Mission Studies

The intention of this paper is to interpret the ontological conditions of youth identity crisis missionally. This is first done by conceptualising identity crisis as a psychological phenomenon using frameworks of authenticity and attachment to explain the impact of early attachment abuse, abandonment depression, insecure attachment anxiety with God, and self-regulation on the identity formation of the youth. Secondly, the paper introduces a missional hermeneutic that provides an interpretative framework for coping with the crises of identity amongst young people. A missional hermeneutic of care for coping with the crisis of identity formation, therefore, elaborates on the missional basis of biblical interpretation as a powerful framework within which to interpret a skewed, conflicted identity. The author herewith proposes a missional opportunity that can activate the missional consciousness of young people in their time of crisis and identity formation. Furthermore, the author insists that this missional methodology can be a very useful strategy for producing therapeutic change in young people and can help youth ministry workers and pastoral caregivers to reframe the crisis of youth identity from the perspective of 'missio Dei'.

How do Armenians in Iran negotiate their space with the state and with their own communities? That is the central question of this paper, focusing on ways Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, the prelate of the Armenian Church in Iran, negotiates and explains boundaries with both the Iranian state and his community, from approximately 2000 to 2013: The state sets the structural framework for marginalized groups; yet minority groups, by responding to the framework and through negotiating boundaries, can influence and/or redefine the framework. In the same way, members of minority communities, through their responses to the set structures within the community, challenge and influence the framework. Moreover, the influences of globalisation and mobility have posed a greater challenge to the community’s own structures than to the state’s framework.

“In the year 1901 the latter rain began to fall in different parts of the
world,” trumpeted the Missionary Manual of the Assemblies of God
published three decades later. More importantly, the evangelistic zeal of
“waiting, hungry-hearted people,” who had been baptized in the Holy
Spirit, signaled the resumption of “the Lord’s Pentecostal missionary
movement.” It had been halted at the end of the first century when the
Holy Spirit was “largely rejected and His position as leader usurped by
men.” Consequently, Spirit-led missions ceased and the Dark Ages
commenced.2 Now, in the remaining days before the imminent return of
Christ, Pentecostals would jubilantly carry the apostolic banner down the
parade route of modern mission.

God's Missional Nature The important term Missio Dei (Mission of God) needs a biblical foundation. The sending of God by God is a foundational motive in the New Testament. Even at the very beginning of salvation history, shortly after creation, God became the first missionary. In Jesus, God is the missionary par excellence, and in the Holy Spirit, God is the most successful missionary. Mission is part of the nature of God, and therefore mission can only be described holistically and in a manner that transforms human mission into the image of God's mission.

This article problematizes the concept of ‘mission’ in international interventions, who is entitled to missionize and how the missionized subject is conceptualized. By looking at the international missions in Kosovo (those of the UN and particularly the EU), we problematize how the EU mission in Kosovo is entrenched in a trajectory of ‘missionizing’ that makes it bear the stigma of a structure non-responsive and non-sensitive to the local. Employing Derrida’s deconstruction, we explain that the criticism (academic, dogmatic, ideological and empirical) of international missions relates not so much to how they operate in their host countries, or to the policy choices they make. Rather, looking at the path dependency of missions in the Western historical and civilizational trajectory, we maintain that the problem derives from the idea and very concept of ‘mission’ as intervention in itself.

The Bible was almost entirely composed by Jewish writers. An examination of its Jewish or Hebraic roots provides considerable fresh insight into the Christian faith and worldview—particularly in respect of covenant, community and creation.

Covenant forms the dominant paradigm governing the biblical worldview. The new covenant inaugurated by the Messiah likewise forms the dominant paradigm governing the New Testament. Each biblical covenant is associated with a community. A “covenant community” who receive a vocation commensurate with the relationship into which they have been brought.

The biblical view of creation ultimately anticipates its global renewal, whereupon heaven is united in harmony with earth, God dwelling amidst his people. En-route to this finality, the biblical worldview incorporates the bondage of creation to the effects of sin and its partners: death, disease and decay. Amidst this corrupted creation, the vocation of the covenant community is to be an incarnate Messenger of Hope. Both recipient and giver of New Life; a sign, symbol and harbinger of creation‟s ultimate, glorious liberation from bondage.

