This brings us to the final assumption in the philosophy of the

This brings us to the final assumption in the philosophy of the

Philosophy of the Christian Mission 247

Christian religions that claim the allegiance of multitudes. We see and readily recognize that in them are to be found values of deep religious experiences and great moral achievements. Yet we are bold enough to call men out from them to the feet of Christ. We do so because we believe that in Him alone is the full salvation which man needs.?

Elements of a primitive revelation may be found in all of these non-Christian religions. But they are so marred and defaced that no one can find salvation in and through them. Similarities do exist but all of them are radical dissimilarities when examined against

the backdrop of the Biblical revelation. The existence of the real

always supposes the possibility of the counterfeit. And the counter-

feit itself supposes there must be a reality which it simulates. At

best, then, all non-Christian religions are counterfeits of the one

true faith.

5. The Church in the Plan of God

This brings us to the final assumption in the philosophy of the Christian mission. It has to do with the Church in the plan of God for the world. The Church is a redemptive fellowship which exists in the world for the sake of believers. Within this first purpose of the Church it is the will of God for His people to be of one mind, united in the faith, and using the means of grace for growth as well as for fellowship. But the Church exists not only for the benefit of those who are properly related to Christ. It exists also for those who are not properly related to him. It is to this second purpose for the Church that we address ourselves.

The Church is a witnessing fellowship living in the world tos the sake of the world. It is not of the world, but it is in the world. Hence it is never the business of the Church to withdraw itself from _ the world. Rather it is to find its mission in the world while refusing to identify itself with anything that is of the world and the spirit of evil. It is called upon to go to the depths in its identification with lost mankind, having for its one goal the evangelization of the world. It —__ is not the function of the Church to be a witness-bearer as though — . this were but one strand of its corporate business. The Church is witness. And when this is not true the Church is not the Church. The motivation of the Church as the bearer of the Gospel derives from the nature of the body, the command of the risen Lord to go,

*The Authority of the Faith, Vol. I in The Tambaram, Madras Series i (London: Oxford University Press, 1939), p. 210.

248 THEORY OF THE MISSION

the love of Christ which constrains his people, and the moral, physical, and spiritual needs of the world.

There is no room for pride or boasting in the Church. The treasure which it possesses is held in earthen vessels. It can never communicate the Gospel as though the recipients were in any sense indebted to those who bear the Gospel. Rather those who have the Gospel are indebted to those who have it not, and this because Christ is Lord of the Church. Such an attitude suggests that the Gospel bearers will never be concerned with the treatment they receive nor be discouraged when their message is rejected. Their sole business is to bring the message, suffer the indignities, and leave the results to God. The twofold function of the bearers of the light is to bring man into the same fellowship of the Gospel and build him up in the holy faith until he has been conformed to Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately there is one vital disjunction. Individuals who willingly subscribe to commitments for the Church as a whole do so as long as they are not personally involved. Hence hardly anyone will dispute the corporate responsibility of the Church as mission. But few will accept individual responsibility. The commands of Scripture, however, are not only addressed to the Church at large but to individuals as well. Thus there is personal and individual responsibility which no believer may escape. Clergy and laity alike are bound by Scripture to this responsibility. Every believer, therefore, has a threefold responsibility for the evangelization of the world: to go, to give, and to pray. Those who do not go abroad (they are

still witness-bearers at home). because they are not called must

still give and pray. It is only when the Church in toto takes seriously the command of Christ and involves itself seriously in these three ways that.true dimension is given to the mission. And the compelling sanction for members of the body of Christ is the final judgment of believers when an account of one's stewardship must

' be rendered.

These are the five basic presuppositions which underlie a conservative philosophy of the Christian mission. Their validity stems

_ from the conviction that they constitute a Biblical "given" and can be regarded as absolutes which bind the consciences of concerned believers. The history of missions is replete with notable examples __ of individuals and agencies who. have performed yeoman service

Philosophy of the Christian Mission 249

for the cause of Christ precisely because they believed these presuppositions and lived in accordance with them. Men like Carey, Judson, Livingstone, Taylor, and Studd, are such. The continued conviction that these presuppositions are true will produce now and

in the years to come men who will do likewise for God in fulfilling

the Great Commission. The acceptance of these standards will ever

result in lives of devotion and self-sacrifice which alone are true

evidences of belief in them.

The Missionary Imperative

in the Orthodox Tradition

BY ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN

Until quite recently the Eastern Orthodox Church was regarded in the West as a nonmissionary church. It was an opinion commonly held that the great missionary movement which marked so deeply the Christian West during the last centuries by-passed somehow the "static" Christianity of the East. Today this view seems to have lost some of its strength: new historical research has made it quite clear that the Orthodox achievements in the field of mission, although somewhat different from those of the West, are nonetheless important and impressive. Our purpose in this brief essay, however, is not to present a historical or statistical survey of the Orthodox missionary expansion. It is much more important to try to understand and to analyze, be it only tentatively and partially— the missionary imperative in the Orthodox tradition, or, in other

terms, the relation in it between mission, on the one hand, and the

faith, the life and the whole spiritual "vision" of Orthodoxy, on the other hand. A theology of mission is always the fruit of the total

*Josef Glazik, Die Russisch-Orthodoxe Heidenmission seit Peter dem _ Grossen. Ein missionsgeschichtlicher Versuch nach russischen Quellen und

Darstellungen (Miinster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1954). By the same author: Die Islammission der Russisch-Orthodoxen Kirche

(Miinster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1959).

i hae

Missionary Imperative in the Orthodox Tradition 251

"being" of the Church and not a mere specialty for those who receive a particular missionary calling. But for the Orthodox Church there is a special need to reflect upon its basic missionary motiva-

tions, because its presumably nonmissionary character has been

too often explained by, and ascribed to, the very essence, the "holy

of holies" of Orthodoxy: its sacramental, liturgical, mystical ethos. Even now, as the study of Orthodox missions seems to correct the

traditional view, there remains the temptation to explain these mis-

sions as a marginal "epiphenomenon" in the history of Orthodoxy,

as something that happened in spite of its general tendencies and

trends. This is why a theological clarification is necessary. Can a church whose life is centered almost exclusively on the liturgy and

the sacraments, whose spirituality is primarily mystical and asceti-

cal, be truly missionary? And if it is, where in its faith are the deep-

est motivations of the missionary zeal to be found? In somewhat

simplified terms this is the question addressed, explicitly or im-

plicitly, to the Orthodox Church by all those for whom "ecumeni-

cal" means necessarily and unescapably "missionary."

It is without any doubt in Orthodox ecclesiology, i.e., in the doctrine and experience of the Church, that we find the basic elements of an answer. To formulate them, however, is not an easy task. It must be kept in mind that the Orthodox Church has never been challenged by an ecclesiological or doctrinal crisis comparable to the Reformation or Counter-Reformation. And because of this it had no compelling reason to reflect upon itself, upon the traditional structures of its life and doctrine. There was no theological _ elaboration of the doctrine of the Church, this doctrine having been — never questioned or opposed. It was in the ecumenical encounter _ with the West, an encounter whose beginnings must be traced back to the early twenties (Stockholm, 1925 and Lausanne, 1927) that for the first time the Orthodox were requested not only to state their ecclesiological beliefs, but also to explain them, i.e., to express them in consistent theological terms. But at this point there ap- — peared an additional difficulty which has remained ever since as the oe major difficulty of the Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement. A dialogue presupposes necessarily an agreement on the terms that are being used, a common language. Yet, from the Orthodox point of view it was precisely the rupture in theological

252 THEORY OF THE MISSION

understanding, the theological alienation of the West from the East that, first, made the "schism" so deep and, then, all attempts to heal it—from 1054 to the Council of Florence in 1438-1439—so hopelessly inadequate. Therefore, in the ecumenical encounter, the Orthodox Church had to face a Christian world with several centuries of "autonomous" theological and spiritual development behind it, with a mind and thought-forms radically different from those of the East. The questions it asked of the Orthodox were formulated in Western terms, were conditioned very often by specifically Western experience and developments. The Orthodox answers were classified according to Western patterns, "reduced" to categories familiar to the West, but hardly adequate to Orthodoxy. This situation, although years of contacts and conversations have no doubt improved it, is still far from being overcome completely. The "catholic language" has not yet been recovered. All this, in addition to basic dogmatical differences, explains the "agony" of Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement and constitutes a very real obstacle not only to an agreement, but to a simple understanding. One must remember this when trying to grasp the Orthodox approach to missions.

"Heaven on earth": this formula familiar to every Orthodox expresses rather well the fundamental Orthodox experience of the Church. The Church is first of all and before everything else a Godcreated and God-given reality, the presence of Christ's new life, the manifestation of the new "eon" of the Holy Spirit. An Orthodox in his contemplation of the Church sees it as the divine Gift before he thinks of the Church as human response to this gift. One can rightly-describe the Church as an eschatological reality, for its essential function is to manifest and to actualize in this world the eschaton, the ultimate reality of salvation and redemption. In and through the Church the kingdom of God is made already present, is communicated to men. And it is this eschatological, God-given fullness of Church (not any juridical theory of mediation) that constitutes the root of the ecclesiological "absolutism" of Eastern Orthodoxy, absolutism which is so often misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Protestants. The Church as a whole is means of grace, the sacrament of the kingdom. Therefore its structure: hierarchical, sacramental, liturgical, has no other function but of

i a

Missionary Imperative in the Orthodox Tradition 253

making the Church ever capable of fulfilling itself as the body of Christ, as the temple of the Holy Spirit, to actualize its very nature

as grace. For the God-given fullness of the Church, or rather the Church as fullness—and this is an essential aspect of Orthodox ecclesiology—cannot be manifested outside these ecclesiastical

structures. There is no separation, no division, between the Church

invisible (in statu patriae) and the visible Church (in statu viae),

the latter being the expression and the actualization of the former,

the sacramental sign of its reality. Hence the unique, the central,

ecclesiological significance of the Eucharist, which is the allembracing sacrament of the Church. In the Eucharist "the Church

becomes what it is," fulfills itself as the body of Christ, as the divine parousia—the presence and the communication of Christ and of

his kingdom. Orthodox ecclesiology is indeed eucharistic eccle-

siology. For in the Eucharist the Church accomplishes the passage

from this world into the world to come, into the eschaton; partici-

pates in the Ascension of its Lord and in his messianic banquet,

tastes of the "joy and peace" of the kingdom. "And Thou didst not

cease to do all things until thou hadst brought us back to heaven, '

and hadst endowed us with Thy kingdom..." (Eucharistic prayer in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom). Thus the whole life of the Church is rooted in the Eucharist, is the fruition of this eucharistic fullness in the time of this world whose "image passeth by... ." This is indeed the mission of the Church.

The Church is also human response to the divine Gift, its acceptance and appropriation by man and humanity. If the order of the Church is shaped and conditioned by the eschatological fullness of the Gift, is its sacramental sign, it is the acceptance of the Gift and the growth into its fullness that is the purpose of the Christian community. The Church is fullness and the Church is also increase and growth in faith and love, knowledge and koinonia. This response has two aspects, neither of which can be separated from the other, because they condition each other and together constitute the dynamics of Christian life and action. The first one is God-centered: era

it is the sanctification, the growth in holiness, of both the Christian ae in

individual and the Christian community, the "acquisition by them _ cS

of the Holy Spirit," as the ultimate goal of Christian life was defined by one of the last and the greatest Orthodox saints, St. Seraphim _

of Sarov (d. 1836). It is the slow transformation of the old Adam —

in us into the new one, the restoration of the pristine beauty, which

254 THEORY OF THE MISSION

was lost in sin, the illumination with the noncreated light of Mount Tabor. It is also the slow Vigor over the demonic powers of the cosmos, the "joy and peace" which hinc et nunc make us partakers of the kingdom and of life eternal. The Orthodox spiritual tradition has always stressed the mystical nature of Christian life, as life "hidden with Christ in God." And the great monastic movement which started in the fourth century after the Church was officially recognized by the Roman Empire, given a "status" in this world, was nothing else but a new expression of the early Christian eschatologism, the affirmation of Christianity as belonging ontologically to the life of the "world to come," the negation of any permanent home and identification in this world.

The second aspect of the Church as response is manor worldcentered. It is the understanding of the Church as being left in this world, in its time, space, and history, with a specific task or mission: "to walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 Jn. 2:6). The Church is fullness and its home is in heaven. But this fullness

is given to the world, sent into the world as its salvation and redemption. The eschatological nature of the Church is not the negation of the world, but, on the contrary, its affirmation and acceptance as the object of divine love. Or, in other terms, the whole "otherworldliness" of the Church is nothing but the sign

and the reality of the love of God for this world, the very condition of the Church's mission to the world. The Church thus is not a "self-centered" community but precisely a missionary community, salvation not from, but of, the world. In the Orthodox experience

and faith it is the Church-sacrament that makes possible the Churchmission. ;

IV We can try now to formulate with more precision the various aspects of the "missionary imperative," as implied i in the Orthodox ue experience of the Church. This imperative is the essential expres-

_ sion of the Church as gift and fullness, its projection in time and

: ae of this world, For if, on the one hand, nothing can be added

faa: 'the very life of the Church in this "eon." On the ay of

Pentecost, when the fullness of the Church was realized once for __

Missionary Imperative in the Orthodox Tradition 255

of the history of salvation. Ontologically the only newness and, therefore, the only soteriological content of this segment is precisely mission: the proclamation and the communication of the eschaton, which is already the being of the Church and indeed its only being. It is the Church as mission that gives to this time its real significance and to history its meaning. And it is mission that gives to the human response in the Church its validity, makes us real co-workers in the work of Christ.

