D avid Bosch's Transforming Mission is a great book. 1 Its scope is comprehensive; it is, as Lesslie Newbigin put it, a summa missiologica. It is in three parts. Part 1, which reflects Bosch's deeply committed study of the New Testament, develops his first paradigm: "the apocalyptic paradigm of primitive Christianity." Part 3, which deals with the contemporary world, explores his sixth paradigm: "an emerging ecumenical missionary paradigm." 2 Between Bosch's parts 1 and 3, between the New Testament and the contemporary world, lies part 2, "Historical Paradigms of Mission," which I consider in this article. In his part 2 Bosch proposes four epochs in the history of mission, each of which has its own characteristic "paradigm": the missionary paradigm of the Eastern church, which he calls "the Greek patristic period" (p. 190); the medieval Roman Catholic missionary paradigm; the Protestant (Reformation) paradigm; and the modern Enlightenment paradigm.Bosch acknowledges Hans Küng as originator of this sequence of paradigms. He also recognizes that there are other ways of subdividing the history of the church (p. 188). He refers appreciatively to James P. Martin, who in 1987 proposed a threeepoch periodization: "precritical" ("vitalist," including Küng's Eastern, Roman, and Reformation paradigms), "critical" or "mechanical" (the Enlightenment), and "postcritical" (holistic and ecumenical). 3 Here I evaluate Bosch's treatment of the early church, which he deals with in his second and third historical paradigms. Having assessed Bosch's chapters on the early church, I propose to join James Martin in suggesting a different, three-paradigm approach to the history of mission.
The debate concerning the approach of the early Christians to the military can be advanced by paying attention to a genre of literature that scholars have largely ignored: the church orders. These documents-the Apostolic Tradition, Canons of Hippolytus, Testament of Our Lord, and Apostolic Constitutions-are illuminating in that they deal with ethics within comprehensive treatments of worship, catechesis and pastoral life. They also are useful in that they, as variations upon a common original, are means of monitoring change across the third and fourth centuries. This article uses the church orders to assess four elements of a "new consensus" (David Hunter) on Christians in the military. By and large it confirms these, but at times it alters emphases and adds nuances. It argues that: (1) the church orders viewed killing as the big problem for Christians in the legions, not idolatry; (2) the church orders confirm that the pre-Christendom church was divided on Christian participation in the legions; (3) the church orders provide evidence for both discontinuity and continuity on the issue across the centuries, although the deepest continuity, based on John the Baptist's "rule" of Luke 3.14, is between the pre-Constantinian laity and later theologians; (4) the church orders confirm a regional variation in attitude and practice. The church orders' authority in practice is never clear.
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