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Key ideas are presented in this paper in a suddenly, it's a different story style, intended to reflect the contemporary role of fiction in relating to missionary work. Literature and missiology for our century carries on its purpose. Using three key texts: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, the implications of whether literary narratives can engage with theological, ethical, and post-colonial challenges that today moot Christian missions are analysed. Based on literary theory, this study considers how fiction can help us to understand mission practice, offers alternative views of cultural encounters, faith and identity in the globalizing world. The contradiction and possibilities inherent in missionary work are aired as the paper contends that literature can also provide further insights into this area of human endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a review of previous research on global reactions to food crises, most studies have focused on economic aspects. This review identified the following gaps: (1) There is no study discussing the synergy between the church and the government in addressing food crises; (2) No research is available on the role and social anticipation of communities in the context of food crises. This research is urgently needed because synergy between the government and the church is crucial in the context of food security in North Sulawesi. The objective of this research is to fill this research gap through a holistic and comprehensive approach to the synergy between the Provincial Government of North Sulawesi and the Evangelical Christian Church in Minahasa in anticipating the global food crisis by enhancing farming and livestock activities in North Sulawesi. The research method used is a descriptive qualitative design through content analysis combined with a missiology analysis approach of the church. Data collection was carried out using participatory observation, interviews, and literature studies. The novelty of this research includes: (1) The synergy between the Provincial Government of North Sulawesi and the Evangelical Christian Church in Minahasa in responding to and anticipating the global food crisis; (2) The combination of content analysis methods with church missiology analysis as a new approach. The output of this research is a conceptual framework and a strong missiological approach strategy in building and optimizing relevant and effective synergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harrist Church in Ivory Coast, West Africa, emerged from the ministry of Liberian William Wadé Harris who baptized between 10,000 and 200,000 people during his eighteen-month evangelistic tour, 1913–1915. This story is full of linguistic complexities and anomalies. Harris himself spoke only English and his own local Liberian Glebo language. He was therefore compelled to work through expatriate English-speaking merchants, knowledgeable of and conversant in local languages, as interpreters and translators in addressing the twelve ethnic groups who heard and accepted his message. Harris encouraged new converts to compose hymns in their own indigenous languages by transforming musical genres embedded in their local musical traditions. Additionally fascinating is that during this early colonial period, the twelve ethnic groups impacted by Harris's ministry lived in almost total isolation from each other and developed their own hymn traditions for thirty-five years (1914–1949), unaware of the existence of churches and worship patterns in neighboring ethnic districts. Only in 1949 did they suddenly become acquainted with the broader, multi-musical, multilingual reality of the Harrist movement. Since then, individual musicians and choirs from local congregations have gradually begun to sing a few of each other's songs, though the challenge of becoming a truly multicultural, multiethnic church remains a work in progress. Documentation of these developments include written colonial and early Protestant and Catholic missionary sources and a large number of eye-witness interviews. Primary research methods employed here come from four intersecting disciplines and theoretical frameworks: orality studies, with particular focus on oral sources in constructing historical narrative; religious phenomenology; mission history; and ethnodoxological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Christian theology, Christology remains a distinct branch of knowledge offering articulation of the hypostatic union or relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. Its exploration of Christ’s nature and identity moves from the pre-incarnation to post-ascension as enclosing Christ’s birth, earthly mission, resurrection, and ascension. Consequently, or in attempting to streamline such a complex knowledge, Christological theologians developed two categorization frameworks in the form of ‘top-down Christology’ and ‘bottom-up Christology’. When sketchily integrated into missiological frameworks, the missio Dei conforms to top-down Christology, whereas missio hominum conforms more to bottom-up Christology. In their transient articulation of Jesus Christ’s identity, the missio Dei on the one hand embraces the top-down Christology while the missio hominum on the other hand or correspondingly embraces the bottom-up Christology. Accordingly, or given the lack of missiological scholarship deriving the unique understanding of the missio Dei and consequently missio hominum through Christology, this article draws on literature to weave their novel understanding as anchored by Christ’s hypostatic union. Consequently, it first rationalizes the Missio Dei within top-down Christology before anchoring the Missio Hominum within bottom-up Christology. Determinedly, further studies will be required to test the novelty of this approach, as there appears to be no existential science that interprets Missio Dei and Missio Hominum through top-down-up Christology.

