DARREN CRONSHAW reviews Living Witness...
Andy Draycott and Jonathan Rowe (eds.),
Living Witness: Explorations in Missional Ethics
Apollos, Inter-Varsity Press, Nottingham, 2012.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84474-751-5.
|
“The theme of Living Witness, and the basis of missional ethics, is that morality and right living are part of the witness of the people of God, and unethical living is ‘anti-mission’.” |
On first seeing this book, I was sceptical about whether the title was an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of interest in anything ‘missional’. But I was also intrigued by what the writers might say about ethics with a missional lens, or what it is to be missional with ethical implications. Schleiermachian theological disciplines all too often stay within their siloes, and this book is a helpful interdisciplinary deconstruction of the boundaries between theology, ethics and mission.
The theme of Living Witness, and the basis of missional ethics, is that morality and right living are part of the witness of the people of God, and unethical living is ‘anti-mission’. Witness is living and incorporates the whole of life well-lived – politics, family, friendship, money, and how churches serve and welcome outsiders. Thus, mission and ethics are integrally connected and mutually reinforcing.
To explore several foundations and issues of this newly named research interest, 13 contributors draw on specific areas of expertise and address them as aspects of missional ethics. This was the theme of the 2011 Tyndale Fellowship’s ethics and social theology study group, and was discussed in conferences in Cambridge and California. Draycott and Rowe, editors of the resulting volume, are based respectively at Biola University, California, and at the South West Ministry Training Course in Exeter, UK.
The first section on foundations explores how themes of Trinity, creation, hope, church and preaching inform missional ethics. Christopher Wright has coined ‘missional ethics’ to refer to Israel’s virtuous living and the church’s witness, arguing that behaviour should serve God’s mission. He explains how Biblical ethics and mission are shaped by Father, Son and Holy Spirit who call and send God’s people to offer God’s redemptive work as good news for all of life.
An inviting metaphor of gardening for conceptualising our life in God’s creation is suggested by Brian Brock – not striving to give life, but responding to and cooperating with God in cultivating the life God wants to bring. As both a missiologist and a hobby-gardener, I found this a delightful and hopeful reminder not to expect to control the results of my work or to bulldoze diversity, but to respect and nurture life and its fruit. Of Among the first, foundational chapters, which are not issue-specific, Brock’s excels in bringing a fresh and imagination-grabbing reading of Scripture and a helpful metaphor to the conversation.
The Biblical story is one of hope that the grace of God will overcome the results of the curse in the world – at personal, cosmic and divine levels. Grant Macaskill celebrates this: in mission, including working for social justice, the church embodies hope for the world.
Matt Jenson presents a case study of church and mission in a pastoral response to homosexuality, focusing on the multiple struggles of ‘Sandy’. He urges all to find ultimate identity ‘in Christ’ rather than in their desires, and urges the church to embody radical hospitality to gay people rather than polarizing debates over rightness or wrongness: “the church is right to tell gay people the good news and call them to a life of discipleship if and only if it is willing to live as their family. If (it is not), it has no business giving them the gospel.” This is the chapter that really starts to illustrate missional ethics at its best, grounded in a particular church’s witness.
Draycott explores preaching as “the church’s free public speech” grounded in the “prophethood of believers”. Drawing on the Puritan ‘Godly conference’, he appeals for preaching to invite the contribution of all of God’s people and their concerns, rather than a monological presentation. The result will mean, he argues, less repetition of familiar truths, and more openness to the surprising voice of God. For missional ethics it is imperative to develop models for harnessing the contribution of and empowering the whole people of God.
These five foundational chapters offer rich Biblical reflection and draw on a broad range of literature, as well as sometimes starting to address specific issues. The writers in the second section begin with specific issues while maintaining a quality of engagement with Scripture and relevant literature.
Sarah Ruble analyses the presentation of mission in Christianity Today, and what that ‘packaging’ of the story shows about how evangelicals have viewed evangelism and social action. Her analysis reveals how the construction of stories reflects power and gender roles and preferences certain voices. She prompts us to ask who we invite to shape our perspectives and whether this includes women missionaries (who outnumber men), and non-Western church leaders (whether recipients of or partners or leaders in mission), thus addressing these important issues as well as modelling the use of history in ethics.
