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 Teología y cultura, año 1, vol. 1 (agosto 2004)

“What Is Theology of Mission”

Charles E. Van Engen

Keywords: Mission, Bible, Community, Context
1
In The Concise Dictionary of the Christian Mission, Gerald Anderson defined theology
of mission as, “concerned with the basic presuppositions and underlying principles which
determine, from the standpoint of Christian faith, the motives, methods, strategy and goals
of the Christian world mission” (Neil, Anderson and Goodwin, edits: 1971:594).
Theology of mission is a multi- and inter-disciplinary enterprise. It is a relatively new
discipline, with its first text appearing in 1961, in a collection of essays edited by Gerald
Anderson, entitled, The Theology of Christian Mission (Anderson: 1961). In that volume
the tri-partite nature of theology of mission was clearly represented.

Integrating
Theme
A.
Biblical Text

B. C.
Faith Missional
Community Context

Figure 1. The Tripartite Nature of Theology of Mission

As shown in Figure 1, the theology of mission has to do with three areas, shown
graphically by three inter-locking circles. Biblical and theology presuppositions and values
(A); are applied to the enterprise of the ministry and mission of the church (B); and are in
the context of specific activities carried out in particular times and places (C).2

1
The following is taken from a larger chapter on “Constructing Theology of Mission for the City,” in
Charles Van Engen and Jude Tiersma, edits. God So Loves the City. Seeking a Theology for Urban
Mission. Monrovia: MARC, 1994.
2
The three-arena nature of this method is not original with me. A number of others have highlighted
something similar, particularly those who deal with contextualization from a missiological perspective. See,
46 Teología y cultura, 1 (agosto 2004)

Theology of mission is THEOLOGY (circle A in the diagram), because fundamentally

it involves reflection about God. It seeks to understand God’s mission, God’s intentions and
purposes, God’s use of human instruments in God’s mission, and God’s working through
God’s People in God’s world.3 Thus theology of mission deals with all the traditional
theological themes of systematic theology — but it does so in a way that differs from how
systematic theologians have worked down through the centuries. The difference arises from
the multi-disciplinary missiological orientation of its theologizing.

In addition, because of its commitment to remain faithful to God’s intentions,

perspectives, and purposes, theology of mission shows a most fundamental concern over
the relation of the Bible to mission, attempting to allow Scripture not only to provide the
foundational motivations for mission, but also to question, shape, guide, and evaluate the
missionary enterprise.4

Theology of mission is THEOLOGY OF (circle C in the diagram). In contrast to much

systematic theology, here we are dealing with an applied theology. At times it looks like
what some would call pastoral or practical theology, due to this applicational nature. This
type of theological reflection focuses specifically on a set of particular issues — those
having to do with the mission of the Church in its CONTEXT.

Theology of mission draws its incarnational nature from the ministry of Jesus, and
always happens in a specific time and place. Thus circle C involves the missiological use of
all the social science disciplines that help us understand the context in which God’s mission
takes place.

We begin by borrowing from sociology, anthropology, economics, urbanology, the

study of the relation of Christian churches to other religions, psychological issues, the study
of the relation of Church and state, and a host of other cognate disciplines to understand the
specific context in which we are doing our theology of mission reflection. Such contextual
analysis moves us, secondly, to more particular understanding of the context in terms of a
hermeneutic of the reality in which we are ministering. This in turn, thirdly, calls us to hear

