186 | Stetzer, Ed.

2017. Christianity Today. April 2017. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ edstetzer/2017/april/is-orality-really-effective-in-sharing-gospel. html (accessed March 5, 2019).

Interview with Salim and Sabrina Zerhouni, Algerian and Saudi Arabian Muslim Background on 2/20/2019

Interview Questions and Responses:

Question 1: What can you tell me about your family of origin?

Sabrina: My grandparents came from the mountain region where the Christian Berbers lived near a monastery. Now I am what I would describe as a secular with Muslim and Christian backgrounds.

Saleem: Although we are Su Muslims, my family was from the Saudi Arabian ruling class of Mohammed, but over the years there was a shi into Su sm among family members settling in Algiers, Algeria.

Question 2: How were you interacting with other social classes?

Salim: My family came from Saudi Arabia to Algeria; they were the ruling class of Mohammed

Sabrina: e location of Berbers, some Muslim some Christian such as from the in uence of Saint Augustine so there were di erent people groups. My family was a middle-class style family.

Interview with Riham, of Syrian Sunni Muslim Background, working as the Mediterranean cuisine chef translated by Dr. Ahmed Nasef, investor.

Interview Questions and Responses:

Question 1: What can you tell me about your family of origin and what do you miss most about your homeland?

Riham: I grew up in the Golan Heights area. e Golan continues to have ISIS groups in town near the border of Israel making it a hotbed of con ict in 2019.

Question 2: What do you miss most about your homeland Syria?

Riham: e thing I miss most are the friendships of my childhood, talking with my girlfriends a er school on my way home just spending relaxing times with them in my town near the Golan Heights.

My Response: I was able to agree with her as to the incredibly beautiful place of her homeland, remembering my trip to Israel and driving to the furthest road barricade in the Golan and looking over to Syria where one looked out over the valley of the Sea of Galilee on one side and the mountains of Syria on the other side.

Question 3: How can community members in the United States help their new neighbors from Syria?

Before Dr. Nasef entered the dining area with Riham, I saw her and knew I must smile much more than usual so as not to scare her with this stranger wanting to ask her some questions.

Question 4: see last paragraph on p.171

Riham replied: e rst thing is that I can tell by the smile on your face that you do genuinely care to connect allowing the wall to come down. A more practical measure you can take is to help us learn the language and tutor us in English.

Question 5: What can we help you with as you come to the United States?

Riham: You can also support us by frequenting the new restaurant as patrons as we welcome all groups of people.

Question 6: What do you miss about life in Syria now that you are here?

We connected over her homeland, and then she had to return to the kitchen from her allotted ten minute break.

Teaching in Partnership: Becoming CoLaborers as Professors of Mission

Danny Hunter1

Abstract: Teaching mission for the remainder of twenty rst century will mean working together to maximize the global engagement of our classrooms. is paper explores three possible avenues for this: generating and curating video content from diverse authors, increasing the frequency with which we share our classrooms with global colleagues, and shi ing our approach to hiring toward appointing consortia of global scholar-practitioners.

is year at the meeting of the Association of Professors of Mission we are being invited to “reimagine the future of missiology” and I have chosen to do so speci cally in the context of our teaching vocation. As this is a speculative venture, this paper is largely an exercise in imagination. I make no pretentions to a clear prescience by which to determine the future shape of missiology. But it seems very likely that the global engagement of our institutions and classrooms will become increasingly important as we seek to teach a missiology that is from everywhere to everywhere. In this paper I will suggest three ways that we can partner together with our colleagues around the world to expand the global engagement of our classrooms as we shape the next generation of missiologists. A er a brief excursus on the implications of partnership in our teaching vocation, I will suggest how reimagining the curriculum, guest lecturing, and hiring can open new avenues of global engagement for our students.

is paper actually began with an exercise I started some time ago while taking an educational theory course as part of my PhD. e irony of taking a professor’s view of the classroom while still being a student was not lost on me or my colleagues. But later it occurred to me that if I wanted to be able to do the reverse, to re ect on a student’s experience of my classroom as a professor, I was going to need some good data. I did not want to rely on vague memories, somewhat romanticized, and ltered through my later professional experience. So, I started re ecting on and recording some of the things that were most impactful to me as a student and comparing my notes with my colleagues. And by far the one thing that ranked above all the others was the cultural diversity of my classes. To hear and interact with cultural perspectives very di erent from my own, to see how strange the positions and arguments I was familiar with were when viewed through the eyes of another, and to draw on experiences I never could have had while forming ideas about the world and our place in it, were all invaluable processes in challenging my assumptions and leading me to a new, more complete understanding of God and his mission. I know this is very limited, anecdotal evidence. However, there are plenty of studies out there that con rm what we as theological educators usually intuit: that human understanding, and especially theological insight, thrives on diversity.2 So, this question took hold in the back of my mind: if my colleagues have been the most formative part of my education, how can I make them a part of my teaching?

My dissertation project deals with mission partnerships,3 so I suppose it should come as no surprise that I found collaboration the answer to this question. ere is a small but growing literature on educational partnerships; however, the term partnership in educational settings seems to su er from the same tragic aw that a icts it in missiological settings: namely, that almost anything is called a “partnership.”4 e ndings of one study of educational partnerships across cultures is exemplary of the main problem: we will label literally anything a partnership, even when it is simply a reiteration of colonial power structures (Major and Santoro 2016, 460–74).5 I say all this to illustrate the need when talking about “partnership” in mission or in education, to be very clear about what kind of relationship you have in mind. When I suggest we expand the global engagement of our classrooms through partnership in teaching I mean cultivating collegial relationships with our professorial counterparts the world over, ones where we approach each other as equals. I mean exchanges of time, ideas, and educational resources predicated on mutuality, respect, and sensitivity to each other’s needs. I mean a posture of invitation and generosity in sharing our class time with people who have di erent perspectives from our own. I mean a relationship where metaphors of co-laborer or friend are more apt than those of master/student or giver/receiver. Of course, this is all part of what APM is about, so I imagine I am “preaching to the choir” here. But it is still worth mentioning at the outset that if we are going to approach the global engagement of our students as co-laborers, these are the notions that should shape and inform our practice.

In the pages that follow I will o er a few suggestions about how we can apply these attitudes and values together in rethinking our approach to teaching missiology. I have chosen to begin with the least radical suggestion, and one most likely to have the broadest appeal, then move toward suggestions that have more signi cant barriers to implementation. While I hope to make the case that each of these are excellent ways to improve the global engagement of our classrooms, I realize that not all of these suggestions will be a good t for every institution or every professor. Still, I o er them in hope of starting a fruitful discussion on where we might go together as a discipline.

Reimagining the Curriculum

First of all, I think it is helpful for us to think of the content we use in our courses as opportunities for our colleagues in missiology (past and present) to speak into our classes. e authors of this content are the people we choose to put our students into conversations with. Which begs two questions: What are the avenues through which we can engage our students with missiologists? And, whose voices are we bringing into our classrooms (or maybe better whose voices are missing)?

e rapid proliferation of digital content, a student body made up of digital natives, and a move toward more online courses are already pressuring professors to use more video content in their classes. And I think this shi toward video content should be wholeheartedly embraced. Let me be clear, though: when I say we are shi ing toward video content, I am not suggesting we do away with books. I love books! Writing is the main way that we generate content to use in our courses and make that content available for others to use in theirs. Books, edited volumes, and journals will continue to be important for the foreseeable future. But we have other media for engagement at our disposal. Ones that can be more responsive to our needs, that allow us to generate content more quickly. Long-form, unidirectional discourse, like books, has de nite advantages for communicating complex ideas. But there is a lot of information that we communicate in our classes that can just as easily be communicated in shorter, more interactive forms.

Of course, we are already doing this. I would imagine all of us have generated video introductions, lectures, and other content for use in online courses. But I wonder if we can deal more e ciently and e ectively by sharing content more widely rather than generating a new video every time we have a need. While our courses are all di erent, and should be, there are themes and subjects that all of us need to cover. ere is no need for us to continually reinvent the wheel. Instead of investing time and resources into creating, editing, and publishing a new video every time we need one, what if we created and curated video content to share in each other’s classrooms?

is video content could take many forms, and I would suggest two models for us to consider emulating. e YouTube fans among you will probably be familiar with at least one of these models: TED Talks (a short 5–15 minute format, almost like a lecture, but highly polished and focused on communicating one big idea) and Crash Course (an online learning community that focuses on producing a series of information dense, high-production-value videos coupled with heavy engagement with viewers via the comments section).6 e TED Talk format has some clear advantages, not the least being that it closely resembles a style of teaching that professors are already very familiar with: the lecture. ey are also fairly easy to produce and don’t require many resources. Crash Course is designed for use in AP high school or undergraduate classes and is a very visually engaging and content-dense way to dive into a subject and invite a wider conversation.7 Whereas TED talks treat a single idea at a time, Crash Course o ers the opportunity to weave many ideas together and watch them develop over time. It is more attuned to cra ing a narrative. It also makes use of the comments section to engage viewers in a prolonged conversation. While this approach is more labor intensive and costly to create; we could take a similar approach as the people behind Crash Course have and rely on donations from teachers and viewers who nd the content useful to o set costs. Creating this kind of content can help establish a common literature in the virtual realm much as we have with written content.

Whatever the format we choose, we cannot miss the opportunity to collaborate with and feature voices currently missing from our current curriculum. A superlative example of globally engaged video content that is nearer to our own discipline (mostly employing an interview format) is e Global Church Project by Graham Joseph Hill, et al.8 is project has done a great job of engaging scholars from all around the world and attending to the questions that come from the Majority World as well as the West. As we seek to increase the global engagement of our classrooms, we should be looking for and funding content that features our colleagues from di erent parts of the world and invites them into conversation with our students.

So how do we do this? I think we should take advantage of meetings like this one to set the agenda for what kind of video content we need in our courses and whose voices we aren’t hearing in our current content. We could also use it to work out the logistics of producing and hosting this content so that it can bene t all of us. e key issue will be hosting. Creating a single, virtual space where professors can upload and access videos and where they can request and discuss future videos will take some time and resources. But it really only requires a little e ort to get started. And if we can get it o the ground, the reward will be content that is accessible to other classrooms, that presents our students with perspectives they are not encountering in our current curriculum, and that is sensitive to how our students are used to learning in a digital age.

Reimagining Guest Lecturing

Second, I think teaching missiology in the twenty- rst century will require us to nd more ways to invite our global colleagues into our classrooms to serve as guest lecturers for a class period or sometimes longer. is could entail the use of video conferencing so ware or a kind of “exchange program” through which we open our classrooms to our global colleagues and invite them to converse directly with our students.

