Mission: Some Preliminary Explorations

Mission: Some Preliminary Explorations

1. Introduction:

A. the term “mission” comes from a Latin word mission, from the root “to send.” It is equivalent to the Greek term, apostello, from which we have the term “apostle,” one sent. Sometimes the word apostolate is used for the missionary function/structure of the church.

B. in its secular and common usage, the term has come to mean a task for which someone is sent. So we talk of foreign embassies as missions. Astronauts are sent for space missions

C. Missiology is the study of mission, or scientific reflection on the ideas and practice of mission. Missiology is thus to be distinguished from missionary practice.

D. while the practice of mission is as old as the church itself, missiology is rather recent discipline of theology. There have been missiologists – those who reflected on mission – from the very beginning of the church. Early church leaders such as Justin Martyr offered significant missiological reflections, which are relevant even today’s’ context. William Carey was not only a missionary, but also missiologist – he undertook a systematic study of the basis, urgency, challenges, methods and means of doing mission. But missiology as a theological discipline emerged mostly in the 19^th century.

E. in the theological curriculum, some argue missiology to be placed in the division of practical theology; others argue for Historical Theology, and some even see it as part of Systematic Theology. But in more recent days, there is a growing recognition that mission is prior to, or foundational to all theological enterprise. This of course, goes with a shift in the understanding of what mission is. Instead of seeing the Bible as containing a theology of mission, the new approach is to see the Bible itself as standing in the context of mission. Mission is thus the “mother of theology” (Bosch, quoting Kahler (1908), 1991, 15-16). The idea is that all theological disciplines ought to be approached from a missilogical angle whether exegesis or systematics, church history or ethics.

F. In this course, we will proceed with the assumption that the biblical revelation is given to the people of God in their existence as a missionary people. Similarly, the whole of theological enterprise must affirm the present existence of the church as a missionary community. Such as attitude will prevent the theologizing from becoming abstract or unrelated to the context.

II. What is mission? Some Misunderstandings.

A. Mission as the task of the western church. Probably the most enduring picture of a missionary is that of a white westerner as a father figure working in a non-western setting. This picture is slowly changing.

B. Mission as an attempt to civilize primitive peoples. In 19^th century America, there developed a doctrine known as Manifest Destiny, a view associated with expansionism and dominance. This view saw the Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American people as a people chosen by providence to bless the world. Towards the end of the century, with the influence of the Social Gospel movement and Social Darwinism, many cam to believe that the Angelo Saxons “were destined by God to carry the benefits of their superior civilizations to less vigorous races and to mater them” (Smith, Handy and Loetscher, II, 1963, 368). Especially with the loss of conviction with regard to sin and salvation, “mission” degenerated to ideas of education, civilizing and developing the ”primitive heathens,”

C. Mission as a colonialist/imperialist plot:

Missions and missionaries have been accused by nations as a plot to overthrow and control non-western peoples.

Mission: A working definition

A. Mission is God’s mission: This simple but profound recognition has radically redefined the understanding of what mission is. Mission proceeds from God’s heart, and is his (mission Dei). A book by George Vicedom, The Mission of God: An Introduction to the Science of Mission, published in 1965, gave much publicity to the term mission Dei.

B. God’s mission is entrusted to the whole church. This is linked to the previous statement. Mission is the responsibility of the church universal. Irrespective of the fact that certain periods of history, God chose certain nations and peoples, mission belongs to the whole people of God

C. Mission is wholistic, but has an essential evangelistic element as its focus and priority. Missin is as broad as salvation itself. Naturally, then in order to understand mission, we need to understand what salvation is. The presupposition is this definition is that salvation, and therefore, mission, is a comprehensive term. Not only “salvation of souls,” but social justice, ecology, feeding the hungry, caring for the oppressed, and other such concepts are related to the biblical idea of salvation and mission. But we also note that when mission is defined broadly, there are some dangers also. First of all, there is the danger of social service or social action done unrelated to the gospel. In such cases, mission simply becomes philanthropy or political struggle. Secondly, we lose sight of the fact that evangelism has a logical priority in Christian mission. Renewal of mid (heart) is essential to God’s saving purpose or plan of salvation. Thus it is essential to maintain that mission is a wholistic concept (thus avoiding polarization in its definition) and to maintain that evangelism (the encounter of the gospel with the sinful world with a view to its redemption) is at the hear of Christian mission.

