Abstract
Credible people give their endorsement to this work. For example, Scott Moreau of Wheaton College Graduate School states that it is ‘a perfect book for those who want an overarching view of contemporary missiology from an evangelical vantage.’ Enoch Wan from Western Seminary notes how the gap within ‘the scarcity of textbooks in missiological research methodology’ is filled by this book. Nehrbass’s use of ‘advanced’ in the book’s title draws from a cross-section of primarily evangelical theologians and missiologists and assumes the text will guide the discipline of mission studies into a steadier and relevant future. Nehrbass’s biography mentions his experience of teaching missiology in two US evangelical institutions, and this lends credibility to his work.
From the outset, the author acknowledges the crowded and complex field of missiology because of its integration with many academic fields (p. 2). Therefore, the book’s purpose is to help the reader ‘integrate multiple academic fields to increase [one’s] understanding of how Christianity spreads across cultures’ (p. 1). The author’s definition of missiology is ‘the utilization of multiple academic disciplines to develop strategies for making disciples across cultures’, and therefore the missiologist is ‘someone whose primary work is to study the way Christianity spreads across cultural boundaries’ (p. 14). In other words, missiology is viewed as the study of cross-cultural disciple-making. This perspective is apparent in mapping a missional hermeneutic of the cross-cultural nature of mission with the ‘heart goal’ of ‘commit[ting] to joining in God’s desire to make Himself known throughout the world’ (p. 36). This is further developed in chapter 8, where cross-cultural discipleship is defined as ‘the process of teaching people to obey all that Jesus commanded’ and needs to include both teaching and action (p. 199).
Essential to the structure of the book is the distinction drawn between theories and models; the former being ‘descriptive explanations, grounded in data, of the way the world works’ (p. 6) and the latter are ‘prescriptive ways of doing things [or] “best practices” that emerge from empirical research’ (p. 8). Mission theories and models are passed down through generations of researchers and practitioners. Some stand the test of time, and others go into dormancy. These are signs of how missiology as an academic discipline has matured through the rigorous pursuits of past and current participants in the field. Nehbrass is clear about the interdisciplinary nature of missiology by stating how it draws from other academic disciplines in its pursuit of creating new theories and models. Examples within the scholar’s work of drawing from other fields include globalisation studies, anthropology, theology and biblical studies. The author’s missiological framework departs from the conventional three-legged stool metaphor for ‘theory, history, and anthropology (more broadly, the social sciences)’ (p. 16). Instead, missiology, while being interdisciplinary, is like ‘a river with countless tributaries (theoretical disciplines) that converge at the common goal of making disciples in cross-cultural contexts. As the river moves downstream, it serves multiple communities in endless ways (mission strategies)’ (p. 25). The river motif appeals to the author because it is flexible and adaptable, whereas the stool is fixed and rigid (p. 29).
The author is hoping the text will be used within environments of formal missiological studies because each chapter closes with ideas or topics to pursue as further research, review and reflection questions. Throughout the 337-page book are pointers of knowledge (‘knowledge goals’, new skills (‘action goals’) and attitudes (‘heart goals’) associated with many of the chapters. Keywords and their definitions are offset in the text for the reader’s benefit. Tables, charts and an impressive bibliography round out the pedagogical benefits of considering this work as a textbook for cross-cultural mission studies. There is no index, so that could be a limitation for serious missiology students, whereas the e-book version allows for electronic word searches.
The book is structured in two parts: Part one focuses on ‘Tributaries of Missiology’ and uses a river metaphor to plot out seven connecting points, each of which forms a chapter: connecting theology to cross-cultural discipleship, connecting history to cross-cultural discipleship, connecting anthropology to cross-cultural discipleship, connecting intercultural studies to cross-cultural discipleship, connecting development theory to cross-cultural discipleship (co-authored with Julie Martinez) and connecting education to cross-cultural discipleship (authored by Rebeca Burnett and Leanne Dzubinski). In part two, called ‘Distributaries of Missiology’, the emphasis is on defining cross-cultural discipleship, through missiological theories and models.
Profiles of various missiologists are offered throughout the book. They are brief and include the person’s academic contribution to the field. Some are well-referenced, and others are sketchy. Inclusions include Alan Tippett, Roland Allen, Gustav Warneck, Ralph Winter, C. P. Wagner, Don Richardson, Donald McGravan, Alexander Duff, Tom Steffen, and Dana L. Robert. John Piper is also there because of his Let the Nations be Glad, considered by Nehrbass to be a ‘missiological text’ (p. 46). The profile of Sherwood and Judith Lingenfelter is brief, even though their academic contribution to the field of cross-cultural missiology is noteworthy. Even shorter space is dedicated to the preiminent missiologist David Bosch. The only majority world mention is John Mbiti.
