Copyright by David Steven Porter 2017 Abstract This dissertation examines the role of place in the theology and practice of Christian mission with special reference to the life and thought of missionary bishop Lesslie Newbigin. The study addresses the conspicuous absence of a missionary perspective within the burgeoning literature on religion and place and its corresponding neglect in mission studies. What difference does a commitment to place make for the church’s witness in late modernity? Placing theology in conversation with geography, I argue that a missionary commitment to place strengthens the church’s witness by resisting modern distortions of Christian mission and forming a critical element in the church’s response to late Western culture. The argument develops in three broad steps: description, construction, and demonstration. The first step describes how traditional bonds between people and place in early Christianity grew weaker over time as impersonal global forces grew stronger. A survey of the ambiguous history of place within Christian mission further confirms the collapse of such commitments, which Newbigin interpreted as an urgent missiological challenge. Next, the second step responds to this collapse by constructing a missionary theology of place that enables the church to recover a commitment to place that is constitutive of her mission rather than in opposition to it. This involves a classical reconstruction of the missio Dei, which provides the framework for a trinitarian account of place as sacred creation, sacred journey, and sacred construction. Finally, the third step demonstrates the potential of a missionary commitment to place to strengthen the church’s witness in the context of Newbigin’s own life and thought. Informed by his iv distinguished missionary career in South India, Newbigin established an international research program on the relationship between the gospel and Western culture, which featured a congregational commitment to place. v Dedication To Diana Porter, faithful mother Ruth and Samuel, hopeful children Jodi, loving wife Table of Contents Ch. 1 Introduction: the Missionary Promise of Place……………………………………..1 The Promise of Place………………………………………………………………….1 Defining Place…………………………………………………………………………5 The Significance of the Study…………………………………………………………9 The Methodology of the Study………………………………………………………14 A Note on Sources…………………………………………………………………...21 Mapping the Territory Ahead………………………………………………………..21 Ch. 2 The Theological Significance of Place……………………………………………25 Place, Memory, and Christian Scripture…………………………………………….26 Place as Hermeneutic………………………………………………………………..34 The Augustinian Predicament of Place……………………………………………...37 The Separation of Church and Place…………………………………………………40 Place in Late Modernity……………………………………………………………...45 Globalization…………………………………………………………………….46 Cosmopolitanism………………………………………………………………...51 Human Migration………………………………………………………………...64 The Revival of Place…………………………………………………………………68 Ch. 3 Place as a Missionary Problem…………………………………………………….75 Assessing the History of Place in Christian Mission………………………………...75 The Early Church Missionary Paradigm……………………………………………..83 The Eastern Church Missionary Paradigm…………………………………………..91 vii The Medieval Roman Catholic Missionary Paradigm……………………………….96 The Protestant Reformation Missionary Paradigm…………………………………106 The Modern Enlightenment Missionary Paradigm…………………………………116 The Ambiguous History of Place in Christian Mission…………………………….123 Ch. 4 Place and the missio Dei…………………………………………………………134 Plausibility Structures………………………………………………………………135 Preliminary Qualifications………………………………………………………….141 The Missio Dei in Scripture and Tradition…………………………………………145 The Missio Dei as Emerging Consensus…………………………………………...152 A trinitarian basis……………………………………………………………….154 A redemptive focus……………………………………………………………..157 An ecclesial locus………………………………………………………………159 Place as a Secular Concept…………………………………………………………162 Place, Geography, and Religion………………………………………………...164 Place, Geography and History………………………………………………….167 Place and the Plunder of Cultural Resources…………………………………...169 Place as Secular Context………………………………………………………..170 Ch. 5 Place in Trinitarian Perspective…………………………………………………..173 Three Approaches to Place………………………………………………………....173 Place as Sacred Creation…………………………………..……………………175 Place as Sacred Journey………………..……………………………………….194 Place as Sacred Construction………………………………………..