Within Christianity, reductionism and reason of the Enlightenment period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries influenced the understanding of theology in Western Europe to the point that Christian beliefs became separated from their cultural and historical context and were studied scientifically (Yung, 2003:70) and abstractly as if ‘truth was self-contained and propositional’ (Maddox, 1990:652-54; Van Rheenan, 2003:2). The church had become so focused on convention, and each group so preoccupied with maintaining that it was the true church, all became missionless (Bosch, 1991:489-90; Laing, 2009:11; B. Ott, 2001b:88; Werner, 2009a:23). Now more scholastic than apostolic, the church ‘saw no necessity for the inclusion of missiology in the theological curriculum’ (Laing, 2009:11). It had effectively journeyed from ministry involvement in the world, to the monastery, and arrived at the seminary (university) (Banks, 1999:135; Farley, 1983:32-3; Maddox, 1990:650-56; B. Ott, 2001a:34-6; Van Rheenan, 2003:2), where theology was divided into the disciplines of theology as theory and theology as practice. These were later further fragmented into four separate disciplines: biblical, historical, systematic and practical (Farley, 1983). If mission was studied at all, it was either as a part of practical theology concentrating on technique and practical application, or as an optional subject quite separate from the others, having no relationship with them (Banks, 1999:20; Bosch, 1991:489-92; Hitchen, 2008:1; McCoy, 2005:1; Werner, 2009a:22-3). The European university model perpetuated what has come to be known as a theological elite (Griffiths, 1990:11) that mostly ‘lost touch with ordinary people’ (Anderson, 2004b:6; Newbigin, 1979:107; Pobee, 2010:339) and missional training was inadequate in areas of theology. For example, the supernatural – signs and wonders – was completely dropped from the curriculum in what Hiebert refers to as the ‘excluded middle’ (1994:189-201). The effects of this continue to be felt even into the early twenty-first century, where the need has been identified for the recovery of a pneumatological theology that fully embraces the presence of the Holy Spirit in theological education, and gives fresh priority to the role of the Holy Spirit (Habets, 2008:77-8; Pinnock, 1993:491; 1996:230; Werner, 2009a:22).
One noted exception during the seventeenth century was that of the Pietistic revivalists in Europe, who called for repentance and deeper godliness in personal and church life. Their practice of both social and spiritual care was holistic. Under the leadership of Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, refugee Moravian believers developed a new model of church that became entirely missional throughout the world. Kasdorf states that they ‘were on the forefront of world mission ... Within twenty years this small church had organized more mission teams
and commissioned more missionaries than the entire Protestant movement in 200 years’ (1984:47). Zinzendorf also shunned organised church structures in favour of an improvised approach which remained ‘open to the guidance of the [Holy] Spirit’ (Bosch, 1991:254). The Pietist movement initiated specific missional training as well as academic mission studies and mission work which eventually did become part of the practice of the Western church (B. Ott, 2001b:88).
In general, however, scientific rationalism, the fragmentation of theology and a naturalistic approach, which understood the world without referring to the supernatural, set a trend for hundreds of years in the vast majority of European churches of the West and various parts of the new world. It also infected the root system of Christianity as it branched out into other cultures through missional endeavour during the Colonial era (Anderson, 2004b:5-6; 2005a:176-77; A. Lewis & Steyn, 2003:101-106; Pobee, 2010:338-39). A prevailing theology was exported, which at the least bore little relevance to the cultures it touched (Bediako, 2000a:5-6; Pierson, 1991:193-94; Pobee, 2010:337-39; Yung, 2003:71), and at its worst has been more deeply challenged as ‘theological imperialism’ (Chao, 1972:9; Stevens, 1992:7). Even today, critics suggest that the roots of this university model continue to spread as mission workers from the South and East have not only continued to travel to the West for respectable training in mission (Griffiths, 1990:9), but have themselves, further propagated this Western model throughout the non-Western world (Anderson, 2004b:5; Griffiths, 1990:9; Leighton, 2012:287; Míguez Bonino, 1994:285; Stevens, 1992:8; Wanak, 2000:3-24). Conn describes this as a process of ‘educational circumcision’ (1979:318). In contrast to this strong criticism, Bediako (1995:5) and Walls (1977:560-66) suggest there were also positive outcomes of mission during the colonial era in Africa and elsewhere, in that it taught the right of all human beings to freedom. It also played a ‘creative role in fostering religious and intellectual awakening which eventually led to the demise of Western political dominance’ (Bediako, 1995:5).
Regarding missional daughter churches planted in the Majority World12 in the nineteenth
century, even though many were expected to replicate the theological education of the
12 The term Majority World has recently been adopted in preference to expressions such as Third World,
Two-Thirds World and The South, introduced since the 1950s. It is generally accepted as a more accurate and positive description of the nations of Asia and the Pacific, Africa, South America and the Caribbean which make up the majority of the world’s people, yet are influenced by the decisions of a few countries representing a small minority of the world’s people. In terms of theological education, it also recognises the changing Christian centre of gravity as it swings to the South. Although this study traces trends and developments through ages which have used these terms as descriptors, for the benefit of consistency, the term Majority World will be applied throughout.
mother church, methods were proposed to incorporate the idea of mission back into theological education. Schleiermacher recognised mission as an established practice of the church in the area of practical theology and assigned it a place in his encyclopaedia of theological studies (1850:202; Farley, 1983). While he argued for theology to have a place in universities alongside medicine and law (Osmer, 2012:327), he effectively was also suggesting that mission be given an official place in curriculum, integrated into theological studies (Bosch, 1991:490; B. Ott, 2001b:88). Main ideas that emerged were to append mission study to one of the four disciplines; establish training centres outside of the university model/system (B. Ott, 2001b:88-9); and in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was advocated to add missiology as a separate discipline in its own right (Bosch, 1991:491; B. Ott, 2001b:88). In the course of time, attempts have also been made to develop full mission curricula that embrace the fourfold pattern (Esin, 2005:7; Hitchen, 2008:1; Laing, 2009) such as in holistic theological education and integrative theological curricula.