The thesis seeks to express the message of Scripture according to Scripture’s own priorities. It uses biblical rather than philosophical terminology, presenting the Bibles message within the framework of a primarily Hebraic worldview. To aid recognition of vital theological threads woven throughout the biblical narratives, the thesis develops a graphical “panorama” of the biblical narrative.

Significance and Value of Findings

Traditional, post-Enlightenment theologies—i.e. reformed, dogmatic, systematic, critical, non-contextual etc.—having undergirded Western Christendom during the past two centuries, are presently creaking under the strain of post-modern, post-colonial critiques and worldviews. In order for Christian faith and community to flourish within this hostile cultural climate, the challenge of missiological renewal and reformation needs to be embraced, so that Christian theology, missional praxis and culture to flourish in new ways.

Insight into the Jewish roots of Scripture and, in particular, the biblical covenants and the vocational communities of both Israel and the Church, proffers a significant contribution towards such a renewal, potentially rendering a widely appealing paradigm: centering upon God‟s commitment to creation, in partnership with his covenant community; incorporating the combating of evil through pursuit of this-worldly peace, justice and dignity for human beings; lived out amidst the biblical backdrop of an ultimate Judgement and Regeneration.

Within an increasingly agnostic West, a covenant, creation and community centred worldview offers fresh insight and a significant contrast to the individualistic drift of modern, protestant-evangelical culture and praxis, with its dualistic perspective of earth and heaven and concomitant focus upon personal salvation and eternal heavenly “escape‟ from earth‟s “mortal coil.‟

Within the increasingly Christian South—where community-centred readings of Scripture are normative and worldviews are more free of anti-biblical, secular, atheistic and materialistic philosophical presuppositions—burgeoning, missional Christian communities can relate readily to a biblical theology of covenant, creation and community as a vital, educational, theological introduction to the Bible.
Finally, the recognition and incorporation of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith builds a small, but potentially significant, cultural bridge with the Jewish people.

Conclusion

By aiming at a biblical theology based upon an Hebraic worldview centred upon creation, covenant and community, this Thesis seeks to provide an educational resource inviting people to enter into and comprehend the worldview, culture and theology of the Bible, rather than the worldview, culture and theology of the West.

In this article, the theological meaning of transformation is examined from the vantage point of a local Pentecostal church in Nairobi, Kenya, and its liturgical practices. The church under study is the Woodley branch of Christ is the Answer Ministries (CITAM Woodley), formerly Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC) Woodley, and data was collected through field research. Arguing with the help of Steven Land’s standard work Pentecostal Spirituality. A Passion for the Kingdom, it is demonstrated that praise and worship rituals function as vehicles for transformation in the theology/spirituality of the informants. Singing and making music are not optional or random activities, but constitute a core ritual providing congregants a viable route to a central goal of Pentecostal spirituality: transformation. Transformation is thus both an idea and a goal, and praise and worship rituals – including the songs sung in worship – constitute a crucial link between the two.

This article deals with the missional self-understanding of the so-called Danish folk church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark). It argues that especially two important factors have hindered such a self-understanding: first, the church adherer to the Lutheran tradition, which for centuries had a weak emphasis on mission; and second, that the Danish folk church in centuries was a state church, which encompassed all citizens of the nation, and mission was therefore not a pressing issue for the church. Then, the article argues by referring to several theological statements and initiatives in the church that a new missional self-understanding seems to evolve these years. The article argues that the church seems to be adjusting to a new pluralistic societal situation, and the new missional self-understanding can be understood in light of this.

This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversial processes of religious change occurring in the postsocialist world. By critically examining the influx of missionaries, the adoption of ‘new’ faiths, and the reactions to these unanticipated shifts in religious landscape, the authors offer valuable insight into the fate of state supported secularism as well as providing fresh critiques of anthropological studies of conversion.