Many of us are already doing this, both formally and informally, and I’m not presenting these as new ideas so much as advocating for an increased presence. In other words, we need to move guest lecturing from being a novelty to a necessity. is kind of “open door” approach asks three things of us as professors. First, it invites us to view the building of our professional networks as a way of impacting our classrooms. When we cultivate new friendships with colleagues around the world, we don’t view it only as a matter of personal and professional development but also as a way for us to enrich the educational experience of our students. Second, it requires us to view our chairs and classrooms as loci of hospitality rather than kingship.

ere is a vulnerability that comes with giving your time and your voice to another. ere are things that you want to say and do in the class that you won’t be able to do when you give class time to someone else. Most of us are quite convinced that our students will be enriched by what we have to say. We must ask ourselves if we are willing to trust that our students will be enriched just as much by what someone else has to teach them. Lastly, this approach entails a willingness to go as well as to host. In other words, it requires a bi-directional ow of hospitality instead of uni-directional one. If our colleagues are willing to enrich the educational experience of our students, should we not show their students the same concern?

When it comes to what form this pedagogical hospitality might take, video conferencing has lots of advantages, the foremost being that it is far cheaper and easier than travel. But it does require access to the requisite technology and the infrastructure needed to use it reliably. Working out an “exchange program” essentially means leveraging our networks to invite global scholars to come teach a week or so in our classes, then returning the favor. Institutional calendars are seldom completely in sync, so we can take advantage of break weeks, time between semesters and trimesters, or January or summer terms from time to time. I could spend a week with a colleague of mine in India (for example) during our reading week, and when his fall break came around he could spend a week with my class. is kind of informal exchange can be done on an ad hoc basis, depending on need, availability of resources, ability to travel, etc. Its advantage over video conferencing is that it gives students the bene t of the real presence of a scholar working in a di erent context (which is presumably preferable to a virtual “presence”). Being physically present in a classroom allows for more unstructured interaction before and a er class time, which can o en lead to more formative experiences than structured interactions. Exchange programs do take more time and money and so may not be a t for every professor or institution, but it promises greater impact on our students, if we can make it work.

Reimagining the Hiring Pool

My nal suggestion is that we rethink how we engage the emerging hiring pool. Perhaps we should think less in terms of the serial hiring of individuals and more in terms of hiring consortia of scholar-practitioners. is would result in a more routinized, institutionalized form of the guest lecture I discussed on the last slide, where teaching appointments can be shared by several PhD grads of various cultural backgrounds and specialties.

Also, I should note up front that this proposal is geared toward entry-level positions like adjunct or “visiting”9 professors.

e current hiring pool is massive and growing, and it is no secret that universities and seminaries can have their pick of highly quali ed PhD holders to ll any position. Meanwhile, administrators keep looking for ways to cut costs, especially on less pro table majors.10 Unless missiology programs stumble unexpectedly into a giant grant, the trend of adjuncts carrying more of the teaching load is not going to slow any time soon. But rather than view this as entirely negative, let’s look at some of the opportunities that this shi (or glut) in the hiring pool brings with it.

First, it gives institutions a large pool of highly-quali ed young teachers to choose from; people from all over the world. Second, it is forcing recent PhD graduates to innovate new ways to apply their degrees. We talk a lot now about being scholar-practitioners, people who continue to research and publish while pursuing vocations as sta missiologists, NGO workers, consultants, and missions pastors. is time spent outside the academy gives scholar-practitioners new, practical missiological experience to bring to their potential classrooms.

e consortia I am proposing would be made up of these global scholar-practitioners. ey would secure a contract to teach a given number of classes for the year and assign teaching duties to members of the consortium according to availability and expertise. e result would be something like a gig economy for adjuncts in missiology departments whose vocation could be called “teaching-plus” (enriching their teaching vocation with any number of practical vocations).

Also, my seminary (Asbury eological Seminary) has been very aggressive in developing partnerships with other seminaries in Africa, Europe, South Asia, and Latin America. Among institutions who are likewise pursuing global partnerships, consortium contracts could be shared by the schools. is would exponentially increase the hiring pipelines of our global partners while helping defray some of the nancial burden of hiring faculty with earned doctorates.

e advantages to such an approach are many. It allows our departments to o er students an education from professors hailing from every part of the globe without having to hire an enormous faculty. It puts our classrooms on the cutting edge of missiology by bringing in scholars with a wide variety of missiological experience and who remain actively engaged in their elds while teaching. is approach might also address the issue of “brain drain,” since majority world PhD graduates could remain as scholar-practitioners in their local contexts rather than taking full-time teaching positions elsewhere.

Of course, the same hiring pool, with the same advantages, is available under the current system of hiring. But I am suggesting that rather than hire professors with di erent cultural and professional backgrounds serially, our schools would do much better to hire several at a time. is would maximize the strengths of the current labor pool and make more e cient use of its potential to bring several backgrounds, specialties, and missiological expressions to bear on our classrooms. ink of it in terms of a given student’s three to four years in a degree program. If you hire one adjunct every one to three years, how globally engaged will a student’s experience be? What if they had one to three professors per semester who could teach them from a di erent cultural and theological perspective?

I realize this approach will have a limited appeal. And its actual appropriation could look very di erent based on the needs of each school. But I think there are very good reasons to risk it. For one thing, it ts with the economic realities of Christian higher education. We have too many PhD’s, too few jobs, and schools that are in an economic ght for their lives. We need solutions that enable schools to o er an education that is maximally globally engaged and minimally expensive. e consortium approach also allows us to increase the capitalization rate of our current pool of PhD holders. Our seminaries and universities have called and quali ed thousands of people for a teaching vocation; but our current practice of hiring them serially means many of the most e ective teachers will never have a chance to teach. Hiring several adjuncts together increases the likelihood that people we have called and quali ed for a teaching vocation will get a chance to spend at least some time exercising that vocation. But most importantly, hiring consortia increases the global engagement of our students. It creates a classroom that is vibrantly diverse, engaged in all kinds of global ministries, and highly mobile and exible. And isn’t that what teaching in missiology in the twenty rst century is all about?

Endnotes

1 Danny Hunter is a PhD candidate at Asbury eological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. His dissertation research is focused on global mission partnerships between American congregations and their international counterparts.

2 A concise and insightful summary of the literature can be found here: Deborah Gin, “Does Our Understanding Lack Complexity? Faculty Perceptions on Multicultural Education,” eological Education 48, No. 1, (2013): 47-51.

3 For a shameless plug in the guise of an endnote; see: cf: https:// globalchurchpartnerships.org.

4 For an example of this see: Stan Guthrie and Jonathan J. Bonk, Missions in the ird Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster Press, 2002), 115–25. Guthrie’s attempt to be comprehensive in de ning “partnership” essentially makes “partnership” mean anything that one can conceivably do with someone who can be construed as “other.” Hardly a useful de nition.

5 For an excellent discussion of this dynamic as the fatal aw of missiological partnerships, see Jonathan Barnes, Power and Partnership (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2013), 418.

6 You can nd examples at htpps://youtube.com/ted and htpps:// youtube.com/crashcourse, respectively.

7 For more information on the pedagogical philosophy behind Crash Course and building online communities of learning, check out: htpps:// youtu.be/NgDGlcxYrhQ.

8 https://theglobalchurchproject.com/.

9 A pleasant academic euphemism for a person with an assistant professor’s quali cations and workload, but an adjunct professor’s contract.

10 And while this is a problem scourging most humanities programs, let’s be honest, they are looking squarely at missiology. We are usually the paupers of our departments, even in departments lled with pastors and philosophers.

References

Barnes, Jonathan.

2013. Power and Partnership. Eugene, OR: Pickwick.

Gin, Deborah.

2013. “Does Our Understanding Lack Complexity? Faculty Perceptions on Multicultural Education.” eological Education 48, No. 1: 47-51.

Guthrie, Stan and Jonathan J. Bonk.

2002. Missions in the ird Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century. Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster Press.

Major, Jae and Ninetta Santoro.

2016. “Supervising an International Teaching Practicum: Building Partnerships in Postcolonial Contexts,” Oxford Review of Education 42, Issue 4: 460-474.

https://globalchurchpartnerships.org https://theglobalchurchproject.com htpps://youtube.com/ted htpps://youtube.com/crashcourse htpps://youtu.be/NgDGlcxYrhQ

Teaching Missiology through Film and Fiction

Stanley H. Skreslet1

My APM presentation focused on the approach taken in a hybrid course I recently taught at Union Presbyterian Seminary entitled, “Mission and Missionaries in Film and Fiction.” In my presentation, I shared with colleagues some re ections on pedagogy and what I think were the major decisions taken as I constructed this course. Since a shortage of time kept me from talking at length about any of the lms and novels actually used in the course, I am submitting below a set of brief descriptions for these materials as my paper for the APM Proceedings. Colleagues who would like to receive a copy of the syllabus may request one from me at sskreslet@upsem.edu. Within each category below (novels, feature lms, etc.), the schedule in which these creative works were used in the course determines the order of the descriptions that follow. Note that I do not include Endo’s superb novel Silence in this syllabus, because it is assigned in a di erent course that is required for all our MDiv students.

I. Novels

Ngũgĩ wa iang’o, e River Between (1965) is book is not as well known as Chinua Achebe’s celebrated novel, ings Fall Apart (1958), but it covers similar ground in an East African setting from an early post-colonial perspective. A river separates two ridges that have engaged in opposite ways with missionary Christianity. e Makuyu ridge is the site of a mission church and is where the colonial government outpost will soon be located. e Kameno ridge is dominated by a traditional religious point of view. e book’s central character, Waiyaki,

1 Stanley H. Skreslet is from Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, Virginia is told by a seer to go to the mission school and to acquire the white man’s education in order to resist colonial rule. He returns and founds his own schools, which he hopes will become an indigenous means of social unity and empowerment in de ance of foreign ways. Ultimately, the mission Christians reject Waiyaki’s strategy, just as those who push for armed resistance to encroaching colonialism also do. Ngugi includes a critical pro le of the leading missionary educator appearing in this story, tellingly named Livingstone.

Mischa Berlinksi, Fieldwork (2007)

At the heart of this novel is the o en fraught relationship between anthropologists and missionaries. Martiya van der Leun represents the eld of anthropology. She studies the Dyalo, a hill people who migrated to Burma from China a er that country’s 1949 revolution and then journeyed on to northern ailand. In ailand, her story intersects with that of the Walker family, who had been working to evangelize the Dyalo since the 1920s. She nds their deep cultural knowledge very helpful to her research but is not at all sympathetic to their missionary aims. Martiya ends up murdering the youngest Walker, a gi ed evangelist with an intuitive grasp of Dyalo spirituality and a desire to present the claims of the gospel in a way that made sense within such a worldview. Martiya suspects that the traditional ways of the Dyalo, including the sacred Dyal ritual of rice-planting that had become her obsession, would be abandoned if David Walker were to succeed. e reader learns at the outset of the story that she dies in prison. A great strength of this novel is the background presented on the development of anthropology as an academic discipline and its appeal as a vocation. ere is a mystery element included in this novel, as the author’s autobiographical persona seeks a er clues that might explain Martiya’s thinking and actions.