Nothing reveals better the relation between the Church as fullness and the Church as mission than the Eucharist, the central act of the Church's /Jeiturgia, the sacrament of the Church itself. There

are two complementary movements in the eucharistic rite: the movement of ascension and the movement of return. The Eucharist begins as an ascension toward the throne of God, toward the kingdom. "Let us put aside all earthly care" says the hymn of offertory, and we prepare ourselves to ascend into heaven with Christ and in Christ, and offer in him—his Eucharist. This first movement, which finds its fulfillment in the consecration of the elements, the sign of the acceptance by God of our Eucharist, is, to be sure, already an act of mission. The Eucharist is offered "on behalf of all and for all," it is the fulfillment by the Church of its priestly function: the reconciliation of the whole creation with God, the sacrifice of the whole world to God, the intercession for the whole world before God. All this in Christ, the God-man, the Unique Priest of the new creation, the "One who offers and the One who is offered... ." But this is accomplished by a total separation of the Church from the world ("The doors, the doors!" proclaims the deacon as the Eucharistic prayer begins), by its ascension to heaven, its entrance into the new "eon." And then, precisely at the moment when this state of fullness has been reached and consummated at the table of the Lord in his kingdom, when "we have seen' the true SF Light and partaken of the Holy Spirit," the second movement begins—that of the return into the world. "Let us depart in peace" says the celebrant as he leaves the altar and leads the congregation _ outside the temple—and this is the last, the ultimate, command_ ment. The Eucharist is always the End, the sacrament of the parousia, and, yet, it is always the beginning, the starting point: now the mission begins. "We have seen the true Light, we have enjoyed life cent but this Life, this Light, are given us in order

: to "transform " us into een A witnesses in this world. Without thi

256 THEORY OF THE MISSION

ascension into the kingdom we would have had nothing to witness to; now, having once more become "his people and his inheritance," we can do what Christ wants us to do: "you are witnesses of these things" (Lk. 24:48). The Eucharist, transforming "the Church into what it is'—transforms it into mission.

What are the objects, the goals, of mission? The Orthodox Church answers without hesitation: these objects are man and world. Not man alone, in an artificially "religious" isolation from the world, and not "'world" as an entity of which man would be nothing but "part." Man not only comes first, but is indeed the essential object of mission. And yet, the Orthodox idea of evangelism is free from individualistic and spiritualistic connotations. The Church, the sacrament of Christ, is not a "religious" society of converts, an organization to satisfy the "religious" needs of man. It is new life and redeems therefore the whole life, the total being of man. And this whole life of man is precisely the world in which and by which he lives. Through man the Church saves and redeems the world. One can say that "this world" is saved and redeemed every time a man responds to the divine Gift, accepts it and lives by it. This does not transform the world into the kingdom or the society into the Church. The ontological abyss between the old and the new remains unchanged and cannot be filled in this "eon." The kingdom is yet to come and the Church is not of this world. And yet this kingdom to come is already present and the Church is fulfilled in this world. They are present not only as "proclamation," but in their very reality, and through the divine agape, which is their fruit, they perform all the time the same sacramental transformation of the old into the new, they make possible a real action, a real "doing" in this world.

All this gives the mission of the Church a cosmical and a historical dimension that in the Orthodox tradition and experience are

essential. State, society, culture, nature itself, are real objects of mission and not a neutral "milieu" in which the only task of the Church is to preserve its 'own inner freedom, to maintain its "religious life." It would require a whole volume to tell the story of the

_ Orthodox Church from this point of view: of its concrete participation in the societies and cultures, of which Orthodoxy became the ae total expression of their whole existence; of its identification with

Missionary Imperative in the Orthodox Tradition 257

nations and peoples, yet without betrayal of its "otherworldliness," of the eschatological communion with the heavenly Jerusalem. It would require a long theological analysis to express adequately the Orthodox idea of the sanctification of matter, or precisely the cosmical aspect of its sacramental vision. Here we can only state that all this is the object of Christian mission, because all this is assumed and offered to God in the sacrament. In the world of incarnation nothing "neutral" remains, nothing can be taken away from the Son of Man. a

'The Apostolate of the Church

BY R. PIERCE BEAVER

_ The apostolate is the ministry of reconciliation. It is the Church's

_ Office or function of bearing witness to the Good News that God has in Christ reconciled the world unto himself and that as a con-

sequence of the unity of men with God in Christ, men may be rec-

_ onciled with one another. This testifying was the prime function

of the Twelve. This is the chief function of the whole body of

Christ, his Church, which was commissioned by the risen Lord to be his witnesses "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria

ind to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). It was for this task and

ilege that the power of the Holy Spirit was promised and given.

as for this that our Lord also promised his abiding presence.

Church is to be simultaneously the herald of the kingdom

and the ee first fruit of that tiaras This is Re ose

The Apostolate of the Church 259

its branches and divisions has usually acknowledged its apostolic character, but often only a minority of the members have been zealously devoted to the witnessing. Frequently, too, sectarian and partial definitions of the apostolate have deprived the proclamation of sufficient scope and power. Now and again the Holy Spirit has called the Church to new obedience and there have been great periods of expansion and of transformation of social life. The Roman Catholics have long used the word apostolate both for the

total mission of the Church and for special forms of witnessing. Various Protestant writers have been employing the term for more

than a decade, but Professor J. C. Hoekendijk of Utrecht probably

introduced it most powerfully.2 The thinking and writing of the

Dutch, German, and Swiss mission theologians, during and since

World War II, about the relationship of the mission of the Church

to the End and the writings of Max Warren have summoned the

Church and the member disciples to accept the apostolate as their

required task and to cease regarding it as the "elective" which it

has been since the Reformation, although most of these writers .

have not used the term. =?

The apostolate or mission of the Church has its roots in the

creative, the revelatory-illuminating, and the redemptive-revelatory —

work of God. It is one form of God's love reaching out to all men.

The creation will not be complete until the advent of the new

heavens and new earth in the kingdom which the Church proclaims.

Moreover, through all the painful consequences of man's rebellion ©

against God, the Holy Spirit ever brings new light about the

purposes of God, the nature of man, and the ultimate liberation

that will come with the kingdom. Despite all its miserable failure .

and imperfections, there can be seen in the household of faith the —_ =

fruits of the divine reconciliation and a foretaste of the redeemed Ss

humanity. As God sent His Son, so the Son has sent his body, the

Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel of _

reconciliation to the whole world. The Church exists "primarily —

to witness to this good news, and every other function of the Church

- is subsidiary and contributory to this purpose. Although secondary

to the apostolate and contributory to it, the other functions, such

as worship and nurture, in no way lose stature and importance

2 Unfortunately very little of Professor Hoekendijk's writings are availa to most American readers. See a few articles in the International Review of -

Missions.

260 THEORY OF THE MISSION

in this relationship. The missionary ministry of Jesus Christ is the prototype of the Church's ministry of witness, as Bishop Newbigin has forcefully pointed out in the booklet, One Body, One Gospel, One World.? Yet it must be noted that the Gospel comprises not only the teaching of Jesus Christ, but also the teaching of the early Church about him—about what God has done in the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and giving of the Holy Spirit, namely, the reconciling of the world to Himself.

The~Disciple and Baptism

Since the Church, Christ's mystical body, is sent out into the world to undertake the apostolate, this life of witnessing is also the vocation of every member in that body. St. Paul instructs Christians in the unity of the body and the singleness of its manifold ministry. He reminded the young church in Rome of the diversity of ministries that make up the witnessing to God's saving work. A special measure of faithfulness might be required of the commissioned apostolic ministers, such as himself, as he instructed the Corinthians—but all members share in the apostolate of the body. "Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same loaf'—the Eucharistic bread of

our Lord's own body broken for the remission of sins and the healing of the broken society of men estranged from God. One frequently hears in missionary circles today the assertion that every church member is meant to be a missionary. This is an exaggeration. Only some are sent, but all are called to make their witness. This is the most fundamental function of the layman in his ministry, but in our clergy-dominated churches the disciple is usually even more neglectful of this office than of his other duties implied by the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. The apostolic vocation of laymen so evident in the churches of Korea is seldom found elsewhere. The establishment of seventy-three new churches by the staff of the Presbyterian Hospital in Taegu ought not to be

so extraordinary, as it most certainly is in fact. Every Christian in a congregation of believers is first and foremost a disciple, that is, a pupil-companion and an apprentice co-worker, learning from _ and serving his Lord in a joint ministry with him. Witnessing is the first of his many functions of ministry, in which the ordained

*Lesslie Newbigin, One Body, One Gospel, One World: The Christian _ Mission Today (London and New York: I.M.C., 1958), p. 17 especially.

The Apostolate of the Church 261

pastor is intended to inspire and guide him and set him an example.

The sacrament of baptism, to which the rite of confirmation must be joined if infant baptism is practiced, clearly reveals the place of witnessing in the Christian profession. The emphasis of

this sacrament is by no means as much upon individual salvation

as upon the incorporation of the disciple into mystical union with our Lord and his body the Church for sharing in Christ's mission and in the corporate life of the body. Note the difference between

the pronouns of the baptismal and Eucharistic creeds of the West-

ern Church, the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds respectively. The

singular "I" of the former and the plural "we" of the latter are

significant. It is on the basis of his individual act of witnessing

to his faith that the disciple may be by God's grace joined mysti-

cally with his Lord in the master-disciple relationship and be in-

corporated into the common life and ministry of the body. There-

after the disciple says "we" in the Eucharistic feast when the con-

gregation is renewed in its union with Christ for his saving work—

among men, and the common life and commitment strengthen the

individual in his personal witnessing.

It is on the basis of the example of Jesus' own n baptism = the

injunction in the Great Commission about baptizing the nations

that the Church has made baptism a sacrament. Neither has to

do primarily with personal forgiveness of sins nor personal security

in boarding the ark of salvation, which generally receive the

primary emphasis. Emulation of the prototype and obedience to

the Commission lay stress upon life commitment to Christ in faith,

upon following him, taking up the cross of discipleship, participa-

tion in his ministry, and upon identification with the sinners to —

whom the Gospel is proclaimed. The disciple facing his sinless

Lord does confess his sin and throws himself upon the love and

mercy of God for forgiveness, but he also emulates Jesus' identifica-

tion of himself with sinners in need of reconciliation; for when

our Lord was baptized by John in the Jordan he was making such

an identification, not confessing his sins. Baptism and confirmation _

are an offering up of the self upon the altar of the Gospelto be

used of Christ in his mission. God's gift of the Holy Spirit in = =——

the sacrament and rite is a repetition of the original bestowal

on Pentecost. It is for power in witnessing (Acts 1:8). This com_

plete reorientation of life in emulation of Christ and in joint service

262 THEORY OF THE MISSION

with him is the "dying unto the world" that is mentioned in the baptismal orders. The believer publicly testifies to his faith in what God is doing for him and will do for all men. It is the disciple's

first act of witness in what is henceforth to be a life of witness in the witnessing community of all believers. Professor Marcus Barth has written:

But when those baptized throw themselves at the feet of, and implore the mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then they do not separate themselves from the accursed world. But they confess in the midst of, and for sinful, maybe grinning, maybe blaspheming, maybe stone-throwing men that God wants all, not the few only, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. A Christian's life will day by day be a witness to God's fatherhood over all, Christ's death for all, the Spirit's promise to all. Baptism is the unique, necessary, public beginning, pledge, investiture into the ministry of witnesses.*

Moreover, since it is primarily due to the command about baptism in the Great Commission that the Church has made this rite to be the required sacramental act of entrance into the household of faith, its meaning ought to be seen in that context. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them

to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt. 28:19-20). The baptizing is thus inseparably connected with the discipling of the nations. "All that I have commanded" surely must include the discipling of the nations. Our Lord's abiding presence is promised i in this task, and, according to Luke in Acts. 1:8, the Holy Spirit is bestowed above all for power in the witnessing.

_ Evangelism and Sending

_ The apostolate or ministry of proclamation of the reconciliation

_ God has made with the world in Christ is the Church's main pur- - pose until God brings His kingdom in all its fullness. The "End"

_ awaits this faithful performance. Dedication to the apostolate would

_ take emphasis off the Church as an institution and stress its nature

ee ee a o a community of reconciliation. It would make every form of

bite tk ;

order and polity expendable and allow again that freedom of

anizational form (but within a genuine unity) that marked

a paper on evangelism read to the Federated 'Theological babi ik a? 9 4

University of Chicago.