For today’s Namibia the dealing with its own past is still relevant, as well as for other former colonies. In this context, the experiences of the colonial era still play an important role, which is closely related to the struggle for independence and questions of nation building. As in many former colonies there was a lack of inner connections and overarching national and cultural identities, so it was necessary to seek for commonalities or, if required, to construct them. Thereby, however, it turned out that these were often of colonial origin. In particular, the former colonial language and the Christian religion were central components of these Commonalities. But here the question arises as to what extent these elements are in fact due to the colonial era. So the changes and developments in terms of language and religion are not due solely to the colonial era, but also to the work of Christian missionaries, which reached the country decades before the colonialists and shaped the country far beyond the colonial period. In addition to these aspects of language and religion the missionaries also performed a enormous influence on the knowledge within the colonies and about them. Especially the school system and the associated access to this knowledge thus represents another essential aspect of sustainable influence of German Missionaries in Southwest Africa, which affected the further development of the country during the colonial period and beyond. The aim of this work is to show that it was the missionary work and thus the political and social influence of missionaries, which fundamentally changed the country and influenced its post-colonial history and development. The focus should thereby be primarily set on the work of the missionaries in precolonial South West Africa, because here the first touch of the Indigenous and European cultures took place, which laid the foundation for further developments in the fields of language, religion and education policy.

Montreal-based indie-rock band “Arcade Fire” have been lauded as the most important band of the last decade. In terms of their cultural and potentially theological significance it has been argued that Arcade Fire is to Gen Y what U2 is to Gen X. This chapter explores the music and content of their latest album Reflektor, released in October 2013. The main influences in this album are Haitian “rara” music, the 1959 film Black Orpheus, and an essay by Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard entitled ”The Present Age,” in which he contrasts the “passionate age” with the “reflective age.” These influences and the resultant themes are explored, with a final reflection framed by the Apostle Paul’s interaction with his contemporary culture, and using the work of Charles Taylor, to discover ways in which this important voice from the margins might speak to and help the contemporary church as it engages in mission in the postmodern world.

