New thoughts & strategies

MISSION AFTER CHRISTENDOM
By David Smith
Darton Longman & Todd.144 pages. £12.95
ISBN 0 232 52483 1

Are we dodos? According to David Smith, Lecturer in Mission and World Christianity at the International Christian College in Glasgow, much of our current practice in missions and evangelism needs drastically updating. Since the 'glory days' when Western missionaries took the gospel of Christ all around the world, there have been three big changes.

First, European Christendom is dead. The days when Christianity dominated the culture and values of Western civilisation have passed. We need to get used to this and see it as a challenge to rediscover a more countercultural, more biblical faith.

Secondly, we must get used to pluralism. The Church itself is no longer a Western phenomenon but exists in different 'third world' cultures, validly absorbing some of their features into its own life. This should give Western churches a valuable opportunity to learn what is truly biblical in their own traditions - and what is merely cultural.

Thirdly, globalisation demands a response. Capitalism is taking over the world with impoverishing effects for the poor and soul-destroying effects for the rich. Christians should respond by working towards a 'globalisation from below', using technology and cheap travel to forge meaningful links with people of the third-world.

An impressive range of learning powerfully supports the three challenges discussed, with quotes from historians, art critics, sociologists, economists and theologians. (The three corresponding answers, based on the Bible, seemed thinner.) A 'bookish' reader would find a lot to think about here. If that's not you, this quote roughly sums it up: 'The very survival of Christianity in Europe and America depends upon the emergence of men and women able to think new thoughts and devise new strategies at the real frontiers of mission today.'

Tom Forryan, Watford