“All Things to All People”?: Mission, Conversion and Providence in a Global Era

Abstract

The way that missions work, as these essays seem to illustrate, is always multifaceted with polydimensional dynamics and unpredictable consequences.  But its objective is always the same: conversion – a deeply controversial idea in many contexts.  Both the motivations and the results are related to the very complex processes of the conversion of persons, the planting of new kinds institutions, the encounter, clash or dialogue about worldviews and the human condition, the ethical reformation of the psycho-social “powers” that grasp the loyalties of the soul, the struggles for truth and justice, and the formation of a conviction-based ethos that is ever the core of civilization.  True conversion may only be accomplished by divine intervention, as accepted by the new believer; but those who see themselves as proximate agents of that divine reality usually sense that they are commissioned to draw attention to the need for, possibility of, and benefits from a change.