This article discusses the latest document by the Francophone ecumenical group the Groupe des Dombes. The document advocates a "reformed catholicity" through the conversion of the churches, where catholicity is not seen as the exclusive property of the Roman Catholic faithful but encompasses the entire Christian church, and in which the word "reformed" also concerns the whole Christian church and not only Protestant churches. This article first explores the contribution of this text to ecumenical dialogue. It then discusses the "bold thesis" at the centre of the document, according to which the Catholic Church and the churches of the Reformation "form one Church, although in imperfect communion." The article then goes on to highlight the eschatological dynamic of the document and the relationship between catholicity and mission. The article concludes with some thoughts about the path toward a truly universal catholicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was originally given as a response to Professor Kirsten Kim's keynote address 'The Future of Mission Studies: Commissiology?' at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) 40th Anniversary. The article considers why OCMS's approach mission studies contrasts sharply with the definition of Mission Studies as set out in the Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies in light of OCMS's founders understanding of mission as transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will consider the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies as 'a tradition of inquiry and a coherent 'movement of thought'. The article follows OCMS's development of mission studies over the past 40 years. It is based upon personal experience as well as on interviews with founders, academic officers, faculty, alumni, and current students: primarily in the OCMS PhD programme, but not exclusively. In sum, it is a living tale of OCMS of the ongoing embodiment of mission study as Wholistic Transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is a lifelong journey for those who are called to give contextually potent witness to the Christian gospel. Doctoral programmes provide an excellent training in research method as well as producing new knowledge and thought that can be highly significant for the strengthening of Christian witness in many contexts but this paper will argue that the doctoral thesis is not the only, or always, the most appropriate, format for the presentation of missional research. Reflecting on the first six years of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies' Guided Research Programme the paper suggests that those concerned for more effective Christian witness globally need to explore a new approach to research that presents new knowledge and academic challenge to a wider audience, facilitating participation in research by greater numbers of church leaders, agency workers and Christian academics without compromising academic excellence. The article suggests priorities for such a development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mission studies has been developing at least since the nineteenth century and shares a scholarly space with the more recent fields of intercultural theology and world Christianity. Questions about the complicity of missions with imperialist agendas may raise questions about the future of mission studies. However, through its use of the social sciences, its global perspective and its attention to Christian responses to Jesus' commissions, the field offers a particular and valuable contribution to the church and academy. In this article, I attempt to answer the question of the future of the academic study of mission in three different dimensions: (a) the nature of mission studies as a field; (b) its relation to other disciplines and (c) its potential development. I draw on the experience of editing The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies (2022) and of the integration of schools of missiology and theology at Fuller Theology Seminary in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Indonesia, a pluralistic society with diverse cultures, religions, ethnicities, and worldviews poses significant challenges to church missiology. Horizontal conflicts related to religion and ethnicity are a frequent occurrence in the course of the nation's journey. This article explores the theological and social approaches to dealing with the issue's complexity. It investigates how the church can be a positive change agent in promoting interfaith dialogue, building social harmony, and strengthening cross-cultural understanding. Using a research method that involves theological study and social analysis expressed in a descriptive qualitative method with a literature study approach to understand the church's and missionaries' role in contemporary society. The conclusion is the need for the church to understand the dynamics of pluralism in the context of missiology in Indonesia so that it can provide a theological approach strategy in missiology for multicultural societies and also the importance of social strategies in facing the challenges of missiology in contemporary society. Finally, it can provide social and cultural impacts and implications for the practice of missiology in Indonesia. hence highlighting the need for a holistic approach that integrates theology with the social context of society, so that missiology can play an effective role in facing contemporary challenges and expanding its positive impact in social and spiritual transformation in Indonesia.