554 Rebekka Habermas zise, möglichst "dicht" -wie Clifford Geertz das für die Ethnologie forderte70 -und den Handlungssträngen einzelner Akteure und Akteurinnen folgend eine detailge naue Beschreibung zu geben. Ganz ähnlich dem Duktus der 197oer Jahre hieß es in ei ner Forschungsanleitung für missionswissenschaftliches Arbeiten aus dem Jahre 1906: Wenn eine so junge Wissenschaft, wie die Völkerkunde, schon so bald überall "ewige Gesetze" konstatieren will, so ist nur zu sehr zu fürchten, dass sie auf ganz falsche Fährten gerät [ . .. ] Oh, nein, recht nahe herangehen, recht genau sie betrachten, und nötigenfalls selbst mikroskopisch untersuchen: und dann erst, wenn man recht viele Einzelheiten gesehen hat, dann mag man sich fern aufstellen oder besser, sich erheben, um den Überblick zu gewinnen.71 Haben Individualisierung und Konversion also mehr mit den subjektiv häufig als dra matisch erlebten Modernisierungserfahrungen und den damit verbundenen Debatten der Jahrhundertwende und mit dem ganz alltäglichen Kolonialismus des Kaiserreichs zu tun als mit dem, was sich zwischen Missionaren und lokaler Bevölkerung in Togo und andernorts abspielte, so waren diese Begegnungen durchaus folgenreich. Indem Missionare diese Begegnungen in Worte fassten, veränderten sie das, was unter Reli gion verstanden wurde, in eine Richtung, die große Ähnlichkeit mit dem hatte, was man zeitgenössisch unter Individualisierung fasste. Contre cceur trugen damit Mis sionare, die häufig um 1900 entschiedene Gegner der als gefährlich eingeschätzten Modernisierung waren, dazu bei, Pluralisierungs-und eben auch Individualisierungs prozesse zu forcieren. überdies entstanden in dieser Begegnung Beschreibungsund damit Analyseverfahren, die an die Verfahren der microstoria erinnern, die in den 197oer Jahren entstanden und damals durchaus als Modernisierungskritik verstanden werden konnten. 70 C. GEERTZ, Dichte Beschreibung. Beiträge zum Verstehen kultureller Systeme Main 1983). 71 SCHMIDT, "Die moderne Ethnologie" 622. An anderer Stelle heißt es, man solle dafür dass sich Herzen und Mund eines jeden Indigenen öffnen, auch solle man vermeiden, die geborenen" und ihren Glauben zu skandalisieren; L. CADIERE, "Instructions practiques missionnaires qui font des observations religieuses" (Anthropos 8, 1913, 593-606, 920. Vgl. die Anleitungen von WoLFF, Der Missionar als Forscher 7, z.B.: "Keine Eir1ze,lheiteilf' welcher Art sie auch sein mögen, als zu geringfügig, verächtlich beiseite lassen; all es auch geringsten Einzelheiten, können unter Umständen von grosser Wichtigkeit sein [ · · · ]". Religiöser Individualismus und christliche Mission bei den Igbo in Nigeria Johannes Harnischfeger Die Igbo im Südosten Nigerias gelten als äußerst individualistisch. Sie lebten in weit gehend autonomen Dorfgemeinschaften, duldeten keine Zentralgewalten und waren gewohnt, ihre soziale und spirituelle Umgebung eigenmächtig zu gestalten. Als mit der kolonialen Eroberung das Christentum ins Land kam, hatten sie wenig Bedenken, sich die Religion der Europäer anzueignen, die den eigenen Kulten überlegen schien. Die Igbo hatten ein pragmatisches Verhältnis zu den Göttern. Wenn ein Gott trotz der Opfer, die man ihm brachte, seine Anhänger nicht schützte, wurde der Kult für ihn aufgegeben, und man suchte sich eine andere spirituelle Schutzmacht. Die Menschen waren frei, ihre Götter zu wählen, aber sie entwickelten kein persönliches Verhältnis zu ihnen. Vieles von dem, was die Missionare lehrten, war ihnen fremd. Sie kannten keine Reue und Schuld gegenüber den Göttern, keine Jenseitsvergeltung und keine Seele als den unzerstörbaren Kern des Individuums. Die Attraktivität des Christentums Aus der Perspektive europäischer Christen gelten afrikanische Kirchen als konservativ und ihre Anhänger als wunderund autoritätsgläubi g. Meist haben sie ein intensives Interesse an den kultischen Aspekten ihrer Religion, an geweihten Kerzen, heiligem Wasser und Exorzismen. Demgegenüber spielt Befreiungstheol ogie, wie sie in Latein amerika entwickelt wurde, kaum eine Rolle. 1 Die Kirchen setzen sich lieber für Fami lienwerte ein und sprechen sich gegen Abtreibung, Homosexualität und Frauenrechte aus.2 Afrikanische Theologen wenden sich zudem gegen das säkulare Denken der Auf klärung, das ihrer Meinung nach entscheidend zur Entchristianisier ung Europas bei getragen hat. 3 Da die Religion aus dem öffentlichen Leben verdrängt wurde, konnten sich in der westlichen Kultur Hedonismus, Materialismus und ein ungezügelter Indivi dualismus ausbreiten. Als Reaktion auf diesen moralischen Verfall empfehlen manche Theologen, dass sich ein neues, globales Christentum an jenem kommunitären Ethos

This article explores issues related to the worldviews of Friedrich Max Müller and Monier Monier-Williams, and contemporary critique of their work. Their indebtedness to their own age is explored, especially fulfilment theology and the missionary imperative, noting similarities and differences in their agendas. The conclusion considers how post-colonial critique can be applied. While accepting the validity of such critique, it is suggested that it makes vast and sweeping judgments, engaging in a totalising narrative. It is argued that, applied too harshly, such critiques can ignore the positive contributions to understanding other faiths and cultures made by such figures. It ends with some reflections upon both their and our place within the evolving tradition of the study of religion, and the need for both understanding and critical judgment.

Sir George Williams had a profound impact on the youth and business people of the 19th century.  Out of this renewal movement was birthed the YMCA movement which has reached around the globe.  This article explores the faith and values that shaped this world-changer.

