Against the Tide

Description

With increased globalization and modernization reaching into the furthest corners of the earth also comes the influence of secularization. These three tides of influence impact traditional religious beliefs, practices, and institutions in significant ways. Some modernizing societies see religion on the decline, while others find it thriving in surprising ways. This collection of essays presents the opportunities and the challenges of secularization for the mission of the Church, with hopeful signs and reassurance that God is still at work in a secularizing world.
Readers will find both analysis and guidance that will assist the Church in an informed, missional engagement with secularization in a variety of contexts—starting with North America, then Europe, Asia, and Africa. Each local church and mission organization must discern the appropriate missional response for evangelism, discipleship, congregational life, and social involvement.
To be Against the Tide means regaining your voice, as a church on mission, informed by your context and inspired by the responses of others in theirs.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• State
• Politics

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645081791
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Other Books in the EMS Series
No. 1 Scripture and Strategy: The Use of the Bible in Postmodern Church and Mission, David Hesselgrave
No. 2 Christianity and the Religions: A Biblical Theology of World Religions, Edward Rommen and Harold Netland
No. 3 Spiritual Power and Missions: Raising the Issues, Edward Rommen
No. 4 Missiology and the Social Sciences: Contributions, Cautions, and the Conclusions, Edward Rommen and Gary Corwin
No. 5 The Holy Spirit and Mission Dynamics, Douglas McConnell
No. 6 Reaching the Resistant: Barriers and Bridges for Mission, Dudley Woodberry
No. 7 Teaching Them Obedience in All Things: Equipping for the 21st Century, Edgar Elliston
No. 8 Working Together With God to Shape the New Millennium: Opportunities and Limitations, Kenneth Mulholland and Gary Corwin
No. 9 Caring for the Harvest Force in the New Millennium, Tom Steffen and Douglas Pennoyer
No. 10 Between Past and Future: Evangelical Mission Entering the Twenty-first Century, Jonathan Bonk
No. 11 Christian Witness in Pluralistic Contexts in the Twenty-first Century, Enoch Wan
No. 12 The Centrality of Christ in Contemporary Missions, Mike Barnett and Michael Pocock
No. 13 Contextualization and Syncretism: Navigating Cultural Currents, Gailyn Van Rheenen
No. 14 Business as Mission: From Impoverished to Empowered, Tom Steffen and Mike Barnett
No. 15 Missions in Contexts of Violence, Keith Eitel
No. 16 Effective Engagement in Short-Term Missions: Doing it Right!, Robert J. Priest
No. 17 Missions from the Majority World: Progress, Challenges, and Case Studies, Enoch Wan and Michael Pocock
No. 18 Serving Jesus with Integrity: Ethics and Accountability in Mission, Dwight P. Baker and Douglas Hayward
No. 19 Reflecting God s Glory Together: Diversity in Evangelical Mission, A. Scott Moreau and Beth Snodderly
No. 20 Reaching the City: Reflections on Urban Mission for the Twenty-first Century, Gary Fujino, Timothy R. Sisk, and Tereso C. Casino
No. 21 Missionary Methods: Research, Reflections, and Realities, Craig Ott and J. D. Payne
No. 22 The Missionary Family: Witness, Concerns, Care, Dwight P. Baker and Robert J. Priest
No. 23 Diaspora Missiology: Reflections on Reaching the Scattered Peoples of the Word, Michael Pocock and Enoch Wan
No. 24 Controversies in Mission: Theology, People, and Practice of Mission in the 21st Century, Rochelle Cathcart Scheuermann and Edward L. Smither
No. 25 Churches on Mission: God s Grace Abounding to the Nations, Geoffrey Hartt, Christopher R. Little, and John Wang
No. 26 Majority World Theologies: Self-theologizing from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Ends of the Earth, Allen Yeh and Tite Ti nou
ABOUT EMS
www.emsweb.org
The Evangelical Missiological Society is a professional organization with more than 400 members comprised of missiologists, mission administrators, reflective mission practitioners, teachers, pastors with strategic missiological interests, and students of missiology. EMS exists to advance the cause of world evangelization. We do this through study and evaluation of mission concepts and strategies from a biblical perspective with a view to commending sound mission theory and practice to churches, mission agencies, and schools of missionary training around the world. We hold an annual national conference and eight regional meetings in the United States and Canada.