The Nias tribe has a unique view of death reflected in its beliefs and traditions. It reflects a blend of Christian elements with local beliefs rich in myths, rituals, and symbolism. Local beliefs are reflected in traditional ceremonies rich in symbols and meanings. But it has slowly adapted to the changing times. It is undeniable that the people of Nias are facing significant transformations due to globalization and modernization. These changes not only affect the way of life economically and socially but also change the understanding and management of corpse. This study uses literature as a guideline in compiling this article. To obtain data, use a qualitative field or ethnographic approach to the social and culture of the Nias tribe. The results indicate that the meaning of death for the Nias tribe has changed along with the interaction with the influence of globalization and modernization. The tradition of death, rich in spiritual and social values, remains a strong foothold in maintaining its cultural identity, despite its adaptation to contemporary dynamics

This article examines the role of missiology and holistic ministry as the basis of social care with the implementation of the principles outlined in the letter of the Apostle James 2: 14-17. The verses emphasize that faith without works is dead, indicating that real action must accompany true faith. This study aims to provide insights and practical guidance for churches and Christian organizations in carrying out holistic ministry, which not only reaches out to souls but also has a real positive impact on society. Through a missiological approach, this article uses a descriptive qualitative method that has concluded how the church's mission is not only limited to the spread of the gospel but also includes holistic ministry, which means paying attention to humans' physical, emotional, and social needs. First, Christians are expected to be able to understand the theological basis of missiology and holistic ministry in the study of theological analysis of James 2: 14-17 to be able to bring the role of the church in increasing social care and also the practical implications of the principles of James 2: 14-17 in holistic ministry. The holistic ministry emphasizes the integration of evangelism and social action as a manifestation of the Christian faith, which churches and Christian organizations can implement. Thus, missiology-based and holistic ministry meets not only spiritual needs but also physical needs through biblical teachings.

This essay unearths the metaphor from the Epistle to the Ephesians of 'all things summed up into Christ' as a critical component of Lesslie Newbigin's Christology. First, it shows that references to this image form an as yet undetected but consistent line of thought in Newbigin's work. Second, it argues that the logic of Newbigin's theological imaginary follows the logic embedded in the Ephesians metaphor. Third, it shows that detecting the particular shape of Newbigin's Christology allows one to map his project onto wider Christological conversations, and it suggests that one most fruitfully reads him in the context of a supralapsarian Christological approach. Finally, it argues that read in this way, Newbigin's work can once again make a fresh contribution to the conversation as contemporary practitioners are looking for a new narrative to support their work in this missional era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of religious disaffiliation in the United States over the past three decades is historically unprecedented. This article argues that disaffiliation is a form of moral protest against lingering coloniality in American global North Christianities and appeals for missiologists to adopt a decolonial lens to more effectively critique harmful religious systems and investigate exterior forms of Christianities otherwise in the North American context. The article explores existing sociological and empirical data on disaffiliation, deconversion, and religious harms to expose the moral protest of disaffiliation. Decoloniality is distinguished from postcolonialism to reveal its relevance for the subject matter and identify its method. Using examples of North American missiologies, the article demonstrates how latent forms of coloniality are preserved despite decolonizing efforts in the field and how a decolonial lens can bring new works of the spirit into focus. Finally, it briefly explores implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I analyze the concept and contextuality of ecumenical missiology and its contemporary paradigms. Furthermore, I argue that the mission from the margins paradigm may construct a new method for undoing constantly increasing marginalization when understood from both its theological and philosophical points of view. This article celebrates togetherness in missio Dei as life‐giving mission of God and argues that transformation is the only hope for humankind and the churches. It was written to honour Finnish missiologist Dr Risto Ahonen on his 80th birthday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostal mission activity was initially motivated by a commitment to the premillennial return of Christ. This eschatological basis for mission was driven by a number of factors, not least being interpretations of Matthew 24:14, in which the gospel needed to reach every nation before the end would come. But a focus on the next world also led Pentecostal mission strategy away from this world concerns, and Pentecostals have long been criticized for a history of mission that involved proclamation of a future hope without any form of present-day relief. In an increasingly wounded world, such an approach becomes less and less palatable, which is why there has now been a significant shift towards social justice and welfare aspects of mission within Pentecostal efforts. However, it has been argued that the relegation of eschatological motivation to the periphery of mission has detrimental consequences for Pentecostal mission as a whole and therefore needs to be rethought (Ma and Ma 2010:280). This article endeavors to contribute to this discussion by drawing together theological and missiological reflections on the Pentecostal full gospel to reflect on whether such relegation is inevitable, or whether an amended eschatological vision is