The Local Church in a Global Era | Book Review

Reviewed by Thomas Scarborough

Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS), at the invitation of World Vision (WV), co-hosted a conference in the autumn of 1998 "to aid the publication of materials intended to help redefine missions for the next century". WV and PTS jointly invited some one hundred delegates, primarily Christian academics and religious leaders, to attend. A brief look at the guest list reveals some leanings towards PTS and the Presbyterian Church in particular.

The book covers five major areas of interest, which (to simplify greatly)

might be summarised as: global ethics, spiritual formation, science/technology, pluralism/ecumenism, and issues of violence -- all of which have an eye to the "global future for local churches". Essentially, the book seeks to apply Christian ethics to issues which have become topical through globalisation. I might further suggest, more tongue-in-cheek, that it might represent an attempt to apply postliberal theology to all of these areas.

DOES THE BOOK CONTAIN META-THEMES?

The book is arguably characterised by two meta-themes, which may be summarised as suffering and hope. On the one hand, our world is characterised by "conflict, chaos, violence, and hatred". On the other, "we persevere with joyous anticipation". Precisely these two themes, however, would seem to raise a great many questions. In particular, there is a tendency in the book to see suffering as being redemptive through history in "its length", yet relevant to the individual only insofar as it refers to the eschaton: "We dream of the Kingdom, where all sorrows will cease, and all injustices will end" -- where the Kingdom, apparently, refers to shalom (in contrast with ouranos, or heaven). This means, on the one hand, that "the task of Christians, most basically, is to work for the transformation of the world around them". On the other hand, it means that this will be achieved "when we use our minds, hearts, and hands". In this way, in short, we communicate that "God loves you/them". Yet by implication, this would raise a question. Could this mean that God does NOT love you/them apart from the use of my own mind, heart, and hands? That is, might God Himself have no way of independently demonstrating His love to humanity? As the world continues to plunge more deeply into suffering, does it not place itself ever more beyond the minds, hearts, and hands which might offer any help?

WHICH WAS THE STRONGEST PAPER?

With regard to the chapters of the book (or papers), I found much food for thought in "The Church as an Academy of Justice", by William Schweiker. While I did not feel at home with much of the content, I appreciated it for the reason that it was deeply thoughtful, and peppered with original insights. Schweiker suggests three kinds of relational justice -- distributive justice, commutative justice, and contributive justice. In short, he would promote a form of justice which views "individuals as agents of justice". Thus justice is guaranteed insofar as individuals are able to be agents of justice. His central theme is that "the task of the church is to be an academy of justice . . . for the education and renewal of convictions about right relations". One might ask, therefore, what the cause of WRONG relations might be. This, he suggests, is "importantly related to beliefs". This, of course, would further raise the important question as to how such beliefs might relate to values, or influence the same. Apart from sketching some faintly suggestive contrasts between beliefs and values, he offers little synthesis, and finally seems to exclude some of his own insights by concluding that "the root mission of the churches is to work to inform the moral sensibilities" -- a view which would not seem more than a stone's throw away from legalism.

WHICH WAS THE WEAKEST PAPER?

In view of the overall strength of the contributions, perhaps one may not properly speak of a "weakest paper". This having been said, I would consider "Observation and Revelation in Dialogue: Towards a Christian Theological Approach to Buddhism" as a good contender, by Kosuke Koyama. While the article is written with clarity, and is not lacking in content, it would seem to go nowhere, and to overlook too much. It examines "four major ethical issues and contrasts" between Christianity and Buddhism. Herein, however, would surely lie the weakness. If one reduces one's Religionswissenschaft to (theoretical) ethics, this may tend to neglect or marginalise both faith and practice. With regard to revelation, Koyama concludes that Christian truth can "walk by itself as the Buddhist truth can". While he notes that it "cannot settle there", he fails to expand on this with any adequacy. With regard to the Buddhist concept of the "I", he states that this "does not necessarily quarrel with the Christian call" -- roughly equating the Buddhist concept of no-self with Christian selflessness. With respect to the sangha ethic, or monastic tradition, he fails to draw any conclusions at all from resemblances between the two religions. And finally, with regard to the avatar, or incarnation, he observes: "Here Buddhism comes nearer to Christianity than Hinduism . . ." Yet he neglects to expand on this any further. He concludes with no more than the suggestion that these issues offer a "major opportunity . . . to enter into dialogue with Buddhists".

SYNTHESIS

This book, as a whole, was unusually strong for a compilation -- particularly from the point of view of raising substantive issues. Further, it was packed with information. In fact each section might have been worthy of a review in itself. However, it surely has a few obvious flaws. As a book which professes to address issues in a "global era", it contains nearly 90% US-American authors - respectively silences the same proportion of authors from the "Global South". It fails to define crucial themes such as salvation or mission, which may have vastly different meanings today. Not least, while professing to be a book about "Christian faith", it is heavily biased towards ethics -- to the extent, I believe, of marginalising questions of faith.

The book is refreshing from the point of view that it was not as "politically correct" as many American books on theology -- or perhaps I should say, not as politically correct as many American theologians. Many times, it exposed the authors' raw thought processes -- both strengths and weaknesses -- so that one had the sense of having easier and more interesting access to the issues.

CITATION OF REFERENCE

Stackhouse, Max L., Dearborn, Tim, & Paeth, Scott (Eds.). The Local Church in a Global Era: Reflections for a New Century. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.

Thomas Scarborough is a Congregational minister in Cape Town. His is studying for an M.A. through Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. This review was born inter alia of the need to discuss its contents on a book review panel.