The Apostolate of the Church 263

the apostolic and postapostolic ages. It would cut the root of ecclesiolatry and remove men's fears for the safety and prestige of the Church. It would make the Church and the disciple-members ready to lose their lives in bearing the cross of Gospel witness. It would put stress on the relevance of preaching to the contemporary needs of men and society. Each local congregation devoted to the apostolate would spend itself in proclamation, sustained by

the memory of the cross and Resurrection, empowered by the Holy

Spirit, recognizing the presence of the risen Lord who makes the

Church his body, and made joyous by the hope of the glorious coming of the kingdom. It would lose no opportunity and neglect

no medium for preaching the Gospel. It would preach by word

and deed and by the quality of the personal and corporate life of

the believers. The timeless message would be made timely and

relevant to every man in his family, his vocation, his culture, his

nation, his world order. Then the worship, the nurture and fellow-

ship, and the service of the congregation would authenticate and

validate the message that is preached. . There are two supplementary and complementary parts to the = - — apostolate which can be separated or the one of them neglected — only to the hurt of the Church's health-and to disobedience to the Great Commission. One is the local apostolate, evangelism. This is witness to Christ's reconciling saviourhood and lordship and the exercise of the ministry of reconciliation where the congregation worships and the disciple-members earn their daily bread in their several vocations. It includes personal testimony about God's act in Christ and the fellowship of the kingdom in the Church that is given to friends, neighbors, and those engaged in daily conta = by the disciples. Such witness is made in the discharge of a Chris-- tian vocation in craft, profession, or business. It is effected also in the quality of the Christian family, which may be the Church in) microcosm, and in the responsible stand which the congregation) _ of disciples takes on community and social issues and in the demon-) stration of the relevance of the Gospel to these issues. And it is) _ made in the preaching in the house of God where its truth is at-\ tested by the company of believers assembled in the unity of reconciliation with God and with men. fees The other aspect of the apostolate is the sending—mission in the more traditional sense. It is the evangelistic outreach beyond the congregation and home locality, involving the commissionin

264 THEORY OF THE MISSION

and sending of some representative agent who makes witness on behalf of the sending church and its disciples. The distance in miles or kilometers which the missionary agent travels to his place of witnessing is not significant. But be it near or far, that missionary must go to some place that is a distant "end of the earth" to the sending group and himself. Geographical ends of the earth have disappeared in a time of jet travel and a world-wide Church, but there are social, cultural, ideological, and spiritual "far ends" of human society in profusion. There is a frontier of strangeness to be crossed to the place where the missionary can proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord to unreconciled people who have not known and accepted him. Bishop Newbigin, in discussing what activity can be called "missionary" in the context of a world-wide Church, states:

The differentium lies in the crossing of the frontier between faith in Christ as Lord and unbelief. To make clear and to keep clear this, the distinctive meaning of the word "missionary" is one of the most important requirements of the present discussion. He who is sent to make Christ known and obeyed as Lord among those who do not know and obey Him is a missionary, whether his journey be long or short. The missionary frontier runs through every land where there are communities living without the knowledge of Christ as Lord.5

The lending of personnel within the Christian community is not

in itself sending, but rather fraternal aid, which is mutual burdenbearing by members of Christ's body, a requirement of the common life. However, a church in one land can send its representative to aid another church in another land in the work of the apostolate, and, if the proclamation of the Gospel is the chief end in view, that agent becomes the missionary of both branches of the Church. When he-crosses over the frontier of faith in Christ to give witness

to those who do not know and believe, then he crosses the most important of all the frontiers of strangeness.

"Sending" is intimately bound up with "evangelism." When the sending to the "ends of the earth" is neglected, the wellsprings of evangelism dry up. This has been demonstrated too often in the history of the Church. Neither half of the apostolate is an elective. "You shall be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,

* Newbigin, op. cit., p. 29.

The Apostolate of the Church 265

and to the end of the earth." Evangelism and mission are the two poles of the apostolate. Every congregation is a front-line post in

a world mission; and every disciple is meant to be a witness and

to share in the sending of witnesses.

The Lord's Supper and the Apostolate

The functions of the Church in addition to the apostolate are many. They include the priestly office of worship, the shepherding of souls, teaching, prophesying, the ordering of the common spiritual life, nurture, fellowship, mutual aid of the brethren in their needs, healing, works of mercy and compassion, peacemaking, and a dozen others. They all, however, derive from one or another of three main functions: witnessing, worship, and fellowship; both of which latter are closely related to the first. Christian worship

is offered to God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit by a corporate body of priests, the congregation representing the whole Church, not by a mediating priesthood of a different order, because the mystical body of Christ by God's grace shares in our Lord's high priesthood and with him enters into the holy of holies. The office of a priest is to offer "gifts and sacrifices" (1 Pet. 2:9)— namely, praise and thanksgiving, the Sacrifices for sin, and the intercession for the household of faith and for all men. This priestly office which the mystical body of Christ performs while it is in the world busy with the apostolate keeps it in right relation to God, dedicated to the doing of His will, joyous in His service, and empowered by His Holy Spirit. Moreover, were there space enough, it could be shown how each involves witness to God's deeds in Christ and his coming kingdom. Above all, the center and "inmost sanctuary" of worship is the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, which is the means by which the Church's mystical union with Christ is renewed and affirmed and by which she is offered up in identification with him to be broken with him in the healing of the unreconciled world. It is, moreover, the dramatic enactment of the Word that is preached, the Gospel of reconciliation. = The Lord's Supper is too profound and mysterious for any man or the whole Church to define and describe in all its significance, and here the writer lifts up only what he believes to be its primary _ = —and most neglected—meaning. In stressing its corporate nature and action he does not deny the personal, individualistic aspects ae

266 THEORY OF THE MISSION

of forgiveness, communion, and bestowal of peace to the disciple, but he would affirm that these are subordinate and are by-products of the chief action of the sacrament.

This memorial which our Lord commanded (Lk. 22:19) does "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26), and proclaims, even when the Church forgets verbally to make witness, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16). God's reconciling act in history is declared to be ever present and ever relevant, and it holds the promise of the eschatological fulfillment. The whole world of mankind and the red¢mption of the entire race are within the scope of the sacrament: in the confession of sins and promise of forgiveness, in the prayers for the days and season that set forth the Gospel to be preached to all the world, in the creed which affirms a faith to be offered to all; for the reconciling Saviour is one "who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven." The alms, oblations, and intercessions which are offered and consecrated together represent a sacrifice of concern and compassion for the brethren and the world. The Lord's Prayer, with its petition for the coming of the kingdom, gathers together and climaxes all the intercessions. But the Supper is much more than an act of commemoration and proclamation of an historic event. It is a present gathering of the disciples of Christ with him around his banquet

table where he is truly present with them. Gathered there in the one fold with the one Shepherd, they are reminded that this family feast is incomplete until all for whom Christ died be brought to

_ that festive board. This is the place of ingathering. This meal is also the "messianic banquet" where he who was crucified, dead,

buried, and rose again keeps his promise to drink with his disciples the new wine in the new age of the kingdom. Here the first fruit

of the redeemed and reconciled new community is visible to the - world—a company that is only a token of the great assembly yet _ to be brought together "from east and west, from north and south,

_and sit at the table in the kingdom of God" (Lk. 13:29). Surely disciple can at that table eat and drink, rest and repose for

rishment is provided which gives the disciple strength to go mself and be unconcerned about the ingathering. And here the _

rth in order to make the ingathering. Above all, as baptism makes ie : w disciple an evangelist, so the Lord's Supper is the means

The Apostolate of the Church 267

by which participation in the mission of Christ is repeatedly renewed.

St. Paul instructed the Corinthian Christians (1 Cor. 10) that even as the Hebrews who ate of the sacrifices of the altar in the Temple were partakers of the altar of God, so those who eat of food sacrified to idols on pagan altars have fellowship with, and

participate in the life of, devils. Similarly, he declared, partaking of the table of the Lord means sharing in our Lord's person and

his mission. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a par-

ticipation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is

it not a participation in the body of Christ?" And it is the blood

that was shed and the body, that was broken. Eating this bread

and drinking this cup for participation in Christ and his mission

effects identification and that effects unity. "Because there is one

loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same

loaf." Unity comes not from any creedal statement or common

practice, but is effected through this unstinted devotion to our

Lord in his mission of reconciliation. The congregation, making

the Eucharistic offering for the whole Church, is accepted by God oe

and made one mystically with the Eucharistic bread. Then the

Church is truly the body of Christ and-in him and with him may

be broken for the reconciliation of estranged men and women with

God. The ever-abiding Presence in the apostolate and the peace

for power in witness are then imparted to the congregation and

the disciples as they make their communion. "Go therefore, and

make disciples of all nations, baptizing them... and lo, I am with

you always, even to the close of the age."

Unity, Fellowship, Service, and Witness - s

The unity in Christ effected in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread is then to be demonstrated in the fellowship of the Church

so that men may see that God does actually effect the reconcilia-

tion of men with Him and with one another in the bonds of Christ's

love. Unifying, mutual burden-bearing love visible to all beholders

is the only pragmatic proof of the claims of Christ that a skeptical — world will accept. Our Lord prayed, "that they may all be one;

even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also spe

be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me"

(In. 17:21). The purpose of Christian fellowship is, then, not so much mutual enjoyment as evans eee SL Segregation,

268 THEORY OF THE MISSION

caste, schism, unbrotherliness in the Church negate the claims made for Christ by the evangelist. Unity is shown in love that bears the fellow members' burdens in the Church through diakonia, which is originally and still should be the practical extension of

the alms and intercessions offered in the Eucharist, and in the bridging of personal, racial, cultural, and other differences in one comprehensive community. But diakonia never knows when and where to stop. The ministry of compassion is never confined to the members of the household of faith but spills over into ministry to all others in need and becomes overtly an act of witness. The Gospel is preached, and the Eucharistic loaf is broken and cup spilled out, when even a cup of cold water is lovingly given in the name of Christ. The disciple's love must embrace the whole world, for it is God's love in his heart.

The Holy Spirit

It is the Holy Spirit who is the Great Apostle and who leads and empowers the Church in its witnessing. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Illuminator, the Lord and Giver of life, that makes the body of Christ a living organism. He is the bond of union with our Lord and in him worship is directed to God. He crowns faithful witness with fruitfulness, for he goes before every evangelist and missionary preparing hearts and minds to hear. It is only by him that a man can call Jesus "Lord" (1 Cor. 12:13). It is by his power that the Gospel of reconciliation is preached effectively and relevantly and then authentically shown forth in the unity, fellowship, and service of the Church.

The Holy Spirit

and the Christian Mission

BA OES Woe DEL LIS T.ON-E

The very title Holy Spirit presents us with a startling paradox.

' Since the publication of Rudolf Otto's-The Idea of the Holy we

have come to think of the "Holy" as the awe-inspiring, the withdrawn, the mysterious, that which can only be approached with reverence and godly fear. On the other hand our greater familiarity with the Hebrew background of the conception of Spirit leads us to think in terms of a wonderful power invading human life and bringing vitality, inspiration, energy. But how can that which is infinitely beyond the common touch of man be received into his common life? How can the everlasting burning enter the realm of the temporal and the sinful without destroying all that falls within —

its path?

For an expansion of this paradox I turn to the book of Isaiah. In the earlier part of the prophecy the title "The Holy One of — Israel" becomes established for the first time as an altogether distinctive title of Deity, and its implications are disclosed not by formal definition but by the famous story of the call of the prophet in chapter 6. There our imaginations are lifted to the vision of One who is high and exalted and far beyond the common gaze. We sense the glory of eternal light, the purity of eternal fire, and

ete

: 269

270 THEORY OF THE MISSION

the threefold cry of "Holy" finds its meaning within the fullness of the revelation.

Yet although the Holy One of Israel is so far removed from sinful man, the gulf is not absolute. He sends the fire of cleansing. He sends the word of challenge. And the prophet, energized but not consumed by the communications from the divine Presence, goes forth to announce judgment and doom on everything that is opposed to the divine purpose. Man is not cut off entirely from the divine concern but if his only hope was to be set between the fire of purging and the fire of judgment—then indeed he could but go in fear and trembling all the days of his life.

But if it is in the first part of the book that the name of the Holy One of Israel stands revealed, it is in the second part that the nature of Spirit is revealed through the call of God's Servant. Here the key passage is Isaiah 61 and the whole emphasis is upon grace. The Spirit comes not as fire of cleansing but as the oil of refreshing. Instead of the coal that scorches there is the anointing that re-creates. And the purpose of the Spirit's activity is all of grace. To bring good tidings to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to comfort all who mourn, to build up ancient ruins, to raise up former devastations, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and through it all to glorify His name —this is the work of the Spirit and, as another passage shows, it stretches beyond the boundaries of Israel to the very ends of the earth.

Yet even in the light of this revelation man has no right to pre-

sume. The very nature of the situation from which he is being |

rescued is sufficient testimony to the precariousness of his life upon

___ the earth and to the poverty of his existence apart from the movement of the divine grace. He is not entirely powerless to order and direct his own life, but if his only hope is in his own efforts

then indeed he must go in disillusionment and anxiety all the days

of his life.

The Holy—the Spirit. The symbol of an intense purity—the

_ symbol of a boundless grace. The Old Testament linked the two

together on only three occasions and even then with the note of —

oliness altogether determining. the significance of the title. It was

e tie a. Se ane a a to the New Testament to bring the new revelation of Holy s

, a revelation only made possible through the fusing of the

(ol = the eps in the person and se of ove the poses

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission — 271

The two elements of which I have been speaking are brought together in a remarkable way in the story of Jesus' baptism. The whole setting of John's baptism proclaims the holiness of the God of Israel. He i is about to act in judgment. His fan is in His hand. He will throughly purge His floor. His agent, the Messiah, will come as the fire to destroy sinners and to separate a holy remnant capable of surviving the judgment and entering God's holy kingdom. In submitting himself to John's baptism Jesus acknowledged

the holiness and the burning activity of the God whose representa-

tive he was.

Yet in the record of the actual moment of baptism a different

note is struck. The heavens are opened. Jesus is acclaimed as the

Son, the Well-beloved. He is addressed with words taken from

the calling of God's Servant. He is to fulfill a mission which will

not only raise up the fallen in Israel but extend God's salvation

to the ends of the earth. Here is a new revelation that the ineffably

holy is also the unboundedly gracious: that the one who confesses —

the holy judgment of God at the same time bears witness to His

gracious salvation.

The dialectic continues in the stories of the Temptation and

early ministry which immediately follow. As Jesus withdraws to

the wilderness he stands again before the Holy. His mission is to

be grounded in the word of the Holy, the worship of the Holy, the

waiting for the Holy. Yet returning in the power of the Spirit he

declares his mission in terms of the great proclamation of Isaiah

61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed

me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And all won-

dered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

Still further the Lucan narrative shows him in conflict with the

spirit of evil. Even the demonic man recognizes a more-thanhuman presence. "I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Holiness confronts the unclean and the demonic with the fire of

destruction. Yet in immediate succession comes the narrative of

his reception of the sick and the diseased: '"'and he laid his hands Ten

upon every one of them and healed them." Or to give one further oa

example, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray that God will sanctify

His name ('Hallowed be thy name"). Did not this imply that it

was at the very heart of Jesus' mission to act in God's name against

212 THEORY OF THE MISSION

all that was opposed to His purpose? Yet when the disciples thought to call down fire from heaven to consume those who refused to receive Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, he turned and rebuked them saying "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of," and went on to define this Spirit in fuller terms as that which does not destroy men's lives but saves them.

