Beginning at the beginning: Reading missio Dei from the start of the Bible

Abstract

While Missiological hermeneutics have pointed to the missio Dei concept as key to the entire Biblical narrative, these readings have described God’s mission activity as commencing after the entrance of sin, rather than at the beginning of the Bible. This article argues that a mission hermeneutic ought to begin with the Bible’s opening chapters, where humanity’s vocation in the narratives of Genesis 1 and 2 need not be treated as a separate “creation mandate,” but as involvement in the missio Dei. Iranaeus’ theology provides a precedent for thinking that God’s perfecting work was still at an early stage when sin entered creation; and G. K. Beale’s reading of Eden as a garden sanctuary to be expanded gives at least one exegetical avenue for seeing the creation narratives as continuous with the mission entrusted to Abraham’s descendants. Missio Dei participation, then, is inherent to humanity, and sin’s origins can be framed as a refusal to embrace it.

Missio Dei’s complexity prefaced in synergism

“…This is further explained by Engelsviken (2003) that the church may be a witness to or a participant in the realisation of the kingdom, but it is not the primary or sole actor [in missio Dei] (Engelsviken 2003:483). In addition, and somewhat similar to how this article attempted to trace elements of synergism in the account of Noah and the Great Commission, Anderson (2017) gave several examples including, but not limited to, the calling of Abraham, which demonstrated how the triune God anticipated human participation in or cooperation towards fulfilling the objective of the missio Dei (Anderson 2017:414). In this way, mission remains rooted as a result of the triune God's initiative anticipating human cooperation towards the realisation of complete salvation.…”

Missio Dei through complexity theory: Complexity to total salvation

“…puts it more forcefully, noting that it is important to consider first the work of God the Father to whom the work of creating and maintaining the world is ascribed. It is for this reason thatAnderson (2017) recited St. Irenaeus of Lyon's understanding to locate the start of the missio Dei from creation phase, by stating:In terms of tracing a missio Dei hermeneutic from the start of the Bible, Irenaeus shows us one possible way of understanding an unfinished divine purpose in the creation narratives of Genesis 1-2. Keeping in mind that the theology of missio Dei centers on the Father's sending of the Son, Irenaeus allows us to see the Son's commissioning as potentially inherent to God's aims at creation -and so discern the Triune God's missional activity at the start of the Biblical narrative.(p.…”