Abstract
In a sense, this book can be categorized as a distillation of thoughts on mission studies and its cognates in various perspectives (e.g., interreligious dialogue, comparative theology, intercultural theology) by a professor who has taught the subject for decades in various global contexts, especially Tanzania and Indonesia, in addition to the Netherlands. Wijsen begins the book with an introductory chapter titled “My ‘Pilgrimage’ in Mission Studies,” which is helpful in situating the six chapters of the book as they address a wide range of topics, including intercultural theology, practical theology, dialogue and syncretism in African Christianity, the resurgence of religion in a transmodern world, African Christianity, inculturation to interculturation, and communication between Europeans and Africans. The chapters are held together by the framework that has guided the studies, which Wijsen develops in four types of responses in cultural contacts: partaking in both cultures, rejecting one of the cultures, rejecting both the cultures, and a synthesis of both the cultures (17–18). In the inquiry of culture encounters, mission studies and its cognates are persistently challenged by the intricacies of power within the so-called cultures, and it is critically important to engage in robust and transparent conversations with whomever the interlocutor happens to be. The import of mission archives, often ignored in studies of intercultural encounters because of bias toward a “field encounter” with local cultures, needs highlighting. Anthropology that considers history clarifies the dialectic of the intercultural encounters, as the critically acclaimed work of anthropologists Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff has demonstrated. Furthermore, mission studies as intercultural communication need to consider that “religion” is a dialectic construct that has included Christian missionaries.
The chapters are structured with helpful summaries, recommended further readings, and a set of five questions for each chapter, which provides helpful guides to students for clarifying the concepts and engaging the core points of each chapter. Although the references seem a bit gendered in certain sections (e.g., women scholars from Africa such as Mercy Oduyoye, Musa Dube, Esther Mombo, and Isabel Apawo Phiri are missing), a bibliography of almost thirty pages is a helpful resource.
For students exploring mission studies, Introduction to Mission Studies can be read together with Christian Mission, Contextual Theology, Prophetic Dialogue (ed. Dale Irvin and Peter Phan) and Ecumenical Missiology: Changing Landscapes and New Conceptions of Mission (ed. Kenneth Ross et al.).