So in the life and ministry of Jesus the double-sidedness of the Holy Spirit is constantly set forth. That he was the authoritative

representative of the Holy God—the God who searches the perversions and iniquities of mankind with His fire of judgment—of that there could be no doubt. At the same time that he was the authentic bearer of the divine Spirit—the Spirit who binds up the wounds of mankind with His grace and salvation—of that also there could be no doubt. It was only when the nature of Holy Spirit had been once-for-all disclosed through the words and deeds of the Messiah, that it was possible for the Christian missionary vocation to receive its classic expression: "Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

The author of the Acts of the Apostles must be regarded as the foremost interpreter of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian mission. At the very outset he shows that the mission of witness is entirely dependent upon the coming of the Holy Spirit in new power. What could be more forceful than Acts 1:8: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." What could be more vivid than the record of the fulfillment of this promise in Acts 2:1—11?

In this record particular emphasis is laid upon three symbols. An event which could not be described in ordinary human terms

is mediated to us through (a) a sound of a rushing wind, (b) tongues of fire resting upon individuals, and (c) speech in other tongues. In this initial stage there is an overwhelming sense of the pressure of the Holy in the new situation. There is already a foretaste of the last days, with God enthroned in His universe and _ the exalted Christ pouring out His Spirit upon men. It is for those

_ who are awake to what is happening to turn to God in order that

they may receive His Holy Spirit and be incorporated into the body

_ of God's elect.

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission 273

This is the initial emphasis—a group of men energized by the divine Spirit, cleansed and enkindled by the divine fire, bearing witness to the wonderful works of God "as the Spirit gave them

utterance." But as the first emphasis is so clearly upon the Holy,

the second movement, as in the Gospel story, is toward that service which the Spirit so characteristically inspires. We see the Apostles succoring the needy, healing the lame, preaching the Gospel to the

poor, bringing release to the captives, proclaiming the acceptable

year of the Lord. Through their common prayers and fellowship

they refreshed themselves again and again in the presence of the

Holy: through their testimony in word and deed to the name of

God's holy servant Jesus (Acts 4:31) they extended his saving

work further and further afield.

So the course of the Church's missionary task was set. It was to hold together two profound movements of the divine Spirit which have often seemed to be mutually exclusive. On the one side God ever moves toward man as the Holy: transcending man's littleness, shaming his selfishness, challenging his complacency, stretching his boundedness, condemning his perversity. On the | ~~ other side God ever moves toward man in the Spirit of the Servant: understanding man's weaknesses, feeling his temptations, healing his wounds, loosing his bonds, restoring his confidence and hope. It is possible to have an awareness of the first and to bow down in awe and contrition; it is possible to recognize the second and to expand in sympathy and good will. But to receive the Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus the Christ, to die constantly to sin and self-will in the presence of the Holy while at the same time the saving compassion of Jesus is constantly made manifest in the power of the s Spirit—this is beyond the possibilities of flesh and blood but not. — beyond the range of the grace of God. This alone is the missionary pattern of the Church of Christ.

IV a

The keynote of the Acts of the Apostles is the expansion of the _ Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. But when we turn . to the Epistles of St. Paul another aspect of the Spirit's work comes prominently into view. Now it is not so much extension outward

as sanctification inward. The life of the infant churches has to be ~

stabilized and deepened and this can only come about through the _ continuing operation of the Holy Spirit. - <——

274 THEORY OF THE MISSION

The Epistle to the Romans reveals the new confidence in relation to physical death now open to those who walk in the Spirit. It reveals, too, the pattern of the life of prayer in the Spirit with the children of God being guided to make their intercessions according to the mind and purpose of God. The Epistles to the Corinthians reveal the nature of the worship and the moral life which belong

to the Spirit-filled body of Christ. The Spirit inspires order, not confusion; purity, not license; edification, not meaningless excitement; cohesion, not blind individualism. As he deals with concrete problems that have arisen in the Christian community, Paul makes it clear that not every inspiration and impulse comes from the divine Spirit. The Holy Spirit is ever working to produce a pattern of corporate life in the Church conformable to that once-for-all revealed in the incarnate life of Jesus the Christ.

Through the Epistles, then, we see the sanctifying work of the Spirit in progress, assuring men of their divine sonship, purifying their relationships, intensifying their intercessions, interpreting their worship experiences. The body of Christ is indwelt by the Spirit who is Holy—and this means the Spirit who is not only powerful to drive forward as wind and to spread outward as the fire but also strong to release from the down-drag of evil and death and to lift up into the realm of pure being and eternal life. That a new note has come into Christian proclamation can hardly be doubted. Will the concern for the purity and the otherworldliness of the

fr Christian family undermine the urgency of the commission to

--—-—s evangelize the nations? a, The history of the Christian Church since the end of the first century can be regarded as a continuing dialectic between what

today might be called the inner-directed and the outer-directed, between, that is to say, the concern for inner sanctification and the _ urge to outward service. One may regret that the earlier dialectic __ between the Holy as burning judgment and the Spirit as healing

_ Salvation has been replaced and yet the very nature of the prob-

_ lems with which an expanding Church had to grapple made the

change almost inevitable. For as the Church moved out beyond an

nvironment which had been impregnated by the Hebrew tradition

found itself in the midst of peoples who lacked both ethical disciplines and any kind of ordered religious life. In response to a

pel preached in the power of the Spirit they might indeed turn — z

ie to serve the living God. But the power of the SR sae

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission 275

now needed above all to draw them away from the works of the flesh and to lift them to a regular experience of filial communion with a Holy Father in the Spirit of His Son.

So it came about that from the second century onwards there was little conscious connection made in the Church between the gift of the Spirit and the call to evangelize. The Spirit had been given to the Church, it was believed, to build it up in sanctity. Through the Spirit-endued ministers of the Church, through the words of Scripture interpreted by the Spirit, through the sacraments made effectual by the Spirit, the Church could grow in holiness and

rise to its true life in God Himself. The Church was, in fact, life in the Spirit, and the work of the Spirit was above all to purify and illumine every soul within the Church.

This view of the Spirit's function has been characteristic of the Eastern Church throughout its history. The Spirit is proclaimed through catechesis and liturgy as the Spirit of truth, of light, of

life, of love. He completes the work of Christ and brings every several member of the Church into a personal union with the Triune God. Those who are received into the Church come im- . ~ mediately within the area of the Spirit's sanctifying power: but that the Spirit is ever moving outwards to bring good tidings to a wider world—of this there is little consciousness in the Eastern tradition.

The Western Church has always been concerned to extend the borders of its influence and to bring the heathen within its fold. Doubtless a variety of motives have been active within this mission, but it is at least open to question how far it has been directly re- = lated to the continuing work of the Holy Spirit. It is true that a | fine early twelfth-century sculpture above the portal of a church ~ in North Burgundy shows the reigning Christ bestowing his Spirit upon the apostles and beneath them there are representatives of the many nations to whom they were being sent. Again: in Langland's fourteenth-century poem "Piers Plowman" there is a ee reference to the coming of "one Spiritus Paraclitus" to Piers and _ to his followers. This Spirit, coming as light and fire, made them masters of all men's language and promised to go with them in the mission of dealing grace and dividing it wisely "among all kinds and conditions who can use five senses." But in the work of the great theologians the Spirit is, above all, the moving agent wh directs the soul of man into union with God. The Spirit leads man —

276 THEORY OF THE MISSION

to contemplate the image of God, to delight in Him, to consent to His will, to be joined to Him in love. The Spirit as sanctifier in the fellowship of the Church is beautifully expressed; the Spirit as moving in the hearts of men with a divine compulsion to go out and seek the lost can less easily be found.

Even the coming of the Reformation did not immediately lead to-a rediscovery of Pentecost and of the world-wide Commission of the Church. There were indeed particular circumstances, social and geographical, which would have precluded any extensive overseas missionary activity. But besides this the great churches of the Reformation were at first seriously beset by the problem of extremists who in so many cases appealed to the Spirit as the inspirer of their social and political activities. In response to such claims the Reformers gave almost exclusive emphasis to the work of the Spirit as bearing witness to and interpreting the Word. The Bible was the very constitution of the new order and it was the constant task of the Spirit to take of the things of Christ therein contained and to reveal them to men. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of major upheaval and strife in Europe, and until a reasonable social order had been established it was unlikely that any real freedom of movement would be allowed to those who, conscious of the Spirit's urging to new adventure, desired to go at _his bidding to the regions beyond.

But gradually the changing conditions of the eighteenth century began to lift men's horizons..An expanding world brought back to their consciousness the risen Lord's Commission and the Holy Spirit's enabling. How difficult were the obstacles to be overcome may be seen for example in the record of John Eliot, the pioneer missionary to the Indians. It was in 1646 that he preached his

first sermon to them in their own language, after a long period spent in trying to win their confidence and speak their tongue. "Certainly," Increase Mather wrote afterwards, "it was the Holy Spirit who inspired him to hear and obey that call"—though to

many of his brethren at the time there was no such certainty, seeing that in their view the Indians were nothing more than wild beasts whom God had called them to fear and fight. In the mid-

s : eighteenth century it was William Carey who had to persuade his

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission 277

brethren that God was calling His Church to action and that the way was open for a new obedience to the charge to be witnesses

to the uttermost parts of the earth.

As is well known, it was at first left to individuals, groups, societies, to be the agents of the Holy Spirit in this renewed missionary activity. In more official church circles there was a strong suspicion of enthusiasm, a reluctance to go beyond the traditional patterns of parochial life, and no ready recognition of responsibility toward the inhabitants of remote heathen lands. Yet the few were conscious of the movement of the Spirit, both in their own hearts

as motivating power and in the hearts of the heathen as convicting and converting power. One may take, for example, some words from a sermon preached in London in the year 1810 by a certain Claudius Buchanan, lately returned from India. "What," he asks, "were the ordained means of conversion?" He answers:

The Apostle informed the judgment with facts, and addressed the conscience with doctrines, and the holy spirit "guided their minds into

all truth." This influence of the holy spirit was the miracle which produced the conversion of the heathen world, and of the Jewish world. Fe ae And the influence of the same spirit exists at this day, though less in degree, agreeably to the promise, that it should "abide for ever"; and

is manifest, in every case, of the conversion of a sinner, whether he belong to the heathen or the Christian world.

Our duty then, my brethren, in regard to the Gentiles in this age, is to do what was done in the first age; to assert the truth of revelation by oral preaching, or by writings sent among them; praying that God would do honour to his own word by the witness of the spirit; and depending on "the author and finisher of our faith," for a blessing on the A work which he hath commanded.

But you are to understand, that those who disbelieve the doctrine - of the atonement, and of the influence of the holy spirit, will never be solicitous to communicate Christianity to heathen nations; and, for this obvious reason, they have no motives. Survey the whole body of men, now employed in the four quarters of the globe, in promoting the Gospel of Christ, whether societies or individuals, and whether by x preaching, by writing, by pecuniary contribution, or by personal exertion, and you will find that they ALL, or nearly all, believe in the 5

- doctrines of divine grace, and of atonement by "the blood of the ae gc,

Lamb." For these are the doctrines which engage the heart and af- | fections; and, when men have felt there power and consolation, then they have found MOTIVES for diffusing them. When we shall have ~ ;

278° THEORY OF THE MISSION

learned to consider the Gospel as "the UNSEARCHABLE RICHES," and the INESTIMABLE GIFT, then shall we earnestly desire to impart

it to others.

In such a sermon we see the main emphases of evangelical life and thought. The central doctrine to be proclaimed is that of God's gracious act of atonement in and through the saving work of Christ. . The central influence moving men to make the proclamation and moving sinners to receive and believe it is that of the Holy Spirit

_ himself. It is the Holy Spirit who motivates the missionary; it is

the Holy Spirit who convicts the sinner and leads him to repentance and faith. The recognition of the work of the Spirit in sanctification and in the creating of fellowship is by no means lost but throughout the century the awareness of his concomitant activity in moving the children of God to share in his witness to the saving work of Christ grew stronger and clearer. The way was being prepared for a more comprehensive theology of the Church's mission which the twentieth century would bring. By the time of the World Missionary Conference at Madras in 1938 it had come to be understood, at least on the official level, that missionary activity is not simply the task of a small number of people seized by a special

ae concern, but rather the task of the Church as a whole. If the Church is the body of Christ animated by his Spirit, then it must be of its

__-very nature to continue oe mission of salvation to the ends of the

earth.

_ At the Willingen Conference in 1952 the theological presuppositions of the whole missionary movement were clearly and force-

_ fully expressed. This movement, it was affirmed, has its source in

_ the Triune God Himself. He has sent forth one Saviour to seek and

ave all the lost, one Redeemer who by his death, resurrection, and ascension has accomplished a full and perfect atonement and | ated in himself one new humanity, the body of which Christ is oe Head. This is followed Bo} a fine statement:

Spirit, ice Spirit of Jesus, to gather us together in one 'Body in Him a

to aaa ae us for the bari of His mission as Sst witnesses ny

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission 279

There is no participation in Christ without participation in His mission to the world. That by which the Church receives its existence is that by which it is also given its world mission. "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 1

This is a simple and yet profound statement of the theology of the Church's missionary task. It brings us back to the Holy God whose Spirit must always strive with a world estranged and alienated from its true life and destiny. It focuses attention upon the Servant anointed by the Spirit for his work of healing and salvation.

It reminds us of the sending forth of the Holy Spirit of him who

through death and resurrection had opened the kingdom of heaven

to all believers. Henceforward the Church has its task and its en-

abling. To bear witness to the uttermost parts of the earth is its

continuing obligation: to receive power through the Holy Spirit is

its constant privilege.

