David Bosch talks about Mission and triunph of God: Meaning of death and resurrection of Christ. He mentions about ethical implication of Paul's mission. In the letter to Philemon, Paul attacks participation in slavery and gives Philemon a thinly veiled command to set Onesimus free. In Paul's experience the mission to Jews was a failure compared to the success with the Gentiles. Being a staunch Jew, he had positive attitude to Judaism. There is a dealectical interrelationship between Jews and Gentiles in the writings of Paul. Paul never consider Church as new Israel. There is a tension between God's irrevocable covenant with Israel and God's ultimate salvific act through Jesus.
It is with great expectation that I began reading the book of Ian Douglas. The latter part of the last century witnessed shifting pardigms in World Mission. In Anglican communion, Episcopal Church got primacy during the post war period. Henry sherril the presiding bishop had an important role in the WCC and he become the founder president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in US. In 1940's and 50's the affluent US Church financially helped the younger third world churches.
Fourth WCC Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden in 1969 shifted the goal of mission from evangelism to development. The US Churches began to be a conduits for the US Agency for International development. Uppsala Assembly gave a theological rationale and programmatic process for this paradigm shift. In the post colonial era MRI (mutual Responsibility and Interdependance) become the key world of the Episcopal Foreign Mission.
This book, Fling Out the Banner, sometimes read like a report rather than a intersting history. I felt that it is a dry reading. Other folks out there might have felt different, any feedback guys and gals?
Posted by Anish John at May 21, 2003 09:44 PMI also found Douglas rather dry reading. It seemed llike many facts of organizations and hierarchies. It also seemed to convey through the idea of an American "National Church" that we somehow have got the right idea and need to convey that version. I found it somewhat taken up in its own sense of importance of its hierarchy, wealth, knowledge and power.
Posted by: Gwynne Wright at May 25, 2003 02:16 PM