Believing in the future Missiology’s future prospects

Abstract

This research attends to David Bosch’s (1995) last publication, Believing in the future: Towards a missiology of Western culture, and uses the work as a guide to formulate prospects for missiology as a theological discipline. Following Bosch, it uses an exploration of current events as a heuristic semiotic to discern the future of the church and to develop prospects for missiology. The ‘post-world’ we currently find ourselves in is described in the following terms: Post-COVID but pre-disaster; a Volatile, Unstable, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) — a Post-stable world; Post-industrial revolutions — the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); Post-stable climate. This is followed by the construction of missiology’s prospects, missiology for the “new normal”, suggesting several contours that may constitute the future of mis-siology. These include mission as theology and an expansion of the missio Dei ; The ecclesiological contour; The ecological contour; The 4IR as a new founding narrative; Public theology and faithful presence — the worthy walk of the missional community; Anticipatory leadership