Three Book Review

The Mission of the Church: Five Perspectives in Dialogue

Craig Ott: The Mission of the Church: Five Perspectives in Dialogue

Nicholas Healy: Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology of the Church, World, and Christian Life

Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Mission of the Church. Life-Changing Biblical Theology.

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Craig Ott, The Mission of the Church: Five Perspectives in Dialogue

Professor Craig Ott of Trinity Evangelical Divinity College presents five mission views for constructive involvement in his book. His work begins with an introduction as to how mission theory has developed through the last half of the twentieth century and gives attention to different expressions found in various traditions. There is a total of five essays and in the conclusion, each of the contributor’s chips into the positions that have been established by the others. It is a nice style that propagates comprehensible mission theology.

Stephen Bevans, a Roman Catholic views mission by way of it being “prophetic dialogue.” Mission as dialogue connects with beliefs, custom, and religious experience. This contrasts with mission as prophecy which needs people to see the “fuller truth” that can only be realized if one communes with the triune God (4). Darell Guder, who is a mainland Protestant has a different approach referred to as “multicultural and translational.” This one begins with a deific agency. The resolve of the church is in harmony with God’s association with the world. This applies to both multi-cultural (diverse responses) and translational (active responses).

Ruth Padilla DeBorst, an evangelical sees mission as an “integral transformation,” where the entire church is God’s instrument that is working to alter all social affiliations. Edward Rommen, an Orthodox comes up with a “sacramental vision,”. This visualization agrees to the basic set up of the Orthodox church theology. Ed Stetzer, an evangelical is oddly nonspecific. He comes up with an “Evangelical Kingdom Community” where he links exemplified Gospel sharing whose center is the church to active participation in the mission of God. In his response, Stetzer reveals his obligation to planting churches and evangelism activity. The responses in this book are focused and emphatic following specific areas of concern.

In conclusion, the major deficit in this work is that the text travels along discussion lines of North America. Ott himself recognizes this weakness as far as the voices in the book are concerned, four males who are white and one Latin American. Although he thinks of the five as leading thinkers, my view is that he could have expanded the text both in voice and method. By doing so, it is likely that a broader reference list would help people appreciate widely the church in mission.

Christopher J. H. Wright. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission. Biblical Theology for Life. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.

In the book The Mission of God’s People, author Christopher Wright highlights two major issues for today’s Christians: “Who are we?” and “What are we here for?” Indeed, he argues that God’s people took charge began even before Pentecost in Acts 2. To him, theology of mission must begin with scripture, that which was read by apostles. He is of the opinion that many people wrongly believe that the only thing they need is ”…a great mission and the power of the Holy Spirit” (39) Wright feels that many have little knowledge of the reality found in bible revelation and that we need to read these texts until al our actions are shaped by the story told by these same texts. Mission began in the days of creation and soon the call of Abraham. In this call, “God set in motion a historical dynamic that would ultimately not only deal with the problem of human sin but also heal the dividedness of the nations” (41). Abrahams commission to go and be a blessing to all people on earth as recorded in Gen 12:1-3 was the first, and covered all nations, meaning all people of the earth would be blessed through the people of Abraham.

Wright considers people of God who are sent to ”be a blessing” (Gen 12:2) and not just sharer’s of the blessing. He says that. ”When God set about his great project of world redemption in the wake of Genesis 12, he chose to do so not by whisking individuals off up to heaven, but by calling into existence a community of blessing” (73). The example he mentions is the Egyptian oppression of Israelites that eventually led to the fulfilling of the next of Abrahams Great Commission of being a blessing. The law of God was not of saving Israel but making them into a blessing to the nations. God wanted to have his people separated from the rest and if Israel had to be a blessing, they would need to be unique from other nations by keeping the law. He does not consider a church that is divided, fighting, money-hungry, and unjust as being unable to deal with a world facing the same challenge. ”a church that is bad news in such ways has no good news to share. Or at least, it has, but its words are drowned out by its life” (95). This is his best contribution to bible understanding- there is no bible mission without ethics, teaching and baptism must be accompanied by making disciples.

