Missionary Discipleship as the Innovation of the Church in Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium

Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium talks about discipleship in a framework of mission and evangelization. Rather than concentrating on the discipleship as such, it uses as a lens the spiritual commitment of conversion to missionary discipleship, challenging all Christians and the whole Church, including institutional structures, to this conversion. In common with the World Council of Churches’ document Together towards Life, Evangelii Gaudium emphasizes a need for Christians to focus on the heart of the Gospel, the love of the trinitarian God, in order to find trustful, dynamic, and transformative mission for the “changing landscapes” of today's global and local phenomena. This article deals with the concept of missionary discipleship in Evangelii Gaudium. To this end it discusses discipleship and its underlying structure of continual conversion as it is represented in both Evangelii Gaudium and the WCC's mission document Together towards Life.     

Redeeming the penultimate: discipleship and Church in the thought of Søren Kierkegaard and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There are striking parallels between the theologies of discipleship advanced by the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard and the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer's notion of ‘costly grace’ closely resembles Kierkegaard's critique of the misuse of the Pauline-Lutheran doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. After the publication of Cost of Discipleship, however, Bonhoeffer's view of discipleship moves in a different direction from that of Kierkegaard. Whereas Kierkegaard takes discipleship to mean that the Christian must be in irrevocable conflict with the world, Bonhoeffer sees discipleship as living in the world and cultivating a ‘worldly holiness’. This article tracks the reasons why their initially similar theologies of discipleship result in Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer developing different understandings of Christian discipleship and church. The discussion is organised around the distinction Bonhoeffer makes in his Ethics between the ‘ultimate’ and the ‘penultimate’. Kierkegaard emphasises the ultimate to such an extent that the penultimate is virtually eliminated and the Christian disciple is called upon to live in a state of constant eschatological opposition to the world. For Bonhoeffer on the other hand the penultimate is not to be condemned but to be transformed in the light of the ultimate. The article argues that the differing notions of discipleship advanced by Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer arise from the different political contexts in which they were living and writing. Whereas Kierkegaard's historical situation prompted him to affirm the ultimate by confronting his contemporaries with New Testament Christianity's radical opposition to the world, Bonhoeffer's resistance to the Nazi régime prompted him to reflect on how the ultimate can be integrated into the penultimate and how the Christian disciple can engage with the world without being of the world.     

Transforming Discipleship: Missiological Reflections

Although not explicitly tied, the terms “transforming” and “discipleship” relate directly to and fruitfully qualify each other in the most important recent documents in contemporary missiology. Together they frame a profoundly rooted and deeply relevant notion of discipleship that ties the personal commitment of Christians to the larger Christian communion, work for justice, and the very fabric of our evolving universe.     

Making Critically Conscious Disciples: A Zambian Pentecostal Pneumato‐Discipleship Missiology

This article calls for rethinking of discipleship within missio Spiritus for political formation necessary for the viable functioning of Zambian Pentecostalism in the neo‐colonial context. It argues that the theme for the 2018 World Mission Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship,” calls for pneumato‐discipleship in promoting human dignity. Through an empirical missiological approach, the article analyzes interviews conducted with various believers in various Pentecostal communities to demonstrate the emerging missio Spiritus praxis among Zambian Pentecostals, which seeks to promote a missional ethics of resistance to neo‐colonial political culture. Pneumato‐discipleship, as pedagogy for critically conscious disciples, is geared toward realization of human dignity. It is the instrument of hope in the search for dignity and struggle against pervasive inhumanities.     

Discipleship Transforming the World: A Coptic Orthodox Perspective

Discipleship is the core of Christianity, based on the work of the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of the Lord's command. True discipleship is capable of transforming the world, so that in the end all kingdoms and reign shall be to the Lord and his Christ. Therefore, discipleship is linked with evangelism, missionary, teaching, and social work. With the emerging hostile trends all over the world, faith is endangered. So it is important to remind ourselves of the aim of Christianity for humanity, for which so great a price was paid by our Lord (his precious blood) to bring the world into the knowledge of the truth. We have the privilege and honour to bear the precious name and to declare it to the whole world, even if we suffer for that. Even though this means that we have to bear his cross, to face the challenges, and to resist the powers of evil in the world. The church is aware of its mission, to reveal to the world Christ the lover of humanity, and for this end to serve them – to warn, teach, and guide them – through our behaviour, our acts, and our words. Copts are keen on serving their communities and everywhere they go, are always ready to teach others about the cause of our hope, that they also may enjoy the fruit and the deserts of the blood of Christ. This article honestly records the experience of the Coptic Orthodox Church regarding discipleship in practice throughout its history up to the present day.     

