Reconciliation as a Pneumatological Mission Paradigm: Some Preliminary Reflections by an Orthodox
This article underlines the importance of reconciliation and healing in the life and mission of the church. It develops a new theology of mission that is no longer based on the old Christocentric uni-versalism but on a new trinitarian (i.e. pneumatological) understanding of the witness of the church...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2005
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| In: |
International review of mission
Year: 2005, Volume: 94, Issue: 372, Pages: 30-42 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | This article underlines the importance of reconciliation and healing in the life and mission of the church. It develops a new theology of mission that is no longer based on the old Christocentric uni-versalism but on a new trinitarian (i.e. pneumatological) understanding of the witness of the church. This is possible nowadays because of the reinforcement of pneumalology into missiologi-cal reflections, which together with the amazing expansion worldwide of the Pentecostal movement, determines the present day Christian mission. The article it based on the assumption that the Holy Spirit in both the biblical and patristic traditions is first and foremost eschatologically- (Acts 2:17ff) and communion- (2 Cor. 13:13) oriented. Since, however, a pneumatological approach of Christian mission cannot be received in the wider Christian constituency unless it is christologically conditioned, the article makes Christology its starting point. It argues that on the basis of Christ's teaching, life and work, the apostles were, and all Christians thereafter are commissioned to proclaim not a set of given reli-gious convict urns, doctrines and moral commands, but the coming kingdom. The message, therefore, is the good news of a new reality of full-scale reconciliation. From the epistemological point of view, the article builds upon the existence of two types of pneumatology in the history of the church. One type is “historical” and is more familiar in the West. It understands the Holy Spirit as fully dependent upon, and being the agent of Christ in order to fulfil the task of mission. The other type is “eschatological”, and id more widespread in the East. It understands the Holy Spirit as the source of Christ, and the church in term more of ‘coming together’, i.e., as the eschatological synaxis of the people of God in hut Kingdom, than of ‘going forth'for mission. Taking thu second type of pneumatology one step further, the article argues that mission in the conventional sense is the outcome and not the source of Christian theology. That is why for the Orthodox what constitutes the essence of the church is not her mission but the Eucharist, the divine Liturgy; the mission is the meta-liturgy, the Liturgy after the Liturgy. Nevertheless, reconciliation being the primary precondition of the Eucharist, it also automatically becomes a source of mission. |
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| ISSN: | 1758-6631 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International review of mission
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-6631.2005.tb00484.x |
