Salt, Light, and a City, Second Edition: Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community: Volume 1, Western Voices

By Graham Joseph Hill and Michael Frost

Graham Hill's pioneering classic remains the seminal work on missional ecclesiology. The bestselling first edition redefined theology for the missional church. Hill builds biblical foundations in conversation with major theologians, including Sarah Coakley, John Zizioulas, Stanley Hauerwas, Miroslav Volf, and Jurgen Moltmann. In this major update, he offers new insights and provides fresh examples of missional churches. In the first edition, Hill interacted with twelve major theologians to build a missional ecclesiology. In this thoroughly updated edition, he interacts with sixteen major theologians from the Western world. This edition includes five new chapters and an expanded treatment on the key convictions of global missional theology. It also offers a new study guide that has been uploaded on an innovative website linked to this book. This expanded edition now becomes volume 1 in a series on missional ecclesiology. In volume 2, Hill will turn our attention to voices from the Majority World.
 
Known for his groundbreaking approach to theology--theology for the global missional community--Hill shows how God is releasing his global church to mission, across all cultures and Christian traditions. This extensive update to Hill's influential work offers pioneering theology and practices that will continue to shape the global missional church for generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Jun 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532603235

Graham Joseph Hill

Graham Joseph Hill serves with the Uniting Church in Australia as Mission Catalyst—New and Renewing Communities. Previously, he was the principal and associate professor of world Christianity at Stirling College (University of Divinity) and vice principal of Morling College. Hill is a research associate at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of thirteen books, including Healing Our Broken Humanity (co-authored with Grace Ji-Sun Kim). His author website is GrahamJosephHill.com.

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Salt, Light, and a City

Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community:

Volume 1, Western Voices

2nd Edition

Graham Hill

foreword by Michael Frost

34457.png

Salt, Light, and a City

Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community: Volume

1

, Western Voices

Second Edition

Copyright ©

2017

Graham Hill. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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8

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, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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8

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www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-0322-8

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-0324-2

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-0323-5

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Hill, Graham.

Title: Salt, light, and a city : ecclesiology for the global missional community: volume 1, western voices / second edition / Graham Hill.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books,

2017

| Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers:

isbn 978-1-5326-0322-8 (

paperback

) | isbn 978-1-5326-0324-2 (

hardcover

) | isbn 978-1-5326-0323-5 (

ebook

)

Subjects: LCSH: Church. | Church—History of doctrines. | Mission of the church.

Classification:

lcc bv601.8 g73 2017 (

print

) | lcc bv601.8 (

ebook

)

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

03/21/17

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™ TNIV® Copyright ©

2001

,

2005

by International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Introduction: Theology for the Global Missional Community

Part I: Surveying the Euro-American Landscape

Roman Catholic

Chapter 1: Catherine Mowry LaCugna: The Church as Trinitarian Community

Chapter 2: Karl Rahner: The Church as Community of Witness

Chapter 3: Hans Küng: The Church as Eschatological Community of Salvation

Chapter 4: Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI): The Church as Communion

Eastern Orthodox

Chapter 5: Frederica Mathewes-Green: The Church as Ancient Faith

Chapter 6: John Zizioulas: The Church as Eucharistic Communion

Chapter 7: Thomas Hopko: The Church as Fullness of God

Chapter 8: Vigen Guroian: The Church as Peculiar, Ethical Community

Protestant

Chapter 9: Letty Russell: The Church as Household of Freedom

Chapter 10: Sarah Coakley: The Church as Desirous, Praying, Trinitarian Community

Chapter 11: Jürgen Moltmann: The Church as Messianic, Relational Koinonia

Chapter 12: John Webster: The Church as Communion of Saints

Free Church

Chapter 13: Reta Halteman Finger: The Church as Community of Shared Meals

Chapter 14: Miroslav Volf: The Church as Image of the Trinity

Chapter 15: Barry Harvey: The Church as Altera Civitas

Chapter 16: Stanley Hauerwas: The Church as Community of Character

Part II: Themes in Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community

Chapter 17: The Global Church: Encountering God’s Global Mission and Church

Chapter 18: The Mission-Forged Church: Participating in the Mission of God

Chapter 19: The Christ-Centered Church: Following the Messiah and His Mission

Chapter 20: The Spirit-Empowered Church: Responding to the Spirit’s Power and Presence

