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Tradition as Impulse for Renewal and Witness: Introducing Orthodox Missiology in the IRM
Author(s) -
Papathanasiou Athanasios N.
Publication year - 2011
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.1758-6631.2011.00069.x
Subject(s) - missiology , witness , pneumatology , theology , ecumenism , servant , charisma , sociology , religious studies , philosophy , computer science , programming language , linguistics
At the dawn of the 20th century the O rthodox churches found themselves in a strange, even contradictory situation. On the one hand, they had a rich missionary past (the B yzantine and the R ussian missions) and a dynamic theology which accepted local cultures and stressed the importance of trinitarianism and pneumatology. Yet on the other hand, the O rthodox churches had turned inwards, locked in with the national identities of the traditionally O rthodox countries. Thus O rthodox theology was almost completely absent during the first two decades of the I nternational R eview of M issions . Then some O rthodox voices began to appear. The most important O rthodox contributions to the IRM have been the holistic understanding of mission as martyria and diakonia , an inclusive approach to C hrist's cosmic work, and the understanding of the church as the foretaste of the kingdom and the servant of the missionary G od.