Review of the Series: Major Findings and Key Trends

As the Regnum Edinburgh 2010 Series draws towards its conclusion in 2015, it marks the completion of fifteen years of missiological engagement prompted by the centenary of the ‘Edinburgh 1910’ World Missionary Conference. It was the year 2000 – the millennial year – when John Pobee of Ghana came to Edinburgh to give a lecture on the prospects for Christianity in the new millennium. On that occasion one thing of which he spoke with great urgency and passion was the centenary of Edinburgh 1910, at that point 10 years in the future. According to John, this was going to be a moment of great significance for the entire world church. And he urged those of us who happened to be based in Edinburgh to prepare ourselves for a major focus on this centenary.

We took his words to heart and soon there was a coming together of churches, agencies and academic institutions to run an annual series of conferences, successively examining each of the eight Commissions which reported to Edinburgh 1910. Distinguished scholars from around the world were invited to address the conferences which normally brought together 60–80 people and met in New College, Edinburgh, adjacent to the Assembly Hall where Edinburgh 1910 was held. The proceedings of these conferences eventually provided the material from which Volume 1 in the Regnum Edinburgh 2010 series was formed (Kerr and Ross, 2009). Little did we ever think in those early days that it would be the first in a series that would stretch to more than 30 volumes.

However, I would say – and here I cannot make any claim to be unbiased – but I would say that there was a special quality to this effort from the very beginning. It was academic, scholarly – yes – but there were also elements of community, faith, worship, spirituality, fellowship and shared passion that lent a distinctive quality. It somehow embodied the mission which was the focus of its attention.

Let me recall a memory which is almost too private to mention but I do so to honour a beloved colleague. It fell to David Kerr and me to edit the book which became the first volume in our series. By this time David had moved to the University of Lund in Sweden and, as many of you will know, had been struck down by the motor neurone disease which led to his premature death. We were having an editorial meeting in Lund and David, by this time, was having to spend most of his time in bed. His bed was at the window and along the window sill, all nicely lined up, were the 10 volumes of the Edinburgh 1910 Commissions. Every last bit of strength he had he was devoting to our effort to produce a book on those Commissions. Yes, he was critical and meticulous in his scholarship but, more than that, he was pouring his life into this project. And over the piece that was true of so many others, though thankfully for most of us not in such extreme circumstances as David had to face.

By that time our small local effort in Scotland had sparked a very much larger international network around the Edinburgh 1910 centenary. This happened particularly through a meeting that we convened in Edinburgh in 2005 which was remarkable for two things, at least in my memory, which proved to be prophetic. One was the width of participation. It was a small meeting, just twenty people, but we aimed to make it as representative as possible, both geographically and confessionally. This became a hallmark of Edinburgh 2010. It has taken permanent form in the volumes that now form the Regnum Edinburgh 2010 series. These may have their shortcomings but I think we can safely claim for them that they have broken new ground in terms of the diversity of geography and confession brought together in a concentrated missiological study.

The other feature of that meeting that stands out in my memory is the miracle that 20 people from a great diversity of backgrounds meeting over just three days could arrive at a common view on the themes requiring study in the run-up to Edinburgh 2010. Eight themes were agreed by that meeting and they soon afterwards became nine when it was agreed to add one specifically on unity. The nine themes ran from that moment all the way to the Edinburgh 2010 conference, to its ‘Common Call’, and onward into the Regnum Edinburgh 2010 book series. The delineation of the themes and the unanimous decision to adopt them was a Holy Spirit moment if ever there was one.

The themes covered in the extensive book series are diverse and wide-ranging. However, in my estimation, if there is a unifying theological momentum to a series that ranges far and wide it would be in the pneumatological turn of Missio Dei thinking. The last half-century saw Missio Dei, the mission of God, become established as the key to understanding Christian mission. The distinctive deepening of this understanding brought to expression in the Edinburgh 2010 literature is to see the action of the Holy Spirit as the way the mission of God takes effect.

There is a passage towards the end of the 14th volume in the series, Mission Spirituality and Authentic Discipleship, which applies not only to this particular volume but also to the series as a whole:

The studies of Christian mission gathered in this book are diverse, both geographically and thematically. They span the globe and include a wide variety of both social context and ecclesial life. Together they demonstrate that today there is a renewal of the missionary impetus of the churches which is marked by its spiritual character. The outstanding case in point is the worldwide Pentecostal/Charismatic movement which is having extensive missionary impact and is unashamed about its emphasis on the spiritual dimension. It has reminded Christianity of its original character, correcting the over-cerebral and over-institutional form which it took during the modern period when global ascendancy apparently lay with the Western churches. A recovery of the spiritual dimension of the faith can be observed, however, in other streams within world Christianity as well. Wherever this occurs it functions as motivation for mission, moving people of faith to share the good news of Jesus Christ both within their own communities and by crossing frontiers to take the message to new contexts (Ma and Ross, 2014: 232–233).

The 2005 meeting sensed this, I believe, and also embodied it. But what it did not do was to imagine the scale of literary output that would ultimately result. At the time of writing, the series covers 9582 pages and will soon extend beyond 10,000. It has been a prodigious effort which could never have been achieved without its organisational hub at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, its indefatigable team of series editors, and the sacrificial work of hundreds of editors and authors who have sensed that the breath of the Spirit is blowing and committed themselves to join in. I am very glad that this issue of Transformation can salute them all and express our thanks to God.