Biblical Foundations

The Witness of the OT

1. Is OT relevant for mission? A superficial observation leaves one with impressions to the contrary. While considering the Old Testament basis for mission, biblical scholar G.E.Wrigh concludes: “Indeed, the Old Testament has always been and will always remain something of a problem to the Church, and certainly to the Church’s mission (G.E.Writhg 1961, 27-30).

1. Too exclusivist
2. Negative on the nations and their gods – too nationalistic
3. Wars and even annihilation of the nations.
4. No “Great Commission”

2. Other Scholars dispute whether there is any mission concept in the Old Testament
   1. F.Hahn, after considering various themes such as universalism, promise of salvation to the nations, etc., concludes that “in the Old Testament there is no mission in the real sense” (Hahn 1965, 20). Similarly, in later Judaism also there is “no question here of a real mission” in spite of Jewish Proselytism, etc. (23). There reasoning is that mission involves a commission and service to the nations resulting from an eschatological movement (24). He, however, grants that “decisive basic features” for the NT understanding of mission are present in the OT (20).
   2. David Bosch in his major work, Transforming Mission, devotes less than five pages to “Mission in the Old Testament,” and concludes that mission is essentially a NT idea. However, he concedes that” the Old Testament is fundamental to the understanding of mission in the New” (Bsch 1991, 17).

3. Johannes Blauw, who says that a theology of mission must not be built on isolated texts, nevertheless argues that distinction must be between “universal” and “missionary.” He says: “When we call the message of the Old Testament “universal”, we mean that it has the whole world in view and that it has validity for the whole world. This universality is the basis of the missionary message of the Old Testament. By “missionary” we understand the commission to deliberate witness, to going out. Our thesis… is that we must be much more reserved in speaking of the missionary message of the Old Testament: Isaiah 40-55 and the Book of Jonah (30). (see also G.E.Wright 1961, 19.) So Blauw concludes: “When one turns to the Old Testament to find a justification for missions in the current meaning, that is ‘foreign mission,’ one is bound to be disappointed.

3. However, a more careful study shows that the OT is more positive than it is often thought to be.

1. Most modern scholars show greater appreciation for the OT in a theology of mission. “In recent approaches to the theology of mission it has been heartening to note the emphasis going right back to the Old Testament” (Gnanakan 1989, 41).
2. The OT is more “familiar” to non-Christians through their own scriptures: at least it has certain affinities.
3. The negatives of the OT are not so when we study it closely.
   1. it is not exclusivist or nationalistic to the point of being blind.
   2. There is lot more of the cultures of its neighbors in it than often thought.
   3. the wars, etc. are God’s covenant punishments. To be fair, God is pretty tough on disobedient Israel also.
   4. Is there a Great Commission in the OT? Some refer to Gen 12 and to others to Gen 28. To speak of a Great Commission in the OT may be anachronistic. It may be more accurate to say that while there is no Great Commission in the OT, there is a Great Promise to the nations.
4. We cannot define mission in the NT sense and then fail to find it in the OT, as Hahn and Bosch seem to be doing. The eschatological moment is not absent in the OT. Blauw’s conclusion points to the fact that definition is the problem. One cannot impose a pre-conceived definition of mission and then look for it in the Bible. (see also Wright 2008, 79).
5. However, it is legitimate to say that there are shifts in emphasis between the OT and the NT (Cf.Bosch). According to many missiologists, in the OT there is a mission “ideal” or “foundation” but the mandate makes the NT clearly a mission book.
6. It is also helpful to distinguish between the OT revelation given to Israel and Israel as a religio-political entity. In the latter sense, we have a narrow-minded, nationalist community, often disobedient to biblical revelation in the OT. “even though Judaism was not a missionary religion, at the same time it must be said that the Old Testament is a missionary book” (Power 1971, 76).
7. Verkuyl quite insightfully summaries the OT foundations of mission in terms of four basic motifs; the underversal motif, the motif of rescue and saving, the missionary motif, and the antagonistic motif (91). To this we may add two others; the motif of attraction and the doxological motif (Verkuyl includes this under “antagonistic”). The motif of attraction points to Irael as a light that attracts the nations. Verkuyl includes this along with the idea of “presebce,” a part of witness relevant even today in closed situations as missiologists have recongnised. But essentially here we recognize that part of Israel’s mission was to be Israel. God’s holy people. Seeing Irael as an exemplary community of truth and justice, the nations will stream to it (Isaiah 2). The doxological motif is present especially in the Psalms and the Prophets. The whole earth is to be full of the glory of God. Hence, the psalmists issue a call to worship to all nations. “Declare his glory among nations.”

