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Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (American Society of Missiology Series)

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Transforming Mission is a scholarly, in-depth study of major missionary paradigms from the first century until the present. Bosch's point of departure is that the Christian faith is "intrinsically missionary." He distinguishes between the missio Dei - God's own involvement in the world, and Missions - the church's missionary activity. He believes that to carry out God's mission the church can neither focus its activity exclusively on saving souls nor on this-worldly human progress -it must do both.
He first surveys the New Testament model of mission, claiming that the advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked a significant change in the concept of mission as understood in the Old Testament. Jesus' ministry was characterized by inclusiveness and breaking down barriers between people. His goal was directed toward all Israel rather than only the remnant of the faithful. Bosch makes the point that one of the most well-known missionary texts, the Great Commission, cannot be divorced from the rest of Matthew's gospel. He believes that Matthew envisions a mission to both Jews and Gentiles and that this mission is characterized by discipleship and a call to challenge social injustice. Luke's understanding of mission highlights repentance and forgiveness of sins as well as economic justice and peace-making. Paul's understanding of mission focuses on the church as an eschatalogical community which is works for the improvement of society while awaiting the ultimate renewal of all things with the parousia.
In the second part of his analysis Bosch draws upon the work of Hans Kung and Thomas Kuhn. Kung identified six periods within the entire scope of Christian history during which a particular paradigm was prevalent: 1) The apocalyptic paradigm of primitive Christianity, 2) The Hellenistic paradigm of the patristic period, 3) The medieval Roman Catholic paradigm, 4) The Protestant Reformation paradigm, 5) The modern Enlightenment paradigm, and 6) The emerging ecumenical paradigm. Bosch makes a theological application of Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific paradigm shifts, claiming that the six historical periods in the history of the church were each characterized by a particular theological paradigm. He points out that theological paradigms, unlike their scientific counterparts, do not make a complete break with old ideas. Sometimes elements from older paradigms are incorporated into new ones. Old and new paradigms can often exist simultateously among different groups of believers. Occasionally an old paradigm is rediscovered by a later generation.
At the conclusion of his survey of historical paradigms, Bosch emphasizes that mission is ultimately multidimensional. The contours of these many dimensions are shaped by six major "salvific events" chronicled in the New Testament: Christ's incarnation, by which he fully experienced the challenges and struggles of being human; his crucifixion, which signifies the completeness of his service and self-sacrifice; the resurrection, which conveys a message of victory and hope for humanity; the ascension, which calls Christians to work for a new order here on the earth which issues from above; Pentecost, which inaugurated the era of the church as a distinct community where social renewal is made manifest; and the parousia, which sets the sights of the church on the imminent and full realization of God's reign.
The depth and comprehensiveness of Bosch's work make it an important resource for any serious student of Christian missions. His many years of service on the field as a missionary coupled with his extensive theological training have given him many valuable insights into his subject matter.

Transforming missions is a scholarly work of importance for all scientists occupied with cross cultural encounters and matters of religion. The author, David Bosch, is one of several missologists who willingly share his rich and well documented work with other disciplines.

The book is well researched and the author is able to communicate complicated theological matters in a most convincing way. The book is readable and accessible to a long range of intrested persons and not merely to experts or specialists.

From a scholarly point of view Bosch provides the researcher with an analysis that gives a good framework for further research on the matter of missiology and historical cross cultural encounters. However, I miss references and analysis that can be more easily related to central social science authors like Giddens and Habermas and modern philosophers of care and interpersonal relationships.

I also miss a more penetrating discussion of the Eastern Orthodox churches and the paradigm shift in their missiological thinking.

Bosch has provided as with a bridge of understanding that is most helpful. His book will hopefully be read by many and will most certainly provide inspiration for many scholars.

Transforming missions is a scholarly work of importance for all scientists occupied with cross cultural encounters and matters of religion. The author, David Bosch, is one of several missologists who willingly share his rich and well documented work with other disciplines.

The book is well researched and the author is able to communicate complicated theological matters in a most convincing way. The book is readable and accessible to a long range of intrested persons and not merely to experts or specialists.

From a scholarly point of view Bosch provides the researcher with an analysis that gives a good framework for further research on the matter of missiology and historical cross cultural encounters. However, I miss references and analysis that can be more easily related to central social science authors like Giddens and Habermas and modern philosophers of care and interpersonal relationships.

I also miss a more penetrating discussion of the Eastern Orthodox churches and the paradigm shift in their missiological thinking.

Bosch has provided as with a bridge of understanding that is most helpful. His book will hopefully be read by many and will most certainly provide inspiration for many scholars.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This book was sent in great condition. No markings, no undue wear and tear to the cover. I recieved it well ahead of attending my class. I was very pleased and would not hesitate to order from this business again. I got great service at minimal cost! Thank you very much.

