Mission as breaking down walls, opening gates and empowering traders: From contextualisation to deep contextualisation

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Mission as breaking down walls, opening gates and empowering traders: From contextualisation to deep contextualisation
 
Creator Niemandt, Cornelius J.P.
 
Subject — —
Description The research addressed the issue of symbolic walls that divide, segregate, preserve and institutionalise. The way in which institutions and especially the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria facilitated symbolic ‘walls’ was discussed in the overview of the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology in the first century of the Faculty of Theology. The concepts of ‘gatekeepers’ and ‘traders’ were then applied because walls, paradoxically, need gates to facilitate control, movement and, eventually, life. Gatekeepers were described as the guardians of the status quo, and traders as agents who, in one way or another, facilitate movement, trade, flow and life in the midst of the shadows of walls. Missionaries are, by the very nature of the missionary enterprise, more traders than gatekeepers. Here, the work of Bosch – specifically his ground-breaking work on mission as contextualisation – provides an explanation of the art of mission as breaking down walls, opening gates and empowering traders. That is precisely why Missiology is particularly well suited to assist the church and theology in the art of breaking down walls. The theological imperative of contextualisation means that the life of the church, theology, and  thus theological training, cannot do without Missiology. The concept of ‘deep contextualisation’ was discussed as a particularly relevant approach to include a post-anthropomorphic discourse in Missiology. It can assist with the reorientation of the history of mission on the whole of history and, thus, also deep history. The concept also provides a way to address the discourses on colonialisation and includes a reorientation on the future and embracing hope.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Research Foundation
Date 2017-08-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v73i1.4621
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 73, No 1 (2017); 6 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4621/10017 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4621/10016 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4621/10018 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4621/9983
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Cornelius J.P. Niemandt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT