The Missionary Movement in
Christian History: Studies
in the Transmission of Faith
by Andrew F. Walls 1996
Orbis Books |
Reviewed by
David KorbThis book
was recommended to me by a
mission pastor in my region
who’s working on his Dr.
of Missions at Fuller
Seminary. It’s required
reading for one of his
courses, and after reading
it I understand why. This is
an important book for those
of us committed to Great
Commission ministry.
The author begins with a
discussion of the
“indigenizing” and “pilgrim”
principles. Walls then
runs with these themes as he
takes the reader through
various periods of history
to show how our faith moved
from one time and one
culture to another.
Walls writes with regard
to the indigenizing
principle, “We are
conditioned by a particular
time and place, by our
family and group and
society, by ‘culture’ in
fact. In Christ God accepts
us together with our group
relations; with that
cultural conditioning that
makes us feel at home in one
part of human society and
less at home in another. But
if He takes us with our
group relations, then surely
it follows that He takes us
with our ‘dis-relations’
also; those predispositions,
prejudices, suspicions, and
hostilities, whether
justified or not, which mark
the group to which we
belong. He does not wait to
tidy up our ideas any more
than He waits to tidy up our
behavior before He accepts
us sinners into His family.”
He continues: “This fact
has led to more than one
crisis in Christian history,
including the first and most
important of all. When the
elders at Jerusalem in the
council in Acts 15 came to
their decision that Gentiles
could enter Israel without
becoming Jew, had they any
idea how close the time
would be when most
Christians would be
Gentiles? …Did they realize
that the future of Messiah’s
proclamation now lay with
people who were
uncircumcised, defective in
their knowledge of the Law
and Prophets, still confused
by hangovers from paganism,
and able to eat pork without
turning a hair?”
Describing the pilgrim
principle, Walls writes,
“Not only does God in Christ
take people as they are: He
takes them in order to
transform them into what He
wants them to be. Along with
the indigenizing principle
which makes his faith a
place to feel at home, the
Christian inherits the
pilgrim principle, which
whispers to him that he has
no abiding city and warns
him that to be faithful to
Christ will put him out of
step with his society; for
that society never existed,
in East or West, ancient
time or modern, which could
absorb the Word of Christ
painlessly into its system.”
Walls then marches
through the various
historical periods with
these two principles in
hand, showing how faith was
transmitted from one period
and culture to another. Part
II of the book deals with
“Africa’s Place in Christian
History,” followed by Part
III which covers the
“Missionary Movement.”
Andrew Walls has done a
masterful job of presenting
a general history of our
faith while showing how
Christianity’s message
remained the same as it
moved through different
cultures and history with
these two underlying
principles always at work.
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