The name of the article is "Missiology"—in a pluralistic world, the place of mission study in theological education. This article is written by Lalsangkima Pachuau. The author says the purpose of this article is twofold. First, he has critiqued a few major approaches and perspectives to show that any exclusivistic attempt from one point of view is problematic and that a healthy development of the discipline requires a holistic understanding of mission. He says that the multidimensionality of mission not only confuses theological academia but also hinders the discipline of mission study from finding its proper place.
The modern missionary movement is the product of pietistic and evangelical movements of the seventh and eighteenth centuries among the protestants. The aim of the modern missionary movement is to save souls from eternal damnation. According to the dominant views of the movement, the souls of the people are damned to hell unless salvation is brought to the heathen. There was a huge gap between the cultured western Christian race and the uncultured heathen race. Therefore, the missionaries are not only to save the heathen people’s souls from damnation but also to civilise them and elevate the uncultured people to be like the cultured western Christians.
According to the author, there are various themes and concepts of mission, such as mission as Missio Dei, mission as Christian presence, mission as witness in and to the six continents, mission as development, mission as liberation, mission in relation to dialogue with people of other faiths and non-faith, and mission as contextualization and inculturation. The various themes are related to each other. The author broadly classifies the themes under two major headings in this paper: Missio Dei (Mission of God) and witness. In this paper, the author has brought the definitions of missiology from the two authors, which are different from each other. Johannes Verkuyl said, "Missiology is the study of the salvation activities of the father, son, and Holy Spirit throughout the world geared toward bringing the kingdom of God into existence." Alan Tippett says "Missiology is the study of man being brought to God in history." From this definition of the missiology, I have come to know that the missiology is two parts in one coin. The definition of missiology is a deductive and functional definition. Missio Dei is the mission of God. It is the biblical concept of the mission. The Missio Dei concept suggests that mission should be understood as being derived from the very nature of God, the triune God. Where God sent the son and the song sent the spirit, the triune God sent the church into the world. Therefore, mission is seen as a movement from God to the world. Christian mission should be understood as Christian participation in the mission of God by putting God at the centre and as the source and author of mission. Witness is the answer to how to participate in the mission of God. It is the functional definition of the mission of God. Witness can be given by proclamation, fellowship, and service. Witness is the dominant mode of doing missions and the most comprehensive portrayal of what a mission is or is supposed to be. Proclamation, fellowship, and service are the ways of witnessing to the gospel. "Witness is a powerful and emotive biblical keyword capturing the Christian understanding of what it means to have faith in Christ. For example, as Jesus Christ, the word incarnate, witnesses to what he is and what he sees in the world, The mission is the expansion of Christendom through conversion and church growth. The author says, "The Christian mission should not be defined with an either/or mindset." Christian mission is a multi-faceted discipline with multiple major concerns, including the verbal proclamation of the Gospel, religious conversion, inter-religious dialogue for mutual understanding and peace, promoting social justice, uplifting the downtrodden, and many others. "Christian mission has manyness not in a fragmentary sense but in the sense of wholeness."
Reading this article, I have come to know that Christian mission is about the boundary-crossing activity of Christians or the church following God, who crossed the boundary between God and the world in and through Jesus Christ. The boundary refers to religio-territorial boundaries, cultural boundaries, and religious boundaries. The basic ways of doing missions are reached out from Christendom to non-Christian lands. The missionaries are considered missionaries when they cross over from Christian to non-Christian, which means unreached people. Missio Dei is the dynamic relationship between God and the world, and it is participation in the humanization of the world. All agree that the theology of religion is at the heart of the theology of mission. But he said the principles of missiology should not be limited within the theology of religion but should go beyond that. In this article, the author has brought many points of view from different missiologists about the missiology. I have been very blessed to know more about missiology (the study of missions). I agree with this author. He says that the concept of mission should not be defined from an either-or mindset. But it should be understood from the perspective of holistic The concept of mission should be broad and not limited to one culture or area. The author says that missionaries are those who leave their place and sit in another place for the sake of spreading the good news of God. They should go where the unreached people are. As a conclusion, mission in a pluralist context is needed, though it is very challenging. Every Christian is a missionary who has chosen to go and teach, make disciples, and baptise them in the name of the triune God (Mt. 28:18–20).
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