Setting the stage: Genesis 1-11

A. The Bible is not a book about a sectarian or tribal god or a provincial relation. It begins with claims of universality. The doctrine of creation has tremendous missiological significance (Ch. Oh). Understanding of mission must start with creation rather than with Gen 3: 15.

1. God is revealed as the creator of all that exists, and hence implicitly claims all of the universe as his. Many theologians assert that Israel knew Yahweh first as their Redeemer, and then only as their creator. The creation account, in their opinion, has its origin from the time of the exile. Even so, the significance of creation for mission is acknowledged. The forming of the earth from chaos is seen as a redemptive act (Song, 21).
2. In the context, a claim that Yahweh is the God of the Jews is quite understandable; but that is not what the Bible claims.

B. The bible reveals a unique view of God and the world that from the very beginning sets the stage for a conflict with other worldviews.

1. God is holy, uncreated, and sovereign; the world is created and non-divine (contra pantheism, advaita, dualism).
2. All creation is essentially good, having come from God (contra evolutionism).
3. Unity of the human race (contra caste system and racialism).

C. The creation account reveals that cultural pursuits are within the purpose of God rather than something extra or even contrary to it, as often thought.

1. The “cultural mandate” of Gen 1:28 often neglected by fundamentalists but redeeming cultures falls within the mission mandate.
2. All cultures – including non-Christian cultures-bear the genius of the creator, and so we need not be afraid to recognize noble elements in them.
3. All cultures are affected by the fall, and show effects of sin. They are in varying measures in need of redemption (Cf. Lausanne Covenant).

D. The account of the Fall adds two significant dimensions

1. Its universality. All human beings, throught the disobedience of their convenant head, are equally rebellious. Western or Eastern, educated or illiterate,

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Mission Quotes

Do you need a reason for being involved in global mission? Do you need inspiration or ideas for a sermon or message on missions? Are you involved in teaching or learning about missions? Would you like to sense the burden and hear the cry of a missionary's heart? Need some wall plaques or banners for a Faith Promise event? Quotations from missionary leaders like William Carey and Hudson Taylor have served as battle cries for the Christian missions movement.

Why missions? World evangelism has advanced under the banner of inspiring missionary slogans or quotes like these:

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light" — John Keith Falconer

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply" — Hudson Taylor

"God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him" — Hudson Taylor

The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" — Hudson Taylor

"If I had 1,000 lives, I'd give them all for China" — Hudson Taylor

"Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes."
Robert E. Speer

"The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is  a "field full of wheat and tares."
Amy Carmichael

"I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer  the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth."
James O. Fraser

"It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ's global cause has a Church as to say Christ's Church has a global  cause."
David Bryant

"If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and  pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray."
Frederick Franson

At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of Glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces.  I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself.

John G. Paton, 1824-1907, Pioneer Missionary to New Hebrides

It is high time to make known the glad tidings in these dark regions of sin and spiritual bondage.

Samuel Marsden, 1764-1838, Missionary to Australia

I never made a sacrifice.  Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which he made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.

David Livingstone, 1813-1873, missionary to Africa

When I get to Heaven they aren't going to see much of me but my heels, for I'll be hanging over the golden wall keeping an eye on the Lisu Church!

Isobel Kuhn, 1901-1957, Missionary to China

There is no neutral ground in the universe.  Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.