………….222 viii Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….242 Ch. 6 A Missionary Commitment to Place: the Case of Lesslie Newbigin…………….244 The Life and Work of Lesslie Newbigin…………………………………………...246 Interpreting Newbigin in Context………………………………………………248 The Peripatetic Student (1909-1947)…………………………………………...254 The Ecumenical Missionary (1947-1974)……………………………………...266 The Reluctant Retiree (1974-1998)…………………………………………….274 Constructive Compilation …………………………………………………………..279 Sacred Creation…………………………………………………………………281 Sacred Journey………………………………………………………………….292 Sacred Construction…………………………………………………………….306 Assessment……………………………………………………………………...330 Conclusion: The Difference Place Makes…………………………………………..334 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………338 Biography………………………………………………………………………………368 ix Acknowledgments This project owes its origins to my childhood in the Ozarks and my adopted home in Overtown, the historic African-American neighborhood of Miami, Florida, where I lived and served as a missionary with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). These two places define me. Likewise, the encouragement of my mother, Diana, and late father, Jim, to continue my studies, as well as a missionary vocation, shapes me indelibly. Were it not, however, for the longsuffering support of my wife, Jodi, this project would remain unfinished. Thank you. God willing, may we enjoy a long lifetime together for me to repay the debt I owe. That prayer also extends to our children, Ruth and Samuel, who had to endure my absence far too often in the course of this project. I began my doctoral studies at Boston University under Dana Robert and Bryan Stone, and their influence remains. At Duke, I began this project with Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman Professor Emeritus of Christian Theology. His approach to Newbigin—with whom he enjoyed a long friendship and about whom he has written the defining theological biography—informs the approach of this study at every turn. As Dr. Wainwright’s health declined, my longtime mentor from divinity school, Dr. W. Stephen Gunter, graciously offered to guide this project to completion. To Drs. Gunter, Stanley Hauerwas, and Jeremy Begbie, I also owe a great debt. Their criticism improved this study demonstrably, and their insights are surpassed only by their patience. Whatever errors remain belong solely to me. Special thanks are due the United Methodist Foundation for Evangelism whose generous support of my Duke Evangelism Fellowship funded my doctoral studies at x Duke as well as the archival research that underwrites this project, especially chapter 6. To that end, librarians at the Cadbury Research Library’s Special Collections at the University of Birmingham provided access to the Papers of (James Edward) Lesslie Newbigin and gracious assistance. My visit to Birmingham and the Newbigin archives would not have been as fruitful were it not for the guidance of Frances Young and the hospitality of Adam Hood at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education. Ministers Geoff Kimber and Adella Pritchard and longtime lay members of Winson Green United Reformed Church welcomed me in worship and conversation about Lesslie Newbigin’s tenure in their congregation. The Rahi family, whom Newbigin recruited to serve alongside him in Winson Green, graciously received me in their home for a wonderful meal and night of stories about “Uncle Lesslie.” While I did not include formal qualitative research in this study, those conversations nevertheless informed my interpretation of Newbigin’s life and thought in significant ways. While I worked on this project, I also had other full-time jobs. I am grateful to David Garland and Dennis Tucker, my deans at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University, who supported my research, and to the students of my seminar on “Lesslie Newbigin’s Life and Thought,” where I tested some of these ideas. Michael Quinlan, my former graduate assistant at Truett Seminary and now colleague serving in Indonesia, deserves special thanks for tedious bibliographic assistance. At CBF, my supervisor, Suzii Paynter, offered consistent encouragement and support to finish this project. And across the street, the First Baptist Church of Decatur offered me xi an office where I could escape to write. Finally, I thank the triune God who makes all things possible and whose church this study hopes to edify. Soli Deo Gloria. Decatur, Georgia D. STEVEN PORTER xii Ch. 1 Introduction: the Missionary Promise of Place The Promise of Place Place matters. After years of neglect, philosopher Edward S. Casey remarks that “a spatial turn has been taken, with dramatic and far reaching consequences. At the heart of this turn has been the recognition of the formative presence of place in people’s lives and thoughts.”1 An interest in the concept of place animates a wide range of academic disciplines.2 In the field of human geography, where place serves as a basic category, scholars often define ‘place’ by distinguishing it from ‘space.’3 Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan posits, “What begins as differentiated space becomes