Understanding Christian Mission: Participation in Suffering and Glory
Overview
This comprehensive introduction helps students, pastors, and mission committees understand contemporary Christian missions historically, biblically, and theologically. Scott Sunquist, a respected scholar and teacher of world Christianity, recovers missiological thinking from the early church for the twenty-first century. He traces the mission of the church throughout history in order to address the global church and offers a constructive theology and practice for missionary work today.
Sunquist views spirituality as the foundation for all mission involvement, for mission practice springs from spiritual formation. He highlights the Holy Spirit in the work of missions and emphasizes its Trinitarian nature. Sunquist explores these topics from a primarily theological—rather than sociological—perspective, showing that the whole of Christian theology depends on and feeds into missions. Throughout the book, he presents Christian missions as our participation in the suffering and glory of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the nations.
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- Provides a theological introduction to missiology
- Offers insight into the early church’s view of missions
- Focuses on the Trinitarian nature of missions
- Suffering and Glory in History: The Mission Movement
- Ancient and Medieval Mission
- Colonial Missions, Part 1: Globalization of Roman Catholicism
- Colonial Missions, Part 2: Orthodoxy, the Americas, and Modernity
- Western Missions: Christianization, Civilization, and Commerce (1842 to 1948)
- The Waning and Reconception of Christian Mission: Postcolonial Missiologies (1948 to present)
- The Suffering and Glory of the Triune God: Trinitarian Mission in Scripture
- The Creator God as the Sending Father: Missional Scripture, Missional God
- Jesus, Sent as the Suffering and Sacrificing Son: The Centerpiece of Christian Mission
- Holy Spirit in Mission: Presence, Participation, and Power
- Suffering and Glory of the Church: The Church in Mission Today
- Church: The Community of Worship and Witness
- Witnessing Community: Evangelism and Christian Mission
- Urban Community: Mission and the City
- Global Community: Partnership in Mission
- Spirituality and Mission: Suffering and Glory
Top Highlights
“Therefore, as an introduction, this book is primarily concerned with right thinking about Christian mission, right thinking about the church, and pointing toward faithful practices.” (Page 1)
“‘missional church,’ but I use it here to mean the responsibility of each and every church to participate in God’s mission in all its fullness.” (Page 9)
“Mission is from the heart of God, to each context, and it is carried out in suffering in this world for God’s eternal glory.” (Page xii)
“Christianity was transformed from persecuted minority cult to favored faith” (Page 29)
“While Asian Christians struggled to survive in a hostile anti-Christian context, European Christians, with the support of the empire, developed their understanding of the church for about one thousand years without that type of pressure—without their earlier missional context. With Europe cut off from most of Africa and Asia, the missional story became the long process of converting Western culture, not sending missionaries to other regions of the world.” (Page 29)
This book offers a fresh understanding of Christian mission endeavors from historical, theological, and ecclesiological perspectives. It explains how the realities of suffering and glory have shaped the practitioners of mission in local, regional, and international contexts. Scott Sunquist’s teaching and living in mission contexts shine through in his expert choice of peoples and events in world Christianity. This work is a must-read for all who reflect on Christian mission and its legacy and prospects.
—Daniel Jeyaraj, professor of world Christianity, Liverpool Hope University
A powerful primer on the history and theology of mission, this book brilliantly lays out a clear understanding of God’s mission, which the church today needs to recover and build on. It is a must-read for students exploring Christian mission for the first time as well as a comprehensive resource for practitioners currently involved with global mission.
—Tom Lin, vice president of missions, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Scott W. Sunquist earned his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and currently serves as dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He previously served as professor of world Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Sunquist has written numerous scholarly articles and is coauthor, with Dale Irvin, of the multivolume History of the World Christian Movement. He is also coeditor of A Dictionary of Asian Christianity.