To sum up. There have been times in the history of the Christian Church when the emphasis on the holy in the title Holy Spirit has been altogether dominant. Then men have been concerned for holiness, for purity, for separation, for aspiration heavenwards in the corporate life and worship of the Church, and in the striving for individual sanctity. Again there have been times when the emphasis on spirit has been altogether dominant. Then the concern has been for power, for spiritual energy, for expansion, for urgent proclamation, as constituting the marks of God's true servants who

are endued by His Spirit. But if the Church is indeed the instrument of Holy Spirit then the duality of the title must surely be revealed in a dual pattern of life. On the one side there must be witness to Se

the fire that is never quenched, to the light that cannot be apEee proached, to the glorious majesty of a Holy God. On the other side there must be witness to the energy that is never exhausted, to the grace that has no bounds, to the patient involvement of the cre Spirit in every framework of human culture.

And to this end the Christian's prayers will also be twofold. He —

will pray that the Comforter may bestow the "holy flame."

ae O let it freely burn

Till earthly passions turn

1"A Statement on the Missionary Calling of the Church," in Missions Under the Cross, ed. Norman Goodall (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1953), pp. 189-90. This statement arose out of the report of Gran I or "The che we Obligation of the Church" at Willingen. #

et ae > 2 i Ȏ

280 © THEORY OF THE MISSION

To dust and ashes in its heat consuming And let thy glorious light Shine ever on my sight And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

He will also pray that the love of God may be shed abroad i in his heart by the same Holy Spirit.

Enlarge, inflame and fill my heart With boundless charity divine: So shall I all my strength exert, And love them with a zeal like thine; And lead them to thy open side, The sheep for whom their Shepherd died.

Missions and World History

Bis SPO Ee tL: eC

Every activity of the Church must be derived from the foundation of the Church itself. It must be an activity which follows necessarily. from the very nature of the Church. It is not the accidental but the necessary functions of the Church which are the subject of theological consideration.

The theological problem of missions belongs to two groups of theological problems: first, to those which deal with the doctrine of the Church, and secondly, to those which deal with the Christian interpretation of history. The following discussion is not that of an expert. J am not a specialist in missions, but a systematic =~ theologian who is trying to bring the great reality of missions into the framework of a Christian interpretation of history and a Chris-— tian doctrine of the Church.

For the Christian interpretation of history, the meaning of ie tory is the kingdom of God. % There are three main riddles of history. History runs toward a goal which is never actualized in history. History runs in one direc- ——

- tion, and this direction is irreversible. Historical time moves ahead toward something new. To the question, "toward what does history run?" the Christian answer is, "toward the realization of the king- — z dom of God through and above history." : ee History is disrupted into innumerable large and small, com- — | paratively independent, historical movements, in different sections

281 =

gt alia ta

282 THEORY OF THE MISSION

of the world, in different periods of time. The question is: If we say "the history," do we not presuppose a unity of history? But this unity is never actual. There are always divergent tendencies. There is always human freedom, which has the power and the possibility of disrupting any preliminary unity of history. Nevertheless, this unity is always intended, and the kingdom of God is a symbol for the unity of history in and above history.

In history there is always a struggle going on between the forces which try to drive toward fulfillment in the kingdom of God and

its unity and the forces which try to disrupt this unity and prevent history from moving toward the kingdom of God; or in a religiousmythological language, there are always conflicts going on in history between divine and demonic forces.

From this it follows that in history there is a continuous mixture of good and evil in every group, in every agency which carries the historical process, in every period, in every historical actualization. History has a tragic ambiguity; but the kingdom of God is the symbol for an unambiguous situation, a purification of history, something in which the demonic is conquered, the fulfillment is reached, and the ambiguous is thrown out. In this threefold sense, as fulfillment, unification, and purification of history, the kingdom of God is the answer to the riddles of history.

Of course, the kingdom of God seen in this light is not a stage of history. It is not a utopia which is somewhere and nowhere. There is no such stage, even in the farthest future of history, because history is always a battlefield of divine and demonic forces. However, history is running toward the kingdom of God. Fulfillment transcends history, but it is fulfilled through history.

__ The second statement about the Christian interpretation of history is that the historical representative of the kingdom of God,

in so far as it fights in history, is the Christian Church. The Chris-

tian Church, the embodiment of the New Being in a community, _ represents the kingdom of God in history. The Church itself is not # the kingdom of God, but it is its agent, its anticipation, its frag3 entary realization. It is fighting in history, and since itrepresents e kingdom of God it can be distorted but it can never be con-

e third statement. about the Christian interpretation of history

the moment in which the meaning of history becomes fully _

t is to be called the center of history, and that this center a

Missions and World History 283

is the New Being in Jesus as the Christ. In this center the contradic-

tions of historical existence are overcome, in "beginning and power."

The fourth statement about the Christian interpretation of history is that history is divided by the center of history into two main sections, the period before the center and the period after the center. However, this is true in a different way for different people and different nations. Many people, even today, are still living before the event of Jesus as the Christ; others, those who have accepted Jesus as the Christ, are living after the center of history. The period before the manifestation of the center of history either in history universally, or in particular individuals, nations, and groups, can be called the period in which the bearer of the kingdom of God in history is latent. It is the period of the latency of the Church, the period in which the coming of the Church is prepared in all nations. This is true of paganism, of Judaism, and of humanism. In all three groups and forms of human existence, the Church is not yet manifest, but it is latently present, and it prepares for the coming of the center of history. Then, after the center . ~ of history has come and after it has been received by pagans, Jews, and humanists, there is a Christian church in its manifest state, in a state which is no longer preparation, but reception, namely reception of the New Being in Jesus as the Christ.

From this fundamental statement issues directly the meaning of missions. Missions is that activity of the Church by which it works for the transformation of its own latency into its own manifestation all over the world. This is a statement with many implications. ~ The first consequences are critical consequences, namely, critical = against misinterpretations of the meaning of missions. One should ey not understand missions in a lower sense than this just mentioned. First of all, one should not misunderstand missions as an attempt — aS to save from eternal damnation as many individuals as possible — among the nations of the world. Such an interpretation of the mean-_ ing of missions presupposes 'a separation of individual from ine dividual, a separation of the individual from the social group 'to. which he belongs, and it presupposes an idea of predestination & which actually excludes most human beings from eternal salvation — = and gives hope for salvation only to the few—comparatively fe even if it is millions—who are actually reached by the message ' Jesus.as the Christ. Such an idea is unworthy of the glory and «

284 THEORY OF THE MISSION

the love of God and must be rejected in the name of the true relationship of God to his world.

An attempt to interpret the meaning of missions was made by nineteenth-century liberal theology in the idea that missions is a cross-fertilization of cultures. With the primitive cultures it is not so much a cross-fertilization as a transformation into higher cul-

tures. But missions is not a cultural function; it is rather the function of the Church to spread all over the world. It is one of the functions of extension of the Church, of its growth; and it is—as growth is generally—an element of a living being without which he finally must die. This is quite different from the idea of crossfertilization. Cross-fertilization can only claim that the limited values of one culture should be completed by the limited values of another culture. But cultures come and go, and the question of the meaning of history transcends any culture and any cultural cross-fertilization. Therefore, since missions is supposed to contribute an answer to the meaning of history, the suggested answer of "cross-fertilization" becomes utterly inadequate.

Moreover, missions is not an attempt to unite the different religions. If this were the function of missions, a uniting point, or center, would have to exist. Then, however, this uniting center would be the center of history, and the Christ would become "decentralized." He would no longer be the center; but the center would be that which is above him and also above Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius. The Christian Church would then be one religious group among others, but it would not be the agency of the kingdom of God, as we have described it and as it has always felt itself to be. fe According to Christian conviction, the Christ is the center of history and therefore the uniting point in which all religions can be united after they have been subjected to the criticism of the power of the New Being which is in the Christ. Therefore, we must say that missions is neither the attempt to save individual souls, nor an attempt at cultural cross-fertilization, nor an attempt to unite the world religions. Rather, it is the attempt to transform the latent Church—which is present in the world religions, in paganism, Judaism, and humanism—into something new: the New Reality in Jesus as the Christ. Transformation is the meaning of

missions. Thus the mission is a function which belongs to the Church itself, and it is a basic element in the life of the Church.

Missions and World History 285

This transformation is one from the Church in its latency, in

its hiddenness under the forms of paganism, Judaism, and humanism, into its manifestation. This refers not only to the nations and groups outside of the Christian nations but also to the Chris-

tian nations themselves. There must always be missions—or attempts to transform the preparatory state into the manifest state of the Church, not only outside but within the Christian orbit. This

is because there is always paganism, Judaism, and humanism in the midst of the Christian nations themselves.

The transformation of the state of latency into one of actualization is a necessary function of the Church. It is a function which is always present and which has never been missing. There were periods, of course, in which there were no official institutions for missions. However, while institutions are historically changing, functions are unchangeable as long as there is a Church, because _ functions belong to the essence of the Church. Even in periods in — which the mission toward those outside the Christian orbit was very small, it was never completely lacking, because there were always contacts between Christians and non-Christians. Where there are contacts, there is witness to Christianity, and where there is witness to Christianity, implicitly there is missionary activity. In this sense it can be said that the process of transformation is always going on; it is going on both within and outside the Christian nations and cultures. The claim of the Church that Jesus as the Christ is the bringer of the New Reality for mankind is identical with the demand made upon the Church to spread itself all over the world. And that is what missions does. = Now we consider this transformation in its fhchispical a meaning.

} /

There was a discussion, especially in the last period of liberal — theology, about the absoluteness of Christianity. Is Christianity the absolute religion? Is Christ the center of history? Is he the bringer of the New Being? Or are the other religions of equal value and does each culture have its own proper religion? According to these ideas, Christianity belongs to the Western world and it should not _ interfere with the religious developments of the Eastern world. This, of course, would deny the claim that Jesus is the Christ, the — bringer of the New Being. It would make this statement obsolete,

because he who brings the New Being is not a relative figure but an absolute figure of an all-embracing character. The New ee —— is one, as being-itself is one. Gens

286 THEORY OF THE MISSION

The universality of the Christian message, its universal claim, includes what has been called by a not-too-happy term, the "absoluteness of Christianity." Let me call it its universality. Now how can you prove today as a Christian, or as a theologian, that the Christian message is universal and valid for all cultures and religions so that Christ must become what he potentially is, the center of history for all historical developments? How can you prove this? Obviously the answer is that you cannot prove it at all in terms of a theoretical analysis, for the criteria used in order to prove that Christianity is universal are themselves taken from Christianity. Therefore, they do not prove anything except for those who are within the Christian circle. There is no theoretical argument which can give the proof of the universality of Christianity and the claim that Jesus is the Christ. Only missions can provide that proof. Missionary work is that work in which the potential universality of Christianity becomes evident day by day, in which the universality is actualized with every new success of the missionary endeavor. The action of missions gives the pragmatic proof of the universality of Christianity. It is a pragmatic proof. It is the proof,

as the Bible calls it, of power and Spirit. It is not a theoretical proof which you can give sitting in your chair, looking at history; but if you are in the same historical situation as missions, then you offer a continuous proof, one which is never finished. The element of faith is always present, and faith is a risk. But a risk must be

justified, and that is what missions does. It shows that Jesus as the

_ Christ and the New Being in him has the power to conquer the

world. In conquering the world, missions is the continuous prag-

: matic test of the universality of the Christ, of the truth of the Chris- — _ tian assertion that Jesus is the Christ. Roe In the same way, missions bears witness on behalf of the Church ___ as the agency of the conquering kingdom of God. This also cannot

___ be proved in abstract theoretical concepts. Only missions can prove

that the Church is the agent through which the kingdom of God . continuously actualizes itself in history. Missionaries come toa

ry in which the Church is still in latency. In this situation the manifest Church opens up what is potentially given in the different

igions and cultures outside Christianity. In some way and on

level, every human being is longing for a new reality in con-

he distorted reality in which he is living. People are not — f God; they are grasped by God on the level in which they

Missions and World History 287

can be grasped—in their experience of the Divine, in the realm of holiness in which they are living, in which they are educated, in which they have performed acts of faith and adoration and prayer and cult, even though the symbols in which the Holy is expressed may seem extremely primitive and idolatrous. It is distorted religion, but it is not nonreligion. It is the reality of the Divine preparing in paganism for the coming of the manifest Church, and,

through the manifest Church, the coming of the kingdom of God.

This alone makes missions possible. One might call this preparation —which we find in all nations—the "Old Testament" for these

nations. But I hesitate to do so, because the term "Old Testament"

is used ordinarily, and rightly, for a very special preparation, namely for the preparation of the coming of Christ as the center

of history through the elected nation.

This leads me to the second consideration: the Church is latent also in the elected nation, i.e., in Judaism. It is prepared in it so that it can become manifest in it, but it is not yet manifest in it in the full sense of the word. It drives toward manifestation; and certainly the community of the Jewish nation and the community of = = =s_——- the synagogue into which Jesus was born are preparatory stages for the coming of the center of history, the Church, and the kingdom of God. But they remain preparatory. They anticipate, in prophetism; and they actualize, fragmentarily and with many distortions, in legalism. However, they are not the manifest Church; they are

still the latent Church. If Christianity comes to them, they might or might not accept the transformation out of latency into manifestation. We know that what in some forms of paganism is comparatively easy is in Judaism almost impossible. Paul had this experience. He writes in Romans 9-11 (one of the great and rare — pieces of an interpretation of history in the New Testament) about the question of missions toward the Jews. He believed that this mission to the Jews would not succeed until the pagans would have become members of the manifest Church. One of the great a lems of missions toward the Jews today is that we often have th feeling that it is by historical providence that the Jews have = everlasting function in history. "Ever" means as long as there is

still history and, therefore, paganism. The function of Judais would be to criticize, in the power of the prophetic spirit, those tendencies in Christianity which drive toward paganism and idola

try. Judaism always stood against them as a witness and as a critic,

288 THEORY OF THE MISSION

and perhaps it is the meaning of historical providence that this shall remain so, as long as there is history. Individual Jews will always come to Christianity; but the question whether Christianity should try to convert Judaism as a whole is at least an open question, and a question about which many Biblical theologians of today are extremely skeptical. I leave that question open. I myself, in the light of my many contacts and friendships with Jews, am inclined to take the position that one should be open to the Jews who come to us wanting to become Christians. Yet one should not try to convert them; rather, we should subject ourselves as Christians to the criticism of their prophetic tradition.

