Assessment of the past helps one seize emerging opportunities. The Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Foreign Mission Board (FMB) radically redesigned itself July 1, 1997, the most far reaching self-assessment since its 1845 founding. The FMB's changes neglected some essential historical precedents. In 1892, a band of FMB missionaries posted with the North China Mission resigned and established their own operation. They held and integrated three core values: indigeneity, incarnation, and responsible autonomy. Baptist historians have dismissed these dissidents because they considered them Landmarkers (an earlier movement that threatened the SBC itself). Later historical inquiry corrected this assumption demonstrating that Landmarkers seized the Gospel Mission Movement to serve its own ends not the reverse. What prorrpted these missionaries to leave their base of support and operate independently? Original sources tell the tale of strong convictions about missions that were more commonly apparent later, in a post-modern era. Gospel Missionism's peers did not listen, partly because of the Landmarkist confusion and partly because they advocated things others were not prepared to hear. The Gospel Missioners found it difficult to sustain their experiment outside the SBC. Hence, survivors gradually reentered the FMB structure, primarily the Interior China Mission. Their influence extended to the next generation of missionaries. Yet, indirectly their values entered the FMB's strategies through outside evangelicals which increasingly espoused similar core values. By 1985, the Board tackled the challenge of the least evangelized peoples. Trustees formed Cooperative Services International (CSI) to accommodate the need. Unwittingly, from within the FMB, CSI embodied Gospel Missionism's core values with more modern emphases. In 1997, trustees restructured the FMB and dismantled CSI. They borrowed its drive and its penchant for streamlined administration, but jettisoned its priority passion for those least evangelized. Only time will tell, but there is evidence that the FMB has reverted and embraced elements of an older paradigm, possibly because it was unprepared to face a postmodern future. This study concludes that the Gospel Missionism movement was a blending of both enlightenment and post-modern missiological ideals. It was an incipient, evangelical version of a post-modern missiological paradigm. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This study explores black African migrants' experience of racism in Berlin, today. Its vantage point is that of a missiological discipline. Since racism is a very complex phenomenon, both in the church and society; the study therefore, adopted a multidisciplinary approach. This helps us to better understand the different theoretical nuances, which inform racism as an ideology and, as a social construct. Against this backdrop, the study engaged the “pastoral cycle” (cycle of missionary praxis) by Holland and Henriot and developed by Cochrane et al as its theological framework. The research methodology consisted of data collection, interpreting and analyzing (comparing and contrasting primary sources in light of data collected). Personal narratives of research participants' experience of racism in a semi-structured format, formed part of the methodology, in establishing ecclesiastical, political, social and structural climate on how they contribute to the way that black African migrants experience racism in Berlin, today. Two forms of data collection were employed: Qualitative interview and observation instruments. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Theology)

In this study we studied how holistic mission should be accomplished. May we speak about social and evangelical mandates? This search is done through the examination of a Christian relief organisation, the Hungarian Baptist Aid. Our main research question was: Is the work of this service holistic? Although we concluded in the light of David Bosch's mission interpretation that their mission is not yet holistic, the model of Hungarian Baptist Aid is encouraging how we could multiply our resources that are placed in God's hand. How we can see a commission that seemed impossible can become possible, and how we can find our way in God's mission. / Christian Spirituality, Curch History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Text in German / This thesis takes as a starting point the societal change in Germany with its concomitant economic risks for substantial parts of the population. Evangelical churches in Germany have yet to react to this change. While the relationship between social work and mission has been a point of widespread discussion within the evangelical movement internationally, it fails to have any impact on local churches. The question is thus: how can a mission-oriented church benefit from Christian social reform movements? Transformative as well as holistic understandings of mission have already yielded an enlarged vision of mission as encompassing social justice. But how about a missiological paradigm which is practically translatable into cultural and social relevance as far as the local church’s vision for becoming an agent of societal change/reform is concerned? When interpreted missiologically, mediation can be such a useful paradigm, as its essence is conflict as a constant anthropological signifier of human/divine distance on the one side and God’s purpose of redemption as reflected in the church’s