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THE EBB AND FLOW OF THE GOSPEL
Author(s) -
Dussel Enrique
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
international review of mission
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.118
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1758-6631
pISSN - 0020-8582
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-6631.1987.tb01509.x
Subject(s) - gospel , citation , theology , classics , history , philosophy , library science , computer science
The history of mission theology has passed through different stages in recent times. The churches discovered that mission touched the very essence of the ecclesia, that going ad gentes was based on the original mandate of the community: "Go forth and make all nations my disciples" (Matt. 28:19). From a spiritual "centre" the gospel goes out to the "periphery ." (We will call it the "ebb" of the message, the "going out to" the gentiles.) In a second stage, then, there is something like a return "flow" of the gospel; the evangelized become evangelizers and the "mother" churches at the centre receive the missionary challenge of the "new" churches at the periphery. This return "flow" is not the first in history, but it acquires special characteristics today on which we want to reflect.