Christian Mission

This paper explores the London City Mission’s concerted efforts to evangelise the foreigner residing in, or passing through, London in the late nineteenth century. In 1876 the London City Mission Magazine declared that: ‘No principle can possibly justify the neglect of [the] heathen to be met within our own city. They have a claim on us even greater than if they were still far off from us’. At this time, the London City Mission had nine dedicated missionaries for their ‘Mission to the Foreigner’ in London, of which three were dedicated to working in the dock areas. In respect of the settled migrant communities, mission services were held in local churches in the respective native language. Ideally in the long term this would lead to the establishment of a mission room and associated facilities; this was, for example, achieved in the case of the French community which had settled in Soho and experienced a large influx of numbers during the 1870s due to the Franco-Prussian War. Additionally, migrant workers, such as the Italian masons that came to London to work on building projects, could be found in settled migrant communities of London. The transient foreign population was mainly to be found in the London docks. The missionaries routinely visited crew and passengers on ships, providing them with bibles and religious tracts. They also held services both on board ship and in local churches. Additionally, the missionary also sought out the foreigner in hospitals, workhouses, prisons, and opium smoking rooms, and often acted as an interpreter. The missionaries handed out religious tracts in over twenty languages in London and had extensive language skills. One missionary, for example, grappled with learning Swahili so that he could converse with the emancipated East African slaves that worked as crew on many cargo ships.

This article is an innovative search and research into the inner implications of mission in general and Christian mission in particular and offers promising prospects for arriving at new missiological avenues and frontiers, which is sure to be wholeheartedly acceptable to people of all affiliations. It argues and strongly advocates 'Missio Inter Gentes' (mission among the people) to define the role and relevance of the Christian mission in the present day times and ahead and therefore as the mainstream paradigm of mission, sooner or later, in view of taking the mission of Jesus and the Church, perhaps several leaps ahead at the same time. Having illustrated the notion and foundations of mission, in terms of faith, which is essentially an interactive reality as well, the author scrutinizes the strengths as well as weaknesses of Missio Ad Gentes and takes the readers much beyond and credibly arrives at 'Missio Inter Gentes' as the right missionary paradigm of life that is avowed to 'making the family of God' on earth, not only for Christians but also for the entire humankind.

“Meager” would best characterize the fruit of Protestant and Adventist Christian mission in the Buddhist world. There remain literally hundreds of people groups who have little to no witness of the Gospel of Christ. Worldview differences between the Buddhist and Christian worlds are poorly understood and, worse, poorly addressed. This paper identifies weaknesses in our missiological approach, makes recommendations that will yield a more fruitful harvest, and concludes with an appeal for increased understanding, resources, and prayer for these children of God.

This talk gives a biographical sketch of the life of the apostle Paul, based on Philippinans 3:4-11, sketching his bi-cultural and tri-lingual background in Tarsus and Jerusalem, his education and scholarly aptitude his spiritual transformation that began on the Damascus Road and continued in his years of obscurity in Arabia and Tarsus, and the Gentile mission to which God had called him. He was indeed both a scholar  and a servant