Chapter 21: The Trinity-Imaging Church: Reflecting Trinitarian Communion and Mission

Chapter 22: Salt, Light, and a City: Being the Global Missional Community

Resources at TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Bibliography

"If you want to know the theological conversation, and if you are tired (as I am) of everybody and her brother shooting up missional rockets that are supposed to solve all our problems (and don’t), then Salt, Light, and a City will slow it all down to a genuine conversation with biblical foundations interacting with the major theologians and issues. This is the most important book I have ever read on the church and its mission. Graham Hill has a profound grasp of important theologians and he shows how each theologian contributes to a robust missional ecclesiology."

—Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

Graham Hill ranges far and wide in order to construct a viable ecumenical, but distinctly missional, ecclesiology. In so doing, he provides us with a classy, intelligent, and passionate contribution to one of the defining issues of our time.

—Alan Hirsch, Founder of

100

Movements, Forge Mission Training Network, Future Travelers

"Salt, Light, and a City is no cloying attempt at a simplistic universal model for the missional church. Graham Hill insists we do the hard work of engaging Trinitarian theology, contemporary missiology, and broad understandings of ecclesiology to find a way forward. In brief, it is an invaluable addition to any library of research into the missional paradigm."

—Michael Frost, Founding Director, The Tinsley Institute; Vice Principal, Morling Theological College

"It is increasingly clear to me that Christian understandings of both the nature and the mission of the church are in considerable disarray today. Graham Hill’s highly important book offers the beginnings of a profoundly important exploration of both questions, together. Salt, Light, and a City is a must-read."

—David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

Graham Hill writes from a Protestant evangelical perspective, but this is a broadly based study, drawing on insights from all the historic traditions as well as biblical understandings and case studies that highlight the experience of those who are operating on the missional edge today. This is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussions about missiology and ecclesiology that will take the conversation forward in creative and well-informed directions.

—John Drane, Affiliate Professor in Theological Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary; Fellow, St John’s College, University of Durham

"Salt, Light, and a City is a global tour and an expounded select bibliography all in one package. Dealing with key traditions and themes, the book considers what can be said about mission and the church through key voices in the conversation. An array of angles and perspectives opens up the terrain. A helpful study indeed."

—Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement; Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

"Like never before, the missional movement in the West needs a bigger, broader, and more inclusive dialogue. Missional churches everywhere need better theology lest they will devolve into mere pragmatics. This is the promise of Graham Hill’s project Salt, Light, and a City: a bigger, broader, more inclusive and better missional theology for world Christianity as we come together to be churches in God’s Mission in the days to come."

—David Fitch, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary, Chicago; author, Faithful Presence

It is a theological imperative for students and practitioners of missional ecclesiology to have an ecumenical appreciation for the manifold expression of God’s mission among the body of Christ in the West. This book is one of the finest introductions to that task that you will find. Alongside the (forthcoming) second volume of this series, which centers on the thought and experience of non-Western and other marginalized voices, Hill is offering Western church leaders a resource of incomparable value as we seek a faithful witness to God’s global mission.

—J. R. Rozko, Co-Director, Missio Alliance

It is a meaningful experience to be a part of a tribe, but if our understanding of the nature and purpose of the church becomes tribal, it becomes limited. Graham Hill takes us to the mountaintop and gives us a breath-taking view of the global missional church. If you don’t want to settle for a reductionistic understanding of the missional church, then pick up this book, and reimagine what the church can be.

—J. R. Woodward, National Director, V

3

Church Planting Movement; author, Creating a Missional Culture; coauthor, The Church as Movement

For my wife, Felicity, and my daughters, Madison, Grace, and Dakotah.

This book is only possible because of their love and sacrifice.