for example, Eugne Nida: 1960; Louis Luzbetak, 1963; José Míguez-Bonino, 1975; Shoki Coe, 1976;
Harvie Conn, 1978, 1984, 1993a, 1993b; Arthur Glasser, 1979; Charles Kraft, 1979, 1983; Charles Kraft
and Tom Wisely, edits.: 1979; Bruce Fleming, 1980; Stott & Coote: 1980; Harvie Conn: 1984; Paul
Hiebert: 1978, 1987, 1993; Robert Schrieter: 1985; C. René Padilla and Mark Lau Branson: 1986; Alan R.
Tippett: 1987; Daniel Shaw: 1988; Dean Gilliland, edit: 1989; David Hesselgrave: 1989; Lamin Sanneh:
1989; Charles Van Engen: 1989; William Dyrness: 1990; Stephen Bevans: 1992; and Donald R. Jacobs,
1993.
3
See, for example, Daniel T. Niles: 1962; Georg F. Vicedom: 1965; John V. Taylor: 1972; Johannes
Verkuyl: 1978, 163-204; and John Stott: 1979.
4
See, e.g., Robert Glover: 1946; G. Ernest Wright: 1952; J. H. Bavinck: 1960: Gerald Anderson: 1961 in
loco; Harry Boer: 1961; Johannes Blauw: 1962; Roland Allen: 1962; Richard De Ridder: 1971; George
Peters: 1972; Orlando Costas: 1974, 1982, 1989; John Stott: 1976; Lesslie Newbigin: 1978; J. Verkuyl:
1978, chapter IV; David Bosch: 1978, 1991, 1993; Dean Gilliland: 1983; Gailyn Van Rheenen: 1983;
William A. Dyrness: 1983; Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller: 1983; Roger Hedlund: 1985; Marc
Spindler: 1988; Ken Gnanakan: 1989; Arthur Glasser: 1992; and Charles Van Engen: 1992, 1993. A
combined bibliography drawn from these works would offer an excellent resource for examining the
relation of Bible and mission.

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 C. van Engen, “What is theology of mission” 47

the cries, see the faces, understand the stories, and respond to the living needs and hopes of
the persons who are an integral part of that context.
A part of this contextual analysis today includes the history of the way the church in its
mission has interfaced with that context down through history. The attitudes, actions, and
events of the Church’s mission that occurred in your context prior to your particular
reflection will colour in profound and surprising ways the present and the future of your
own missional endeavors.

Thus you will find some scholars dealing with the history of theology of mission5 who,
although they are not especially interested in the theological issues as such, are concerned
about the effects of that mission theology upon mission activity in that context. They will
often examine the various pronouncements made by church and mission gatherings (Roman
Catholic, Orthodox, Ecumenical, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Charismatic) and ask
questions, sometimes polemically, about the results of these for missional action. 6 The
documents resulting from these discussions become part of the discipline of theology of
mission.

Thirdly, theology of mission is specially oriented toward and for MISSION (circle B in
Figure 1). The most basic reflection in this arena is found in the many books, journals, and
other publications dealing with the theory of missiology itself. 7 However, neither
missiology nor theology of mission can be allowed to restrict itself to reflection only. As
Johannes Verkuyl stated,

Missiology may never become a substitute for action and participation. God calls for
participants and volunteers in his mission. In part, missiology’s goal is to become a “service
station” along the way. If study does not lead to participation, whether at home or abroad,
missiology has lost her humble calling. ... Any good missiology is also a missiologia
viatorum — “pilgrim missiology” (1978:6,18).

Theology of mission, then, must eventually emanate in biblically-informed and

contextually-appropriate missional action. If our theology of mission does not emanate in
informed action, we are merely a “resounding gong or clanging cymbal” (I Cor. 13:1). The
intimate connection of reflection with action is absolutely essential for missiology. At the
same time, if our missiological action does not itself transform our reflection, we have held

5
See, for example, Rodger Bassham: 1979; David Bosch: 1980; James Scherer: 1987, 1993a, 1993b; Arthur
Glasser and Donald McGavran: 1983; Arthur Glasser: 1985; Efiong Utuk: 1986; James Stamoolis: 1987;
and Van Engen: 1990.
6
See, for example, Donald McGavran: 1972; Donald McGavran, edit.: 1972; Arthur P. Johnston: 1974;
Harvey Hoekstra: 1979; Roger Hedlund, edit.: 1981; and Donald McGavran: 1984; and David Hesselgrave:
1988. One of the most helpful recent compilations of such documents is James A. Scherer and Stephen
Bevans, edits.: 1992.
7
Examples of some readily-accessible works would include J. H. Bavinck: 1977; Bengt Sundkler: 1965;
Johannes Verkuyl: 1978; C. René Padilla: 1985; James Scherer: 1987; F. J. Verstraelen: 1988; David
Bosch: 1980, 1991; Phillips and Coote: 1993; and Van Engen, Gilliland and Pierson: 1993. Clearly the
most comprehensive work that will be considered foundational for missiology for the next decade is David
Bosch: 1991.