André Brink, Praying Mantis (2005)

Under the in uence of Johannes van der Kemp (d. 1811), Cupido Cockroach converts to Christianity and then becomes the rst Khoi or “Hottentot” to be ordained at the Cape of Good Hope. As an evangelist employed by the London Missionary Society, Cupido works with James Read in challenging circumstances made even more complicated by Dutch settler violence on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. e di erent attitudes of van der Kemp and the other LMS missionaries toward

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indigenous spirituality are contrasted in the novel. Cupido himself has an intense relationship with the Christian God, whose active presence in history is signaled by the appearance of a green mantis at various points in the story. Brink uses a magical realist style to good e ect when portraying Khoi religious experience, aspects of which are woven into Cupido’s postconversion worldview. Some readers will nd the mix of mythology and history in this novel confusing, while others will admire the subtle skill of the writer. Cupido’s faith journey remains center stage throughout the book, but Brink also takes care to re ect on the motives of the di erent foreign missionaries in the story.

Gene Luan Yang, Boxers and Saints (2013)

is intriguing set of graphic novels o ers multiple perspectives on the same set of historical circumstances, the period just before the Boxer Uprising and then the spasm of violence in China directed against foreign in uences that erupted at that time. In one of the two volumes, the focus is on the Boxers and their coalescence into a nationalist, anti-Christian movement. e lead character in this part of the story is a small boy (Little Bao) who is repulsed when foreign missionaries disrespect the traditional gods reverenced in Chinese culture. As an adult, he will imagine himself to be an operatic hero gure in the manner of China’s rst emperor, endowed with superhuman powers. His Boxer colleagues are a mixed bag, who are shown operating from a variety of motives. e most nuanced of these characters may be Mei-wen, who loves books and shows compassion for the weak but leads a female contingent of violent militants, the Red Lanterns. In the other volume, a young convert to Catholicism (Four-Girl, who becomes Vibiana) and the persecution experience of many Chinese Christians and missionaries during the Boxer uprising are featured. A mixed set of reasons for conversion to Christianity are portrayed in the two novels, which adds to their complexity. One can appreciate that many di erent kinds of missionaries appear in this pair of books, including a French Catholic priest (Fr. Bey), a Chinese Christian lay evangelist, (Dr. Won) and Boxer ideologues (Red Lantern Chu and Bao). Palace politics and colonial agendas are both shown to be a ecting the behavior of the characters in these stories.

John Grisham, e Testament (1999)

In this legal page-turner, a fallen-on-hard-times attorney is hired to nd an isolated frontier missionary laboring away in the Pantanal region of Brazil. e reason for his quest is that the missionary’s biological father, from whom she has been estranged for nearly her whole life, has just passed away and le her a multi-billion-dollar fortune. Unlike her half-siblings (aided by a host of other interested parties), who are desperately grasping a er parts of their father’s far- ung business empire, Rachel has no interest in the money and refuses to sign any papers related to this unwanted bequest. Rachel’s work as a missionary doctor and gentle evangelist is portrayed in remarkably positive terms. Grisham also takes care to describe sympathetically the larger program of activities sponsored by Rachel’s sending organization, referred to in the book as the World Tribes Mission (a ctional name but the organization strongly resembles the New Tribes Mission). As the lawyer begins nally to appreciate Rachel’s sense of call, this unexpected insight prompts him to think more deeply about his own life-direction and vocation. is novel provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the subject of philanthropy and mission, as Grisham integrates this subtopic into his plot. In this regard, instructors might want to consider assigning Brian Stanley’s IBMR legacy article on Robert Arthington as students read this story. e opening scene of this novel is one of the most gripping I have ever read.

Graham Greene, A Burnt-Out Case (1960)

Greene’s protagonist is a celebrated but personally dissatis ed architect disgusted with life. All his previous achievements look trivial or false to him, since he has lost his sense of vocation. To escape an adoring public, he travels to what he imagines to be the most remote spot possible, up the Congo river to an isolated mission station, where he hopes to serve humanity in some modest way and so perhaps regain a measure of his self-respect. As the aptly-named Querry interacts with di erent parts of the extended mission community gathered around the leprosarium (an unbelieving doctor who practices modern medicine, variously gi ed foreign missionaries, cured and still-su ering lepers, and Belgian colonists who support the work of the mission), it becomes clear that his feeling of lostness has a faith dimension. rough an unlikely set of circumstances (no spoilers here), it is widely believed that Querry acted unsel shly to save a

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life. A visiting tabloid journalist publicizes the event back in Europe (“An Architect of Souls: e Hermit of the Congo”) and suggests that Querry might be a modern-day saint in the manner of Albert Schweitzer (whose work at another African leprosarium is discussed several times in this novel). Greene paints a vivid picture of provincial Roman Catholic missionary life in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s.

John Hersey, e Call (1985)

is is the life story of ctional missionary David Treadup, who commits to Protestant mission service at the turn of the twentieth century and remains engaged with China through World War II and the Communist Revolution. Nearly every major issue vigorously debated within the Protestant missionary establishment through the rst half of the twentieth century shows up in this novel, including European colonialism, anti-colonial nationalism, the teaching of science and social development projects as methods of mission, missionary responses to Communism, the limits of good intentions, and the importance of indigenous initiative. Hersey received a Pulitzer Prize in ction for an earlier work of his, A Bell for Adano (1944). In e Call, Hersey is processing the YMCA China mission experience of his parents and others of their generation. e book rests on considerable work in missionary archives. is is the longest of the novels included in my syllabus but is written in a linear style with a clear plot line that is quite engaging and not hard to follow.

Okey Ndibe, Foreign Gods, Inc. (2014)

Ndibe tells the story of a Nigerian cab driver in New York City who hatches a plan to return to his birth country in order to steal an image of his people’s patron god. Ikey Uzondu desperately needs money and thinks he will be able to sell the ancient statue of the war-god Ngene to an upscale Manhattan boutique that specializes in decorative religious artifacts (Foreign Gods, Inc.). ere are two missionary elements woven directly into Ndibe’s plotline: a foreign missionary in the past (Stanton) who dared to challenge the power of Ngene and a contemporary local Nigerian Pentecostal church that considers the rituals of traditional religion to be a form of idolatry that must be rmly opposed. Ikey’s plan is complicated by the fact that his uncle is a traditional priest and the designated guardian of Ngene’s shrine, while the rest of his family is fully committed to the church’s iconoclastic program.

e novel provides an evocative window onto the world of West African traditional religions.

Maria Doria Russell, e Sparrow (1996)

Russell’s story is a work of science ction, set in the middle of the twenty- rst century When unexpected radio signals are received from Alpha Centauri, the Roman Catholic Church quickly sends an expeditionary group that includes a missionary priest with advanced intercultural skills to the source of the transmission. e travelers encounter a complex alien society on the planet Rakhat and struggle to make sense of what they observe. In this completely ctional setting, Russell portrays a familiar mission scenario: rst contact with a previously unknown cultural group that has its own ideas about spirituality, social norms, and political relations. Fr. Emilio Sanchez is identi ed as a Jesuit. e story as a whole engages the experience of Jesuit mission history and at points in the novel Russell o ers re ections on that history and the missionary vocation more generally. ere are aspects of this novel that some readers may nd disturbing because of the personal violence involved.

Mario Vargas Llosa, e Storyteller (1989)

e Peruvian indigenous group at the center of this novel chooses to migrate whenever the modern world threatens to overwhelm their traditional way of life. Missionaries from the Summer Institute of Linguistics represent one part of the reality the Machiguengas are attempting to keep at arm’s length in what constitutes just the most recent episode in their long struggle to maintain cultural autonomy. e lead character in this story is a Peruvian ethnologist who so deeply identi es with the people he is studying that he eventually becomes one of their most revered memory experts, a storyteller. Saúl Zuratas’s Jewish background emerges as an increasingly salient factor in the stories about cultural identity and social alienation he shares with the Machiguengas. When this character disappears, a friend of his from college attempts to nd out what happened to him, so there is a mystery angle featured in this novel. Readers need to be patient with the prose style of e Storyteller, which intermittently veers into a form of magical realism. Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010.

William Wilson Hunter, “ e Old Missionary” (1895)

e author of this short story served for many years in the Indian civil service, where he gained rst-hand experience in the administration of empire and had frequent contacts with foreign missionaries and Indian Christian communities. e advantages of “ rm British rule” are assumed in this story to far outweigh the loss of indigenous autonomy. In much the same way that the colonizers are praised for their e orts to keep religious and cultural antagonisms at bay, the old missionary is portrayed as a peacemaker. A lifetime of service has won for him respect from all quarters, it is said, so that various parties in dispute with each other are used to appealing to him for Solomonic judgments, a er which “there was no appeal.” e old missionary exempli es several personal qualities the author seems to want to promote among religious workers, including an intention to foster a close working relationship between the civil and religious spheres of the Raj, a preference for ministries of social reconciliation over dogmatism, interest in the classical literatures of India, and dialogical respect for many di erent kinds of religious devotion (including Roman Catholics, Muslims, and Hindus). is reading is one way to introduce students to an uncritical nineteenth century view of mission, in which missionary authority appears to be wielded for entirely altruistic purposes. e author expresses not a little condescension for “brown children” and overly zealous, lower-caste Indian Christians in the course of his narrative.

W. Somerset Maugham, “Rain” (1921)

Maugham sets out to ridicule missionaries and their pretentions in this short story of ship passengers forced by quarantine to spend some time together in a South Paci c island boarding house. e Davidsons are old missionary hands returning from an extended furlough who strike up a friendship with the agnostic Dr. Macphail and his wife. eir idea of mission is to stamp out lascivious pagan habits like dancing and the wearing of immodest clothing by instilling in the natives “a sense of sin.”

Maugham says of Mrs. Davidson, “Her hands itched to put everything in the order which came so naturally to her.” For his part, Mr. Davidson is used to working hand-in-glove with colonial o cials in order to fortify his social power with their civil authority. Among the marooned passengers is an alleged prostitute, Sadie ompson. Her joie de vivre contrasts sharply with the dour outlook of the missionary couple. Not content just to silence her gramophone and to shut down the non-stop partying in her room, Mr. Davidson attempts to evangelize the wayward woman but with tragic results. Maugham’s story re ects the rise of an increasingly sharp cultural critique in the West against Christian mission that intensi es from the 1920s. Many tropes featured in this story will reappear in countless critical novels (and lms) about missionaries published a er the 1960s, including missionary self-righteousness, repressed sexual desire, class pretensions, cultural condescension, and colonial entanglements.