Foreword

When Graham Hill bemoans the dearth of intentional and systematic ecclesiology in much of the missional conversation, I admit to feeling a pang of guilt. I suspect I may have played a part in stalling the discussion about missional forms of ecclesiology in certain circles. In my book, The Shaping of Things to Come , coauthored with Alan Hirsch, I proposed the formula that our Christology should determine our missiology, which in turn should determine our ecclesiology. Alan Hirsch reiterated this formula in his book The Forgotten Ways where he said,

Not only our purpose is defined by the person and work of Jesus, but our methodology as well. These set the agenda of our missiology. Our missiology (our sense of purpose in the world) must then go on to inform the nature and functions, as well as the forms, of the church . . . It is absolutely vital that we get the order right. It is Christ who determines our purpose and mission in the world, and then it is our mission that must drive our search for modes of being-in-the-world.¹

I have heard that formula quoted back to me many times in the years since: Christology determines missiology, missiology determines ecclesiology.

We felt that it was an important way to break the fixation that many church growth experts had with getting church right in order to attract a disaffected or uninterested generation back to Sunday morning attendance. Without much reference to rigorous biblical scholarship or the missiological paradigm it proposes, church leaders were jumping straight into questions of ecclesiology, exploring the forms of church that would most likely appeal to the current generation. Whether it was Peter Wagner’s homogenous unit principle or Kennon Callahan’s keys to an effective church (competent programs, accessibility, visibility, adequate parking, landscaping, etc.)² or Rick Warren’s purpose-driven approach (including seeker-sensitive services) or even Brian McLaren’s early emphasis on engaging postmodern yearnings,³ they were aimed at increasing the marketability of church services as the primary doorway to the Christian community and its message. As Warren said in The Purpose Driven Church:

Look beyond the hype of every growing church and you will find a common denominator: They have figured out a way to meet the real needs of people. A church will never grow beyond its capacity to meet needs. If your church is genuinely meeting needs, then attendance will be the least of your problems—you’ll have to lock the doors to keep people out.⁴

This comes shortly after Warren anchored church growth in the ministry of Jesus himself, by saying, "One of the impressive characteristics of Jesus’ ministry was that it attracted crowds. Large crowds. Enormous crowds."⁵ There was no reflection on the fact that these crowds dissipated as soon as Jesus stopped meeting their needs by feeding or healing them and started demanding radical obedience to his kingdom (see John 6:60–66). This approach to beginning the missional enterprise by first tinkering with church forms, seemingly without reference to the Gospels, led many of us, Alan Hirsch and myself included, to go back to first principles. Surely, we said, if we reencounter the ministry and teaching of Jesus this would necessarily shape our purpose in the world as his people. Our logic went: if we become students of the Scriptures, allowing our Christology to shape our missiology, then we can worry later about the forms of church that best serve that mission, depending on the context in which it is placed.

It has often bemused me that whenever I am conducting a seminar or teaching a class on the missional paradigm, the first question I always get relates to ecclesiology. Well, asks the first enquirer, what does this look like for a local church? I have always tried to resist answering this question too early. It betrays the enquirer’s desire to picture the practical ecclesial model I’m presenting and then (presumably) to buy that model off the shelf, so to speak. Instead, I would declare, let us focus on a trinitarian, Christ-centered missiology and we can worry about our ecclesiology later.

Well, clearly, later is upon us. Stalling the conversation about a missional ecclesiology can’t go on continuously. As Graham Hill points out, the discussion regarding a missional reading of Scripture and its contribution to a mission-shaped paradigm for the church is well entrenched. It seems that the time is well and truly upon us for a thoroughgoing examination of the contribution the missional conversation can have on forms of ecclesiology. Usually, when this kind of work is attempted, however, the writer appears blind to his or her own church tradition, thus exploring missional ecclesiology from entirely within that framework. Their blind spot limits the scope of their work, but Graham resists the temptation to ignore the presumptions of his own tradition and takes a broad brush to this enterprise by beginning with a very handy treatment of twelve European and American theologians. By so doing, he ensures that Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and specifically Free Church Protestant ecclesiologies are allowed to make a contribution to this discussion. Drawing on thinkers as diverse as Pope Benedict XVI, Sarah Coakley, Hans Küng, John Zizioulas, Jürgen Moltmann, Catherine Mowry LaCugna, and Miroslav Volf, Graham insists that we not reduce the development of a genuinely missional ecclesiology to the ideas of a handful of popular evangelical church leaders and their practical books on the subject. This early section of Salt, Light, and a City might be the most challenging for some readers, but I think Graham makes an impressive contribution to this area. He is broadening the canvas widely and all the while providing a lens through which to view it, a lens informed by the great missional thinkers, David Bosch, Lesslie Newbigin, Darrell Guder, and others.

The second section of this book will appeal more obviously to students, leaders, and practitioners looking for a mission-shaped ecclesiology, but I would caution readers not to jump straight there. The work of engaging with great ecclesiologies contributes very directly to the conversation that occurs later in Salt, Light, and a City.

David Bosch wrote, It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church.⁶ In other words, the church does not create its own mission; it is the mission of God that creates the church. Ecclesiological concerns really should follow hot on the heels of any meaningful missiological exploration. Referencing Lesslie Newbigin, Graham points this out very clearly in Salt, Light, and a City, and thereby chastises me for seeking to delay this important work. It is a deserved though gentle rebuke, in spite of my anxieties about readers’ inclinations to adopt inadequate, prefabricated models. Salt, Light, and a City is no cloying attempt at a simplistic universal model for the missional church. Graham insists we do the hard work of engaging trinitarian theology, contemporary missiology, and broad understandings of ecclesiology to find a way forward. In brief, it is an invaluable addition to any library of research into the missional paradigm.

In writing this I must declare that Graham Hill is a valued colleague of mine. I know him not only as an academic, but also as a friend and partner in the missional enterprise. A gifted scholar, he is also a missionary. This gives his work both theological weight and the energizing spark of passionate experience.

Michael Frost,

The Tinsley Institute,

Morling College, Sydney, Australia

1. Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways,

143

.

2. Callahan, Twelve Keys to an Effective Church.

3. McLaren, Reinventing Your Church.

4. Warren, The Purpose Driven Church,

221

.

5. Ibid.,

207

(italics in original).

6. Bosch, Transforming Mission,

389

.

Introduction: Theology for the Global Missional Community

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

—Matthew 5:13–16

In Matthew 5 : 13 – 16 Jesus provides three striking missional images of the church—salt, light, and a city. Jesus confronts his listeners with a missional depiction of the church. He seeks to reorient their understanding of their purpose in his redemptive plan.

The church in mission is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city set on a hill. As salt, light, and a city set on a hill, the church in mission has a clear purpose. It is to let its light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. The purpose of the church’s missional nature is the glorification and worship of the Father.

The church has always had to wrestle with what it means to have a missional nature and mandate, given by a missional God. The contemporary church is no different. It is confronting new missional challenges and opportunities. Missional literature has boomed in recent years. It responds to such things as pluralism, post-Christendom, globalization, postmodernity, secularization, and the numerical decline of Christianity in the West.

I am concerned that there is a lack of systematic or intentional ecclesiology in much of this missional conversation. This is problematic, for many reasons. Lesslie Newbigin says that congregations are the only hermeneutic of the gospel. All other missionary efforts have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.¹ So, we need an ecclesiology for the local and global missional community.

Here is how I have structured this book. Part 1 outlines the thought of sixteen Euro-American ecclesiologists. These are from the Catholic, Orthodox, Free Church, and Protestant traditions. This is an introduction to the ecclesiologies of these theologians. I do not deal with all their theological insights. Instead, I focus on parts of their theology that enrich missional ecclesiology.²

Part 2 presents theological themes in missional ecclesiology. I do this in conversation with those sixteen theologians and other sources. These theological themes are missional, christological, pneumatological, and trinitarian.

A Series on Missional Ecclesiology

This book is volume 1 in a series on missional ecclesiology. In this first volume, I deal with sixteen Euro-American theologians. I introduce some theological themes in missional ecclesiology. And I do this in the context of ecumenical conversation. I begin a conversation about ecclesiology for the global missional community. This series of books is an introductory missional ecclesiology. In the first volume, I outline missional ecclesiology in dialogue with sixteen Euro-American theologians.