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48 Teología y cultura, 1 (agosto 2004)

great ideas — but they may be irrelevant or useless, sometimes destructive or counter-
productive.

So our missional orientation that comes forth as a fruit of our theology of mission must
translate into action. And missional action always occurs in a CONTEXT. This brings us
back to circle C — and our pilgrimage of mission on-the-way begins again to reflect on a
hermeneutic of the context, which in turn calls for a re-reading of Scripture that flows into
new missional insights and action.

One of the most helpful ways to interface reflection and action is by way of the process
known as “praxis.” Although there have been a number of different meanings described to
this idea,8 it appears that Orlando Costas’ formulation is one of the most constructive.
“Missiology,” Costas says,

is fundamentally a praxeological phenomenon. It is a critical reflection that takes place in

the praxis of mission... (It occurs) in the concrete missionary situation, as part of the
church’s missionary obedience to and participation in God’s mission, and is itself
actualized in that situation... Its object is always the world, ... men and women in their
multiple life situations... In reference to this witnessing action saturated and led by the
sovereign, redemptive action of the Holy Spirit, ... the concept of missionary praxis is used.
Missiology arises as part of a witnessing engagement to the gospel in the multiple situations
of life (1976: 8).

The concept of “praxis” helps us understand that not only the reflection, but profoundly
the ACTION as well are part of a “theology-on-the-way” that seeks to discover how the
church may participate in God’s mission in God’s world. The ACTION is itself theological,
and serves to inform the reflection, which in turn interprets, evaluates, critiques, and
projects new understanding in transformed action. Thus the inter-weaving of reflection and
actions in a constantly-spiraling pilgrimage offer a transformation of all aspects of our
missiological engagement with our various contexts.
The reader may see from Figure 1, above, that the three circles are brought together by
means of an “Integrating Theme” that constitutes the central idea interfacing all three
circles. Because of the complexity of the inter- and multi-disciplinary task that is theology
of mission, mission theologians have found it helpful to focus on a specific integrating idea
that would serve as the hub through which to approach a re-reading of Scripture. This
“Integrating Theme” is selected on the basis of being contextually-appropriate and
significant, biblically relevant and fruitful, and missionally active and transformational.

Clearly we are trying to avoid bringing our own agendas to the Scriptures and
superimposing them on Scripture. This was the mistake made by liberation theologians,
from which they have not recovered. Rather, what is being sought is a way to bring a new

8
See, e. g., Robert McAfee Brown: 1978, 50-51; Raul Vidales: 1975, 34-57; Spykman et al: 1988: xiv, 226-
231; Robert Schreiter: 1985, 17, 91-93; Orlando Costas: 1976, 8-9; Leonardo and Clodovis Boff: 1987, 8-9;
Waldron Scott: 1980: xv; Leonardo Boff: 1979, 3; Deane Ferm: 1986, 15; René Padilla: 1985, 83; Rebecca
Chop: 1986, 36-37, 115-117, 120-121; Gustavo Gutierrez: 1984a, 19-32; Clodovis Boff: 1987, xxi-xxx; and
Gustavo Gutierrez: 1984b, vii-viii, 50-60.

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 C. van Engen, “What is theology of mission” 49

set of questions to the text, questions that might help us see in the Scriptures what we had
missed before.9 This new approach to Scripture is what David Bosch called, “critical
hermeneutics.”10
As we re-read Scripture, we are faced with new insights, new values, and new priorities
that call us to re-examine the motivations, means, agents, and goals of our missiology. This,
in turn will call for re-thinking each one of the traditional theological loci. Thus we will
find ourselves involved in a contextual re-reading of Scripture to discover anew what it
means to know God in context. Robert McAfee Brown called this type of reflection,
“Theology in a New Key” (1978), and “Unexpected News” (1984).

In Latin American theology, this theological process has especially focused on issues of
christology and ecclesiology. In today’s missiological enterprise, it appears that we need to
allow our re-reading to offer us new insights into the scope of content of our missiology,
derived from a profound re-thinking of all the traditional theological loci. 11

Due to the complex nature of the enterprise, it seems to work best to allow one’s
reflection to flow through the focus of the “Integrating Theme,” that can help hold the
various ideas together — particularly when we are moving from a re-reading of Scripture
(circle A) to a praxiological action-reflection process of discovering the missiological
implications of our re-reading of Scripture — toward circle B.