The third group in which we have the latent Church is human-

ism. I think not only of Greek, Roman, and Asiatic humanism but also of humanism within the Christian nations. There are many people who are critical of Church, Christianity, and religion generally. Many times this criticism comes from the latent Church, is directed against the manifest Church, and is often effected through the power of principles which belong to, and should be effective in, the manifest Church itself. Nevertheless, in spite of the important function of the latent Church, it is never the last stage. That which

is latent must become manifest, and there is often a hidden desire on the part of people who belong to the latent Church to become members of the manifest Church. This can happen, however, only

if the manifest Church accepts the criticism which comes from the latent Church.

These foregoing remarks show that missions is by no means one-sided. There is also missions to the Christians by those nonChristians to whom Christian missions are addressed» What Christian missions have to offer is not Christianity—certainly not American, German, or British Christianity—but the message of Jesus as the Christ, of the New Being. It is the message about Jesus as the center of history which, day by day, is confirmed by missions. However, it is not Christianity as a historical reality that is this center of history. The goal of missions is the mediation of a reality which is the criterion for all human history. This criterion not

_ only stands critically against paganism, Judaism, and humanism

wherever it may be, but it also stands critically against Christianity, outside and inside the Christian nations. All mankind stands under the judgment of the New Being in Christ.

A final point must be made in praise of what missions has done, —

a we eS * a ae . a" i hoe

Missions and World History 289

and is doing, in creating churches in sections of the world which are outside the Western cultural orbit, making it possible to offset the unconscious arrogance of much Christian missionary work. This is that unconscious arrogance which assumes that Christianity, as it has developed in the Western world, is the reality of the New Being in Christ. It is only one of its expressions, a preliminary one,

a transitory one, as was Greek Christianity, Roman Christianity, and Medieval Christianity. It is not the end. These new Christian churches provide another great proof for Jesus' being the center of history. They demonstrate that his message and the New Being in him is able to overcome not only the resistance of those outside Christianity but also the unconscious and almost unavoidable arrogance of those churches which carry out the missionary work. The fact that there are new churches in another cultural orbit, developing their independence and resisting the identification of the _ kingdom of God with any special form of Christianity, is poner se the greatest triumph of Christian missions.

Conflict in Mission:

Historical and Separatist Churches

BY CHRISTIAN G. BAETA

In this essay, which is written against the general background of West Africa, with Ghana particularly in mind, the term historical churches is used to indicate the older, on the whole larger and more firmly established, churches that have resulted from the labors of Western missions over the past century and a half or so. They have been constituted as African churches with preponderantly African leadership. The term separatist churches signifies those bodies that have more recently.come into being and exhibit certain

special features which make them stand apart from the main stream of Christianity as known and practiced across the world and through the centuries. They are usually referred to as "sects," but this designation is avoided here because it is known to be repugnant to their leaders, who much prefer them to be known as "churches."

Of the separatist churches there are those which have been initiated and are still supported, even actually run, by foreign agencies (American and British), while others have arisen from indigenous African prophetism. In order not to blur the confrontation, only the latter are taken into account in the present essay, since they are furthest removed from the historical churches. It is here intended neither to attempt a full characterization of these churches nor to discuss any of the topics of general interest that are usually raised in regard to them, such as their relation to the 290

Historical and Separatist Churches 291

impact of modern Western civilization and to emergent African nationalism. The sole object of this writing is merely to try to clarify some of the problems which confront the historical churches as they consider what their attitude should be toward this other important and rapidly growing group.

On the whole the separatist churches lean so heavily on the strong personalities of their leaders that some have judged them to be only a passing phenomenon. Indeed, several have already come and gone. It must be borne in mind, however, that whatever the stability and duration of particular churches might be, there is no reason to suppose that the end of the separatist movement itself, as such, is anywhere in sight. On the contrary, if the perennial rise and fall of new cults within African paganism is a true parallel, then we are only at the beginning of this sort of development. However, there is immediate and urgent need for the historical churches to make up their minds about the separatist churches and to find a carefully thought-out, acceptable, and Christian modus vivendi with them, quite apart from any considerations relating to the future. : On this subject a great wealth of friendly good counsel has already been forthcoming. Generally it has been to the effect that the historical churches should do all in their power to preserve or to attain fellowship with the separatists. The nature of most of this advice suggests, however, that perhaps the real points of difficulty — have not been spotted or have not been quite fully understood. To be specific, there have been warnings against adopting attitudes of pharisaic self-righteousness and spiritual superiority; exhortations ;

to a greater humility; to Christian love rather than legal-minded- <2 ae

ness; to repentance of all the sins, failures and inadequacies that — = ' have driven so many, deeply dissatisfied, right into the arms of the _ = i separatist churches; to emulation of the latter's evangelistic zeal and their use of indigenous worship symbols, instead of clinging to _ quite unsuitable Western patterns. ... These criticisms doubtless - have their justification, but by themselves they can hardly be said _ bee to meet the case. As regards the temptation to spiritual pride, in particular, a sufficient chastening and corrective already exists in in the sheer apparent success of the groups in question! 5 This whole matter of what the historical churches are to do about the separatist ones comes to a head, of course, when one or

292 THEORY OF THE MISSION

This happened in Ghana in 1957, and the reactions on that occasion are perhaps significant and instructive.

At its May sitting of that year, the Executive of the Christian Council of Ghana had before it applications for membership from two of the most important separatist churches in the country. There was no evidence whatever of any of the unchristian and uncharitable attitudes, which are so often feared, for the historical churches; certainly nothing was said even remotely suggesting that the applications should be rejected out of hand. There was rather a sense

of embarrassment, of almost complete unpreparedness for the question, and uncertainty about the best line of answer. A proposal that the applicants should be requested to submit statements of their doctrinal positions was soon abandoned. It was felt that this would

not. be a fruitful approach since, as a rule, separatist churches simply continued to profess the doctrine taught by the historical church with which their founder was connected, without strict regard to its relation with their practice.

It was emphasized that, whatever the final decision eventually reached on the applications, the Council had a plain and inescapable duty to help these bodies find their way into the main stream of Christian faith and practice, if only they would be willing to accept such help.t Then, in view of the quite obvious lack of any information on them beyond vague generalizations and impres-

sions, it was decided that the Council should seek, both by observation and by interviewing the leaders, to acquaint itself fully with

all the relevant facts before the matter was further discussed.

These applications still await a definite decision and reply. While the Council is eager to exercise Christian charity and to seize the proffered hand of fellowship, it must take into serious considera-

*In fact, this thought was only a pious hope. It is hard to see how the historical churches could have afforded any such assistance without appearing to condemn and to instruct. Since self-confidence and even pride in one's own religious convictions is no monopoly of any group, and bearing in mind the well-known temper of the separatist churches in disputation, anyone can see how no positive result could be expected from such an approach.

__ The Professor of Divinity of the University College, Dr. N. Q. King, came

_ to the rescue by inviting leaders of the more prominent separatist churches to attend the annual Refresher Course held for ministers and clergy and any others with an interest in theological studies. Again, although at first

there were looks of frank surprise and puzzlement, no "superior airs" were

_ discernible. The first-timers were pleasant but uncommunicative.

Historical and Separatist Churches 293

tion the far-reaching implications of such an association as is proposed. It is quite clear that, apart from greatly enhancing the standing of the suppliant churches in the eyes of their own people and of the general public, thus lending support to their views, their

affiliation with the Council cannot do otherwise than cause ordinary Christians to conclude. that the differences between the two groups of churches are of small importance and may be ignored. Obviously

the Council would not be acting responsibly if it permitted this

opinion to be formed without itself being fully convinced of its

truth.

A closer look would reveal that, although both groups use the common Christian name, the substance of the religion taught by each is so different from the other that the question seems justified: are they even basically engaged upon the same business? The Christianity taught by the historical churches is a message calling men.to repentance of their sin and to a life of faith. If sin is in essence rebellion against God, faith is complete trust in Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, and absolute dependence upon him in all = one's affairs, both for this world and for the hereafter. This faith : expresses itself in a life lived in God's forgiveness and grace (which are made available to man through the atoning work of Christ) and dedicated to the performing of God's will. Its objective is man's constant fellowship and communion with God, and the means of

its nurture are the Word of God, worship, and (with most churches) the sacraments. As St. Paul sums it up, the "Gospel," i.e., Chris-

tianity, "is the power of God for salvation" (Rom. 1:16), in other words, God's answer to man's true and deepest need.

The Christianity offered by the separatist churches may be described as a power for overcoming the ills of the secular aspect

of life. Human need is conceived almost entirely in terms of these

ills. While such terms as "sin," "grace," "the precious blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and other Christian themes are constantly spoken about, the central preoccupation is and remains _ how to cope effectively with the ills of worldly life. For instance, —

"sin" is really relevant only in so far as it is a potent cause of bodily, mental, and social disorders; the significance of "the blood of =

Christ" resides in the fact that, by doing away with sin, it prepares

the way for, or itself directly effects, bodily healing; "faith" isto

entertain no inward doubt whatsoever that the particular help =

sought will be received. The "Gospel" here may be summed up aoe

294 THEORY OF THE MISSION

the actual words of a very typical separatist-church public invitation:

Bring all your worries of unemployment, poverty, witch troubles, ill-

luck, enemy, barrenness, sickness, blindness, lameness, sorrow. Jesus is ready to save all who come to him in belief and faith. "Let him who hears say, 'Come.' And let him who is thirsty come, let' him who desires take the Water of life ? without price" (Rev. 22:17). "Him who comes to.me I will not cast out" (Jn. 6:37b).

The petitions which are brought to the separatist churches, and with which they concern themselves above everything else, are precisely the same as those traditionally submitted in indigenous African religion, whether in its unadulterated form or in such modern syncretistic forms as the Tigari cult. Church services of "witness" are regularly held in which members give testimonies about the granting of such requests. The nature of the hopes held out must provide an answer to those who wonder why historical church workers do not appear to be able to attract such large crowds

as the separatists can draw. But the far more important questions are, of course: Is this the true essence of Christianity? Is it legitimate to present what are merely some of the beneficial by-products,

as the whole thing?

Again the separatist churches observe a large number of special customs, rites, and ceremonies, particularly ecstatic dancing and various fasts and taboos. Now if these were considered as mere aids to worship, or forms of giving expression to religious sentiment, or esthetics, there would not be any difficulty at all, and the only problem presented would be how to "baptize into Christianity" such of them as might not be considered to be quite suitable at

first. However, that is not so; rather, a very special meaning attaches to these practices. They are looked upon as necessary techniques whereby the coveted blessings are secured. For example, ecstasy

*In the particular separatist church concerned, as in several others, "blessed" or "holy" water plays a crucial role, and the public advertisement quoted goes on to ask all comers to bring each "one white bottle filled with water." This is blessed in the service and then taken home for use.

* An account of this cult is given in James B. Christensen: "The Tigari Cult of West Africa," in Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters (1953 meeting), Vol. XXXIX (1954).

Historical and Separatist Churches 295

is necessary because it is in this condition that contact is made with the supernatural power and the desired healing is obtained. The dance which induces ecstasy is therefore no mere jubilation before

the Lord, but a calculated means of obtaining a benefit. These ideas,

familiar in indigenous African religion, are regarded by the his-

torical churches as false.

As in African religion, the blame for failure to obtain requests

is firmly fixed on some fault in the petitioner himself or in the performance of the observances prescribed for him. With the separatist churches failure is chiefly ascribed to lack of "faith" in the sense above described, or to refusal by the petitioner to confess some secret sin. But it is confidently taught that, if all is in order on the petitioner's side, then his wish cannot otherwise but be granted.

It must be clearly understood, however, that the separatist churches name and appeal to the Christian God alone, whereas in African religion, naturally, it is the various deities and other supernatural forces recognized that are addressed. This is the big and a very real difference, but it is also perhaps the only one discernible.

Another great stumbling block to fellowship between the two groups of churches is the question of polygamy. This was a sore point when Christianity was first preached in Africa south of the Sahara. It is still a sore point today. As far back as 1938, on the occasion of the Tambaram Conference of the International Missionary Council, the historical churches instructed their delegate to get a clear ruling from this world assembly of Christians on this burning issue. The question went right to the heart of the matter and the answer was unequivocal.

At the instance of the churches in the Gold Coast...the question is — raised as to whether monogamy is essential to Christianity or is merely _ a factor in European civilisation—whether in the practice of polygamy there is something radically incompatible with a vital faith in Christ, and living of a true life in fellowship with Him.... Monogamy is not a mere factor of civilisation; it is vital to the life of the Church and its value has been realised in its own experiences; it was taught by the —_ Lord Himself and has Scriptural authority behind it (Eph. 5:31-33; _

1 Tim. 3:12, 5:9). Both for men and for women polygamy militates against the attainment of the fulness of life which is in Christ... es

"From The World Mission of the Church (London: I.M.C., 1939), PP. : 157 f.

296 THEORY OF THE MISSION

All the separatist churches admit polygamy,° not indeed as a concession or in order to seduce members from the historical churches, but because they believe that the position of the latter is in this regard, within the African context, entirely mistaken. In a statement of faith one of them, the Musama Disco Christo Church, declares: "We believe that (as an African Church) polygamy is not a moral sin."

