Since one of the authors of this book, Roger Schroeder, is visiting South Africa right now, and I hope to attend a missiological conference where he will be speaking in a couple of days' time, I thought I would post this review, which I originally wrote six years ago for the International Bulletin of Missionary Research



This book is a survey of twenty centuries of mission history in the light of different models of mission theology, and ends with a proposal for a mission theology for the 21st cen

Since one of the authors of this book, Roger Schroeder, is visiting South Africa right now, and I hope to attend a missiological conference where he will be speaking in a couple of days' time, I thought I would post this review, which I originally wrote six years ago for the International Bulletin of Missionary Research



This book is a survey of twenty centuries of mission history in the light of different models of mission theology, and ends with a proposal for a mission theology for the 21st century. The theological models the authors use are based on those proposed by Justo L. González and Dorothea Sölle, which they refer to as types A, B, and C.



Type A is mission as saving souls and extending the church;

Type B is mission as discovery of the truth;

Type C is mission as commitment to liberation and transformation.



The three models are typified in the early church by Tertullian of Carthage, Origen of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyons respectively.



The authors go on to describe each model of theology in relation to six constants: Christology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology, Salvation, Anthropology, and Culture. They then examine these constants in

six different historical contexts.



As an Orthodox Christian, I read the authors' description of Type A and Type B theology, and felt repelled. I could not identify with either of them. Type C, however, was familiar to me; it was Orthodox theology.



This is not surprising, since Irenaeus is regarded by the Orthodox Church as a saint and a Father of the Church; Tertullian and Origen are not. As I read on, however, I felt marginalized: in all six periods of mission history the authors identified Orthodox mission with Type B, and not with Type C, yet made no attempt to explain this (to me) glaring discrepancy. It is a pity that the book lacks a bibliography.



The book is a good introduction to Roman Catholic mission history and theology. Its coverage of Orthodox mission history and theology, however, is thin and misleading. There is a flaw either in the models themselves, or in the authors' application of them.