III. Feature Films

e Le Hand of God (1955; based on William Barrett’s 1951 novel, e Le Hand of God)

Humphrey Bogart plays James Carmody, a rough-and-ready American pilot whose plane is shot down over China at the end of WWII. Carmody initially agrees to work for the Chinese warlord in whose care he recovered from his injuries, but increasingly views his circumstances as a form of imprisonment. He seizes his chance to escape when the warlord’s mercenaries murder an American priest on his way to a remote Catholic mission station. Carmody assumes the priest’s identity and presents himself to the mission as his predecessor’s long-awaited clerical replacement. He is soon met with a long list of piled-up demands for confessions, baptisms, marriages, worship services, and pastoral visiting. Now a non-observant Catholic, he has only a former altar-boy’s memory of what a priest might be expected to do. e most interesting part of this lm may be the relationships Carmody constructs with the di erent members of the mission community: the wise native assistant who knows more about faithful service than any of the foreign workers, the mission doctor who represents the truth of science against the claims of religion, and the American nurse whose traditional Catholic piety is tested by her physical attraction to the disguised priest, plus a nearby Methodist missionary who counsels the imposter to confess his deception to the bishop and the two priests sent from the diocese to investigate what was going on. e missionary vocation is a major theme in this novel. In the book especially, some of the language used to describe Chinese culture is quite condescending.

Stanley H. Skreslet | 211

Hawaii (1966; based on James Michener’s 1959 novel, Hawaii)

Many now consider the rst part of this lm a classic post-colonial portrayal of New England missionaries, who attempt to impose an ill- tting form of Calvinism on a happy native group that lives in complete harmony with the rhythms of nature. e head of the mission group, Abner Hale, wants to protect the islanders from predatory sailors, while saving their souls through baptism. When Hale begins his work in Lahaina, he is a missionary caricature: doctrinally rigid, sexually repressed, culturally tone-deaf, and a boring preacher, to boot. His wife Jerusha is by far the most savvy and sympathetic foreign missionary in the story. On faith grounds, she rejects the native practice of killing children with birth marks. Her driving motive is to express the love of Jesus for the islanders, while responding in practical ways to their expressed desire for some kinds of Western knowledge (by teaching the Alii Nui how to read, for example). Jerusha’s tragic death leads to the conversion of her husband, who becomes an outspoken advocate for native land rights, a political position that will cause him to be expelled from the mission. One of the most interesting characters in the lm is the son of the royal couple who returns to Hawaii as a subordinate member of the mission group a er years of schooling in New England. Prince Keoki must choose between his adopted faith and the traditional ways of his preChristian culture.

Of Gods and Men (2010; original screenplay by director Xavier Beauvois and Étienne Comar)

A small community of French Cistercian Trappist monks struggles to sustain its missionary presence near an isolated Algerian Muslim village. News reports document multiplying attacks against foreigners of every kind, as radical Islamists seek to destabilize the government and dispute its authority. e action of the lm turns on a decision the monks must make when the violence of 1990s Algeria nally comes knocking at the door of their compound. Deadly threats and an o er from the Algerian military to help them escape are weighed against their sense of vocation as a community called to remain in solidarity with the villagers, who are likewise at grave risk. “You are our protection,” they tell the monks. e lm e ectively portrays several levels of Christian-Muslim relations, as the monks interact constructively with village life, with various parts of the government, and with the militants themselves. At the 2012 ASM annual meeting, Klippies

Kritzinger suggested that the Trappists were modeling “prophetic dialogue” (à la Bevans and Schroeder) as they found ways to assert gospel values opposed to the ideology of the gunmen while showing respect for them as human beings. e daily rhythms of monastic life are beautifully portrayed in this very poignant lm.

Black Robe (1991; based on a 1985 novel by Brian Moore)

A spectacular but unforgiving wilderness setting in 17th-c. French North America is featured in this lm. e plot revolves around a harrowing journey undertaken by a young French Jesuit from the colonial outpost at Quebec to a remote mission station already planted among the Huron Amerindians. Samuel de Champlain arranges for Fr. Laforgue to travel with a small group of Algonquin traders, who take responsibility for his safety. e priest is laboring under several serious disadvantages: he does not speak any of the Amerindian dialects (he relies on the language skills of an eager but even younger French colonist); he knows next to nothing about the cultural practices and social values held by the various native groups; he wavers in the face of sexual temptation and questions his missionary vocation. On the positive side, Fr. Laforgue has courage and a willingness to learn from hardwon experience. Many missiologists will be interested in the developmental arc of Fr. Laforgue’s theology of mission, from a heroic quest focused on soul-saving baptisms to a more subtle commitment to love the Hurons in the way of Christ without resorting to subterfuge. Along the way, Laforgue engages with several expressions of Huron spirituality, including a native shaman who declares him to be a devil and the power of dreams to de ne reality. Also, near the beginning of the lm is a brilliant scene showing Champlain and an indigenous leader preparing for their parley by dressing formally for the event. Without any commentary, the lmmaker juxtaposes the costume choices being made and the dances and music performed by each cultural group. Assigning Greer’s well-chosen set of excerpts from the Jesuit Relations can help students to appreciate the historical background of Brian Moore’s ctional account.

e Mission (1986; based on an original story and screenplay

by Robert Bolt)

is haunting portrayal of Jesuit missions in a remote border area in the Amazon region explores with some nuance the interface of evangelization and 18th-c. geopolitics in this contested location. Spain and Portugal both want to control the land of the Guarni. e Jesuits have nally established trust with the group and look for ways to shield them from colonial predators. When a decision is reached in Europe about the fate of the land, it is stipulated that Jesuit mission villages (reductions) will have to be razed, lest they become successful commercial competitors to the Portuguese. A high-ranking prelate visits the mission and nds a kind of paradise there, but nevertheless insists that the Guarni Christians and the missionaries living among them must abandon their refuge. is lm is packed with vivid moral choices: regarding the limits of a priest’s obedience to his superiors; whether it is right to sacri ce local projects and edgling Christian communities to advance the long-term prospects of a global religious order; about what possible circumstances (if any) might be enough to justify missionary violence on behalf of a vulnerable population that cannot defend itself. Along the way, several other big topics pertaining to mission are also raised, including the debates early modern Europeans were having about the humanity of the Amerindians, the loyalty a missionary might owe to colonial co-religionists from his or her native land, and the social power of the Jesuits within 18th-c. Catholic Christianity. Best music in a mission lm ever!

e Prodigal (alternative title, Finding the Lost; 1992)

Egyptian actors in an authentic village setting near Cairo enact the parables of lost things (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the two lost sons) recounted in Luke 15. Noted New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey wrote the Arabic-language screenplay (subtitles are provided). Much of Bailey’s scholarly work on the parables of Jesus has focused on the cultural background of these stories, research undertaken especially to help modern interpreters in the West read them with “Middle Eastern eyes.” One way to use this resource is to pair it with excerpts from the Jesus lm, preferably in more than one non-Western language. Students can then be invited to consider the degree to which contextualization takes place in e Prodigal, when compared to the approach of the Jesus lm. Bailey writes about his intentions for the lm in the introduction to the second edition of his wellregarded study of the Luke 15 parables, e Cross and the Prodigal (2005).

IV. Documentary Films

“Front Line of Democracy” (1947)

e United Board for Christian Education in Asia produced this fundraising appeal directed at American mainline churches in support of China’s Christian colleges. Many of these institutions had relocated to the interior of the country during the Second World War, beyond the reach of Japan’s occupation forces. Now, in the immediate a ermath of the con ict, they were attempting to resume their pre-war programs. As depicted in this short documentary (24 minutes), the reconstituted rhythms of campus life in China’s Christian colleges strongly resembled what the lm’s domestic audience would likely expect to take place at a typical American private college. e lmmakers contextualize the work of these institutions by proposing that they are participating in the large-scale historical processes of modernization then underway in China. By helping China to advance economically and socially, it is suggested, these mission-founded institutions were serving the cause of world peace and American political interests. ough not explicitly named in the lm, the existential challenge of Communism in the 1940s had put China’s Christian colleges on “the front line of democracy.” My copy of this lm came from the Special Collections of the Day Missions Library at Yale Divinity School.

“Albert Schweitzer” (1956)

is short lm received the Academy Award for best documentary in 1957. Just a few years earlier (1953), the Norwegian Nobel Committee had awarded its Peace Prize to Dr. Schweitzer, citing a lifetime of humanitarian service in Gabon and his well-known ethic of “reverence for life.” How the lmmakers decided to portray Schweitzer’s extraordinary life is worth discussing, especially since there are now multiple biographical treatments that push back against the reverential tone of this lm. Along the way, students may want analyze Schweitzer’s relationships to Africans in the lm (patients and sta ) and his views on this slice of early to mid-twentiethcentury African culture. I have found this documentary to be a good way to

Stanley H. Skreslet |

215 conclude a course on mission(aries) in lm and ction, because it touches on so many themes encountered earlier in the term, including the mission village idea (Praying Mantis), medical care to leprosy patients (A Burnt-Out Case), colonial mentalities (“ e Old Missionary,” A Burnt-Out Case, and e River Between), missionary narratives focused on Great Men (James B. Todd in e Call), religion and the man of science ( e Le Hand of God and A Burnt-Out Case), humanitarian service as mission ( e Call and “Front Line of Democracy”), the architectural design of buildings to be used for missionary purposes (Hawaii), and missionary sacri ce (passim).

Teaching Mission for a North American Church THAT Needs It

omas R. Walls1

Abstract is paper gives a quick perusal of various issues that were presented as possible trends that would impact Christian mission entering the twenty- rst Century. It then settles into the unforeseen impact of millennials and “nones” upon North American church and its context. Much of that impact is perceived as being detrimental to the life and ministry of this portion of Christianity. e question is presented as to what the church shall do about this situation. One possibility is a more thorough integration of mission studies and preparation into the more traditional approaches to ministerial preparation.

Introduction

It was in the early years of this century that I had the opportunity to visit a college concerning a possible teaching position. e head of the department and I had attended the same seminary some two decades earlier. He had taken the direct academic route to his position and I had taken a professional route via an international mission assignment before pursuing my doctorate. As I met with him and the department’s faculty, he began the interview with the following statement: “Tom, if you are invited to join us as a professor, I imagine you will want to turn this department into a missionary training school?” I was somewhat taken aback by the question and the possibility of its inferences. I replied that was not the case, even though this discipline was my academic and professional background. Perhaps it was the book that I was carrying as reading material to ll the down time between meetings that initiated the discussion, for it was a somewhat provocative book for its time. It had caught the eye of the interviewers. It was Frost and Hirsch’s original edition of e Shaping of ings to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church. Over the next few days our discussions reverted to more than a few ideas and proposals found within that book. Today, as I think back to those days and the discussions which prevailed and to the initial statement in particular, I believe I would answer that question di erently, if given the opportunity. Many predicted issues that have developed in our societal context over the last two decades that have impacted the current and future state of Christian mission as it pertains to the North American church.

1 Tom is Associate Professor of Christian Missions at Chapman Seminary at Oakland City University. He has been a pastor in Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri. He and his wife spent ten years as Church of God (Anderson, IN) missionaries in Venezuela. He holds a PhD from the Southern Baptist eological Seminary.

A Quick Perusal of Predicted Issues

e approach of the new century saw a plethora of predictions for almost everything in life. Who can forget waiting anxiously for the arrival of those rst few minutes of the twenty- rst Century to see if our digital technology would fail? Would our computers crash? Would your car start to take you home? Predictions for mission in the twenty- rst Century were not quite that dramatic. Some predictions looked on the bright side of life with the unlimited expansion of Christianity and its missionary e orts. Other predictions were more pessimistic and cast a negative haze over such e orts, particularly as they related to e orts emanating from the North American church.

