Vol. 16, No.3 • 1992 nternatlona July etln• Mission Versus Parochialism ne of the most respected ecumenical leaders of All followers of "New Directions" may discover support for O ourera, JohnAlexanderMackay, came to his worldwide a spiritual pilgrimage from parochialism to mission that leads to service in mission out of a Scots Presbyterian home and church Christ's coming kingdom. that exhibited at once both deep piety and petty parochialism. In this issue of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN Samuel Escobar traces the path by which Mackay's commitment to mission overcame the parochialism of his formative years. In Mackay's own words, "Christian churches who took seriously their missionary obliga­ On Page tion and crossed the frontiers of non-Christian lands began to transcend the barriers by which they had been themselves di­ 98 Mission Statements: How They Are Developed vided in their own home countries." and What They Tell Us Mission-overcoming-parochialism is also evident in LouisJ. Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D. and James A. Scherer Luzbetak's "My Pilgrimage' in Mission." In his case, it was anthropology that provided the doorway: "My mind was made 105 Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Kenneth Cragg on up: I would now work with other like-minded Christian anthro­ Islam as aWay of Salvation pologists and missiologists, whatever their tradition." Even be­ Richard J. Jones fore ecumenical cooperation was widely encouraged, Luzbetak gave lectures to Lutheran missionaries in Chicago, to a "defi­ 108 Noteworthy nitelymotleygroup"at Stony Point, NewYork,andto evangelicals at Fuller Theological Seminary as church growth lecturer, "the first Roman Catholic to be so honored." 110 Where Is It? A New Index to Non-Western A new vehicle that will contribute to the advance of mission Christian Literature over parochialism is introduced in this issue. "NewDirections in Douglas W. Geyer and Sharon Vlahovich MissionandEvangelization" is a series of importantmissiological studiesand documents publishedbyOrbisBooks.StephenBevans 116 The Legacy of John Alexander Mackay and James A. Scherer offer BULLETIN readers an introduction to Samuel Escobar the series and to the first volume, New Directions in Mission and Evangelization 1: Basic Statements, 1974-1991. 124 My Pilgrimage in Mission As Bevans and Scherer point out, "New Directions" suc­ LouisJ. Luzbetak, S.V.D. ceeds an earlier series well known to the mission community: "Mission Trends," edited by Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. 130 Messianic Judaism: A Case of Identity Denied Stransky. As "Mission Trends" covered the period from the late WalterRiggans 1960s into the 1980s, "New Directions" will take us through the 1990s. 133 Book Reviews New Directions 1 provides the formal foundation documents of the conciliar, Roman Catholic,Orthodox, and Protestant evan­ 142 Dissertation Notices gelical communities, beginning with the Lausanne Covenant of 1974. 144 Book Notes of issionary Research Mission Statements: How They Are Developed and What They Tell Us Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D., and James A . Scherer fficial mission statements are produced by churc h themes and the manner in which each of the four traditions O and associational bodies to provide guidance and attempts, in its own way, to deal with the momentous challenges challenge to the Christian community. Whil e admittedly not of modernity. always the most inspiring reading, they nevertheless help to clarify the mission task and goals at the tim e or for the occasion Conciliar Ecumenical Missiology on which they were formulated. Naturally they are dated and The claim to be ecumenical is not the prerogative of any single may quickly become outdated. Even then they continue to be of church, denomination, or group of churches. Indeed, each of the consid erable historical interest, as they enable scholars and stu ­ four missionary traditions examined in this volume may rightly dents of missiology to trace the continuity and changes in the lay claim to being ecume nical in some sense. We use the term theology of mission over the decades. Therefore we belie ve the "conc iliarecumenical" to refer to the movementamong churches mission community will welcome the and their related mission agencies that sees newly released volume New Directions in membership in organized church councils as Mission and Evangelization 1: Basic State­ the primary visible expression of Christian ments 1974-1991. 