Of course this debate goes on; it has recently called forth some rethinking on the part of missionaries and ex-missionaries. For example, Gunnar Helander writes: "Is monogamy an inalienable

. part of Christianity, or is it founded on a historical development,

a Roman-European tradition?", which would appear to be precisely the same question as was put at Tambaram. He goes on to say: "What have we done to the Africans in the name of Christianity? Polygamy, which Christ does not forbid, we have fought against

as the greatest of all evils, but divorce and remarriage, which He does forbid, we have introduced." § In a private letter my attention has been drawn to a recent book-in German in which Traugott Bachmann, a former missionary to the Nyika in Eastern Africa,

appears to have expressed identical or very similar views.' There have been others who have done the same.

A striking contribution to the discussion, not only of the polygamy issue but also of the main subject of the present essay, was recently made in an interchange of views privately circulated.® Questioning whether polygamy could be more important than other issues between the churches—religious ones such as the ministry and the sacraments, and moral ones such as ("the not-so-distant" ) slavery and war—it points out that whereas the churches holding opposing views might regard each other's positions as defective, dangerous, and in need of improvement, yet they do not for that

*From my reading I gather that in some West African countries some separatist churches do not permit polygamy. That is not the case in Ghana. The only possible exception is a body which insists that it is merely a society within one of the historical churches, though it has adopted several of the practices which are features of separatist churches. But it continues in communion with its mother historical church, and thus cannot be counted with the separatist churches.

_ *In Must We Introduce Monogamy (Pietermaritzburg: 1958). "Ich gab manchen Anstoss (Leipzig: Verlag Koehler & Amelang, 1957).

_ *I refrain from quoting author and source because there has not been _ time to seek and obtain permission to do so.

Historical and Separatist Churches 297

Treason unchurch one another by refusing to sit together in joint councils. In other words, on what grounds are polygamists shut out of councils in which Quakers and Church of England, Salvation

Army, pacifist and nonpacifist churches are equally admitted?

If Christian Europe has not yet been able to abandon the system of

war, have the churches from Europe (or America, etc.) any clear grounds for demanding that all African churches must abandon the

system of polygamy before they can be recognized as churches? If we

make this demand, then by what theological criteria are we defining

the Church? Are we making monogamy into a new "note" or "mark"

of the Church, as One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Monogamous?

This author proceeds, doubtless with his tongue in his cheek:

Recognition of churches as churches must be made at the proper theological level, with due realization that we are churches by the grace of God and in spite of our many defects. In fact, to believe that the Church is One, and to describe it in terms of the Biblical image as the Bride of Christ, invites the devastating suggestion that our very multiplicity is a form of blasphemous polygamy, wherein we are all seeking "neo to be the separate bride of Christ! And if we are so sure of Christ's attitude to monogamous marriage, are we equally sure of his attitude to our present ecclesiastically polygamous state?

Another writer opines that all the early missionaries needed to do was to get their converts to admit that monogamy was the "goal"; they should never have gone beyond that to attempt to interfere with and control the matrimonial customs of people of a different culture.

Of course all this is interes and thought-provoking. At Tambaram the representatives of African churches asked for a ~—_ thorough research to be undertaken into the whole field of African marriage and its relation to the Christian Church. In due course a scholarly volume was produced.® In the light of the apparent new trend in missionary thinking indicated above, perhaps there is room for a competent reexamination of the entire subject of _ the theology of Christian marriage. For their part, however, the re historical churches face two quite simple but very hard facts. In :

* Survey of African Marriage and Family Life, ed. and with an introduction by Arthur Phillips (Oxford University Presss1953)..A; summary and | brief discussion of some ee in this volume is provided in the I.M.C. Research Pamphlets No. 1, African Marriage by T. Price (London: SCM Press, 1954). ;

298 THEORY OF THE MISSION

the: first place, whatever the early missions should have done, actually they unanimously and consistently taught monogamy as an essential element of the Christian family. In fact this is one of the few points upon which there was no dissension among them at all. It is the heritage, it is that which the historical churches have received and seek to pass on, and this fact is not altered even by pointing out that probably the reason was merely the common Western cultural background.

Secondly, there can be no reasonable doubt that the affiliation of the separatist churches would mean the acceptance of the practice of polygamy for all church members. How could there be an association of churches in the same council, in which some approved polygamy and others did not permit it?

Thus the divergency between the positions of the two groups, both in religious belief and in morality, is very serious indeed. Doctrinally it is not merely a matter of holding different views on certain particular aspects (e.g., the ministry and sacraments) of fundamentally the same faith, rather it is two totally different understandings of what the Christian religion is, to start with, and of precisely what men are about when they set out to practice it. In other words, it is not a case of parting company somewhere along the road and coming together again further on, but one of starting from two entirely different points and never really meeting at all. To represent a minor part as the whole is impermissible because the resulting distortion may be very bad and most harmful. In this case, it threatens to stunt spiritual growth.

Furthermore, in the ethical sphere, dissension on such an allimportant matter as the family, the continuing, God-ordained basis and source of the presence of the human race upon earth, may hot rightly be regarded as being of the same level of significance E

_ as differences of opinion upon such an abnormal thing as war, or 4 upon a passing economic and social fashion as was slavery, very wicked though it certainly was. ae These deep disagreements at utterly crucial points, each by itself

\d cumulatively, indeed made it seem unlikely that the proposed _ ociation will be judged to be feasible at the present stage. Yet

search continues for some answer other than a simple rejection. — painful and burdensome thing not to be able to join up with ers oe upon the same Name, who are so earnest in their

Historical and Separatist Churches 299

purpose, so devoted to the Bible, so persevering in many good works, so eagerly expectant for the miracles of God to happen. Hard thinking on these matters must go on, but more needed still are many prayers that God would grant ever deeper insights on both sides, which, working from within each group, will gradually cause the existing barriers to crumble.

Further Toward a Theology of Mission *

BY WILHELM ANDERSEN

_ The theme of this essay refers to the theological discussion which

took place in connection with the World Missionary Conference in Willingen, Germany (1952) and which is still continuing.

sae Willingen took a decisive step further on the way toward a re-

- formulation of the theology of mission. Recognitions were expressed _-there that are valid for the missionary activity of all of Christianity.

Therefore they must not be left forgotten i in the past, but they must

ONGCae Y

be thought through and discussed again and again s¢ so that they bear

uit in the life of the Church and for her service in t n the world.

nother direction. We must go forward on the way which — S gen | started. oes chews remained unanswered there. i

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 301

Willingen remain concerned with the matter and in contact with one another. Remaining concerned with the matter means that the results of Willingen must be recognized and assimilated. The con-

tact between the various churches and confessions must be maintained so that they can mutually help one another to go the way which the living God through his Holy Spirit wants to lead the Church in the world. For the following exposition there is then

a double task. We will recall once again the result of Willingen. In the second part we will attempt to indicate some milestones along the future way.

The basic and decisive recognition for a theology of missions consists in this: Mission has its source in the Triune God.

Out of the depths of his love for us, the Father has sent forth his own beloved Son to reconcile all things to himself, that we and all men might, through the Spirit, be made one in him with the Father in that perfect love which is the very nature of God.?

The sentence "Mission is the work of the Triune God" must not be understood, however, as an abstract, timeless truth. Mission is as missio Dei,* the original and at the same time the continually new working of the Triune God who turns to man and to the world. God is the living God, who is Himself Light and Life. As such, He is also a movement toward man and the world, spreading light and life.

It should not be forgotten that this sentence also contains a certain criticism of the theme of Willingen, which was "The Missionary Obligation of the Church." But it is a constructive criticism and, therefore, one which leads further. The proclamation of "the missionary obligation of the Church" should in no way be revoked. It is valid and urgent. But it is decisive that it be understood in the right relationship and in the context which is valid for it. The admonition of J. C. Hoekendijk that "Every Church-centered theory of mission is bound to go astray because it revolves around ©

2A Statement on the Missionary Calling of the Church," in Missions Under the Cross, edited by Norman Goodall (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1953), p. 189. This statement arose out of the report of Group I at ~ ee Willingen.

® See the introduction to a theology of mission under this title: Missio Dei by Georg F. Vicedom (Miinchen: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1958).

302 THEORY OF THE MISSION

an illegitimate center," * will always remain connected with the conference in Willingen. Willingen has taught us to see mission, "the missionary obligation of the Church," from the standpoint where it is valid: from the Triune God, whose creation and instrument in the world is the Church of Jesus Christ.

If this recognition is rightly respected and thought through in

its consequences, it can be effective in opening up the way for the future. This is particularly true for the proposed integration of the International Missionary Council with the World Council of Churches. There must be no opportunity for human claims to rule or for attempts at guardianship. Mission is the work of God and takes place only under God's guardianship. There must be room in the Church only for that striving which calls for submission in obedience to God's working.

The sentence which characterizes mission as the work of the Triune God was interpreted at Willingen in an important way: the

decisive act of God, the fulfillment of His missionary will, is the Cross of Jesus Christ. The center of a theology of mission is, there-

fore, faith in the crucified and risen Christ. The address of Canon Max A. C. Warren on "The Christian Mission and the Cross" was one of the high points of the Willingen Conference. At no other of the earlier international conferences on missions did the Cross of Jesus Christ stand so very much in the center as at Willingen. If we want to recognize mission as the work of God and if we want to let it be true and valid, then we must learn ever anew to see it __ from the standpoint of the Cross. Karl Hartenstein, one of the Ger-

_ man participants, expressed what this means in a report on Wil-

4 lingen shortly before his death:

The Cross of Christ is both the sign of God's grace and power, the

= divine act of forgiveness and of conquest over the opposing powers

nd spirits. The Crucified is the victor. The Christian fellowship Gemeinde] is caught up into his victory and is commissioned with the

roclamation of that victory. The Cross as the sign of the hiddenness

oe of God and as such is the only key to the pp a. of the | the lordship of God is at the same time the sign of the coming _

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 303

These two sentences, "Mission is missio Dei" and "The Cross of Jesus Christ is the center of mission," belong indissolubly together. They mutually explain and interpret each other. If the second sentence does not follow the first, there exists the danger of making

a timeless speculation out of the truth of missio Dei. The Cross stands in the middle of history and calls us to take and accept history seriously. We can only talk about the source of mission

in the Triune God because He has intervened in history through

the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to change the fate of the

world. And thereby He has allowed faith to look into His heart.

The Cross is the illuminating center of the mystery of God's redemptive purpose. It is there that we begin to look into the heart of God, begin to believe that some understanding is possible, even for us, of the mystery of redemption. And it is by way of the Cross that we are compelled to see both the necessity for showing forth that redemption and also the manner of the showing.®

For a theology of mission, then, the limits are set. Mission is completely and fully the work of God. It is His work that He has carried out and is carrying out in our world. It is directed to us < men and allows no one the possibility of neutrality. It is above

all the work for which the Triune God alone is responsible. He guarantees its final success. Through the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has created realities in the course of this world which are immovable. After God followed the sending of His Son with the sending of His Holy Spirit, He began with the founding of the Church to free and claim men for His coming kingdom. Therefore all the mission work of the Church —

__ lives in a certainty which can be shaken neither by human omission

nor guilt, neither by any earthly failure: He will gloriously carry

- out His work. It is one of the happy tasks of a theology of mission -

to communicate to the work of the world mission something of — the confidence with which the Apostle Paul embraces the w and the future of God's people (Rom. 11). God remains true to Himself; He has founded His covenant (Rom. 11:27). He c o' revoke His gifts nor His call (Rom. 11:29). "For from him \

_ through him and to him are all fangs. To him be Blery for

Amen" (Rom. 14 236);

304 THEORY OF THE MISSION

But mission is at the same time the work of God in the world which He shares with men as His instruments. Not as if God needed a human counselor or a human assistant. It is rather much more a sign of His greatness which condescends to man, when God not only wins men for His kingdom, but even takes them into His service, bestowing upon them and honoring them with His Spirit to be His fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:9).

Here in a theology of mission is the context in which one must speak about the Church. The Church is both a coming together and a sending forth (Sammlung und Sendung). As the people of God which have been assembled among the peoples of the earth for the coming kingdom, we may speak—-with reservation—of the Church as the goal of mission. In her services of worship, where the praise of God is already being sung, we see that for which God wishes to redeem creation. The final and real goal of the missio Dei, however, is not the Church, but the establishment of God's kingdom, to which the Church as ecclesia viatorem is on its way. Therefore, the Church does not understand herself and misses the meaning of her existence if she is not at the same time a sending forth. She is God's summons in the world, the company of followers who assemble around the flag of Christ, whom they believe and confess as the real Lord among lords and King of kings. She is—not out of her own strength but in the authority of the Holy Spirit—His mouthpiece in the world, through which He himself wishes to speak; His instrument through which He carries out His work. And in this sense it is essential to speak of the missionary obligation of the Church, because it pleases God through the Church to lead His mission to its goal.

Thus the theology of mission is presented with its other task. It must be for the thought and life of the Church the same thing that movement is for the works of a clock. The Church of Jesus Christ lives only in movement. She stops being what she through the will of God is and should be if she no longer lives in sending forth and no longer carries out mission. She herself lives from the fact— and only from this fact—that she is on her way with the Word which God has entrusted to her and which addresses the world _and which presses its way through to all peoples.

Not only do the present organized churches need such a service through a theology of mission, but also the institutions, societies, and officials which have in times past taken up the cause of mission.

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 305

Bishop L. Newbigin in his essay, "One Body, One Gospel, One World," 7 has pointed to this with great emphasis and seriousness: "There is a very natural human desire that things should always remain unchanged." From this desire no human society or organization is excepted. "But to succumb to this is death." This must be considered above all in regard to the planned integration of the International Missionary Council with the World Council of

Churches. Here is presented—we dare to say, here God Himself presents—a great chance for the Church and mission. But here also

lurk grave dangers.

There is a real danger that the discussion of the proposal for integra-

tion should become entirely absorbed in the details of organization, and that the larger questions concerning the Church's faithfulness to its missionary calling should be forgotten.§

It certainly does not lie in the power of man to avoid these threatening temptations. If God Himself were not active here, and if we could no longer have the certainty that God Himself comes closest to His goal through the Church and mission which have existed in history, we would stand before a hopeless undertaking. But this confidence is assured us. And therefore the theology of mission has now in the time before us a task full of promise.