Volume 2 will take a different approach. It will step away from Euro-American voices. Instead, it will ask what Majority World, Indigenous, First Nations, and diaspora voices teach the worldwide church about missional ecclesiology. The ecclesiologies developing within these contexts are profound. These include the theologies of people such as Kwame Bediako, Leonardo Boff, Samuel Escobar, John Mbiti, Oliver Onwubiko, René Padilla, Peter Phan, Juan Luis Segundo, Jon Sobrino, Tite Tiénou, and many more. We must develop missional ecclesiology within a global conversation. Any missional ecclesiology that ignores the insights of Majority World, Indigenous, First Nations, and diaspora thinkers will be impoverished. Volume 2 will complement the volume you hold in your hands.

The Methodological Hallmarks of Theology for the Global Missional Community

This particular series on missional ecclesiology fits into a broader theological project and method. I call this theological enterprise and method theology for the global missional community.

Now to the task of explaining this theological method and why I call it theology for the global missional community. Each of the five ideas signified in this method’s name is important. This is an applied theology. It has a purpose (for)—to serve, equip, enrich, and reflect the worldwide body of Christ, and to enhance theology, communio, and mission. It is constructed through a global, attentive conversation. It prioritizes missional theology. And it is unified by communio.

Below are the ten methodological hallmarks and presumptions of theology for the global missional community. These ten methodological hallmarks shape my theological enterprise. They are formative for my series on missional ecclesiology (the book you are reading is volume 1 in that series), and for my other books, including GlobalChurch.³

Here I describe these ten methodological hallmarks in shorthand. They are a work in progress. I will explain them in more detail in a future work.⁴

1. Communio is the essential and unifying theological motif. The center of this theological vision and method is the eternal community of the triune God and the community he constitutes. This is not some abstract notion of community. This is not a communiology, it is a theology.

Communio is the foundation, means, and telos of creation. The triune God exists in eternal communio and invites his church into that love. Communio is essential to our individual and corporate being, purpose, and future. The triune God calls us into communion with the divine nature, his future glory, fellow Christians, the gospel, and his sufferings, consolations, and hope. We share this vital fellowship with the Trinity, and with all God’s people. A common possession unites Christians. This possession is the divine life and grace offered us in the life, death, resurrection, and hope of Jesus Christ.

Communio ensures that this is a trinitarian theological vision and method. But I do not subscribe to aspects of social trinitarianism. Communio tells us that the triune God is the essence, source, aim, and direction of human desire and life. We desire union with God and with others.

The church is a trinitarian, global-local, missional, diverse, transformed, sanctified, and historical-eschatological community. The triune God calls it into communio with himself and each other. So, communio is the essential and unifying motif in theology for the global missional community. This is a theological imagination shaped for and by the new humanity in Jesus Christ. This community comes from every nation, culture, ethnic group, and language.

2. The gospel is the climax of the defining narrative. A narrative defines my theological method. This is the story of the triune God, and especially the story of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the climax of this defining narrative.

First Corinthians 15:3–4 tells us that the gospel is of first importance. What is the gospel? Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. How does this gospel shape our lives, communities, and theology? For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.⁵

Theology for the global missional community attends to the entire, defining biblical narrative (creation to eschaton). In one sense, this whole narrative is both the story of Jesus and the gospel. But, in another sense, the gospel is the climax of that story, as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The entire, defining, biblical story describes our being. It frames our identity. It determines our purpose. It gives us our mission. And it reveals our hope. This story shapes my theology’s vision—a vision of God (the visio Dei). This biblical narrative must frame, infuse, and shape all theology. This includes, of course, our Christology, pneumatology, eco-theology, missiology, ecclesiology, soteriology, and eschatology.

