Paul Joshua, Mylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies,
Chennai, India; PhD Candidate, University of Birmingham, UK.
E-mail:
p.joshua@ntlworld.com
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Abstract:
Reconciliation and the Integrity of Mission
To say that the world increasingly characterised by a ‘clash of civilisations’
is a hostile place for Christian mission, would clearly be an understatement. No
veteran commentator is required to establish ‘conflict as context’ for mission.
The notion that Christian mission is itself a cause of this conflict is
supplemented to that. Popular opinion in India seems to equate Christian mission
with cultural genocide. Viewed as a tool in the hands of western military,
economic and cultural might, mission is considered a primary factor
precipitating cultural division and religious antagonism. Christians are thus
paradoxically both victims and apparent perpetrators of conflict. We are,
furthermore, also helpless bystanders when atrocious crimes are committed on
other hapless minorities.
Does talk of the integrity of mission implicate such grave and complex matters?
If we answer in the affirmative a sustained engagement between the gospel and
cultures of conflict will be necessary. Pertinent also will be resources
necessary to offer solutions. We may discover in our scriptures, reconciliation
is a central strand within the Christian theological vision. In 2 Cor. 5:18-19,
the Christ-event is portrayed as an act of God “reconciling the world to himself.”
In true Pauline fashion, that notion is then extended to the church. God has
given us the ‘ministry’ of reconciliation, and to ‘ministry’ the ‘message’ of
reconciliation is cottoned on.
This paper will seek to discover how Christian mission may rehabilitate this
message and ministry of reconciliation into its theological warrant? What would
this imply for other strands within mission theology? What would this entail for
mission practice? If the integrity of mission is to be discussed at a time when
its propriety is itself seriously questioned perhaps even threatened, what role
does reconciliation play in communicating its integrity and urging its propriety
in the world today?