Overall, Bosch retained my interest throughout the lengthy reading because of his skillful, user-friendly presentation of an apparent lifetime of research and virtual encyclopedia of information. What easily could have been a mind-numbing inundation instead for the most part was a compelling, interesting, instructive, and revealing exercise. Without a doubt, however, the one book should have been three (one for each main section), giving the reader both physical and psychological breaks in a treatise that easily fits the term, "too much information." This also would have naturally sharpened the author's focus to limit his tendency to repeatedly wander back and forth through various centuries and decades. Still, on the general subject of missions of which I now have read numerous volumes, I have read shorter books that were much less readable, yet contained proportionately even less analysis, information, research, and sheer volume. For this alone, Bosch deserves unparalleled credit, managing on the whole to retain clarity, focus, and forward movement from cover to distant cover.

I appreciated Bosch's innate ability to distill and synthesize sweeping movements (e.g. the Enlightenment), elusive definitions (e.g. rationalism), and history's ever-changing meanings of central concepts (e.g. missiology). Continual revisiting and overlapping of these chameleon-like emphases helped track their ebb and flow through history, including evolutions (or devolutions), metamorphoses, and transformations. At the same time, through revisitations from various perspectives, Bosch helped to further clarify and illustrate his points, many of which were new thoughts for me, such as the inherent dualism of much of Christianity between the mission of the church and mission outside the church.

Some points were better elucidated than others and thus were more credible, e.g. the rationalizing and relativizing influence of the Enlightenment on Christianity, which is still felt today. Other points, while equally well addressed, did not carry the same credibility for me, e.g. laying so much emphasis on eschatology and pre- versus post-millennialism as overriding and determinative factors in missions thinking. Bosch makes the case for me that these were factors, even weighty motivators, but I wonder respectfully if they should be given such exalted status as primary influences, especially as comparable to the still enduring effects of the Enlightenment. At the same time, my own vision of mission was greatly expanded and now includes a bigger picture that necessarily and critically includes eschatology.

In other areas, Bosch surprised me by balancing with remarkable objectivity what at first seemed to be writer's bias, e.g. explaining the sources and rationalization of liberation theology, even using the combustible language of "emerging" and "ecumenical." Too many have used this type of theology to springboard into what amounts to "invention theology" (my term), as if prior ecclesiastical or theological problems justified throwing out the doctrinal baby with the dirty bath water and completely reinventing Christianity, which would be "emerging" from the ashes of the freshly torched model. Even as I cringed, awaiting similar flights of scriptural fancy, Bosch truly was an equal opportunity analyst and just as mercilessly exposed the equally gaping flaws of the emerging, postmodern paradigm, which was the identical treatment to which he exposed all the other movements and paradigms under his microscope.

To his enduring credit and my deep appreciation, at no time did Bosch ever abandon orthodoxy, regardless of the stretching the postmodern paradigm inflicted and demanded of it. Stretching, learning, growing, and all-new, never-before-imagined -- yet valid -- inculturations are worlds away from the antithesis of Bosch's postmodern paradigm, which is cultic abandonment of orthodoxy, motivated by obvious political, selfish, and sinful agendas, e.g. today's many militant socio-political machines. Even though these are purely anthropological machinations, they are justified under the all-inclusive banner of "justice" themes (e.g. "economic justice" for wealth redistribution), all of which are similar to the genuine "justice" of Bosch's paradigms, but only similar as darkness disguises itself like light but is not light.

No other single element of Bosch's extensive treatise spoke more loudly to me than his intellectual honesty and uncanny ability to retain clarity of focus, objectivity, and fairness of all the critical elements that are in play in any given paradigm (including the critical retention of the core realities of orthodoxy), particularly during Christianity's biggest and most heated challenge to date, the postmodern paradigm. Because of his exhaustive research and intimate command of the subject, Bosch could have ushered in a most clever Trojan horse, caving in to the pressures of the secularists touting spirituality without a clue as to its facts or values, its history or praxis, its truth or mission. While others cavalierly throw both scripture and caution to the wind, sound theologians like Bosch insist that responsible Christians do not follow suit, but rather proceed with one ear to scripture and the other to the Spirit, ready for maximum flexibility but never compromising the heart of the faith, ready for ongoing evolutions and surprises but never abandoning the gospel of the ages -- which was given for every person in every age.

The book impacts my ministry as a chaplain because in a jail environment, there is no such thing as a filtering or segregation of cultures or choice of congregants. In this unique and theoretically impossible environment, I face a literal microcosm of many of the world's cultures -- most of whom would not have chosen their comrades. My instinct has been to follow many of Bosch's recommendations, such as letting the gospel flower take root as it will in the foreign, variegated soil of the jail, but not until now have I had the words for what I instinctively sensed (or learned by trial and error) was the right thing to do. I also now have numerous cautions as well as positives to transform into intentional choices as I continue to follow my calling to minister to what many would literally call the "ends of the earth," or at least those whom many consider "least of the least of these."

I especially will take to heart and begin to put into practice the culmination of Bosch's capacious study, which throughout placed the accent on balanced tension (within Christian mission), which he tipped toward compassion while seamlessly maintaining a lifeline connection to both the first hope incarnated in history and the future hope of the second incarnation. As he pointed out, the second hope supersedes the first and should be the best message shared with the world, already incarnated in the gospel's ambassadors. This is Bosch's "patient impatience of the Christian hope" (508).

Almost any book on mission that you pick up today will cite Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology. I read the 26th printing dated October 2010. The insights contained in the book have an enduring nature and many critical missiologies' interaction with Bosch's book is testimony of that.