Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
The nearest approach to a new Christendom has come in some Pacific island communities -- Samoa, Tonga, Fiji -- where entire populations with their rulers moved towards Christianity during the nineteenth century and where until quite recently a single church predominated in each state (Walls, 2002:44). The missional enterprise was often conducted in cooperation with other Colonial ventures, in an interesting and complicated relationship. Quite often Colonial missionaries lived in separate camps and visited the local people. Not too many years ago, the thought of living among the ‘natives’ was considered revolutionary. In recent decades, a new humility has inculcated a sense of commonality between the messengers and the receivers. Missionary vulnerability has in many ways replaced the errors of their predecessors. We have preached the gospel from the point of view of the wealthy man who casts a mite into the lap of a beggar, rather than from the point of view of the husbandman who casts his seed into the earth, knowing that his own life and the lives of all connected with him depend upon the crop which will result from his labor (Ronald Allen, in Bevans, 1994:83). Postmodernism is in part, of course, a reaction against the ingrained hubris within Western civilization. Along with this, however, some postmoderns criticize the church for embracing the same modernist arrogance. The church routinely defends itself against postmodern attacks, yet seems unable to comprehend how deeply infected it has become with modernist thought. Even the cautions of caring non-Western brethren are brushed aside, because the pride of the Western church is so pervasive. The postmodern challenge to Western Christian cultural hegemony has also helped to uncover another ugly trait of Christendom, the determination to control, not influence. Sharing Christ with the nations (ethnos, Greek) means being ‘influencers,’ not ‘controllers.’ If any one is to ‘control,’ it is God in His sovereignty, not us. We are to be vessels in and through which God makes Himself known. We are witnesses, who proactively seek to influence others, hence the concept of Missio Dei -- we participate in what God is doing. 146 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The church should instead take a Christo and Theo-centric gospel to the nations, a mission-driven witness where God’s own come “not as judges or lawyers, but as witnesses; not as soldiers, but as envoys of peace; not as high-pressure sales-persons, but as ambassadors of the Servant Lord” (Bosch, 2000:489). Christianity is unquestionably far bigger than Western Christianity. As African theologian John Mbiti suggests, “Christianity is supra-cultural... it transcends all cultures. Unless our cultures see this beyondness of Christianity, it will fail to command sufficient authority and allegiance over our peoples to enable them to yield unreservedly to its transforming grace” (Mbiti 1973:92). Prof. Walls adds: Every phase of Christian history has seen a transformation of Christianity as it has entered and penetrated another culture. There is no such thing as “Christian culture” or “Christian civilization” in the sense that there is an Islamic culture, and an Islamic civilization. There have been several different Christian civilizations already; there may be many more. The reason for this lies in the infinite translatability of the Christian faith (Walls, 2000:22). The faith is both ‘translated’ and ‘incarnated’ -- both verbalized and manifested. It is trans-local and trans-cultural; it is movement, not static. The faith began in Hebraic cultural soil. It continues to be re-planted in new cultural soils. In these new soils, it becomes another expression of the faith once given by the Apostles. At times, the faith has been taken -- like a big, mature potted plant -- and given to other cultures. Its roots eventually went into native soil, but it remained primarily a foreign plant. Ideally, what we must do is take the ‘seed’ of the Gospel, and plant it in new soil, letting it spring forth and flourish as an indigenous plant. Thus, it is always the same faith -- rooted in Jesus Christ -- but as many different cultural expressions. David Bosch defines mission as: God’s self-revelation as the One who loves the world. God’s involvement in and with the world, the nature and activity of God, which embraces both church and the world, and in which the church is privileged to participate. Missio Dei enunciates the good news that God is a God-for-people (Bosch, 2000:10). 147 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Page 95 and 96: diverse immigrant populations becom
- Page 97 and 98: desperate population to believe tha
- Page 99 and 100: 99 but hardly in entirety. Keeping
- Page 101 and 102: salvation. Here again we see how Go
- Page 103 and 104: 103 and sick, conquered ignorance t
- Page 105 and 106: with relativism, pluralism and no a
- Page 107 and 108: 107 our first love -- Jesus Christ
