks of Mission’.” Available online at https://www.loimission.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Chris-Wright- IntegralMissionandtheGreatCommission.pdf (accessed January 21, 2021). Global Missiology - Vol 18, No 1 (2021) January “The Trinity Is Not Our Social Program” and the Social Arian Temptation: Recovering from Mortifying Spin – Contextualization Gone Awry 4 (Christology) (Part II)1 Mark R. Kreitzer Published in Global Missiology, www.globalmissiology.org, January 2021 Abstract [same as Part I – ed.] The Trinity is our social program, if our understanding of the Triune God is checked by biblical theology and biblical ethics developed within an international hermeneutical community. My thesis is this: “Everlasting Relationships of Following-and-Leading” (ERFL) within the immanent Trinity are founded squarely upon Scripture as read without Neoplatonic, Social Arian lenses. I establish this thesis through a survey of the interactions between the Father and Son in the economic interactions before creation in the covenant of redemption, then in the Son’s work in creation and in redemptive history until and during the incarnation, next after the resurrection and enthronement, and last after the Judgment. I then trace the pattern of Filial-following and Patri-leadership in the dyadic titles ascribed to the Father and Son. Finally, I discuss implications for social theology of a Complementarian Trinity perspective. Key Words: [same as Part I – ed.] Trinity, Social Arianism, egalitarian Trinity, complementarian Trinity, culture transformation, social revolutionary doctrines Introduction and Thesis [same as Part I – ed.] The Trinity is our social program, if the terms “Trinity” and “social program” are checked by Scripture and then sharpened within a truly international hermeneutical community to guard against encroaching syncretism (Prv 27:17) (Volf 1998, 403-423; contra Husbands, 2009). Fundamental to my thesis is that a person or people-group inevitably become(s) like who or what they worship, as we shall see repeatedly (Pss 115:1-8, 135:15-18; 2 Cor 3:18). Every view of the Trinity, even for those who reject the idea that the Trinity has social relevance, will lead to culture transformation. No neutrality exists and no escape from social relevance exists. If the earth’s ethno-cultures are going to be transformed according to whole Bible teaching, these statements are essential because the Trinity is essential (Mt 28:17-20). If any culture is founded upon the wisdom and truth of a true Trinity (Tri-Unity), it will thrive. If not, it will collapse from the accumulated centuries of idolatry as seen by precept and example throughout Scripture. This and subsequent articles focus especially on Christology gone awry. My thesis is as follows: Everlasting Relationships of Following-and-Leading (ERFL) truly exist within the immanent Trinity. The Tri-Une Godhead has always consisted of three Persons who share equal value, dignity, majesty, and glory. Yet, at the same time, all three have always interacted with equal glory-yet-diverse roles within the Father’s single Being. Consequently, true equality and real diversity of authority roles are absolutely compatible, because that is what Scripture everywhere reveals our three-one divinity to be like. In the Scriptural revelation of the economy, the Trinity is always and everywhere led by the Father with the Son following. This is true in the pre-creational covenant of redemption all the way to after Messiah Jesus presents the universe back to his Father, who becomes “all in all.” Global Missiology - Vol 18, No 1 (2021) January 2 I maintain that it is legitimate, therefore, to carefully infer backwards from these revealed economic relationships to the everlasting divine metaphysical time (DMT) of the ontological Trinitarian relationships before the covenant of redemption. Several other indications (e.g., God- Word, Glory-Radiance relationship) also demonstrate that this has always been the internal immanent way the Godhead is, was, and will always be. Hence, the following of the Son and leading of the Father in the economy is not temporary. Further, whenever an ethno-culture’s worldview becomes grounded upon a view of the relationship of unity and diversity that prioritizes the equality of unity above any diversity, it will self-destruct. This worldview concept will become a Pac-Man that devours all social freedom and created diversity in an egalitarian collective. The envisioned result is a communal-collective in which everyone is supposed to be absolutely and interchangeably equal, with no social hierarchies and no social boundaries. An updated slogan of the French Revolution could well be “Equality, Liberty, and a unitary family of Humanity.” Such a viewpoint encapsulates the contemporary boast that equality is absolutely morally better than maintaining created social diversities. In contrast, our Lord provides a strong indication that true social unity and real, created, social diversity can exist in harmony when he prays, “Let them be one as we are one” (Jn 17:11, 23).