Bücher der Reihe Missiological Engagements

Christianity is not becoming a global religion-it has always been one. Vince Bantu surveys the geographic range of the early church's history, investigating the historical roots of the Western cultural captivity of the church and the concurrent development of diverse expressions of Christianity across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

In search of holistic Christian witness, we must cultivate new approaches for integrating the arts into mission praxis. Written by missiologists, art critics, ethnodoxologists, and theologians from around the world, these essays present historical and contemporary case studies while calling Christians to understand the power of art for expressing cultural and religious identity, opening spaces for transformative encounters, and resisting injustice.

Oscar García-Johnson explores a new grammar for the study of theology and mission in global Christianity, especially in Latin America. Moving to recover important elements in ancestral traditions of the Americas, he discerns pneumatological continuity between the pre-Columbian and post-Columbian communities. With an interdisciplinary, narrative approach, this work offers a constructive theology of mission for the church in global contexts.

White normativity as a way of being in the world has been parasitically joined to Christianity, and this is the ground of many of our problems today. Written by a world-class roster of scholars, this volume develops language to describe the current realities of race and racism, challenging evangelical Christianity to think more critically and constructively about race, ethnicity, migration, and mission in relation to white supremacy.

Building from a behind-the-scenes case study of Kenya's Nairobi Chapel and its "daughter" Mavuno Church, Wanjiru M. Gitau expands their story into a narrative that offers analysis of the rise, growth, and place of megachurches worldwide in the new millennium. In contexts experienced as deeply volatile, and on a continent reeling from the structural incoherence imposed in colonial times, megachurches provide a map of reality to navigate by, with the gospel as their primary compass. Gitau shows that recognizing the psychological, spiritual, and social destabilization of modernizing societies is the first step to valuing the place of megachurches in contemporary Christianity. Through analysis of social demography, theology, philosophy of ministry, leadership development, and strategy, Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered makes integral sense of the historical and social forces that give megachurches their growth opportunity, and reclaims them as a subject of serious theological conversation. This engaging account centers on the role of millennials in responding to the need for "a home for new generations" amid the dislocating transitions of globalization and postmodernity in postcolonial Africa and around the world. Gitau gleans practical wisdom for postdenominational churches everywhere (mega- and otherwise) from the lessons learned in Kenya's remarkable urban, evangelical renewal movement.

How would it look if we "disabled" Christian theology, discipleship, and theological education? Benjamin Conner initiates a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theology and missiology, imagining a church that fully incorporates persons with disabilities into its mission. In this vision, the people with disabilities are part of the church's pluriform witness, and the congregation embodies a robust hermeneutic of the gospel.

This collection of essays explores the legacy of Lesslie Newbigin's classic work, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, critically analyzing the nature of Western pluralism and discussing the influence of Newbigin's work on the field of missiology. By looking backward, this volume advances a vision for Christian witness in the pluralistic world of the twenty-first century.

The 2015 Missiology Lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary marked the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Intercultural Studies. The papers from that conference explore the developments and transformations in the study and practice of mission, as contributors chart the current shape of mission studies and its prospects in the twenty-first century.