The Heritage of Mission Today

CONTENTS:

Series Preface v
Volume Introduction ix

PART ONE: EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE

Introduction to Part One
Cristian Sonea 3

Reading the History of Missions in Ecumenical Perspective: Some Reflections
Dimitrios Keramidas 7

Catholic Reflection on Missions before and after Edinburgh 1910
Wojciech Kluj 15

Joining in Missio Dei in the Czech Republic in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: A Mainline Protestant Perspective
Pavol Bargár 27

Romanian Evangelical Mission in the Context of Intra-Christian and Ecumenical Dialogue
Teofil Stanciu 39

Dreams of Freedom: Russian Pentecostalism Facing the
Challenges of the Global Context
Olga Zaprometova 61

Ecumenism
Tim Noble 71

The Ecumenical Dialogue between Acceptance and Rejection: A Romanian Orthodox Perspective
Doru Marcu 77

Interfaith Dialogue. An Antinomy and a Challenge for the
Orthodox Churches today
Evi Voulgaraki-Pissina 89

Mission: A Generative Modelling of the Church – Catholic Understanding of the Holistic Mission
Klara A. Csiszar 97

PART TWO: GERMANY

Introduction to Part Two. From Mission to Intercultural Theology: Contributions from Germany
Anton Knuth and Eckhard Zemmrich 107

I. Ecumenical-historical Contributions
Breklum Mission in India from Postcolonial Perspective
Joachim Wietzke 115

“What Is Mission?” The German Ausschuss and the Founding of the IMC
Michael Biehl 125

The IMC: Transforming Relations in Mission towards
Integrated Unity of the Church
Gert Rüppell 141

II. Case Studies
Promises of the Beyond: Walter Freytag’s Work and Theology in the context of Worldwide Mission and the IMC from a Postcolonial Perspective
Jörg Zehelein 167

Christian Goncalves Baёta, the last IMC Chairperson – an Ecumenical Pioneer
Bernhard Dinkelaker 181

III. Theological Perspectives
Migration, Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Theological Study Programmes: Internationalisation of the “Others” or a Path to Cooperation and Integration?
Frieder Ludwig 201

Mission Theology as a Mirror of Constructions
Ulrich Dehn 207

“Ecumenism of the Heart” – Heart of Ecumenism? Some Reflections on Opportunities and Risks of a Guiding
Concept for the 11th WCC General Assembly in Karlsruhe 2022
Eckhard Zemmrich 215

Contributors 225

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Cristian Sonea is a priest and Professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Babes-Bolyai-University in Cluj-Napoca. His research focuses on the contemporary theology of Orthodox mission and secularisation phenomena in Eastern European countries.

Anton Knuth is a pastor and the Director of Studies at the Academy of Mission at the University of Hamburg. He is interested in the entanglement of colonialism and mission and the processes of re-storying mission history within Global Christianity.

Eckhard Zemmrich is a pastor, Theological consultant for the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW) in Hamburg and private lecturer at Humboldt-University, Berlin. His research deals with systematic questions of Intercultural Theology and change processes of religious identity.

This volume of the International Missionary Council Centenary Series brings together the papers of two centres that participated in the global study process to mark the centenary of the International Missionary Council (1921): one from the Western, the other from the Eastern part of Europe. The authors contributing to this volume identify moments of cooperation in mission in the last century but also the need to critically examine the European colonial heritage as well as new incentives in search of orientation for Christian identity in a globalised world. Despite the different contexts and denominational backgrounds of the respective Mission understanding it becomes by this clear that the heritage of mission calls for more ecumenical cooperation today.