A quick perusal of an assortment of the books dealing with mission trends for the coming twenty- rst Century quickly veri es the observation above. For example, take a look at the ve volume set of Mission Trends 1–5, edited by Gerald Anderson and omas Stransky. In these volumes, one nds a hundred plus essays from international scholars dealing with all manner of topics which are delineated into crucial issues in mission, evangelization, third-world and liberation theologies, and inter faith encounters. Study James Engel’s book on the challenge of funding North American mission organizations, A Clouded Future? Advancing North American World Missions. ere one becomes fully immersed in the statistics, diagrams, and explanations of what was happening and was predicted to happen in this speci c aspect of projecting a missionary outreach. However, the book’s content does not and cannot be restrained to nancial and funding issues alone. Engel notes that such projections are deeply impacted by changing nancial situations; thus, he delves into such areas as a call for more in uence from two-thirds world leaders (20), a rethinking of the paradigm for world mission (22), and the restoration of the kingdom of God to its rightful place (23-24). In James Phillip’s and Robert Coote’s festschri to Gerald Anderson the chapter written by Keith Crim notes a number of issues that would be facing mission and the North American church. Included in such issues are the changes taking place in Protestantism in this region of the world (98–100), the mission to ethnic groups (101–102), opposition and competition (102-104), and the resources for missions (104–105). Such issues and patterns remain a constant in many of the other books regarding late twentieth century trends and early twenty- rst century predictions. Emphasis is given to the status of Christian mission in the world, especially as it relates to the status of the North American church in that outreach. It was a given that change would be unavoidable for this church and its mission e orts. e open question would be to what degree these changes would take place and how much would that a ect the North American church’s role in mission. All sorts of answers and guesses were attempted. Some were pessimistic in nature. Others were more optimistic in their appraisals. How close these opinions and predictions have come is still being evaluated. e substance of this paper is about a couple of issues that were not foreseen. Still, these issues deeply impact the missional outreach of the North American church. And that impact is not measured in waning nancial support and diminishing numbers of long-term missionaries alone for denominational and independent missionary agencies. e deepest impact will be upon a growing “unreached people group” within our society which will be reached by a major missiological paradigm shi and praxis in the North American churches and the seminaries and higher educational units which serve them.

e Unforeseen Impact of the “M's and N's”

In the mission literature before and a er the turn of the century, amultitude of issues are covered. It seems no geographic section of the world is le out. Phillips and Coote provide an excellent overview of the material in this regard as their contributing authors, including some of the most noted missiologists of that day, present ideas about mission within an inclusive Christian church spectrum with its geographic panorama, noted foundational disciplines, and speci c challenges facing mission in the twenty- rst century. Another book to be taken into consideration is the second book of the Encountering Missions series from Baker Academic. e Changing Face of World Missions was published only ve years a er the turn of the century. Its authors, Michael Pocock, Gailyn Van Reheenan, and Douglas McConnell, tackle many of the same issues and possibilities mentioned in the previously noted book, with the exception of the passage of an additional twelve years of time and experience. And that di erence is noted in some of the re nement in their conclusions. Together, these two books are representative of the issues being raised and the open predictions being presented.

But what are “M's and N's” noted in the section title? ese are not speci cally noted nor discussed by these two books or others similar to them in content. To be speci c, “M's and N's” are “millennials” and “nones” (who include not only millennials but other generations). While many of the resources dealing with the topic of this paper do not deal directly with the in uence of postmodernity upon the church and its mission outreach, two particular sources directly noted postmodernity. Pockock, Van Rheenen, and McConnell with the help of an additional decade of time, did deal with the transition from modernity to postmodernity and its in uence upon the global context (Pocock, Van Rheenen, and McConnell 2005, 105–128). e topic at hand is especially enhanced when we ask, “But will postmodernism help or hinder missionary work?” (Pocock, Van Rheenen, and McConnell, 108) e following would be a brief description of postmodernity as well as pertinent critiques concerning it.

Postmodernity is noted as “a serious challenge that confronts Christian faith and merits a clear and compassionate response” (Ibid., 113). In regards to Christian mission speci cally, these authors note that “postmodernism may a ect missions in two signi cant ways. First, it may a ect those who become missionaries, and second, it may a ect the ways non-Christian postmodernists respond to missionaries” (Ibid., 116). It can be added that the e ect goes beyond how postmodernists respond to missionaries to include Christians (and thus Christianity) in general. is challenge to Christianity and to its mission outreach is most clearly demonstrated in the “N” of this section's title. e term nones emerged into the public dialogue a er the 2016 national elections as pundits and statisticians evaluated that election and its results. It was placed in the omas R. Walls | 221 statistical category of the religious backgrounds (or lack there-of) of those who had or had refrained from voting. It was an interesting term that caught the passing notice of many religion scholars. Since that particular event, the use of the term has continued to grow as the entities which attempt to discern the religious demographic make-up of this country (e.g., Barna, Gallup, Pew Research, etc.) have cited the growing percentages of “nones” in our society. is was brought home to me when I was reading an electronic edition of my small home town newspaper in which the lead editorial was entitled “Survey: Number of nonbelievers on rise” (Jensen, 6A). is editor notes that “those Americans who say they hold no religious belief (the standard de nition of a “none”—explanation mine) has risen by 266 percent since 1991. If these numbers are correct—or even close—that means that there are as many people who claim no religious belief as there are Catholics and Evangelicals” (Jensen, 6A). Jensen does not state in the editorial where he obtained this information, although it does coincide with a Religion News article that had been published a couple of weeks earlier and had been cited by a number of news outlets (Jenkins 2019). e Jenkins article quanti es the numbers more clearly by noting that “those of ‘no religion’ (23.1%) are statistically slightly larger than evangelicals (22.5%) and statistically tied with Catholics (23%) (Ibid.). Almost a quarter of this country’s population apparently identify themselves in this statistical category. e conclusion of that report states that “millennials are making an indelible imprint on the nation.” (Frey).

It should be noted at this juncture that “nones’ are not necessarily atheists, as noted in that same article, and coincides with a Pew Research article which states that only 21% of those who are “nones” take that position to a disbelief in God (Alper). What and who are moving this signi cant growth in the religiously una liated? According to another article from Pew Research it is millennials who are pushing these numbers forward. Older Millennials are at 35% of the religiously una liated while Younger Millennials come in at 36% of that grouping (Lipka). A Brookings Report does a good job of taking census data and presenting information about the millennial generation in terms that are succinct and understandable (Frey).

Leading up to the turn of the century, projections upon the impact of these two groups on Christianity and North American society were not seen or perhaps they were disregarded due to the lack of discernible forecasting data at that time. Early in the century, as they emerged, it seems that these two groups and their growing impact were downplayed, perhaps with the hopes that this would change with the passing of time. However, as noted above, this data cannot be ignored nor disregarded now or going forward. e numbers do not lie. e percentage di erentials are growing. Christianity’s in uence and impact on the North American context are diminishing as consistently as has membership in its churches (Jones). All the while “M's and N's” have expanded in numbers and in uence.

My, Oh My, What Can Be Done?

e situation appears to be dire, if not desperate! e numbers are pointing in the wrong direction. All the positive vibes of the '70s, '80s, and early '90s have evaporated. Magazines, journals, and books appear to picture a present and a future full of desperate times ahead for Christianity in North America. is will undoubtedly negatively a ect Christian mission from a North American perspective. But all is not lost, as seen in the tremendous growth in Christianity and its maturing missionary apparatus within the majority world (Jenkins 2002, 211–20). Pride and ego will be damaged with the diminishing in uence and control of mission from the western and North American church. Much like the changes which inevitably happen within a family as parents grow older and children and grandchildren mature and come into their own, the North American church and its international and intercultural mission e orts will see similar changes (whether it wants to accept them or not). But what about our countries? Our societies? Our generations? I am reminded of a couple of questions that I have o en given to congregations and classes at the beginning of mission presentations. I ask, with accompanying power point slides, “Which country provides the most missionaries to the international outreach of Christianity?” e question is readily answered with pride and joy—the USA. e answer is correct, even with all the negative numbers that have been provided in this paper. e second question is somewhat reversed: "Did you know that same country is one of the largest receptor nations of missionaries?" is conundrum leads to some very interesting discussions. Will the answer to the question posed in this section be that inevitably the USA and its sister North American and Western countries will become net mission receptor nations? is could be the way forward. Or the situation could cause a paradigm shi in the ecclesiological perspectives and practices in the church and its academy.

Some een years ago I was tasked to develop and teach a Doctor of Ministry seminar on the “Minister as Missional Leader.” e term missional was just making its appearance on the theological scene through the signi cant writings of Darrell Guder in the Gospel & Our Culture Series.

e tack which I took in those initial seminars was totally di erent than what I take today. In the beginning, the readings and seminar presentations were very conventional to the times. Essentially, the point was to explain why Christian mission was important to the overall ministry of the church and how the minister could e ectively lead his or her congregation forward in support of the international and intercultural ministry in their particular denomination. at is not the approach today. Where only a few texts were available covering the missional nature and responsibility of the local church and its ministers at that time, that is not the case currently. Texts and seminar presentations still are given which meet the course’s original description: is course re ects on the role of the minister as the missional leader in the local congregation with a speci c awareness of the broader intercultural/international Christian movement. Attention is given to a survey of the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic perspectives of the missional mandate of the Church. is goal is to produce a missiological awareness which will enhance and facilitate the minister’s leadership skills within a local congregational context and enable that minister to become an e ective advocate of the Church’s Great Commission responsibilities. (Walls) e connection to the mission e orts of the church beyond the minister’s own cultural and national context is not overlooked; however, a signi cant portion of the seminar has been transformed to bring emphasis to the important cultural changes that have altered the context in which the church and its ministers now serve in a common North American context. Texts and video presentations are utilized to stimulate discussion and growth in the employment of a missional approach in the minister’s own congregational context beyond the usual cultural and ethnic parameters. Instead, the desire is for these students to begin using a cultural hermeneutic (exegesis), which enhances their ability to serve their community more holistically and to begin to move their congregations accordingly. is seminar has traveled a long way in a relatively short amount of time. It hardly resembles the original e orts and contents. But it is far more relevant in content and terminology. And perhaps that is what this paper is really all about.

