The Trinity on Mission

Michael Amaladoss The Trinity on Mission The doctrine of the Trinity replaces soteriology and ecclesiology as the source of reflection on mission. The author argues that dichotomies between God’s mission and Jesus’ mission, theocentrism and christocentrism, creation and redemption, the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit, do not respect the unity of the Trinity. In order to overcome these dichotomies Indian theologians point to a distinction between the Word and Jesus. Jesus is the historical manifestation of the Word. But his activity is not coextensive with the activity of the Word as such. One could write a history of mission focussing on the images of Christ and of the Church that was prevalent in a particular period. In the very early years of Christianity, Jesus was experienced as the eschatological prophet. Mission then was to bear witness to the Good News as a prophetic challenge to the world and a call to conversion. The Church was primarily a community of disciples and witnesses. With the “conversion” of the Roman emperor Constantine, Jesus came to be regarded as the King of Kings from whom all power flowed to his earthly representative. Mission then became a conquest that imposed the rightful lordship of Jesus on everyone, by force, if necessary. Cujus regio eius religio. The Church acquired all the trappings of an earthly kingdom, sacralized in the process. In a Christian kingdom largely at peace, with the monasteries active in their civilizing ministry, Jesus came to be seen more and more as the Teacher or Revealer, and the task of mission was seen as one of communicating the truth about God to a world lost in the darkness of ignorance. The Church then became the repository of revealed truths, spelt out in neat dogmatic statements and defended in learned theological treatises. With the emergence of Islam, Jesus was seen as the Conqueror of evil. Mission became a crusade and its purpose was to establish and defend the Church as the only true religion, destined to subjugate the rest. When Europe “discovered” Asia and America the same policy was extended to all the other “idolatrous” religions. People who were more spiritually inclined saw Jesus as the Saviour. Personal conversion then became the goal of mission. People need to be born again in the Spirit. The Church mediated the power of the Spirit either through the Word or through the Sacraments. Among the poor and the oppressed of the earth, Jesus was often experienced as the Healer, bringing wholeness both to the body and to the soul. The Church then became either a band of charismatic healers or a body of social workers. When Jesus was seen as the Liberator, who struggled with the poor and the marginalized of his day and paid for it with his life, the goal of mission became liberation of the poor and the oppressed from the structures that oppress them. The Church was then seen as a liberative movement 100 Mission is a Must of people. A particular community-in-mission can be animated by one or more of these images. But the focus in the past has always been on the Christological and ecclesiological dimensions of mission. Planting of the Church as the main goal of mission is still widely prevalent in Roman catholic and Evangelical missiology. Planting often meant transplanting a ready-made religious structure with the Word, the Sacraments and the ministerial structures as the mediator of salvation. The Missio Dei It is in this context that the vision of mission as missio Dei emerges as a new paradigm. David Bosch, in his monumental work Transforming Mission, traces the introduction of this image in missiological discussion back to Karl Barth, more precisely to a paper he read in 1932, though it did not acquire greater clarity until 1952, at the Willingen Conference of the International Missionary Council. 1 Mission is derived from the very nature of God self. God the Father sends the Son, and the Father and Son send the Spirit on mission. Further, God, Father, Son and Spirit send the Church on mission into the world. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity replaces soteriology and ecclesiology as the source of reflection on mission. David Bosch fleshes out this concept in the following words: “In the new image mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. ‘It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfil in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church. ’2 Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God ’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love. ”3 This idea is later picked up by the all mainstream Churches in their various assemblies. Let me quote the Second Vatican Council, as one among many texts that could be taken from the documents of many Churches. It says: “The Church on earth is by its very nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, it has its origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. This plan flows from ‘fountain-like love ’, the love of God the Father. As the principle without principle from whom the Son is generated and from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds through the Son, God in his great and merciful kindness freely creates us and moreover, graciously calls us to share in his life and glory. He generously pours out, and never ceases to pour out, his divine 1 Bosch D., Transforming Mission, Orbis, Maryknoll 1991, 389-391. 2 The quotation is from J ürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology, SCM Press, London 1977, 64 3 Bosch D., Transforming Mission, 390. .

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