The Theology of Missions

The e-Advocate 

Monthly 

…a Compilation of Works on: 

The Theology 

of Missions 

Matthew 28:19-20 

Mark 16:15 | Acts 1:8 

Romans 10:13-14 | Revelation 14:6 

1 Chronicles 16:24 

“Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential” 

Special Edition| TLFA – April 2021

Walk by Faith; Serve with Abandon 

Expect to Win! 

Page 2 of 137

The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

Since its founding in 2003, The Advocacy Foundation has become recognized as an effective 

provider of support to those who receive our services, having real impact within the communities 

we serve. We are currently engaged in community and faith-based collaborative initiatives, 

having the overall objective of eradicating all forms of youth violence and correcting injustices 

everywhere. In carrying-out these initiatives, we have adopted the evidence-based strategic 

framework developed and implemented by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP). 

The stated objectives are: 

1. Community Mobilization; 

2. Social Intervention; 

3. Provision of Opportunities; 

4. Organizational Change and Development; 

5. Suppression [of illegal activities]. 

Moreover, it is our most fundamental belief that in order to be effective, prevention and 

intervention strategies must be Community Specific, Culturally Relevant, Evidence-Based, and 

Collaborative. The Violence Prevention and Intervention programming we employ in 

implementing this community-enhancing framework include the programs further described 

throughout our publications, programs and special projects both domestically and 

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Dedication 

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Every publication in our many series’ is dedicated to everyone, absolutely everyone, who by 

virtue of their calling and by Divine inspiration, direction and guidance, is on the battlefield dayafter-day 

striving to follow God’s will and purpose for their lives. And this is with particular affinity 

for those Spiritual warriors who are being transformed into excellence through daily academic, 

professional, familial, and other challenges. 

We pray that you will bear in mind: 

Matthew 19:26 (NIV) 

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, 

but with God all things are possible." (Emphasis added) 

To all of us who daily look past our circumstances, and naysayers, to what the Lord says we will 

accomplish: 

Blessings!! 

- The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 



The Transformative Justice Project 

Eradicating Juvenile Delinquency Requires a Multi-Disciplinary Approach 

The way we accomplish all this is a follows: 

The Juvenile Justice system is incredibly overloaded, and 

Solutions-Based programs are woefully underfunded. Our 

precious children, therefore, particularly young people of 

color, often get the “swift” version of justice whenever they 

come into contact with the law. 

Decisions to build prison facilities are often based on 

elementary school test results, and our country incarcerates 

more of its young than any other nation on earth. So we at 

The Foundation labor to pull our young people out of the 

“school to prison” pipeline, and we then coordinate the efforts 

of the legal, psychological, governmental and educational 

professionals needed to bring an end to delinquency. 

We also educate families, police, local businesses, elected 

officials, clergy, and schools and other stakeholders about 

transforming whole communities, and we labor to change 

their thinking about the causes of delinquency with the goal 

of helping them embrace the idea of restoration for the young 

people in our care who demonstrate repentance for their 

mistakes. 

1. We vigorously advocate for charges reductions, wherever possible, in the adjudicatory (court) 

process, with the ultimate goal of expungement or pardon, in order to maximize the chances for 

our clients to graduate high school and progress into college, military service or the workforce 

without the stigma of a criminal record; 

2. We then enroll each young person into an Evidence-Based, Data-Driven Restorative Justice 

program designed to facilitate their rehabilitation and subsequent reintegration back into the 

community; 

3. While those projects are operating, we conduct a wide variety of ComeUnity-ReEngineering 

seminars and workshops on topics ranging from Juvenile Justice to Parental Rights, to Domestic 

issues to Police friendly contacts, to CBO and FBO accountability and compliance; 

4. Throughout the process, we encourage and maintain frequent personal contact between all 

parties; 

5 Throughout the process we conduct a continuum of events and fundraisers designed to facilitate 

collaboration among professionals and community stakeholders; and finally 


6. 1 We disseminate Quarterly publications, like our e-Advocate series Newsletter and our e-Advocate 

Quarterly electronic Magazine to all regular donors in order to facilitate a lifelong learning process 

on the ever-evolving developments in the Justice system. 

And in addition to the help we provide for our young clients and their families, we also facilitate 

Community Engagement through the Restorative Justice process, thereby balancing the interesrs 

of local businesses, schools, clergy, elected officials, police, and all interested stakeholders. Through 

these efforts, relationships are rebuilt & strengthened, local businesses and communities are enhanced & 

protected from victimization, young careers are developed, and our precious young people are kept out 

of the prison pipeline. 

This is a massive undertaking, and we need all the help and financial support you can give! We plan to 

help 75 young persons per quarter-year (aggregating to a total of 250 per year) in each jurisdiction we 

serve) at an average cost of under $2,500 per client, per year.* 

Thank you in advance for your support! 

* FYI: 

1. The national average cost to taxpayers for minimum-security youth incarceration, is around 

$43,000.00 per child, per year. 

2. The average annual cost to taxpayers for maximun-security youth incarceration is well over 

$148,000.00 per child, per year. 

- (US News and World Report, December 9, 2014); 

3. In every jurisdiction in the nation, the Plea Bargain rate is above 99%. 

The Judicial system engages in a tri-partite balancing task in every single one of these matters, seeking 

to balance Rehabilitative Justice with Community Protection and Judicial Economy, and, although 

the practitioners work very hard to achieve positive outcomes, the scales are nowhere near balanced 

where people of color are involved. 

We must reverse this trend, which is right now working very much against the best interests of our young. 

Our young people do not belong behind bars. 

- Jack Johnson 

1 

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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

…a collection of works on 



“Turning the Improbable Into the Exceptional” 

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Biblical Authority 

______ 

Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV) 

19 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I 

have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Mark 16:15 

15 

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 

Acts 1:8 

8 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my 

witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

Romans 10:13-14 

13 

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

14 

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they 

believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without 

someone preaching to them? 

Revelation 14:6 

The Three Angels 

6 

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to 

those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 


24 

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. 



Table of Contents 

…a compilation of works on 

The Theology of Missions 

Biblical Authority 

I. Introduction: Christian Missions………………………………….. 15 

II. Missiology and Missionaries………………………………………. 31 

III. Evangelism…………………………………………………………. 55 

IV. Humanitarian Aid…………………………………………………… 61 

V. Attacks on Humanitarian Aid Workers……………….………….. 71 

VI. International Humanitarian Law………………………………….. 85 

VII. 

Timeline of Events in Humanitarian 

Relief & Development…………………………………….. 101 

VIII. References……………………………………………………....... 103 

______ 

Attachments 

A. The Theology of The Christian Mission 

B. The Relationship Between Theology and Missiology 

C. Scripture, Culture and Missions 

Copyright © 2018 The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 



I. Introduction 

Christian Missions 

A Christian Mission is an organized effort to spread Christianity. Missions often 

involve sending individuals and groups, called missionaries, across boundaries, most 

commonly geographical boundaries, for the purpose of proselytism (conversion to 

Christianity, or from one Christian tradition to another). This involves evangelism 

(preaching a set of beliefs for the purpose of conversion), and humanitarian work, 

especially among the poor and disadvantaged. There are a few different kinds of 

mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and ones meant simply for helping people 

in need. Some might choose to dedicate their whole lives to missions as well. 

Missionaries have the authority to preach the Christian faith (and sometimes to 

administer sacraments), and provide humanitarian work to improve . Christian doctrines 

(such as the "Doctrine of Love" professed by many missions) permit the provision of aid 

without requiring religious conversion. 

History of Christian Missions 

The earliest Christian mission, then, the Great Commission and Dispersion of the 

Apostles, was active within Second Temple Judaism. Whether a Jewish proselytism 

existed or not that would have served as a model for the early Christians is unclear, see 

Circumcision controversy in early Christianity#Jewish background for details. Soon, the 

expansion of the Christian mission beyond Judaism to those who were not Jewish 

became a contested issue, notably at the Council of Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul was 


an early proponent of this expansion, and contextualized the Christian message for the 

Greek and Roman cultures, allowing it to reach beyond its Hebrew and Jewish roots. 

From Late Antiquity onward, much missionary activity was carried out by members of 

religious orders. Monasteries followed disciplines and supported missions, libraries, and 

practical research, all of which were perceived as works to reduce human misery and 

suffering and glorify the Christian God. For example, Nestorian communities 

evangelized parts of Central Asia, as well as Tibet, China, and India. Cistercians 

evangelized much of Northern Europe, as well as developing most of European 

agriculture's classic techniques. St Patrick evangelized many in Ireland. St David was 

active in Wales. 

During the Middle Ages, Ramon Llull (c. 1232 – c. 1315) advanced the concept of 

preaching to Muslims and converting them to Christianity by means of non-violent 

argument. A vision for large-scale mission to Muslims would die with him, not to be 

revived until the 19th Century. 

Medieval 

During the Middle Ages Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick, 

and Adalbert of Prague propagated learning and religion beyond the boundaries of the 

old Roman Empire. In the seventh century Gregory the Great sent missionaries, 

including Augustine of Canterbury, into England. The Hiberno-Scottish mission began in 

563. 

In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Franciscans such as William of 

Rubruck, John of Montecorvino, and Giovanni ed' Magnolia were sent as missionaries 

to the Near and Far East. Their travels took them as far as China in an attempt to 

convert the advancing Mongols, especially the Great Khans of the Mongol Empire. (Also 

see Medieval Roman Catholic Missions in China.) 

Catholic Missions After 1492 

One of the main goals of the Christopher Columbus expedition financed by Queen 

Isabella of Spain was to spread Christianity. During the Age of Discovery, Spain and 

Portugal established many missions in their American and Asian colonies. The most 

active orders were the Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans. The 

Portuguese sent missions into Africa. These are some of the most well-known missions 

in history. While some of these missions were associated with imperialism and 

oppression, others (notably Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China) were relatively 

peaceful and focused on integration rather than cultural imperialism. 

In both Portugal and Spain, religion was an integral part of the state and evangelization 

was seen as having both secular and spiritual benefits. Wherever these powers 

attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By the 

Treaty of Tordesillas, the two powers divided the world between them into exclusive 


spheres of influence, trade and colonization. The proselytization of Asia became linked 

to Portuguese colonial policy. 

Catholic Missions in Asia 

Portuguese trade with Asia rapidly proved profitable from 1499 onwards, and as Jesuits 

arrived in India around 1540, the colonial government in Goa supported the mission with 

incentives for baptized Christians. Later, the Church sent Jesuits to China (1552 

onwards) and to other countries in Asia. 

Protestant Missions 

The Reformation unfolded in Europe in the early 16th century. For over a hundred 

years, occupied by their struggle with the Catholic Church, the early Protestant 

churches as a body were not strongly focused on missions to "heathen" lands. Instead, 

the focus was initially more on Christian lands in the hope to spread the Protestant faith, 

identifying the papacy with the Antichrist. 

In the centuries that followed, Protestant churches began sending out missionaries in 

increasing numbers, spreading the proclamation of the Christian message to previously 

unreached people. In North America, missionaries to the Native Americans included 

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the well-known preacher of the Great Awakening (ca 

1731–1755), who in his later years retired from the very public life of his early career. 

He became a missionary to the Housatonic Native Americans (1751) and a staunch 

advocate for them against cultural imperialism. 


As European culture has been established in the midst of indigenous peoples, the 

cultural distance between Christians of differing cultures has been difficult to overcome. 

One early solution was the creation of segregated "praying towns" of Christian natives. 

This pattern of grudging acceptance of converts played out again later in Hawaii when 

missionaries from that same New England culture went there. In the course of the 

Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Catholic missionaries learned the languages 

of the Amerindians and devised writing systems for them. Then they preached to 

indigenous people in those languages (Quechua, Guarani, Nahuatl) instead of Spanish, 

to keep Indians away from "sinful" whites. An extreme case of segregation occurred in 

the Guarani Reductions, a theocratic semi-independent region established by the 

Jesuits in the region of the future Paraguay between the early 17th century and 1767. 

From 1732 onwards the Moravian Church began sending out missionaries. 

Around 1780, an indigent Baptist cobbler named William Carey began reading about 

James Cook's travels voyages in Polynesia. His interest grew to a furious sort of 

"backwards homesickness", inspiring him to obtain Baptist orders, and eventually to 

write his famous 1792 pamphlet, "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use 

Means for the Conversion of Heathen". Far from a dry book of theology, Carey's work 

used the best available geographic and ethnographic data to map and count the 

number of people who had never heard the Gospel. It inspired a movement that has 

grown with increasing speed from his day to the present. 

In the United States, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 

(ABCFM) was chartered in 1812. 

Protestant missionaries from the Anglican and Lutheran and Presbyterian traditions 

starting arriving in what was then the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th 

Century. This eventually let to the creation of what are today the Evangelical Lutheran 

Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the see of the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem. 

Furthermore, it was during this time that the Christian and Missionary Alliance started 

their missionary activity in Jerusalem. 

American "Hard-shell Baptists", "Anti-Mission Baptists", or "Old School Baptists" 

adhering to strict Calvinist rejected all mission boards, Bible tract societies, and 

temperance societies as nonbiblical. The mainstream of the Baptist denomination, 

however, supported missionary work. 

Thomas Coke, (1747–1814) the first bishop of the American Methodists, was "the 

Father of Methodist Missions". After spending time in the newly formed United States of 

America strengthening the infant Methodist Church alongside Episcopal colleague 

Francis Asbury, the British-born Coke left for mission work. During his time in America, 

Coke worked vigorously to increase Methodist support of Christian missions and of 

raising up mission workers. Coke died while on a mission trip to India, but his legacy 

among Methodists – his passion for missions – continues. 

China 


A wave of missions, starting in the early 1850s, targeted inland areas, led by Hudson 

Taylor (1832–1905) with his China Inland Mission (1865– ). Taylor was later supported 

by Henry Grattan Guinness (1835–1910) who founded (1883) Cliff College, which 

continues as of 2014 to train and equip for local and global mission. 

The missions inspired by Taylor and Guinness have collectively been called 

[by whom?] 

"faith missions" and owe much to the ideas and example of Anthony Norris 

Groves (1795–1853). Taylor, a thorough-going nativist, offended the 

missionaries of his era by wearing Chinese clothing and speaking 

Chinese at home. His books, speaking, and examples led to the 

formation of numerous inland 

missions and of the Student 

Volunteer Movement (SVM, founded in 1886), which from 

1850 to about 1950 sent nearly 10,000 missionaries to 

inland areas, often at great 

personal sacrifice. Many early 

SVM missionaries traveling to areas with endemic 

tropical diseases left with 

their belongings packed in 

a coffin, aware that 80% 

of them would die within 

two years. 

British Empire 

In the 18th century, and even 

more so in the 19th century, 

missionaries based in 

Britain saw the Empire 

as a fertile field for 

proselytizing for Christianity. All the main denominations were involved, including the 

Church of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and the Nonconformists. Much of the 

enthusiasm emerged from the Evangelical revival. Within the Church of England, the 

Church Mission Society (CMS) originated in 1799 and went on to undertake activity all 

around the world, including in what became known as "the Middle East". 

Before the American Revolution, Anglican and Methodist missionaries were active in the 

13 Colonies. The Methodists, led by George Whitefield, were the most successful and 

after the revolution and entirely distinct American Methodist denomination emerged that 

became the largest Protestant denomination in the new United States. A major problem 

for colonial officials was the demand of the Church of England to set up an American 

bishop; this was strongly opposed by most of the Americans had never happened. 

Increasingly colonial officials took a neutral position on religious matters, even in those 

colonies such as Virginia where the Church of England was officially established, but in 

practice controlled by laymen in the local vestries. After the Americans broke free, 

British officials decided to enhance the power and wealth of the Church of England in all 

the settler colonies, especially British North America (Canada). 


Missionary societies funded their own operations that were not supervised or directed 

by the Colonial Office. Tensions emerged between the missionaries and the colonial 

officials. The latter feared that missionaries might stir up trouble or encourage the 

natives to challenge colonial authority. In general, colonial officials were much more 

comfortable with working with the established local leadership, including the native 

religions, rather than introducing the divisive force of Christianity. This proved especially 

troublesome in India, were very few local elites were attracted to Christianity. In Africa, 

especially, the missionaries made many converts. Of the 21st century there were more 

Anglicans in Nigeria than in England. 

Missionaries increasingly came to focus on education, medical help, and long-term 

modernization of the native personality to inculcate European middle-class values. They 

established schools and medical clinics. Christian missionaries played a public role, 

especially in promoting sanitation and public health. Many were trained as physicians, 

or took special courses in public health and tropical medicine at Livingstone College, 

London. 

After 1870 

By the 1870s Protestant missions around the world generally acknowledged the longterm 

material goal was the formation of independent, self-governing, self-supporting, 

self-propagating churches. The rise of nationalism in the Third World provoked 

challenges from critics who complained that the missionaries were teaching Western 

ways, and ignoring the indigenous culture. The Boxer Rebellion in China in 1898 

involved very large scale attacks on Christian missions and their converts. The First 

World War diverted resources, and pulled most Germans out of missionary work when 

that country lost its empire. The worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s was a major 

blow to funding mission activities. 

In 1910, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference was presided over by active SVM and 

YMCA leader (and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient) John R. Mott, an American 

Methodist layperson, the conference reviewed the state of evangelism, Bible translation, 

mobilization of church support, and the training of indigenous leadership. Looking to the 

future, conferees worked on strategies for worldwide evangelism and cooperation. The 

conference not only established greater ecumenical cooperation in missions, but also 

essentially launched the modern ecumenical movement. 

The next wave of missions was started by two missionaries, Cameron Townsend and 

Donald McGavran, around 1935. These men realized that although earlier missionaries 

had reached geographic areas, there were numerous ethnographic groups that were 

isolated by language, or class from the groups that missionaries had reached. Cameron 

formed Wycliffe Bible Translators to translate the Bible into native languages. McGavran 

concentrated on finding bridges to cross the class and cultural barriers in places like 

India, which has upwards of 4,600 peoples, separated by a combination of language, 


culture, and caste. Despite democratic reforms, caste and class differences are still 

fundamental in many cultures. 

An equally important dimension of missions strategy is the indigenous method of 

nationals reaching their own people. In Asia this wave of missions was pioneered by 

men like Dr G. D. James of Singapore, Rev Theodore Williams of India and Dr David 

Cho of Korea. The "two thirds missions movement" as it is referred to, is today a major 

force in missions. 

Most modern missionaries and missionary societies have repudiated cultural 

imperialism, and elected to focus on spreading the gospel and translating the Bible. 

Sometimes, missionaries have been vital in preserving and documenting the culture of 

the peoples among whom they live. 

Often, missionaries provide welfare and health services, as a good deed or to make 

friends with the locals. Thousands of schools, orphanages, and hospitals have been 

established by missions. One service provided by missionaries was the Each one, teach 

one literacy program begun by Dr. Frank Laubach in the Philippines in 1935. The 

program has since spread around the world and brought literacy to the least enabled 

members of many societies. 


During this period missionaries, especially evangelical and Pentecostal missionaries, 

witnessed a substantial increase in the number of conversions of Muslims to 

Christianity. In an interview published in 2013 a leader of a key missionary agency 

focused on Muslims claimed that the world is living in a "day of salvation for Muslims 

everywhere." 

The word "mission" was historically often applied to the building, the "mission station" in 

which the missionary lives or works. In some colonies, these mission stations became a 

focus of settlement of displaced or formerly nomadic people. Particularly in rural 

Australia, missions have become localities or ghettoes on the edges of towns which are 

home to many Indigenous Australians. The word may be seen as derogatory when used 

in this context. 

Sending and Receiving Nations 

Contemporary Concepts of Mission 

Major nations not only send and fund missionaries abroad, but also receive them from 

other countries. In 2010, the United States sent out 127,000 missionaries, while 32,400 

came to the United States. Brazil was second, sending out 34,000, and receiving 

20,000. France sent out 21,000 and received 10,000. Britain sent out 15,000 and 

received 10,000. India sent out 10,000 and received 8000. Other major exporters 

included Spain at 21,000 sent out, Italy at 20,000, South Korea at 20,000, Germany at 

14,000, and Canada at 8,500. Large recipient nations included Russia, receiving 

20,000; Congo receiving 15,000; South Africa, 12,000; Argentina, 10,000; and Chile, 

8,500. The largest sending agency in the United States was the Southern Baptist 

Convention, with 4,800 missionaries, plus 450 support staff working inside the United 

States. The annual budget is about $50,000 per year per missionary. In recent years, 

however, the Southern Baptist foreign missionary operation (the International Mission 

Board) has operated at a deficit, and it is cutting operations by 15 percent. It is 

encouraging older missionaries to retire and return to the United States. 

