Parsing the Global Context of Mission

In the first chapter of his book, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, Lesslie Newbigin gives a brief but nuanced history of Western civilization, particularly against a backdrop of the dominance of Islam by the end of the ninth century. Newbigin does this to set up the historical context of how "missions" developed in the church of the West in order that he might (re)construct a more robust theology of the missional nature of God's people, particularly for the time in which we live.

Integral to this work is an assessment of the current state of the world, particularly relative to where it has been. Newbigin describes the global cultural hegemony of the West since the time the Enlightenment, but then goes on to describe how the West's power has waned over the last several decades. By the way, Newbigin is writing in 1974.

"To look at only the most recent chapter of the story shows that the rejection of Western leadership by the rest of the world has developed though various stages and is not yet complete. A century ago the Western nations so dominated the world that most of the rest of mankind stood in awe of the white man and accepted his claim to political, cultural, and religious leadership. Even when the movements for political emancipation began, the leaders of national movements accepted in large measure the cultural leadership of the West, using Western languages, political ideas, and forms of organization."

Those forms of organization, by the way, are a good part of what I am seeking to address directly and indirectly in my book, Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. Newbigin goes on to say, however, that it was not long before the West's cultural influence began to wane as well. Newbigin's argument becomes clearer at this point: the West has enjoyed unquestioned power and influence for a very long time, and that includes the church. In a globalized and increasingly sophisticated world such privilege and all the assumptions that accompany it are being deconstructed and dismantled. The challenge the becomes to "...learn afresh what it means to bear witness to the gospel from a position not of strength but of weakness." And to be honest, there is nothing surprising there. He and many others have been saying for a very long time. But then I think he makes an interesting turn.

"One almost universal feature in the world scene, however, seems unlikely to change in the near future. It is what has been described as the revolution of rising expectations. People in every part of the world are agreed in making demands upon society which in former ages were made only by a small segment in each nation. The French and American revolutions opened a radically new chapter in human history by establishing governments committed to the restructuring human life on the principles developed during the Enlightenment."

So while the political, martial, economic, and organizational biases of the Western world are being rejected or renegotiated, the standard of living it created and then glorified  is not. It is against this backdrop that Newbigin introduces one of the many challenges of mission in our world today. It goes to the fundamental nature of how we understand, and perhaps more importantly, incarnate the gospel.

"Everywhere people demand and governments promise 'the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' and everywhere people grow impatient and rebellious when the promise is not fulfilled; if there is one generalization about the human situation today that is almost universally valid, it is surely this. The inner relationship between this expectation of a new world and the Christian gospel of the reign of God is one of the issues that must be discussed in any contemporary theology of mission (italics mine)."

Comments

[Adam]

I'm just confused. I don't think I get what you're trying to bring out here.

Adam

[Andrew]

Interesting reflection Tim. Thanks.

I remember reading Newbigin's 'Beyond 1984'. it starts with a scene of Newbigin as a bishop in India wondering why he sees a Western youth trying to find himself by wearning rags and wandering about in a strange land in virtual poverty. I think that image closely relates to the final quote you pasted above.