In his history of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, Brian Stanley suggests that contemporary use of “culture” in mission may be vulnerable to the same critique as was the use of “race” in the colonial missions. However, sensitivity to culture and context in postwar and postcolonial missiology has encouraged diversity, interculturality, and movements for greater equity. Drawing from contemporary missiology and critical race theory, this article asks whether attention to “culture” and “context” has mitigated racism in mission or tended to obscure it.
Mission studies, or missiology, is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes theological, historical, and social scientific methods. It represents over a century of scholarship related to the theology, history, and methodology of the propagation of Christian faith and the development of Christianity worldwide. We examine the current state of the field of mission studies, explaining how the structure of this Handbook mirrors the field’s structure and concerns. Then we analyze current trends in mission studies that emerge across the Handbook’s chapters, areas of growth that will shape the practice of missiology moving forward. In particular, we highlight emerging critical approaches within missiological scholarship to ecumenism, interreligious engagement, the missio Dei paradigm, grassroots agency, human mobility, and academic knowledge production. We underscore the relevance of the study of the history, motives, and operations of missions for academics in diverse fields, and policy makers in contexts of religious plurality, social need, and conflict.
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