After having discussed mainly the results of Willingen in the first part of this essay, we now turn our attention in another direction. The theme "Further Toward a Theology of Mission" reminds us that we cannot look back to the theology of mission as to a task that has in every aspect been completed. That will never be the case, or only when we have come from believing to seeing, when our understanding is no longer in part, but when we understand

as we are understood (1 Cor. 13:12). The theology of mission is,

like all theological thinking, a kind of reflection (Nachdenken),

a miserable sketching of the ways of God which is never fully ade-

———-

quate nor directly to the point. But God has bid us do it and God does not let it take place without His promise.

We agree with Bishop L. Newbigin when he says that a theology —

TLesslie Newbigin, One Body, One Gospel, One World: the Christian = Mission Today (London: I.M.C., 1958).

8 [bid., p. 7.

306 THEORY OF THE MISSION

of mission lives from studying the Bible. It must continually carry on this study and thereby prove itself authentic. "In every age we have to go back to God's revelation of Himself to learn afresh, by the guiding of the Spirit, what is our duty for today." ° That, naturally, cannot mean that the trinitarian source, the Christological realization, nor the pneumatic fulfillment of mission, i.e., the foundations of mission, must continually be theologically questioned. This foundation has been laid; it rests in the power of God. And as surely as the Bible is the witness to the speaking and acting of the Triune God, so surely does the study of the Scriptures—and this above everything else—help us to perceive that this foundation alone is firm and sturdy.

But it is still the task of a theology of mission to assist in building upon this foundation in obedience to the Spirit; or, to speak with another metaphor, to see that the road which has been prepared is traveled. Dr. Norman Goodall, in his report on Willingen, has named several problems which this conference did not solve and to which a theology of mission should turn its attention.° This must be done now for the sake of the missionary enterprise of the Church. The theology of mission wishes to serve the obedient fulfillment of mission. But this service has beyond itself yet another significance. There are a number of problems by which the Church in general is confronted and which can be solved meaningfully only by a theology of mission. This appears to us to be true for two of those problems named by Dr. Goodall with which we wish

_ to deal: the question of the relation between history and salvationhistory (Geschichte und Heilsgeschichte), and the question of eschatology.

The importance of these two themes becomes apparent in the

recent history of the ecumenical movement. At the Evanston As_ sembly of the World Council of Churches in 1954 eschatology —

was a central point in the discussions. And the theological prepa-

ations for the next plenary session of the World Council, which— | God willing—will bring about the integration of the World Council

and the International Missionary Council, have already shown that

- problem of history and salvation-history forces itself more and more into the foreground. It is true that missionary peau ae a

way both problems can be overcome, 3

p17.

ions unae? the iiiee op. cit., ee 20-22.

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 307

We will begin with the first problem named by Dr. Goodall, which will lead us then to the second problem. What relationship and what difference exist between history and salvation-history? We will not deal with this in general, but will specify it as the question of the relation between God's act in creation and God's

act in redemption. In my report on Willingen I have already indicated how the two lurking dangers here (i.e., an identification of

the act of creation with the act of redemption on one hand, or the

assumption of a juxtaposition more or less without any relation,

on the other hand) are encountered by a theology of mission which

is grounded in the Trinity and made concrete in Christ.1 But it

became clear at the conference in Willingen that there are still

unanswered questions here among the churches and missions. It is,

therefore, understandable when these questions call for attention

in the work of the preparation for the coming conference at New

Delhi in 1961. For whoever asks about the Lordship of Christ over

the world and the Church cannot escape the question: "How is - God's act of creation related to His act of redemption?" = The ecumenical study document on this matter rightly points out that questions are touched here which are closely associated with the various traditional positions and with confessional decisions that have already been made.'* This makes them difficult, but promising. The various churches have entered into conversation with one another with such an intensity as has never before been the case. This clarification must be carried on theologically. In their discussions the various confessional partners in the conversation are mutually responsible for giving insight into the theological recognitions which they have won and into the spiritual ae experiences which they have had. If this discussion results in a coming together which is determined by a readiness to learn from one another, then the whole Church can penetrate more deeply

into the perception of Truth and, thereby, be led further on the way of Truth. . The assertion of an overlapping unity of God's action upon — and in the world can be variously motivated. It is characteristic _ of the Anglican position and is theologically grounded in the In- ~~

carnation. Naturally, such an opinion is SS and pone

™ Andersen, op. cit., pp. 50 ff. : ; 22 See The Lordship of Christ over the World and the Church, Documents ee for an Ecumenical Study poeta: World Council of ee 1957).

308 THEORY OF THE MISSION

But for a clarification of positions such a simplification is hardly to be avoided. We must, therefore, be concerned to recognize the intention of the respective positions so that we do them justice.

It is a very impressive conception when from the standpoint of

the Incarnation, which is understood as the declaration of God's solidarity with the world, the solidarity of the Church with the world is claimed and secular history itself is evaluated as salvationhistory. The Church, thereby, becomes in a certain sense a continuation of the Incarnation of Christ. The Church and the kingdom of God draw close together. For in Christ the kingdom has drawn near, he is the atroBaorAcia.

The significant lecture by Max A. C. Warren, "The Christian Mission and the Cross," shows the fruitfulness of such thinking

for a theology of mission. For Warren, however, something else is characteristic. And this may be helpful in the ecumenical conversation. He sees the Incarnation closely related to the Cross. The Incarnation as declaration of God's solidarity with man has become valid through the power of His oneness with sinners, established and upheld by Christ in his obedience to death on the Cross. One can speak of a solidarity of the Church with the world, and, there-

fore, of an indissoluble connection between salvation-history and secular history, only in looking at the Cross. The Cross is to be seen as "the place of judgment and of grace, where both the world and the Church are judged and receive forgiveness."

Let it be suggested that a one-sided incarnational theology can conjure up dangerous misunderstandings. The attempt to understand history through the theology of mission should not lead to a general philosophy of history. We believe in the missio Dei as the meaning and motive of history, but this truth cannot be illuminated by the ways of philosophy. In Warren's thinking, through his strong emphasis on the Cross, such dangerous reflections are subdued but are not completely shut out. Incarnational theology can also lead to shallowness. That takes place when the fact of the Cross of Jesus Christ has only a marginal significance. Mission, which has at its very center the testimony to the act of God in the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is reduced to a general human declaration of solidarity with the world. It becomes social . gospel and falls victim to the secularization against which Warren so emphatically warns us.

In the deliberations at Willingen still another position made its

E e|

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 309

appearance. It was presented by J. C. Hoekendijk, who strongly criticized Anglican mission theology, which is thought out from the standpoint of the Church and the Incarnation. In his opinion a decisive dimension is overlooked, or limited in a way that is inadmissible by the Church: the eschatological dimension of the kingdom of God. According to Hoekendijk, mission means that the Gospel of the kingdom must be proclaimed to the world. This con-

frontation of the "world with the kingdom of God, according to

Hoekendijk for a reason different from the Anglican position,

leaves no room for a distinction between God's act in creation and

redemption. Certainly, the God who lets His kingdom break in

upon us with the resurrection of the Crucified is the Creator of the

world. He reclaims the world for Himself and for His kingdom with

the victory of Christ over sin, death, and the devil. Since the com-

ing of Christ, however, a distinction between history and salvation-

history, between the act of creation and the act of redemption, is

unreal. — When we attempt to evaluate hese respective positions, we perceive a difference of emphasis in Christology. On the one side (in * Warren's position, to be sure, wisely corrected), the Incarnation, God's declaration of solidarity with the world in His becoming man in Christ, is evaluated as God's decisive act. Thus the assump_

tion of a continuity of God's action in the world is made possible, _ which is basic for the Anglican doctrine of Church and Order. At least one component of the doctrine of the historic episcopacy ae can be seen here. On the other side, all that happened in Christ is interpreted from the standpoint of Easter and the Ascension. This makes necessary an emphatic accentuation of discontinuity. The kingdom of God is breaking in. It calls forth its own witnes: and will succeed in itself through: the power of God. But it

hich comes from this position is obvious. If this theological evaluation of the differences is corre

siiee ~~ is indicated a8 which they can be overcome or

310 : THEORY OF THE MISSION

ance is given that in the witness to him through the preaching of © the Gospel and in the administration of the sacraments the mission of God will continue in the world.

This is a valid consolation. But it does not relieve us of the task of attacking theologically the discrepancy which is apparent here. The theological and missionary insights which were achieved at Willingen can point the way. But they necessitate, on the basis

of their trinitarian affirmation, a stronger differentiation in God's

action than can be perceived in the two positions sketched above. The endeavor to distinguish correctly between history and salvationhistory or between the act of God in creation and in redemption

(the two questions, although closely related, are by no means synonymous) has an element of truth in it which cannot be relinquished.

At first it must be said that we cannot expect any theoretical instruction from the Holy Scriptures. The history of God's dealings with men, to which the Scriptures witness, is salvation from the very beginnings which are known to us. God is the Saviour and Redeemer of the people whom He has chosen to be partner in covenant. That is the dominating point of view in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament.'* But this very history is only then perceived in its special significance when its vicarious character comes to our view.!* We see this already in the way in which Genesis 12 explains the beginnings of God's history with Abraham.

_ God called him out of his homeland, away from his friends, out ae his father' s house, and that means at the same time out of his

a Teo

oa has the character of vicariousness. God is the Crone of

ven and of the earth. Nothing ee without His will. "And —

Further Toward a Theology of Mission 311

of their habitation" (Acts 17:26). The meaning of the story (or history) of Noah is to testify to the will of God that He wants to spare man his creaturely life in spite of man's evil heart and disobedience against his Creator. This expression of God's will, of course, does not empower us to develop an independent theology

of history or a theory of a special action of God in creation. This

is not what is meant by the distinction at which Goodall is aiming.

The Bible is not interested in this. Whoever asks in such a manner

is using false criteria.

But we cannot get around the actuality of a distinction. The history of God with Israel, which reached its culmination and goal in Jesus Christ, is salvation-history in distinction from the history of other peoples, which we believe also to be originally and finally determined by God. It has in its basic structure and in its point of culmination a vicarious character. For, according to the will of God, it documents that the Creator and Lord of all the world has accomplished His salvation through reconciliation. - Thereby we come in another way to the fact to which the above = positions were related: the reality of Jesus Christ. But our way points us to the very center, to the Cross.-What takes place here cannot be expressed without the help of the concepts of vicariousness and reconciliation. The decisive missionary kerygma to the world begins, then, with the report: "Christ died for our sins in acGaiaice with the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3).

Now a healthy theology of mission will not commit the error of isolating the view of the Cross from the Incarnation on the one side, nor from the Resurrection on the other side. Only when it does not do that does it have any hope of overcoming the antitheses ae aes which we mentioned. A theology formed from the whole Christ— the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected—offers a place for the just concern of the first position. It not only empowers but it obliges the Church to declare her solidarity with the world. The Church knows that she is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. She knows this not because she considers herself to be the con-~ tinuation of the Incarnation, but because she believes on the — elevated Lord who is present in her midst. She lives from his _ declaration of solidarity with the sinner. And it is his eee to which she testifies. . This is certainly no chance solidarity. It is true Te real. But

_ true and real in such a way that one cannot forget that the Chuteh

312 THEORY OF THE MISSION

is indeed in the world, but not of the world (Jn. 17:11, 16). Therefore the nature of the Church and the nature of mission, in whose service the Church is used, cannot be described without giving full due to that which is the particular in God's act of redemption. The Church is no institution which is supposed to make the life of man on earth more bearable and livable. She is the measure which God has taken to serve the accomplishment of His final will for salvation. Let no one misinterpret this consciously one-sided sentence as a disparagement of social and welfare work of Christian love. This has its place in the Church. The Church would not be the Church of the God who has mercy on His whole creation if her secular environment did not experience the love which lives in her. She makes a place on earth where once again life becomes worth living. But the Church is primarily and ultimately the people whom God has won for His kingdom and is leading to His coming kingdom.

We are now already at the point where it becomes clear that the

first problem mentioned by Goodall is closely connected with the second one of mission and eschatology. The solution of the one contains the solution of the other. A theology of mission that is determined from the standpoint of the whole Christ does justice to the eschatological dimension. Thus we have turned our attention to the other side. But here also we cannot be uncritical. We believe that we must warn against Hoekendijk's eschatological leveling of Church and world. The Church is not only that which is sent forth

(Sendung) to the world, but also, without ceasing to be that which

is sent forth, that which is gathered together (Sammlung) in the world. She is the people of God gathered from all peoples. She participates in the structure of the people of Israel. Even in the New Covenant she remains the wandering people of God, that is on the way toward God's goal. God has claimed her for His work of redemption which will come to its goal and conclusion.

The question of mission and eschatology is connected closely with the theme of Evanston (1954). This is further proof of how important the participation of the theology of mission is in the general theological reflection of all of Christianity in the whole world. And it can contribute decisively to this reflection specifically in this problem. Perhaps this contribution does not consist primarily in a deepening of theological perception. This must necessarily remain piecemeal. The eschatological dimension has two

e i

Further Toward a Theology of M ission 313

components: the already and the not yet. The kingdom of God has come in Christ, but we nevertheless are waiting for its appear-

ance in glory. We cannot escape this tension as long as it is certain that Christ is and was and is to come. The conference in Evanston made this clear. In this it did not lead beyond Willingen. But the greatest task for a theology of mission is indeed not to communicate knowledge. Instead, it should be the great agitation in the life of the Church. The Church should never become fixed at any one place in the world. She must be on her way to the ends of the earth in the certainty that His time is pressing. In this manner mission

calls forth the end, the coming of the Lord himself. The theology of mission is then, also, at its goal. Then it also becomes adoration —

' of the Triune God.

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