{"title":"Decolonizing the Triune God","authors":"Nicolás Panotto","doi":"10.1111/irom.12513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12513","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article aims to propose a “two-way” decolonial reading of the trinitarian approaches within the Latin American liberation theologies: as a critique and as a framework to enhance some of its assumptions. Hence, the article will develop some of the most recognized approaches to this issue within these liberation theologies to identify possible theological and socio-political decolonial rereadings from the particular approach of the trinitarian.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"280-296"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/irom.12513","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Berlin Conference","authors":"Fidon R. Mwombeki","doi":"10.1111/irom.12516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12516","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Colonization and Christian mission had a symbiotic relationship. This has raised the question of the relationship between missionaries and colonizers. Most would agree that they influenced each other: colonialism facilitated the growth of Christianity, and missionary work provided fertile ground for colonialism in some parts of Africa. However, it is important to also highlight that some missionary work in Africa was purely for the spread of the gospel and not colonialism. With the partition of Africa after the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, many colonial powers restricted mission work in their colonies to missionaries from their own countries. This resulted in a denominational division and distribution that is still reflected in African churches today. However, in nations that are predominantly Muslim, the mission was not successful by either persuasion or coercion. Although the gospel was brought to Africa by the Europeans and linked to colonialism, it is not European. African Christians do not see the gospel as colonial or needing to be decolonized but are willing to share with others, including their former colonizers.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"390-404"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arts Across Cultures: Reimagining the Christian Faith in Asia. Edited by Warren R. Beattie and M. Y Anne. Soh. Regnum Books, 2022.","authors":"Defrita Rufikasari","doi":"10.1111/irom.12502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12502","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"456-458"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sabrina Muller, Religious Experience and Its Transformative Power: Qualitative and Hermeneutic Approaches to a Practical Theological Foundational Concept. De Gruyter, 2023.","authors":"Dr. Fred Garry","doi":"10.1111/irom.12509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12509","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"458-459"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Living Christ's Love in Intercultural Communities","authors":"Amos Yong","doi":"10.1111/irom.12514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12514","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article was designed and intended to prompt reflection around the conciliar theme “Mission Reimagined: Transforming Disciples Challenging Empire.” Given the author's own Pentecostal background and substantive recent work on how the earliest messianic disciples lived out their missional vocation in the 1st-century Mediterranean imperial regime of the Pax Romana, this article aims to revisit the apostolic narrative especially as recounted by St Luke in his second volume, the book of Acts, to identify, explore, and reconsider how the first Christians were, effectively, multicultural and transnational communities of the Spirit of Jesus. They navigated their interculturality, transculturality, and cross-culturality not only across ethnic-cultural domains but also across socio-economic and political-economic registers. From this perspective, contemporary global Christian communities that exist across diasporic and migrational zones can draw encouragement from how the first generation of Jesus’ followers two thousand years ago confronted similar challenges. In this way, we can return to the New Testament to retrieve resources old and new for Christian life, spiritual practice, and missional witness in the 21st-century global context.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"451-455"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Homoousia","authors":"Joerg Rieger","doi":"10.1111/irom.12510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12510","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The affirmation of the co-equality (<i>homoousia</i>) of the first and the second persons of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea is a major milestone in the history of theology and the church. Established at a time when the Roman empire developed its Christian identity, it has often been assumed that Nicene theology was imperial theology. In this article, the theological surplus of the Nicene position will be examined, investigating its imperial pedigree while also demonstrating the anti-imperial potential and the Nicene Creed's implications for liberative theological thinking then and now.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"261-279"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/irom.12510","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Angélique Keturah Walker-Smith. Ahead of Her Time: Pan-African Women of Faith and the Vision of Christian Unity, Mission, and Justice. Geneva: WCC Publications, 2023. 109 pp.","authors":"Jackline Makena","doi":"10.1111/irom.12512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12512","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"459-460"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christendom and Hindutva","authors":"David Emmanuel Singh","doi":"10.1111/irom.12504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12504","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Council of Nicaea took place at Constantine's initiative to harmonize religious belief and law into a state-subscribed orthodoxy. From a socio-political viewpoint, the council appeared to use a standardized version of Christianity as an instrument of the empire. The focus in this paper is not on Constantine's initiative or its impact on the non-conforming minorities; rather, it uses this impact as a lens for reviewing an emerging Hindu empire in India. For much of its independent history, India was largely successful in keeping Hindutva's 19th-century undercurrents at bay from polity. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, exposed the shallowness of the Indian experiment with secularism. As Hindutva embraces politics, it also exercises social control. In this sense, Hindutva is no different from Christendom, especially when viewed from the perspective of the impact it has on the minorities: a new act on citizenship, dissent-violence, and reconversions. What this shows is that colonial despotism continues even today.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"355-375"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shattering the Ceilings of Power Like the Syrophoenician Woman","authors":"Godfrey Owino Adera, Esther Mombo","doi":"10.1111/irom.12508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12508","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we revisit three hallmarks of coloniality of power – control, influence, and access to resources – and their interplay in shaping and framing Anglican witness and presence in the world today. We contend that, although the growth of Anglicanism in the global South, particularly in Africa, represents a notable demographic shift within the Anglican Communion, it does not translate to shifts in control, influence, and access to resources. As a result, colonial legacies of Anglican witness that conferred power to whiteness and maleness and assigned powerlessness and ‘otherness’ to lives and faith experience outside the categories of whiteness and maleness still pervade relationships within the communion. With reference to the “decolonial” encounter of Jesus with the Syrophoenician woman in the gospels (Mark 7:24-30 and Matt. 15:21-28), we reimagine Anglican witness as with-ness. This is a kenotic praxis and a decolonial alternative that would enable theologies of decentralization of power, a polycentric system of control, and an ethic of kenotic accompaniment, acceptance, and inclusion of lives and faith experiences outside the frames of whiteness and maleness in the Anglican Communion.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"405-420"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engaging with the Nicene Creed through Contextual Bible Study: Mark 10:17-22","authors":"Gerald O. West","doi":"10.1111/irom.12507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12507","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The year 2025 offers the church an opportunity to reflect on the Nicene Creed in dialogue with Mark 10:17-22. This Bible study–based dialogue invites us all – particularly those who have been marginalized by political, economic, and ecclesial systems of oppression – to be instructed by Jesus on the mechanisms of systemic economic oppression. Even the Nicene Creed can learn from Jesus if we incorporate into each of its four sections the voices of the marginalized who have, through contextual Bible study work, offered the church revised forms of the Nicene Creed.</p>","PeriodicalId":54038,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Mission","volume":"113 2","pages":"297-310"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/irom.12507","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143253877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}