What Does is Really Mean for Mission Teaching Going Forward?

e answer in brief: everything and very little. As it relates to what is taught in the academy concerning the commonly understood aspects of Christian mission, little changes. is does not mean that the status quo is thoroughly entrenched and one will teach the common mission courses in the same ways, using the trusted “standard” texts that may have been used for generations or those which have dutifully taken their place. To maintain such a status quo is impossible, especially when those “standard” texts are disappearing from their publishers at a rapid pace. eologically oriented academe will see change (although slowly) and with that change our discipline likewise. What does not change is that missionaries are still called to service. And with acceptance to such assignments comes the responsibility for preparation for service—which is equally signi cant for those called to short-term missions as well as those who are called to career-term missions. Preparing persons to enter a ministry which will require them to enter cultures similar or diverse from which they originate will continue. e ministry to which they are called requires speci c preparations and study which go beyond accepted norms of ministerial/ pastoral preparation at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To the core classes which are readily required of ministerial course work, whether it be in a Bible college, Christian college/university, or seminary setting, are added course work in the biblical and theological foundations of Christian mission, the historical contexts of mission, cultural anthropology, world religions, intercultural communication, cross cultural preparation, language acquisition, methodological and strategic approaches (historical, current, and future trending) with Christian mission, and more. All this is required or encouraged in addition to the established ministerial prep work within an academic context. Such will not change in great measure, although there will be gradual change within an ecclesiastical environment which is constantly seeing change. However, missionary education exists in an environment which is constantly in ux, so it must remain nimble in its approach and application. What must become more exible to the environment in which it exists and to the context into which its graduates enter is the traditional

225 accepted ministerial educational cores. And mission studies is appropriately prepared to help in this process.

To the evolving multicultural context of this society, which was predicted in multiple volumes of pre-twenty- rst century forecasts, specialized training is needed. is kind of specialized training can be found in mission studies programs. e unexpected challenges of the millennial generation accompanied by its “nones” require ministry approaches which are more mission oriented than traditionally accepted ministerial approaches. One might say that millennials and “nones” are consistently developing a generational demographic as recognizable and discernible as most cultural demographics. In addition, they are becoming a demographic that is as unaware of Christian teachings and in uences and in some cases resistant to such teachings and in uences as some people groups in the distant 10-40 window. ese are not people arriving to our society with existing religious understandings. ese are people from within our society who come from our neighborhoods, schools, and families. To reach such demographics will require ministry approaches beyond the approaches which our academic programs are now prepared to o er. It is acknowledged that much of that which is o en required and o ered in current accredited ministerial preparation programs is of high quality and is historically proven. is should not disappear nor be greatly changed. What does need to change is the role of mission studies in what has been considered traditional ministry studies.

It has not been unusual in such programs to have one generalized introductory mission course, sometimes included as an elective instead of a requirement, be o ered to ministry students, leaving the more "specialized" mission courses to those persons heading into missionary service. But it is exactly these “specialized” courses which may be the most useful to ministerial students entering into a vastly di erent cultural landscape than what has been pastoral ministry in North America, especially to the demographic which includes the millennials and nones. It will be di cult to reach these two groups with current traditional methodologies. Biblical accuracy, theological orthodoxy, appropriate pastoral regimens, understandable and correct worship, hermeneutical and homiletic exactness, and so forth are not understood nor appreciated by these groups. A situation exists that is very similar to entering a cultural environment which the minister knows little of or appreciates less the vagaries of a religion which is not extant to their historical and cultural context. Entering such contexts with the good news of Christ and with the intent of introducing Christ and his church in such a way that is contextually appropriate is what missionaries are trained (educated) and prepared to do. Our ministers and their congregations are not prepared to do so. us they revert to methodology and techniques from a disappearing era which are not only out of date but sometimes outright culturally inappropriate to such cultural and generational demographics. As one of my professors from long ago used to lecture with great redundancy: “You (future ministers) must learn to exegete your communities with as great an accuracy and continuity as you are willing to exert in exegeting of the Holy Scriptures.” e common curricular content of undergrad ministry programs and the Association of eological Schools accredited Master of Divinity requirements are not the issue. What is the issue is taking such curricula and implementing it in the “real world” of parish ministry. It is at this point where select areas of mission studies need to “come alongside” the existing curricula to help these prospective ministers, their alumni colleagues through continuing education opportunities, and vicariously their congregations through their ministers’ participation. is symbiotic curricula does not present some “quick x” or simple solution to a problem the church is confronting today. e problem is not some possible situation that may come down the road in some mysterious future scenario. e decline of the church in the North American context is a reality today. It is no longer just the conciliar portion of the family which is experiencing this decline. It includes Roman Catholics and Evangelicals as well. A quarter of our population opting out of religion and Christianity in particular is not something that might happen. It is happening and that percentage is growing exponentially. e new reality is that we now live in a context which necessitates a missional approach to ministry instead of a traditional ministerial approach. Ministers and their congregations should begin to implement missional approaches to their ministries before it is too late for Christianity within this culture to make a substantial and meaningful impact. e question is not why but how shall this be accomplished. How can the North American church confront this situation and begin to turn it around?

What Are the Speci cs?

In 1998, a trio of authors produced a small but impactful book, Choosing a Future for U.S. Missions, which o ers a series of strategic questions omas R. Walls | 227 and observations. For the purpose of this paper, one small sentence in a chapter asking “How Shall ey Be Sent?” drives the discussion to the point for mission education. e authors state, “E ective missions education is desperately needed” (McKaughan, O’Brien, and O’Brien 1998, 58). ey go on to emphasize that “the number one priority is more mission mobilizers —mission pastors, more active mission committees, more missionary education on the local level” (Ibid., 58). What they did not foresee with this call to action was how important this would be for missional impact by the church at a local level. e projection was outward in nature with the emphasis on maintaining a mission thrust projected beyond the United States. Mission maintenance remains very important and cannot be abandoned; however, added to that responsibility is the burgeoning domestic explosion of diverse ethnic and generational contexts which require speci c missional preparation and application. eir statements remain true for the church; what has changed has been an ampli cation of the “why” and “to whom.” e “why” and “to whom” which have been established within this paper reaches beyond a purely ethnic multiculturalism to a cultural diversity driven by a distinct cultural and generational divide. e question remains of what are the speci cs from mission education which meet this contextual need. One could imagine that most of that which has been taught in mission education would have relevance in ministerial preparation for this new reality. One could nd historical correlations from Christianity’s mission history. Major paradigm shi s in speci c ministerial contexts are not unique to our society or to this time period. How did the church and its mission apparatus handle those situations? What was done e ectively and successfully? What failed and should be avoided? Are there biblical and theological precedents to be applied to our situation? Where such precedents are absent how can the church in this societal context nd approaches that do not con ict with orthodox biblical interpretation and theological orthopraxis of twenty plus centuries while understanding the unique parameters of the twenty- rst century context?

Darrell Whiteman presents just such a discussion with a series of pertinent questions with accompanying answers in a chapter in Missiological Education for the 21st Century. He asks about "missiological education for whom and for what contexts." (Whiteman, 134–136) He goes on to explain the signi cance of the behavioral studies in missiological studies and applications. He defends disciplinary integration and vigorously calls for the ampli cation of such practice as he states, “I believe the time is long overdue to draw on a wider range of behavioral sciences for missiological education” (Ibid., 142). I concur with Whiteman’s observations and advocacy, as such disciplines which ought to be integrated, interpreted, and applied through missiological systems that provide important insights to ministry in international and intercultural contexts. But they also pertain to the postmodern and post-Christendom environment which are now well entrenched in North America. e “one size, one paradigm, mega-church or bust” approach to church plants are more di cult to initiate and sustain in a society where a quarter of the population are religiously non-a liated and a larger percentage of the population which does not have the privilege of a normative Christian religious experience (although it may be limited) that church planters draw upon in making initial contact and progressions. Going forward, church plants and re-plants will need to increasingly draw upon the lessons learned by the missiological community in evangelizing, disciplining, and church planting in situations where the contexts have been devoid or lacking of more favorable parameters. Indeed, the local situations o en appear to be closer to that which is found on the “mission eld” than readily approachable North American situations of the late twentieth century. is brings us full circle. I began this paper by noting something which happened in my life almost two decades earlier. In re ection, I stated that I would answer that initial question di erently given the experiences of the intervening years. Indeed, I would answer that question di erently, but not solely based on personal experiences and maturity. I would have to answer in the a rmative because the status quo has changed. If the church within our society has any chance to e ectively change its impact (or lack there-of) one thing must change: it must begin to think, live, and minister like a church on mission. And this process begins in the preparation of its future leaders and ministers. e schools and entities responsible in this environment must begin to prepare these persons and their congregations to think and act more like missionaries than what we have been doing for the past century. e status quo has proven to be ine ective and out of step omas R. Walls | 229 with the current contextual realities. Paradigms have changed. e di cult and tumultuous reality of catching up with that change must begin, or we will follow the tragic example of the multitudes of once relevant churches who did not and disappeared from the scene. e question for us become, What shall we do? Let’s answer that question and move into action.

Another speci c point of application is in the strategic questions and decisions necessary to re-plant the church in a context where the church has essentially disappeared. e norm of late twentieth century approaches to church planting in such contexts are proving to be increasingly ine ective.

References

Alper, Becka

2018. “Why America’s ‘nones’ don’t identify with are religion.” Fact Tank. August 8. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/08/whyamericas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion/ (accessed May 21, 2019).

Anderson, Gerald H., and omas R. Stransky

1974. Mission Trends No. 1: Crucial Issues in Mission Today. New York: Paulist Press.

1975. Mission Trends No. 2: Evangelization. New York: Paulist Press.

1976. Mission Trends No. 3: ird World eologies. New York: Paulist Press.

1979. Mission Trends No. 4: Liberation eologies in North America and Europe. New York: Paulist Press.

1981. Mission Trends No. 5: Faith Meets Faith. New York: Paulist Press.

Crim, Keith R.

1993. “North America.” In Toward the 21st Century in Christian Mission James M. Phillips and Robert T. Coote, eds. Pp. 98-106. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Engel, James F.

1996. A Clouded Future: Advancing North American World Missions. Milwaukee, WI: Christian Stewardship Association. 2-24.

Frey, William H.

2018. “ e millennial generation: A demographic bridge to America’s diverse future.” Brookings. January, 2018. https://www.brookings. edu/ research/millennials/ (accessed May 21, 2019).

Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch

2003. e Shaping of ings to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

Guder. Darrell

2000. e Continuing Conversion of the Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Guder, Darrell, ed.

1998. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Jenkins, Jack

2019. “Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US.” Religion News Service. March 21. https://religionnews.com/2019/03/21/nonesnow-as-big-as-evangelicals-catholics-in-the-us/ (accessed May 21, 2019).

Jenkins, Philip 2002. e Next Christendom: e Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Jensen, Michael

2019. “Survey: Number of nonbelievers on the rise.” Sikeston Standard Democrat. April 14. https://standard-democrat.com/story/2601422. html (accessed April 14, 2019).

Jones, Je rey

2019. “U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades.” Gallup. April 18. https://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/churchmembership-down-sharply-past-two-decades.aspx (accessed April 19, 2019).

Lipka, Michael 2015. “Millennials increasingly are driving growth in ‘nones’.” Fact Tank. May 12. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/12/ millennials-increasingly-are-driving-growth-of-nones/(accessed May 21, 2019).