Strategic self-marginalization: the case of psychoanalysis

Marginality is an important concept in the history of science, though it is often used in a manner that presumes marginality to be a static designation. We contend that the dynamics of marginality are crucial to the history of psychoanalysis, a discipline that has moved between dominant and marginal positions. We address psychoanalytic marginality via three specific "cases": the marginalization among Freud and his followers when psychoanalysis was an emergent discipline; the marginality trope in Erich Fromm's popular psychoanalytic writing when psychoanalysis was orthodoxy in American academic psychiatry; and the rhetorical marginality of psychoanalysis in Sweden as psychoanalysis entered a decline within psychiatry. Our aim is to show that marginalization and self-marginalization serve interpersonal, social, and professional strategies.     

Confusion of Tongues: Christian Discipleship and the Problem of Patriotism

This article addresses the dynamics of faith manifested in Christian discipleship and patriotism. Exploration of the dynamics of faith, whether in Christian or patriotic discipleship, involves identifying the nature of the object of devotion and concomitant expectations of one’s relationship vis-à-vis the object. From this exploration, various contradictions between Christian and patriotic discipleship are identified. To resolve cognitive dissonance or smooth over contradictions, Christian patriots employ several psychosocial strategies, namely, merger, weak dissociation, rationalization, and denial.

Systemic Evil and Christian Discipleship

Although the churches have focused much of their attention on the individual's encounter with evil, it is urgent and essential that this focus be expanded to consider communal systemic evil. Rediscovering this emphasis in ancient sources – biblical and Indigenous – we begin to see that engagement with systemic evils like racism and colonialism is a central aspect of Christian discipleship. There is a preliminary and important anticipation and realization of this rediscovery in The Arusha Call to Discipleship document of the World Council of Churches. In an age that is beset by the deadly intersection of multiple forms of systemic evil, it is urgent that discipleship confront the principalities and powers that corrupt and destroy life.     

The Meaning of Discipleship

This article is an attempt to use academic tools to bring out the meaning of discipleship from the practitioners' perspective. The mandate of the Great Commission, making people disciples, is the process of making someone become like Christ. This contribution shows that as individuals learn from him and follow the pattern of Jesus' life, there will be marks of discipleship, such as commitment and being like him in deeds. The primary purpose of Jesus' coming to the world was to establish the kingdom of God through his death. The study demonstrates that the kingdom becomes evident in form and practice as people surrender to God's progressive rule. The strength and influence of the church is shown to be wholly dependent upon its commitment to authentic discipleship; that is, producing transformed lives and seeing those lives reproduced in others. The paper concludes that the transformed disciples must together take a journey of transforming communities into the kingdom of God.     

Probing the Will of God: Bonhoeffer and Discernment

Like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the spiritual discernment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer seeks to bring one's life into conformity (Gleichgestaltung) with Christ. Such conformation makes discipleship costly, but it also overflows with the fullness of life.     

Fostering a Spirituality That Can Transform Mission?

To be moved by the Spirit into transforming discipleship, we need to know how to make ourselves available to God to receive God's gifts. We also need to practise discernment regarding what gives life and what does not. This paper considers themes for the 2018 Mission Conference, including money, love, and prayer. Examples, parables, and illustrations are given from experience and the practice of missionary discipleship. There is a particular emphasis on means of grace and the spiritual disciplines outlined by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The conclusions point to a focus on prayer in the planning, preparation, and programming for the 2018 Conference.     

Probing the Will of God: Bonhoeffer and Discernment

Like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the spiritual discernment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer seeks to bring one’s life into conformity (Gleichgestaltung) with Christ. Such conformation makes discipleship costly, but it also overflows with the fullness of life.     

What Is Transforming Discipleship?

In 2018, the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches took place in Arusha, Tanzania, on the theme “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.” This article considers how this injunction corresponds to the biblical call, namely to love God more than anyone else; to deny ourselves and to take up the cross; and to abandon all that we have. How well does The Arusha Call to Discipleship describe the ambitious demand of discipleship to which the apostles were called by Jesus Christ? This article offers a critical biblical assessment of the qualities a disciple should have; who can be a disciple; the conditions and requirements of being a disciple according to the gospel; and the path of transforming discipleship in the challenging world in which we live today.     