Data on the perceptions of language utility held by church leaders, missionaries and church members in south-western Burkina Faso illuminate a complex use of language ideology in an ongoing intra-church conflict. I suggest that the discourses used by missionaries and church leaders reflect competition over the theological resources needed to address linguistic diversity within the church. Many Western missionaries hold to an essentializing ideology that connects the vernacular with identity and spiritual authenticity, thus functioning to contain diversity within the church through the idealization of linguistically homogenous congregations, and to obscure unequal access to resources for ideological legitimization by re-casting missionaries as agents of cultural revitalization and dismissing alternative conceptions of church as insufficiently indigenous.

A number of recent books examine the presentation of the gospel through the lens of honor-shame. This article assesses some of the arguments given in these books to see what they have to say is of valuable and what should be questioned from the perspective of anthropology, the Bible, language, and mission history.

Clothes are a means to demonstrate wealth, status, and socio-religious hegemony. Practices of consuming and exchanging clothing enhance or lower one’s status by displaying and creating taste and capital. In Guyana, many Hindus relate charitable clothing distributions exclusively to Christian missions. They commonly state that the distribution of used clothing is a means to convert Hindus to Christianity. While indeed in the past only Christians were able to conduct such distributions due to their links to colonial powers, today and as a result of transnational migration to North America Guyanese Hindus also organize distributions of clothing. For this purpose, migrants collect used clothes and ship them to Guyana. This article proposes that as Hindus remain a minority in Guyana, the practice of and discourse about charitable distributions are a means to counter and resist the perceived ‘threat’ of conversion. It demonstrates how charitable distributions thereby influence the local socio-religious hierarchy and challenge established power structures.

This monograph narrates the history of catholic mission in East Africa and Germany during the colonial period featuring chapters on the missionary movement in 19th and 20th c. Germany, the negotiation of a missiony contact zone, education policies, church building and "africanisation" of the mission church in East Africa, and missionary media work in Europe.

With this edition, the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) begins a year of celebrating its fiftieth anniversary which we are calling a Year of Jubilee. Like the biblical concept, APTS’s Jubilee will include a number of activities throughout 2014 designed to thank God for his great faithfulness to this institution.

Through the emblematic case of the late Father Gerard Leymang (1937Leymang ( -2002, this article evokes the difficulties encountered by the Francophone leaders to emerge on the colonial scene in pre-independence Vanuatu. Unlike their Anglophone counterparts, the French-speaking Melanesian leaders suffered a sort of "double-bind" with the Catholic church and the colonial administration which were reluctant to see them play a major role. This highlights the strong differences between French and British colonialism in the

Dr. E Stanley Jones through his Kingdom of God perspective had a lasting impact on racism both in India and North America.  Through his formation in India of the Christian Ashram movement in 1930 and transplanting it worldwide, Jones modeled a christian community in which divisions of class and cash had no place.  His book on his good friend Gandhi was instrumental in encouraging Martin Luther King Jr in the formation of the nonviolent civil rights movement.

The second part of the study on Pentecostalism in Rajasthan discusses contemporary features of the movement including Pentecostal concentration in the state and its socio-cultural status. It also deals with the relationship between Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals including the Pentecostal impact on other Christian sectors as well as the ecumenical attempts in the state.

Mission Round Table 15:1 (Jan-Apr 2020): 42-43.

In this insightful interview, Scott Callaham highlights key challenges issued in World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues. The book was written not only for mission practitioners, mission agencies, and seminaries, but for all biblically- and theologically-engaged Christians. Covering themes not seen in contemporary books on mission, the contributors to the book are not merely advocating returning to the Bible as a guide for the theology and practice of mission (although these aspects of mission clearly need to be reformed) but are aiming for a complete rethinking of world mission that takes us back to the source—the Bible.

Today's generation of young adults in Central and Eastern Europe do not remember the events of 1989, let alone what came before.  Their life experience has been wholly different from that of their parents, their educators, their politicians and their spiritual leaders.  The passing of communism and  concurrent advances in technology have resulted in a generation which in many ways is culturally further removed from its elders than from its peers around the globe.  This paper will seek to identify some characteristics of what sociologists have termed “Generation Y,” utilising both reflection on personal experience and literature of CEE to examine the relevance for our region of studies carried out in Western Europe and North America.  We will then draw out some missiological implications for CEE.

