For SEATS MDiv Class. An overview of key parts of David Bosch's Transforming Mission.

2. David J. Bosch, Transforming
Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology
of Mission

3. Introduction
• Wider Crisis
– Advance of Science & Technology
– West is being de-Christianized
– No more "Christian" vs "nonChristian" world
– Western Church & Christians suffer from guilt due to
past wrongs they have done
– World is divided between the rich & the poor
• & the rich ones are the Christians
– Western predominance in ecclesial ways, practices, &
theology is waning.
– New theologies are rising in prominence.

4. Bosch’s Thesis
"It is in fact the thesis of this book that the events
we have been experiencing at least since World
War II & the consequent crisis in Christian mission
are not to be understood as merely incidental &
reversible. Rather, what has unfolded in theological
& missionary circles during the last decades is the
result of a fundamental paradigm shift, not only in
mission or theology, but in the experience &
thinking of the world" (4).

5. Foundation, Aim & Nature of
Mission

6. Foundation of Mission
• Foundations of Mission
• Motives& Aims of Mission
• Nature of Mission

7. Supernatural & Natural Foundation
• Supernatural Foundation
– Great Commission
– The Nature of the Christian Faith as being one faith
• Natural Foundation
– Superiority of Christianity when compared with
others
– Acceptability & adaptability of Christians to all
peoples & conditions
– Superior achievements of Christian mission in the
"mission fields"
– Christianity is Stronger than the other religions

8. Impure Motives
• Imperialist motive
– making the natives docile
• Cultural motive
– transfer the missionary's "superior" culture
• Romantic Motive
– Go to far away lands & exotic cultures
• Ecclesiastical Colonialist Motive
– export own beliefs & church to other places

9. Theological Motives
• Conversion Motive
– too personal
• Eschatological Motive
– too focussed on the next life that this life is ignored
• Church Planting Motive
– too focussed on church being God's kingdom
• Philanthropic Motive
– too focussed on idea that God's reign = an improved
society

10. Evaluation
• These have been found inadequate.
– An inadequate foundation for mission leads to
unsatisfactory missionary practice
• Ultimately the “success of the Christian mission
became the foundation for mission.
– The argument went something like this: Because
Christianity is superior to other religions, the other
religions will ultimately fade away & Christianity will
emerge as the superior one.
– But this never happened!

11. Results of the Evaluation
• Some pulled completely out of mission.
• Others kept the dream alive & perpetuated the
systems that had been developed.

12. The Reality?
• There is a crisis in missions today.
• We need to acknowledge it but keep moving
forward!
• Bosch’s solution:
– “We require a new vision to break out of the present
stalemate toward a different king of missionary
involvement – which need no mean jettisoning
everything generations of Christians have done before
us or haughty condemnations of all their blunders.”
– But we need to look at what has happened in order to
understand what will happen.

13. Bosch’s Assumptions
1. The Christian faith is intrinsically missionary.
2. Missiology is a branch of theology.
3. Ultimately mission is indefinable.
4. Christian mission seeks to understand the relationship between God& the
world.
5. The Bible can not be treated simply as a storehouse of truth, therefore there
are no “laws of mission.”
6. The church is by its very nature missionary.
7. There is no geographic definition of mission.
8. “Mission” = God’s mission; “Missions”= the missionary ventures of the church
9. Mission is “the whole church bringing the whole gospel to the whole world.”
10. Missions is “participation in God’s existence in the world.”
11. Mission includes evangelism as one of its essential dimensions.
12. Mission is an expression of our opposition to & engagement with the world.
13. The church is a sign of what God wants the world to be. The church is a
sacrament of what God wants the world to be.

14. Part 1: NT Models of Mission
• Ch 1: NT as Missionary Document
• Ch 2: Matthew: Mission as Disciple-making
• Ch 3: Luke-Acts: Practicing Forgiveness &
solidarity with the Poor
• Ch 4: Mission in Paul: Invitation to Join the
Eschatological Community

15. Part 2: Historical Paradigms of
Mission

16. Ch 5: Paradigm Changes in Missiology
• The Six Paradigms of Church History
1. Apocalyptic Paradigm of Primitive Christianity
2. Hellenistic Paradigm of the patristic Period
3. Medieval Roman Catholic Paradigm
4. Protestant Reformation Paradigm
5. Modern Enlightenment Paradigm
6. Emerging Ecumenical Paradigm

17. Paradigm Defined
• Thomas Kuhn
– "The entire constellation of beliefs, values,
techniques, & so on shared by the members of a
given community." (184) Thomas Kuhn
– "science does not really grow cumulatively ... but
rather by way of "revolutions.” This is known as a
“paradigm shift.”

