Mission and the Peaceable Kingdom
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Vol. 32, No. 1 January 2008 Mission and the Peaceable Kingdom hat went wrong? Why would intelligent, well educated Wyoung men in their prime willingly obliterate them- selves by crashing passenger jets into New York’s famous Twin On Page Towers—arch symbols of this nation’s commercial virility? How 3 The Gospel of Reconciliation Within the Wrath could they have been convinced that the incineration of ordinary of Nations Americans both compelled and justified their carefully executed David W. Shenk 10 Writing a Social History of Christianity in India John C. B. Webster 14 Āvarna and Adivāsi Christians and Missions: A Paradigm for Understanding Christian Movements in India Robert Eric Frykenberg 20 The Mission to North Korea Ben Torrey 22 Reflections on North Korea: The Psychological Foundation of the North Korean Regime and Its Governing Philosophy Hyun Sik Kim; translated by George Kap-Hun Kim and edited by Ben Torrey 26 Asian Society of Missiology: Bangkok 2007 Declaration 27 Missiometrics 2008: Reality Checks for Christian World Communions David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing mass murder by suicide? What religious or ideological wellsprings 31 Our Pilgrimage in Mission animated them and thousands like them? A plausible and much Paul A. Rader and Kay F. Rader repeated response to these perplexing questions was soon offered 35 The Statistical State of the North American by Bernard Lewis in his bestselling book, What Went Wrong? The Protestant Missions Movement, from the Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (Oxford Univ. Mission Handbook, 20th Edition Press, 2002). Once proudly superior Muslim civilizations, he ob- Michael Jaffarian served, had fallen behind the West in virtually all categories of 39 The Legacy of Marcello Zago human endeavor: cultural, social, economic, political, scientific, Willi Henkel, O.M.I. and military. They perceived their societies inching inexorably 40 Noteworthy toward irrelevance and extinction. Devotees using revealed antiq- IFMA and EFMA Announce Name Changes uity as the standard against which modernity should be measured 43 Daniel J. Nicholas believed that only the most desperate actions could salvage the integrity of their religion and its civilization from the fatal toxicity 44 Reviews of the decadent West. That’s what had gone wrong. 54 Dissertation Notices Continued next page 56 Book Notes Paging through the November 2006 issue of Religion in Eastern militant Muslims and evangelical Christians have come together Europe last February, I found my attention drawn to an article in common cause. Who could have imagined that Hizbullah in written by Gerald Shenk, whom I had met in Osijek, Croatia, Central Java—whose 10,000-strong militia proudly flaunt their two decades earlier. Entitled “What Went Right: Two Best Cases destruction of church property and murder of Christians—would of Islam in Europe—Cordoba, Spain, and Sarajevo, Bosnia,” the recently (February 2007) host an international group of some thirty essay served as a gentle counterbalance to the vast discourse Christians? And that the occasion of this meeting would be the of despair that has engulfed us since 9/11 and the subsequent joint launching of a Christian-Muslim book, the newly translated invasion of Iraq. Islam and Christianity: A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue? And We badly need such perspectives. But even with voices like who could have foreseen twenty-seven years ago—when two Shenk’s, it is difficult to imagine how states with their competing young colleagues at Kenyatta University College, one an Ameri- economic interests and antithetical religious or political ideolo- can Mennonite and the other a Ugandan Muslim, published their gies can ever achieve genuine shalom. Numbed by the savagery co-authored book with the Uzima Press—that this humble book and carnage inflicted upon the world by its “most civilized” and would help reconcile Muslim and Christian enemies an ocean “most Christianized” nations during the first half of the twentieth away and almost three decades later? century, Reinhold Niebuhr concluded that while human beings are Also found in this issue are two articles on Christians in India, moral, the societies that define them can only beimmoral . Perhaps our annual statistical update on the state of world Christianity this is why Jesus urged his followers to be leery of their society’s and mission, a thoughtful analysis of shifting North American assessment of “the other.” “Love your enemies,” he said, “and Protestant missionary numbers, and a cautiously hopeful es- pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). say by Hyun-Sik Kim, formerly a professor at North Korea’s Among the most universally recognized paintings by an Pyongyang University and personal tutor for family members American artist is The Peaceable Kingdom. The artist, Quaker of Kim Il Sung’s wife. preacher Edward Hicks (1780–1849), is