C.S. Lewis

If we are going to wait until every possible hindrance has been removed before we do a work for the Lord, we will never attempt to do anything.

T.J. Bach, 1881-1963, Missionary to Venezuela

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Research on Protestant Reform Movement and Mission in Europe and India (Roughly 1500-1792)

  

1. Introduction

When we look at the history of Christianity, there were many movements that mold and shape the Christianity today. Among many, Protestant Reformation Movement is one which has contributed to a great extent in Christianity. Initially the Protestant movement neglected the aspect of mission to some extent because of many factors. But in the later part, the Protestant movement has contributed vitally in the Christian mission. In this paper, we will try to analyze what were some of the problems in the initial Protestant movement and what are some of the contributions of the Protestant movement and in the mission, in the history of Christianity roughly between the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

2. Historical background of Protestant Reformation

Retrospection of Christian history gives the view of how Protestant Reformation has impacted the Christianity in many ways. Through the Protestant Reformation, it brought a new face to the world of Christianity. To understand the Protestant Reform Mission, it is appropriate to get the glimpse of the historical background of the Protestant Reformation briefly. The impact of the Protestant Reformation though it broke out in Europe, it spread all over the world and it change the future course of Christianity. In order to understand the Protestant Reformation it is necessary to recall that in the time before the storm people were intensely religious(Hillerbrand xiii). And in order to understand the context of the Reformation, it is vital to understand the socio-political, economic and religious context, which will enhance our understanding of the Reformation movement better.

2.1 Socio-Political

When we trace back to history there are many people who are responsible for the outbreak of reformation in the sixteenth century. But precisely, the historians begin with Martin Luther as the one who started the Reformation era with his ninety five theses. First and perhaps the foremost is the fact that it was a phenomenon of European dimensions. While the intensity of Protestant belief and measures of eventual success differed from country to country, virtually all Europe was affected-Italy no less than Sweden, England no less than Poland( xx). The acceptance of the Protestant faith was in some instances the least prudent political policy to pursue. This was certainly true in Germany between 1521 and 1525, when it was virtually political suicide to accept the new faith(xxi). The peasants’ uprising of 1524-1525, in support of the Reformation of Lutheran, dismayed those charged with the maintenance of law and order(Hillerbrand xxi). The political power was predominantly controlled by the Catholics and for which it become difficult for the followers of reformation to break away from the Catholic Church.

The great theme of the age was, as Ranke observed, the interaction of religion and politics. Religion alone does not suffice as a full explanation for the events that took place, for in many ways political considerations intruded upon the ecclesiastical course of events(Hillerbrand xxi). Zwingli’s quest for a Protestant alliance, the formation of the League of Schmalkald, and the ecclesiastical transformation in Poland or France, show that Protestantism was Politically involved(Hillerbrand xxi).

Around the end of the fifteenth century, feudal governance was being replaced with rising absolute monarchies, spurred on by Machiavelli’s “principle of state,” which either ignored religion or made it a tool of the state(Bevans and Schroeder 172). During this time the power of the throne was overtaking that of the church. There was also important scientific discoveries which made it possible, for example, to improve compasses-most likely originally invented in China and Europe independently- and therefore to travel further across the unknown seas(172). As a result there was a discovery of many routes and geographical discoveries. The opening of new trade routes was important, furthermore, for the commercial revolution in Europe, which was replacing the disintegrating feudal and agricultural systems(172).

At the time of Luther’s formal censure by church and state, the character of events underwent a change. The Luther affair increasingly became a broadly based movement for spiritual edification and reform(Hillerbrand, The World of the Reformation 28). A movement appeared, vague, undefined, heterogeneous, and unstructured. Concerned about the religious matter, it was not devoid of economic and political notions. While to echo Luther’s cause was to support a man who was declared both heretic and political outlaw, people seemed able to reconcile their endorsement with allegiance to the Catholic church(28).