In chapter 3, the author observes how ‘the history of missions is not always done at the level of theory-building’ and therefore lacks a ‘widely accepted missiological historiography’ (p. 73). Nehbrass observes that ‘a canon of missionary biography’ is based upon the repeated reference to the work of historical missionaries, and he demonstrates this through his survey of mission professors, which identified the mission figures that should be included in the canon of the great missionaries. He searched the ALTA religious database (until 2018) for the number of references to well-known names ranging from Matteo Ricci to Adoniram Judson to Gladys Aylward and a dozen others. As expected, the older or better known the name, the more academic references there are.
In chapter 4 (‘Connecting Anthropology to Cross-Cultural Discipleship’), the author feels very comfortable with the topic. Here the tensions between anthropologists and missionaries in mentioned. Likewise, is the importance of cross-cultural study and understanding in mission emphasised. Perhaps the critical statement that displays the author’s bias is this: ‘Evangelical missiologists’ ultimate purpose for studying culture is to make disciples across cultures, as Jesus commanded’ (p. 109). The author also promotes the serious cultural study of the numerous cultures yet to be studied through ‘[t]he use of tools of anthropology to understand how the world’s various rituals, worldviews, kindship systems, and economic systems shape, and should shape the gospel’ (p. 131). Considerable space is given to developing a model of cross-cultural discipleship through an anthropologically informed grid. For example, Nehbrass states the model ‘involves addressing… integrated systems within culture, from cultural identity, to ritual, myth and symbol', and so on (p. 119). These include the study of marriage and sexuality; parent-client exchange, gender, status, and role; and the nuances of understanding worldviews.
The emphasis on cross-cultural discipleship is the focus of chapter 5. Here, the author covers the territory of acculturation and enculturation, intercultural and multicultural, culture shock prevention and competencies for involvement in this type of ministry. Because the author already declared a missiological emphasis on cross-cultural disciple-making, it becomes more apparent in this chapter why this approach is taken. It is to prepare Christians to cross from their own culture into another culture to bear witness of Christ with the hope of making disciples.
Chapter 6 explores the role of transformational development and holistic or integral mission. The author acknowledges and addresses the tensions in evangelicalism concerning these topics. A summary statement mentions the influences of postcolonial studies and how ‘missiologists are not agreed on the role of western money, western power, and even the role of economics in directing development’ (p. 171). Chapter 7 surveys the role formal and non-formal education activities have played in contextualised cross-cultural disciple-making strategies starting with the modern missionary era.
The second part of the book, the ‘distributaries of missiology’, opens with the author’s upfront claim that the essential purpose of missiology ‘is the Great Commission’ (p. 195). In chapter 8, Nehbrass presents an expansive model for discipleship that covers the spheres of healthcare, identity, communication, education, spiritual power, leadership, social life, economics, religion and worldview, mental health, recreation and arts and material culture (p. 204). The concept is that ‘cross-cultural discipleship is any activity that helps people across cultures to bring these spheres of their lives under the lordship of Christ’ (p. 202).
In chapter 9, influential theories informing cross-cultural discipleship are introduced, such as Andrew Walls’s indigenising and pilgrim principle, the C1-C6 scale of ‘Christ-centered communities’ (p. 208), unreached people groups and affinity blocs, the 10/40 window, the homogenous unit principle, Kenneth Pike’s emic-etic viewpoints, Paul Hiebert’s flaw of the excluded middle and Don Richardson’s redemptive analogies. These are included because they have been widely circulated even though missiologists have also debated them whereas the author acknowledges ‘most dissertations related to missions should generate explanatory theory and perhaps a prescriptive model’ (p. 227). The next chapter explores ground-breaking models for cross-cultural discipleship, starting with the three-selves model. Most of the chapter explores contextualisation including dynamic equivalence and the anthropological model, followed by multiplication methods including church planting, business as mission, short-term missions, ethnoarts and Bible translation. This latter section receives extra attention, no doubt, because of the author’s experience as a Bible translator in Vanuatu.
In the treatment of mission history, the author briefly acknowledges World Christianity or Global Christianity, both of which he defines as ‘an academic field that examines the practices and beliefs of Christians throughout the world’ (p. 87). Nehrbass explains how such studies are either historical or focus on the contextualisation of Christian theology. He acknowledges that students of missiology are increasingly from across the globe and may not be well-served by existing models of missiology (p. 32). Further attention is given to World Christianity in the final chapter called ‘The Future of Missiology’.
In conclusion, Advanced Missiology by its title implies that the text moves the discipline of missiology further and father in its development and progress. However, despite this title, seasoned students, researchers and practitioners of God’s mission may notice two underdeveloped themes: 1) the emphasis on cross-cultural discipleship as the purpose of mission keeps mission in the Western Christendom sending paradigm, the very place that the author acknowledges and seems to want to break free from but is also bound by it; and 2) the growing contexts of global Christianity, including migration, diaspora and the general movement of people is scantily acknowledged. The noticeable lack of input, referencing and profiling of majority world missiologists is an example. On the other hand, audiences that view missions as predominantly about fulfilling the Great Commission through cross-cultural discipleship will not be disappointed. In summary, the book reads as a comprehensive summary of the past four decades of Western mission posited as intercultural studies of the Great Commission focussed on cross-cultural discipleship.