Modern Missionary Methods and Doctrines Among Conservative Protestants 

The Lausanne Congress of 1974, birthed a movement that supports evangelical mission 

among non-Christians and nominal Christians. It regards "mission" as that which is 

designed "to form a viable indigenous church-planting and world changing movement." 

This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God 

known, as outlined in the Great Commission. The definition is claimed to summarize the 

acts of Jesus' ministry, which is taken as a model motivation for all ministries. 

This Christian missionary movement seeks to implement churches after the pattern of 

the first century Apostles. The process of forming disciples is necessarily social. 

"Church" should be understood in the widest sense, as a body of believers of Christ 


ather than simply a building. In this view, even those who are already culturally 

Christian must be "evangelized". 

Church planting by cross-cultural missionaries leads to the establishment of selfgoverning, 

self-supporting and self-propagating communities of believers. This is the 

famous "three-self" formula formulated by Henry Venn of the London Church Missionary 

Society in the 19th century. Cross-cultural missionaries are persons who accept churchplanting 

duties to evangelize people outside their culture, as Christ commanded in the 

Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20, Mark 16:15–18). 

The objective of these missionaries is to give an understandable presentation of their 

beliefs with the hope that people will choose to following the teaching of Jesus Christ 

and live their lives as His disciples. As a matter of strategy, many evangelical Christians 

around the world now focus on what they call the "10/40 window", a band of countries 

between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude and reaching from western Africa through 

Asia. Christian missions strategist Luis Bush pinpointed the need for a major focus of 

evangelism in the "10/40 Window", a phrase he coined in his presentation at the 

missionary conference Lausanne 1989 in Manila. Sometimes referred to as the 

"Resistant Belt", it is an area that includes 35% of the world's land mass, 90% of the 

world's poorest peoples and 95% of those who have yet to hear anything about 

Christianity. 


Modern pioneering missionary doctrines now focus on inserting a culturally adapted 

seed of Christian doctrines into a self-selected, self-motivated group of indigenous 

believers, without removing them from their culture in any way. 

Modern mission techniques are sufficiently refined that within ten to fifteen years, most 

indigenous churches are locally pastored, managed, taught, self-supporting and 

evangelizing. The process can be substantially faster if a preexisting translation of the 

Bible and higher pastoral education are already available, perhaps left over from earlier, 

less effective missions. 

One strategy is to let indigenous cultural groups decide to adopt Christian doctrines and 

benefits, when (as in most cultures) such major decisions are normally made by groups. 

In this way, opinion leaders in the groups can persuade much or most of the groups to 

convert. When combined with training in discipleship, church planting and other modern 

missionary doctrine, the result is an accelerating, self-propelled conversion of large 

portions of the culture. 

A typical modern mission is a co-operative effort by many different ministries, often 

including several coordinating ministries, such as the Faith2Share network, often with 

separate funding sources. One typical effort proceeded as follows: 

1. A missionary radio group recruits, trains and broadcasts in the main dialect of the 

target culture's language. Broadcast content is carefully adapted to avoid 

syncretism yet help the Christian Gospel seem like a native, normal part of the 

target culture. Broadcast content often includes news, music, entertainment and 

education in the language, as well as purely Christian items. 

2. Broadcasts might advertise programs, inexpensive radios (possibly springwound), 

and a literature ministry that sells a Christian mail-order correspondence 

course at nominal costs. The literature ministry is key, and is normally a separate 

organization from the radio ministry. Modern literature missions are shifting to 

web-based content where it makes sense (as in Western Europe and Japan). 

3. When a person or group completes a correspondence course, they are invited to 

contact a church-planting missionary group from (if possible) a related cultural 

group. The church-planting ministry is usually a different ministry from either the 

literature or radio ministries. The church-planting ministry usually requires its 

missionaries to be fluent in the target language, and trained in modern churchplanting 

techniques. 

4. The missionary then leads the group to start a church. Churches planted by 

these groups are usually a group that meets in a house. The object is the 

minimum organization that can perform the required character development and 

spiritual growth. Buildings, complex ministries and other expensive items are 

mentioned, but deprecated until the group naturally achieves the size and budget 

to afford them. The crucial training is how to become a Christian (by faith in 


Jesus Christ) and then how to set up a church (meet to study the Bible, and 

perform communion and worship), usually in that order. 

5. A new generation of churches is created, and the growth begins to accelerate 

geometrically. Frequently, daughter churches are created only a few months after 

a church's creation. In the fastest-growing Christian movements, the pastoral 

education is "pipelined", flowing in a just-in-time fashion from the central 

churches to daughter churches. That is, planting of churches does not wait for 

the complete training of pastors. 

The most crucial part of church planting is selection and training of leadership. 

Classically, leadership training required an expensive stay at a seminary, a Bible 

college. Modern church planters deprecate this because it substantially slows the 

growth of the church without much immediate benefit. Modern mission doctrines replace 

the seminary with programmed curricula or (even less expensive) books of discussion 

questions, and access to real theological books. 

The materials are usually made available in a major trading language in which most 

native leaders are likely to be fluent. In some cases, the materials can be adapted for 

oral use. 


It turns out that new pastors' practical needs for theology are well addressed by a 

combination of practical procedures for church planting, discussion in small groups, and 

motivated Bible-based study from diverse theological texts. As a culture's church's 

wealth increases, it will naturally form classic seminaries on its own. 

Another related mission is Bible translation. The above-mentioned literature has to be 

translated. Missionaries actively experiment with advanced linguistic techniques to 

speed translation and literacy. Bible translation not only speeds a church's growth by 

aiding self-training, but it also assures that Christian information becomes a permanent 

part of the native culture and literature. Some ministries also use modern recording 

techniques to reach groups with audio that could not be soon reached with literature. 

Among Roman Catholics 

For Catholics, “Missions” is the term given to those particular undertakings by which the 

heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry 

out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups 

who do not yet believe in Christ. 

Vatican II made a deep impact on Catholic missions around the world. The Church's 

relations to non-Christian religions like Judaism and Islam were revisited. 

A steep decline in the number of people entering the priesthood and religious life in the 

West has made the Church look towards laity more and more. Communities like Opus 

Dei arose to meet this need. 

Inculturation increasingly became a key topic of missiological reflection for Catholics. 

Inculturation is understood as the meeting of the Christian message with a community in 

their cultural context. 

Liberation Theology and liturgical reform have also been important in forming and 

influencing the mission of the Catholic Church in the 20th and 21st Centuries. 

In relation to mission, Pope Benedict XVI has made the re-evangelization of Europe and 

North America a priority in his own ministry, even while the upper leadership of the 

Roman Catholic hierarchy and the college of cardinals has more members from Latin 

America, Africa, and Asia than ever before. 

Key documents on mission for Catholics during this period are Evangelii nuntiandi by 

Pope Paul VI and Redemptoris missio by Pope John Paul II. 

Publishing of Books as Mission 

Christian mission organisations have long depended on the printed word as a channel 

through which to do mission. At times when countries have been "closed" to Christians, 

great efforts have been made to smuggle Bibles and other literature into those 


countries. Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, started smuggling Bibles into 

communist countries in the 1950s. Operation Mobilisation was established in 1957 by 

George Verwer. Other Christian publishers, such as Plough Publishing, provide free 

books to people in the UK and US as a form of mission. The Bible Society translates 

and prints Bibles, in an attempt to reach every country in the world. 

Westernization 

Criticism 

Objections to missionary work among isolated, indigenous populations involve the claim 

that the goal of mission is to Westernize them. Such claims have been raised by 

indigenous rights groups organizations, such as Friends of Peoples Close to Nature and 

Survival International. 

Communicating Diseases 

Missionaries, along with other travelers, brought diseases into local populations. 

Smallpox, measles, even the common cold, have been blamed on their arrivals. David 

Igler of the University of California, Irvine, includes missionary activity as a cause of 

spreading germs. However, he says that commercial traders were the main agents of 

disease. 

... other diseases arrived on non-commercial voyages; missionary activities certainly 

spread germs, and Spanish conquests had dispersed deadly germs in parts of the 

Americas and Pacific prior to the late eighteenth century. Yet, for the period between 


the 1770s and the 1840s, trading vessels were the main agents of disease, creating in 

the Pacific what Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie has called a "paroxysm" of the "microbian 

unification of the world." By 1850, the microbes of Europe, Asia, and Africa circulated in 

almost every Pacific population. 

Statistical Patterns 

Political scientist Robert Woodberry uses statistics to argue that conversionary 

Protestants were a crucial catalyst in spreading religious liberty, education, and 

democracy. He shows that statistically the prevalence of such missionaries account for 

half of the variance in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. In a 2014 

Christianity Today article, he remarks, "Areas where Protestant missionaries had a 

significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, 

with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, 

higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in 

nongovernmental associations." 

Controversy and Christian Missionaries 

“ "This proselytization will mean no peace in the world. Conversions are 

harmful to India. If I had the power and could legislate I should certainly stop 

all proselytizing ... It pains me to have to say that the Christian missionaries 

as a body, with honorable exceptions, have actively supported a system 

which has impoverished, enervated and demoralized a people considered to 

be among the gentlest and most civilized on earth". ” 

In India, Hindu organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh assert that 

most conversions undertaken by zealous evangelicals occur due to compulsion, 

inducement or fraud. In the Indian state of Tripura, the government has alleged financial 

and weapons-smuggling connections between Baptist missionaries and rebel groups 

such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura. The accused Tripura Baptist Christian 

Union is a member body of the Baptist World Alliance. 

"In mid-May, the Vatican was also co-sponsoring a meeting about how some religious 

groups abuse liberties by proselytizing, or by evangelizing in aggressive or deceptive 

ways. Iraq ... has become an open field for foreigners looking for fresh converts. Some 

Catholic Church leaders and aid organizations have expressed concern about new 

Christian groups coming in and luring Iraqis to their churches with offers of cash, 

clothing, food or jobs.... Reports of aggressive proselytism and reportedly forced 

conversions in mostly Hindu India have fueled religious tensions and violence there and 

have prompted some regional governments to pass laws banning proselytism or 

religious conversion.... Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya, a Hindu monk from southern India, told 

CNS that India's poor and uneducated are especially vulnerable to coercive or 

deceptive methods of evangelization.... Aid work must not hide any ulterior motives and 

avoid exploiting vulnerable people like children and the disabled, she said." 


In an interview with Outlook Magazine, Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya said "If the Vatican 

could understand that every religious and spiritual tradition is as sacred as Christianity, 

and that they have a right to exist without being denigrated or extinguished, it will greatly 

serve the interests of dialogue, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence." 

Aid and Evangelism 

While there is a general agreement among most major aid organizations not to mix aid 

with proselyting, others see disasters as a useful opportunity to spread the word. One 

such an occurrence was the tsunami that devastated parts of Asia on December 26, 

2004. 

"This (disaster) is one of the greatest opportunities God has given us to share his love 

with people," said K.P. Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an 

interview, Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka and the 

Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how to find hope in 

this time through the word of God." In Krabi, Thailand, a Southern Baptist church had 

been "praying for a way to make inroads" with a particular ethnic group of fishermen, 

according to Southern Baptist relief coordinator Pat Julian. Then came the tsunami, "a 

phenomenal opportunity" to provide ministry and care, Julian told the Baptist Press 

news service.... Not all evangelicals agree with these tactics. "It's not appropriate in a 

crisis like this to take advantage of people who are hurting and suffering", said the Rev. 

Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan's Purse and son of evangelist Billy Graham." 

The Christian Science Monitor echoes these concerns... "'I think evangelists do this out 

of the best intentions, but there is a responsibility to try to understand other faith groups 


and their culture,' says Vince Isner, director of FaithfulAmerica.org, a program of the 

National Council of Churches USA." 

The Bush Administration has made it easier for U.S. faith-based groups and missionary 

societies to tie aid and church together. 

For decades, US policy has sought to avoid intermingling government programs and 

religious proselytizing. The aim is both to abide by the Constitution's prohibition against 

a state religion and to ensure that aid recipients don't forgo assistance because they 

don't share the religion of the provider.... But many of those restrictions were removed 

by Bush in a little-noticed series of executive orders – a policy change that cleared the 

way for religious groups to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in additional 

government funding. It also helped change the message American aid workers bring to 

many corners of the world, from emphasizing religious neutrality to touting the healing 

powers of the Christian God. 

Christian Counter-Claims 

Missionaries say that the government in India has passed anti-conversion laws in 

several states that are supposedly meant to prevent conversions from "force or 

allurement," but are primarily used, they say, to persecute and criminalize voluntary 

conversion due to the government's broad definition of "force and allurement." Any gift 

received from a Christian in exchange for, or with the intention of, conversion is 

considered allurement. Voice of the Martyrs reports that aid-workers claim that they are 

being hindered from reaching people with much needed services as a result of this 

persecution. Alan de Lastic, Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi states that claims 

of forced conversion are false. 

"'There are attacks practically every week, maybe not resulting in death, but still, violent 

attacks,' Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India tells 

The Christian Science Monitor today. 'They [India's controlling BJP party] have created 

an atmosphere where minorities do feel insecure.'" According to Prakash Louis, director 

of the secular Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, "We are seeing a broad attempt to 

stifle religious minorities and their constitutional rights...Today, they say you have no 

right to convert, Tomorrow you have no right to worship in certain places." Existing 

congregations, often during times of worship, are being persecuted. Properties are 

sometimes destroyed and burnt to the ground, while native pastors are sometimes 

beaten and left for dead. 


II. Missiology and Missionaries 

Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, 

message, and mission of the Christian church, especially the nature of missionary work. 

Missiology is a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural field of study incorporating theology, 

anthropology, history, geography, theories and methods of communication, comparative 

religion, Christian apologetics, education methodology, and interdenominational 

relations. 

History 

Christian 

theology 

developed over the 

centuries, starting in 

early 2nd century and 

continuing its 

development 

up to now. 

Missiology as 

a theological 

discipline 

appeared 

quite late in 

the Christian 

era, only in 

the 19th century. It 

was the Scottish 

missionary 

Alexander 

Duff who first 

developed a 

systematic theory of 

mission and 

was 

appointed in 1867 to a 

new chair of Evangelistic Theology in Edinburgh. This first chair of missiology was 

closed after Duff’s departure but the path was laid. Some years later another theologian, 

Gustav Warneck, was recognized as the founder of missiology as a discipline in its own 

right. 

Warneck founded the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, the first scientific missionary 

periodical, in 1874. In 1897, he was appointed to the chair of missionary science at the 

University of Halle, Germany. His three-volume work on Protestant mission theory and 

his survey of the history of Protestant missionary work were extremely important for the 

young discipline. Influenced by Warneck’s work, Catholic Church historian Joseph 

Schmidlin began lecturing in missiology in 1910 at the University of Munster and was 

appointed to the first chair of Catholic missiology at the same university in 1914. 

Scope of Study 

Missiology became recognizable first of all within the study of Christian theology. On the 

other hand, over the centuries of missions the missionaries encountered various 

cultures and attitudes to accepting the Gospel by the different peoples. This caused 


theologians to reflect on issues of society and Christianity, and anthropology and 

Christianity. Communicating the Gospel and comparing the Christian teaching with 

other religious or secular teachings made the task of the missionaries even more 

difficult. They needed a solid theoretical framework within which they could more 

efficiently found their mission and succeed in spreading the Good News. 

In this way missiology became the Christian theological discipline which interacted with 

many other sciences, such as anthropology, history, geography, communication theory, 

comparative religious studies, social studies, education, psychology, inter-religious 

relations, etc. The core of the new discipline remains the teaching of the Church: 

"Inherent in the discipline is the study of the nature of God, the created world, and the 

Church, as well as the interaction among these three." 

Definition 

The wide scope of study of the discipline of missiology makes it difficult for missiologist 

to agree upon a unified definition on what missiology is. One approach is to reflect on 

what mission is and then define the ways in which mission is explained theologically: 

“Mission is the participation of the people of God in God’s action in the world. The 

theological and critical reflection about mission is called missiology” 

Johannes Verkuyl states, “Missiology’s task in every age is to investigate scientifically 

and critically the presuppositions, motives, structures, methods, patterns of cooperation 

and leadership which the churches bring to their mandate” Every mission needs a 

strategy which can be employed in specific environment, among specific cultural 

context. This adds to the definition of missiology a three-dimensional area of study: 

“Missiology is made up of three interdependent areas of study: theology, the social 

sciences, and strategy. Theology explains the foundations of mission, culture (the social 

sciences) elaborates on the arena of mission, and strategy explicitly points to the ways 

in which missions is implemented. Defining what is missiology continues even today 

and it will continue in the near future until a definition acceptable to all missiologists is 

coined. 

Current Developments 

Today missiology is taught at many Christian theological schools and its scope of study 

and relations with the other theological and social sciences differ to a great extent. It 

continues to be considered a Christian theological discipline and at the same time it is 

argued whether missiology is a strictly church discipline or academic one. 

The close interaction between missiology, social sciences and culture made scholars to 

shape the discipline within the framework of history and sociology and remind about the 

“colonial past of missions” when Christians often attempted to use their political and 

economic power in evangelism. Many missiologists are now disavowing these methods 

and attempt to construct a new paradigm that does not employ such imperialistic 

approaches which lead to language and cultural imposition. 


The issues of syncretism and context in mission have been well explained and 

missiology obtained the features of intercultural theology. 

________ 

Missionaries 

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to proselytize or 

perform ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and 

economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent 

members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of 

sending" or mittere, meaning "to send". The word was used in light of its biblical usage; 

in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word when sending the disciples to 

preach The gospel in his name. The term is most commonly used for Christian 

missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology. 

Christian Missions 

Missionaries by Religion 

A Christian missionary can be defined as "one who is to witness across cultures". The 

Lausanne Congress of 1974, defined the term, related to Christian mission as, "to form 

a viable indigenous church-planting movement". Missionaries can be found in many 

countries around the world. 

In the Bible, Jesus is recorded as instructing the apostles to make disciples of all 

nations (Matthew 28:19–20, Mark 16:15–18). This verse is referred to by Christian 

missionaries as the Great Commission and inspires missionary work. 

Historic 

The Christian Church expanded throughout the Roman Empire already in New 

Testament times and is said by tradition to have reached even further, to Persia 

(Church of the East) and to India (Saint Thomas Christians). During the Middle Ages the 

Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick (5th century), and 


Adalbert of Prague (ca 956-997) propagated learning and religion beyond the European 

boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In 596, Pope Gregory the Great (in office 590- 

604) sent the Gregorian Mission (including Augustine of Canterbury) into England. In 

their turn, Christians from Ireland (the Hiberno-Scottish mission) and from Britain (Saint 

Boniface (ca 675-754), and the Anglo-Saxon mission, for example) became prominent 

in converting the inhabitants of central Europe. 

During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church established a number of missions in 

the Americas and in other Western colonies through the Augustinians, Franciscans, and 

Dominicans to spread Christianity in the New World and [clarification needed] to convert the 

Native Americans and other indigenous people. About the same time, missionaries such 

as Francis Xavier (1506–1552) as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans, and 

Dominicans reached Asia and the Far East, and the Portuguese sent missions into 

Africa. Emblematic in many respects is Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China from 

1582, which was totally peaceful and non-violent. These missionary movements should 

be distinguished from others, such as the Baltic Crusades of the 12th and 13th 

centuries, which were arguably compromised in their motivation by designs of military 

conquest. 

Much contemporary Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since 

the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, with an increased push for indigenization 

and inculturation, along with social justice issues as a constitutive part of preaching the 

Gospel. 

As the Catholic Church normally organizes itself along territorial lines and had the 

human and material resources, religious orders, some even specializing in it, undertook 

most missionary work, especially in the era after the collapse of the Roman Empire in 

the West. Over time, the Holy See gradually established a normalized Church structure 

in the mission areas, often starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic 

prefectures and apostolic vicariates. At a later stage of development these foundations 

are raised to regular diocesan status with a local bishops appointed. On a global front, 

these processes were often accelerated in the later 1960s, in part accompanying 

political decolonization. In some regions, however, they are still in course. 

Just as the Bishop of Rome had jurisdiction also in territories later considered to be in 

the Eastern sphere, so the missionary efforts of the two 9th-century saints Cyril and 

Methodius were largely conducted in relation to the West rather than the East, though 

the field of activity was central Europe. 

The Eastern Orthodox Church, under the Orthodox Church of Constantinople undertook 

vigorous missionary work under the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine 

Empire. This had lasting effects and in some sense is at the origin of the present 

relations of Constantinople ith some sixteen Orthodox national churches including the 

Romanian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, and the 

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (both traditionally said to have been founded by the 

missionary Apostle Andrew), the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (said to have been 


founded by the missionary Apostle Paul). The Byzantines expanded their missionary 

work in Ukraine after the mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church 

had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they 

arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century. Orthodox missionaries also worked 

successfully among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the 

Estonian Orthodox Church. 