known to have produced Kingdoms at peace still seem to be little more than a faintly more than 100 versions of this painting. He must have been ut- visible mirage on the constantly receding horizon of human terly captivated by Isaiah’s vision of shalom—of a day when “the longing. But the articles in this issue will have served at least one wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with worthwhile purpose by reassuring readers that the Peaceable the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little Kingdom is indeed no mirage. It is already here. The mustard child shall lead them. They will not hurt or destroy on all my seed is planted everywhere, and the yeast is hard at work. holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the —Jonathan J. Bonk LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:6–9 NRSV). This issue of the IBMR is marked by a hopeful yet realistic Front cover: Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, oil on canvas, 44.5 tone. David Shenk’s lead article—the most heartening piece x 60.2 cm, about 1833, courtesy of Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, of its kind that I have read in recent times—tells how devoutly Massachusetts, museum purchase. INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research in 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH in 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by the Editor OVERSEAS MINISTRIES STUDY CENTER, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. Jonathan J. Bonk (203) 624-6672 • Fax (203) 865-2857 • [email protected] • www.InternationalBulletin.org Associate Editor Contributing Editors Dwight P. Baker Catalino G. Arévalo, S.J. Philip Jenkins Anne-Marie Kool Wilbert R. Shenk Assistant Editor David B. Barrett Daniel Jeyaraj Gary B. McGee Brian Stanley Craig A. Noll Daniel H. Bays Jan A. B. Jongeneel Mary Motte, F.M.M. Tite Tiénou Managing Editor Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D. Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B. C. René Padilla Ruth A. Tucker Daniel J. Nicholas Samuel Escobar David A. Kerr James M. Phillips Desmond Tutu Senior Contributing Editors John F. Gorski, M.M. Kirsteen Kim Dana L. Robert Andrew F. Walls Gerald H. Anderson Darrell L. Guder Graham Kings Lamin Sanneh Anastasios Yannoulatos Robert T. Coote Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be addressed to the editors. Manuscripts Circulation unaccompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. Opinions Grace Inae Blum expressed in the IBMR are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Overseas Ministries Study Center. [email protected] The articles in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Bibliogra a Missionaria, Book Review Index, Christian (203) 624-6672, ext. 309 Periodical Index, Guide to People in Periodical Literature, Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature, IBR (International Bibliography of Book Reviews), IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature), Missionalia, Advertising Religious and Theological Abstracts, and Religion Index One: Periodicals. Charles A. Roth Jr. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Subscribe, renew, or change an address at www.OMSC.org/ibmr.html or write INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN CA Roth Jr Inc. OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000. Address correspondence concerning subscriptions and 86 Underwood Rd. missing issues to: Circulation Coordinator, [email protected]. Single copy price: $8. Subscription rate worldwide: one Falmouth, Maine 04105-1418 year (4 issues) $32. Foreign subscribers must pay with U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank, Visa, MasterCard, or International Mobile: (516) 729-3509 Money Order. Airmail delivery $16 per year extra. The IBMR is available in print and e-journal editions. Fax: (914) 470-0483 ONLINE ACCESS: Use the subscriber number and postal code from the mailing envelope for online access to the journal. [email protected] Visit www.OMSC.org/ibmr.html for details. Index, abstracts, and full text of this journal are available on databases provided Copyright © 2008 by ATLAS, EBSCO, H. W. Wilson Company, The Gale Group, and University Micro lms. Back issues may be purchased Overseas Ministries Study Center from OMSC or read on ATLAS, www.ATLA.com. Consult InfoTrac database at academic and public libraries. All rights reserved POSTMASTER: Send address changes to International Bulletin of Missionary Research, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, New Jersey 07834-3000. Periodicals postage paid at New Haven, CT. (ISSN 0272-6122) 2 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 32, No. 1 The Gospel of Reconciliation Within the Wrath of Nations David W. Shenk he Hizbullah command center in Solo, Central Java, located within the city of Solo. For 600 years Solo has been the Thosted an international group of about thirty Christians meeting place of Indonesian cultures and religions.