Education: BA Gordon College 1973; M.Div. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 1977; DMiss Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 1990.
Ministry: SEND Missionary 1977-present. Faculty at Alaska Bible College 1978-2013. SEND U Missiologist 2013-present.
Family: Married, 3 children, 6 grandchildren.
Part 3 of Understanding Insider Movements begins:
Are insider movements biblical? Or are they merely a missiological strategy with scant theological legitimacy, as some critics assert? (Kindle loc. 4234)
This part of UIM contains a dozen biblical and theological studies that advocates of insider movements believe form the biblical foundation for insider movements.
The term ‘religion’ is a hot topic of debate in the literature on Insider Movements. Some even question whether it is a meaningful concept. In this post we will explore three questions: “What is religion?”, “What is the source of non-Christian religions?” and “Is God at work in non-Christian religions?”
What is “religion”?
In Understanding Insider Movements, one writer states, “One of the most instructive definitions of religion is provided by Clifford Geertz. He defines it as a ‘cultural system’ or ‘worldview'” (UIM, Kindle loc. 8297)
Early Christian Mission, published in 2004 by Eckhard J. Schnabel is a massive resource. The two volumes contain 1928 pages, 1588 of which are text. The size of the work will intimidate many but the thoroughness of Schnabel’s scholarship is rewarding.
Theologian and New Testament scholar Peter T. O’Brien gives this endorsement of this work:
The publication in English of Eckhard Schnabel’s magisterial work on early Christian mission is a major event for which both author and publisher are to be congratulated most warmly. This amazing achievement, which carefully sets the Christian mission within its wide-ranging historical and geographical contexts, and considers the mission theology of the biblical material, fills a gap left for more than 100 years since the appearance of Adolf von Harnack’s work on the spread of Christianity. … Dr. Schnabel’s comprehensive volume is a profoundly reliable guide and provides countless insights that will inform and inspire the reader. A former missionary to the Philippines, he writes fully, judiciously and with conviction about a subject that lies close to his heart. It is an outstanding work to which I shall return again and again. – Peter T. O’Brien back cover of Early Christian Mission, vol. I
“Over the past fifteen years missiologists have produced a massive amount of literature related to the contextualization debate surrounding the proposals of Insider Movement proponents.” So begins J. Henry Wolfe in his article, “The Development of the Insider Movement Paradigm” (published July 2015, www.GlobalMissiology.org). I have tried to digest a good portion of that material over the last few months and add my testimony to the truth of Ecclesiastes 12:12 – “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.”
John Jay Travis defines an “insider” as “a person from a non-Christian background who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior but retains the socioreligious [sic] identity of his or her birth.” (Understanding Insider Movements, kindle loc. 827). His working definition of Insider Movements (IM) then is:
(This continues my posts about the mission of God. See my previous posts about Missio Dei and Biblical Theology of Mission: OT).
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4,5 ESV)
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3,4 ESV)
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