McKaughan, Paul, Dellana O’Brien, and William O’Brien

1998. Choosing a Future for U.S. Missions. Monrovia, CA: MARC.

Phillips, James M., and Robert T. Coote

1993. Toward the 21st Century in Christian Mission. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Pocock, Michael, Gailyn, Van Rheenen, and Douglas McConnell

2005. e Changing Face of World Missions: Engaging Contemporary Issues and Trends. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Walls, omas R.

2018. DMIN 814: e Minister as Missional Leader. Doctor of Ministry syllabus, Oakland City University.

Whiteman, Darrell

1996. “ e Role of the Behavioral Sciences.” In Missiological Education for the 21st Century: e Book, the Circle, and the Sandals. J. Dudley Woodberry, Charles Van Engen, and Edgar J. Elliston, eds. Pp. 133143. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

The Challenge of Missions in an Age of

Silicon Valley and the Development of New Forms of Religious Expression

Daniel Topf1

Abstract

In Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari (2017) attempts to describe what the future of humanity might look like, a future that will be shaped by new technologies like biotechnology and arti cial intelligence. In this kind of environment, Christians will have to deal with a whole new set of questions, such as what it means to be truly human in an age of hyperintelligent machines. To develop a relevant missiology for the coming decades, Christians will not only have to interact with other world religions like Islam and Buddhism, but also with technology and its social, ethical, and political implications.

Introduction

Especially in recent years, missiologists have made it a priority to interact with other major world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Some mission practitioners may do so in order to achieve a breakthrough for Christianity among adherents of a particular faith tradition (e.g., Ghattas and Ghattas 2009) or to pursue peace-building initiatives (Shenk 2014). Others, particularly academics, may be interested primarily in engaging in interreligious dialogue or studying comparative theology (Clooney 2010; Cornille 2013). By contrast, missiologists and theologians tend to be less eager to engage with today’s technological developments and the secular worldviews that o en undergird these advancements in science and technology. Missiologists ignore these kinds of issues to their own peril because science and technology are profoundly in uencing people’s lives, and questions related to bioengineering, advanced robotics, and arti cial intelligence will pose some of the most pressing political, economic, and ethical questions humans will have to wrestle with in the twenty- rst century.

Since technology looms so large in contemporary daily life, an increasing number of people may place their hope and aspirations in technological advancements rather than in traditional religions. One of the most prominent thinkers discussing possibilities along these lines is Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian and philosopher who became well known through his publication Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015a), a book that was endorsed by both Bill Gates (then the richest person in the world) and Barack Obama (then the most powerful person in the world). In the following, I begin by introducing some of Harari’s main theses, speci cally as these relate to religion. I then explore several missiological and theological implications this kind of thinking may have and invite missiologists to enter into a constructive dialogue with secular and technology-driven worldviews like liberal humanism and transhumanism.

Introducing Harari’s Worldview

Harari’s approach to explaining life and the world is a naturalistic, science-based worldview. He draws extensively from the theory of evolution, which, to him, explains how homo sapiens conquered the world and why humans behave the way they do: “Just as people were never created, neither, according to the science of biology, is there a ‘Creator’ who ‘endows’ them with anything. ere is only a blind evolutionary process, devoid of any purpose, leading to the birth of individuals” (Harari 2015b, 109).2

Based on his rm belief in evolution, Harari is committed to secularism; religions, like any other ideology, are entirely human-made and therefore not binding in any absolute sense.3 Granted, religions may have some positive e ects on society, but faith is not necessary for developing an ethical system, as “we don’t need to invoke God’s name in order to live a moral life. Secularism can provide us with all the values we need” (Harari 2018, 206). Accordingly, Harari (2018, 127-139) does not see religions as a necessary force for good in the world; on the contrary, the various faith systems have been responsible for many evils and therefore need to be critiqued.4

In addition, any other problem humans face today can and will be solved through scienti c breakthroughs. For example, to address people’s emotional needs, Harari (2015b, 389) suggests manipulating people’s biochemical system, thereby making “people far happier than ever before.” Science will not only continue to enable people to live healthier and happier lives, progress may one day even solve the problem of death, because for men [sic] of science, death is not an inevitable destiny, but merely a technical problem. People die not because the gods decreed it, but due to various technical failures—a heart attack, cancer, an infection. And every technical problem has a technical solution. . . . True, at present we cannot solve all technical problems. But we are working on them. Our best minds are not wasting their time trying to give meaning to death. . . . ey are developing new medicines, revolutionary treatments and arti cial organs that will lengthen our lives and might one day vanquish the Grim Reaper himself (Harari 2015b, 267).

In Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Harari (2017, 23) further develops these thoughts, a rming that “we don’t need to wait for the Second Coming in order to overcome death. A couple of geeks in a lab can do it. If traditionally death was the specialty of priests and theologians, now the engineers are taking over.” As these quotes demonstrate, Harari’s provocative theses are diametrically opposed to what Christians have historically asserted to be true about both the beginning and the end of life. Nonetheless, I believe Harari makes an important point when he emphasizes how dramatically cutting-edge technologies like arti cial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, quantum computing, algorithms and Big Data, virtual reality (VR), and bioengineering will alter human existence in the decades to come.

Technology-Driven Religions

As brie y outlined above, Harari does not believe in the basic tenets of Judaism or Christianity; rather, he believes that in the future, technology will take the place of religion or create new forms of religious expression. Accordingly, as Harari (2015c, 1:30-45) a rmed during a talk at Google, “ e most interesting place in the world today, in religious terms, is Silicon Valley” because “this is where the new religions that will take over the world are being formulated.” Harari (2016) later also developed this thought in an essay, writing,

Nowadays, the most interesting place in the world from a religious perspective is not Syria or the Bible Belt, but Silicon Valley. at is where hi-tech gurus are brewing for us amazing new religions that have little to do with God, and everything to do with technology. ey promise all the old prizes—happiness, peace, justice and eternal life in paradise—but here on Earth with the help of technology, rather than a er death and with the help of supernatural beings. (Of course, this does not mean that these techno-religions will ful l all their extravagant promises. Religions spread themselves more by making promises than by keeping them.)

To make his case, Harari (Ibid. c) in his talk on “Techno Religions and Silicon Prophets” rst postulates that the dominant ideology or belief system at present is liberal humanism (or simply liberalism, as he calls it). Liberalism is based on several basic assumptions: rst, the centrality of the individual; second, the idea that individuals have free will; and third, the assumption that “only I can really know myself” (Ibid., c, 4:33). is is why liberalism promotes liberty, encouraging individuals to act according to what they think or feel. In stating that liberalism is the dominant ideology in modern societies, Harari makes a compelling argument, especially because he undergirds his thesis with several examples from the world of politics, economics, aesthetics, ethics, and education: (cf. Harari 2017, 249)

• For instance, to consider the area of politics, in a democracy, Harari explains, political decisions are made through elections, which are based on the assumption that “the voter knows best,” that “there is no higher authority than the voter” (Harari 2015c, 5:35-42).

• Similarly, the liberal approach to economics is that “the customer is always right” (Ibid., c, 6:52). Ultimately, a good product is one that is being bought by many consumers—no other authority, whether a committee, the state, or any group of experts, can make that decision.

• Traditionally, many cultures believed there are certain objective standards according to which it can be decided what makes good art. According to the liberal view on art, however, “beauty is in the eye of the beholders” (Ibid., c, 9:20)—so, once again, the individual is the highest authority to make decisions in the realm of aesthetics.

• In ethics, how can humans know whether an action is good or evil? Traditionally, religious authorities (such as priests) determined what was good or evil. But in liberalism, “the highest authority in the eld of ethics is also the feelings of individuals—there is nothing beyond that. If it feels good, do it” (Ibid., 11:26–35)!

• Finally, in liberal education “the student . . . is the highest authority, not the teacher, not the professor.” Accordingly, the highest goal liberal educators have for their students is to teach them “to think for themselves” (Ibid., 13:53–14:09).

In our time, Harari (Ibid., 14:56) concludes, this “liberal package dominates most of the world.” It is a package which includes the idea of human rights, representative democracy, and market-driven economies (cf. Harari 2017, 283). Not everybody may accept these liberal ideas, but together they form a dominating system to which currently there seems to be no attractive alternative.5

Nonetheless, liberalism may soon be challenged—not by traditional religions (like Islam), nor by authoritarian systems (like China), but by new kinds of technological forces, speci cally the life sciences and dataprocessing capabilities. Liberalism depends on the inner core of individuals, but according to the life sciences, human beings (and other animals) are essentially a collection of biochemical algorithms since, in Harari’s worldview, there is no inner core, no soul (Ibid., 284, 285, 287).

A er all, human beings, just like any other animal, are merely calculating machines—constantly calculating chances for survival and reproduction (Ibid., 85-87). To survive and succeed, humans need to process large amounts of information, which is something computer scientists are now getting better and better at. Considering human bodily functions (including their emotions) are basically biochemical algorithms, the day may come when a data-driven algorithm may understand humans better than they understand themselves (Ibid., 333-334). is will revolutionize medicine in the twenty- rst century, and since health is such a high value in today’s society, people will allow highly sophisticated algorithms to make decisions on their behalf (Ibid., 335).1

Consequently, over time, the authority to make decisions will gradually move away from individual humans to computer-generated algorithms. Such a switch may give rise to “a new kind of religion, a datareligion” (Harari 2015c, 52:51; cf. 2017, 371). is development is already beginning in small ways: humans follow Google Maps to decide which road to take on a trip, and customers heed the recommendations Amazon proposes to them regarding what book to buy next. Eventually, Harari (2017, 347–348, 397) believes, algorithms will also in uence more important decisions, such as what to do to improve our health and whom to choose as a life partner. is will especially be the case as humans not only read machines (such as Kindle), but also allow machines to “read” them (by constantly collecting data about them—particularly through wearable technology like the Google watch, for example).

“When the biotech revolution merges with the infotech revolution,” Harari (2018, 49) anticipates, “it will produce Big Data algorithms that can monitor and understand my feelings much better than I can, and then authority will probably shi from humans to computers.” In these developments, Harari recognizes the potential danger of digital dictatorships being established. Granted, computer-generated algorithms may get things wrong; nonetheless, they may still come to dominate the world once people decide to trust these machines and the decisions they make.

Missiological Implications of Living in an Age of Arti cial Intelligence

Despite Harari’s critique of Christianity and other faiths, he does see a role for religion, even in an age of arti cial intelligence and advanced algorithms:

Technology depends on religion because every invention has many potential applications, and the engineers need some priest or prophet to make the crucial choices and point towards the 1 A current example is a decision made by movie star Angelina Jolie: a program (an external algorithm) communicated that she had an 87 percent chance to develop breast cancer—and so she decided to have a double mastectomy (cf. Harari 2017, 337-339).