- Page 109 and 110: 109 and the life. No one comes to t
- Page 111 and 112: Those who truly know Jesus Christ a
- Page 113 and 114: future was no longer heaven, but a
- Page 115 and 116: 115 An Apologetic Response Beyond t
- Page 117 and 118: uilding constructed on a shifting s
- Page 119 and 120: component of the overall package, b
- Page 121 and 122: irrelevant. The postmodernist, like
- Page 123 and 124: 123 terminate this inquiry with the
- Page 125 and 126: consider the spiritual truths the B
- Page 127 and 128: people are to effectively participa
- Page 129 and 130: witness among the Gentiles, by usin
- Page 131 and 132: 131 Chapter VI Postmodernity and th
- Page 133 and 134: Postmodernism enhances the process
- Page 135 and 136: 135 Yet, with few exceptions, the W
- Page 137 and 138: 137 Rome, ‘The Way’ (i.e., Chri
- Page 139 and 140: were the changes made to the clergy
- Page 141 and 142: of transforming it... Christendom i
- Page 143 and 144: society. State authorities quite of
- Page 145: “The subtle assumption of Western
- Page 149 and 150: 149 Christendom West. For example i
- Page 151 and 152: not know what it means to be indepe
- Page 153 and 154: creative times has been, about doin
- Page 155 and 156: 155 Ours is not a faith rooted in i
- Page 157 and 158: 157 of Washington, D.C., have now d
- Page 159 and 160: says, “Homosexual practice is inc
- Page 161 and 162: the position held by the non-Wester
- Page 163 and 164: 163 Chapter VII Postmodern Spiritua
- Page 165 and 166: With the dawn of the Enlightenment,
- Page 167 and 168: contemporary West look not to the c
- Page 169 and 170: adherence overall declined from 86.
- Page 171 and 172: 171 (Johnson, 2004). Contemporary n
- Page 173 and 174: 173 The postmodernists undertook th
- Page 175 and 176: deconstruction leads to a foundatio
- Page 177 and 178: 177 postmodernity has opened the do
- Page 179 and 180: Pagans are usually worshippers of t
- Page 181 and 182: most Catholics in Brazil. Many Musl
- Page 183 and 184: which is one of the key factors tha
- Page 185 and 186: 185 1980:viii). For example, when t
- Page 187 and 188: 187 the higher religions. The pleth
- Page 189 and 190: whose wrath has been and will be di
- Page 191 and 192: in the movies, further fulfilling t
- Page 193 and 194: to ancient Greek writings, the post
- Page 195 and 196: 195 more, the atoning work of Jesus
The church should instead take a Christo and Theo-centric gospel to the nations, a<br />
mission-driven witness where God’s own come “not as judges or lawyers, but as<br />
witnesses; not as soldiers, but as envoys of peace; not as high-pressure sales-persons, but<br />
as ambassadors of the Servant Lord” (Bosch, 2000:489). Christianity is unquestionably<br />
far bigger than Western Christianity. As <strong>African</strong> theologian John Mbiti suggests,<br />
“Christianity is supra-cultural... it transcends all cultures. Unless our cultures see this<br />
beyondness of Christianity, it will fail to command sufficient authority and allegiance<br />
over our peoples to enable them to yield unreservedly to its transforming grace” (Mbiti<br />
1973:92). Prof. Walls adds:<br />
Every phase of Christian history has seen a<br />
transformation of Christianity as it has entered<br />
and penetrated another culture. There is no<br />
such thing as “Christian culture” or “Christian<br />
civilization” in the sense that there is an Islamic<br />
culture, and an Islamic civilization. There have<br />
been several different Christian civilizations<br />
already; there may be many more. The reason<br />
for this lies in the infinite translatability of the<br />
Christian faith (Walls, 2000:22).<br />
The faith is both ‘translated’ and ‘incarnated’ -- both verbalized and manifested. It is<br />
trans-local and trans-cultural; it is movement, not static. The faith began in Hebraic<br />
cultural soil. It continues to be re-planted in new cultural soils. In these new soils, it<br />
becomes another expression of the faith once given by the Apostles. At times, the faith<br />
has been taken -- like a big, mature potted plant -- and given to other cultures. Its roots<br />
eventually went into native soil, but it remained primarily a foreign plant. Ideally, what<br />
we must do is take the ‘seed’ of the Gospel, and plant it in new soil, letting it spring forth<br />
and flourish as an indigenous plant. Thus, it is always the same faith -- rooted in Jesus<br />
Christ -- but as many different cultural expressions. David Bosch defines mission as:<br />
God’s self-revelation as the One who loves the<br />
world. God’s involvement in and with the<br />
world, the nature and activity of God, which<br />
embraces both church and the world, and in<br />
which the church is privileged to participate.<br />
Missio Dei enunciates the good news that God<br />
is a God-for-people (Bosch, 2000:10).<br />
147<br />
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
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