Pourquoi l'idée traditionnelle de « la mission » n'est-elle plus en adéquation avec les changements profonds qui se sont produits, ni avec une théologie biblique du témoignage chrétien ? Quels sont les changements qui donnent à réfléchir, tant sur la forme que sur le fond de la mission de l'Église dans le monde ? Dans le courant évangélique plusieurs réponses sont données à cette question. Sans vouloir refaire tout le débat théologique des dernières décennies – ceux qui s'y intéressent, liront avec profit les ouvrages du REMEF, le réseau évangélique de missiologie en Europe francophone, notamment les deux volumes Bible et mission 1 – nous présentons les trois approches qui sont adoptées aujourd'hui. 1.1 Vous avez dit « mission » ? Pour les chrétiens en général et les évangéliques parmi eux en particulier, le terme « mission » est lourd de sens. Ils vont citer de nombreux passages de la Bible pour dire l'importance de la mission, mais, chose surprenante, ce mot en tant que tel n'y figure pas, ni le mot évangélisation d'ailleurs. Les textes utilisent bien les verbes euaggelizo, « annoncer une bonne nouvelle » et apostello, « envoyer », mais les substantifs « évangélisation » et « mission » ont été introduits beaucoup plus tard. Héritage d'une histoire particulière Ces concepts, dans leur signification traditionnelle, sont l'héritage d'une histoire bien particulière, étroitement liée à l'expansion de l'Europe. Dans le sillage des explorateurs et des colonisateurs, les envoyés des Églises en Europe ont commencé à christianiser les peuples dits indigènes. Au XVIe siècle, les Jésuites ont introduit le terme missio pour désigner cette tâche. Catholiques et protestants l'ont vite adopté. Désormais le terme « mission » désigne la mise en oeuvre du mandat d'annoncer l'Évangile dans le monde entier, en envoyant des missionnaires qui vont traverser des frontières géographiques pour porter l'Évangile et implanter l'Église en dehors du monde occidental dans des pays « païens ». Le texte de base de cette « mission » est Matthieu 28.19 (« allez dans le monde entier, faites des disciples de toutes les nations… »), que les anglo-saxons appellent Great Commission (gare aux traducteurs français !) D'habitude on distingue la mission « au loin » qui traverse les frontières géographiques et l'évangélisation qui est son corollaire « au près ». Le dernier terme fut introduit au XVIIIe siècle par des protestants. La Bible revisitée Dans un ouvrage récent, Gabriel Monet remarque à juste titre que cette idée traditionnelle « ne résiste ni au sens des mots, ni à leur usage biblique, ni même à la réalité historique » 2. Les deux termes sont plutôt complémentaires, pas dans le sens classique d'une répartition géographique entre mission au loin et évangélisation (mission intérieure) au près, mais dans la mesure où nous sommes envoyés pour rayonner l'Évangile dans le monde. Gabriel Monet explique : 1 Hannes Wiher, sous dir., Bible et mission. Volume I, vers une théologie évangélique de la mission, et Volume II, vers une pratique évangélique de la mission. Charols : Excelsis, 2011 et 2012. Voir aussi le site du REMEF : www.missiologie.net 2 Gabriel Monet, Vous serez mes témoins. Paris : Vie et Santé, 2015, p. 12.

Diferentes trabajos del ámbito académico han tratado la función de todos los sacerdocios mencionados en la Biblia. Este trabajo buscó relacionar y encadenar la función de servicio de los diferentes sacerdocios en la Biblia en relación con el concepto de Santuario o lugar de la morada divina. Para ello, se ha hecho una distinción entre el sumo sacerdocio real mesiánico, el sacerdocio real antitípico y el sacerdocio tipológico. Esta distinción propicia una comprensión y difusión de la actividad salvífica de Dios desde su Santuario, y ayuda a entender un concepto particular de misión para el sacerdocio-real de los seres humanos que se extiende en la eternidad, según Ap 1:6.

Elias Riggs was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Greece between 1832-1838. This article reviews the early life of Elias Riggs, investigates how he became an American missionary in the Middle East and examines his missionary activities in Greece.

Based on extensive studies of archival material and little-known contemporary published sources, this article will explore how and why Danes – famous in certain circles like Maria Jacobsen, virtually unknown like Hansine Marcher and Jenny Jensen, but all women – ended up in remote corners of the Ottoman Empire before and during the Armenian Genocide. They were sent out as field workers for one of the world’s first proper NGOs, the Danish branch of the Evangelical organization Women Missionary Workers. What did these women from the European periphery experience, and how were they perceived at home and abroad during peace, war, massacre, and genocide? Why did the Armenians among all the suffering peoples of the world become their destiny, even after the genocide? And how did they try to make sense of it all, from everyday life and work before 1915 to the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians and the immediate aftermath? The article will put the missionary and experiences into an ideological, institutional, local,
regional, and international context, and consider to what extent the Danish women could be considered feminist and humanitarian pioneers.
http://genocide-museum.am/eng/Journal-of-Genocide-Studies-Englishvolums.php?fbclid=IwAR0IYxBXkgBXcERkfOGMCn0YTDo1wBXzSE_yVffztDYI3O1voB8o0sAPkj8
ISSN 1829-4405

The term 'inculturation' is becoming increasingly fashionable in church, and in particular Roman Catholic, mission circles. The popularity of the term is due to a heightened Christian self-understanding of the necessity of adapting the Christian message to its cultural environment. There is recognition that the implantation of European values in Africa, or in other parts of the world, is not necessarily desirous or successful as a mission strategy. African and other non-western criticisms of colonial hegemony, including a rejection of Christianity as currently taught and practised, have come from both within and outside the church, to the extent that some African Christian theologians are rejecting the 'Christ figure' alto­ gether.2 Christianity has failed to take root, often after centuries of evan­ gelisation, if one is to judge from phenomena such as the absence or scarcity of candidates for the priesthood, or the rejection of monogamy. A perceived threat to mission churches from African Independent and Western fundamentalist churches, as well as from Islam, also contribute to a sense of urgency in the search for new solutions. In this article I look first at some  of  the ways in which inculturation is being defined and at what have come to be regarded as some early experiments in inculturation, whether well received or finally rejected by church authorities and local Christians

