Missiology: An International Review

Traditionally doing theology has been the domain of men. Yet, throughout Christian history, there have always been a few women that have defied this pattern. As Christian women, they took on mission tasks. They developed mission theologies.

This paper contrasts the traditional method of doing top down theology in the Imperial Mood to a method that women use to develop theologies — the Contextual Mood. Although this process of experience/action/reflection has been used by women for centuries, post-colonial critiques of Christian mission brings this methodology into prominence as a most suitable method of doing mission theology in the postmodern era. Moving this methodology from the pre-theoretical, intuitive domain into conscious understanding and articulation can turn the contextual method into a strong tool for developing women mission theologies.

Many Muslim women care about their communities. This has propelled some of them to faith in Jesus. In him they have seen a righteous citizen, a just man. Since Muslim women are diverse, others have come to faith in other ways: through reading Scripture, through dreams, visions, exorcisms, or healings, through Christian friends, through awareness of Jesus' affirmation of women, through an assurance of heaven, through emotional healing from dysfunctional relationships or through a joint family decision.

Since at least the 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio, Roman Catholic teaching has endorsed a multi-faceted mission platform, thus giving official recognition to the work of Catholic women missionaries, who were formerly referred to as “auxiliaries.” A look at women's experiences in two recent mission gatherings and examples from mission economics, companioning, and martyrdom illustrate both the contribution Catholic women made to a holistic approach to mission and the lingering nineteenth century themes of domesticity and “woman's work for women” as reshaped by U.S. Catholic women missionaries today.

A growing body of literature focuses on the many contributions of women to the theory and practice of mission. This corrective is long overdue. What perhaps is overlooked in this process is the reminder that within the ‘missio Dei’ is God's intent that mission be carried out in true partnership: male and female together. We can be grateful that that vision was embraced by several early Presbyterian missionaries in Alaska, and it provided a seedbed for today's collegial relations between women and men who together are serving as mission practitioners and professors at most of our Presbyterian and other mainline seminaries.

One of the most important mission theories for the past two centuries has been the idea of the “Christian home.” Historical research, interviews with current missionaries, and studies of Christianity in the non-western world all show that the Christian home remains a central metaphor for how women conceptualize what it means to be a witness for Christ. In this paper, I will discuss why the Christian home remains important for mission practice, examine reasons for its omission from academic discussions of mission theory, look briefly at its history and changing definition, and conclude by urging that the Christian home be a renewed priority in discussions of missionary contextualization for the twenty-first century.