2.2 Religious Condition

The period’s new euphoria also touched the religious imagination with the inspiring possibility that all these “new” people would soon become Christian. Just as the Muslims were finally expelled from Europe after seven hundred years in the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, there were now many “waiting” t embrace the Christian faith in the New World(Bevans and Schroeder 173). It was a moment of missionary enthusiasm and optimism. The Protestant spectrum in the sixteenth century included a group of radicals for whim the label “Spiritualists” has become accepted nomenclature(Hillerbrand, The World of the Reformation 67). In contrast to all other religious groups in the sixteenth century, however, they made no real attempt to alter the prevailing ecclesiastical status quo(67). They have criticized the existing forms of religion, but they never decided to form a new church.

A parallel religious renewal in Europe was evident in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. Without denying other political, economic and social factors, certainly Protestant represented a human spirit that strove for a more radical gospel life(Hillerbrand, The World of the Reformation 173). The initial revival of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the Anabaptists in the sixteenth century would be followed in the seventeenth century by the emergence of the Puritans, the Quakers and the beginning of Pietism. While it was certainly fueled by anti-Protestant polemic, and so could be called a Counter-Reformation, nevertheless Catholic efforts to reform the church in this context of general religious renewal might well be called a reformation in its own right(Bevans and Schroeder 173).

3. The Birth of Protestant Mission

Martin Luther Roman Catholic priest had heart-searching question “How shall I find a gracious God?” He started reading the Bible in search of his question but he found out several other facts about the Christian faith and practices, which were not taught in the Roman Catholic Churches.  They were not discussed nor explained in the Catholic faiths. The Pope was claiming the headship of the Universal Church by the will of God. “From the eleventh century onward the Popes began openly to claim to be superior to the Emperors. The Popes, they maintained, is the representative on earth of the God whose servant the Emperor is. To disobey the Pope is to disobey God and to forfeit one’s right to rule”(Lefever 7). The political power was control by the Pope and the Catholic Church. In 1309 the Papacy was transferred from Roman to Avignon in French. The real reformation was started at Avignon because the French King started ruling the office of the Catholic orders and the Papacy was control by them.  Other felt resentment and frequent extortions of money by the Popes was greatly increased especially in England. The French King was supported by the Catholic Mission money. The King was announced as the defenders of the Church in their land. “The Emperor, like the Pope, receives his authority from God alone, and both Emperor and Pope should respect each other in their respective spheres” (16). The German Reformation started with Luther’ opposition and protest against the sale of indulgences. 

The Protestant reformation was the result of Martin Luther’ 95 Theses were nailed on the church door at Wittenberg on 31^st October, 1517. Luther articulate his teaching in small groups that

1. Man is saved not by own merit but by God’s grace. 2. God has manifested His grace in Christ. 3. Man’s response to God’s grace is faith, personal trust in God and in His work in Jesus Christ. 4. The result of this response is that man becomes a new creature, and lives a new life of sanctification. 5. There is a fundamental contrast between Law and Gospel. 6. There is a real distinction between the outward visible Church and the ideal or spiritual one [61].

The Jesuits mission order was flourishing till fifteenth century.  There missionaries have reached almost all the countries and the Roman Catholic religion was growing with its non theological doctrine. The Pope and Roman were given more important than the scriptural authority. The Roman Catholic Church was monitored by the Pope. The normal people were restricted to use the scripture. In Firths words the Protestant reformation means, “Political, cultural scientific as well as theological factors were intermingled to produce the complex situation which we call the Reformation” (5).

4. Reason for failures in Protestant Mission

One of the puzzling riddles of Christian history is the lack of missionary zeal on the part of the Magisterial Reformers—Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox. It took the Protestant churches almost two centuries to begin any really significant missionary enterprise. Reasons for the “Great Omission”  of the Protestant could be matter that led to the relative omission of mission from thinking and activity of the Reformers was faulty hermeneutics(John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson 194). The successor of the Reformers took passages in Romans 10 and Psalm 19 to explain that the great commission of Mathew 28 was completely fulfilled by the apostles and their immediate successors. Therefore, Christians of their day were not under the mandate(194).

A second factor in the great omission sprang from the Reformers’ struggles to establish their reform. The reformers were so much engaged in the life-and-death struggle to defend and promote their principles that they had no time to think of a world mission(195). Religious war also contributed to the neglect of missions among the Reformers. The whole period of the Reformation was a time of mortal conflict between the Catholic and Protestants which required a fortress mentality and which prevented any mobilization for offensive missionary activity(195).