Any meaningful discussion of the various understandings of mission and Missiology needs to take cognizance of the important policy document accepted by the World Council of Churches at its 10th Assembly in Busan, South-Korea, in October 2013:
“Together towards life – mission and evangelism in changing landscapes”. This is the first new mission affirmation by the WCC in 30 years, and presents a compelling new vision of Christian mission, namely its rootedness in God and its present role in the trengthening/consolidation/reinforcement of the reign of God. This research explores the relevance of the aforementioned policy document for mission and Missiology in terms of three themes: “Where do we come from?”; “What is happening now?”, and “What could the future look like?”

The future and success of mission work is fundamentally determined by a proper understanding and implementation of an appropriate vision and strategy to the work. The study is an exploration of the historical-missiological account of Church of Christ‟s mission work in Zimbabwe, focusing specifically on the church‟s vision and strategy at Mashoko Mission from 1956 to 217. This study utilizes approaches such as: phenomenological approach and theological critical approach but it bears a greater inclination to historical-missiological critical approach. Through these approaches and application of an assortment of research tools including drawing information from primary sources; secondary sources; church archives and researcher observation, the study uncovers a number of issues in the missionary vision and strategy of the Church of Christ at Mashoko Mission in relation to some key missiological conceptualizations. The key missiological frameworks delineated are: the concept of missio Dei; contextualization and restoration. The account briefly follows the history of the origins of the Church of Christ up to a time when it landed on the African soil. The research goes on to trace the early history of the Church of Christ in Zimbabwean soil till the establishment of Mashoko Mission station. The account unearth and gives a reflective supposition on the vision and strategy behind the missionary work at Mashoko mission.

This grounded theory study examines the motives for relationships between local churches and missionaries: What motivates churches to enter into a relationship with a missionary, to continue this relationship, and to end it? Similarly, what motivates missionaries to begin, continue, or end relationships with a local church? We used purposive stratified sampling to select 17 missionaries and church mission leaders to interview for this study. We performed semi-structured interviews with both groups to discover their understanding of why they form, maintain, and dissolve relationships with each other. Multiple motives influenced all participants. These motives can be broadly categorized as either relationship-focused motives or task-focused motives. Furthermore, the task-focused motives can either be centered on specific goals shared by churches and missionaries (e.g., starting a reproducing church among a specific people group) or on specific processes (e.g., evangelizing or feeding the poor). Although all participants had multiple motives, each participant emphasized some motives over others. The motives present in each party influence many aspects of their relationship, including their communication, financial involvement, and the purpose of the church's short-term mission trips to the missionary's setting. In contrast to social exchange theory which provides a framework to understand conditions under which a relationship will be maintained or ended, the Multiple Motive Theory of Church and Missionary Relationships goes further; it describes specific motives that exist which influence whether a relationship begins, continues, or ends.

This paper explores the historical development of Postmodernist philosophy in the context of how Christians understand and relate to the Postmodern. It particularly explores Michel Foucault's work and argues that it was especially important in creating the broad parameters of the Postmodernist paradigm. It suggests that this understanding of philosophy offers insights into the broader nature of postmodern culture.

By its very nature 'postmodernity' may seem to be essentially of the present and yet, history is vital for Christians seeking to understand the secular, postmodern, post-Christian condition that characterizes European society and culture (and that is characteristic of Europe more than any other continent). 1 It is a product of history, of four and a half centuries of religious confl ict, persecution and oppression in Europe and then of a third of a century (the twentieth) in which civilization showed itself more destructive, brutal and pitiless than any primitives, and in which humanity showed itself to be worse than the animal kingdom in its contempt for life. Examining the historical roots and development of postmodernism, with a focus on its history in Europe, enables us to have a better understanding of Europe's postmodern, post-Christian culture.