Under the Russian Empire of the 19th century, missionaries such as Nicholas Ilminsky 

(1822–1891) moved into the subject lands and propagated Orthodoxy, including through 

Belarus, Latvia, Moldova, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, and China. The Russian St. 

Nicholas of Japan (1836–1912) took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century. 

The Russian Orthodox Church also sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th 

century, including Saint Herman of Alaska (died 1836), to minister to the Native 

Americans. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia continued missionary work 

outside Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution, resulting in the establishment of 

many new dioceses in the diaspora, from which numerous converts have been made in 

Eastern Europe, North America, and Oceania. 

Early Protestant missionaries included John Eliot and contemporary ministers including 

John Cotton and Richard Bourne, who ministered to the Algonquin natives who lived in 

lands claimed by representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th 

century. Quaker "publishers of truth" visited Boston and other mid-17th century 

colonies, but were not always well received. 

The Danish government began the first organized Protestant mission work through its 

College of Missions, established in 1714. This funded and directed Lutheran 

missionaries such as Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar, India, and Hans Egede 

in Greenland. In 1732, while on a visit in 1732 to Copenhagen for the coronation of his 


cousin King Christian VI, the Moravian Church's patron Nicolas Ludwig, Count von 

Zinzendorf, was very struck by its effects, and particularly by two visiting Inuit children 

converted by Hans Egede. He also got to know a slave from the Danish colony in the 

West Indies. When he returned to Herrnhut in Saxony, he inspired the inhabitants of the 

village – it had fewer than thirty houses then – to send out "messengers" to the slaves in 

the West Indies and to the Moravian missions in Greenland. Within thirty years, 

Moravian missionaries had become active on every continent, and this at a time when 

there were fewer than three hundred people in Herrnhut. They are famous for their 

selfless work, living as slaves among the slaves and together with the Native 

Americans, the Delaware (i.e., Lenni Lenape) and Cherokee Indian tribes. Today, the 

work in the former mission provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church is carried on by 

native workers. The fastest-growing area of the work is in Tanzania in Eastern Africa. 

The Moravian work in South Africa inspired William Carey and the founders of the 

British Baptist missions. As of 2014, seven of every ten Moravians live in a former 

mission field and belong to a race other than Caucasian. 

Much Anglican mission work came about under the auspices of the Society for the 

Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG, founded in 1701), the Church 

Missionary Society (CMS, founded 1799) and of the Intercontinental Church Society 

(formerly the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society, originating in 1823). 

Modern 

With a dramatic increase in efforts since the 20th century, and a strong push since the 

Lausanne I: The International Congress on World Evangelization in Switzerland in 1974, 

modern evangelical groups have focused efforts on sending missionaries to every 

ethnic group in the world. While this effort has not been completed, increased attention 

has brought larger numbers of people distributing Bibles, Jesus videos, and establishing 

evangelical churches in more remote areas. 

Internationally, the focus for many years in the later 20th century was on reaching every 

"people group" with Christianity by the year 2000. Bill Bright's leadership with Campus 

Crusade, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, The Joshua Project, and 

others brought about the need to know who these "unreached people groups" are and 

how those wanting to tell about the Christian God and share a Christian Bible could 

reach them. The focus for these organizations transitioned from a "country focus" to a 

"people group focus". (From "What is a People Group?" by Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins: A 

"people group" is an ethnolinguistic group with a common self-identity that is shared by 

the various members. There are two parts to that word: ethno and linguistic. Language 

is a primary and dominant identifying factor of a people group. But there are other 

factors that determine or are associated with ethnicity.) 

What can be viewed as a success by those inside and outside the church from this 

focus is a higher level of cooperation and friendliness among churches and 

denominations. It is very common for those working on international fields to not only 

cooperate in efforts to share their gospel message, but view the work of their groups in 


a similar light. Also, with the increased study and awareness of different people groups, 

western mission efforts have become far more sensitive to the cultural nuances of those 

they are going to and those they are working with in the effort. 

Over the years, as indigenous churches have matured, the church of the "Global South" 

(Africa, Asia, and Latin America) has become the driving force in missions. Korean and 

African missionaries can now be found all over the world. These missionaries represent 

a major shift in church history. 

Brazil, Nigeria, and other countries have had large numbers of their Christian adherents 

go to other countries and start churches. These non-western missionaries often have 

unparalleled success; because, they need few western resources and comforts to 

sustain their livelihood while doing the work they have chosen among a new culture and 

people. 

One of the first large-scale missionary endeavors of the British colonial age was the 

Baptist Missionary Society, founded in 1792 as the Particular Baptist Society for the 

Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen. 

The London Missionary Society was an evangelical organisation, bringing together from 

its inception both Anglicans and Nonconformists; it was founded in England in 1795 with 

missions in Africa and the islands of the South Pacific. The Colonial Missionary Society 

was created in 1836, and directed its efforts towards promoting Congregationalist forms 

of Christianity among "British or other European settlers" rather than indigenous 

peoples. Both of these merged in 1966, and the resultant organization is now known as 

the Council for World Mission. 


The Church Mission Society, first known as the Society for Missions to Africa and the 

East, was founded in 1799 by evangelical Anglicans centred around the anti-slavery 

activist William Wilberforce. It bent its efforts to the Coptic Church, the Ethiopian 

Church, and India, especially Kerala; it continues to this day. Many of the network of 

churches they established became the Anglican Communion. 

In 1809, the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews was founded, 

which pioneered mission amongst the Jewish people; it continues today as the Church's 

Ministry Among Jewish People. In 1865, the China Inland Mission was founded, going 

well beyond British controlled areas; it continues as the OMF, working throughout East 

Asia. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has an active missionary 

program. Young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five are encouraged to 

prepare themselves to serve a two-year, self-funded, full-time proselytizing mission. 

Young women who desire to serve as missionaries can serve starting at the age of 

nineteen, for one and a half years. Retired couples also have the option of serving a 

mission. Missionaries typically spend two weeks in a Missionary Training Center (or two 

to three months for those learning a new language) where they study the scriptures, 

learn new languages when applicable, prepare themselves to teach the Gospel of Jesus 

Christ, and learn more about the culture and the people they live among. As of January 

2014, the LDS Church had over 80,000 missionaries worldwide and over 10,000 

Welfare Services Missionaries. 

Maryknoll The sending of missioners from the U.S. Church was seen as a sign of the 

U.S. Catholic Church finally coming of age. 

When two American Catholic priests from distinctly different backgrounds met in 

Montreal in 1910, they discovered they had one thing in common. Father James 

Anthony Walsh, a priest from the heart of Boston, and Father Thomas Frederick Price, 

the first native North Carolinian ordained into the priesthood, recognized that through 

their differences, they were touched by the triumph of the human spirit and enriched by 

encountering the faith experience of others. This was the foundation of their mutual 

desire to build a seminary for the training of young American men for the foreign 

Missions. 

Countering arguments that the Church needed workers here, Fathers Walsh and Price 

insisted the Church would not flourish until it sent missioners overseas. Independently, 

the men had written extensively about the concept, Father Price in his magazine Truth, 

and Father Walsh in the pages of A Field Afar, an early incarnation of Maryknoll 

Magazine. Together, they formulated plans to establish a seminary for foreign 

missionaries. With the approval of the American hierarchy, the two priests traveled to 

Rome in June 1911 to receive final approval from Pope Pius X for their project. On June 


29, 1911, Pope Pius X gave his blessings for the formation of the Catholic Foreign 

Mission Society of America, now better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. 

Islamic Missions 

Dawah means to "invite" (in Arabic, literally "calling") to Islam, which is the second 

largest religion with 1.6 billion members. From the 7th century, it spread rapidly from the 

Arabian Peninsula to the rest of the world through the initial Muslim conquests and 

subsequently with traders and explorers after the death of Muhammad. 

Initially, the spread of Islam came through the Dawah efforts of Muhammad and his 

followers. After his death in 632 C.E., much of the expansion of the empire came 

through conquest such as that of North Africa and later Spain (Al-Andalus). The Islamic 

conquest of Persia put an end to the Sassanid Empire and spread the reach of Islam to 

as far east as Khorasan, which would later become the cradle of Islamic civilization 

during the Islamic Golden Age (622-1258 C.E.) and a stepping-stone towards the 

introduction of Islam to the Turkic tribes living in and bordering the area. 

The missionary movement peaked during the Islamic Golden Age, with the expansion of 

foreign trade routes, primarily into the Indo-Pacific and as far south as the isle of 

Zanzibar as well as the South-Eastern shores of Africa. 

With the coming of the Sufism tradition, Islamic missionary activities increased. Later, 

the Seljuk Turks' conquest of Anatolia made it easier for missionaries to go lands that 

formerly belonged to the Byzantine Empire. In the earlier stages of the Ottoman Empire, 


a Turkic form of Shamanism was still widely practiced in Anatolia, but soon lost ground 

to Sufism. 

During the Ottoman presence in the Balkans, missionary movements were taken up by 

people from aristocratic families hailing from the region, who had been educated in 

Constantinople or other major city within the Empire such as the famed madrassahs 

and kulliyes. Primarily, individuals were sent back to the place of their origin and were 

appointed important positions in the local governing body. This approach often resulted 

in the building of mosques and local kulliyes for future generations to benefit from, as 

well as spreading the teachings of Islam. 

The spread of Islam towards Central and West Africa had until the early 19th century 

has been consistent but slow. Previously, the only connection was through Trans- 

Saharan trade routes. The Mali Empire, consisting predominantly of African and Berber 

tribes, stands as a strong example of the early Islamic conversion of the Sub-Saharan 

region. The gateways prominently expanded to include the aforementioned trade routes 

through the Eastern shores of the African continent. With the European colonization of 

Africa, missionaries were almost in competition with the European Christian 

missionaries operating in the colonies. 

There is evidence of Arab Muslim traders entering Indonesia as early as the 8th 

century. Indonesia's early people were animists, Hindus, and Buddhists. However it was 

not until the end of the 13th century that the process of "Islamization" began to spread 

throughout the areas local communities and port towns. The spread, although at first 

introduced through Arab Muslim traders, continued to saturate through the Indonesian 

people as local rulers and royalty began to adopt the religion subsequently leading their 

subjects to mirror their conversion. 

Recently, Muslim groups have engaged in missionary work in Malawi. Much of this is 

performed by the African Muslim Agency based in Angola. The Kuwait-sponsored AMA 

has translated the Qur'an into Chichewa (Cinyanja), one of the official languages of 

Malawi, and has engaged in other missionary work in the country. All of the major cities 

in the country have mosques and there are several Islamic schools. 

Several South African, Kuwaiti, and other Muslim agencies are active in Mozambique, 

with one important one being the African Muslim Agency. The spread of Islam into West 

Africa, beginning with ancient Ghana in the 9th century, was mainly the result of the 

commercial activities of North African Muslims. The empires of both Mali and Songhai 

that followed ancient Ghana in the Western Sudan adopted the religion. Islam made its 

entry into the northern territories of modern Ghana around the 15th century. Mande 

speakers (who in Ghana are known as Wangara) traders and clerics carried the religion 

into the area. The northeastern sector of the country was also influenced by an influx of 

Hausa Muslim traders from the 16th century onwards 

Islamic influence first occurred in India in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab 

traders. Trade relations have existed between Arabia and the Indian subcontinent from 


ancient times. Even in the pre-Islamic era, Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region, 

which linked them with the ports of Southeast Asia. According to Historians Elliot and 

Dowson in their book The History of India as told by its own Historians, the first ship 

bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 C.E.. H. G. 

Rawlinson, in his book: Ancient and Medieval History of India claims the first Arab 

Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century. Shaykh Zainuddin 

Makhdum's "Tuhfat al-Mujahidin" also is a reliable work. This fact is corroborated, by J. 

Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals, and also by Haridas 

Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV. It was with the advent of Islam that 

the Arabs became a prominent cultural force in the world. The Arab merchants and 

traders became the carriers of the new religion, and they propagated it wherever they 

went. 

Islam in Bulgaria can be traced back to the mid-ninth century when there were Islamic 

missionaries in Bulgaria, evidenced by a letter from Pope Nicholas to Boris of Bulgaria 

calling for the extirpation of Saracens. 

Pioneer Muslim missionaries to the Kenyan interior were largely Tanganyikans, who 

coupled their missionary work with trade, along the centres began along the railway line 

such as Kibwezi, Makindu, and Nairobi. 

Outstanding among them was Maalim Mtondo Islam in Kenya, a Tanganyikan credited 

with being the first Muslim missionary to Nairobi. Reaching Nairobi at the close of the 

19th century, he led a group of other Muslims, and enthusiastic missionaries from the 

coast to establish a "Swahili village" in present-day Pumwani. A small mosque was built 


to serve as a starting point and he began preaching Islam in earnest. He soon attracted 

several Kikuyus and Wakambas, who became his disciples. 

In 1380, Karim ul' Makhdum the first Arabian Islamic missionary reached the Sulu 

Archipelago and Jolo in the Philippines and established Islam in the country. In 1390, 

the Minangkabau's Prince Rajah Baguinda and his followers preached Islam on the 

islands. The Sheik Karimal Makdum Mosque was the first mosque established in the 

Philippines on Simunul in Mindanao in the 14th century. Subsequent settlements by 

Arab missionaries traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia helped strengthen Islam in the 

Philippines and each settlement was governed by a Datu, Rajah, and a Sultan. Islamic 

provinces founded in the Philippines included the Sultanate of Maguindanao, Sultanate 

of Sulu, and other parts of the southern Philippines. 

Modern missionary work in the United States has increased greatly in the last one 

hundred years, with much of the recent demographic growth driven by conversion. Up 

to one-third of American Muslims are African Americans who have converted to Islam 

during the last seventy years. Conversion to Islam in prisons, and in large urban areas 

has also contributed to Islam's growth over the years. 

An estimated US$45 billion has been spent by the Saudi Arabian government financing 

mosques and Islamic schools in foreign countries. Ain al-Yaqeen, a Saudi newspaper, 

reported in 2002 that Saudi funds may have contributed to building as many as 1,500 

mosques and 2,000 other Islamic centers. 

Ahmadiyya Islam Missions 

Missionaries belonging to the Ahmadiyya thought of Islam often study at International 

Islamic seminaries and educational institutions, known as Jamia Ahmadiyya. Upon 

completion of their degrees, they are sent to various parts of the world including South 

America, Africa, North America, Europe, and the Far East as appointed by Mirza 

Masroor Ahmad, present head and Caliph of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim 

community. Jamia students may be appointed by the Caliph either as Missionaries of 

the community (often called Murrabi, Imam, or Mawlana) or as Qadis or Muftis of the 

Ahmadiyya Muslim community with a specialisation in matters of fiqh (Islamic 

Jurisprudence). Some Jamia alumni have also become Islamic historians such as the 

late Dost Muhammad Shahid, former Official Historian of the Ahmadiyya Muslim 

community, with a specialisation in tarikh (Islamic historiography). Missionaries stay with 

their careers as appointed by the Caliph for the rest of their lives, as per their 

commitment to the community. 

Early Islamic Missionaries During Muhammad's Era 

During the Expedition of Al Raji in 625, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad sent some men 

as missionaries to various different tribes. Some men came to Muhammad and 

requested that Muhammad send instructors to teach them Islam, but the men were 

bribed by the two tribes of Khuzaymah who wanted revenge for the assassination of 


Khalid bin Sufyan (Chief of the Banu Lahyan tribe) by Muhammad's followers 8 Muslim 

Missionaires were killed in this expedition., another version says 10 Muslims were killed. 

Then during the Expedition of Bir Maona in July 625 Muhammad sent some 

Missionaries at request of some men from the Banu Amir tribe, but the Muslims were 

again killed as revenge for the assassination of Khalid bin Sufyan by Muhammad's 

followers 70 Muslims were killed during this expedition. 

During the Expedition of Khalid ibn al-Walid (Banu Jadhimah) in January 630, 

Muhammad sent Khalid ibn Walid to invite the Banu Jadhimah tribe to Islam. This is 

mentioned in the Sunni Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:628. 

Missionaries and Judaism 

Despite some Jewish missionary activity in the biblical times, contemporary Judaism 

states clearly that missionary activities are mostly taboo. Historically, various Judaic 

sects and movements have been consistent on avoiding proselytization to convert 

Gentiles. 

Jewish religious groups encourage "Outreach" to Jews. The outreach, or kiruv, 

movements encourage Jews to become more knowledgeable and observant of Jewish 

law. People who become more observant are known as baalei teshuva. "Outreach" is 

done worldwide, by organizations such as Chabad Lubavitch, Aish Hatorah, Ohr 

Somayach, and Partners In Torah. There are also many such organizations in the 

United States. There has been a singular, isolated movement to convert Catholics to 

Judaism in Peru. 


Members of the American Reform movement began a program to convert to Judaism 

the non-Jewish spouses of its intermarried members and non-Jews who have an 

interest in Judaism. Their rationale is that so many Jews were lost during the Holocaust 

that newcomers must be sought out and welcomed. This approach has been repudiated 

by Orthodox and Conservative Jews as unrealistic and posing a danger. They say that 

these efforts make Judaism seem an easy religion to join and observe when in reality 

being Jewish involves many difficulties and sacrifices. 

Buddhist Missions 

Baha'i Pioneering 

The first Buddhist missionaries were called "Dharma Bhanaks", and some see a 

missionary charge in the symbolism behind the Buddhist wheel, which is said to travel 

all over the earth bringing Buddhism with it. The Emperor Ashoka was a significant early 

Buddhist missioner. In the 3rd century BCE, Dharmaraksita—among others—was sent 

out by emperor Ashoka to proselytize the Buddhist tradition through the Indian Maurya 

Empire, but also into the Mediterranean as far as Greece. Gradually, all India and the 

neighboring island of Ceylon were converted. Then Buddhism spread eastward and 

southeastward to the present lands of Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and 

Indonesia. 

Buddhism was spread among the Turkic people during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE 

into modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, eastern and coastal Iran, Uzbekistan, 

Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. It was also taken into China brought by Kasyapa Matanga 

in the 2nd century CE, Lokaksema and An Shigao translated Buddhist sutras into 

Chinese. Dharmarakṣa was one of the greatest translators of Mahayana Buddhist 

scriptures into Chinese. Dharmaraksa came to the Chinese capital of Luoyang in 266 

CE, where he made the first known translations of the Lotus Sutra and the 

Dasabhumika Sutra, which were to become some of the classic texts of Chinese 

Mahayana Buddhism. Altogether, Dharmaraksa translated around 154 Hīnayāna and 

Mahāyāna sutras, representing most of the important texts of Buddhism available in the 

Western Regions. His proselytizing is said to have converted many to Buddhism in 

China, and made Chang'an, present-day Xi'an, a major center of Buddhism. Buddhism 

expanded rapidly, especially among the common people, and by 381 most of the people 

of northwest China were Buddhist. Winning converts also among the rulers and 

scholars, by the end of the T'ang Dynasty Buddhism was found everywhere in China. 

Marananta brought Buddhism to the Korean Peninsula in the 4th century. Seong of 

Baekje, known as a great patron of Buddhism in Korea, built many temples and 

welcomed priests bringing Buddhist texts directly from India. In 528, Baekje officially 

adopted Buddhism as its state religion. He sent tribute missions to Liang in 534 and 

541, on the second occasion requesting artisans as well as various Buddhist works and 

a teacher. According to Chinese records, all these requests were granted. A 

subsequent mission was sent in 549, only to find the Liang capital in the hands of the 

rebel Hou Jing, who threw them in prison for lamenting the fall of the capital. He is 


credited with having sent a mission in 538 to Japan that brought an image of 

Shakyamuni and several sutras to the Japanese court. This has traditionally been 

considered the official introduction of Buddhism to Japan. An account of this is given in 

Gangōji Garan Engi. First supported by the Soga clan, Buddhism rose over the 

objections of the pro-Shinto Mononobe and Buddhism entrenched itself in Japan with 

the conversion of Prince Shotoku Taishi. When in 710 Emperor Shomu established a 

new capital at Nara modeled after the capital of China, Buddhism received official 

support and began to flourish. 

Padmasambhava, The Lotus Born, was a sage guru from Oḍḍiyāna who is said to have 

transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 

8th century. 

The use of missions, councils, and monastic institutions influenced the emergence of 

Christian missions and organizations, which developed similar structures in places that 

were formerly Buddhist missions. 

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Western intellectuals such as Schopenhauer, Henry 

David Thoreau, Max Müller, and esoteric societies such as the Theosophical Society of 

H.P. Blavatsky and the Buddhist Society, London spread interest in Buddhism. Writers 

such as Hermann Hesse and Jack Kerouac, in the West, and the hippie generation of 

the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a re-discovery of Buddhism. During the 20th and 

21st centuries Buddhism has again been propagated by missionaries into the West 

such as the Dalai Lama and monks including Lama Surya Das (Tibetan Buddhism). 


