Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Reading Scriptures missiologically
Chris Wright has an essay Truth with a Mission: Reading the Scriptures Missiologically, currently free for download here. It is a really good, concise introduction to the idea of the Bible as a missional book. It starts with the concept that mission is something we do, because the Bible tells us so. Wright argues that this is not because of a few favourite key texts, but because the whole Bible is itself a “missional” phenomenon. He suggests that
- the very Bible is a product of God’s mission
- evangelicals have been good at reading the Old Testament in light of Jesus, but poor at reading the Old Testament in light of mission
- God with a mission; humanity with a mission; Israel with a mission; Jesus with a mission
- a critique of Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission
; because of his failure to find mission in the Old Testament, because his understanding of mission, as boundary crossing, is simply too narrow
- so a look at the missiological implications of Old Testament themes of monotheism, election, ethics, eschatology.
This is a really helpful introduction to Wright. At 15 pages, it is much more accessible than his 580 page The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
(Hat tip via here)
)
Hi Steve, glad the post was useful and thanks for the link. Every blessing in your work, Tim
Comment by Tim Davy — October 13, 2011 @ 6:04 am
I heard Chris Wright deliver a series of Five lectures on Mission across the Scriptures at the Keswick Convention this year. It was most excellent fayre – by far the best I’d heard in the past few years there.
Chris exudes Christ in his preaching and teaching – learned and gentle
Real Gift to the mission of the church – thanks for plugging this, Steve
Comment by Eric — October 14, 2011 @ 3:45 pm