The twentieth century marked the end of an era in western relations with Asia and Africa, and in Christian missionary enterprise. The Gospel had reached the ends of the earth, and the churches founded as a result of missionary effort, albeit representative of precarious minorities, had a new relationship with their mother churches, and had taken up their own evangelistic tasks. Were missions an historical contingency? Is there theological necessity for the churches to continue, in an ecumenical area, to send missionaries across secular and national boundaries? A re-examination of the Biblical basis of mission was an essential part of the search for an answer to this question. Blauw has surveyed what twentieth-century theologians felt about the problem.

Blauw bases his account of the foundation and motivation for mission on theological and biblical research. The author shows that: "a 'theology of mission' cannot be other than a 'theology of the Church', as the people of God called out of the world, placed in the world, and sent to the world."

Foreword
Introduction

1. The Point of Departure and General Perspective of Universalism in the Old Testament
2. The Old Testament Message of Universalism as a Missionary Message
3. The Old Testament Message of Universalism as a Messianic Message
4. The Inter-Testamental Period
5. The New Testament Message of Universalism in Relation to that of the Old Testament
6. The Missionary Message of the New Testament in Contrast to with the Old Testament
7. Towards a Theology of Mission?

Notes
Abbreviations
General Bibliography
Index of Bible References
Index of Authors

   Introduction » (PDF, 245 KB)
   Extract from Chapter 4: The Inter-Testamental Period » (PDF, 347 KB)

Dr. Johannes Blauw was Secretary of the Netherlands Missionary Council and a member of the Commission of World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches.