Don't Read This Book Once - Read it Two or Three Times! | Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology...

The Seminal Missional Text | Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (American Society of Missiology Series) | David Jacobus Bosch

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	• Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (American Society of Missiology Series) David Jacobus Bosch Orbis Books, 1991 - 587 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Must reading..

This is 'must reading' for any serious student of 'mission' and/or Missiology. No other text I am familiar with, so thoroughly considers the paradigms that have affected and drive 'mission' over the centuries.

Don't Read This Book Once - Read it Two or Three Times!

I judge a book by how much scribbling I do in the margins and by whether I want to read it again once I am done. At nearly 600 pages, this book is not an easy read, but I have never written so much in the margins of any book, and when I finished, I immediately started reading it again.

I put this book in my "Top 5 most influential books" that I have ever read.

The depth and breadth of research that went into this book is staggering, yet the ideas presented are memorable and (as the title suggests) transforming. If you read this book, your approach to missions, evangelism, discipleship, and church will never be the same.

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The Seminal Missional Text

David Bosch's masterpiece will undoubtedly remain the seminal text for missional theology over the first part of the 21st century. It is comprehensive, well-planned, well-written, and internally consistent.

It should be noted that this is a theoretical text and a heavily theological one, although some of the practical outworkings of it are evident. If you haven't read much theology before this, I would recommend reading a basic theology reader or textbook to become acclimated. You will have to read at a fairly high level to understand this book, and at a very high level to grasp the nuances and subtleties (certainly I am not at that level yet). If you are struggling with dense introductory theology books or don't know what to read, I will recommend a favorite of mine to you - Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Bosch has obviously read and has applied Barth's theology.

If one is engaging in almost any historical, biblical, or contemporary/practical study of mission, this text is the starting point. It is immensely rich and fairly dense, full of scholarly research and support, and even diverse in the sources from which Bosch draws. This text keeps on giving; it is a reference book for missional theology and history, and an example of how to carry out scholarship in the field.

Part 1 is a ~160 page exposition of "New Testament Models of Mission," focusing on the Gospel of Matthew, Luke-Acts, and Pauline epistles. I would suggest that work on the other two Gospels, the catholic epistles, and Revelation might be warranted, even though the task of the author would have been impossible and the book cumbersome were that the case. There is also little exploration of mission in the Old Testament or Jewish Bible (depending on your faith tradition). For a concise text which explores Old Testament mission, consult Richard Bauckham's Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World. Bauckham's text is certainly neither comprehensive nor infallible, but it does construct a simple unified understanding of the topic as it relates to a postmodern context.

Part 2 is a section of ~160 pages on "Historical Paradigms of Mission." The historical information is dense, organized, and extremely useful. Bosch has drawn from relevant church history to construct a history of mission within the framework of theological paradigms (see Hans Kung). The epoch and paradigm shift model gives us a basis for placing our period of Christian history and missional involvement within the whole of Church history. Bosch hardly leaves a stone unturned. An example of Bosch's keen insight and thorough investigation is his weaving of medieval monasticism into the tapestry of this text. I will grant that he does not concern himself much with ancient monasticism, and the reader will understand the reasons for this after reading the text. Regardless, this is a missional theology book, not a monastic history text. The missionary nature of medieval monastic activity is perhaps the most interesting and valuable claim that Bosch makes in this book, especially when many western Christians doubt the missionary impact of monks.

Bosch's historical investigations bring us to the contemporary ecumenical or "postmodern paradigm," the investigation of which comprises the final ~170 pages. Bosch explores thoroughly almost all conceivable aspects of mission in contemporary times. He equips the reader with the tools to construct a working missional theology without mandating agreement on a single universal model. He also recognize that our Christian hope is not complete in our action, but in Jesus Christ and the future hope in his completion of the salvation of the world.

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Great book!

It is a very interesting book and made me think a lot about world missions!

Foundational Book for Understanding Mission

This is a cornerstone for studies in missional theology. David Bosch gives a thorough analysis of Christian mission movement throughout history, starting from the biblical foundations for missions and moving through six paradigms he identifies throughout history. It is very dense, slow reading, but Bosch is also a writer who can be skimmed well. His writing is very structured, allowing a more casual reader to skim through some of the more dense sections without losing important content while still being able to converse with a more academic reader who has read the details as well. For anyone who takes mission seriously in the church, this is a must-read book.

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"The most comprehensive and thorough study of the Christian mission done in this generation, if not this century".........Alan Neely.

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