In 1987, the Association of Professors of Mission discussed at length what missiology

is, and how it does its reflection. In the subsection dealing with theology of mission, it was
said that,

The mission theologian does biblical and systematic theology differently from the biblical scholar or
dogmatician in that the mission theologian is in search of the “habitus,” the way of perceiving, the
intellectual understanding coupled with spiritual insight and wisdom, which leads to seeing the signs
of the presence and movement of God in history, and through his church in such a way as to be
affected spiritually and motivationally and thus be committed to personal participation in that
movement...
Such a search for the “why” of mission forces the mission theologian to seek to articulate the
vital integrative center of mission today... Each formulation of the “center” has radical implications
for each of the cognate disciplines of the social sciences, the study of religions, and church history in
the way they are corrected and shaped theologically. Each formulation supports or calls into question
different aspects of all the other disciplines... The center, therefore, serves as both theological content
and theological process as a disciplined reflection on God’s mission in human contexts. The role of
the theologian of mission is therefore to articulate and “guard” the center, while at the same time to
spell out integratively the implications of the center for all the other cognate disciplines (Van Engen:
1987, 524-252).

9
For a more in-depth discussion on this issue, with supporting bibliographical comments, see Van Engen:
1993, 27-36.
10
See David Bosch: 1991, 20-24.
11
Harvie Conn has given us a summary form of just his sort of thing in 1993a, 102-103.

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50 Teología y cultura, 1 (agosto 2004)

Conceptually we are involved here in something that philosophy of science has called
“paradigm-construction” or “paradigm-shift.”12 We know that paradigm-shift is normally
understood (especially in Philosophy of Science) as a corporate phenomenon that occurs
over a rather long period of time and involves the reflective community interacting with
reference to a particular issue. However, David Bosch has initiated many of us into seeing
paradigm-formation as a powerful way of helping us re-conceptualize our mission with
reference to specific communities, in specific contexts.

In these terms, a paradigm becomes “a conceptual tool used to perceive reality and
order that perception in an understandable, explainable, and somewhat predictable pattern”
(Van Engen: 1992b, 53). It is, “an entire constellation of beliefs, values and techniques, ...
shared by the members of a given community” (Küng and Tracy: 1989, 441-442). Thus a
paradigm consists of “the total composite set of values, world-view, priorities, and
knowledge which makes a person, a group of persons, or a culture look at reality in a
certain way. A paradigm is a tool of observation, understanding and explanation” (Van
Engen: 1992b, 53).

The mission theologian takes utterly seriously the biblical text as text (circle A) and
tries to avoid super-imposing particular agendas on the text. However, it is equally true, as
Johannes Verkuyl has said, “if study does not lead to participation,.. missiology has lost her
humble calling” (J. Verkuyl: 1978, 6). Thus we find that theology of mission is a process of
reflection and action involving a movement from the BIBLICAL TEXT to FAITH
COMMUNITY in its CONTEXT. By focusing our attention on an Integrating Theme, we
encounter new insights as we re-read Scripture from the point of view of a contextual
hermeneutic. These new insights can then be re-stated and lived out as biblically-informed,
contextually-appropriate missional actions of the FAITH COMMUNITY in the
particularity of time, worldview, and space of each particular CONTEXT in which God’s
mission happens.

© 1994 Charles Van Engen

Rev. Charles Van Engen, Ph.D. is the Arthur F. Glasser Professor of Biblical Theology of
Mission in the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Reception date: May, 2, 2004

Acceptance date: June, 6, 2004

12
See, e. g., Carl Hempel: 1965, 1966; Stephen Toulmin: 1961, 1972; Ian G. Barbour: 1974, 1990; Thomas
Kuhn: 1962, 1977; James H. Fetzer: 1993a, 147-178; 1993b, Hans Küng and David Tracy, edits.: 1989, 3-
33; and David Bosch: 1991, 349-362.

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 C. van Engen, “What is theology of mission” 51

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