The gospel story extends from creation to the end of history and the consummation of God’s kingdom. Theology for the global missional community acknowledges the centrality of the whole biblical witness and narrative. At the same time, it honors the climax of that story, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So, the gospel calls us to attend to personal salvation and the restoration of all things in Christ. The gospel is an invitation to join the story of the triune God, of biblical Israel, of the Jewish Jesus, and of God’s reign. A narrative defines theology for the global missional community, and the gospel is the climax of that story.

3. Mission is the mother, wellspring, and driving force. Mission is the impetus, power, energy, motivation, fountain, and mother of my theological method. As Martin Kähler says, Mission is the mother of theology.⁶ For the early church, theology grew out of mission, and mission was enriched by theology. David Bosch says the church theologized out of (and as a result of) its missionary encounter with the world. So, we must theologize in mission. We need a missional theology and a theological mission.

Communio leads to the mission of God, and to the gospel story, and to us joining in that mission and story. The missional God (missio Dei) has a missional church. The church does not have its own mission. God has a mission, and the church joins that mission.

Since communio includes the restoration of all things in fellowship with the triune God, our mission must be integral and holistic. We join the messianic mission of the Son, in the power of the Spirit, to the glory of the Father. Such integral mission dismantles all polarities and oppositional binaries. We tear down false divides, such as evangelism-justice, sacred-secular, proclamation-action, practical-theological, Word-Spirit, and more. And communio leads to an integral mission that incorporates proclamation, justice, healing, creation care, politics, signs and wonders, reconciliation, and human flourishing.

Theology for the global missional community privileges and accentuates mission. Missional theology permeates and penetrates and shapes theology for the global missional community.

4. Transformation and renewal are the goals. The church needs transformed and renewed theology, practices, and spirituality. Transformation and renewal are the goals of theology for the global missional community. So, my theology seeks orthodoxy (renewed beliefs), orthopraxis (transformed practices), and orthokardia (renovated hearts). All three need to be dynamic, transforming, life-giving, and integrated. All three are about personal and corporate transformation.

Theology for the global missional community refuses beliefs that are imposed and abstract. It rejects practices that are pragmatic and culturally reduced. And it denies spiritualities that are consumeristic and gnostic. Instead, it integrates orthodoxy, orthopraxis, and orthokardia in multiple ways and at many levels. This requires us to shatter false polarities and divisions, seeking integration. If transformation and renewal are the goals, theology for the global missional community must take on certain features. It must strive to be integrated, integral, holistic, interdependent, missional, disciplined, renovating, revitalizing, prayerful, desirous, loving, gracious, hope-filled, and communal.

5. Attentiveness is the principle mode through which theology is constructed. Theology is always unfolding in response to the ongoing revelation of divine truth. God continues to reveal himself and his ways to us, by many means and persons and cultures and traditions. (I am not discounting the unique place of Scripture in this revelation.) So, theology is in via, en route, partial, unfolding, and on the road.

Theology for the global missional community is a work of discernment and the Spirit. It involves hermeneutical awareness and cultural intelligence. It requires attentiveness to the interpretations, lives, cultures, traditions, and views of others. It is about discerning God’s divine presence in community and conversation. It comprises prayer, contemplation, study, embodiment, and more.

Theology for the global missional community demands attentiveness to (and conversations with) church and world. We pay attention to what God is saying to us through his church by listening to traditions, interpretations, cultures, ecumenical dialogue, World Christianity, global and local theologies, and the least of these. We notice what God is saying to us in the world by listening to philosophy, science, religions, cultures, worldviews, and more. God is not in all these things at all times. But he is often trying to speak to us in those places. Attentiveness is the principle mode through which we construct theology. Hence my passion for building theology in conversation with Euro-American, Majority World, Indigenous, First Nations, and diaspora voices.

6. The church is the primary social location. God calls his church to be a distinct people, with a distinct ethic, a distinct story, a distinct peace, a distinct community, a distinct diversity, and a distinct witness. The church is a distinct gathered and sent people. Theology for the global missional community sees the church as the primary social location for theology. We theologize as we gather. We theologize as we disperse (in schools, institutions, workplaces, families, and more). And we theologize as we join with God in his mission in the world.

The ekklesia is a gathered and dispersed embodiment of social, missional, and kingdom ethics. We construct theology as a distinct and alternative polis. We need academic theology, done in institutions. But the church is the primary social location of theology for the global missional community.

Today, more than ever, we need ecclesial theology. This involves training pastor-theologians, but it is much more than that. We need whole faith communities doing theology together for the good of the church, its communio, its theology, and its mission. Ecclesial theology forms as the church gathers and disperses. Ecclesial theology is formed and embodied and written in the service of the church. We must train, support, and release the whole believing community to do ecclesial theology together. Ecclesial theology is undertaken and embodied for the sake of fellowship, maturity, discipleship, ministry, witness, ethnics, and mission. The church is the primary social location for theology—especially the local church.

7. Culture is the conversation partner.⁷ Culture is theology’s counterpoint, mirror, conversation partner, protagonist, foil, enricher, and more. Theology for the global missional community is socially and culturally engaged and located. But it is not socially and culturally reduced.⁸ Theology for the global missional community explores where society, culture, and theology have enriched, shaped, and shackled each other. Sometimes all these things are happening at once. And this theology dialogues with a wide range of disciplines. This is a two-way conversation. These disciplines include ethics, politics, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, social theories, postcolonialism, gender and racial studies, cultural intelligence, aesthetics, creative arts, ecology, health, education, business and leadership studies, history, and more. This theology is interdisciplinary.

8. Eschatology is the orientation. Christianity is an eschatological faith—it is a religion of hope. Theology for the global missional community is eschatologically oriented. It is captivated by a vision of the rule and reign and kingdom and hope of God. This vision frames all our present efforts and theologizing.⁹

The church is a prophetic voice and a sign of hope. God compels the church to work toward the final reconciliation and restoration of all things. The eschatological kingdom shapes our theology, social ethics, mission, community, reconciliation, and justice. It forms our desire for the new humanity in Christ, and our efforts toward peace and reconciliation. We need to root our theology in practices of compassion, forgiveness, grace, and love, as a response to eschatological hope.¹⁰ We need to relinquish self-centeredness and embrace generosity, compassion, and forgiveness. We do this to show the inaugurated, but not yet consummated, kingdom of God.¹¹

The kingdom and reign of God is not the church. But the kingdom is not completely distinct from the church. The kingdom needs a church, and the church needs the kingdom. The church is part of God’s kingdom, and essential to God’s kingdom, but not the sum total of it. The kingdom is present wherever God rules. He rules in the church, in the life of individuals, in nations and cultures, and wherever God’s word takes root and grows. It is a now-but-not-yet kingdom, to use the terms of an inaugurated eschatology.

Hans Küng calls the church the eschatological community of salvation. The eschatological life, message, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus Christ usher the kingdom in.¹² As the eschatological community of salvation the church is an anticipatory sign of the final and already present reign of God. God’s eschatological reign shapes all dimensions of the church’s nature, structures, and mission in the world. This, of course, includes its theology. As a servant of God and his eschatological reign, the church directs its whole being toward the kingdom and messianic mission of Jesus Christ.¹³ Eschatology orients theology for the global missional community. It mediates faith, and helps integrate our thought, hope, compassion, justice, prophetic voice, reconciliation, peace, creation care, and so on.

9. Scripture is the norming norm. As Stanley Grenz and John Franke say, Scripture is theology’s norming norm.¹⁴ It plumbs, measures, illuminates, adjudicates, enlivens, inspires, norms, and more. The Scriptures are the authoritative word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. They have absolute and final authority in all aspects of corporate and individual faith, ethics, conduct, witness, and theology.