still helpful for mission efforts in a wounded world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scholarship of engagement is an approach that connects knowledge systems to the challenges facing society in a meaningful way. This article reviews the literature on Pentecostal missiology to make a new contribution through a scholarship of engagement. Previous studies on Pentecostal missiology have focused on how Pentecostals conduct their mission and very little on how they engage societal problems. This leaves a gap in how Pentecostal missiology as a discipline engages wounded society, particularly in a South African context. Wounds found within South African society, such as gender-based violence, crime, effects of COVID-19, corruption, climate change, and economic crises are highlighted. This article aims to illustrate that Pentecostal missiology must be aware of societal wounds to be able to truly engage with wounded societies. The study challenges Pentecostal missiologists to not only focus on Pentecostal missions inwardly but to also engage society and its challenges through a scholarship of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of missiological literature that has raised interest in assessing a culture's level of shame orientation. Beyond implications for gospel proclamation, shame orientation has a dramatic influence on pedagogy as well as leadership methodology. However, there has been a dearth of research in regard to the shame orientation of specific subcultures and the subsequent impact on contextualised missiology. This article provides a review of literature to demonstrate that a pronounced shame orientation of rural subcultures is conceptually plausible. The contribution of this writing is to provide a more specific understanding of the rural subculture and to introduce a methodology of assessing shame orientation of rural subcultures. Further, the article maintains that rural ministry practitioners should be more intentional about the use of available resources that provide nuanced approaches to gospel proclamation, pedagogy, and leadership methodology in shame-oriented cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the second half of the 20th century, missiology has continued to elevate Missio Dei to a topic of the highest importance in theology. According to Missio Dei, the salvific mission is more theocentric than anthropocentric in that its actuality is wholly rooted in the nature of God. However, much work remains to be conducted to evaluate and reconcile the modern interpretation of the Missio Dei and its predecessor theological doctrines, to avoid illogicalities. Consequently, the responsibility to identify any discrepancies in the systematic knowledge of the Missio Dei falls on the broad shoulders of theology in general, but of missiology in particular. In keeping with this unavoidable intellectual duty, this article interrogates the literature on modern theodicies to improve the conceptualization of the Missio Dei and missionary God in the context of evil and human suffering. The inter-comparative analysis of the biblical Job serves to relate divine perfection and human suffering within process theodicy. Consequently, the intellectual enterprise of this work, with all its shortcomings, not only illuminates another facet of Missio Dei but also motivates further investigation to reconcile mission Dei with the reality of evil, free will, and human suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a narrative of how the collection Canaan Hymns is embedded in the context of the life and struggles of ecclesial life within the Chinese church movement, embodied in their pneumatologically-led creation, and empowered by the theology of laity and women. It argues that the ecclesiological mode of the grassroots together with the affective style of worship and reflections form the two key characteristics of a decolonizing missiology, offering an epistemology of "knowing with" in relation to missio Dei. This is followed by further examining the mission impulse, nationalistic fever and transnational currents. Contesting the ideology of atheism, a decolonizing missiology of the Chinese church movement offers a bottom-up construction in that the lived embodied experiences of everyday life in Christ within a cultural soil take priority as sources of a theology of mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I offer a critical, appreciative assessment of Arvind Sharma's vision of missionary Hinduism, as developed in his 2011 monograph Hinduism as a Missionary Religion and related works in ethics, comparative method, and philosophy of religion. As a historian, Sharma has been criticized for his selective focus and his tendency to de-emphasize the diversity and mutual rivalries of Hindu traditions, especially in the classical and medieval periods. As a self-consciously constructive, even confessional thinker, however, he also develops a coherent theology of mission, grounded in his own distinctive form of universalist Advaita Vedānta. In this sense, I argue, Sharma might be regarded as a founding figure in the emergence of missiology as a vital category of contemporary Hindu thought, as well as a rich new field for interreligious exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiated by Vincent Lebbe in 1920, the Belgian Catholic project for Chinese students was a harbinger of inculturation. Contrary to the impression that the Catholic Church reacted slowly to the demand of indigenisation in the early twentieth century, this article demonstrates that a project specifically designed for Chinese students had already been prepared for this purpose back in Belgium. In other words, through the fostering of intercultural understanding and personal contacts between students abroad and home communities, the Belgian Catholic project became part of the Leuven school's missiological initiative, which was meant to realise Church implantation in mission countries. In order to maximise the contacts between young Chinese intellectuals and the Belgian Catholic milieu, Lebbe and his associates strategically anchored their cause into the allocation of the Sino-Belgian Indemnity Scholarship, despite stiff competition. The Catholic efforts to encourage a sense of unity evoked sympathy in Belgian society towards China, and in time contributed to