Discovering the Universal in the Particular: A Vision for Christian Mission Spirituality

Abstract

Christian Spirituality is not neutral. God's Reign or Kingdom is at the core of this spirituality and is political in that it informs, challenges, invites, influences, cajoles, and transforms in a life-giving way people's lives. This particular spirituality seeks out that which is transcendent and, in the light of this transcendence, offers a vision meaningful and inclusive for all. This reflection offers a vision for Christian mission spirituality going forward. The specificity of the Christian life and message has universal implications for the world. As this particular spiritual perspective engages other religious and spiritual perspectives a mutual enrichment occurs that has the potential to transform in a life-giving way individuals and communities living in an era of rapid economic, social, political, and cultural globalization. The concept of interculturation is proposed as an approach to serve the purpose of exploring a vision for an inclusive mission spirituality in an era of religious and cultural pluralism. Such a concept provides interpretive language, life-giving symbols and meaningful metaphors to understand and affirm the universality of every contextual particularity.

Mission and spirituality: Ecumenical convergence and creative tensions in a new millennium

“…In 1980, Reilly pointed out several trends in Christianity relevant to the development of missionary spirituality in his historical context: concern with the inculturation of faith, an increasingly pluralistic world, and a growing interest in the spiritualities of other religious traditions (442). Since then, authors have wrestled with these historical realities by looking at the nature of the global church and its mission (e.g., Avis, 2003), the need for a spiritual revitalization or reconversion of the west (e.g., Kettle, 2011), and the development of a mission spirituality in a world characterized by religious and cultural pluralism (e.g., Grenham, 2004Grenham, , 2012. Philip Jenkins in The Next Christendom described this new world where Christian spirituality and mission are flourishing in the Global South (2011: 16).…”

“…3 Finally, the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Missiology (ASM) tackled the theme "Mission Spirituality in Global Perspective" (Starcher, 2012). Missiology: An International Review published five theoretically diverse papers from that meeting (3; Gallagher, 2012;Grenham, 2012;Karecki, 2012;Oh, 2012;Myers, 2012). 4 This article examines the body of literature that has emerged from these and other ecumenical gatherings as well as works by other mission scholars regarding the intersection of mission and spirituality.…”