Christian Mission in A.D. 2000: A Glance Backward

Do not be confused: This was the presidential address at the annual meeting of the American Society of Missiology held at Aquinas Institute of Theology, Dubuque, Iowa, June 7, 1975. Gerald Anderson spoke as though he was in the year 2000 and looking backward—or “backcasting”—over the twentieth century. Actually, however, he was also looking toward the year 2000 and “forecasting” about some events that he thought might take place in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Never before published, the address shows some of the hazards of trying to anticipate the future. In giving this to Missiology for publication (without revisions) in A.D. 2000, Anderson says, “It was an interesting exercise, but I learned my lesson. Historians do reasonably well at looking backward from the present to learn about the future. However, I was trying to look backward from the future; I was ‘forecasting’ in the guise of ‘backcasting.’ Did it work? Not too well, judging from how far off I was about some of the events that I thought might happen in the last quarter of the century, but—fortunately—did not. It was fun, and it stirred up a lively discussion at the meeting, but in the future, I will stick to the past.”