charitable support for war victims at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. Though originally driven by evangelical purposes and ideological challenges, the spirit of inculturation gave rise to an awareness of human solidarity, a legacy worthy of a true apostolate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Christianity as a historical phenomenon emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century, showing the global reaching of Christianity physically, numerically, and characteristically. Even though the number of Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century (around thirty-three percent of the world’s population) has not changed much since the beginning of the century before, the demographic shift and intercultural nature of Christianity have changed its appearance. In just a century, Christianity truly became a world religion (Robert 2009; Kim and Kim 2016). Consider the demographic shift: at the beginning of the twentieth century, as many as eighty percent of Christians lived in the global North, that is, Europe and North America. By the first decade of the twenty-first century, however, at least sixty percent of Christians were from the global South regions (Johnson and Ross 2009: 8), largely previously considered non-Christian except for migrants from the North. While mainly produced by the modern missionary movement from the West, various characteristics of world Christianity have also shown the indigeneity of the different forms of regional Christianity. Assuming that world Christianity is still in transition, especially in theology, this article deals with theological developments relating to the world Christianity phenomenon. It first offers a brief empirical analysis and historical description, then explores the theological phenomena surrounding world Christianity. Two theological developments – in particular, contextual theology and intercultural theology – are identified as the main branch of world Christianity’s theology. The study concludes with a suggestive doctrinal-theological foundation to anchor the theology, namely the doctrine of incarnation.

In Central and Eastern Europe, some branches of the Church have formed alliances with nationalist politics characterized by fundamentalism and fanaticism. To identify this phenomenon, Czech theologian Tomaš Halik coined the term “f-word pseudoreligion.” Pavol Bargár suggests that such an approach to one’s faith and public witness is one of the most serious challenges the church’s mission in CEE must face. First, the other tends to be viewed as a menace rather than a precious gift. Second, its adherents can fall prey to idealized traditionalism rather than drawing from the treasures of Christian tradition, the gospel itself. After defining Christian nationalism, I will focus on the Visegrád nations: Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. In response to this missional challenge, I argue for public witness through the church as a disciple community. Discipleship as apprenticeship to Jesus does not lie in affiliation to an established church representing a particular national identity. Such idealized traditionalism found in settled religious forms can be called temple spirituality. The apostle Paul did not focus on temple spirituality or church planting; he nurtured disciple communities toward maturity in Christ. While Biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism, and activism define a certain kind of evangelical piety, the church as a disciple community is both pilgrim and indigenous. When the telos of loving communion with God and neighbor shapes the disciple community’s identity and mission, churches can engage biblical resources and traditions to serve social realities in ways that bring hope, reconciliation, and healing.

Missio Dei represents a missiological attempt to articulate a theocentric concept of mission with reference to the missionary nature and act of the triune God. This attempt arose as a reaction to the ecclesiocentric understanding of mission which was predominant within the Western global missionary movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article briefly reviews the historical, biblical, and theological context of such an attempt, and then highlights an ongoing polarity in the employment of trinitarianism within missio Dei. The article concludes with a reflection on the implications of missio Dei for the church and Christian life in a contemporary, globalized society.

The Harrist Church in Ivory Coast, West Africa, emerged from the ministry of Liberian William Wadé Harris who baptized between 10,000 and 200,000 people during his eighteen-month evangelistic tour, 1913–1915. This story is full of linguistic complexities and anomalies. Harris himself spoke only English and his own local Liberian Glebo language. He was therefore compelled to work through expatriate English-speaking merchants, knowledgeable of and conversant in local languages, as interpreters and translators in addressing the twelve ethnic groups who heard and accepted his message. Harris encouraged new converts to compose hymns in their own indigenous languages by transforming musical genres embedded in their local musical traditions. Additionally fascinating is that during this early colonial period, the twelve ethnic groups impacted by Harris’s ministry lived in almost total isolation from each other and developed their own hymn traditions for thirty-five years (1914–1949), unaware of the existence of churches and worship patterns in neighboring ethnic districts. Only in 1949 did they suddenly become acquainted with the broader, multi-musical, multilingual reality of the Harrist movement. Since then, individual musicians and choirs from local congregations have gradually begun to sing a few of each other’s songs, though the challenge of becoming a truly multicultural, multiethnic church remains a work in progress. Documentation of these developments include written colonial and early Protestant and Catholic missionary sources and a large number of eye-witness interviews. Primary research methods employed here come from four intersecting disciplines and theoretical frameworks: orality studies, with particular focus on oral sources in constructing historical narrative; religious phenomenology; mission history; and ethnodoxological research.