mission on the other. Thus mediation could be called a category of the missio dei. This practical implementation into the church’s work as being relevant for its community is reached by reverting to the sciences of social work, namely the concept of community development. As mediative community work, this approach will add to the profile of a mission-oriented church as determined to serve a holistic vision of the gospel. At the focus is thus the immediate social environment of a local church, in which it can trigger spiritual, personal, social, cultural and economic processes of transformation. In the social context of Germany this way of expressing the missiological drive of a local church seems to be a hopeful avenue, since the social and economic risks are likely to remain and are threatening a large percentage of the population with social marginalisation. It is here that the economy of community work will be furnishing useful aspects to help a mission-oriented church develop its mediative-communal thrust into its immediate social context in order to proclaim God’s redemptive purpose. / Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit ist die Beobachtung des gesellschaftlichen Wandels in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland samt seiner sozialen und ökonomischen Risiken für weite Teile der Bevölkerung. Eine Antwort auf diesen Transformationsprozess ist seitens der evangelikalen Kirchen in Deutschland ausgeblieben. Die Frage nach der Verhältnisbestimmung zwischen sozialer Arbeit und Mission ist in der evangelikalen Bewegung zwar international breit diskutiert worden, doch hat sie kaum Wirkung auf die Praxis der örtlichen Gemeinden in Deutschland gezeigt. Bearbeitet wird daher die Fragestellung, wie eine missionarisch orientierte Gemeinde in ihrem Sendungsauftrag Initiativen christlicher Sozialreformen umsetzen kann. Transformative und ganzheitliche Missionskonzepte haben bereits ein erweitertes Missionsverständnis hervorgebracht, welches die soziale Gerechtigkeit als missionarischen Auftrag mit einschließt. Die Frage stellt sich nun nach einem missionstheologischen Paradigma, welches praktisch in eine kultur- und gesellschaftsrelevante Tätigkeit einer missionalen Gemeinde umgesetzt werden kann, durch die sie zu einem Träger einer christlich geprägten Sozialreform wird. Das Paradigma, das hierfür erarbeitet und missionstheologisch gedeutet wird, ist das der Mediation. Sie offenbart in ihrem Wesen zum einen den Konflikt als anthropologische Konstante und somit die Distanz zu Gott und zum anderen die Heilsabsicht Gottes, die sich im Missionsauftrag an die Gemeinde widerspiegelt. So stellt sich die Mediation als Kategorie der missio dei dar. Die konkrete Umsetzung dieses Paradigmas in eine die Gesellschaft gestaltende Arbeit gelingt durch die Hinzuziehung des Arbeitsprinzips der Gemeinwesenarbeit aus der Sozialarbeitswissenschaft. In Form einer mediativ-gemeinwesenorientierten Arbeit gibt sie einer missional ausgerichteten Gemeinde die Möglichkeit ihren Sendungsauftrag mit einem umfassenden Heilsverständnis umzusetzen. Dabei steht der unmittelbare Sozialraum der lokalen Kirchengemeinde im Fokus des Interesses, in dem geistliche, persönliche, soziale kulturelle und ökonomische transformative Prozesse eingeleitet werden können. Bezugnehmend auf den Kontext der Bundesrepublik Deutschland erweist sich diese Art den Sendungsauftrag umzusetzen als hoffnungsträchtig, da die sozialen und ökonomischen Risiken in Zukunft weiter bestehen werden und ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der Bevölkerung bereits als sozial ausgegrenzt ist. Hier gibt insbesondere die Gemeinwesenökonomie Anhaltspunkte, wie eine mediativ-gemeinwesenorientierte missionale Gemeinde in ihrem Sozialraum den Heilswillen Gottes verkündigen kann. / Christian Spirituality,Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

The growth of the Church in Africa, namely at numerical level, is tremendous. However, we notice that her impact on society and public life is not so visible as the growth is, since Christian values are embodied by Christians. Yet, the Church has huge human resources, pastors, missionaries, lay leaders and theologians. The challenge for the Church in Africa is to incarnate and inculturate these values and the living message of the Gospel. In this thesis we question the co-operation between the Church and mission agencies, between native pastors and western missionaries. We notice that since 150 years, there has been a huge gap between these two entities. This is due to the fact that Theology and Missiology look like two lines that never meet. This situation leads us to revisit not only the current paradigm Church-Mission but also the current link between Theology and Missiology. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