Özet 19. Yüzyılın sonlarına doğru meydana gelen Ermeni olayları, sonuçları itibariyle misyon kuruluşları için büyük bir fırsat olmuş ve bu kuruluşlar Doğu bölgelerinde bir biri ardına istasyon açmışlardı. 1909 yılında Adana ve çevresinde vukû bulan olaylar da misyon teşkilatları için yeni bir çalışma alanı ortaya çıkardı ve Alman misyonerler, Adana Vilayeti dâhilinde bulunan Bahçe Kazası'na bağlı Haruniye Karyesi'nde açtıkları yetimhane ile bölgede faaliyete başladılar. Haruniye Alman Yetimhanesi'nin kurulmasında önemli bir yere sahip olan Alman Yardım Birliği (Deutscher Hülfsbund für Christliches Liebeswerk in Orient), 1890'lı yıllarda Maraş, Mamuretülaziz ve Van gibi bölgelerde tesis ettiği birimler ve buralardaki faaliyetleri sayesinde misyon açısından başarılı çalışmalar yapmıştı. Yardım Birliği başta yetimhaneler olmak üzere, sağlık birimleri, dul kadınlar için bakım evleri ve atölyeler açmak suretiyle faaliyet bölgelerinde etkili bir misyon çalışması yürütmeye muvaffak oldu. Bu çalışmada, Alman Yardım Birliği'nin önemli istasyonlarından birisini oluşturan Haruniye Alman Yetimhanesi, ağırlıklı olarak o dönem istasyonlarda görev yapan misyonerlerin kaleme aldığı notlar ve bu konuya ışık tutan diğer telif eserler (Almanca) ile Osmanlı Arşivi belgeleri ışığında değerlendirilecektir. Burada evvelâ, yetimhanenin kuruluş süreci ve bu istikâmette misyonerlerin Osmanlı makamlarıyla yaptığı yazışmalar ortaya konacaktır. Daha sonra, Osmanlı Devleti için kritik bir dönemi ifade eden Birinci Dünya Savaşı öncesi ve savaş yıllarında yetimhanenin durumu ve çalışmaları hakkında bilgi verilecektir. Son olarak, savaşın bitmesiyle birlikte yetimhanede kalan çocukların akıbeti ve kurumun Amerikan yardım kuruluşu Yakın Doğu Yardım Komistesi (Near East Relief)'ne nasıl devredildiği izah edilecektir.

This article investigates the meanings of the word proselytism, and at the problematic forms of proselytism that have had a negative impact on the understanding of Christian mission in various parts of the world, not least in Central and Eastern Europe. The article then goes on to consider the root meaning of the Greek prosēlutos, as the one who draws near, and suggests this as a model for mission today.

The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska can be understood in terms of liberative mission. The article shows how the missionaries succeeded in allowing Christianity to become indigenized in native Alaskan cultures, rather than attempting to make the indigenous peoples Russian. It did this through an attention to the narratives, religious and otherwise, of the Alaskan peoples and by allowing these narratives to address and be addressed by the Christian narrative. Current anthropological research points to the depth of the roots of this indigenization, and how it helped in the identity formation of the native peoples especially after the sale of Alaska to the United States when their identity was under severe external threat. The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska provides a good historical case study of how the gospel can be indigenized in a way that empowers people and suggests a tradition available to Orthodox churches today as they seek to become more mission-minded.

En esta comunicación se constata que las interpelaciones del papa Francisco al esfuerzo teológico y misionológico coinciden
y confirman el trabajo de reflexión que viene realizándose desde hacia varias décadas en la misionología latinoamericana.

