Intercultural Theology and Missiology: An Introduction

Learn about the field of mission studies in this fascinating upcoming subject at Pilgrim Theological College during Semester Two.

This introductory unit discusses intercultural theology and missiology as an emerging concern of world Christianity after the Western colonial era. This requires both a critical unsaying and new forms of retelling regarding the transmission, local appropriations, and diverse embodiments of the Christian faith.

Since the beginning of the post-colonial era, missiology has wrestled with its colonial heritage. This wrestling has resulted in significant criticisms regarding the compromise between the gospel and its embodied forms. But, in these criticisms, different voices have emerged to challenge ways of reading the Bible, the maps we use to conceive the history of the Christian faith, and especially its movement through time and across cultures. This wider discourse has revealed how particular theological accounts of things like salvation, conversion, liberation and worship, themselves shape the practical forms (conversionistic, exorcism, healing, political liberation, social justice, liturgy). Mission, in other words, is a living and particular discourse between theologies, embodied forms, and the manner of their communication in diverse contexts.

This subject will give you an outline for a range of key ideas in the field, and help resource you to develop your own theology of mission in conversation with your own theological and cultural contexts.

Learning outcomes

1.	Identify and assess the key contemporary methodologies shaping the field
2.	Engage different approaches to the biblical text for constructing theologies of mission
3.	Develop a critical definition of “mission”