One prevalent weakness in this work is the strictly Evangelical Christian outlook. By relying on applications that seem pertinent to Evangelical, western Christians, there is a likelihood that those who do not subscribe to this view may be left out. This tendency is seen in a number of instances where reduces Christianity to evangelism alone. When he says, ”What is our goal? Where is our heart? Are we obsessed with making converts only . . . ?” (95) it is apparent that maybe he could have adapted the book title to address the constituency of evangelicals only.

In conclusion, Wright is greatly disturbed by the failures of the modern church. He feels as though that a church that has its own problems has little to share with the rest of the world. He says: ”A divided, split and fighting church has nothing to say or to give to a divided, broken and violent world. An immoral church has nothing to say to an immoral world. A church riddled with corruption, caste discrimination and other forms of social, ethnic, or gender oppression has nothing to say to the world where such things are rampant . . .” (94–95). This book is applicable to the mission of God’s people, but one needs to understand that is has the modern, Evangelical, Western Christian.

Nicholas Healy. Church, World, and the Christian Life: Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology

In his book Church, World, and the Christian Life, author Nicholas Healey utilizes a theodramatric approach that is concrete and divinatory in analyzing the daily church reality within the wider context of the world. He is concerned that current attempts to explain the church offer an impractical, abstract and theoretical view. He acknowledges the ecclesiological work of Avery Dulles, Karl Rahner, John Zizioulas, Jean-Marie Tillard and Karl Barth in understanding God’s people, sacrament communion and the church as the body of Christ as ones that ”…develop normative descriptions of the church in combining a systematic principle and the two-fold construal of understanding the church as constituted by God while also visible as human sinful realization (30)” He says that he is hoping to engage the concrete church in its practical, prophetic performance of witness and discipleship in ever-shifting contexts (39). He discovers that the critical theory analysis is a central task ecclesiology. He, therefore, uses von Balthasar’s theodrama, postmodern critiques of humanism, MacIntyre’s theory of traditional inquiry and postmodern ethnography.

He advances the theodramatic reaction of the church within Paul’s rule through his argument that: One part is proscriptive: that apart from Christ crucified, we should not glory or boast in anything. The other part is prescriptive: that we should boast in Jesus Christ crucified” (7) to find Christ, the church in itself binds to good discipleship and faithful witnessing. He further states that the church neither has a monopoly on truth nor systematic coherence. To him, the church is ”the communal embodiment of the search for truthful witness and discipleship within the theodrama” (108). Basing on this, one can say that that ecclesiology can by understood from a dynamic view where tension exists as the ecclesial community attempts to understand the church as Christ’s, that is focused on the ultimate truth together with the way it is placed in a situation that has sinful ecclesial responses. Healy in his work keeps the tension between the pilgrim church and the heavenly church.

Healy’s focus on ecclesial faithful performance and a distinctive life focused on Jesus Christ allows the church an opportunity to involve in a non-Christian context. He is keen to recognize that outside influence should not dilute true Christian theology. He believes that pluralist and inclusivity approaches make the church unable to engage and learn from the world and therefore the church cannot lead a concrete debate on the shape of the society (101).

Without perspective reduction, the Healy’s theodramatic approach fails to take differences seriously. His practical-prophetic ecclesiology is challenged in making concrete the argument as to how the church can engage non-Christians without losing or obstructing difference. Although the author creates necessary tension with within this discipline, it is approaches like his that will help the church acknowledge and live truthfully by critically looking back to the challenges and struggles within the pilgrim church that is keen to glorify Jesus in everything (185).

Works Cited

Healy, Nicholas M. Church, World, And The Christian Life. 1st ed., New York, Cambridge University Press, 2000,.

Ott, Craig. The Mission Of The Church: Five Views In Conversation. 1st ed., Baker Books, 2016,.

Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission Of God’s People. 1st ed., Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2010,.