Through fantasy theme analysis, this project updates Georges’ (2017) concept of a 3D Gospel by applying concepts of Co-Cultural Theory (Orbe, 1998) and Dominant Group Theory (Razzante & Orbe, 2018) to the practice of Christian missionary tourism. We critique a promotional video from the organization World Race, identifying setting, character, and action themes (Foss, 2018), and then explicating the organization’s rhetorical vision of Christian missional work, which is inherently Western and individually focused. We offer recommendations for the future of missions through the application of Co-Cultural and Dominant Group Theory in Communication to extend the concepts offered by Georges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to produce teaching materials that follow the progress of the times. To produce teaching materials that suit the equipment needs of teachers as educators and evangelists. To increase the awareness of students who work as educators and evangelists. To determine the suitability of teaching materials to equip students to become evangelists and educators. The development research uses a questionnaire instrument with a Likert scale with five alternative answer choices. Data analysis was carried out using quantitative descriptive analysis techniques. This development research resulted in a new curriculum for the Missiology course in the PAK Study Program. Curriculum development refers to the 4 D model, namely the Define, Design, Development, and Disseminate Stage. However, this research shows a feasibility assessment only up to stage 3, namely the development stage. According to the Curriculum Expert, the result was 75%, so it was categorized as agreeing or feasible. The results of the curriculum feasibility assessment by the mission practitioner experts were

Encounterology is a missiological approach to the theology of religions that was developed by J.N.J. Kritzinger – a South African missiologist. The approach recognises the encounter between people of different faiths or religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and others. Encounterology is a theology of a particular interfaith encounter that is relevant to the theology of religions. Encounterology is discussed here as a theology relevant to addressing the differences that exist between Christian denominations and their theological approaches. This article engages encounterology from a Pentecostal theological perspective to develop an authentic and transformative Pentecostal theology of encounters. This article builds from the Pentecostal theology of encounters with the Holy Spirit and fellow human beings into the development of the theology of interreligious encounters. In addition, encounterology is relevant in Pentecostalism in the encounters between the movement and other Christian traditions. Therefore, the theology of religions should consider not only exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist approaches, but also encounterology as an authentic and transformative approach for both interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. Contribution: This article used encounterology as an important framework for a Pentecostal theology of interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. This article has made a new contribution to the theology of religions in the methodological and theoretical field in proposing encounterology to existing approaches such as exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist approaches.

This article offers a missiological research model based on three key missiological concepts: missio Dei, christocentricity, and contextuality (MDCC, for short). The model is derived from a practical theology model that was developed by the Layola Institute of Ministry (LIM). The author refers to the new missiological model as the LIMM model, where the added ‘M’ represents missional action. Since the introduction of the term missio Dei, the focus has shifted from missions initiated and conducted by the church, to the one true mission – God’s mission. In the missio Dei, God sends his Son and the Spirit to the world, and through them sends people to the ends of the earth. At the same time, God is the sender and the content of the sending. The incarnation of culture is God’s message in every if great importance. The LIMM model is characterised by the three key missiological terms mentioned above. From defining the research topic, right through to the practical suggestions for an improved experience, the researcher is guided by these missiological principles. If a research topic does not correlate to MDCC principles, it is not suitable for missiological research and another field of theology should be considered.

