The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology | Ross Langmead

The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology | Ross Langmead | Incarnational Mission Today

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The Word Made Fles...

	The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology Ross Langmead University Press of America, 2004 - 366 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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This study is the first to define the meanings attached to incarnational mission across a variety of Christian traditions. It proposes a balanced approach to incarnational approach to mission involving the three dimensions of following Jesus in costly discipleship, conforming to the risen Christ, and co-operating in the universal dynamic of God's self-embodiment.

The Definitive Work in Incarnational Mission

This book is thorough, well researched and readable. Langmead has provided a critical sweep of historical research engaging with writers from Catholic, Anabaptist, Liberal and Evangelical traditions. The book also looks forward with prophetic challenge and points to the contours Christians must follow in order to flesh out and continue the radical example of Jesus.

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Incarnational Mission Today

Though incarnational mission, or "embodying the message," is a popular idea among Christians, it often comes under theological fire. Is it simply trying to follow the example of Jesus in our own strength? Is it arrogant for Christians to compare their mission with the incarnating mission of Jesus Christ? Is the idea of God-becoming-flesh sustainable today as a basis for Christian mission?
This study is the first to define the meanings attached to incarnational mission across a variety of Christian traditions. It proposes a balanced attitude toward the incarnational approach to mission involving the three dimensions of following Jesus in costly discipleship, conforming to the risen Christ, and cooperating in the universal dynamic of God's self-embodiment.

Ross Langmead is Professor of Missiology and Director of the School of World Mission at Whitley College, Australia. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity, Australia.
Incarnational approaches to mission are supported across a variety of Christian traditions. Few take exception to incarnational mission in its most general meaning-somehow embodying the message Christians want to share, just as Jesus embodied the Good News. Brief appeals to an incarnational approach to mission pepper the literature of mission.
Incarnational missiology, however, varies dramatically in shape be¬tween Christian traditions. It also comes under theological fire. Is it a form of exemplarism, simply trying to follow Jesus in our own strength? Is it arrogant for Christians to compare their mission with the incarnating mission of Jesus Christ? Going further back, is the doctrine of the incarnation still sustainable as a basis for mission today?
So common and yet so seldom examined in any depth, this approach to mission calls for analysis. This study is the first attempt, to my knowledge, to tease out the meanings attached to incarnational mission and to propose a theological framework that overcomes the potential weaknesses of an incarnational approach to mission.
The first part (chapters 2 and 3) prepares the ground by making proposals concerning the use of terms, incarnational christology, and a framework for classifying the variety of uses of "incarnational mission."
A distinction is made between "incarnation" as a process and "the incarnation" as an event, but both are considered important in incarnational mission.
Most missiologists assume the truth and coherence of the doctrine of the incarnation. Here we go back a step and attempt to show that missiology, in drawing on the incarnation, is on solid ground in making that assumption, despite recent christological controversies. We argue that an incarnational christology is still viable. We defend a view of Jesus Christ as the Word of God incarnate, without, however, using the terms of the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. We suggest seven requirements for a contemporary incarnational christology, that is, a way of understanding Jesus Christ as God-become-human.
In preparation for the survey of various uses of incarnational mission, we suggest three groups of meanings. Incarnational mission can be seen as (1) following Jesus as the pattern for mission, (2) participating in Christ's risen presence as the power for mission, and (3) joining God's cosmic mission of enfleshment in which God's self-embodying dynamic is evident from the beginning of creation.
A Critical Survey of Incarnational Missiologies
The second part (chapters 4 to 9) is a critical survey of incarnational missiology as it occurs in the missiological literature of a wide variety of selected Christian traditions. Not all traditions are represented, but a majority of them are. They are chosen because incarnational mission figures significantly in their literature. They are grouped very loosely according to the dimension they emphasize most strongly, while recogniz¬ing that other dimensions are also represented in their thinking.
The Anabaptist tradition, including both its sixteenth century origins and contemporary Mennonite expression, is considered first (chapter 4). It is followed by radical evangelicalism (chapter 5), which is strongly influenced by the Anabaptist vision. Liberation theology, particularly in its Latin American guise, is examined next (chapter 6). The traditions inthese three chapters tend to emphasize Jesus as the pattern for mission, though other emphases are also found.
Jürgen Moltmann's missiology is considered next because his thought acts as a bridge between the first and third groups (chapter 7). His strong emphasis on participation in Christ best articulates the second group. His distinctive contribution is the reason he is included as an individual whereas the other chapters in the survey are given to Christian traditions.
We continue the survey with a third group, including Roman Catholi¬cism and Anglo-Catholicism (chapter 8), the ecumenical movement and Eastern Orthodoxy (chapter 9). In the case of Anglo-Catholicism we look back a hundred years in history because of the significance of the book Lux Mundi. This group tends (roughly speaking) to emphasize the third dimension of incarnational mission, the incarnating dynamic of God.
Contours of an Incarnational Missiology
The third part of the study (chapters 10 and 11) draws together conclusions from the survey and develops the three-dimensional framework for classifying incarnational mission, arguing that none of the dimensions should be neglected and that they are mutually interpretive. The central argument of the study is that God's embodiment in creation, pre-eminently in Jesus Christ, is the ultimate framework of Christian mission and also the central shaping and empowering factor. Christianity is "incarnational" ; this adjective refers both to the reality of God's saving action and its manner. Christian mission, similarly, is incarnational in both senses: bodily experiencing a new reality in Christ and sharing it through embodiment as Jesus did.
This approach leads to emphases such as "self-emptying," integration of words and deeds, the "practice of Christ" ("christopraxis" ), Good News to the poor, a theology of the cross, the church as the body of Christ, the presence of Christ, the affirmation of creation, and the importance of the gospel assuming different cultural expressions.
The study concludes by commenting on the particular appropriateness of incarnational mission in Australia, which is a skeptical, post-Christian and postmodern society (chapter 11).

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