18. Paradigm Defined
• "Our views are always only interpretations of what
we consider to be divine revelation, not divine
revelation itself (& these interpretations are
profoundly shaped by our self-understandings)."
(182)
• "It is an illusion to believe that we can penetrate to a
pure gospel unaffected by any cultural & other
human accretions." (182)
– "These include the person's ecclesiastical tradition,
personal context (sex, age marital status, education),
social position (social "class" profession, wealth,
environment), personality, & culture (worldview,
language, etc)." (182)

19. Paradigm Shifts in Christianity, Hans Kung
"Each of these epochs … reflects a theological
"paradigm" profoundly different from any of
its predecessors. In each era the Christians of
that period understood & experienced their
faith in ways only partially commensurable
with the understanding & experience of
believers of other eras." (183)

20. The Impact of a Paradigm
• "the hegemonic pervasiveness of a society's
dominant ideology (ie. paradigm) is so great that
when that society thinks it is acting in a neutral
fashion it is really being guided by hidden
ideological constraints." Apple, 1979, 22

21. Jay Gary
• Küng claims we must always keep our paradigm
of the church&theology both "centered"& on the
"horizon" (p. 222). He asks:
1. Centered: Is this paradigm of religion – measured
against the Gospel of Jesus Christ as norm –really in
keeping with the Scriptures?
2. Horizon: Is this paradigm –measured against the
paradigm of society as such –still up to date?
Jay Gary, Can't Christians be Questians?
http://www.christianfutures.com/mclaren_questian.shtml, accessed Feb 19, 2010.

22. Paradigms & Theology of Mission

23. In Theology, paradigms sometimes live
on.
• Sometimes they have a "revival" like the revival
of Romans by Augustine, Martin Luther, & Karl
Barth.
• Old Paradigms Never Disappear Entirely.In all
denominations we have representatives from
fundamentalist, conservative, moderate, liberal &
radical believers all side by side.
• Sometimes we are committed to more than one
paradigm as the same time.

24. Issues with the Paradigm Concept
• Each group or supporter of a paradigm "uses it's
own paradigm to argue in that paradigm's
defense." (Kuhn in Bosch 186)
• You can only accept a paradigm if you have
already accepted it!
• "it cannot be made logically or even
probabilistically compelling for those who refuse
to step into the circle" (Kuhn in Bosch 186)

25. So paano?
• How do we deal with this? Are there no limiting
factors? Or must we just hope it all works out for
the best?
– Paradigm shifts can only be carried out on the basis of
the good news & because of the good news. It can
never be against the good news.
– Theology is connected not only to the present & the
future but also to the past.
– Contextualising Theology must remain dependent
upon God's revelation to Israel & through Jesus Christ.
– Scripture always takes priority.

26. Ch 6: The Missionary Paradigm of the
Eastern Church

27. Ch 7: The Medieval RC Missionary
Paradigm

28. Ch 8: The Missionary Paradigm of the
Protestant Reformation

29. Ch 9: Mission in the Wake of the
Enlightenment
God
Church
King & Nobles
People
Animals, Plants, & Objects

30. Ch 9: Mission in the Wake of the
Enlightenment
• 7 Characteristics of the Enlightenment
1. Age of Reason.
• Reason was natural & therefore uninfluenced by tradition or
presupposition.
2. Subject-Object Schema.
• World could be examined from scientific objectivity.
3. Elimination of Purpose.
• The cause determines the effect.
4. Belief in Progress.
• Fostered exploration & development.
5. Knowledge was Factual, Value-free & Netural.
• Facts are objectively true – knowledge without a knower.
6. All problems were solvable.
• Just need to keep on working at it.
7. People were Emancipated, Autonomous Individuals.
• Individual takes priority over community.

31. 1. Reason
• Church Responses
– Locate Religion in Human Feeling & Experience
– Privatize Religion
– Make Theology a Science
– Create a "Christian" Society
– Embrace the Secular Society

32. 2. Separation between Subject & Object
• The idea of the Bible as "pure doctrine" arose
where the truth is unobscured by the observer of
that truth.
• We are much different from the original
hearers/readers so we need to somehow
interpret these texts for us now. Separates the
text from the reader -- neither affects the other
• "treat the biblical tradition as mere object. The
scholar examined the text but was not necessarily
examined by it." (271)

33. 3. Elimination of Purpose
• Human planning took the place of trust in God. If
we plan it right, it will happen (cause & effect).

34. 4. Philosophy of Progress
• Soon the whole world will be Christian.
• Christianity became an irresistible power in the
process of reformation, development, etc.

35. 5. Distinction between Fact & Value
• We just need to choose what “facts we like the
best.”
• Theology is concerned “with the facts &
principles of the Bible” (Hodge).
• There is only one “truth,” but religion was
categorized as a “value.”
• Science & religion were thought to deal with two
separate domains thus they could co-exist but
neither could infringe upon the others domain.

36. 6. All Problems Are In Principle Solvable
• No miracles.
• “All one needed was sufficient knowledge in
order to understand, plan, and control events &
developments” (273).
• God was only good for cancer, etc.

37. 7. Everyone is an Emancipated,
Autonomous Individual
• Individualism
• Each person had the right & ability to understand
& and know God’s will & word. So each person
could make their own decisions about what to
believe.