Beyond Missio Dei

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction: In Search of Signposts Toward A New Theological Paradigm

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 1-58

3. Job, the Joban Tradition, and the Status-Quoist Nature of Mission

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 59-85

4. Discernments from the Joban Tradition: Theoretical Context and the Mission Imperative

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 87-155

5. Contemporary Theological Articulations in Mission Theology and Missio Dei

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 157-218

6. Beyond Missio Dei: Theological Resources for the Journey

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 219-280

7. Witness of God and the Risk of Proclamation

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 281-336

8. Conclusion: Behold the Marturion Dei, Witness Courageously, and Have Life Abundantly

   • Sarosh Koshy

   Pages 337-354

9. Back Matter

   Pages 355-374

   PDF

In this book, Sarosh Koshy strives to go beyond the mission model of Christianity that emerged alongside and within the colonial enterprise and ethos since the sixteenth century. Rather than denounce the inheritance of the mission movement that transformed both the church and world in innumerable ways, it is a simultaneous expression of appreciation for this precious heritage, and an attempt to do justice by it through a yearning quest for relevant paradigms of Christian engagement.
Indeed, there is an intense tension within this book, and in fact a twin tension at that. The tension is between those seeking to keep the current mission paradigm alive out of habit or as a self-serving device, thus corrupting and withering away a bequeathal that essentially set free the voluntary/independent spirit of Christian individuals and their intentional collectives from both the ecclesiastical and political authorities. On the otherside are those who enlist mission both as a subsequent activity and as a basis to pursue innocuous, and at times apparently heroic options that would seemingly satisfy a supposed missional mandatory. 


This work enlists postcolonial and poststructuralist resources pedagogically, to teach of mission, missiology, World Christianity, and intercultural theology. 

• global south
• decolonial
• mission
• political theology
• liberation theology

"Sarosh Koshy’s international life work had been on matters of justice and peace vis a vis religious diversity. So he brought to this book an insider’s experience of global Christian movements and interfaith conversation. He had come to question the tenets of missionary theology, often presumed even in more liberal forms of Christian outreach. His book develops a sophisticated critique of the core conception and self-understanding of the Western missionary movement since the sixteenth century. “Beyond Missio Dei” sensitively analyzes the problem of this “missio,” or “sending.” He does not settle for a standard denunciation of the arrogance and exclusivism of much missionary theology. Rather he gets at the subtler fallacy of the notion of a separate, already complete religion that is “sent” to convert others to itself. Derrida helps him to deconstruct the illusion of any self-enclosed identity. And postcolonial theory helps him to track how readily such religion has lent itself to colonial enterprises. He proposes instead of “missio Dei,” the focus on the earlier notion of “witness,” as the “act of living together with a different performativity.” This work makes an extraordinary contribution to reimagining the field of missiology, but much more broadly, to an intercultural theology of Christian witness.”

--Catherine Keller, George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology, Drew University Theological School

 “I have long considered the conception and the prevailing interpretation of mission as Missio Dei as inadequate, which continues to rest on the assumption of a complete, sufficient, and self-enclosed Christianity that engages in mission, whether through conversion or in the form of charitable and socio-political engagement, to those who are deemed inferior, incomplete, and no equally salvific significance to offer. We must engage in postcolonial deconstruction of this notion of mission and welcome the ancient/new understanding of mission as witness, which demands repentance on our part. This work by Sarosh Koshy is a breakthrough in this direction! It’s a great delight to endorse a book that I have been waiting to be written and published for quite some time!”

--Eleazar S. Fernandez, Professor of Constructive Theology, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, USA

 “Beyond Missio Dei: Contesting Mission, Rethinking Witness is a profound and informed critique that confronts and contests the theological foundation of missio Dei vigorously. Sarosh Koshy disturbingly, yet affectionately, exposes the pitfalls of the shifting concepts and practices of mission throughout the history of Christianity and demands to move beyond the colonial, charitable, and liberationist mission models and to behold the marturion Dei, the God of witness. This book can potentially serve as a textbook in multiple fields of study such as mission studies, world Christianity, interculturaltheology, and empire studies.”

--Gladson Jathanna, Senior Lecturer in History of Christianity and Mission Studies, The Pacific Theological College, Fiji Islands

“Erudite and passionate in its argument, this book persuasively disputes the (still) prevalent concept of Christian ‘mission’ and its lacking consistency between ‘Word’ and ‘works.’ With impressive interdisciplinary dexterity the author draws on a wide range of theoretical and theological resources, among them a stimulating liberationist relectura of Matthew and Paul, two chief providers of biblical proof and pretexts for missional endeavors in the wake of imperialism and colonialism. Koshy boldly counter-reads Matthew’s Great Commission in light of the fruit-bearing faith-praxis required by the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Judgment, and Paul as a chief advocate, rather than customary antagonistof such integral faith-works that contest the ‘law’ of legalized injustice. With this, the Protestant grammar of ‘justification by faith alone’ gets a thorough makeover; mission in terms of an abstract, individualized gospel-proclamation morphs into the concrete here and now of credible contextual life-witness. It is no longer the Jewish, pagan, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu Other who need to be ‘converted’ but the laws and structures of otherizing themselves. A timely and thought-provoking intervention into a broad array of both inter-religious and intra-theological debates!”

--Brigitte Kahl, Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary New York

• New York, USA

  Sarosh Koshy

Sarosh Koshy holds a PhD in Christian theology from Drew University, USA. He is a researcher with decades-long work experience with social action groups, faith organizations, and social movements, both in India and the US, and is currently based in New York, USA.

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