The word “ritual” offends the ears of most Protestant Christians because it is associated with formalistic and works-oriented religion. To be sure, these fears are well founded but this oversimplifies the fact that each human being enjoys the benefit of rituals in their daily lives to which they give little thought. From handshakes to graduations and from prayer to communion services, Seventh-day Adventists enjoy diverse rituals in life. This paper explores both the overlooked role of ritual in expressing cultural values and appeals for greater study and attention to the development of contextualized Christian ritual or what Paul Hiebert calls “living rituals”. The author explores four benefits of utilizing living rituals—namely, (1) supporting holistic discipleship, (2) avoiding syncretism, (3) promoting Christian community, and (4) removing barriers to the Gospel—and cites examples from ministry in the Buddhist context. In conclusion, several recommendations are made on where to begin harnessing the power of ritual.

John Locke was considerably interested and actively involved in the promotion of Protestant Christianity among American Indians and African slaves, yet this fact goes largely unremarked in historical scholarship. The evidence of this interest and involvement deserves analysis—for it illuminates fascinating and understudied features of Locke’s theory of toleration and his thinking on American Indians, African slaves, and English colonialism. These features include (1) the compatibility between toleration and Christian mission, (2) the interconnection between Christian mission and English geopolitics, (3) the co-existence of ameliorative and exploitative strands within Locke’s stance on African slavery, and (4) the spiritual imperialism of Locke’s colonial vision. Analyzing evidence of Locke’s interest and involvement in Christian mission, this article brings fully to light a dimension of Locke’s career that has barely been noticed. In so doing, it also illustrates how the roots of toleration in the modern West were partly evangelical.

Leadership and governance structures for any organisations involved in God’s mission need to come under review because of the growing influences of the inter-connected globalised world. As Christianity moved farther away from the Christendom model of centralised control to other models of leadership and governance, other paradigms have been proposed along the way. One is called polycentric leadership and governance and is based upon principles of polycentrism. Using a case study approach assists in giving contexts for assisting the understanding of polycentrism in a world where Christian mission is adapting in a rapidly changing polycentric world. The case study explores leadership, governance and specific focus of one geographic region all within the context of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

La Communauté apostolique Aïn Karem est issue du diocèse de Paris, capitalisant sur une histoire remontant aux années 1930. Elle pratique des missions d'évangélisation dans des paroisses ou des sanctuaires, qui font face à des interrogations sur les méthodes et les résultats de leurs effets.

The past several decades has seen the trend of Christianity moving southward. Apart from few exceptions, the South is comparably weaker than their Northern counterpart with regard to socio-economic and technological development. This is why problems of suffering in the forms of poverty, famine, injustice, and slow recovery from disasters are becoming more pervasive at this “new” place for the Church. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is timely for the Church to contemplate the missional response to such suffering. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the place of suffering in the biblical theology of missions.

Ця книга присвячена релігійній та національній історії центральної частини Мараморощини – селища Дубового і його околиць – від часів пізнього Середньовіччя й аж до наших днів. Автор детально розглядає процес становлення церковної унії на Мараморощині на тлі релігійних, політичних та національних процесів XVII-XVIII ст., характеризує епоху мадяризації в кінці ХІХ – на початку ХХ ст., періоди чехословацької влади, Карпатської України, угорської окупації і радянського тоталітаризму. Праця містить також перший у своєму роді огляд історії підпільної Греко-Католицької Церкви в долині Тересви, оснований не тільки на архівних документах, а й на численних усних свідченнях, які зібрав сам автор. Нарешті, окрему увагу приділено складному, позначеному гострими міжконфесійними конфліктами етапові відродження греко-католицької громади Дубового та околиць у кінці 1980-х – на початку 1990-х та її подальшому розвиткові під опікою Згромадження Воплоченого Слова.

This grounded theory study examines the motives for relationships between local churches and missionaries: What motivates churches to enter into a relationship with a missionary, to continue this relationship, and to end it? Similarly, what motivates missionaries to begin, continue, or end relationships with a local church? We used purposive stratified sampling to select 17 missionaries and church mission leaders to interview for this study. We performed semi-structured interviews with both groups to discover their understanding of why they form, maintain, and dissolve relationships with each other. Multiple motives influenced all participants. These motives can be broadly categorized as either relationship-focused motives or task-focused motives. Furthermore, the task-focused motives can either be centered on specific goals shared by churches and missionaries (e.g., starting a reproducing church among a specific people group) or on specific processes (e.g., evangelizing or feeding ...

This essay is a few years old, originally published only as a Facebook note, but circulated somewhat among Shaman as possible online.  That is if we are able substantiate a belief pattern within which anybody of a Westerner's mindset, can also be Shaman.  Please read me as this is the point I am making, and understand that I make this same point fully within the modern Christian context of the Church of my Baptism. 

