Bücher der Reihe American Society of Missiology

The Christian axis has shifted dramatically southward to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, so much so that today there are more Christians living in these southern regions than among their northern counterparts. In the case of Africa, the African Initiated Churches-founded by Africans and primarily for Africans-has largely contributed to the exponential growth and proliferation of the Christian faith in the continent. Yet, even more profoundly, these churches espouse a brand of Christianity that is indigenized and thoroughly contextual. Further, the power and popularity of the AICs, beyond the unprecedented numbers joining these churches, are attributed to their relevance to the existential everyday needs and concerns of their adherents in the context of a postcolonial Africa. At the heart of Christian theology is Christology-the confessed uniqueness of Christ in history and among world religions. Yet this key feature of Christianity, as with other important elements of the Christian faith, may be variously understood and re-interpreted in these indigenous churches.The focus of this study is the amaNazaretha Church, an influential religious group founded by the African charismatic prophet Isaiah Shembe in 1911 in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The movement today claims a following of some two million adherents and has proliferated beyond the borders of South Africa to neighboring countries in Southern Africa. The book addresses the complex and at times ambivalent understanding of the person and work of Christ in the amaNazaretha Church, presenting the genesis, history, beliefs, and practices of this significant religious movement in South Africa, with broader implications for similar movements across the continent of Africa and beyond.

This study presents the religious dynamics of the Wolaitta Kale Heywet Church in southern Ethiopia from 1937 to 1975. On the basis of detailed research from within southern Ethiopia, E. Paul Balisky demonstrates that the indigenous extension of the Wolaitta Christian movement into southern Ethiopia, through the instrumentality of her evangelists, helped Wolaitta regain her own religious center and subsequent identity after centuries of various forms of colonialism and imperialism.Wolaitta Evangelists broadens one's understanding of how an imported model of Christianity provided religious answers to the ideals of a particular Ethiopian society and continues to motivate her members to evangelize. The evangelists who went to people of similar culture and worldview were successful in effecting social change. To ethnic groups who had moved beyond their former primal religions, and to those of disparate culture, the evangelists were those who scattered the seed and impacted the religious, social, economic, and political life of southern Ethiopia. Wolaitta Evangelists tells the story of how missionary activity played a role in Wolaitta once again becoming a people.

Negotiating Identity addresses the missiological problem of why the Hakka Chinese Christian community in Taiwan is so small despite evangelistic efforts there for more than 140 years. Christofferson explores the tensions between being Hakka and being Christian in northwestern Taiwan and discusses what both Hakka non-Christians and Christians are doing and saying in the context of these tensions. This ethnographic study uses the lens of social constructionism and consequently offers an example of how social science scholarship can help missionaries and other Christian workers to gain significant insights into the thoughts, feelings, and actions of those living in their ministry locations. Of interest is Christofferson's conclusion that the missiological perspective which puts a primary focus on ministering to a "people group" is inadequate for explaining and engaging the complexities encountered in many ministry settings. He suggests that an awareness of the way people are negotiating their identities can help Christian workers to better understand and strategically engage people in a variety of ministry contexts throughout the world.

This study is the first comprehensive history of the impact of the modern missionary movement on the understanding of and work toward Christian unity. It tells stories from all branches of the church: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant in its many types (conciliar, evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent).Part 1, ""Historical,"" highlights the contribution of modern missions to Christian unity, from William Carey and his antecedents and peers to present-day missions.Part 2, ""Ten Models of Unity,"" takes an inductive approach to history, asking not ""how should Christians cooperate?"" but ""how has the missionary movement helped Christians to work together at the local, national, regional, and global level?""Part 3, ""Wider Ecumenism,"" broadens the evidence to include how the missions movement has helped not only institutional churches but also broader society to have concern for the unity of the entire human family. Included here is the story of how the Protestant missionary movement influenced the forming of the United Nations as well as the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The study also covers the movement''s impact on Christian attitudes toward, and relations with, persons of other faiths.Mission and Unity is the standard reference work in the field for persons studying modern history, modern church history, missions, and ecumenics. ""Flowing from a lifetime of scholarship and activism, this timely book on a classic theme could only be written by Norman Thomas. His panoramic yet thorough treatment of ''missions and unity'' will help to restore this subject to the central place it deserves in mission praxis. This useful book belongs on the shelf of everyone who cares about the continued relevance of Jesus'' visions for his followers.""--Dana L. RobertTruman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of MissionBoston University School of Theology ""It is often remarked that missionary work and efforts of Christian unity are vitally linked. What Norman Thomas has shown in these pages is how very true this is. I don''t know of any other source that treats the topic of missions and unity with comparable depth, clarity, and careful scholarship. This books is a gift to missiology.""--Stephen Bevans, SVDLouis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and CultureCatholic Theological Union""Common participation in mission has consistently been the most powerful solvent of the historic divisions between churches. Yet Christians have frequently disagreed about the appropriate means of mission, and may struggle to agree even about the goals of mission. The twin themes of mission and unity are thus intertwined in complex and ambiguous ways throughout the history of the Church. Norman Thomas''s book is a timely and helpful reminder of that ambiguous yet inescapable relationship.""--Brian StanleyProfessor of World ChristianityUniversity of Edinburgh""This book is quintessentially Thomas. I know of no one more aptly experienced or academically capable of writing this immensely useful historical assessment of the interstices of world missions and the ecumenical movement. This will become a standard reference on the theme.""--Jonathan J. BonkExecutive DirectorOverseas Ministries Study CenterNorman E. Thomas is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the editor of Classsic Texts in Mission and World Christianity (1995) and of the International Mission Bibliography: 1960-2000 (2003).