Tibetan Buddhism has been significantly active and successful in the West since the 

Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959. Today Buddhists make a decent proportion of 

several countries in the West such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the 

Netherlands, France, and the United States. 

In Canada, the immense popularity and goodwill ushered in by Tibet's Dalai Lama (who 

has been made honorary Canadian citizen) put Buddhism in a favourable light in the 

country. Many non-Asian Canadians embraced Buddhism in various traditions and 

some have become leaders in their respective sanghas. 

In the early 1990s, the French Buddhist Union (UBF, founded in 1986) estimated that 

there are 600,000 to 650,000 Buddhists in France, with 150,000 French converts 

among them. In 1999, sociologist Frédéric Lenoir estimated there are 10,000 converts 

and up to 5 million "sympathizers", although other researchers have questioned these 

numbers. 

Taisen Deshimaru was a Japanese Zen Buddhist who founded numerous zendos in 

France. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated, Vietnamese-born Zen 

Buddhist, founded the Unified Buddhist Church (Eglise Bouddhique Unifiée) in France in 

1969. Plum Village, a monastery and retreat center in the Dordogne in southern France, 

is his residence and the headquarters of his international sangha. 

In 1968 Leo Boer and Wener van de Wetering founded a Zen group, and through two 

books made Zen popular in the Netherlands. The guidance of the group was taken over 

by Erik Bruijn, who is still in charge of a flourishing community. The largest Zen group 

now is the Kanzeon Sangha, led by Nico Tydeman under the supervision of the 

American Zen master Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi, a former student of Maezumi Roshi 

in Los Angeles. This group has a relatively large centre where a teacher and some 

students live permanently. Many other groups are also represented in the Netherlands, 

like the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives in Apeldoorn, the Thich Nhat Hanh Order of 

Interbeing and the International Zen Institute Noorderpoort monastery/retreat centre in 

Drenthe, led by Jiun Hogen Roshi. 

Perhaps the most widely visible Buddhist leader in the world is Tenzin Gyatso, the 

current Dalai Lama, who first visited the United States in 1979. As the exiled political 

leader of Tibet, he has become a popular cause célèbre. His early life was depicted in 

Hollywood films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet. He has attracted celebrity 

religious followers such as Richard Gere and Adam Yauch. The first Western-born 

Tibetan Buddhist monk was Robert A. F. Thurman, now an academic supporter of the 

Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama maintains a North American headquarters at Namgyal 

Monastery in Ithaca, New York. 

Lewis M. Hopfe in his "Religions of the World" suggested that "Buddhism is perhaps on 

the verge of another great missionary outreach" (1987:170). 

Hindu Missions 


Hinduism was introduced into Java by travelers from India in ancient times. When the 

early Javanese princes accepted Hinduism, they did not give up all of their early 

animistic beliefs—they simply combined the new ideas with them. Several centuries 

ago, many Hindus left Java for Bali rather than convert to Islam. Hinduism has survived 

in Bali ever since. Dang Hyang Nirartha was responsible for facilitating a refashioning of 

Balinese Hinduism. He was an important promoter of the idea of moksha in Indonesia. 

He founded the Shaivite priesthood that is now ubiquitous in Bali, and is now regarded 

as the ancestor of all Shaivite pandits. 

Shantidas Adhikari was a Hindu preacher from Sylhet who converted King Pamheiba of 

Manipur to Hinduism in 1717. 

Historically, Hinduism has only recently had a large influence in western countries such 

as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. Since the 1960s, many westerners 

attracted by the world view presented in Asian religious systems have converted to 

Hinduism. Canada is no exception. Many native-born Canadians of various ethnicities 

have converted during the last 50 years through the actions of the Ramakrishna 

Mission, ISKCON, Arya Samaj and other missionary organizations as well as due to the 

visits and guidance of Indian gurus such as Guru Maharaj, Sai Baba, and Rajneesh. 


The International Society for Krishna Consciousness has a presence in New Zealand, 

running temples in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. 

Paramahansa Yogananda, an Indian yogi and guru, introduced many westerners to the 

teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi. 

Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission is one of the greatest 

Hindu missionaries to the West. 

Sikh Missions 

Sikhs have emigrated to countries all over the world, especially to English-speaking and 

East Asian nations. In doing so they have retained, to a high degree, their distinctive 

cultural and religious identity. Sikhs are not ubiquitous worldwide in the way that 

adherents of larger world religions are, and they remain primarily an ethnic religion. 

However, they can be found in many international cities and have become an especially 

strong religious presence in the United Kingdom and Canada. 

One morning, when he was twenty-eight, Guru Nanak Dev went as usual down to the 

river to bathe and meditate. It was said that he was gone for three days. When he 

reappeared, it is said he was "filled with the spirit of God". His first words after his reemergence 

were: "there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim". With this secular principle he 

began his missionary work. He made four distinct major journeys, in the four different 

directions, which are called Udasis, spanning many thousands of kilometres, preaching 

the message of God. 

Currently there are Gurdwaras in over 50 countries. 

Of missionary organizations, the most famous is probably The Sikh Missionary Society 

UK. The Aim of the Sikh Missionary Society is the Advancement of the Sikh faith in the 

U.K and abroad, engages in various activities: 

 

 

 

 

Produce and distribute books on the Sikh faith in English and Panjabi, and other 

languages to enlighten the younger generation of Sikhs as well as non-Sikhs. 

Advise and support young students in schools, colleges, and universities on Sikh 

issues and Sikh traditions. 

Arrange classes, lectures, seminars, conferences, Gurmat camps and the 

celebration of holy Sikh events, the basis of their achievement and interest in the 

field of the Sikh faith and the Panjabi language. 

Make available all Sikh artifacts, posters, literature, music, educational videos, 

DVDs, and multimedia CD-ROMs. 

There have been several Sikh missionaries: 


Bhai Gurdas (1551-1636), Punjabi Sikh writer, historian, missionary, and 

religious figure; the original scribe of the Guru Granth Sahib and a companion of 

four of the Sikh Gurus 

Giani Pritam Singh Dhillon, Indian freedom fighter 

Bhai Amrik Singh, devoted much of his life to Sikh missionary activities; one of 

the Sikh community's most prominent leaders along with Sant Jarnail Singh 

Bhindranwale 

Jathedar Sadhu Singh Bhaura (1905–1984), Sikh missionary who rose to be the 

Jathedar or high priest of Sri Akal Takhat, Amritsar 

Sikhs have emigrated to many countries of the world since Indian independence in 

1947. Sikh communities exist in Britain, East Africa, Canada, the United States, 

Malaysia, and most European countries. 

Tenrikyo Missions 

Tenrikyo conducts missionary work in approximately forty countries. Its first missionary 

was a woman named, Kokan, who worked on the streets of Osaka. In 2003, it operated 

approximately twenty thousand mission stations worldwide. 

Jain Missions 

According to Jaina tradition, Mahavira's following had swelled to 14,000 monks and 

36,000 nuns by the time of his death in 527 BC. For some two centuries the Jains 

remained a small community of monks and followers. However, in the 4th century BCE, 


they gained strength and spread from Bihar to Orissa, then so South India and 

westwards to Gujarat and the Punjab, where Jain communities became firmly 

established, particularly among the mercantile classes. The period of the Mauryan 

Dynasty to the 12th century was the period of Jainism's greatest growth and influence. 

Thereafter, the Jainas in the South and Central regions lost ground in face of rising 

Hindu devotional movements. Jainism retreated to the West and Northwest, which have 

remained its stronghold to the present. 

Emperor Samprati is regarded as the "Jain Ashoka" for his patronage and efforts to 

spreading Jainism in east India. Samprati, according to Jain historians, is considered 

more powerful and famous than Ashoka himself. Samprati built thousands of Jain 

Temples in India, many of which remain in use, such as the Jain temples at Viramgam 

and Palitana (Gujarat), Agar Malwa (Ujjain). Within three and a half years, he got one 

hundred and twenty-five thousand new temples built, thirty-six thousand repaired, 

twelve and a half million murtis, holy statues, consecrated and ninety-five thousand 

metal murtis prepared. Samprati is said to have erected Jain temples throughout his 

empire. He founded Jain monasteries even in non-Aryan territory, and almost all ancient 

Jain temples or monuments of unknown origin are popularly attributed to him. It may be 

noted that all the Jain monuments of Rajasthan and Gujarat, with unknown builders are 

also attributed to Emperor Samprati. 

Virachand Gandhi (1864–1901) from Mahuva represented Jains at the first Parliament 

of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893 and won a silver medal. Gandhi was most 

likely the first Jain and the first Gujarati to travel to the United States, and his statue still 

stands at the Jain temple in Chicago. In his time he was a world-famous personality. 

Gandhi represented Jains in Chicago because the Great Jain Saint Param Pujya 

Acharya Vijayanandsuri, also known as Acharya Atmaram, was invited to represent the 

Jain religion at the first World Parliament of Religions. As Jain monks do not travel 

overseas, he recommended the bright young scholar Virchand Gandhi to be the 

emissary for the religion. Today there are 100,000 Jains in the United States. 

There are also tens of thousands of Jains located in the UK and Canada. 

Ananda Marga Missions 

Ānanda Mārga, organizationally known as Ānanda Mārga Pracaraka Samgha (AMPS), 

meaning the samgha (organization) for the propagation of the marga (path) of ananda 

(bliss), is a social and spiritual movement founded in Jamalpur, Bihar, India, in 1955 by 

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921–1990), also known by his spiritual name, Shrii Shrii 

Ánandamúrti. Ananda Marga counts hundreds of missions around the world through 

which its members carry out various forms of selfless service on Relief. (The social 

welfare and development organization under AMPS is Ananda Marga Universal Relief 

Team, or AMURT.) Education and women's welfare The service activities of this section 

founded in 1963 are focused on: 


Education: creating and managing primary, post-primary, and higher schools, 

research institutes 

Relief: creating and managing children's and students' homes for destitute 

children and for poor students, cheap hostels, retiring homes, academies of light 

for deaf dumb and crippled, invalid homes, refugee rehabilitation 

Tribal: tribal welfare units, medical camps 

Women's welfare: women welfare units, women's homes, nursing homes 

Criticism 

Certain issues have brought criticism to missionary activity. This has included concerns 

that missionaries have a perceived lack of respect for other cultures. Potential 

destruction of social structure among the converts has also been a concern. The Akha 

people of South East Asia are an example of those who believe that missionaries are 

only converting others for personal gain. 

The Akha people have complained the missionaries are more worried about building a 

church than building a clinic in a village that is very unhealthy. Many traditional values of 

the Akha have been lost as a result of these conversions. The Huaorani people of 

Amazonian Ecuador have had a well-documented mixed relation with Evangelical 

Christian missionaries and the contacts they brought to their communities, criticized by 

outsiders. 


Impact of Missions 

A 2012 study by political scientist Robert Woodberry, focusing on Protestant 

missionaries, found that they have often left a very positive societal impact in the areas 

where they worked. "In cross-national statistical analysis Protestant missions are 

significantly and robustly associated with higher levels of printing, education, economic 

development, organizational civil society, protection of private property, and rule of law 

and with lower levels of corruption". 

A 2017 study found that areas of colonial Mexico that had Mendicant missions have 

higher rates of literacy and educational attainment today than regions that did not have 

missions. Areas that had Jesuit missions are today indistinct from the areas that had no 

missions. The study also found that "the share of Catholics is higher in regions where 

Catholic missions of any kind were a historical present." 

A 2016 study found that regions in Sub-Saharan Africa that Protestant missionaries 

brought printing presses to are today "associated with higher newspaper readership, 

trust, education, and political participation." 

Missionaries have also made significant contributions to linguistics and the description 

and documentation of many languages. "Many languages today exist only in missionary 

records. More than anywhere else, our knowledge of the native languages in South 

America has been the product of missionary activity… Without missionary 

documentation the reclamation [of several languages] would have been completely 

impossible" "A satisfactory history of linguistics cannot be written before the impressive 

contribution of missionaries is recognized." 

Lists of Prominent Missionaries 

American Missionaries 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerónimo Boscana, (Roman Catholic Franciscan) missionary 

Isabel Crawford, (Baptist) missionary 

Antonio de Olivares, (Roman Catholic Franciscan) missionary 

Anton Docher, (Roman Catholic) missionary 

Mary H. Fulton, female medical missionary to China, founder of Hackett Medical 

College for Women ( 夏葛女子醫學院 ) in Guangzhou, China 

Eusebio Kino, (Roman Catholic Jesuit) missionary 

Zenas Sanford Loftis, medical missionary to Tibet 

Robert E. Longacre, Christian linguist missionary to Mexico 

Dada Maheshvarananda, Ananda Marga yoga missionary 

Fred Prosper Manget, medical missionary to China, founder of Houzhou General 

Hospital, Houzhou, China, also a doctor with the Flying Tigers and U.S. Army in 

Kunming, China, during World War II 

Lottie Moon, Baptist missionary to China 

Arthur Lewis Piper, medical missionary to the Belgian Congo 


Dada Pranakrsnananda, Ananda Marga yoga missionary 

Darlene Rose, missionary in Papua New Guinea 

John Stewart, (Methodist) missionary 

José de Anchieta, (Roman Catholic Jesuit) missionary 

Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur, (Roman Catholic Franciscan) missionary 

British Christian Missionaries 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Hobbis Harris, with wife Alice used photography to expose colonial abuses 

Benjamin Hobson, medical missionary to China, set up a highly successful Wai 

Ai Clinic ( 惠愛醫館 (in Guangzhou, China. 

Teresa Kearney, Sister in Uganda 

Robert Morrison, Bible translator to China 

William Milne, Bible translator to China 

Sam Pollard, Bible translator to China 

John Wesley 



III. Evangelism 

In Christianity, Evangelism is the commitment to or act of publicly preaching of the 

Gospel with the intention of spreading the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. 

Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they 

are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field, although some 

Christian traditions refer to such people as missionaries in either case. Some Christian 

traditions consider evangelists to be in a leadership position; they may be found 

preaching to large meetings or in governance roles. 

Christian groups who encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or 

evangelist. The scriptures do not use the word evangelism, but evangelist is used in 

(the translations of) Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:11, and 2 Timothy 4:5 

Etymology 

The word evangelist comes from the Koine Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (transliterated as 

euangelion) via Latinised evangelium as used in the canonical titles of the Four 

Gospels, authored by (or attributed to) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (also known as 

the Four Evangelists). The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον originally meant a reward given to 

the messenger for good news (εὔ = "good", ἀγγέλλω = "I bring a message"; the word 

"angel" comes from the same root) and later "good news" itself. 


The verb form of euangelion, (translated as "evangelism"), occurs rarely in older Greek 

literature outside the New Testament, making its meaning more difficult to ascertain. 

Parallel texts of the Gospels of Luke and Mark reveal a synonymous relationship 

between the verb euangelizo (εὑαγγελίζω) and a Greek verb kerusso (κηρύσσω), which 

means "to proclaim". 

Proselytism 

Some Christians distinguish between evangelism and proselytism, the latter viewed as 

unethical because it is taken to involve the abuse of people’s freedom and the distortion 

of the gospel of grace by means of coercion, deception, manipulation, and exploitation. 

The term ‘proselytize’ might be used when one group does not approve of the missional 

activities of another, particularly when one group is losing members to another group. 

Different denominations follow different theological interpretations which reflect upon the 

point of who is doing the actual conversion, whether the evangelist or the Holy Spirit or 

both. Calvinists, for example, believe the soul is converted only if the Holy Spirit is 

effective in the act. 

Catholic missionary work in Russia is commonly seen as evangelism, not proselytism. 

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz openly stated, "that proselytism is absolutely unacceptable 

and cannot constitute a strategy for the development of our structures either in Russia 

or in any other country in the world". Especially regarding claims by the Orthodox 

church that spreading the faith and receiving converts amounts to proselytism, the 

Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document called 

"Doctrinal Note on some Aspects of Evangelization" which states that evangelism is "an 

inalienable right and duty, an expression of religious liberty ...", and added, "The 

incorporation of new members into the Church is not the expansion of a power group, 

but rather entrance into the network of friendship with Christ which connects heaven 

and earth, different continents and age. It is entrance into the gift of communion with 

Christ...." 

In recent history, certain Bible passages have been used to promote evangelism. 

William Carey, in a book entitled, 'An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use 

Means for the Conversion of the Heathens' popularised a quotation, where, according to 

the Bible, during his last days on earth Jesus commanded his eleven disciples (the 

apostles) as follows: 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father 

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have 

commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. 

— Matthew 28:19,20 NIV 


However, recent scholarship by Chris Wright and others has suggested that such 

activity is promoted by the entire Bible, or at least the wider term 'mission', although the 

meaning of the word 'mission' and its relationship to 'evangelism' is disputed amongst 

Christians. 

Modern Methods 

Breaking from tradition and going beyond television and radio a wide range of methods 

have been developed to reach people not inclined to attend traditional events in 

churches or revival meetings. 

Dramas such as Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames have gained enormous popularity since 

the 1980s. These dramas typically depict fictional characters who die and learn whether 

they will go to heaven or hell. 

The child evangelism movement is a Christian evangelism movement that originated in 

the 20th century. It focuses on the 4/14 Window which centers on evangelizing children 

between the ages of 4 and 14 years old. 

Beginning in the 1970s, a group of Christian athletes known as The Power Team 

spawned an entire genre of Christian entertainment based on strong-man exploits 


mixed with a Christian message and usually accompanied by an opportunity to respond 

with a prayer for salvation. 

Other entertainment-based Christian evangelism events include comedy, live theater 

and music. 

The Christian music industry has also played a significant role in modern evangelism. 

Rock (and other genres) concerts in which the artist(s) exhort non-believing attendees 

to pray a prayer for salvation have become common, and just as common are concerts 

that are focused on activity not necessarily on prayer and conversion, thus forming an 

environment that is not driven by conversion, but instead relaying of a message. 

Evangelists such as Reinhard Bonnke conduct mass evangelistic crusades around the 

world. Hundreds of church denominations and organizations participate in an 

evangelism movement known as the Billion Soul Harvest, which is a comprehensive 

initiative to convert a billion people to Christianity. 

New opportunities for evangelization have been provided in recent decades by 

increased travel opportunities and by instant communications over the internet. 

Evangelists 

Some churches use the title evangelist of a minister who travels from town to town and 

from church to church, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this sense the person is 

differentiated from a local pastor, with a ministry grounded in a specific community. 

Some denominations have a formally recognised office of evangelist as part of their 

ministry, such as the commissioned evangelists of the Church of England and some 

other Anglican churches. 

Many Christians of various theological perspectives would call themselves evangelists 

because they are spreaders of the gospel. Many churches believe one of their major 

functions is to function as evangelists to spread the evangelist belief that Jesus is savior 

of humanity. 

The title of evangelist is often associated with those who lead large meetings like those 

of Billy Graham, Luis Palau and J.A. Pérez, possibly in tents or existing church 

buildings, or those who address the public in street corner preaching, which targets 

listeners who happen to pass nearby. It can also be done in small groups or even on a 

one-to-one basis, but actually it is simply one who spreads the gospel. Increasingly, the 

internet enables anyone to become an Internet evangelist. 

Missionary Work 


The New Testament urges believers to speak the gospel clearly, fearlessly, graciously, 

and respectfully whenever an opportunity presents itself, incumbent upon a commitment 

to hold and revere God as the core/center of their lives (see Colossians 4:2-6, 

Ephesians 6:19-20, and 1 Peter 3:15). 

Throughout most of its history, Christianity has been spread evangelistically, though the 

extent of evangelism has varied significantly between Christian communities, and 

denominations. Evangelism, apologetics and apostolic ministry often go hand in hand. 

An ἀπόστολος (apostolos) is literally "one who is ordered forth" and refers to the 

missionary calling of being ordered forth into the world by the initiation of God. An 

example of an interplay between Evangelism and Apologetics can be seen in the USA 

when upon door to door Evangelism the prospect is an unbeliever and challenges the 


Evangelist wherein the Evangelist then follows into the role of the Apologist in defense 

of their faith with the hope that Evangelism may be restarted. Since missionaries often 

travel to areas or people groups where Jesus is not yet known, they frequently take on 

an evangelistic role. But the apostolic or missionary calling is not necessarily the same 

(and it is a misnomer and misinterpretation to equate them), as there are many who 

serve in missionary, church planting, and ministry development roles who have an 

apostolic calling or serve in an apostolic role but whose primary duty is not evangelism. 

Evangelism in Vatican II Documents 

Catholic Evangelism 

In the very first sentence of its Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, the Vatican 

II Council affirmed that Christ had sent the Church to preach the gospel to every 

creature (LG 1; cf. Mk 16:15). Evangelism is a theme in multiple Vatican II documents. 

These documents mentioned “gospel” 157 times, “evangelize” 18 times, and 

“evangelization” 31 times. 