Against the Tide: Mission Amidst the Global Currents of Secularization
2019 by Evangelical Missiological Society
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers. For permission, email [e-mail] .
Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org .
Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION , NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
All rights reserved.
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Andrew Sloan, copyeditor
Melissa Hicks, managing editor
Mike Riester, cover design
Mike Riester and Jeanne Logue, interior design
Digital eBook Release 2023
ISBNs: 978-1-64508-176-0 (paperback)
978-1-64508-179-1 (epub)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019945891
C ONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Craig Ott
GLOSSARY
CHAPTER 1
Secularization, Multiple Modernities, and Religion
Harold A. Netland
CHAPTER 2
Embracing Plurality: The Opportunity of Secularization
Shawn P. Behan
CHAPTER 3
Engaging the Secular Mind: An Urgent Call to the American Church
Raphael Anzenberger
CHAPTER 4
Evangelism in a Secular Age: Complexities and Opportunities
W. Jay Moon
CHAPTER 5
Churches Reaching Emerging Adult Nones and Dones in Secularizing North America
Beth Seversen
CHAPTER 6
(Re)Connecting with Secular Society
Steve Thrall
CHAPTER 7
Germany s Refugee Response: Implications for Ministry in a Secularized World
Steven B. Kern
CHAPTER 8
Mission and Evangelism in the Desecularizing World of the Russian Federation
Marc T. Canner
CHAPTER 9
A Chinese Modernity: What Feng Shui, Ancestors, Mazu, Buddhism, and Mao Can Teach Us about a Different Kind of Secularization
Tony Chih-Chao Chuang
CHAPTER 10
Toward What End?: An Evaluation of Religion in Liberia s Public Sphere and Its Implications for Evangelism and Discipleship
Boye-Nelson Kiamu
CONTRIBUTORS
I NTRODUCTION
Craig Ott
It can be fairly said that most societies around the world are experiencing the forces of secularization as a movement away from traditional religious ways. This does not mean that people are necessarily less religious, but that the role of religion both in personal lives and in the pubic square is changing. Even the most traditional societies are affected. How does the process of secularization impact the task of Christian mission in the modern world? The 2018 national conference of the Evangelical Missiological Society took up this question. This volume brings to readers a small selection of the many papers presented at that conference.
The term secularization means many things to many people. Charles Taylor (2007, 1-3) helpfully describes three ways in which secularization can be understood: (1) at the political level , it is the attempt to make government free from the influence of religion, usually marginalizing religion in public discourse; (2) at the sociological level , it is a process of decline in religious belief and/or practice, especially so in relation to formal religious authority and identity; and (3) at the cultural level , it creates an environment in which religious beliefs are not only one option among many, but an option that is challenged, making religious belief more difficult. How are Christians to engage society missionally where religion is marginalized in the public square, where religious practice is in decline (at least in traditional terms), and where belief in the transcendent is challenged or relegated to the level of personal opinion? What are the implications for evangelism, discipleship, congregational life, and social involvement?
To set the stage for the discussion of this volume, I begin with a broad sketch of secularization in Western 1 cultural contexts, and then contrast it with secularization in non-Western contexts. The challenge of mission in such secularizing contexts will be briefly addressed, followed by an overview of the chapters that will follow in this volume.
The Story of Secularization: How the West Was Won
Western Christians have faced the challenge of secularization with increasing intensity for centuries, though most acutely so since the mid-twentieth century. Secularization is based upon the fundamental idea that the religious can be differentiated from the secular, and thus separated from public life. Furthermore, matters of faith are viewed as being based upon an alternate epistemology to other ways of knowing. Generally speaking, such distinctions are a relatively modern development. Historically religious beliefs and practices-be they Christian or otherwise-have been part and parcel of culture and integral to society and public life. Beliefs in the natural and supernatural were not different categories of knowing, and in many cases were hardly differentiated. Secularization describes the process of challenging that view of reality and promoting an alternate approach to life.
In terms of political secularization, throughout the history of Christianity the relationship of church and state, faith and public discourse, has been complex, conflicted, and at times tumultuous. D. A. Carson writes of the first century, . . . nowhere was there a state that was divorced from all gods, what we would call a secular state, with the state and religion occupying distinct, if overlapping, spheres (2008, 56). Although the Roman Empire was generally a religiously tolerant state, the earliest Christians were a marginalized and often persecuted minority religious movement. Within a few c