Surely there is at least one biblical or missional scholar who is female or a person of color who could have been invited to participate.
This raises questions as to whether the missional enterprise is an expression of a white male vision of the church. In fact, the theological education enterprise that many of the contributors are affiliated with features a faculty this is entirely white, with one woman faculty member. This is a conversation about missional hermeneutics, while I understand that the organizers of the conversation want to broaden the concept of mission beyond simply cross-cultural encounters, it seemed odd that every contributor is white and male. First and foremost, I was concerned about the gender/cultural background of the contributors themselves. The question here concerns what would be the unifying core of a missional theological education.Īs I read through the book several questions emerged. If Guder offers a more theoretical vision, Michael Goheen focuses more specifically on the curriculum side of things.
What is the purpose of theological education? Darrell Guder writes that "the proper outcome of missional theological education built and shaped by a missional hermeneutic, is that the community of equipped witness in a particular context will live out their lives intentionally as Christ's witnesses wherever and however God sends them" (p. In other words, the focus is on learning outcomes. The final section, focuses on theological education, arguing for a rethinking of the current model so that it better reflects this missional calling. Goheen writes that "we preach Christ to form a distinctive community for the sake of the world" (p. This section builds on the previous three sections. The fourth section takes the missional task in a "practical" direction, focusing on preaching. Wright gives a fairly clear description of a missional hermeneutic that connects the entire Bible to the story of God's mission of restoration and blessing. Read missionally then, "the New Testament is about the one God claiming the world through Jesus, already now, in advance of the Parousia and the final coming of the final kingdom" (p. Thus, reading from Genesis to Revelation, the story is "told in terms of the vocation of Abraham's family to be 'the light to the nations,' the people through whom the creator God would bless the whole world" (p. Wright makes clear his hermeneutical vision that seeks to read the entire Bible as a coherent narrative. Wright declares that the purpose of the New Testament is to "sustain and direct the missional life of the early church" (p. Wright, followed by explorations of James (Joel Green) and Colossians (Dean Flemming). It is introduced by a chapter written by N.T. The section focusing on the Old Testament is followed by one on the New Testament. Several chapters explore the particulars of this premise.
Goheen writes that "the heart of a missional hermeneutic is the recognition that God chooses and covenants with a particular people to fulfill his universal purpose of restoration (pp.
So, what is a missional hermeneutic? Ultimately it is one in which the mission of God stands at the center of our reading of scripture. The good news is that a growing number of biblical scholars are entering the conversation, some of them involved in this book, including Christopher Wright and N.T. There are a number of trends that have emerged in recent years that suggest the possibility of bringing mission and biblical studies into conversation, but the process isn't easy. He asks the question of why mission does not serve as the organizational principle for reading scripture. The premise of the book is established in the opening chapter written by Michael Goheen, who also serves as the editor of the book. The first section explores the idea of a "missional hermeneutic." These chapters explore history, mission, theology, and intercultural studies. The fifteen chapters of the book are divided into five sections.