New Evangelization 

For several decades, the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church has been 

promoting a theme of New Evangelization. This includes re-evangelism of Christian 

people as well mission Ad gentes to reach new regions and cultures. 


IV. Humanitarian Aid 

Humanitarian Aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It 

is usually short-term help until the long-term help by government and other institutions 

replaces it. A report published by the network of European Universities on 

Professionalization of Humanitarian Action noted that humanitarian aid is a 

"fundamental expression of the universal value of solidarity between people and a moral 

imperative." Among the people in need belong homeless, refugees, victims of natural 

disasters, wars and famines. The primary purpose of humanitarian aid is to save lives, 

reduce suffering and respect to human dignity. Humanitarian aid is material or logistical 

assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian 

crises including natural disasters and man-made disaster. The primary objective of 

humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may 

therefore be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying 

socioeconomic factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency. There is a debate 

on linking humanitarian aid and development efforts, which was reinforced by the World 

Humanitarian Summit in 2016. However, the approach is viewed critically by 

practitioners. 

Humanitarian aid aims to bring short term relief to victims until long term relief can be 

provided by the government and other institutions. Humanitarian aid considers “a 

fundamental expression of the universal value of solidarity between people and a moral 


imperative”. Humanitarian aid can come from either local or international communities. 

In the Philippines various departments coordinate to provide relief, but the first response 

usually comes for the local government unit followed by NGOs. In reaching out to 

international communities, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 

(OCHA) of the United Nations (UN) responsible for coordination responses to the 

emergency. It taps to the various members of Inter-Agency Standing Committee, whose 

members are responsible for providing emergency relief. The four UN entities that have 

primary roles in delivering humanitarian aid are United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations 

Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). 

According to The Overseas Development Institute, a London-based research 

establishment, whose findings were released in April 2009 in the paper "Providing aid in 

insecure environments:2009 Update", the most lethal year in the history of 

humanitarianism was 2008, in which 122 aid workers were murdered and 260 

assaulted. The countries deemed least safe were Somalia and Afghanistan. In 2012, 

Humanitarian Outcomes reported that the countries with the highest incidents were: 

Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia. 

Origins 

History 

The beginnings of organized international humanitarian aid can be traced to the late 

19th century. The most well known origin story of formalized humanitarian aid is that of 

Henri Dunant, a Swiss business man and social activist, who upon seeing the sheer 

destruction and inhumane abandonment of wounded soldiers from the Battle of 

Solferino in June 1859, cancelled his plans and began a relief response. Despite little to 

no experience as a medical physician, Dunant worked alongside local volunteers to 

assist the wounded soldiers from all warring parties, including Austrian, Italian and 

French casualties, in any way he could including the provision of food, water and 

medical supplies. His graphic account of the immense suffering he witnessed, written in 

his book “A Memory of Solferino”, became a foundational text to modern 

humanitarianism. 

A Memory of Solferino changed the world in a way that no one, let alone Dunant, could 

have foreseen nor truly appreciated at the time. To start, Dunant was able to profoundly 

stir the emotions of his readers by bringing the battle and suffering into their homes, 

equipping them to understand the current barbaric state of war and treatment of soldiers 

after they were injured or killed; in of themselves these accounts altered the course of 

history. Beyond this, in his two-week experience attending to the wounded soldiers of all 

nationalities, Dunant inadvertently established the vital conceptual pillars of what would 

later become the International Committee of the Red Cross and International 

Humanitarian Law: impartiality and neutrality. Dunant took these ideas and came up 

with two more ingenious concepts that would profoundly alter the practice of war; first 

Dunant envisioned a creation of permanent volunteer relief societies, much like the ad 


hoc relief group he coordinated in Solferino, to assist wounded soldiers; next Dunant 

began an effort to call for the adoption of a treaty which would guarantee the protection 

of wounded soldiers and any who attempted to come to their aid. 

After publishing his foundational text in 1862, progress came quickly for Dunant and his 

efforts to create a permanent relief society and International Humanitarian Law. The 

embryonic formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross had begun to take 

shape in 1863 when the private Geneva Society of Public Welfare created a permanent 

sub-committee called “The International Committee for Aid to Wounded in Situations of 

War”; composed of five Geneva citizens, this committee endorsed Dunant’s vision to 

legally neutralize medical personnel responding to wounded soldiers. The constitutive 

conference of this committee in October 1863 created the statutory foundation of the 

International Committee of the Red Cross in their resolutions regarding national 

societies, caring for the wounded, their symbol, and most importantly the indispensable 

neutrality of ambulances, hospitals, medical personnel and the wounded themselves. 

Beyond this, in order to solidify humanitarian practice, the Geneva Society of Public 

Welfare hosted a convention between August 8 and 22, 1864 at the Geneva Town Hall 

with 16 diverse States present, including many governments of Europe, the Ottoman 

Empire, the United States of America (USA), Brazil and Mexico. This diplomatic 

conference was exceptional, not due to the number or status of its attendees but rather 

because of its very raison d'être. Unlike many diplomatic conferences before it, this 


conference’s purpose was not to reach a settlement after a conflict nor to mediate 

between opposing interests; indeed this conference was to lay down rules for the future 

of conflict with aims to protect medical services and those wounded in battle. 

The first of the renowned Geneva Conventions was signed on August 22, 1864; never 

before in history has a treaty so greatly impacted how warring parties engage with one 

another. The basic tenants of the convention outlined the neutrality of medical services, 

including hospitals, ambulances and related personnel, the requirement to care for and 

protect the sick and wounded during conflict and something of particular symbolic 

importance to the International Committee of the Red Cross: the Red Cross emblem. 

For the first time in contemporary history, it was acknowledged by a representative 

selection of states that war had limits. The significance only grew with time in the 

revision and adaptation of the Geneva Convention in 1906, 1929 and 1949; additionally 

supplementary treaties granted protection to hospital ships, prisoners of war and most 

importantly to civilians in wartime. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross exists to this day as the guardian of 

International Humanitarian Law and as one of the largest providers of humanitarian aid 

in the world. 

Another such examples occurred in response to the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876– 

1879, brought about by a drought that began in northern China in 1875 and lead to crop 

failures in the following years. As many as 10 million people may have died in the 

famine. 

British missionary Timothy Richard first called international attention to the famine in 

Shandong in the summer of 1876 and appealed to the foreign community in Shanghai 

for money to help the victims. The Shandong Famine Relief Committee was soon 

established with the participation of diplomats, businessmen, and Protestant and 

Roman Catholic missionaries. To combat the famine, an international network was set 

up to solicit donations. These efforts brought in 204,000 silver taels, the equivalent of 

$7–10 million in 2012 silver prices. 

A simultaneous campaign was launched in response to the Great Famine of 1876–78 in 

India. Although the authorities have been criticized for their laissez-faire attitude during 

the famine, relief measures were introduced towards the end. A Famine Relief Fund 

was set up in the United Kingdom and had raised £426,000 within the first few months. 

1980s 

Early attempts were in private hands, and were limited in their financial and 

organizational capabilities. It was only in the 1980s, that global news coverage and 

celebrity endorsement were mobilized to galvanize large-scale government-led famine 

(and other forms of) relief in response to disasters around the world. The 1983–85 

famine in Ethiopia caused upwards of 1 million deaths and was documented by a BBC 


news crew, with Michael Buerk describing "a biblical famine in the 20th Century" and 

"the closest thing to hell on Earth". 

Live Aid, a 1985 fund-raising effort headed by Bob Geldof induced millions of people in 

the West to donate money and to urge their governments to participate in the relief 

effort in Ethiopia. Some of the proceeds also went to the famine hit areas of Eritrea. 

2010s 

The first global summit on humanitarian aid was held on May 23 and 24, 2016 in 

Istanbul, Turkey. An initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the 

World Humanitarian Summit included participants from governments, civil society 

organizations, private organizations, and groups affected by humanitarian need. Issues 

that were discussed included: preventing and ending conflict, managing crises, and aid 

financing. 

Funding 

Aid is funded by 

donations from 

individuals, 

corporations, 

governments and 

other organizations. 

The funding and 

delivery 

of 

humanitarian aid is 

increasingly 

international, making 

it much faster, more 

responsive, and 

more effective in 

coping to major 

emergencies 

affecting large 

numbers of people (e.g. see Central Emergency Response Fund). The United Nations 

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinates the international 

humanitarian response to a crisis or emergency pursuant to Resolution 46/182 of the 

United Nations General Assembly. The need for aid is ever-increasing and has long 

outstripped the financial resources available. 

Delivery of Humanitarian Aid 

Humanitarian aid spans a wide range of activities, including providing food aid, shelter, 

education, healthcare or protection. The majority of aid is provided in the form of in-kind 

goods or assistance, with cash and vouchers only comprising 6% of total humanitarian 


spending. However, evidence has shown how cash transfers can be better for recipients 

as it gives them choice and control, they can be more cost-efficient and better for local 

markets and economies. 

Humanitarian Aid and Conflict 

In addition to post-conflict settings, a huge portion of aid is being directed at countries 

currently undergoing conflicts. However, the effectiveness of humanitarian aid, 

particularly food aid, in conflict-prone regions has been criticized in recent years. There 

have been accounts of humanitarian aid being not only inefficacious, but actually fueling 

conflicts in the recipient countries. Aid stealing is one of the prime ways in which conflict 

is promoted by humanitarian aid. Aid can be seized by armed groups, and even if it 

does reach the intended recipients, "it is difficult to exclude local members of local militia 

group from being direct recipients if they are also malnourished and qualify to receive 

aid." Furthermore, analyzing the relationship between conflict and food aid, a recent 

research shows that the United States' food aid promoted civil conflict in recipient 

countries on average. An increase in United States' wheat aid increased the duration of 

armed civil conflicts in recipient countries, and ethnic polarization heightened this effect. 

However, since academic research on aid and conflict focuses on the role of aid in postconflict 

settings, the aforementioned finding is difficult to contextualize. Nevertheless, 

research on Iraq shows that "small-scale [projects], local aid spending . . . reduces 

conflict by creating incentives for average citizens to support the government in subtle 

ways." Similarly, another study also shows that aid flows can "reduce conflict because 

increasing aid revenues can relax government budget constraints, which can [in return] 

increase military spending and deter opposing groups from engaging in conflict." Thus, 

the impact of humanitarian aid on conflict may vary depending upon the type and mode 

in which aid is received, and, inter alia, the local socio-economic, cultural, historical, 

geographical and political conditions in the recipient countries. 

Aid Workers 

Aid Workers are the people distributed internationally to do humanitarian aid work. They 

often require humanitarian degrees. 

Composition 

Bangladeshi citizens offload food rations from a US Marine CH-46E helicopter of 11th 

Marine Expeditionary Unit after Tropical Cyclone Sidr in 2007 

The total number of Humanitarian Aid workers around the world has been calculated by 

ALNAP, a network of agencies working in the Humanitarian System, as 210,800 in 

2008. This is made up of roughly 50% from NGOs, 25% from the Red Cross/ Red 

Crescent Movement and 25% from the UN system. 

The humanitarian fieldworker population has increased by approximately 6% per year 

over the past 10 years. 


Psychological Issues 

Aid Workers are exposed to tough conditions and have to be flexible, resilient and 

responsible in an environment that humans are not psychologically supposed to deal 

with, in such a severity that trauma is common. In recent years, a number of concerns 

have been raised about the mental health of Aid Workers. 

The most prevalent issue faced by Humanitarian Aid Workers is Post Traumatic Stress 

Disorder. Adjustment to normal life again can be a problem, with feelings such as guilt 

being caused by the simple knowledge that international aid workers can leave a crisis 

zone, whilst nationals cannot. 

A 2015 survey conducted by The Guardian with aid workers of the Global Development 

Professionals Network, revealed that 79 percent experienced mental health issues. 

Standards 

During the past decade the humanitarian community has initiated a number of 

interagency initiatives to improve accountability, quality and performance in 

humanitarian action. Four of the most widely known initiatives are the Active Learning 

Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), 

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP), People In Aid and the Sphere Project. 

Representatives of these initiatives began meeting together on a regular basis in 2003 

in order to share common issues and harmonize activities where possible. 


People In Aid 

The People In Aid Code of Good Practice is an internationally recognized management 

tool that helps humanitarian aid and development agencies enhance the quality of their 

human resources management. As a management framework, it is also a part of 

agencies’ efforts to improve standards, accountability and transparency amid the 

challenges of disaster, conflict and poverty. 

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International 

Working with its partners, disaster survivors, and others, Humanitarian Accountability 

Partnership International (or HAP International) produced the HAP 2007 Standard in 

Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management. This certification scheme aims to 

provide assurance that certified agencies are managing the quality of their humanitarian 

actions in accordance with the HAP standard. In practical terms, a HAP certification 

(which is valid for three years) means providing external auditors with mission 

statements, accounts and control systems, giving greater transparency in operations 

and overall accountability. 

As described by HAP-International, the HAP 2007 Standard in Humanitarian 

Accountability and Quality Management is a quality assurance tool. By evaluating an 

organization’s processes, policies and products with respect to six benchmarks set-out 

in the Standard, the quality becomes measurable, and accountability in its humanitarian 

work increases. 

Agencies that comply with the Standard: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

declare their commitment to HAP's Principles of Humanitarian Action and to their 

own Humanitarian Accountability Framework 

develop and implement a Humanitarian Quality Management System 

provide key information about quality management to key stakeholders 

enable beneficiaries and their representatives to participate in program decisions 

and give their informed consent 

determine the competencies and development needs of staff 

establish and implement complaints-handling procedure 

establish a process of continual improvement 

The Sphere Project 

The Sphere Project handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in 

Disaster Response, which was produced by a coalition of leading non governmental 

humanitarian agencies, lists the following principles of humanitarian action: 

 

 

 

The right to life with dignity 

The distinction between combatant and non-combatants 

The principle of non-refoulement 


Humanitarian Encyclopedia 

The Humanitarian Encyclopedia, launched in June 2017, aims to create "a clear and 

comprehensive reference framework, influenced by local and contextualised knowledge 

… [including] analyses of lessons learned and best practices, as well as … insights for 

evidence-based decision and policy-making." A part of this mission will be to provide a 

centralised data base for defining or clarifying different understandings of key concepts 

in humanitarian aid. The need for this stems from the experience in Haiti in the 

aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, where international aid organisations pushed out 

local aid groups as a result of a lack of reflection and understanding of local contexts 

and aid concepts, making the relief effort less efficient. 

Free to access, the project is expected to be completed within five years, with the first 

parts slated to be published online by the end of 2018. 

Humanitarian Aid Organizations 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUMOHD 

AmeriCares 

CARE 

Caritas (charity) 

DARA (international organization) 

Doctors of the World 

Doctors Without Borders 

ECHO (European Commission) 


Feed the Children 

Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International 

International Committee of the Red Cross 

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement 

International Rescue Committee 

Islamic Relief 

IsraAid 

Jugend Eine Welt 

LDS Humanitarian Services 

Malteser International 

Medair 

Mercy Corps 

Oxfam 

Plan International 

Salvation Army 

Samaritan's Purse 

Save the Children USA 

Shelter Centre 

Skyrocket light project 

The Lutheran World Federation 

World Concern 

World Food Programme 

World Vision International 


V. Attacks on 

Humanitarian Aid Workers 

Humanitarian Aid Workers belonging to United Nations organizations, PVOs 

/ NGOs or the Red Cross / Red Crescent have traditionally enjoyed both international 

legal protection, and de facto immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, 

attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and became more 

frequent since the 1990s and 2000s. In 2012 there were 167 incidents of major violence 

against aid workers and in 2013 there were 474 attacks. This is attributed to a number 

of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the 

increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and the erosion of the 

perception of neutrality and independence. In 2012, road travel was seen to be most 

dangerous and kidnappings of aid workers have quadrupled in the decade with more 

aid workers victims of kidnapping than any other form of attack. ICRC promotes a 

framework for Neutral Independent Humanitarian Action (NIHA) to enable differentiated 

role understanding. 

Legal Basis for Protection of Humanitarian Workers 

The legal basis for protection of humanitarian workers in armed conflicts is contained in 

the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the related Protocols I and II of 1977. These 

treaties describe the category of civilians and outline the rights and obligations of noncombatants 

during armed conflicts. These rights include the right to be treated 

humanely; to have access to food, water, shelter, medical treatment, and 


communications; to be free from violence to life and person, hostage taking, and 

humiliating or degrading treatment; and the prohibition against collective punishment or 

imprisonment. Non-combatants include citizens and nationals of countries that are not 

party to the conflict. 

While the Geneva Conventions guarantee protection for humanitarian workers, they do 

not guarantee access of humanitarian workers to affected areas: governments or 

occupying forces may, if they wish, ban a relief agency from working in their area. 

Médecins Sans Frontières was created in 1971 with the express purpose of ignoring 

this restriction, by providing assistance to populations affected by the Biafran civil war 

despite the prohibitions of the government of Nigeria. 

In addition, the Geneva Conventions do not require that parties to the conflict guarantee 

the safety of humanitarian workers. The Conventions prohibit combatants from attacking 

non-combatants, and they require occupying forces to maintain general order. However, 

the Conventions do not require that combating parties provide security escorts, for 

example, when other factions threaten the safety of non-combatants operating in their 

area. 

In 2003, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1502 giving greater 

protection to humanitarian workers and treating attacks on them as a war crime. 

Motives 

The method of targeting foreigners through suicide bombings, IEDs and kidnappings 

(often closely associated with criminal and political actors) are strong evidence of at 

least some political motivations against aid workers. It is very hard often to precisely 

ascertain a motive; for instance, in 55% of the incidents recorded by the AWSD in 2008, 

the motive was described as ‘undetermined’. However, of those that were determined, 

political motivations have increased (29% of the determined total in 2003 to 49% in 

2008) relative to economic motivations, or when the victim’s status as an aid worker 

was only incidental. Afghanistan, as one of the most dangerous countries for 

humanitarian workers to operate in is influential in this changing dynamic; in 2007 61% 

of incidents were carried out by criminals and 39% by political opposition groups, but in 

2008, 65% of incidents were the work of armed opposition groups. 

Aid workers can be targeted for political reasons both directly and by association. 

Sometimes the humanitarian organization may be targeted for something that it has 

done or a statement it has made, or simply for the delivery of aid to a population, to 

whom others do not wish aid to reach. It can also be targeted as a result of being 

associated as an entity collaborating with the 'enemy' (a government, rebel group or 

foreign power). The dangers of being associated with specific governments or armed 

forces has further increased the determination of aid workers to be seen as separate, 

independent and neutral politically. However, evidence shows that this has little impact 

and instead that western aid agencies are perceived as an intrinsic part of the western 

'agenda' and not merely associated with it. In the case of Afghanistan, with the notable 


exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross, it has been surmised that 

locals no longer make distinctions (as they once did) between organisations, e.g. those 

were working with the coalition force’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams and those that 

did not. In remote areas, they sometimes represent the only accessible western target. 

Although empirical studies on aid worker insecurity have been scarce, two have been 

conducted in Afghanistan. Watts (2004) did not find evidence indicating heightened aid 

worker insecurity in provinces where the US military was present. Similarly, Mitchell 

(2015) was unable to discover a relationship between attacks against NGOs and their 

proximity to the US military or US-led PRTs respectively; however, his study did reveal 

that aid workers were more likely to encounter a greater number of security incidents in 

provinces with PRTs not led by the US. 

Trends in risks faced by humanitarian workers 

 

Wars between states became much less common in the period following the end 

of the Cold War. Unfortunately, these wars have been largely replaced by an 

increased incidence of internal conflict and resulting violence and 

miscommunication, increasing the risk to civilians and humanitarian workers 

alike. 


Between 1985 and 1998 slightly less than 50% of all humanitarian worker deaths 

came from workers in UN programs. 25% of these deaths were UN 

peacekeepers. 

Between 2006-2008 Sudan (Darfur), Afghanistan and Somalia – accounted for 

more than 60% of violent incidents and aid worker victims. 

Most deaths of aid workers are due to deliberate violence. 

One third of deaths occur in the first three months of deployment, with 17% 

occurring within the first 30 days. 

 

 

Since 2006, violence is once again on the increase and growth in the number of 

incidents is faster than the growth in the number of humanitarian aid workers. 

Kidnapping in particular is on the rise, with a 350% increase between 2006 and 

2008. 

List of Attacks on Humanitarian Workers 

A full list of major incidents, from 1997–present, of violence against aid workers can be 

found at Humanitarian Outcomes' Aid Worker Security Database. 

1993 

 

 

 

 

Somalia – January 2, 1993 - A gunman killed Sean Devreaux, 28, a British 

worker for UNICEF in Kismayu. 

Somalia – February 22, 1993 - Gunmen killed Valerie Place, 23, an Irish nurse 

with the charity Concern. 

