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The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies
Edited by: Kirsteen Kim, Knud Jørgensen and Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga
Series: Oxford Handbooks
768 Pages
- Hardcover
- ISBN: 9780198831723
- Published By: Oxford University Press
- Published: October 2022
$125.00
The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies, edited by Kirsteen Kim, the late Kund Jorgensen, and Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga, is a mammoth work that includes forty groundbreaking articles dealing with the agendas, agents, methods, social effects, and self-understanding of Christian mission in all its varied forms. It brings together a diverse range of leading missiologists from five continents, representing different disciplinary perspectives and ecclesiastical traditions, and of which 40 percent are women, to offer a holistic understanding of God’s mission in the world. After David Bosch’s magnum opus, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Orbis Books, 1991), it is the most significant work that systematically represents the emerging field of missiology as a coherent, disciplined field of inquiry, surveying missional changes from the 19th to 21st centuries.
Approaching Christianity as a “world religion,” with its tremendous cultural and confessional diversity, has stimulated recent academic interests in mission studies. The post-colonial period witnessed the decline of Western Christianity and the unprecedented growth of Christianity in the erstwhile colonies. As a result, Africa, Asia, and Latin America became the home of two-thirds of the Christian population in the world. While Christianity has lost its appeal in the Western world, which is no longer the locus of Christianity, globalization has brought the world into a single village. Consequently, European and North American cities are becoming increasingly multi-religious societies. This eventually paved the way for a reverse mission, bringing missionaries to the West from the rest of the world. It established that mission is no longer “from the West to the rest,” but “from everywhere to everywhere,” involving Christians from all traditions and nations (3).
Divided into seven parts, this handbook approaches missiology as an interdisciplinary field that utilizes biblical, theological, practical, historical, cultural, religious, and social scientific methods. In addition to three chapters outlining the origin and development of mission studies and its main methods, part 1 includes an introductory chapter by editors Kim and Fitchette-Climenhaga outlining the structure of the volume and analyzing current trends in mission studies that emerge across the chapters. The helpful overview from the editors unifies the diverse voices of the authors, making the work readable and easily accessible. The introductory chapter also identifies six trends that will define the future of mission studies: (1) ecumenical rapprochement; (2) missional engagement with non-Christian religious traditions; (3) rethinking the missio Dei (mission of God) paradigm; (4) the prioritization of the agency of women, lay people, and Christians from the Global South; (5) study of migration and diaspora Christian communities; and (6) the significance of non-verbal and non-cognitive, culturally appropriate communication of the Christian Gospel. The remainder of the book is organized under six subdisciplines of missiology: “mission theology,” “mission practices,” “history of mission,” “Christian engagement with cultures,” “religions,” and “societies worldwide.”
The five chapters of part 2 elaborate on the theology of mission by authors affiliated with Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian traditions. However, it is worth noting here the absence of evangelicals, as well as Christian voices from the Global South, in defining mission theology, which may undermine the credibility of the handbook for some. Part 3, which contains seven chapters, focuses on a diverse range of practices pertaining to mission, such as the structures and agents of mission, the work of missionaries, spirituality and liturgy, proselytism, advocacy, international development and social action, and healing ministries. This part of the handbook argues that missiology as an academic discipline is rooted in the study of practices and, therefore, overlaps with the discipline of practical theology (5). The five chapters included in part 4 take a historical approach to Christian mission, helping post-colonial societies of the Global South unravel the colonial underpinning of mission and bring to the fore the experience of the colonized. As Jayakiran Sebastian argues in one of the chapters, mission became the means for cultural domination and subjugation of indigenous people (348-352).
The second half of the handbook deals with three further academic fields that have been brought into dialogue with mission studies: cultural anthropology and cultural studies, religious studies, and social studies. As the study of culture has always been a major preoccupation of Western missionaries, six chapters in part 5 explore the relationship between Christian mission and culture. There is no denying that cultural anthropologists contributed to the inculturation and contextualization of the Gospel in the Global South. The four chapters in part 6 analyze in greater depth Christian mission in relationship to the people of other faiths, especially Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. Even though Muthuraj Swamy’s article on the construction of modern Hinduism and Longkumer’s discussion on the missionary approach to indigenous traditions are significant, similar approaches were not made to decolonize the study of Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Part 6 addresses the foremost issues in mission studies pertaining to gender, race, ecology, technology, migration, arts, advocacy, and issues around money and power.
Initially conceived by scholars associated with the International Association of Mission Studies, the handbook is an interrogative piece of work that meticulously catalogs the current trends in missiology by examining both local and global issues with an enormous breadth of scope and depth of understanding. It establishes the needed disciplinary structure for mission studies and widens the definition of mission beyond the traditional paradigm of “sending.”
To be sure, the handbook is not without its weaknesses. Marginalized voices of Christians living in the Middle East, North Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and Latin America could have been amplified. The suffering of Christians persecuted in various countries of the Global South needs to get greater attention. Nonetheless, The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies is well researched and thought-provoking, and is an excellent resource for church leaders, academics, mission practitioners, and students interested in expanding their understanding of the Christian mission. The handbook, which will play an important role in preparing generations of scholars and practitioners, provides them with compelling new perspectives on current trends and critical issues in mission studies.
Jose Abraham is an associate professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Jose AbrahamDate Of Review:July 31, 2023
Kirsteen Kim first taught mission studies at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India (1993-1997). She also taught in the Cambridge Theological Federation, University of Birmingham, and University of Leeds before becoming a full professor at Leeds Trinity University in 2011. Since 2017 she has been professor of World Christianity at Fuller. She has published five monographs, several edited works, and 150 chapters and articles. She has been a consultant for the World Council of Churches and other organizations, edited the journal Mission Studies (2012-2020), and currently edits the book series, Theology and Mission in World Christianity (Brill).
Knud Jørgensen (1942 - 2018) was a journalist and theologian. He was Dean of Tao Fong Shan, Hong Kong until 2010 and then adjunct professor at the MF Norwegian School of Theology. He published several books and articles on journalism, communication, leadership and mission, and was one of the editors of the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series. He also had a long career as a broadcaster in Europe, Africa, and Asia, including for the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva.
Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on Christianity in Africa, missiology, and world Christianity, with emphases on popular religion, lay leadership, and conflict and peacebuilding. She has published on the history and anthropology of mission, and she serves on the American Society of Missiology's board of publications and Scholarly Monograph Series editorial committee.