Theology for the global missional community does not shy away from biblical authority—it embraces it. In chapter 11 of GlobalChurch, I write the following: As I serve among churches in Australia, North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom, I’m struck by a trend. Western Christians seem to have a declining passion for memorizing and contemplating and interpreting and applying Scripture. I find this deeply concerning. When I serve in Asia and Africa and Latin America, I see the opposite. People are passionate for Scripture. They devour and honor and memorize it. They interpret it contextually, while maintaining a conservative bias. And they apply it creatively and bravely. This is instructive for those of us in the West. We need a revival in our enthusiasm for Scripture. This is not so that we ‘fall in love’ with Scripture. Rather, we devour Scripture as a means of knowing and adoring and following and magnifying our Lord Jesus Christ.¹⁵

We need to combine faith in God, confidence in Scripture, and contextual forms of interpretation. Theology for the global missional community makes some assertions about Scripture. I unpack these in more detail in the chapter of GlobalChurch I just mentioned. The Bible must be devoured as a means to know and love and serve and glorify Christ. Scripture must be interpreted glocally (globally and locally). The Bible is to be believed and obeyed and identified with and applied. (Here I tend toward critical realism.) Scripture needs to be contextualized. It can be interpreted by ordinary believers in community. It confronts and transforms cultures and principalities and powers. The Bible is understood by the oppressed and marginal and weak and despised. It is key in pluralist settings. Scripture must be interpreted in community. It needs to be read and applied with spiritual expectation. The Bible is a theological text, and must be read and interpreted theologically. The Christian Scriptures are Christianity’s and theology’s norming norm.

10. Love is the integrative power. God is love. But love is rarely at the center of theology. Theology for the global missional community acknowledges that love is the integrative power that unites faith, hope, community, mission, and all the rest. Human beings desire union with God and with others—a loving, intimate, transforming communio. The nature of love is most clearly expressed on the cross of Christ. So, theology for the global missional community is cruciform. Love is the integrative power in discipleship, fellowship, mission, and theology because communio is the foundation, means, and telos of creation. Love is at the center of theology because God is love and he has shown us what love is—Christ died for us.

These are the methodological hallmarks of theology for the global missional community. They are formative for this series on missional ecclesiology, including the book you hold in your hands.

I believe that a missional ecclesiology should undergird all missional activity. Missional writings have tended to be long on missiology and short on ecclesiology. But I think this is an unnecessary and artificial separation. My hope is that this book—and those that follow in this series—will begin to pull the streams of missiology and ecclesiology together. Today, the church needs an ecclesiology for the global missional community.

1. Newbigin, Gospel in a Pluralist Society,

227

.

2. My own theological convictions are Reformed Evangelical, Free Church, Neo-Anabaptist, charismatic, and missional. I outline those on my website, under the blog title The Theological Convictions That Frame My Ecclesiology. See my website www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com.

3. I published GlobalChurch in

2016

. It examines what the churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America teach the Western church about theology, faith, discipleship, mission, and more.

4. Two books have helped me clarify the features of my theological method. My method is different from theirs, but the processes they have used to define their theological methods have helped me. The first is Sarah Coakley’s God, Sexuality, and the Self. The second is Stanley Grenz and John Franke’s Beyond Foundationalism.

5.

2

Cor

5

:

14

–

15

.

6. Bosch, Transforming Mission,

15

–

16

.

7. Here I mirror some of Sarah Coakley’s language, but provide my own emphases. Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self,

88–92

.

8. See point

5

of Coakley’s théologie totale. Ibid.,

90

.

9. Chapter

8

of Grenz and Franke’s Beyond Foundationalism helped me think more clearly about the relationship between eschatology and theological method.

10. Volf, Against a Pretentious Church,

284

.

11. Volf, Free of Charge.

12. Küng, Church,

81

.

13. Ibid.,

96

–

103

.

14. Grenz and Franke, Beyond Foundationalism,

57

.

15. Hill, GlobalChurch,

292

–

93

.

Part I

Surveying the Euro-American Landscape

Roman Catholic

1

Catherine Mowry LaCugna: The Church as Trinitarian Community

The doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a practical doctrine with radical consequences for Christian life . . . Because of God’s outreach to the creature, God is said to be essentially relational, ecstatic, fecund, alive as passionate love. Divine life is therefore also our life. The heart of the Christian life is to be united with the God of Jesus Christ by means of communion with one another . . . Trinitarian theology could be described as par excellence a theology of relationship, which explores the mysteries of love, relationship, personhood and communion within the framework of