1 unity. These Christian communities and their This publication brings together in agen cies participate in the manifold activities one volume the most significant state­ of such councils-"faith and order" discus­ ments about mission and evangelization sions, world service, relief and development of the past two decades. It is the first in a activities, mission and evangelism coordina­ series planned as a successor to the "Mis­ tion, advocacy of justice, peace, and human sion Trends" series which for some years rights-as the best wa y to promote Christian made available low-cost collections of re­ unity and cooperation and to advance the prints of important missiological litera­ purposes of God's reign. The World Council ture.' Subsequent numbers will deal with of Churches (WCC), organized in 1948, to­ suchsubjectsas missiological foundations gether with variou s national regional Chris­ and problems, Gospel and culture, theol­ tian councils, is a primary expression of this ogy of religionand interreligiousdialogue, conciliar ecumenical movement. The WCC, mission and social justice, and spirituality with 317 member churches in all six conti­ for mission. nents, is "a fellowship of churches which con­ Volume 1 with its collection of basic fess the Lord Jesu s Christ as God and Saviour statements serves as a general introduc­ according to the Scriptures and therefore seek tion. The statements are grouped under to fulfill together their common calling to the four headings: Conciliar-Ecumenical, Ro­ glory of the on e God, Father, Son, and Holy man Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Spirit."! This statem ent constitutes the basis Evangelical Protestant. Including an introductory essay, New for membership in the WCC and con cisely explains the council's Directions 1 runs to 350 pages. purpose. In New Directions 1 we attempt to document the "emerging Conciliar ecume nical missiology as expressed in WCC state­ paradigm" of mission (as David Bosch has described it)" and to ments is in a real sense the lineal successor to the tradition of demonstrate how it is reflected in the statements of each of the world mission conferences going back to the nineteenth century. traditions surveyed.The earliest statement is the Lausanne Com­ But the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference (1910) became mittee for World Evangelization's Lausanne Covena nt (1974). the prototype for other worldwide mission conferences that The most recent are a Vatican statement entitled Dialogue and followed, organized under the au spices of the newly formed Proclamation and a messagefrom the World Council of Churc hes ' International Missionary Council (IMC, 1921).5With the integra­ Seventh Assembly at Canberra (both 1991). tion of the IMC into the World Council of Churches as its As a context and background for the statements included in Commission on World Mission and Evan gelism (CWME) at the this volume, we sketch briefly the origins and characteristics of New Delhi Assembly (1961), itnow fell to theCWME to organize missiological thought in the four tradition s represented by these succeeding world mission conferences: Mexico City (1963), statements. Read ers will be struck by the recurrence of key Bangkok (1973), Melb ourne (1980),and San Antonio (1989).6Our survey includes excerpts from the Melbourne and San Antonio world mission conferences, along withstatements from theWCC Stephen B. Bevansis a priest in the Society ofthe Divine Word .Heworkedfrom 1972 Nairobi (1975), Vancouver (1983), and Canberra (1991) assem­ to 1981 as a missionary in the Philippines. He is currently Associate Professor of blies.We also include the very significant EcumenicalAffirmation: Doctrinal Theology at CatholicTheological Union in Chicago. Mission and Evangelism (1982) and a few other specialized ecu ­ James A. Scherer is a Lutheran theological educator. He served earlier as a menical rep orts. The message from the San Antonio CWME missionaryin China and Japan . He is now Professor of WorldMission and Church Conference (1989) offers a synthesis of the emerging ecumenical Historyat the LutheranSchool of Theology in Chicago. paradigm with its bal an ced emphasis on spiritual and material 98 I NTERN ATION AL B ULLETIN OF M ISSIONARY RE SEARCH needs, prayer and action, evangelism and social responsibility, International Bulletin dialogue and witness, the local and the universal," of Missionary Research During the period under review we observe a marked change in relationships between the conciliar ecumenical mis­ Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the sion movement represented by the CWME and the other main Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary traditions presented in this volume. The decades of the 1970s and Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH the 1980s have seen a steady increase in informal and formal 1981. contact, conversation, and even liaison between the conciliar Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by movement and other traditions. Since 1970/ Eastern Orthodoxy has had an official staff liaison with the CWME; and since