Abstract
Converting Witness is a valuable Festschrift that honors and is inspired by the legacy of Darrell L. Guder. Flett and Congdon aim to capture Guder’s influential work in missiology, World Christianity, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and theological hermeneutics.
The strength of this volume is the grounded, inspired, real-world application of influential theology. Eberhard Busch’s chapter, which takes up Guder’s work on Karl Barth’s missiology, is a highlight. Busch argues that Barth taught that the church, as the “salt of the earth,” must resist both “secularization” and “sacralization” and must live for God and for the world (49). Other than Guder, the most mentioned theologian is Lesslie Newbigin, demonstrating the latter’s captivation of evangelical thought in recent years. His attitudes toward other religions is assessed by Seong Sik Heo (from South Korea) and Deanna Feree Womack (from the United States), allowing a fascinating cross-cultural discussion on a less explored area of this well-researched British missionary.
The volume holds rich contributions to the field of missiology. Stephen Bevans, a Roman Catholic, provides the only denominational variance. His chapter explores the importance of “catholicity” in apostolicity for mission (18). Christine Leinemann-Perrin explores the problematic notion of “Christendom.” She implores Global South scholars not to disregard “one and a half thousand years of European history as a precondition to develop locally rooted theologies” but to assist in the understanding of medieval Christianity (72). Her chapter opens a fascinating area for further research in World Christianity, yet the grasp of the legacy of Christendom that inhibits non-Western scholars from exploring Christianity creatively and contextually is brushed aside for a normative Reformed theology of Christendom reliant on Karl Barth.
Guder’s concern that Western Protestants not “enshrine one cultural articulation of the Gospel as the normative statement for all cultures” (193) is recorded in this collection but not observed. World Christianity is sheepishly explored through Seong Sik Heo’s contextual exploration of Newbigin and Samuel Escobar’s contribution, which marks the significance of Latin American theology for evangelical-ecumenical missiology. Discussion about ecumenism is also lacking. Henning Wrogemann, in a phrase that would make Dietrich Bonhoeffer turn over in his grave, states that the goal of ecumenism should be to “maintain contact with other Christians” (209). This phrase raises concerns regarding Wrogemann’s unfavorable view of Pentecostal and charismatic forms of liturgy (206, 208). On what grounds can Christians challenge each other’s practices if ecumenism does not bind us together in Christ but is simply a kind of communication tool?
This volume provides a very good introduction for understanding the trends of contemporary, tentatively progressive missiology from a Reformed, mostly American, perspective, which is so indebted to the work of Darrell Guder. Flett and Congdon have captured the thought and direction of Guder’s missiology and theology well, and this volume adds to popular themes in the fields of missiology, interfaith relations, and Reformed theology.