Evolving theology of mission: Its conceptualization, development, and contributions

Should we stop using the term Mission'? asked Klauspeter Blaser in his 1987 article. The crisis in mission in the second half of the 20th century, well accounted by historians of missions, had led to what Lamin Sanneh famously called the Western guilt complex about missions. Reviewing the conceptual development of the missionary enterprise, this article makes some historical-theological interpretations of the missionary enterprise since the later half of the 20th century and argues that the concept and practice of mission have changed and we are in a new day of missiological renewal. Arguably, missiology can now be seen as providing a hub of global theological trends, especially in the light of the theology behind missio Dei and the emerging contextual theologies at the dawn of world Christianity.