Bosnia – July 5, 1993 – Scottish aid worker Christine Witcutt shot and killed by a 

sniper in Sarajevo. 

Bosnia – October 25, 1993 – Danish aid worker Bjarne Vium Nielsen Danish 

killed in attack on humanitarian aid convoy. 

1996 

 

 

 

Burundi – June 4, 1996 – Three ICRC delegates were killed in an attack on two 

vehicles on the road between the villages of Rugombo and Mugina in the 

northern province of Cibitoke, resulting in a withdrawal of ICRC from Burundi. 

Novye Atagi, Chechnya – December 17, 1996 – Six ICRC workers are killed in 

an attack on the local hospital. As a result, ICRC withdraws all expatriate staff 

from Chechnya. 

Guatemala, 1996 – One Costa Rican Salvation Army officer is attacked by 

demobilized guerrilla members while transporting a senior citizen with a broken 

leg to the hospital. The vehicle was taken. 


1997 

 

 

 

Somaliland region of Somalia – November 23, 1997 – UN negotiates with clan 

elders for release of five kidnapped aid workers. 

Mogadishu, Somalia – November 26, 1997 – All foreign aid workers withdraw 

from the city following the abduction of two Italian aid workers. 

Guatemala – 1997 – When returning from mission, one Costa Rican Salvation 

Army officer was hijacked by gunmen and held hostage for a short time. The 

vehicle was taken. 

1998 

 

 

 

 

 

Somalia – April 21, 1998 – 10 aid workers held hostage. 

Bujumbura, Burundi – June 10, 1998 – One Danish aid worker killed by car 

thieves in capital. 

Central Sudan – June 10, 1998 – Three Sudanese UN staff killed and three 

wounded when gunmen fire on a UN vehicle. 

Arua, (North West) Rwanda – July 10, 1998 – Ugandan driver for UN World Food 

Programme (WFP) killed by rebels. 

Bujumbura, Burundi – July 24, 1998 – One Italian World Food Programme (WFP) 

staff member killed in the capital. 


Congo-Brazzaville – November, 1998 – Major Eugene Nsingani The Salvation 

Army on a peace mission with eight people, gunned down and killed along with 

five more. 

1999 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Sudan – January 4, 1999 – Four ICRC staff killed by SPLA (abducted in 

February, murdered in April). 

Southern, Somalia – January 27, 1999 – One Kenyan aid worker killed by 

gunmen. 

Lesotho – February 4, 1999 – Irish aid worker (Ken Hickley) robbed and 

murdered. 

Bundibugyo, Uganda – April 23, 1999 – Many aid workers flee area to avoid 

attacks by Allied Democratic Forces. 

Belgrade, Serbia – May 26, 1999 – Three aid workers put on trial for spying. 

Angola – June 15, 1999 – Two aid workers killed when gunmen ambush and rob 

them. 

Tajikistan – October 2 – French aid worker killed. 

Northern Kosovo – November 12, 1999 – 24 people on board a WFP aid flight 

died when Si Fly Flight 3275 crashed. 

2000 

Balad, Somalia – January 3, 2000 – One local CARE staff shot dead in an 

ambush. 

North of Mogadishu, Somalia – January 4, 2000 – One CARE worker shot dead 

in an ambush. 

Sudan – January 9, 2000 – 2 CARE staff killed and 2 missing after an ambush. 

Somalia – January 31, 2000 – Attacks on a convoy of aid vehicles leave 20 

people dead. 

Ethiopia – February 9, 2000 – A medical organisation suspends operations in 

part of Ethiopia after the killing of a staff member. 

Ambon, Indonesia – May 22, 2000 – Foreign aid workers pulled out of Ambon to 

escape growing inter-communal violence. 

Sierra Leone – June 19, 2000 – One British aid worker (Alan Smith) freed after 

being held for one month by rebels. 

Baghdad, Iraq – June 28, 2000 – Two FAO workers shot and killed. 

South Sudan – August 6, 2000 – Eight aid workers killed when vehicle was 

attacked near the border with Uganda. 

Atambua, Belu District, West Timor, Indonesia – September 6, 2000 – Five 

UNHCR staff members, Mr Samson Aregahegn (Supply Officer); Mr Carlos 

Caceres-Collazo (Protection Officer); and Mr Pero Simundza 

(Telecommunications Operator) and two Indonesians were killed when their 

office was attacked by militia. 

Macenta, Guinea – September 17, 2000 – The death of one UNHCR staff 

member and the abduction of another. 


Southern border Guinea – December 7, 2000 – Hundreds of people are left dead 

as rebels destroy the UNHCR centre. 

Afghanistan – December 9, 2000 – Seven people working for UN mine clearance 

programme killed in ambush. 

Aceh, Indonesia – December 10, 2000 – Three aid workers killed. 

Burundi – December 30, 2000 – A British voluntary worker is one of 20 people 

killed by gunmen. 

2001 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – February 27, 2001 – Six ICRC staff 

killed. 

Mogadishu, Somalia – March 27, 2001 – MSF compound attacked by gunmen. 

Alkhan-Kala, Chechnya – April 18, 2001 – Viktor Popkov fatally wounded and 

two others injured in a shooting attack. 

Tajikistan, – June 16, 2001 – Kidnappers ask for release of detained militants 

after taking a group of aid workers hostage. 

Banda Aceh, Indonesia – October 4, 2001 – Three more people, including a Red 

Cross worker who had been tortured were killed. 

Afghanistan – November 15, 2001 – Eight western aid workers released after 

three months captivity by Taliban. 

2002 


Mogadishu, Somalia – February 23, 2002 – A Swiss woman who ran a small aid 

agency was shot dead. 

Mogadishu, Somalia – February 28, 2002 – One Somali UN worker kidnapped 

hours after region declared too dangerous for permanent UN presence. 

Dagestan - August 12, 2002 - A Dutch MSF worker is abducted in Makhachkala. 

He is released 20 months later. 

2003 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaza Strip – March 16, 2003 – Rachel Corrie an American member of ISM was 

killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer when attempting to prevent the 

demolition of a Palestinian's home. 

Gaza Strip - April 11, 2003 - Tom Hurndall was a British photography student and 

member of ISM who was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper. 

Hurndall was left in a coma and died nine months later. His killer Taysir Hayb 

was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for manslaughter and obstruction of 

justice but was released after serving six and a half years of his sentence. 

Baghdad, Iraq – August 19, 2003 – The bombing of the UN Headquarters at the 

Canal Hotel killed at least 24 people and wounded over 100. 

Baghdad, Iraq – October 27, 2003 – An attack on the ICRC building kills at least 

12 people. 

Ghazni, eastern Afghanistan – November 16, 2003 – UNHCR staff person 

Bettina Goislard was shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunman while travelling by 

car. 

Kandahar, southern Afghanistan – March 24, 2003 – ICRC staff member Ricardo 

Munguia shot and killed in ambush north of Kandahar City. He was working as a 

water engineer in Afghanistan and travelling with local colleagues on March 27, 

2003 when their car was stopped by unknown armed men. He was killed 

execution-style at point-blank range while his colleagues were allowed to escape. 

He was 39 years old. The killing prompted the ICRC to temporarily suspend 

operations across Afghanistan. 

2004 

 

 

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan – February 26, 2004 – Five Afghans working for the Sanayee 

Development Foundation were killed when their vehicle was ambushed northeast 

of Kabul. 

Mosul, Iraq – March 15, 2004 – Larry Elliott, Jean Dover Elliott, Karen Denise 

Watson, and David McDonnall were killed in a drive-by shooting. They were US 

missionaries for Southern Baptist International Mission Board. 

Kabul, Afghanistan – April 28, 2004 – Two Afghan aid workers and a soldier were 

killed in an attack in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar city. 

Badghis province, Afghanistan – June 2, 2004 – Five staff working for Médecins 

Sans Frontières were killed on the road between Khairkhana and Qala i Naw, 

resulting in the complete withdrawal of MSF from Afghanistan. The names of the 


murdered staff were: Hélène de Beir, Willem Kwint, Egil Tynaes, Fasil Ahmad 

and Besmillah. 

Darfur, Sudan – October 10, 2004 – A Save the Children vehicle was hit by an 

anti-tank landmine in the Um Barro area of North Darfur, Sudan. Two members 

of staff travelling in the vehicle were killed, Rafe Bullick (British, Programme 

Manager, North Darfur) and Nourredine Issa Tayeb (Sudanese, Water Engineer). 

2005 

 

 

Baghdad, Iraq – April 16, 2005 – Marla Ruzicka and her Iraqi translator, Faiz Ali 

Salim, were killed by a suicide car bombing on Airport Road in Baghdad. 

South Sudan/Uganda, – November 5, 2005 – Collin Lee who worked for 

International Aid Services died when his jeep, containing his wife and driver, was 

ambushed by the LRA in South Sudan. 

2006 

 

 

Vavuniya, Sri Lanka – May 15 – An employee of the Norwegian Refugee Council 

is shot dead on his way back from work. 

Muttur, Sri Lanka – August 4 or August 5–17 workers from the aid group Action 

Against Hunger were found murdered on August 6 in northeastern Sri Lanka. 

They were working on post-2004 tsunami reconstruction. There had been fierce 

fighting the area for more than a week. (See Muttur massacre.) 

2007 

2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash 

Darfur – between 1 January 2006 and 31 August 2007 – A total of 12 

humanitarian workers were killed, including four working for the Government's 

water project. 


Colombo, Sri Lanka – June 3, 2007 – Two Red cross workers were abducted 

and murdered in Sri Lanka. 

El Bared refugee camp, Lebanon – June 11, 2007 – Two Lebanese Red Cross 

workers were killed and a third wounded. 

South Sudan – A driver of the World Food Program was killed in an ambush. 

Central African Republic – June 11, 2007 – An MSF logistician was killed when 

her car was hit by gunfire during an assessment mission near Paoua. 

Algeria – 11 December 2007, 10 United Nations staff died in a double car 

bombing in the Algerian capital, Algiers, which killed at least 26 people and 

injured 177. 

Somalia – December 26, 2007 – A nurse and a doctor working for MSF in 

Bossaso were abducted. After one week, they were released. 

Burundi – On Monday, December 31, 2007, at 6:30 pm, an Action Against 

Hunger vehicle was targeted by shooters in the city of Ruygi in the East of 

Burundi. Five people, including three female expatriate staff of Action Against 

Hunger, were inside the targeted vehicle. One of them, a French psychologist of 

Action Against Hunger, died upon arrival at the hospital in Gitega as a results of 

her injuries. The second victim suffered a gunshot wound and underwent surgery 

in Gitega. The third Action Against Hunger expatriate escaped uninjured from the 

shooting. 

2008 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan – January 14 – Six people, including at least one aid worker 

from the USA named Thor Hesla, was killed in an attack on the Serena Hotel. 

Kandahar, Afghanistan – January 26 – An aid worker and her Afghan driver were 

kidnapped in Kandahar and are presumed dead. 

Kismayo, Somalia – January 28 – A surgeon, a logistician and a driver working 

for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were killed when their convoy was attacked 

between the hospital and their base. 

Chad - May 1, 2008 - The country director of Save the Children UK is shot dead 

when his car was attacked near Hadjer Hadid in eastern Chad. 

Colombo, Sri Lanka – May 16 – An Batticaloa-based employee of the Norwegian 

Refugee Council is abducted while visiting the capital and disappears, presumed 

dead. 

Arusha, Tanzania – June 30 – An Australian working with the Australian not-forprofit 

organisation foodwatershelter was killed during a robbery. 

Logar Province, Afghanistan – August 13 – Three female International Rescue 

Committee (IRC) workers and their local driver were killed in an ambush as they 

drove back to Kabul. One was an American named Nicole 

Dial.http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,84420.html 

Somali Region, Ethiopia - September 22, 2008 - A nurse and a doctor working for 

Medecins du Monde are kidnapped in Fadhigaradle village and taken across the 

border to Somalia. They are released 4 months later. 

Merka, Somalia – October 17 – A senior programme assistant for the World Food 

Programme (WFP) was shot and killed as he left a mosque. 


Kabul, Afghanistan – October 20 – An aid worker with SERVE Afghanistan was 

killed as she walked to work. 

Gurilel, Somalia – October 25 – A local worker with the aid agency Iida was killed 

as she returned from work. 

2009 

 

 

 

Several aid workers were kidnapped while in northern Yemen. 

Two Chechen aid workers were kidnapped and murdered in Chechnya. 

Bakool, Somalia - April 19, 2009 - Two MSF doctors are kidnapped and released 

9 days later. 

 

 

 

 

 

An Irish charity worker was killed during a mugging in Zanzibar. 

Chad - August 4, 2009 - A logistician working for MSF and his Chadian assistant 

were kidnapped in Ade. The Chadian was freed soon afterwards while the 

logistician was released only a month later. 

Pakistan – 5 October 2009 3 United Nations staff killed in a suicide bombing 

attack against the office of the World Food Programme in the capital city 

Islamabad. 

West Darfur, Sudan - October 22, 2009 - A French ICRC delegate is kidnapped 

and released after 5 months. 

Afghanistan - 28 October 2009 5 United Nations staff, two Afghan security 

personnel, and an Afghan civilian were killed by three Taliban attackers in an 

assault on the Bekhtar Guesthouse in Kabul. Nine other UN staff, also there 

working for the presidential election, were wounded. The attackers used AK-47s, 

grenades, and suicide vests. 


Birao, Central African Republic - November 22, 2009 - Two French aid workers 

employed by Triangle Generation Humanitaire are kidnapped and held for 4 

months before being freed in Darfur. 

2010 

 

 

 

Gaza Strip: On 31 May 2010, the Israeli navy killed 9 members of the "Gaza 

Freedom Flotilla" attempting to bring aid to the Gaza strip, and breach the Israeli 

naval blockade. The Gaza flotilla raid caused worldwide controversy. 

Abéche, Chad - June 6, 2010 - A logistician working for Oxfam GB was 

kidnapped in Abéche. He was rescued 10 days later by Chadian security forces 

near the border with Sudan. 

Afghanistan: On 7 August 2010, 10 men and women working for a Christian aid 

agency were murdered by Taliban. Two Afghan interpreters, six Americans, a 

British woman and a German woman who had been running an eye clinic in the 

country died of gunshot wounds. Sabjullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, said 

later that they had been killed because they were missionaries and spies for the 

United States. 

2011 

 

 

 

 

Nigeria: On 26 August 2011, the United Nations' Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria 

was attacked by a suicide car bomber, killing at least 18 people, injuring dozens, 

and causing massive devastation to the building itself. Boko Haram claimed 

responsibility. 

Somalia: On 23 December 2011, 2 United Nations aid workers and a 3rd 

colleague were shot to death in Mataban Town in the Hiban Province in central 

Somalia. The United Nations' workers, who worked specifically for the World 

Food Program, had been monitoring distribution of food and camps for internally 

displaced peoples. United Nations' operations in Mataban were temporarily 

suspended, pending an investigation. 

Mogadishu, Somalia - December 29, 2011 - A doctor and a logistician working for 

MSF are shot to death in their compound. 

Dadaab, Kenya: Two Spanish women who worked for Médecins sans Frontières 

were kidnapped by gunmen and released in July 2013. 

2013 

 

Aleppo, Syria: A worker for Support to Life, Kayla Mueller, was kidnapped by 

ISIS and killed in 2015. 

2014 

 

Afghanistan: Two Finnish aid workers with the International Assistance Mission, 

a Christian medical charity, were shot and killed in Herat by two men on 

motorbikes. The women were in a taxi when shot. 


Syria: British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines was kidnapped in early 2013 in 

northeastern Syria, near the Atmeh refugee camp near the Turkish border and 

the Syrian province of Idlib. He was seized along with an Italian aid worker and 

two Syrians who have since been freed. Haines was apparently executed by a 

member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant called Mohammed Emwazi, 

in September 2014. 

Ukraine: An ICRC worker was killed by a shell in Donetsk. 

2015 

 

Afghanistan: A Kunduz hospital was struck by a US airstrike, injuring and killing a 

number of MSF doctors. Currently unclear if accidental or intentional. 

2016 

 

 

 

Syria: Around twenty civilians and one SARC staff member were killed, as they 

were unloading trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid. Much of the aid was 

destroyed. The attack deprives thousands of civilians of much-needed food and 

medical assistance. 

Nigeria: A humanitarian convoy in was attacked in Borno State and a UNICEF 

worker was injured. 

Afghanistan: Five Emiratis carrying out humanitarian work were killed in a 

terrorist bomb attack in Afghanistan. Mohammed Ali Zainal Al Bastaki, Abdullah 

Mohammed Essa Obaid Al Kaabi, Ahmed Rashid Salim Ali Al Mazroui, Ahmed 

Abdul Rahman Ahmad Al Tunaiji, and Abdul Hamid Sultan Abdullah Ibrahim Al 


Hammadi had been on a mission to carry out humanitarian, educational and 

development projects in the Republic of Afghanistan. 


VI. International 

Humanitarian Law 

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is the law that regulates the 

conduct of war (jus in bello). It is that branch of international law which seeks to limit the 

effects of armed conflict by protecting persons who are not participating in hostilities, 

and by restricting and regulating the means and methods of warfare available to 

combatants. 

IHL is inspired by considerations of humanity and the mitigation of human suffering. "It 

comprises a set of rules, established by treaty or custom, that seeks to protect persons 

and property/objects that are (or may be) affected by armed conflict and limits the rights 

of parties to a conflict to use methods and means of warfare of their choice". It includes 

"the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, 

case law, and customary international law". It defines the conduct and responsibilities of 

belligerent nations, neutral nations, and individuals engaged in warfare, in relation to 

each other and to protected persons, usually meaning non-combatants. It is designed to 

balance humanitarian concerns and military necessity, and subjects warfare to the rule 

of law by limiting its destructive effect and mitigating human suffering. 


Serious violations of international humanitarian law are called war crimes. International 

humanitarian law, jus in bello, regulates the conduct of forces when engaged in war or 

armed conflict. It is distinct from jus ad bellum which regulates the conduct of engaging 

in war or armed conflict and includes crimes against peace and of war of aggression. 

Together the jus in bello and jus ad bellum comprise the two strands of the laws of war 

governing all aspects of international armed conflicts. 

The law is mandatory for nations bound by the appropriate treaties. There are also other 

customary unwritten rules of war, many of which were explored at the Nuremberg War 

Trials. By extension, they also define both the permissive rights of these powers as well 

as prohibitions on their conduct when dealing with irregular forces and non-signatories. 

International humanitarian law operates on a strict division between rules applicable in 

international armed conflict and internal armed conflict. This dichotomy is widely 

criticized. 

The relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian 

law is disputed among international law scholars. This discussion forms part of a larger 

discussion on fragmentation of international law. While pluralist scholars conceive 

international human rights law as being distinct from international humanitarian law, 

proponents of the constitutionalist approach regard the latter as a subset of the former. 

In a nutshell, those who favor separate, self-contained regimes emphasize the 

differences in applicability; international humanitarian law applies only during armed 

conflict. On the other hand, a more systemic perspective explains that international 

humanitarian law represents a function of international human rights law; it includes 

general norms that apply to everyone at all time as well as specialized norms which 

apply to certain situations such as armed conflict and military occupation (i.e., IHL) or to 

certain groups of people including refugees (e.g., the 1951 Refugee Convention), 

children (the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child), and prisoners of war (the 

1949 Third Geneva Convention). 

Democracies are likely to protect the rights of all individuals within their territorial 

jurisdiction. 

Two historical streams: The Law of Geneva and The Law of The Hague 

Modern international humanitarian law is made up of two historical streams: 

1. The law of The Hague, referred to in the past as the law of war proper; and 

2. The law of Geneva, or humanitarian law. 

The two streams take their names from a number of international conferences which 

drew up treaties relating to war and conflict, in particular the Hague Conventions of 

1899 and 1907, and the Geneva Conventions, the first which was drawn up in 1863. 


Both deal with jus in bello, which deals with the question of whether certain practices 

are acceptable during armed conflict. 

The Law of The Hague, or the laws of war proper, "determines the rights and duties of 

belligerents in the conduct of operations and limits the choice of means in doing harm". 

In particular, it concerns itself with 

 

 

 

the definition of combatants; 

establishes rules relating to the means and methods of warfare; 

and examines the issue of military objectives. 

Systematic attempts to limit the savagery of warfare only began to develop in the 19th 

century. Such concerns were able to build on the changing view of warfare by states 

influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. The purpose of warfare was to overcome the 

enemy state, which could be done by disabling the enemy combatants. Thus, "the 

distinction between combatants and civilians, the requirement that wounded and 

captured enemy combatants must be treated humanely, and that quarter must be given, 

some of the pillars of modern humanitarian law, all follow from this principle". 