Assessment of the past helps one seize emerging opportunities. The Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) Foreign Mission Board (FMB) radically redesigned itself July 1, 1997, the most far reaching self-assessment since its 1845 founding. The FMB's changes neglected some essential historical precedents. In 1892, a band of FMB missionaries posted with the North China Mission resigned and established their own operation. They held and integrated three core values: indigeneity, incarnation, and responsible autonomy. Baptist historians have dismissed these dissidents because they considered them Landmarkers (an earlier movement that threatened the SBC itself). Later historical inquiry corrected this assumption demonstrating that Landmarkers seized the Gospel Mission Movement to serve its own ends not the reverse. What prorrpted these missionaries to leave their base of support and operate independently? Original sources tell the tale of strong convictions about missions that were more commonly apparent later, in a post-modern era. Gospel Missionism's peers did not listen, partly because of the Landmarkist confusion and partly because they advocated things others were not prepared to hear. The Gospel Missioners found it difficult to sustain their experiment outside the SBC. Hence, survivors gradually reentered the FMB structure, primarily the Interior China Mission. Their influence extended to the next generation of missionaries. Yet, indirectly their values entered the FMB's strategies through outside evangelicals which increasingly espoused similar core values. By 1985, the Board tackled the challenge of the least evangelized peoples. Trustees formed Cooperative Services International (CSI) to accommodate the need. Unwittingly, from within the FMB, CSI embodied Gospel Missionism's core values with more modern emphases. In 1997, trustees restructured the FMB and dismantled CSI. They borrowed its drive and its penchant for streamlined administration, but jettisoned its priority passion for those least evangelized. Only time will tell, but there is evidence that the FMB has reverted and embraced elements of an older paradigm, possibly because it was unprepared to face a postmodern future. This study concludes that the Gospel Missionism movement was a blending of both enlightenment and post-modern missiological ideals. It was an incipient, evangelical version of a post-modern missiological paradigm. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This study explores black African migrants' experience of racism in Berlin, today. Its vantage point is that of a missiological discipline. Since racism is a very complex phenomenon, both in the church and society; the study therefore, adopted a multidisciplinary approach. This helps us to better understand the different theoretical nuances, which inform racism as an ideology and, as a social construct. Against this backdrop, the study engaged the “pastoral cycle” (cycle of missionary praxis) by Holland and Henriot and developed by Cochrane et al as its theological framework. The research methodology consisted of data collection, interpreting and analyzing (comparing and contrasting primary sources in light of data collected). Personal narratives of research participants' experience of racism in a semi-structured format, formed part of the methodology, in establishing ecclesiastical, political, social and structural climate on how they contribute to the way that black African migrants experience racism in Berlin, today. Two forms of data collection were employed: Qualitative interview and observation instruments. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Theology)

Text in German with abstracts in German and English / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-239) / Vorliegende missionstheologische Untersuchung geht aus von David J. Boschs ökumenischem Missionsparadigma als Vorschlag für ein ganzheitliches Missionsverständnis mit den Brennpunk-ten Verkündigung und soziales Engagement in einer postmodernen Welt. Auf der Suche nach einer geschichtsbezogenen Eschatologie als Grundlage und motivierende Hoffnung für die Kirche in ih-rer Mission, verweist Bosch mit einiger Zurückhaltung auf die heilsgeschichtliche Theologie seines Lehrers Oscar Cullmann. Die Arbeit setzt sich daher in einem ersten Teil kritisch mit unterschied-lichen eschatologischen Entwürfen und insbesondere mit Cullmanns Eschatologie und deren Impli-kationen auf das Missionsverständnis auseinander. Im Anschluss wird danach gefragt, ob und in-wiefern die Theologie von N.T. Wright die cullmannsche Eschatologie in Sinne von Bosch zu er-weitern vermag. Es wird schliesslich deutlich, dass Wrights eschatologischer Ansatz eine tragfähi-gere Grundlage für ein ganzheitliches Missionsverständnis darstellt, als derjenige von Cullmann. Die Untersuchung will einen Beitrag leisten zur Auseinandersetzung mit der Eschatologie und gleichzeitig Wrights Theologie aus missionstheologischer Perspektive kritisch würdigen. / This missionary-theological investigation takes as its point of departure David J. Bosch’s ecumeni-cal missionary paradigm as a proposal for a holistic understanding of mission with a focus on pro-clamation and social engagement in a postmodern world. In the search for an eschatology related to history as a foundation and motivating hope for the church in its mission, Bosch refers with some reservation to the salvation historical theology of his teacher Oscar Cullmann. Accordingly, the first part of the work is devoted to a critical engagement with different eschatological conceptions and especially with Cullmann’s eschatology and its implications for the understanding of mission. After this, we then ask whether and to what extent the theology of N.T. Wright can expand the Cullman-nian eschatology in the sense of Bosch. It becomes clear in the end that Wright’s eschatological approach represents a more viable foundation for a holistic understanding of mission than that of Cullmann. The study aims to contribute to the debate over eschatology and at the same to present a critical appraisal of Wright’s theology from a missionary-theological perspective. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit unternimmt den Versuch, einen konzeptionellen Entwurf einer empirischen Missionswissenschaft als Grundlagenforschung zu entwickeln, der im Praxisfeld durchgeführt wird. Dabei soll die intradisziplinäre Vorgehensweise einen methodologischen Zugang sozialwissenschaftlicher Methoden zur Missionswissenschaft möglich machen. Als Grundlage wird ein Einblick in die sozialwissenschaftliche und missionswissenschaftliche Forschung gegeben und daraus ein eigener, empirisch-theologischer Praxiszyklus entwickelt, der die Methodologie der Untersuchung darstellt. Die inhaltliche Forschungsarbeit fragt nach Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen aus missionswissenschaftlicher Sicht. Dabei wird die Möglichkeit missionarischer Begegnung und Ansprechbarkeit von Jugendlichen im Kontext der kulturellen Veränderungen des postmodernen Paradigmemwechsels beleuchtet. Die Frage, wie Gottesvorstellungen von Jugendlichen gesellschaftlich geprägt und wie sich dies auf ihre Religiosität in ihrem Alltag auswirkt, spielt in diesem Zusammenhang eine wichtige Rolle. Deshalb wird nicht nur der aktuelle Forschungsstand zur Thematik untersucht, sondern 18 Jugendliche werden in Form von halbstandardisierten Interviews qualitativ befragt und ihre Aussagen empirisch-missiologisch ausgewertet. Die Thesis hat somit zweierlei Zielsetzungen: Zum einen geht es um eine empirisch-theologische Studie zur Erforschung von Gottesvorstellung bei Jugendlichen im Hinblick auf ihre missionarische Ansprechbarkeit. Zum anderen zielt sie darauf ab, durch Umsetzung des empirisch-theologischen Praxiszyklus einen Typus zu entwickeln, der auch künftig in der Missionswissenschaft für empirisch-theologische Erhebungen eingesetzt werden kann. Summary The intention of this research project is to evolve a concept for empirical missiology as a method of fundamental research and to apply it in practice. Through the usage of an intradisciplinary approach, access to missiology via the methodology of the social sciences is rendered possible. To establish a basis, an insight into social as well as missiological research will be given, and an inherent, empirical-theological praxis cycle will be developed. This praxis cycle is the methodology of this research paper. Concerning content, this research paper scrutinises the image of God held by juveniles from a missiological point of view. It considers the missionary receptiveness of juveniles in the context of cultural change in the postmodernist shift of paradigm. In how far are juvenile concepts of God marked by the correspondent social environment and does that have an impact on their everyday religious behaviour? Consequently not only the current state of research will be evaluated but, furthermore, the half-standardised qualitative interviews of 18 juveniles will be enclosed and their answers analysed on an empirical- missiological basis. Hence, this thesis has a twofold aim; one considers empirical-theological research as a way of evaluating concepts of God among juveniles with regard to their missionary receptiveness. The other implements the empirical-theological praxis cycle aiming to develop a type which enables further empirical-theological investigation in missilogy. / Missiology / D.Th.

This doctoral thesis claims the vital significance of music in mission work, particularly from the Lutheran point of view. It, therefore, calls for a liturgical missiology which would positively affect missionary efforts, especially in the African mission context. After giving a theological foundation - the doctrine of the Trinity - and the concept of the missio Dei as its missiological basis, the thesis investigates its topic from different angles: Luther and music, music in the work of the Hermannsburg Mission in the region of the ELCSA-Western Diocese, the role of music in African culture and spirituality, some qualities of music relevant to mission and a few musical steps to approach the future of music in mission. These analyses corroborate music's importance in future Lutheran mission designed for the African context. Examining Luther's stance towards music, a strong affinity to music is recognised, both theoretically and practically. While interpreting music theologically, Luther employs music in his liturgical, educational and reforming efforts. However, the example of the Lutheran Hermannsburg Mission shows a usage of music without a proper theoretical foundation, as well as only partial efforts at contextualisation. In Africa, music plays a prominent role in the interpretation and expression of life and religion indicated in the Tswana choruses; music represents the wholeness of African existence symbolising the paradigm of harmony. Further, in mission, music's qualities, such as its cultural-social, symbolic, ritualistic and community-building qualities, support the integration of the convert into a fundamental relationship between the missio Dei and the missiones ecclesiae. With the help of a musica missionis, which includes missiological music and missionary music, the practice of future mission can be approached successfully; for instance, through the Africanisation of the Lutheran mission liturgy based on a context-musicology. Thus, a liturgically orientated theology of mission, meditating deeply on music's qualities (music being one essential element of Lutheran worship), has the potential to develop into a future liturgical missiology. This musical-liturgical approach to mission is encouraged by this thesis. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)