Book review: Transcending Mission: The Eclipse of a Modern Tradition (original) (raw)

2020, Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies

Rarely have I learnt so much from a book with whose core thesis I totally disagree. In one of the most challenging books I have read in recent years, Michael Stroope presents his extensive material with such clarity and persuasion that I found myself constantly on the brink of being persuaded by his ultimately flawed argument. Of course, Stroope knows from the outset that most of his readers will be culturally and psychologically predisposed to reject his case for abandoning the use of mission language and its associated theological categories in favour of Kingdom of God language and the dynamics of pilgrimage and witness, but the importance of this work is that it forces us to reappraise the balance between linguistic dis-continuity and contested meaning as problematic dynamics within contemporary Christian witness. Stoope's basic thesis is that the language of 'mission' is neither biblical nor ancient, it is inexorably associated with the negative implications of conquest, colonialism, paternalism and much more, and as a result it has ceased to, if it ever did, communicate the purposes of God towards his creation and should therefore be abandoned and transcended. The title of his book is a, thinly disguised, play on David Bosch's magnum opus Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Bosch, 2011) which he dismisses in the opening pages of his book, saying: In his efforts to transform mission, Bosch leaves mission rhetoric untouched, with only a brief admission of misplacing it in the chronology. By so doing, Bosch does not transform mission but compounds the confusion, perpetuates a problem.. .. His emphasis on missio Dei appears to add clarity and to identify which questions we should be asking, but in the end, such an emphasis does little to resolve the difficulties with the source and meaning of mission (p. xvii). Bosch does not stand alone. In his first chapter, Stroope addresses the ranks of esteemed missiologists, whom he categorises as 'partisans' and 'apologists'.