Christian Witness in the Postmodern World

Joshva Raja

Session 7

Themes on Witnessing

• Sacramental Presence

• Finding New Frontiers of Witnessing

• Service rather than Power

• Taking Sides in the Postmodern Context

Resources• George Carey, The Mission of the Church in a Postmodern World

http://www.postmission.com/articles/carey.html• David Smith, Mission after Christendom. 47-103.

James K. Voiss Sacramental Presence in a Postmodern Context.(Book Review)Theological Studies (Refereed), December 1, 2003 64 (issue 4)

• 870(3).• Lieven Boeve Interrupting Tradition: An Essay on Christian Faith in

a Postmodern • Context. 2004.• Peter Drilling Premodern Faith in a Postmodern Culture: A

Contemporary Theology • of the Trinity. 2006.• Roger Lundin The Culture of Interpretation: Christian Faith and the

Postmodern World. 1993.

THE MISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

IN A POST-MODERN WORLD – George Carey

Three issues in POMO• The collapse of Global Ideology• Relativising of Values• The Loss of Hope

Three ways of doing mission

1. The church should never be apologetic for bearing witness to eternal truths

2. As a church we need to discover the sacramental nature of the community

3. The church must put service before power and status

Christian faith in the postmodern world – Roger Lundin

• The collapse of modern project does not mean that the search for truth must be abandoned; if rationality and the imagination cannot supply certain access to the truth, the Christian my turn – or return to the Bible, to the church and to tradition for the truth. (p.5)

Culture of Interpretation - Roger Lundin

• When all knowledge becomes application, eventually there may be nothing left to apply. (p239)

• To believe in Christ means in a sense to belong to the past, to a community and tradition of faith established and sustained by the redemptive acts of God.

• Truth must come to contemporary persons as a promise of redemption for a troubled world, not as a therapeutic message of happiness denying the pain and promise of suffering and death.

Interrupting Tradition – Lieven Boeve

• Recognising the plurality – existing side by side

• Sensitivity towards the other – God’s Grace and Mercy alongside Justice and dignity

• Towards a Christian Open Narrative – not on contextual demands but on rediscovering more meanings of the text

Mission after Christendom David Smith pp-43 ff

• Mission as learning experience of the church

• Islam and Christianity encounter – not crusades rather dialogue as model of witnessing – Thomas Aquinas (1277)

• Heliand (saviour) – epic poetry - Saxon traditional worldview (716)

• Henry Martin (1806) in India• Qom community in Argentina

Emerging Ecumenical Mission Paradigm – David Bosch

• Church with others – church is a mission in itself – she is pilgrim – ek klesia called out of the world

• Church as sacrament – a sign and instrument of God –ecumenical presence

• Mediating salvation – Salvation is concern of all religions – Universal salvation

• Quest for Justice – Tension between Justice and love

Postmodern Mission• Evangelism – in new format – beyond

conservative understanding and approaches

• Contextualisation and inculturation

• Liberation – preferential option for the poor and margins

• Common witness and Dialogue

• Action in Hope

mission

• God’s and Christs• Community building• Life centred• Family orientations• Individual freedom• Conflict resolutions• Counselling• Eco-recognition