My local parish houses a contemporary Christian Priest who is an exorcist. He speaks of the "thin places" of the Celts.  I presented him with a letter recent, in part about how to engage better with Shaman who do not want to go to Church.  Thus this re-publishing of this essay, now in a broader academic context, and more narrowly academic compared with Facebook, I want to add a short statement here for any specifically indigenous australian academics who may read.  T

My statement is this, in that, will you please look me up in Facebook, and have the argument you have had with me in our Dreaming, out with me in comments under my Facebook note, since I don't qualify in the academic standards you have ascribed to, as being worthy of your response.  If you will not reply, perhaps you might prefer report my work to those traditional initiate men who your work is aligned with, but because I am also mindful of these men, I will presume that your failing to reply to me, if both here and in Facebook, will mean only your own ignorance.  Ignorance to my essay maybe, but if not, then ignorance to the Ngungkari work. 

My essay is in the "Conference Presentations" section of Academia dot com here, because immediately that I posted it into Facebook, I received an invitation to participate in a conference.  It was only a small conference, and I declined the offer and instead enabled that in the following years, the same conference does now have indigenous input.  Many know this is my game by now.  And my essay which this abstract is still describing, is the story of why I am yet in the lead in all of everybody's work enabling these outcomes.

What is the essence of the Gospel? Which aspects of the church's ministry are contingent? The story of the Anglican Church in Ghana offers an opportunity to reflect upon these questions. While the history of this colonial church is fraught with ethnocentrism, it also demonstrates a number of ways in which a rich theological tradition can be realised on Ghanaian soil. This essay explores these possibilities with the hope of identifying an authentic Afro-Catholicism.

This book partakes of the post-colonial reassessment of the nineteenth century, where agency is seen to lie, not just with the colonizing centre, but also with the colonized periphery. Here, missionaries from a peripheral part of Europe - including a Norway striving to decolonize itself - try to convert the Santals, an Indian tribe which had rebelled against the intruding colonial order.

This article marks the thirty-sixth year of including statistical information on World Christianity and mission in the International Bulletin of Mission Research. We report on some of the major findings of the new World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (Edinburgh University Press, 2019), including the fall and rise of the world's Christian population, the continued shift of Christianity to the Global South, the decline of religious liberty, and complicating trends in mission.

Sir Norman Anderson (1908–1994) was a leading British Evangelical missionary of the Church of England and respected scholar of Islamic law but is little known today. With this book, Todd M. Thompson, who wrote Anderson’s entry for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008), seeks to prevent his subject from slipping into further obscurity. His is not, however, a conventional biography. Rather, Thompson looks at Anderson’s many missionary and academic publications and talks to examine his intellectual ideas about Islam, Muslims, and Islamic law in the twentieth century. Anderson lived through most of that century, and Thompson admirably covers much ground across ten broadly chronological chapters to document and explain Anderson’s work in, mainly, Europe, Africa, and Asia between the 1930s and 1980s...

This paper offers a reading of the final form of the book of Daniel and shows how the kingdom of God is present and growing even in times of domination by worldly powers. It also shows how the followers of God can expect to find themselves in periods of persecution and engagement in relation to those powers. The paper then looks at the New Testament to show how allusions to Daniel spoke to the early church of the kingdom of God in times of persecution and engagement. It concludes with some general suggestions about what this means for the global church today.

In this section, I propose a paradigm for ministering to those with an animistic worldview seen throughout the Majority World. Here, I propose that we need to have ministries that include power encounters, truth encounters and love encounters that challenge our listeners to have an allegiance encounter with Jesus Christ. I further contend that these ministries and should be done within the context of the local church.

Leadership and governance structures for any organisations involved in God's mission need to come under review because of the growing influences of the interconnected globalised world. As Christianity moved farther away from the Christendom model of centralised control to other models of leadership and governance, other paradigms have been proposed along the way. One is called polycentric leadership and governance and is based upon principles of polycentrism. Using a case study approach assists in giving contexts for assisting the understanding of polycentrism in a world where Christian mission is adapting in a rapidly changing polycentric world. The case study explores leadership, governance and specific focus of one geographic region all within the context of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

Az alábbiakban a fiatalok sorsát és érzékenységét olyan elemzés tár-gyává szeretném tenni, amely az egyház jövőjére vonatkozik. A hit iránti érdektelenség korának jellegét ugyanis leginkább a tiszta és még tapasztalattal alig rendelkező fiatalság jelzi a leghitelesebben. A fiatalok és a katolikus egyház viszonyát szerte a világon számtalan szempont szerint meg lehetne közelíteni. Ilyen látószöget kínálhatnak a világon térben elkülönülő régiók fiatal keresztényeinek problémái, az egyes korosztályokat érintő kérdések, a hit és a modern világ találkozásából és a szekularizációból fakadó kihívások, vagy éppen a fiataloknak a nagy teológiai igazságokhoz, illetve a legfontosabb erkölcsi alapelvekhez való viszonyának kérdései. A 2018. október 3-tól 28-ig Rómában tartott ifjúsági szinódus szándéka az volt, hogy átfogó képet vázoljon fel a fiatalok és az egyház kapcsolatáról, a fiatalok és a katolikus hit viszonyáról, amennyire ebben a kérdésben átfogóan érvényes kijelentéseket egyáltalán tehetünk.

Six keys to recovering radically prophetic Christian faith today: 1) understanding the earth, 2) uncompromising biblical monotheism, 3) robust Trinitarian faith, 4) defining salvation in fully biblical way, 5) present hope of the kingdom of God, and 6) living as the body of Christ.

Religions of Asia in Medieval European Travel Accounts

The article analyses the usage of the term “religion” or its other equivalents in medieval European travel accounts of Asian countries and strives to identify its main characteristic aspects.
As a source for the analysis the writings of the authors who traveled to Asia in the 13th and 14th centuries are used: John Plano del Carpini, William of Rubruck, John of Montecorvino, Odoric of Pordenone, John Marignolli, Jordanus Catalanus de Séverac and Marco Polo.
The first part of the article discusses methodological issues connected to a usage of modern concepts on a historical material. It is argued, that the concept of a “religion” must be liberated from todays associations and its outlines should be defined according to a medieval context. The term 'religion' (religio) itself is used very rarely in spite of the fact, that the analysed texts contain detailed descriptions of a 'religion' of various believers. Instead of the term religio, the term lex (rule, law) is used more often, while the term fides (faith) refers mainly to the 'Christian faith'. It is suggested that a concept of a 'religion' is mainly associated with its practical aspects.
The second part examines selected passages concerning various believers characteristic for its length and integrity. It is argued that the authors are more concerned with what people do, than in what people believe. Moreover, it can be observed, that a special role was atributed to the rites connected to death and funeral. Great attention is paid to detailed descriptions of praticular rites of prayer, sacrifice or even self-sacrifice. This tendency cannot be explained as a consequence of a language barier, neither the structure of the religion-related passages is entirely depending upon selected genre of the text. Religious practice is in fact an important criterion for an evaluation of the followers of a particular tradition.
In the last part it is shown that the attitude towards followers of various Asian religions was quite open, in comparison with the expressed opinions on the Nestorians.
Ironically, exactly the same rituals and religious practices of non-Christians in Asia became a cause of critiques of the 19th to early 20th century Europeans, who sought for a 'wisdom of the East' purified from 'mechanical rituals'.

Published under my maiden name Rozehnalová.

The term 'inculturation' is becoming increasingly fashionable in church, and in particular Roman Catholic, mission circles. The popularity of the term is due to a heightened Christian self-understanding of the necessity of adapting the Christian message to its cultural environment. There is recognition that the implantation of European values in Africa, or in other parts of the world, is not necessarily desirous or successful as a mission strategy. African and other non-western criticisms of colonial hegemony, including a rejection of Christianity as currently taught and practised, have come from both within and outside the church, to the extent that some African Christian theologians are rejecting the 'Christ figure' alto­ gether.2 Christianity has failed to take root, often after centuries of evan­ gelisation, if one is to judge from phenomena such as the absence or scarcity of candidates for the priesthood, or the rejection of monogamy. A perceived threat to mission churches from African Independent and Western fundamentalist churches, as well as from Islam, also contribute to a sense of urgency in the search for new solutions. In this article I look first at some of the ways in which inculturation is being defined and at what have come to be regarded as some early experiments in inculturation, whether well received or finally rejected by church authorities and local Christians

This article interprets Paul’s summary of the gospel in 2 Cor 5:21 as saying that Christ died so that believers might be transformed into God’s righteousness (not only deemed as righteous by God). The article explains the powerfully generative nature of God’s righteousness and then demonstrates that dikaiosunē also means justice. The interpretation of 2 Cor 5:21 clarifies that the gospel Christians believe for salvation also transforms them to embody God’s righteousness and justice. This enlarged angle on Paul’s view of the gospel serves as a basis for teaching a seamless continuity between believing in Jesus Christ and becoming a force for justice in the world.