in English (300 words): Heritage practitioners operating in the development field are primarily mandated to express a statement of significance for a cultural landscape or historic buildings in order to guide proposed development. Whereas tangible aspects are thoroughly defined and understood in this field, methods of gaining insight into the intangible aspects are generally lacking. Greater integration of the intangible dimension into the design (architectural, landscape and urban design fields) and development (governmental, provincial and non-governmental) process could lead to a more satisfactory solution. It is possible to access the intangible aspects related to a landscape or historic buildings by engaging oral history documentation (participant observation, individual and focus group interviews, accompanying individuals or groups to places of interest) as part of the research phase. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, can then be traced back to the tangible fabric of place. This methodology was applied in the compilation of Cultural Landscape Heritage Audits for a number of historically significant Mission Schools in South Africa. Lemana campus (1886) in the Limpopo Province and Healdtown campus (1855) in the Eastern Cape helped shape the history of the country. Nelson Mandela attended Healdtown as a boy and both institutions were part of a handful of schools offering education to black inhabitants during pre-Apartheid South Africa. The current revival of Healdtown and Lemana is indicative of a cultural renaissance brought about by alumni from the institution and the democratic Government of South Africa for the good of South African society. The decayed conditions of the schools have been documented, with restoration and re-appropriation being proposed. The significance of the schools necessitated that the documentation processes include the recording of their oral traditions. A number of key informants were identified and informal interviews were held on the respective sites in order to mnemotechnically trigger latent memories. Mnemotechnic devices activate and enhance memory. These could be objects, elements in the landscape such as significant trees, walls, hedges or even overgrown paths Information was documented by means of photographs, videos, maps and aerial photographs and culminated in spatial map illustrating the various layers of meaning. After thorough research into the history of the schools, the fieldwork research link the tangible aspects of history and the landscape with the intangible values related to the people who were intimately involved with the site.

Firstly, the Roman Catholic «prehistory» of contact between the Panoan groups of Bolivian Amazonia and Jesuit, Franciscan and lay clergy missionaries is described. The paper then analyses the continuity of the evangelization process by diverse evangelical denominations, describing three missionary experiences with the Chacobo since 1955 to the present day. Finally, general insights are proposed relating the anthropological problem of religious conversion.

In recent years, missionaries have discussed and strategized ways to catalyze “church planting movements” (CPMs) around the world.  However, many people have challenged mission practices that are oriented on CPM-theory.  Both sides of the debate appeal to Scripture to support their arguments. Indeed, CPM theorists implicitly and explicitly contend that CPMs are found in the Bible itself.  This article examines and contests any such claim.
This article makes a simple argument: there are no “church planting movements” in the Bible. Although someone might regard this as a “negative” thesis, the aim of the essay is quite constructive. It is utterly critical that certain notions and associations be set aside if we are to develop biblically faithful and strategically wise missiology. Of course, there is much to commend in CPM literature. However, we cannot simply draw out what it good from a CPM theory without examining related ideas, such as its use of Scripture. When applying some aspect of CPM missiology, we may unwittingly assume ways of thinking or interpreting the Bible that are counterproductive. Therefore, this essay tries to help readers discern theory from theology.

Recent national press coverage has generated considerable attention to the solar geometry of the Spanish colonial missions of California. Speculations as to the purpose of the attendant illuminations have ranged widely from outright attacks to praise of recent scholarship that has sought to understand said phenomena within the context of Franciscan mission belief and history. Current research to identify potential parallel illumination sites in the Spanish colonial churches of the Philippines has revealed a pattern of congruent Counter-Reformation architectural design standards and edicts that served to mandate equinoctial church alignments. Those edicts penned by Saint Charles of Borromeo provide conclusive documentation for the church mandated integration of solar geometry, and equinoctial illuminations, into the building of New World church and California mission architecture. I thereby contend that these new revelations support the role of the Catholic Church, and in particular the Council of Trent in the mandated solar geometry so noted, and this in turn serves to verify and bolster those findings from previous research arguing for the liturgical basis of the phenomenon in question.

Kolonialismen kommer i många olika skepnader och underordning. Militären och missionären möttes i en gemensam självpåtagen roll att sprida civilisation av kristendom och många gånger var de också ömsesidigt beroende av varandra. Denna essä är en närläsning av Svenska missionsförbundets verksamhet i Kongodeltat

This is a book review of Michael Gorman's 2015 work, 'Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation and Mission'.  Working at the intersection of Biblical Studies and Missiology, Gorman shows how participation in the life of God is designed to advance the Gospel, as well as being fundamental to interpreting the writings of the Apostle Paul.