“Together towards a Banquet”: The Feast as Promise and Resistance in Together Towards Life and Contemporary Theological Discourse

This article explores the symbol of the feast, as proposed by the 2012 World Council of Churches’ affirmation Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL). The feast is introduced as an appropriate hermeneutic tool to account for the multi-layered and dynamic reality of human life in the presence of others and in the presence of God. Interpreting the feast, together with TTL, as a symbol of the liberation and reconciliation of the whole creation and of the celebration of life in response to the outreaching love of God, the article reflects on some contemporary theological voices arguing that God’s invitation to the feast of God’s kingdom is a central element of Christian existence. Such feasting is, among other things, characterized by the dynamics of facing, the presence of the other, the awareness of human corporeality, and the particularization of the other that can overcome the idolatrous power of death. Entering this conversation, the present article will argue that the symbol of the feast can helpfully be understood in its two-fold dynamics of promise and resistance. While giving assurance about the transformation of all reality in the coming reign of justice and peace, the symbol of the feast, with its emphasis on inclusiveness and equality, also empowers people to resist all life-denying forces. Walking with the rest of the creation “together towards a banquet,” Christians are thus enabled, it will be asserted, to discern and actively live their vocation.     

The Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME): A Case Study in Cross‐Cultural Mission Originating from Eastern Europe

This paper offers a short analysis of the ecclesiological and missiological context that led to the establishment of the Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME). It states the main steps in the process of the development of the organization in its first decade of existence (2006–2016), during which it became one of the youngest and most dynamic missionary structures in Europe. It describes the process of the birth of APME and the important role the founding team played in the existence of the agency and in articulating the mission, vision, values, and work philosophy. The main section will present the components of APME's work strategy which led to implementing the vision and reaching the objectives: mobilizing the churches, recruiting, training, sending, supporting missionaries, and promoting the ministry. A short section will show the crucial importance of internal and foreign partnerships in the activity of APME. In the final part we will list the main lessons learned in the ten years of APME's existence that can be shared with other mission organizations, as well as the challenges that the organization faces over the next few years.     

Ecclesial DNA

We discuss here the metaphor of church DNA which has been used in arguments against Called to Common Mission. Consideration of the role of the genetic material in biological organisms enables us to suggest what it might mean to say that the DNAs of different Christian traditions are or are not compatible. As plants or animals belong to the same species if they can propagate their kind, church bodies can be said to be compatible if their inter‐communion furthers the church's mission to make disciples. Some ways in which ecumenical agreements might make this possible are considered.     

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.     

The Limits of a Confrontational Approach: Fabian Fukansai’s Critiques of Neo-Confucianism and Christianity

This paper analyzes the critique of Neo-Confucianism by the Japanese Jesuit Brother Fabian Fukansai (c. 1565–1621) in the Myōtei Dialogues (Myōtei Mondō 妙貞問答) (1605), as well as Fabian’s later critique of Christianity. It clarifies the author’s understanding of Neo-Confucian theory and his apology for Christianity by analyzing his explanation of the Great Ultimate (Tai’kyoku/Taiji 太極) and Principle (ri/li 理), which Fabian sees as nothing but an expression of Buddhist monistic mentalism. It also demonstrates that his explanations of the Great Ultimate and Principle have a crucial flaw: they do not sufficiently explain Zhu Xi’s metaphysics, which tried to make the immanent and transcendental characteristics of the Great Ultimate and Principle compatible. This is because Fabian addresses only the elements of “local” religions including Neo-Confucianism with novel keywords that support the framework of Christian Creationism and the Anima Rationalis theory. However, his later work Deus Destroyed (Ha Daius 破提宇子), written after he had rejected Christianity, overturned his former claim by accepting the Neo-Confucian concept of Principle. Fabian’s works are a historical example showing the potential limits of a confrontational approach toward other religions.     

Evangelism Challenges the Church's Identity

The gospel of Christ has spread to hundreds of linguistic and cultural communities. Christian churches have come face to face with an extraordinarily positive but nevertheless perplexing problem: Can the churches find the common core message of the holistic gospel or will the actual content of faith become relativized into the interpretation of interpretations? Despite the many different definitions of evangelism/evangelization, evangelism always leads to consideration of the basic questions of faith: its profound understanding and its reception. Evangelism involves the questions of what I believe or believe in, and of what I commit to. In the midst of the constant flow of information and the hectic tempo of life, evangelism challenges the church again and again to reconsider how the gospel can be expressed compactly, but in a rich, understandable, and true‐to‐life way. In the ecumenical discussion, the concept of “witness” as a form of evangelism is becoming increasingly important, because it comprises all the essential dimensions of the whole gospel. Evangelism challenges churches and their members to boldly bear witness by word and deed to Jesus Christ.     

Racial Justice for the Windrush Generation in Great Britain

This article argues that the experience of the “Windrush generation,” Black Caribbean post–Second World War migrants to the UK, has been one of constant struggle for racial justice. Living in Britain has been undertaken against the backdrop of a Mission Christianity that has exuded a distinct anti-Blackness in its relationship with Black bodies across four centuries. This particular dynamic of “Christian Britain” has created a framework that has helped to shape the agency of Black bodies, essentially marking them as “less than.” This theo-cultural framework has led to a racialized existence for Black British people of the Windrush generation and their descendants. The Christianity that has emerged from the Black Caribbean experience constantly challenges White British Christianity to express an anti-racist and more inclusive model of liberative praxis. This paper is written against the backdrop of the Brexit furore in Britain and the xenophobia and rise in racist attacks that have underpinned the rise in White British nationalism.     

Anglicans and Islam in East Africa: The Diocese of Zanzibar and the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (1923–63)

This article examines the legacy of Godfrey Dale, who in 1923 published a Qur'an in Swahili, with the intention of letting people “know what the Qur?ān does say.” The work of his successors is explored. It discusses the proposals for work amongst Muslims submitted by lay and ordained members of the Diocese of Zanzibar for consideration at the 1944 Diocesan Conference, as the Diocese prepared for the situation after World War II. Finally, it examines the role of the Diocese with particular reference to Christian–Muslim relations as Tanganyika and Zanzibar prepared for Independence.     

A provocation to mission: Constance Padwick's study of Muslim devotion

This article offers an examination of the work of Constance Padwick (1886–1968), who served as a ‘literature missionary’ with the Church Missionary Society and the International Missionary Council in Egypt and Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century. Through a study of Padwick's life-long engagement with popular Muslim devotional prayers, the article demonstrates how she was inspired to use language, devotion and liturgy to call for a richer, bolder and deeper Christian presence in the Muslim world. Formed by the prevailing Evangelical tradition of the epoch, Padwick was drawn to Islam's mystical tradition. Her commitment to teasing out underlying similarities between the two traditions influenced the theology of mission that she developed, as her study of Muslim devotions led her to encourage a greater emphasis on the contribution that Arabic Christian devotional literature could make to Protestant missions in the Muslim world. In addition to shaping a specific missiological approach, the experience of Islamic popular piety led her to exhort her colleagues to cooperate more closely with the Eastern churches in order to build up and strengthen the ancient Christian presence in the Arab world.