Hrangkhuma describes seven reasons for failures of Protestant Mission which will give more details of the reason why it was a failure;

a.       In their concern for the contemporary theological war the reformers overlooked the great commission of the Lord Jesus.

b.      The reformers had no material resources since they were enmeshed in a momentous political and military struggle against the Roman Catholics.

c.       Both Luther and Calvin believed that the princes and other public authorities were responsible for maintaining public worship and spreading of Christianity, and therefore, both neglected missions and had no direct contact with non-Christians.

d.      The reformers stretched their every nerve to re-evangelize, re-Christianize Europe.

e.       The reformers lacked the whole view of world mission as they were preoccupied in consolidating their positions in Europe.

f.       Unlike the Roman Catholics, the Protestant Churches had no missionary structure through which to spread the gospel(Hranghuma 275).

One of the major reasons for the lack of missionary outreach among the Protestants related to their lack of effective missionary organizations. It was so because the Protestantism rejected monasticism. Monasticism was the missionary arm of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformers did not replace these monastic orders with anything else. This lack of organized groups limited Protestant endeavors(195).

5. Protestant Mission in the period

The two centuries after the Reformation were not completely devoid of Protestant mission awareness. Near the end of 1650, several isolated individuals challenged the popular belief and initiated some significant , yet abortive attempts to mount a Protestant missionary movement(195). Some Calvinist Huguenots established a Protestant community and mission on the coast of Brazil (1555) with the approval of John Calvin(195). Several men of the period emphasized the need for missions. Hadrian Saravia (1531-1613), a Reformed Pastor from Belgium, Count Truchess (1651), a prominent Lutheran layman, and Justinian Von Welz (1664), an Austrian nobleman, all treatises urging the churches to assume their missionary responsibility(195). Although the Reformers neglected the missionary overt mandate, they laid the doctrinal foundation for later missions. The Anabaptist and Pietist movement built their missionary zeal on the basis of reformed theology, and they became the harbingers of the modern missionary movement. As the Protestant began to consider their missionary responsibility in 1650, inspired by the rise of the Pietist movement, the Roman Catholic were consolidating the tremendous gains they had achieved during the Counter-reformation(196).

The four movements namely the Puritanism, Pietism, Moravianism, and Evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century became the pad for the Protestant churches’ world missionary movement(Pierson 177). The needed renewal first sprang from a movement within the Lutheran state churches called “Pietism.” The Pioneer of Pietism was Philip Spener (1635-1705), who sought to renew the spiritual life of Lutherans by small-group prayer meetings and Bible study(197). The famous of all the Pietists, however, was Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and the Moravian mission. These Pietist efforts became forerunners of the Wesleyan revival and William Carey’s Baptist Missionary Society(197). One of the Protestant missionary antecedent must be mentioned, namely: the Anglican societies’ work among the Indians of New England. Beginning around 1639, three of these societies, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, served the colonist and the Indians(198).

One of the significant aspect of Protestant mission was the translation of Scripture from the original language into vernacular languages and distribution of those translations among believers have essential characteristics of all Protestant mission work(John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson 223). In the seventeenth century the Netherlands, England, and Denmark became important sea power. This opened the possibilities for Protestant mission work overseas(224). Seventeenth-century mission work was usually carried out in the wake of trade. “The religion of truth” accompanied “the religion of trade”(225).

David Bosch is of the view that in order to appreciate the Protestant Reformation’s unique contribution to the understanding of mission it is important to highlight the areas in which it differed from the Catholic Paradigm. He highlights five features which may help us to discern the contours of “Protestant theology of mission”, features which are to be found in all manifestations of sixteenth-century Protestanism, whether Lutheran, Calvinist, Zwinglian, or Anabaptist(Bosch 301). These five features are as follows:

1.      It is beyond dispute that for the Protestant Reformation the article of justification by faith is the starting point of theology. It is the article by which church stands or fall.

2.      Connected with the centrality of justification was the view that people were primarily to be seen from the perspective of the fall,as lost, unable to do anything about their condition.

3.      The Reformation stressed the subjective dimension of salvation.

4.      The affirmation of the personal role and responsibility of the individual led to the rediscovery of the priesthood of all believers.

5.      The “Protestant idea” found expression in the centrality of the scriptures in the life of the church(303).

6. Protestant Mission era in India

The King Frederick IV of Denmark, a Lutheran was instrumental in conceiving the idea of sending Protestant missionaries to India. He assigned his court chaplain to find right candidates in Denmark but he could not find the right candidates so he approached his friends in Germany. There were two young theological students from the University of Halle, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pluetschu accepted the offer of going to India as missionary(Firth 134–136). They were from Pietism movement, which lead the Germany in the Lutheran Church in the seventeenth century. They were sent out to Tranquebar as ‘royal missionaries’ at the personal expenses of the King and they arrived at Tranquebar on the 9^th of July, 1706. They got bad treatment by the Danish commandant, J. C. Hassius in India but with help of other junior officials, they could survive. They learned Portuguese and Tamil language because the European traders were using Portuguese language and native were using Tamil language for communication(137). Therefore they could conduct the worship for the German soldiers in the Danish East India Company’s.

They put request to the commandant for issuing leave for two hours every day to receive Christian teaching. Five soldiers join them and first catechism class was begun in November 1706 further they were baptized in the Danish Church(137).

The missionaries adopted orphan children from their guardians after making some payment, so that a small orphanage was formed.  Further the children’ were baptized and were taught German. A Portuguese and a Tamil language school were introduced.

Ziegenbalg started discussing with the Hindus in Tamil language about their religious beliefs and he never lack audience. In result of this first small congregation was found in August 1707 and nine Tamil converts were baptized. Within two years of time he translated the New Testament in Tamil language(140). He contributed a Tamil-German dictionary.

Three other missionaries, Gruendler, Jordan and Boevingh arrived with a large sum of money and the Kings order for the Dutch commander to help them in all their work of mission and social work. A big campus was built with three schools, Tamil, Portuguese and Danish further large houses were built for the missionaries(143). The ministry flourished in Tranquebar and Tanjore area.

The eighteenth century was known as the modern missionary movement because many mission societies were born in England and USA.  This was fruit of Evangelical revival in the Church of England. The Pietist Movement in Germany was leading Protestant missionary movement. The SPCK and SPG old mission societies were working fine but new mission societies were found such as: The Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, the London Missionary Society in 1795, the Church Missionary Society in 1799 and the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in 1813.  In 1810 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was first mission society in America(144).

Nevertheless the flag was followed by the cross were ever the Roman Catholic and the Protestant missionaries went. Meanwhile the father of modern mission William Carey arrived in Bengal- Calcutta in November 1793(144).

7. Conclusion

Thus, in conclusion, we can see how the Protestant reformation movement built the importance of mission in the history, as a result of which many missionaries were sent to different places and has impacted upon the life of the people. In the beginning it was not so smooth, yet the Protestantism never ceased to be part of the mission in the world. They have contributed to a great extent in the field of mission which cannot be bypassed in the study of the history of Christian mission.

Work Cited

Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. Constants inContext: A Theology of Mission for Today. Philippines: Claretian Publications, 2005. Print.

Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. New York: Orbis Book, 1991. Print.

Firth, C. B. An Introduction to Indian Church History. Madras: The Christian Literature Society, 1961. Print.

Hillerbrand, Hans J. The World of the Reformation. Michigan: Baker Book House, 1981. Print.

Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed. The Protestant Reformation. New York: Harper & Row Publisher, 1968. Print.

Hranghuma, F. An Introduction to Church History. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1996. Print.

John Mark Terry, Ebbie Smith, and Justice Anderson, eds. Missiology: An Introduction to the Foundations, History, and Strategies of World Mission. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998. Print.

Lefever, H. C. The History of Reformation. Madras: The Christian Literature Society, 1954. Print.

Pierson, Paul E. The Dynamics of Christian Mission: History Through Missiological Perspective. USA: William Carey International Press, 2009. Print.

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