Peter Pikkert, The Essence and Implications of Missio Dei: An Appraisal of Today’s Foremost Theology of Missions. Alev Books, 2017. 85 pages.
At the Third Lausanne Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in October 2010, John Piper expressed concern about an emerging social gospel emphasis in the evangelical missions movement. He memorably exhorted delegates, “What I want us to be able to say—could Lausanne say, could the global church say?—‘For Christ’s sake we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.’” What made Piper’s statement so memorable is how it clarified succinctly what is at stake in the decades-old debate within evangelical missiology between proponents of holism and those of prioritism. Holists argue for a holistic understanding of the church’s mission that encompasses social concerns and elevates them to the same level of importance as spiritual concerns. Prioritists insist evangelism, discipleship, and church planting should take priority in the church’s mission.
THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND MISSIO DEI
In his swift, little book, The Essence and Implications of Missio Dei, Peter Pikkert roots this social gospel trajectory in evangelicals’ embrace of the theological concept missio Dei. Mainline Protestants developed the concept of missio Dei during the post-war period of the
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