Wednesday, April 27, 2005 1:15 AM

GLOBAL MISSIOLOGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY | BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed by Thomas Scarborough

This is a weighty tome. It also has a weighty price. However, it would be a book well worth having. It emerges from the Iguassu Missiological Consultation, held in Brazil in October 1999 – a conference attended by 160 delegates from all over the world. The Consultation was called together by the World Evangelical Fellowship (now Association) Missions Commission, to “pause at this historical hinge”, and to reflect on the state of missions today.

The book is packed with information, and with much engaging reflection. This includes the Iguassu Affirmation – a joint statement hammered out at the Consultation – and nearly 40 papers by leading missiologists. These papers either formed the basis of discussion at the Consultation (plenary papers), or arose directly out of it. The real strength of the book lies in these papers.

WHAT ARE THE EMPHASES AND HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BOOK?

In the course of the book, there are several broad themes to which contributors return again and again.

There is broad consensus among contributors that the “locus” of the Church has shifted from the Western to the Two-Thirds world (alternatively, from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere). There is a sense, almost throughout, that the Church in North America has lost the spiritual initiative with a “domesticated Christianity” which is unable even to “engage its own culture”. Much the same applies to the rest of the Western world, and mainland Europe is virtually sidelined from the book. There is discussion throughout the book concerning the all-pervasive postmodern worldview. And there was a plea, throughout the book, for theology. In fact this plea was incorporated into the Iguassu Affirmation itself, and takes up the major part of it.

The book has many highlights. Besides being a treasure trove of well researched information on the state of world missions today, the following are some of the papers which stood out for me in particular.

Samuel Escobar was masterful in his summary of world missions today, as well as the spiritual condition of missions. He demonstrated a vast command of “the global scenario at the turn of the century”. Chris Wright, with great insight and clarity, entered into major theological and worldview issues facing missions today. Ajith Fernando contributed four chapters on trinitarianism, which were deeply grounded in Scripture, and included some strong observations on the state of the Church today. Yusufu Turaki gave an impressive description of past missions in Africa. Joshua Daimoi wrote a humorous and engaging account of missions in the Pacific – as only a Pacific islander could do. And finally, David Greenlee wrote a heartening report of the Church in the Middle East, which, he writes, should not be thought of merely as “a few fossils from the ancient past”.

DO CONTRIBUTORS REVEAL ANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE WESTERN AND TWO-THIRDS WORLDS?

Contributors to the book are more or less equally divided between what is referred to as “the Western world” on the one hand, and “the Two-Thirds world” on the other, there being 18 or 19 contributions from each. There are clear differences between these two worlds in the book itself, and perhaps it is no accident that each is referred to as a “world”. However, there are exceptions – among them Paul Hiebert’s paper on spiritual warfare, which clearly goes against what he refers to as the “Indo-European worldview” from which he comes.

One of the more illuminating examples of the difference is the contrast between an introductory paper by Samuel Escobar (a South American), and the response of Jonathan Bonk (a North American). Escobar highlights eleven major themes – then Bonk follows up with professed agreement on all. However, in the very process of agreeing, he demonstrates just how far he is from Escobar – without, apparently, being aware of it.

Escobar emphasises the need for “spiritual power and disciplines” among Christians. Bonk responds that Christians find power in “values, orientations”. Escobar writes about “commitment to the authority of God’s Word”. Bonk refers to the Word of God as “a handbook” for the journey. Escobar states the need for “a spirituality of the cross, readiness for suffering”. Bonk interprets the way of the cross as “love for enemies, the way of forgiveness”. Escobar refers many times to the Holy Spirit, writing of the “presence and power of the Holy Spirit”, and of the Church of Christ as “the work of the Holy Spirit”. Bonk, in response, does not refer to the Holy Spirit even once.

While Bonk, throughout his paper, lauds Escobar, he would appear to bypass his core themes almost completely. In short, there is a characteristic Two-Thirds world radicalism about Escobar, erudite as he is, that is absent from Bonk. Much the same could be noted about other contributors to the book. Both Bonk’s negation of Escobar, and his lack of awareness of this, would seem to typify the situation in the world (or two worlds) today.

WHAT INSIGHTS DOES THE BOOK REVEAL WITH REGARD TO MISSIONS TO MUSLIMS?

Islam has up to 2 billion adherents in the world today. Yet strangely, this did not receive a great deal of attention in the book. Editor William D. Taylor comments that “a weakness of the Iguassu program was the absence of any serious analysis of the Islamic reality around the world”.

David Greenlee places an interesting quote in his paper: “Historically the way the church has approached Islam has not been a successful one”. Neither wars of the past, nor ignoring or bypassing Islam, nor the tendency of the Church to appease Islam has met with any significant success. Muslims “are fiercely antagonistic toward any attempts to evangelize them”. He proposes a new way – or should we say, an old way. He states that “some issues of contextualization are being pushed too far,” and that “we need to share the love of Christ openly.”

Ian Prescott, on the other hand, notes an anomalous approach to Islam in his paper. St. Eulogius, who lived in the early 9th Century A.D., appears to be the only example in the book of challenging “the bases” of Islam. St. Eulogius led a “martyr’s movement”, through which “at least 50 Christians were beheaded over a decade” (perhaps half a dozen annually). Finally, the local emir threatened to put to death all Christians in his realm if St. Eulogius’ followers did not desist from this method. As a result, more moderate Christians pressured the more radical Christians to silence.

This raises the question: Would this episode seem to prove that St. Eulogius was just a crazy fool? Or might the emir’s reaction demonstrate that St. Eulogius was essentially correct, in that he touched the real nerve-centre of Islam? Given a repeated emphasis of missiologists in this book on attacking the roots of false worldviews that stand in the way of the acceptance of Christ, there seemed to be an obvious gap in this regard in the discussion of Islam.

SYNTHESIS

The Iguassu Affirmation itself has a number of distinctive features. Besides its affirmation of core evangelical beliefs in an age of religious pluralism, it places a special emphasis on suffering, godliness, spiritual conflict, and a holistic gospel. This further finds its outworking in the papers. A curious feature of the Affirmation is a statement of repentance by the delegates, without any broader application of repentance to the world – and a more obvious omission is any reference to eternal destinies, a subject which clearly was an issue among the delegates.

This having been said, the Iguassu Dialogue (the subtitle of the book), which finds expression in the published papers, is most informative, interesting, and enlightening. Nor has the dialogue been finally completed. An important aspect of the consultation, and of the book, is to invest in an ongoing process of global missiology. If you should wish to know about the state of evangelical missions in the world today, there may be no book to equal this.

CITATION OF REFERENCES

Taylor, William D. (Editor). Global Missiology for the 21st Century. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2000. ISBN 0-8010-2259-2. Publisher Price U.S.$40.

Thomas Scarborough is a minister in central Cape Town, in an Evangelical Congregational Church. He is currently studying for a Master’s degree through Fuller Theological Seminary. In the course of his studies, he needs to report on some 100 prescribed books – hence this review!