Joshua Hordern argues family ethics needs to reflect Scripture but also sensitivity to inter-cultural views of marriage and extended families. ‘Insider movements’ support Muslims who want to shift their allegiance to Christ while maintaining their cultural identity, especially religious practices. Hordern begins to discuss what this means for marriage partnering and roles – balancing feminist ethics of equality with missional values of cultural and group solidarity. A case study would add value to this chapter – albeit one needing to be anonymous – addressing how these issues are able to be worked out, or not, in practice.
“Guido de Graaff considers friendship, ethics and mission philosophically, including the appropriateness of reciprocity. Christians want to share their source of joy and explore deep questions with friends, but will also listen to and receive from people they encounter in mission.”
“Guido de Graaff considers friendship, ethics and mission philosophically, including the appropriateness of reciprocity. Christians want to share their source of joy and explore deep questions with friends, but will also listen to and receive from people they encounter in mission.” |
Guido de Graaff considers friendship, ethics and mission philosophically, including the appropriateness of reciprocity. Christians want to share their source of joy and explore deep questions with friends, but will also listen to and receive from people they encounter in mission.
Regarding political speech, Jonathan Chaplin advocates Christians with political convictions and platforms offering “winsome public wisdom”, drawing on Biblical truth and discernment of the spirits of this age but without necessarily articulating their theological reasoning. Despite this, he points to rich theological resources for political conversation, notably about human dignity grounded in the image of God – especially important for disabled and elderly people, and others marginalised by society.
Character is an integral part of witness, and Nathan Moser draws on Latin American theologians to look at how the servant figure of Isaiah informs the church’s call to serve in gentle and non-imposing ways. He underlines the need for coherence between character, ethics and mission, while modelling how to learn from non-Western theology.
Sean Doherty critiques both the dominance of the market economy and the response of Christian economic ethics. He appeals for a more robust understanding of the theology of economics and a missional and ethical use of money. I would have liked to have read more treatment of the implications of his critique of usury and broader economic systems, since the chapter could be too easy to dismiss as economically naïve. Perhaps this raises the importance of mobilising Christian economists to add to the conversation. Doherty is at his most challenging in urging Christians to rethink the power of possessions and greed, and to rediscover the freedom of contentment, trusting God and giving.
One of the best chapters, because it is grounded in a live public issue, is Daniel Carroll’s treatment of immigration. Carroll surveys migration Biblically and celebrates how migrants are called to be a blessing in new contexts. Political debates are polarised between advocates of human rights and those concerned with border security. A missional lens asks what God is doing and what can we learn from diaspora communities. Increasing cultural diversity is inevitable in society but is also our eschatological hope: “Then, diversity will not be feared as a threat, burden or curse; it will be the fulfilment of God’s goal for the redemption of humanity”.
Draycott and Rowe conclude the volume with an appeal to continue the conversation and to practise Sabbath – to pause and to recall that God has made and rescued us, and continues to work to bring the whole of life in line with God’s purposes.
The book’s stand-out chapters are, in the first part, Jenson’s discussion of one church’s response to a particular gay person, and, in the second, Carroll’s treatment of immigration, largely because both these deal in depth with a concrete ethical challenge. This reviewer is not convinced by the editors’ urging that it is necessary to start with theological ideas of Trinity, creation and hope before considering specific themes. Later chapters that address general ideas with less analysis of actual experience are less helpful. Theological reflection is both possible and better placed when it begins with an ethical issue and then explores what resources Christian tradition and other sources offer, in order to discern appropriate response and action. The more that missional ethics can start with and address live issues, the better the contribution it will make.
‘Missional’, it seems to this reviewer, is a scaffolding term. If we rightly understood Biblical ethics as intrinsically a reflection of the mission of God and a call for the people of God to live the whole of life as a witness, we would not need to use it. But ‘missional ethics’ invites a recalibration of ethics in line with the mission of God. The greatest value of Living Witness is its exemplifying discussion between mission, ethics and other disciplines. It will be of interest especially to ethicists interested in learning from missiology, and to missiologists and practitioners keen to sharpen their ethical thinking.
This review was originally published in Studies in Christian Ethics, 27:3 (August 2014), 350-353, accessible online at http://sce.sagepub.com/content/27/3/350.citation
To buy this book, follow this link – Living Witness: Explorations in Missional Ethics
