Missions and Unity: Lessons from History, 1792—2010
Ebook
Overview
This study is the first comprehensive history of the impact of the modern missionary movement on the understanding of and work toward Christian unity. It tells stories from all branches of the church: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant in its many types (conciliar, evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent). Part 1, “Historical,” highlights the contribution of modern missions to Christian unity, from William Carey and his antecedents and peers to present-day missions. Part 2, “Ten Models of Unity,” takes an inductive approach to history, asking not “how should Christians cooperate?” but “how has the missionary movement helped Christians to work together at the local, national, regional, and global level?” Part 3, “Wider Ecumenism,” broadens the evidence to include how the missions movement has helped not only institutional churches but also broader society to have concern for the unity of the entire human family. Included here is the story of how the Protestant missionary movement influenced the forming of the United Nations as well as the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The study also covers the movement’s impact on Christian attitudes toward, and relations with, persons of other faiths. Mission and Unity is the standard reference work in the field for persons studying modern history, modern church history, missions, and ecumenics.
”Flowing from a lifetime of scholarship and activism, this
timely book on a classic theme could only be written by Norman
Thomas. His panoramic yet thorough treatment of ‘missions and
unity’ will help to restore this subject to the central place it
deserves in mission praxis. This useful book belongs on the shelf
of everyone who cares about the continued relevance of Jesus’
visions for his followers."
--Dana L. Robert
Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of
Mission
Boston University School of Theology
“It is often remarked that missionary work and efforts of Christian
unity are vitally linked. What Norman Thomas has shown in these
pages is how very true this is. I don’t know of any other source
that treats the topic of missions and unity with comparable depth,
clarity, and careful scholarship. This books is a gift to
missiology."
--Stephen Bevans, SVD
Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture
Catholic Theological Union
"Common participation in mission has consistently been the most
powerful solvent of the historic divisions between churches. Yet
Christians have frequently disagreed about the appropriate means of
mission, and may struggle to agree even about the goals of mission.
The twin themes of mission and unity are thus intertwined in
complex and ambiguous ways throughout the history of the Church.
Norman Thomas’s book is a timely and helpful reminder of that
ambiguous yet inescapable relationship."
--Brian Stanley
Professor of World Christianity
University of Edinburgh
"This book is quintessentially Thomas. I know of no one more aptly
experienced or academically capable of writing this immensely
useful historical assessment of the interstices of world missions
and the ecumenical movement. This will become a standard reference
on the theme."
--Jonathan J. Bonk
Executive Director
Overseas Ministries Study Center
"...the book will be very useful to Protestants who are not
knowledgeable about the workings of ecumenism, past and present. It
can be used profitably by church study groups, in introductory
seminary courses on mission, evangelism, and ecumenism, and by
those who are interested in finding out about movements for
Christian unity and the role of missions in them."
-- Arun W. Jones, and reviewed in Missiology,
Product Details
- Title : Missions and Unity: Lessons from History, 1792—2010
- Authors:
- Thomas, Norman E.
- Shenk, Wilbert R.
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2010
- ISBN: 9781621890973
Norman E. Thomas is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the editor of Classsic Texts in Mission and World Christianity (1995) and of the International Mission Bibliography: 1960-2000 (2003).