Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom [Paperback]

Orlando E. Costas (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (November 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883441470
• ISBN-13: 978-0883441473
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,259,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mission has to be done outside the gate to have credibility., September 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom (Paperback)

Orlando E. Costas, a missiologist born in Puerto Rico, was a former professor of Missiology at Eastern Bapstist Theological Seminary and Andover-Newton Theological Seminary. Much of his missiology was reflecet on the road, as he used to say. In "Christ Outside the Gate", Costas proposes a missiology and a missionary work which has to be autenticated by the those who hane not. It was Outside the Gate that Christ died and it was Outside the Gate that he set the example for the church. This book challenges the rich church to consider what kind of mission it is producing. For Costas, a mission done from the center to the periphery is not validated by the Gospel. This book is still a challenge for many missions directors and missionaries as well. Whoever reads this book will have his/her life challenged. My Ph.D. dissertation was on Costas'Missiology.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mission not just from but to the West, March 31, 2010

By 

Darren Cronshaw (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom (Paperback)

Orlando Costas, Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom (NY: Orbis, 1982)

Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw

Costas, an Hispanic evangelical, gives a provocative interpretation of missiology from the margins. He calls for bold self-evaluation of missionary effectiveness and suggests missional commitment is shown not just by beliefs but lived behaviour. Costas perceives a crisis of church and theology includes:

* a culturally bound church and an ideologically captive theology

* a clergy-dominated church and a laity-dominated clergy

* a gospel without demands and demands without the gospel

* a mission in crisis and a crisis in mission

He bemoans individualised feel-good domestic religion that insulates Christians from following Christ in the world: `Salvation lies outside the gates of the cultural, ideological, political, and socioeconomic walls that surround our religious compound and shape the structures of Christendom. It is not a ticket to a privileged spot in God's universe but, rather, freedom for service' (p191). It is good to learn from people from other cultures, and Christ Outside the Gate is a classic call to mission that is not just from but to the Western world.

Originally appeared in Darren Cronshaw, `The Emerging Church: Introductory Reading Guide', Zadok Papers, S143 (Summer 2005).

4.0 out of 5 stars What a Challenge He Has Left, May 28, 2011

By 

Marc Telesha (Allentown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom (Paperback)

Not very well known as he should be. I challenge anyone that is working in a church to read this book. Why are you doing what you are doing? Is it a really personal feeling or do you have purpose for your actions and beliefs. If your Christianity is a small non-scriptural magical prayer about Jesus, heart and heaven your missing out on the real Jesus and just living out a tradition. Please you owe yourself to read this book and hear what Orlando Costas has to challenge you.