According to the postcolonial approach, to understand today's world one must take into account modern colonialism (late 15th to mid‐20th centuries) as well as all other forms of colonialism. Orthodox theologians have only recently and on a small scale begun to use postcolonial analysis. However, Orthodox theology can contribute to the discussion and shed more light on both the historical experience and the future course of the debate. In particular, the postcolonial perspective can intersect with missionary praxis and missiology, as the Orthodox Church began to be seriously active in the missionary field (of sub‐Saharan Africa and the Far East) in the 1960s, that is, at the end of the classical colonial period. Its experience confirms that colonialism entails not only direct imposition on the colonized but also the colonized people's internalizing of the colonizers' logic. The postcolonial approach thus invites self‐criticism. The obligation to be self‐critical is at the heart of the Orthodox tradition, despite the fact that it is often forgotten, resulting in nightmarish distortions and neo‐colonial attitudes. At the same time, the postcolonial perspective reinforces the liberating mission of the gospel and patristic theology in all human contexts. In this way, postcolonialism is called to come to a fruitful completion with anti‐colonialism and to contribute to the key demand of Orthodox ecclesiology, which is the formation of authentically local churches and not branches of other, national churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an opinion article, based on a lifelong syncretic study of the dialogical paths taken by Eastern theologians, Greeks and Arabs. At the crossroads of three continents, in direct relation with the Byzantine and Syriac traditions, with the Mediterranean and its Greco-Roman culture, but also with the Asian and African hinterland, Arab and Arabic-speaking Christian theologians have formed a culture of dialogue. They managed to engage with Islam in shapes and forms that are of very great interest and could point the way to a different approach to Islam today. The article, written by a Greek author, proposes a better integration of Arabic Orthodox theology as an enrichment to Orthodox theology as a whole, serving at the same time a broader connection between the Greek and Arab worlds. The article also proposes that discovering the heritage of the Orthodox East is interesting for Christian theology on a global scale. In primarily Christian/Western academia, one should be open to a genuine encounter with the Islamic world beyond geopolitics and other concerns extrinsic to religion; this is an encounter that would open up paths beyond the "clash of civilisations" impasse and allow for the rediscovery of the humanizing factor of religion. This is of interest to Christian and Muslim theologians as well as serving humanity and creation as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report, by Nick Spencer and Hannah Waite of Theos, ‘Science and Religion: Moving away from the shallow end’, was published in May 2022 It makes a number of interesting observations, based on both quantitative and qualitative research, as to how the debate about the relationship between science and religion has changed over the last fifteen years. The report title draws on the humorous observation that in swimming pools all the noise comes from the shallow end. The debate certainly has been ‘noisy’ at times and their report outlines areas where serious discussion has moved into deeper waters and with recognition of multiple ways of approaching formerly contentious issues. Alister McGrath’s work over many years illustrates this concern for discussion and not confrontation, along with a concern for an inference to the best explanation as the way forward. In particular his taking up of Mary Midgley’s suggestion of ‘multiple maps of meaning’ has significant resonances with Spencer and Waite’s outline of the ‘areas of deeper concern’, key areas in the science and religion debate, and the evidence from their expert interviews. This paper considers these areas in the light of the deeper, ultimate decisive questions that all human beings need to ask of themselves, as referred to by McGrath in his approving use of the work of José Ortega y Gasset. It observes that McGrath, throughout his writings and verbal presentation, never inhabited the shallow end of discussions. The paper then considers what insights these considerations might have in the Christian tradition for a more grounded missiology in the twenty first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay presents a transcultural and transhistorical case that exhibits the impact of everyday language use in the practice of Christian spirituality, which stems from the biblical sermo humilis of late antiquity Christians, across and throughout the history of Christian mission and evangelism. In the specific case of Yi Suni, a Korean female martyr, I argue, this manner of sermo humilis kindles such Spirit-led influence in a mission field without a Western missionary's intervention, as the Christian message spreads through the raw language of ordinary people. Even though there has been some research on Yi Suni's in-between identity as an ordinary Confucian woman and a Catholic individual subject, there has not been enough attention to how her manner of speech in her letters reflects her struggles in the liminal space of her transcultural context. Her letters written in the real voice of Korean vernacular ǒnmun exhibit the rawness of the impact of the appropriated Catholicism in the everyday life of a Korean Confucian woman and her family. This rawness of her language, along with the core biblical message, I suggest, is the hallmark of Christian spirituality that Yi Suni revealed without direct influence from any Western missionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Romania, the neo-pagan communities are being organized and are working to define their identity in the middle of a Christian environment. In turn, individuals claiming to be neopagans begin to affirm themselves in the public space. While the neopagan phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe has been investigated over recent years by religious, anthropological, and sociological studies, the issue has been scarcely tackled in Romania. The very few studies concerning the neopagan phenomenon in Romania are largely based on web sources, with all the methodological shortcomings that such an investigation implies. The present study aims to outline the status quo of the neopagan