The Law of Geneva 

The massacre of civilians in the midst of armed conflict has a long and dark history. 

Selected examples include 

 

 

the massacres of the Kalingas by Ashoka in India; 

the massacre of some 100,000 Hindus by the Muslim troops of Timur 

(Tamerlane); and 

the Crusader massacres of Jews and Muslims in the Siege of Jerusalem (1099), 

to name only a few examples drawn from a long list in history. Fritz Munch sums up 

historical military practice before 1800: "The essential points seem to be these: In battle 

and in towns taken by force, combatants and non-combatants were killed and property 

was destroyed or looted." In the 17th century, the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, widely 

regarded as the founder or father of public international law, wrote that "wars, for the 

attainment of their objects, it cannot be denied, must employ force and terror as their 

most proper agents". 

Humanitarian Norms In History 

Even in the midst of the carnage of history, however, there have been frequent 

expressions and invocation of humanitarian norms for the protection of the victims of 

armed conflicts: the wounded, the sick and the shipwrecked. These date back to ancient 

times. 

In the Old Testament, the King of Israel prevents the slaying of the captured, following 

the prophet Elisha's admonition to spare enemy prisoners. In answer to a question from 

the King, Elisha said, "You shall not slay them. Would you slay those whom you have 

taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, 

that they may eat and drink and go to their master." 

In ancient India there are records (the Laws of Manu, for example) describing the types 

of weapons that should not be used: "When he fights with his foes in battle, let him not 

strike with weapons concealed (in wood), nor with (such as are) barbed, poisoned, or 

the points of which are blazing with fire." There is also the command not to strike a 

eunuch nor the enemy "who folds his hands in supplication ... Nor one who sleeps, nor 

one who has lost his coat of mail, nor one who is naked, nor one who is disarmed, nor 

one who looks on without taking part in the fight." 

Islamic law states that "non-combatants who did not take part in fighting such as 

women, children, monks and hermits, the aged, blind, and insane" were not to be 

molested. The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, proclaimed, "Do not mutilate. Do not kill little 

children or old men or women. Do not cut off the heads of palm trees or burn them. Do 

not cut down fruit trees. Do not slaughter livestock except for food." Islamic jurists have 


held that a prisoner should not be killed, as he "cannot be held responsible for mere 

acts of belligerency". 

Islamic law did not spare all non-combatants, however. In the case of those who 

refused to convert to Islam, or to pay an alternative tax, Muslims "were allowed in 

principle to kill any one of them, combatants or noncombatants, provided they were not 

killed treacherously and with mutilation". 

Codification of Humanitarian Norms 

The most important antecedent of IHL is the current Armistice Agreement and 

Regularization of War, signed and ratified in 1820 between the authorities of the then 

Government of Great Colombia and the Chief of the Expeditionary Forces of the 

Spanish Crown, in the Venezuelan city of santa Ana de Trujillo. This treaty was signed 

under the conflict of Independence, being the first of its kind in the West. 

It was not until the second half of the 19th century, however, that a more systematic 

approach was initiated. In the United States, a German immigrant, Francis Lieber, drew 

up a code of conduct in 1863, which came to be known as the Lieber Code, for the 

Union Army during the American Civil War. The Lieber Code included the humane 

treatment of civilian populations in the areas of conflict, and also forbade the execution 

of POWs. 

At the same time, the involvement during the Crimean War of a number of such 

individuals as Florence Nightingale and Henry Dunant, a Genevese businessman who 


had worked with wounded soldiers at the Battle of Solferino, led to more systematic 

efforts to prevent the suffering of war victims. Dunant wrote a book, which he titled A 

Memory of Solferino, in which he described the horrors he had witnessed. His reports 

were so shocking that they led to the founding of the International Committee of the Red 

Cross (ICRC) in 1863, and the convening of a conference in Geneva in 1864, which 

drew up the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in 

Armies in the Field. 

The Law of Geneva is directly inspired by the principle of humanity. It relates to those 

who are not participating in the conflict, as well as to military personnel hors de combat. 

It provides the legal basis for protection and humanitarian assistance carried out by 

impartial humanitarian organizations such as the ICRC. This focus can be found in the 

Geneva Conventions. 

Geneva Conventions 

The Geneva Conventions are the result of a process that developed in a number of 

stages between 1864 and 1949. It focused on the protection of civilians and those who 

can no longer fight in an armed conflict. As a result of World War II, all four conventions 

were revised, based on previous revisions and on some of the 1907 Hague 

Conventions, and readopted by the international community in 1949. Later conferences 

have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of warfare and addressing issues of 

civil wars. 

The first three Geneva Conventions were revised, expanded, and replaced, and the 

fourth one was added, in 1949. 

 

 

 

 

The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded 

and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field was adopted in 1864. It was significantly 

revised and replaced by the 1906 version, the 1929 version, and later the First 

Geneva Convention of 1949. 

The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick 

and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea was adopted in 1906. It was 

significantly revised and replaced by the Second Geneva Convention of 1949. 

The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was 

adopted in 1929. It was significantly revised and replaced by the Third Geneva 

Convention of 1949. 

The Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in 

Time of War was adopted in 1949. 

There are three additional amendment protocols to the Geneva Convention: 

1. Protocol I (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 

1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. 

As of 12 January 2007 it had been ratified by 167 countries. 


2. Protocol II (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 

1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed 

Conflicts. As of 12 January 2007 it had been ratified by 163 countries. 

3. Protocol III (2005): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 

1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem. As of 

June 2007 it had been ratified by seventeen countries and signed but not yet 

ratified by an additional 68. 

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 may be seen, therefore, as the result of a process 

which began in 1864. Today they have "achieved universal participation with 194 

parties". This means that they apply to almost any international armed conflict. The 

Additional Protocols, however, have yet to achieve near-universal acceptance, since the 

United States and several other significant military powers (like Iran, Israel, India and 

Pakistan) are currently not parties to them. 

Historical Convergence Between IHL and The Laws Of War 

With the adoption of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, the two 

strains of law began to converge, although provisions focusing on humanity could 

already be found in the Hague law (i.e. the protection of certain prisoners of war and 

civilians in occupied territories). The 1977 Additional Protocols, relating to the protection 


of victims in both international and internal conflict, not only incorporated aspects of 

both the Law of The Hague and the Law of Geneva, but also important human rights 

provisions. 

Basic Rules of IHL 

1. Persons who are hors de combat (outside of combat), and those who are not 

taking part in hostilities in situation of armed conflict (e.g., neutral nationals), shall 

be protected in all circumstances. 

2. The wounded and the sick shall be cared for and protected by the party to the 

conflict which has them in its power. The emblem of the "Red Cross", or of the 

"Red Crescent," shall be required to be respected as the sign of protection. 

3. Captured persons must be protected against acts of violence and reprisals. They 

shall have the right to correspond with their families and to receive relief. 

4. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment 

or punishment. 

5. Parties to a conflict do not have an unlimited choice of methods and means of 

warfare. 

6. Parties to a conflict shall at all times distinguish between combatants and noncombatants. 

Attacks shall be directed solely against legitimate military targets. [31] 

Examples 

Well-known examples of such rules include the prohibition on attacking doctors or 

ambulances displaying a red cross. It is also prohibited to fire at a person or vehicle 

bearing a white flag, since that, being considered the flag of truce, indicates an intent to 

surrender or a desire to communicate. In either case, the persons protected by the Red 

Cross or the white flag are expected to maintain neutrality, and may not engage in 

warlike acts themselves; engaging in war activities under a white flag or a red cross is 

itself a violation of the laws of war. 

These examples of the laws of war address: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

declarations of war; 

acceptance of surrender; 

the treatment of prisoners of war; 

the avoidance of atrocities; 

the prohibition on deliberately attacking non-combatants; and 

the prohibition of certain inhumane weapons. 


It is a violation of the laws of war to engage in combat without meeting certain 

requirements, among them the wearing of a distinctive uniform or other easily 

identifiable badge, and the carrying of weapons openly. Impersonating soldiers of the 

other side by wearing the enemy's uniform is allowed, though fighting in that uniform is 

unlawful perfidy, as is the taking of hostages. 

Later Additions 

International humanitarian law now includes several treaties that outlaw specific 

weapons. These conventions were created largely because these weapons cause 

deaths and injuries long after conflicts have ended. Unexploded land mines have 

caused up to 7,000 deaths a year; unexploded bombs, particularly from cluster bombs 

that scatter many small "bomblets", have also killed many. An estimated 98% of the 

victims are civilian; farmers tilling their fields and children who find these explosives 

have been common victims. For these reasons, the following conventions have been 

adopted: 

 

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain 

Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to 

Have Indiscriminate Effects (1980), which prohibits weapons that produce nondetectable 

fragments, restricts (but does not eliminate) the use of mines and 

booby-traps, prohibits attacking civilians with incendiary weapons, prohibits 


linding laser weapons, and requires the warring parties to clear unexploded 

ordnance at the end of hostilities; 

 

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and 

Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (1997), also called the 

Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, which completely bans the stockpiling 

(except to a limited degree, for training purposes) and use of all anti-personnel 

land mines; 

The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000), 

an amendment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which forbids 

the enlistment of anyone under the age of eighteen for armed conflict; and 

 

The Convention on Cluster Munitions (2008), which prohibits the use of bombs 

that scatter bomblets, many of which do not explode and remain dangerous long 

after a conflict has ended. 

International Committee of The Red Cross 

The ICRC is the only institution explicitly named under international humanitarian law as 

a controlling authority. The legal mandate of the ICRC stems from the four Geneva 

Conventions of 1949, as well as from its own Statutes. 

“ The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral, and 

independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the 

lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with 

assistance. ” 

— Mission of ICRC 

Violations and Punishment 

During conflict, punishment for violating the laws of war may consist of a specific, 

deliberate and limited violation of the laws of war in reprisal. 

Combatants who break specific provisions of the laws of war lose the protections and 

status afforded to them as prisoners of war, but only after facing a "competent tribunal". 

At that point, they become unlawful combatants, but must still be "treated with humanity 

and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial", because 

they are still covered by GC IV, Article 5. 

Spies and terrorists are only protected by the laws of war if the "power" which holds 

them is in a state of armed conflict or war, and until they are found to be an "unlawful 

combatant". Depending on the circumstances, they may be subject to civilian law or a 

military tribunal for their acts. In practice, they have often have been subjected to torture 

and execution. The laws of war neither approve nor condemn such acts, which fall 

outside their scope. Spies may only be punished following a trial; if captured after 

rejoining their own army, they must be treated as prisoners of war. Suspected terrorists 

who are captured during an armed conflict, without having participated in the hostilities, 


may be detained only in accordance with the GC IV, and are entitled to a regular trial. 

Countries that have signed the UN Convention Against Torture have committed 

themselves not to use torture on anyone for any reason. 

After a conflict has ended, persons who have committed any breach of the laws of war, 

and especially atrocities, may be held individually accountable for war crimes through 

process of law. 

Key provisions and principles applicable to civilians 

The Fourth Geneva Convention focuses on the civilian population. The two additional 

protocols adopted in 1977 extend and strengthen civilian protection in international (AP 

I) and non-international (AP II) armed conflict: for example, by introducing the 

prohibition of direct attacks against civilians. 

A "civilian" is defined as "any person not belonging to the armed forces", including nonnationals 

and refugees. However, it is accepted that operations may cause civilian 

casualties. 

Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, wrote in 2006: 

"International humanitarian law and the Rome statute permit belligerents to carry out 

proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some 

civilian deaths or injuries will occur. 

A crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians (principle of 

distinction) ... or an attack is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the 

incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated 

military advantage (principle of proportionality)." 


The provisions and principles of IHL which seek to protect civilians are: 

Principle of Distinction 

IHL Provisions and Principles Protecting Civilians 

The principle of distinction protects civilian population and civilian objects from the 

effects of military operations. It requires parties to an armed conflict to distinguish at all 

times, and under all circumstances, between combatants and military objectives on the 

one hand, and civilians and civilian objects on the other; and only to target the former. It 

also provides that civilians lose such protection should they take a direct part in 

hostilities. The principle of distinction has also been found by the ICRC to be reflected in 

state practice; it is therefore an established norm of customary international law in both 

international and non-international armed conflicts. 

Necessity and Proportionality 

Necessity and proportionality are established principles in humanitarian law. Under IHL, 

a belligerent may apply only the amount and kind of force necessary to defeat the 

enemy. Further, attacks on military objects must not cause loss of civilian life 

considered excessive in relation to the direct military advantage anticipated. Every 

feasible precaution must be taken by commanders to avoid civilian casualties. The 

principle of proportionality has also been found by the ICRC to form part of customary 

international law in international and non-international armed conflicts. 

Principle of Humane Treatment 

The principle of humane treatment requires that civilians be treated humanely at all 

times. Common Article 3 of the GCs prohibits violence to life and person (including cruel 

treatment and torture), the taking of hostages, humiliating and degrading treatment, and 

execution without regular trial against non-combatants, including persons hors de 

combat (wounded, sick and shipwrecked). Civilians are entitled to respect for their 

physical and mental integrity, their honour, family rights, religious convictions and 

practices, and their manners and customs. This principle of humane treatment has been 

affirmed by the ICRC as a norm of customary international law, applicable in both 

international and non-international armed conflicts. 

Principle of Non-Discrimination 

The principle of non-discrimination is a core principle of IHL. Adverse distinction based 

on race, sex, nationality, religious belief or political opinion is prohibited in the treatment 

of prisoners of war, civilians, and persons hors de combat. All protected persons shall 

be treated with the same consideration by parties to the conflict, without distinction 

based on race, religion, sex or political opinion. Each and every person affected by 

armed conflict is entitled to his fundamental rights and guarantees, without 

discrimination. The prohibition against adverse distinction is also considered by the 


ICRC to form part of customary international law in international and non-international 

armed conflict. 

Women and Children 

Women and children are granted preferential treatment, respect and protection. Women 

must be protected from rape and from any form of indecent assault. Children under the 

age of eighteen must not be permitted to take part in hostilities. 

Gender 

Gender and Culture 

IHL emphasises, in various provisions in the GCs and APs, the concept of formal 

equality and non-discrimination. Protections should be provided "without any adverse 

distinction founded on sex". For example, with regard to female prisoners of war, 

women are required to receive treatment "as favourable as that granted to men". In 

addition to claims of formal equality, IHL mandates special protections to women, 

providing female prisoners of war with separate dormitories from men, for example, and 

prohibiting sexual violence against women. 


The reality of women's and men's lived experiences of conflict has highlighted some of 

the gender limitations of IHL. Feminist critics have challenged IHL's focus on male 

combatants and its relegation of women to the status of victims, and its granting them 

legitimacy almost exclusively as child-rearers. A study of the 42 provisions relating to 

women within the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols found that almost 

half address women who are expectant or nursing mothers. Others have argued that 

the issue of sexual violence against men in conflict has not yet received the attention it 

deserves. 

Soft-law instruments have been relied on to supplement the protection of women in 

armed conflict: 

 

 

UN Security Council Resolutions 1888 and 1889 (2009), which aim to enhance 

the protection of women and children against sexual violations in armed conflict; 

and 

Resolution 1325, which aims to improve the participation of women in postconflict 

peacebuilding. 

Read together with other legal mechanisms, in particular the UN Convention for the 

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), these can 

enhance interpretation and implementation of IHL. 

In addition, international criminal tribunals (like the International Criminal Tribunals for 

the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda) and mixed tribunals (like the Special Court for 

Sierra Leone) have contributed to expanding the scope of definitions of sexual violence 

and rape in conflict. They have effectively prosecuted sexual and gender-based crimes 

committed during armed conflict. There is now well-established jurisprudence on 

gender-based crimes. Nonetheless, there remains an urgent need to further develop 

constructions of gender within international humanitarian law. 

Culture 

IHL has generally not been subject to the same debates and criticisms of "cultural 

relativism" as have international human rights. Although the modern codification of IHL 

in the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols is relatively new, and European 

in name, the core concepts are not new, and laws relating to warfare can be found in all 

cultures. 

ICRC studies on the Middle East, Somalia, Latin America, and the Pacific, for example 

have found that there are traditional and long-standing practices in various cultures that 

preceded, but are generally consistent with, modern IHL. It is important to respect local 

and cultural practices that are in line with IHL. Relying on these links and on local 

practices can help to promote awareness of and adherence to IHL principles among 

local groups and communities. 


Durham cautions that, although traditional practices and IHL legal norms are largely 

compatible, it is important not to assume perfect alignment. There are areas in which 

legal norms and cultural practices clash. Violence against women, for example, is 

frequently legitimised by arguments from culture, and yet is prohibited in IHL and other 

international law. In such cases, it is important to ensure that IHL is not negatively 

affected. 



VII. Timeline of Events 

In Humanitarian Relief & Development 

The following is a timeline of selected notable events in the history of humanitarian aid, 

international relief and development. 

 

24 June 1859 – Battle of Solferino: Henry Dunant (who went on to found the 

International Committee of the Red Cross) is inspired to organise to assist the 

victims of war. 

1863 – foundation of the 

International Committee of the 

Red Cross. 

1864 – first action of Red Cross 

delegates at Dybbol, Denmark. 

1877 – Famine Relief Fund set 

up in the United Kingdom for 

people suffering in the 1876-78 

Bengal Famine in British India. 

By the end of October, £426,000 

had been raised. 

1937 – Tan Kah Kee presides 

over fundraising efforts in which 

overseas Chinese, especially 

Singaporean Chinese, contribute 

millions of Straits dollars worth of 

humanitarian aid in response to 

 

the Second Sino-Japanese War. 

June 28, 1948 – the United 

States and United Kingdom 

governments fly supplies into the 

Western-held sectors of Berlin 

over the blockade during 1948- 

49, known as the Berlin Airlift. 

1968 – Biafran War: 

disagreement about how to deal 

with gross human rights abuses 

causes a split that will result in a 

group of Red Cross doctors 

forming Médecins Sans 

Frontières. 

 

1971 – Creation of Médecins 

Sans Frontières (Doctors without 

Borders - MSF) in France by a 


group of French Doctors in the aftermath of Nigerian Civil War. 

1978 – Massive number of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos flee to 

neighbouring countries where they are received by UN agencies like the 

UNHCR, and private non-governmental agencies. The largest numbers flee to 

Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and China. 

January 1, 1980, an earthquake in Azores Islands, Portugal - leads to relief 

response by Portuguese government and United States Military from Lajes Air 

Force Base and Naval Security Group Activity Terceira. 

1985 – Ethiopian famine leads to massive relief response by the United States 

and other countries. 

1992 – Operation Provide Relief, humanitarian relief for Somalia, is led by the 

United States. After looting of the aid, it is reorganized as Operation Restore 

Hope, an American military operation with the support of the United Nations to 

deliver humanitarian aid and restore order to Somalia, that eventually leads to 

the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. 

1993 – Workers' Aid for Bosnia is typical of many community-level voluntary 

organizations formed in the United Kingdom to directly support the victims of the 

violence in Yugoslavia, as a direct result of public outrage. 

1994 – Great Lakes Refugee Crisis in Central Africa. Humanitarian relief to 

refugees fleeing Rwanda is distributed primarily in Congo/Zaire, and Tanzania. 

1995 – responding to a flood in North Korea which had caused a famine, the 

United States government initially provided over $8 million in general 

humanitarian aid (the People's Republic of China was the only country to initially 

contribute more aid). However, eight years later, the United States government 

has provided $644 million in aid to the country which comprises nearly 50% of 

the aid going to North Korea. 

1999 – Kosovo War and Refugee Crisis. Serb military action led to the flight of 

refugees to Albania and other neighbouring countries where they were received 

by UNHCR and other agencies. NATO responded with a bombing campaign 

against Serbia. Charitable groups from around Europe send many aid convoys 

similar to those sent to Bosnia several years previously; Aid Convoy is founded. 

2008 – 2009 – 2008–09 Gaza Strip aid after Gaza War and several aid initiatives 

during the Blockade of the Gaza Strip. 

2010's – Humanitarian aid during the Syrian Civil War has been maintained 

inside Syria and on refugees camps by international non-governmental 

organizations (ICRC, several UN-organizations), neighboring countries such as 

Jordan, Turkey and Israel, the European Union, several European states, United 

States, Russia and Iran. 


VIII. References 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mission 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missiology 

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary 

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism 

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_aid 

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_humanitarian_workers 

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_humanitarian_law 

8. 

nt 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_in_humanitarian_relief_and_developme 

9. https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/vox/vol02/mission_savage.pdf 

10. 

https://pavel.onesim.net/system/attachments/blobs/000/000/007/original/Cerny_Between 

_Theology_and_Missiology.pdf?1359047142 

11. 

https://swbts.edu/sites/default/files/images/content/docs/journal/55_1/55.1%20A%20Bibli 

cal%20Theology%20of%20Missions%20and%20Contextualization%20Wilder.pdf 


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Attachment A 

The Theology of The Christian Mission 


John Savage, “The Theology of the Christian Mission: A Review Article,” Vox Evangelica 2 (1963): 

71-80. 