Daniel required destination. us, in the 19th century, engineers invented locomotives, radios and the internal combustion engine. But as the 20th century proved, you can use these same tools to create fascist societies, communist dictatorships or liberal democracies. Without religious or ideological convictions, the locomotives cannot decide which way to go. (Harari 2016)

Several Christian thinkers have responded to this challenge and begun to address theological implications related to recent technological developments (e.g., Waters 2006; Cole-Turner 2011; Daly 2015). Some of these discussions are a response to the challenge of transhumanism, “the intellectual and cultural movement that a rms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities” (quoted in More 2013, 3).6 Transhumanism has been a phenomenon among intellectuals for a number of years now. e term was introduced by Max More in 1990, and in 1998 “the Transhumanist Declaration was cra ed by an international group of authors” (More 2013, 12). For the most part, transhumanism has been a theme for somewhat eccentric philosophers and scientists, but through authors like Harari the basic concepts of transhumanism have now been made known to a wider public.

In his book Transhumanism and the Image of God, Jacob Shatzer (2019, 43) formulates a response to transhumanists who “always want more: more intelligence, more life, more experience.” As a theologian, Shatzer expresses concern about how technological advances may change the very core of what it means to be human, especially once there are powerful interfaces between the human body and advanced technologies. “In particular,” Shatzer (2019, 86) warns, “di erent levels of wearable technology make us more and more comfortable with the type of interfaces that augmented reality requires. We are closer to the cyborg than we might think.”

Shatzer proposes a di erent pathway, one in which—because of the Incarnation—Christians are called to highly value the human body, which was created by God. Unlike other religious movements like the Gnostics, who wanted to leave the human body behind, Shatzer (2019, 127) contends, “we must resist the idea that the solution to human problems is escape from the body.”7 Rather than being constantly connected to the smartphone, Shatzer proposes an alternative lifestyle in which coming together in person is essential. During such gatherings, people can live out their humanity by meeting around a home-cooked meal, telling stories, and cultivating the practice of listening. Similarly, Craig M. Gay (2018) also emphasizes the signi cance of the Incarnation and the dangers of a disembodied existence. To counter the forces of capitalism and technological advancement, Gay (2018, 180–82, 221–25) suggests reducing screen time and devoting more time to concrete and communal activities such as meal preparation, learning to play a musical instrument, and celebrating the Eucharist as the body of Christ in a particular place.

While a number of theologians (like Gay and Shatzer) have written about the challenge of transhumanism, it is now crucial for missiologists to engage in this conversation as well for several reasons. First, missiology is, by its very nature, an interdisciplinary eld of study and is therefore wellsituated to interact with topics such as anthropology, psychology, economics, and other sciences. Second, while transhumanism previously was rather a fringe movement, several of its ideas have now been presented to a wider public through the bestsellers Harari has written. ird, missiologists are passionate about translating the Christian faith into di erent cultural contexts and about transmitting the faith to the next generation. For that to happen, Christians need to remain relevant and in tune with recent developments since, as Harari (2016) recognizes, “religions that lose touch with the technological realities of the day forfeit their ability even to understand the questions being asked.”

Accordingly, Christians need to ask themselves if they are ready to be part of the conversations that are increasingly shaping the twenty- rst century. Just as theologians and missiologists today strive to learn more about Islamic theology, Hindu beliefs, and Buddhist practices, Christians need to make similar e orts to better understand those in uenced by secular and technology-driven worldviews. is is not to argue for a new kind of secularization theory; from all we know, it does look like the majority of people in the twenty- rst century will be religious (cf. Volf 2011, 119-120).8 However, some of the most powerful forces shaping people’s lives in our time are technological in nature, and advances in areas like bioengineering, arti cial intelligence, and nanotechnology will profoundly shape the social, economic, and political realities of our time. To remain relevant in the future,

Christian theologians and missiologists will need to engage with questions related to a wide range of topics, including the following:

1. AI and the Imago Dei

Once humans are not the most intelligent beings on planet Earth anymore, how will this change our view regarding what it means to be truly human (cf. Harari 2017, 271)?

2. Technological Unemployment

If more and more traditional jobs will be replaced by AI and by robots, what kind of work will humans be doing in the future (Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2014; Ford 2015; Gay 2018, 38-46)? How will those who are unable to nd (paid) work nd meaning and ful llment in life?

3. e Future of Education

Since it is completely unclear what kind of jobs will be available twenty or thirty years from now (Harari 2018, 263–64), how will Christian schools, colleges, and universities prepare young people for a world in ux (cf. Aoun 2017; Doucet et al. 2018; Gleason 2018)?9

4. Interdisciplinary Research

In what ways and through what kinds of institutions can theologians and missiologists contribute to addressing complex challenges and opportunities brought about by new technologies?

5. Data-Religions

Once algorithms understand humans better than they understand themselves, to what extent will these programs become gods that direct people in every major decision of their lives? What kind of implications will this development have for traditional religions?

6. Human Enhancement

Will the church support technologies like genetic engineering if these help to ght diseases and to enhance human life? Or are humans overstepping their boundaries as this would mean for them to play God?

7. Autonomous Weapon Systems

What are the ethical implications of ghting wars with drones and robots? Is there an opportunity to have fewer human casualties as future wars will primarily be fought between advanced machines (cf. Bhuta et al., 2016; Scharre 2018)?

8. Longevity

In their general a rmation for life, should Christians support the goal to tackle the topic of aging and mortality? People have been enjoying longer and longer life expectancy, but how will social and economic dynamics change once people can live up to 150 or 200 years?10

9. Space Travel

Considering God created a universe with countless solar systems and planets, is it part of God’s plan for humans to extend the Cultural Mandate beyond planet Earth and start colonizing space?

10. Technology and Entertainment

How will technologies like wearable devices and virtual reality change how people experience leisure and sex? What will be the church’s response to these changes?

Obviously, to engage with these ten major questions in any detail would go beyond the scope of this paper. At this point, my main goal is to encourage dialogue between missiologists and technology-based developments like transhumanism and secular liberalism. Missiologist and theologian Amos Yong (2014) has argued that through interreligious conversations and encounters, both sides can potentially experience conversion. e biblical basis for this is found in Acts 10, where the apostle Peter experiences a kind of conversion (as God deals with his prejudice and ethnocentrism), which then also leads to the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman centurion (Yong 2014, 85, 101–102, 206–207, 216).

Similarly, a dialogue between the church and those advocating a technology-based secularism may lead to multiple conversions. For example, this may be the time for Christians to acknowledge some of their bias (and ignorance) when it comes to technological innovations like genetic engineering, quantum computing, and nanotechnology. ese technologies have great potential to nd new cures for a wide range of diseases, and as such can be seen as part of expressing God’s kingdom on earth. For transhumanists, on the other hand, it may be bene cial to recognize that humans are nite and ultimately in need of an in nite savior. As history has shown, those who promise paradise on earth and then come to power tend to create hell on earth (cf. Blackford 2013, 428), which is why salvation can only be envisioned in an eschatological perspective, a rming we live in an age of tension of the “already but not yet.”

Conclusion

In this paper, I began by introducing some of the main thoughts expressed by prominent thinker and bestselling author Harari. Harari’s worldview is based on the theory of evolution, his thinking is highly secularized, and he o en sharply criticizes religion. On the horizon of human development, Harari is now identifying a new form of religion or ideology: data religions that will be based on advanced algorithms that know humans better than they know themselves. e current dominating worldview, liberal humanism, is therefore in danger because liberalism depends on the idea that individuals and their personal choices are the highest form of authority. In the future, this authority may move toward machines and algorithms, especially if doing so will provide humans with better healthcare and advanced treatment options.11

Harari is convinced the biggest questions of the future are related to technological advances. Some of Harari’s ideas have previously been promoted by transhumanists who believe human life can be radically enhanced through technological breakthroughs that will bring about unprecedented improvements in terms of health bene ts, intellectual capabilities, and longevity. erefore, to stay relevant in the twentyrst century, theologians and missiologists will have to engage with the implications of cutting-edge technologies like arti cial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.

I propose a kind of interreligious dialogue between Christianity and technology-based secularist worldviews that, founded on the account of Peter and Cornelius, can lead to multiple conversions. Hopefully, both sides will be willing to listen and learn. Christians need to learn about the latest technological developments and recognize the potential these innovations have for human ourishing. At the same time, it is our task as Christians to explain why technology will not be able to solve all of humanity’s problems in an ultimate sense. As followers of Jesus, we can a rm with bold humility that humanity’s most promising future does not lie in humans becoming gods (homo deus) but rather in the God who became human (Deus homo).

Endnotes

1 Daniel Topf is a Regional Mobilizer with World Team and a PhD student in intercultural studies at Fuller eological Seminary. His cross-cultural experience includes several years in China as a business person and three years as a Master of Divinity student at TCA College (Singapore).

2 Similarly, Harari (2015b, 397) later makes the claim, “for close to 4 billion years, every single organism on the planet evolved subject to natural selection. Not even one was designed by an intelligent creator.”

3 Harari (2015b, 210) de nes religion as “a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief in a supernatural order.”

4 Despite his critique of religions, Harari does have an interest in spirituality, speci cally one that leans toward Buddhism and focuses on how to reduce su ering. Harari discovered Vipassana meditation when he was in college; he currently meditates for two hours every day and acknowledges that, despite his Jewish background, he has been “more in uenced by Buddha and Darwin than by the Bible” (quoted in Harari 2015a, 3).

5 Harari (2015c) recognizes that China may point to an alternative. However, while China is an economic giant, it is “an ideological dwarf.” Islamists, of course, also “oppose the liberal package, but they don’t really have an alternative to o er. e reason is that their ideas are outdated by several centuries.”

6 More (2013, 3) is here quoting from the website https://whatistranshumanism. org/.

7 is, however, might be a misrepresentation of what transhumanists long for; as Max More (2013, 15) argues, “Transhumanists do seek to improve the human body, by making it resistant to aging, damage, and disease, and by enhancing its senses and sharpening the cognition of our biological brains. Perhaps critics have made a ying leap from the idea of being dissatis ed with the body to hating it, despising it, or loathing it. In reality, transhumanism doesn’t nd the biological human body disgusting or frightening. It does nd it to be a marvelous yet awed piece of engineering.”

8 Even Harari (2018, 127) acknowledges the in uence of religions when he writes that “secular people are a minority,” while hundreds of millions may “go on believing in Islam, Christianity or Hinduism” (Harari 2017, 271). However, he considers these religious beliefs to have little in uence on the major developments of the twenty- rst century because religions do not speak to current issues such as arti cial intelligence and biotechnology.

9 I learned this phrase from Cathy N. Davidson’s (2017) book e New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux.

10 Damien Broderick (2013, 434–435) acknowledges that “no method recommended by science—or by magic, a rmation, or prayer, for that matter—has managed so far to extend human life beyond the naturally evolved limit of about 120 years” (cf. Gen. 6:3); and yet he envisions that, due to technological advances, health and youthfulness may be “prolonged into the hundreds of years.”

11 Healthcare is evolving, as “we are rapidly approaching a time where there is not just curative, palliative, and preventative medicine, but also augmentative medicine” (Sandberg 2013, 58).

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