Discipleship and Spirituality from a Christian Perspective

Spirituality is an important aspect of being a human. One may approach this topic from a purely psychological or religious perspective. In this paper, it is argued that spirituality as defined from a purely psychological perspective is inadequate to capture the depth of this human experience because it misses the core of spirituality—discipleship. Following Foster’s (1998) Streams of Living Water, it will be argued that discipleship is the core of Christian spirituality, and each of these streams provides an important context for fostering one’s relationship to the transcendent.     

Together towards Life

Which are the convincing ways of evangelism in the secular, multicultural countries of western Europe? Does the new mission affirmation Together towards Life offer relevant contributions to this debate? This article explores recent developments in western Europe. It starts by reviewing the secular nature of these countries and then explains how migration has tested the secularization thesis. The transformation of western European cultures from secular toward secular/multi‐religious reopens the debate on secularism and religion. The article also reflects on the question of what the central ideas in the new mission affirmation – the affirmation of life, the power of the Holy Spirit, mission from the margins, and authentic evangelism as discipleship – may mean in these changing secular cultures. The author concludes that discipleship, provided it is authentic, may help to move beyond the apparent contradictions between secularism and religion and may help to find new ways of bringing forth the good news.     

Jesus' Prophethood and Islam: Insights from the Risale‐i Nur

While Jesus’ prophethood is an indisputable component of his identity in the Christian tradition, it has been marginalized for centuries in favor of his identity as savior. In this article, I argue that an engagement with an understanding of Jesus’ prophethood in Islam, particularly as explicated by the Turkish thinker Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, can help Christians recover a more robust interpretation of Jesus as prophet that has a positive impact on a Christian articulation of the church and of discipleship today.     

Cultural Psychology, Consciousness andTheology: Continuing the Dialogue

This essay extends arguments that cultural psychology is useful for dialogue with Christian theology by indicating its relevance for theologies of consciousness. Donald's cultural account is outlined, followed by Davies's theological treatment of compassionate consciousness. Interactions are considered between the two approaches, which are shown to be co-implicated in the teaching ministry of Jesus, and the subsequent development of the Christian religion, and to accompany the shift from discipleship, through apostleship, to a trans-generational cultural-symbolic system assisted by the development of theology. The essay concludes with reflections on the challenge to psychology of the ontological reality of being 'in Christ'.     

The Space That Difference Makes: On Marginality,Social Justice and the Future of the Health Humanities

Feminist theorist and educator, bell hooks, asserts that to seek true liberation one must choose marginality. One must choose to occupy the space outside the binary between colonizer-colonized, hegemonic center-periphery, and us-them in order to create a location of possibility. This essay will reveal the practice of social justice as the navigation of the space that difference makes and argue that choosing marginality provides a framework for health humanities work towards social justice in health care. The space of the launderette that is depicted in Hanif Kureishi’s 1986 film, My Beautiful Laundrette, provides an example of choosing marginality and illustrates how difference structures both real and imagined spaces, which influences how individuals ultimately perceive one another. We will draw from the work of bell hooks; political geographer, Edward Soja; and Marxist philosopher, Henri Lefebvre, to demonstrate the importance of the health humanities’ position at the margin to traditional health care education.     

Human Agency in the Missio Dei and the Problem of Discipleship

At the heart of this article is an inquiry into the relationship between human and divine agency in the doctrine of the missio Dei and a critique of the turn to the language of discipleship in looking to articulate this agency. Taking the World Council of Churches’ Commission of World Mission and Evangelism's two recent documents, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL) and the “Arusha Call to Discipleship,” as a case study, this article will seek to articulate an account of human participation in the missio Dei which maintains the emphasis on spirituality in TTL. Through a close reading of TTL and the Arusha Call, the article will demonstrate that the introduction of discipleship language has not solved the issue of agency but rather has changed the account of agency and, as a result, the missiology. By turning to accounts of faithful participation from qualitative research into British Methodism, to John V. Taylor's Go-between God, and to Pope Francis’ Evangelii gaudium, I will suggest that a better account of human agency in the missio Dei can be developed by emphasizing the pneumatology of TTL and by turning to language of attentiveness, accompaniment, and discernment.     

Reading the Lucan call of the first disciples differently: the voices of sensing and intuition

Abstract

This article argues that discipleship is a notion of growing importance to the Christian denominations and that the Marcan narrative of the call of the first disciples has been of particular importance in giving shape to this notion. The Lucan narrative of the call of the first disciple, involving the great catch of fish, is problematic in two ways, concerning its relationship with the Marcan understanding of call and also with the Johannine post-resurrection narrative. Against this background this article reports on an empirical study, drawing on the reader perspective and on the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, that illuminates the distinctive voices of sensing types and intuitive types reading Luke 5: 1–7.