presence in the Romanian context and to list some of the methodological challenges that its investigation involves. By highlighting the peculiarities of the neopagan phenomenon in Romania, the author hopes to offer a useful working tool to specialists in missionary studies or missiology as a theological discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to appreciate more deeply the ecclesiological and missiological perspectives of synodality and thus to suggest that synodality is not something new or created as the whim of Pope Francis but that it is rooted in the Church's ecclesiology from its earliest times and as such finds an expression in the Church's life and mission. In this paper I will demonstrate that the Church has always been a synodal Church and what we are witnessing now is a valid theological development which takes us into the third millennium. I wish to set my examination of synodality in its ecclesiological and missiological perspectives and thereby posit that these two branches or routes lead into the one synodal pathway. I will show that as we examine the ecclesiological perspective of synodality we shall see that it is set in a renewed sense of mission. For this, we will need to co‐operate with God and each other, as Pope Francis hinted at in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiated by Vincent Lebbe in 1920, the Belgian Catholic project for Chinese students was a harbinger of inculturation. Contrary to the impression that the Catholic Church reacted slowly to the demand of indigenisation in the early twentieth century, this article demonstrates that a project specifically designed for Chinese students had already been prepared for this purpose back in Belgium. In other words, through the fostering of intercultural understanding and personal contacts between students abroad and home communities, the Belgian Catholic project became part of the Leuven school’s missiological initiative, which was meant to realise Church implantation in mission countries. In order to maximise the contacts between young Chinese intellectuals and the Belgian Catholic milieu, Lebbe and his associates strategically anchored their cause into the allocation of the Sino-Belgian Indemnity Scholarship, despite stiff competition. The Catholic efforts to encourage a sense of unity evoked sympathy in Belgian society towards China, and in time contributed to charitable support for war victims at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. Though originally driven by evangelical purposes and ideological challenges, the spirit of inculturation gave rise to an awareness of human solidarity, a legacy worthy of a true apostolate.

This study aimed to examine missionaries’ success in transforming the elementary Puang Matua from the Toraja religion of Aluk Todolo into a Christian-based one. Puang Matua is the name of the Toraja people’s god that created the earth and everything. The concept was transformed into Christianity through contextualisation efforts to become a God of the Universe (YHWH). Descriptive analysis showed that the reconstruction was supported by the theological similarities between Puang Matua’s concept and the conception of God the Creator. The theological similarity is an absolute requirement for successful contextualisation to introduce Christianity into indigenous peoples strongly controlled by culture. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research could be a model for formulating a cross-cultural mission strategy that unites missiology with biblical and cultural anthropology.

As a missionary with the Church Missionary Society, Claud Field lived and worked in Peshawar between the years of 1892 and 1903. At the time, Peshawar was a geopolitically sensitive and missionally strategic city, and subsequent to Field's missionary years there, he began writing and translating publications relating to the history of mission, the Afghan people and culture, notable figures of Islamic history, and Christian-Muslim relations. However, Field is little known today. This research introduces Field and a historical puzzle regarding his shift in tone, reviews his first five published books, analyses the import of the books for his time, offers an explanation to the historical puzzle, and concludes with a call for further research into Field's life and publications. These findings help to begin filling the gap of historical research and literary criticism of Field's corpus of works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the role of Christian theological education in integrating an ecological vision into missional formation. Using Jakarta Theological Seminary's (JTS) Green Campus Blue Seminary program as a case study, it expounds on the contextuality and multidirectionality of this Indonesian theological seminary's educational program as eco-missional formation amid contemporary environmental problems, particularly the marine ecological crisis. My argument is twofold. First, eco-missional formation is imperative for theological education as part of its missional task amid the current ecological crisis. Second, envisioning theological education as eco-missional formation requires a reimagination of missiology from within the marine ecological crisis—thus, I refer to this as blue missiology. I identify the contextual-constructive dimension of blue missiology by interconnecting JTS's eco-missional formation, the history of environmental mission, local Indonesian narratives of the sea, and blue spirituality as the core of eco-missional formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a symbiotic relationship between mission and theology – they need each other. Just as the conception and practice of Christian mission have been renewed and refreshed through theological creativity, this article explores how Christian theology might be enriched by insights from contemporary ecumenical missiology. It makes particular reference to the World Council of Churches 2012 mission affirmation Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes and the Arusha Call to Discipleship issued by the 2018 WCC World Mission Conference held at Arusha, Tanzania. Drawing on these seminal texts, the article considers what it means to do theology with life itself at stake, the question of agency in theology, and the role of spirituality, discipleship and transformation in the construction of theology. It concludes by turning to the question of education and formation, proposing that in today's context, theologians need to be formed as "organic intellectuals." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]