Global Missiology English

The Lamb Who Was Slain

J. Nelson Jennings — 2024-04-01

Christ’s, as well as his followers’, suffering and victory are not mutually exclusive, either-or realities. Even so, we Christians, both as individuals and as traditions, can tend to emphasize either suffering or victory, either sobriety or joy, at the expense of the other. Such an over-emphasis, one way or the other, is due to our experience, history, and context. Somehow the crucified and risen Jesus still bears, and apparently will forever bear, the scars from the horrific wounds inflicted on him when he was crucified.

Call for Papers for April 2025 Special Issue: "Lausanne IV: Reviews, Analyses, and Projections"

GME Editorial Team — 2024-04-01

The April 2025 issue of Global Missiology - English will examine the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, or “Seoul-Incheon 2024,” that will have taken place in September, 2024. Lausanne I-III gathered in 1974 (Lausanne), 1989 (Manila), and 2010 (Cape Town), hence Lausanne IV (Seoul) marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Lausanne Movement. Proposed titles with approximately 100-word abstracts are due October 31, 2024. Full manuscripts of approved paper proposals will be due January 31, 2025.

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GME — 2024-04-02

R. Daniel Shaw, Singing Samo Songs: From Shaman to Pastor: An Ethnohistorical Approach to Socio-Religious Expressions among the Samo of Papua New Guinea

David Beine — 2024-04-01

Shaw’s book serves as a compelling case for the relevance of anthropology in contemporary mission praxis. By bridging the gap between these disciplines, Shaw encourages a more nuanced understanding of cultural dynamics and the importance of contextualized approaches to mission work. Mission leaders would do well to heed Shaw’s insights and consider how anthropology can enrich and inform their strategies in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

Michael Lamb, A Commonwealth of Hope: Augustine’s Political Thought

Andrew Ndegwa — 2024-04-01

Written by Michael Lamb, A Commonwealth of Hope is a challenge or a counternarrative to the commonly held assumption that for Augustine, the eminent bishop of Hippo, earthly goods and therefore political goods do not have much value. Using detailed, well-supported and nuanced arguments, Lamb compellingly challenges Augustinian pessimism and the pessimistic value of political goods it sponsors.

1619, 1919, and Today

J. Nelson Jennings — 2024-04-01

The 1619 arrival of about 20 Africans on the east coast of North America and the 1919 Korean Independence Movement from Japanese colonial rule do not appear to have much in common—with each other or with realities today. However, comparing the two events unexpectedly sheds light on each, highlights stubbornly persistent difficulties connected to those events that occurred generations ago, and carries implications for World Christianity today.

Anthropologists Taking an Interest in Christianity, and Missionaries in Anthropology: A Constructive Contextual Engagement

Jim Harries — 2024-04-01

Missionaries adopting anthropologists’ “radical openness” to people can, in vital ways, improve Western comprehension of, and ongoing participation with, indigenous African Christianity and its theologies. Many anthropologists have recently turned to studying Christianity. Western missionaries’ selective adoption of anthropologists’ rules of engagement, guided by “vulnerable mission” principles, could facilitate a healing of damaging extant intercultural comprehension gaps. Drawing on personal field missionary experience, and especially the work of Vähäkangas, this article seeks to bring hope to greater unity between theological expertise in the West governed by written texts and predominantly oral ecclesial expression in Africa and elsewhere.

Maternal-thinking, Missio Dei, and Managerial Missiology: A Colombian Case Study

Renee Rheinbolt-Uribe — 2024-04-02

“Maternal-thinking” in missiology emphasizes the importance of mothers in God’s eyes. Maternal-thinking emphasizes motherhood and womanhood, and it has implications for mission, church, and society. This article examines a case study in Colombia, highlighting the impact of mothers in a congregation in crisis due to the collapse of a mission agency. / Missio Dei acknowledges God’s reach beyond Christian institutions, the space that many times mothers have influenced throughout Christian history. However, in today's world, the concept of motherhood is often perceived through the lens of the dominant USA culture, identified as the “Age of Systems.” Moreover, related to how the current missions epoch is enmeshed in managerial missiology, the case study is evidence of how inadvertently the oppression of mothers and women from other cultures can be made “in the name of Christ.” This article’s comparison of the dominant culture in the West to a Colombian experience offers suggestions for research and corrective measures.