The Theology of the 

Christian Mission: A Review Article 1 

[p.70] 

John Savage 

Time was when missionaries pointed to the Great Commission and obeyed it precisely 

because Christ’s word said, ‘Go’. They had no time to delve into theory or doctrinal 

principles. Their motives and message were simple. Their methods and movements were 

largely dictated by the circumstances of their labour. Theologians, on the other hand, were not 

affected by the missionary movement. There seemed to be little or no call to study the 

complex ecclesiological problems of the missionary situation. The question of the relation 

between theology and mission was scarcely raised. Theologians and missionaries moved in 

different fields. 

Now, however, the atmosphere has changed. Missionaries everywhere are seeking for a 

systematic theology of mission which will help guide them in the difficult responsibility they 

bear in the name of Christ. Theologians are becoming increasingly involved in missionary 

questions, because of the growing prominence of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and ecumenical 

problems in the worldwide Church. 

The validity of the Christian mission is being questioned today. The multiplicity of 

missionary organizations and the relative paucity of ‘results’ have caused adverse critics to 

call the whole business ‘a racket’. The resurgence of non-Christian religions has thrown into 

relief the fact that, far from storming the citadels of resistance to the Gospel, much missionary 

effort has been a series of disjointed skirmishes on the periphery. The emergence of new 

independent nations, with their respective manifestations of nationalism and corresponding 

religious associations, has challenged the motive of Christian missions, particularly when the 

message they bring is associated in any way with an alien culture. 

The study of missionary literature leads to the conclusion that the Church’s world mission is 

based on the plight of men, on the need of the world; that it is composed of a series of 

organizations, each dependent upon human initiative and enthusiasm; that it is conducted by 

appeals for service, prayer and support, the response to which depends largely upon the 

spiritual and emotional state of the hearers or readers. Is this, in effect, the valid basis of 

missionary work? 

These challenges and others summon Christians to a re-examination of the foundations of 

missionary labour. What were the considerations which initially moved the Apostles and have 

subsequently turned the Church out toward the whole world? Were they 

philanthropical―sympathy with the ignorant, the diseased, the dispossessed, the lost? Or 

were they theological―harmony with the great redemptive purpose of God? What place does 

the Christian mission have in the total revelation of God? On what does the Christian mission 

rest? 

1 The Theology of the Christian Mission: edited by Gerald H. Anderson (London: SCM, 1961). The page 

references in the text are to this volume.


71-80. 

What is its authority and value? What may it hope to accomplish? What methods should it 

employ? 

Such questions reveal an immediate need to return to the Bible and to restate 

[p.72] 

our theology of mission in terms of God’s unchanging nature meeting man’s universal need, 

expressed in a way which is relevant to an aggressively non-Christian world. In a lecture to 

the London Bible College, Bruce Nicholls, of the Union Biblical Seminary, Yeotmal, India, 

stated that, among the fundamental questions which demand an unequivocal answer are: 

‘Who is Jesus Christ and why did He die?’ ‘Is He a way to the truth and life, or the Way?’ ‘Is 

He a saviour of the world or the Saviour?’ 2 

In an attempt to meet this need, Gerald H. Anderson has gathered contributions from 25 

scholars in different parts of the world, in a volume which approaches this vast subject from 

four angles. The first part of the book contains six papers which view it from the Biblical 

aspect. The second part comprises three studies which review its historical development. The 

third has eight contributions on the relation of Christian missions to other religions. In the 

fourth, eight writers consider various aspects of the theory of the Mission. 

In his own introduction to the symposium, Professor Anderson of Manila, Philippines, (to 

distinguish him from Wilhelm Andersen, whose essay ‘Further toward a Theology of 

Mission’ closes the book), surveys the development of the study of this theme thus far in the 

twentieth century. He mentions the following trends and factors among others: One is that a 

movement toward a fundamental re-formation of the theology of mission has been gaining 

momentum. This may be discerned in the type of question asked at missionary conferences, 

particularly in the major international gatherings from Edinburgh 1910 to Ghana 1957-8. A 

second factor has been the diversity of Protestant attitudes toward men of other religions. A 

third trend has been toward a theocentric concept of mission in trinitarian perspective. He 

concludes his survey by recognizing the inadequacy of the attempts made in recent years 

formulate to the theology of mission. 

The missionary’s approach to his task is determined quite considerably by his understanding 

of man’s state and of the nature of his religion. In his essay on ‘The Biblical View of Man in 

his religion’, Johannes Blauw, Secretary of the Dutch Missionary Council, makes a Biblical 

analysis of the position of man before God, and gives brief suggestions for a theological 

criticism of man’s religions (31-41). These religions may be regarded as human answers to 

God’s question, ‘Man, where art thou?’ God has allowed all nations to walk in their own ways 

(Acts xiv. 16), to do their own thinking and to make their own answers. Understanding these 

answers leads to a knowledge of the man himself, in and behind the religions. Only Jesus 

Christ is from above. In His light, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the ways of man in his 

religion are seen to be ‘imaginations’. Man, however, can hear the Gospel when the approach 

is made in terms of his own religious position. While admitting the value of Johannes Blauw’s 

contribution, evangelical scholars may enquire whether he has taken sufficiently into 

consideration the Biblical description of man as lost, perishing, dead in trespasses and sins. 

2 Bruce Nicholls, Missionary Strategy, 1962.


71-80. 

Eschatology cannot be overlooked as an integral part of the theology of the Christian mission. 

Some have thought that it has nothing to do with Christian action in the present day and that it 

has a paralysing effect upon missions. Prof. Oscar Cullmann, of Basel and Paris, shows that, 

on the contrary, the Biblical hope of the ‘end’ constitutes the keenest incentive to action (42- 

54). 

[p.73] 

Two constitutive elements in Biblical eschatology as a whole are the divine omnipotence by 

which alone the end will come, and human ignorance of ‘the day and the hour’ or of ‘the 

times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority’. These elements constitute 

a spur to Christian fulfilment of the Church’s duty in the period to which we belong, and for 

which the power of the Holy Spirit has been received (Acts i. 7-8). The proclamation of the 

Gospel to all nations becomes a ‘sign’ of the end, and integral element in the eschatological 

plan of full salvation. 

In his exegesis of Matthew xxviii. 16-20, as related to the Easter stories found in the other 

Gospels, Karl Barth demonstrates that the Christian mission arises out of the historical fact of 

Christ’s Resurrection. It is the outcome of His revelation as the One Who held, holds, and will 

hold all authority. His command to make disciples envisages the founding of the Apostolic 

church, the existence of which is constantly renewed as listeners become ‘apostolic’, as new 

disciples begin to proclaim the good news (63). Because of Christ’s presence, the great 

commission of the risen Lord to make disciples, baptize and teach, is valid until the close of 

the age. 

Searching for the motives which made Paul pursue the missionary task in such an exemplary 

fashion, Professor Donald G. Miller of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, 

finds that God’s own self-revelation in Christ and in Scripture was the primary issue. The fact 

of His unity and His lordship laid upon Him an inescapable obligation. ‘The same Lord over 

all is rich unto all that call upon Him’ (Romans x. 12-15). In Athens, Paul was stirred to 

action by idolatrous challenges to Christ’s lordship (Acts xvii. 16, 31). The Gospel is 

impelled, by its very nature as a revelation, to embrace the whole world. It cannot come to 

terms with any syncretistic tendency to amalgamate the good in all religions. Paul was moved 

by the need of man viewed, not from a human perspective, inspired by psychological and 

sociological analyses. His whole understanding of man was theological. Jesus Christ was for 

Paul the measure of man’s depravity and his potential glory. The futility of man’s life in 

alienation from God and the fact that man is under divine judgment motivated Paul to offer 

man Christ’s deliverance. Paul took the wrath of God seriously. He worked constantly under 

the stimulus of this motive. 

F. N. Davey contributes an essay on the decisive part which the Gospel according to John 

plays in the Christian mission (86-93). He states that John alone gives an absolute theological 

framework to the narrative about Jesus. Yet it is expressed in terms of the raw material of 

fundamental human need, referring to birth, water, wind, eating, drinking, meat, darkness, 

death. The Fourth Evangelist clarifies the Apostolic approach, showing that there is no 

authentic part of human life which does not point beyond itself toward Christ. The Gospel 

reaches men where they are. John, however, is concerned with the opposition between the 

truth of God and the darkness in which sinful men are in bondage, from which the only 

deliverance is by the grace of God in Christ apprehended by faith.


71-80. 

The second part of Anderson’s book is composed of three historical studies which examine 

developments among (a) Protestants in general, (b) Free Churches in particular, and (c) 

Roman Catholics. 

William Richey Hogg examines the reasons for the lack of missionary concern 

[p.74] 

at the time of the Reformation and its subsequent birth and growth up to 1914. He traces the 

burgeoning of Protestant missions in the nineteenth century back to pietistic movements 

which emerged almost simultaneously in Germany, Britain and the Thirteen Colonies during 

the previous century. Francke, at the University of Halle, set forth a world view and 

missionary concern quite new in Lutheranism. This did not give rise to a sect but produced a 

new movement within Lutheranism which attracted educated and influential people. Gaining 

his missionary vision from Francke, Zinzendorf influenced an entire community at Herrnhut 

to accept missionary responsibility. Whole families went overseas as self-supporting units. 

The whole Moravian Church became a missionary society with warmhearted zeal. 

Calvinism’s transplantation to American soil brought striking results. Directly confronting 

‘savages’ ignorant of the Gospel, the Calvinists’ concern for the souls of men emerged in 

various missionary work. In Britain, Carey spoke to hearts stirred by the Evangelical 

awakening. He did not use the term ‘foreign missions’, knowing only one mission to be 

Roman carried out on all fronts. 

The ‘Great Century’ of the Christian movement, according to Latourette, was from 1815 to 

1914. Then came the peak of Western impact upon the non-Western world. Anglican missions 

flourished in British colonies, Reformed Missions in Dutch colonies, Lutheran missions in 

German territories, and Roman Missions in the possessions of Latin European countries. 

Professor Hogg’s colleague at Dallas, Franklin H. Littell, continues the study by pointing out 

that Western Europe can no longer be taken for granted as the centre of Christendom. The 

time has passed when ‘younger churches’ may be considered as minor deposits of European 

church life. Not only have two world wars and two types of totalitarianism shaken the 

complacency of European religious establishments at a time when indigenous churches 

overseas are becoming aware of their identity and independence, but also the centre of support 

for Christian expansion has shifted. The large majority of Protestant missionaries are now 

supported by Free Churches in North America and Great Britain, and the major proportion of 

support for Roman Catholic undertakings is coming from the United States. Professor Littell 

maintains that the ‘younger churches’ find themselves in a situation remarkably like that of 

the early Church. A new period of Church history is at hand for those who will pattern their 

life on the New Testament. 

The development of Mission Theology among Roman Catholics is admirably summed up in a 

paper contributed by Father Andrew V. Seumois, O.M.I., who reveals the extent and 

thoroughness of the work done since 1910, and particularly after the Second World War. His 

bibliographical notes indicate source material which will afford scope for profitable study.


71-80. 

In the third section of Anderson’s work, eight scholars analyse the encounter of Christianity 

with other faiths, including Communism. This is probably the part of the book which will call 

for the closest examination and the most careful study. 

Ernst Benz of Marburg affirms that the formulation of a new theological understanding of the 

history of religion is an urgent task. He maintains that the two traditional basic types of 

approach are no longer adequate, and suggests that two new ways offer themselves to us. 

First, to make a study of the New 

[p.75] 

Testament references which indicate that an exclusive claim to absoluteness is not the only 

attitude to be adopted by Christians toward non-Christian religions. In this connection, he 

quotes Acts xiv. 8-18 which the Roman Catholic theologian Père Jean Danielou has made the 

basis for his doctrine of the révélation cosmique. Paul emphasises here the continuity of the 

self-witness of the living God throughout all generations. Benz also refers to Luke xiii. 29 ff., 

Matthew xxv. 21, and vii. 21-23. The second way is to address our questions to those who 

have come into personal Christian conviction and experience after having grown up within 

one of the non-Christian religions. The old approach has been made by theologians who did 

not know those religions from within. 

Discussing the problems created by the resurgence of non-Christian religions (148-157), Paul 

D. Devanandan points out that, no matter how widely they may differ from one another in 

their basic credal affirmations, they are all agreed in their opposition to the missionary 

expansion of Christianity. Moreover, they are all being challenged by Communism. They call 

for inter-religious cooperation, suggesting that Christians should give up all talk of mutual 

exclusion, in order to find a formula of comprehension which will make for unity in diversity. 

Much of the religious vocabulary which is used by Christians and non-Christians appears to 

be the same. Is the fear of syncretism driving Christians to the opposite danger of 

safeguarding the one talent of their faith so zealously that they come to the point of hiding it? 

(Matthew xxv. 18, 24-29). Dr. D. T. Niles has said that the talk about syncretism has led, in 

India, to an inclination towards ‘ghettoism’ in the Churches. 

Twentieth century Christianity’s concern with Communism introduces a new phase in our 

relation to non-Christian religions. In his paper on the encounter with Communism, Dr. Frank 

Wilson Price, Director of the Missionary Research Library, New York, points out that this 

militant ideology in action challenges all faiths. To the orthodox Marxist, every form of 

religion is an opiate and will ultimately disappear in the Communist society. Christianity, 

therefore, finds itself standing alongside Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other 

religions, in opposition to a self-sufficient, materialistic and atheistic creed. Although Dr. 

Price gives ten valuable points which Christians everywhere should bear in mind when 

approaching Communists, he omits the crucial issue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If He 

is risen from the dead, and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, then 

the Communist perspective is false. Time, and the things which exist in time, are not the only 

realities. God has broken into history in the Person of Jesus Christ and the horizontal 

relationships between men are now determined by the primary vertical relationship between 

God and man. That relationship determines the essential principles of right and wrong, and 

applies them in all circumstances. Hence, while Christians may sympathize profoundly with 

certain Communist ideals, admire some of their moral reforms, and appreciate their group


71-80. 

discipline, we cannot harmonize our ethical principles with theirs. We can only match them 

with something higher and better. ‘We must obey God rather than man’. 

Japan provides a remarkable laboratory for the study of new religions. Some 700 of them 

have registered with the government since the last war. At least five of them have won more 

than 600,000 adherents each. Reiyukai, a Nichiren sect, alone has gained a membership of 

2,300,000, or more than four times the 

[p.76] 

total Christian population. Masatoshi Doi, Professor of Church History and Ecumeinics, 

Kyoto, indicates the causes of this. After giving historical and pragmatic reasons, he focuses 

on the theological problem. The Japanese Church is noted for its high theological attainment 

in comparison with Churches in other mission lands. Yet Protestant evangelism in post-war 

Japan, has not been effective, in spite of the slogan ‘Let the Gospel penetrate into the 

masses!’, whereas hundreds of thousands of people are thronging to fanatical religions which 

promise to meet their immediate needs (168-178). 

The essay to which most theologians will probably make a bee-line is A. C. Bouquet’s on 

Revelation and the Divine Logos (183-198). He puts forward a series of six propositions, each 

of which he considers in logical sequence. He then tries to answer three questions which, by 

their nature, appear to have been put to him in India. In so doing, he emphasizes the 

historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. ‘His crucifixion when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea 

is completely attested; and whatever may have been and are the exact nature of the post- 

Resurrection appearances, the evidence is clear enough that they have taken place.... Thus the 

career of Jesus as the Logos Incarnate is not a record of what people would like to have 

happened, but of what actually did happen. It is not an edifying fiction, but a supreme event in 

the life of the Eternal Deity... by which something decisive for the human race was achieved’ 

(196). 

Christians recognize that the New Testament Gospel is a fulfilment of the Old Testament 

revelation rather than a radical displacement of it. The question raised by Professor L. Harold 

De Wolf of Boston, Massachusetts, in his paper on ‘The Interpenetration of Christianity and 

the Non-Christian Religions’, is whether other religions contributed to the Christian religion 

(199-212). He mentions, for example, the evidence of influence from Greek sources in the 

New Testament, the amalgam of Christian and pagan elements in the religious life of Europe, 

and the witness to a syncretism of customary rites which is found in the Church calendar, 

notably, 25th December and Easter. He finds examples of Christian influence among the 

devotees and institutions of non-Christian religions, Hindus and Buddhists being mentioned 

specifically. 

Studying the theological issues concerning this interpenetration of religions, he outlines four 

main policies which have been recommended or attitudes which have been adopted: (1) Total 

rejection of non-Christian religions, with the purpose of radical displacement: (2) Relativistic 

syncretism; (3) Discontinuity, and (4) Fulfilment. 3 De Wolf gives arguments for what he calls 

3 See A. C. Bouquet, The Christian Faith and the Non-Christian Religions, 1958; E. C. Dewick, The Christian 

Attitude to other Religions, 1953; and Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Mission in a Non-Christian World, 1938; 

idem, Religion and the Christian Faith, 1956; idem, The Christian Faith and Non-Christian Religions, 1958.


71-80. 

a carefully discriminating doctrine of the fourth. ‘As Jesus came... not to abolish the law and 

the prophets, but to fulfil them, so His Gospel comes today to the laws and prophets of other 

religions to fulfil them.’ An examination of his appeal to the Biblical testimony shows that an 

important part of his argument rests on the exegesis of John i. 9. His appeal to the testimony 

of first-generation Christians in several regions of Africa is significant. ‘Many of the 

missionaries who had evangelized those regions had believed in radical displacement, but in 

the experience of their converts the Gospel had come nevertheless as fulfillment’ (211) It 

would be helpful to have this confirmed by other competent observers. The point, however, 

which requires most careful consideration occurs during Dr. Wolf’s appeal for a new 

understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. ‘If God has revealed Himself to men solely as the 

Son and only in 

[p.77] 

Jesus of Nazareth’, he concludes that we cannot hope to find any sign of His revelation of 

Himself where there is no knowledge of Jesus. The inference from this would be that God has 

left Himself without witness in most of the world through most of the centuries. De Wolf 

maintains that this is implied by the logic of Kraemer’s theory of discontinuity. 

The fourth section of the book is taken up with a restatement of missionary evangelism for 

our day. Canon Max Warren leads the discussion by a paper on ‘The Meaning of 

Identification’ (229-238). He clarifies our Christian task as being a twofold one. First, the 

Church has to identify itself with the world as Christ did, and with the same purpose of 

redemption. Secondly, the Christians of the West need to identify themselves with the 

Christians of the East. He believes that the phrase ‘identification with’ provides a clue to a 

new and creative relationship. What this may involve is to be understood from the pattern set 

before us by Jesus Christ our Lord as seen in Philippians ii. 5-8, Psalms xl. 6-8; 2 Corinthians 

v. 21; Galatians iii. 13-14. The study of these passages should produce an attitude of mind 

such as can enter creatively into the human situation in which missionaries find themselves. 

Identification, however, must also be with the will of God as revealed in Christ. Working 

along the line of His purpose gives meaning and direction and poise to life. 

The need for a book on the Theology of the Christian Mission is undeniable. The importance 

of this particular work is that it brings together contributions from men of different 

nationalities with vast experience in a variety of ecclesiastical traditions and missionary 

associations. Eleven are from the United States and five from Britain. Three are from Asia 

and only one from Africa. Future books of this nature will undoubtedly contain more insight 

from overseas. Within an enriching variety of treatment there are arresting divergencies of 

approach, particularly to the problems and perils of syncretism. While most of the book will 

be useful to laymen, some contributors have fallen into the use of a jargon which seems 

remote from reality. This is a pity, if the gap between theological thought and missionary 

practice is ever to be bridged. 

The student is now confronted with the question of whether Anderson’s book meets the 

burning issues of the hour in the Christian Mission. How far has it helped us to understand the 

relationship between Theology and Mission in the contemporary situation? Are those engaged 

in Mission convinced that a sound Biblical theology is vitally relevant to the task to which


71-80. 

they are committed? Is the book itself informed by Bishop L. Newbiggin’s affirmation that ‘a 

theology of mission lives from studying the Bible’? 4 . 

Whether the book is adequate or otherwise, it draws attention to the place of theological study 

in the strategy of missionary outreach. At a time of radical change, it is not sufficient to say 

‘the experience of our mission teaches us that...’ Newbigin says, in his foreword to the 

volume, ‘nothing will suffice save radical rethinking of the nature of our mission. Such 

rethinking must include both a realistic understanding of the new facts with which the mission 

has to deal, and a humble return to the source of the mission in the Gospel’ (xiii). 

Scriptural principles underlie practical problems which beset the Christian mission. Tact, 

intuition and a clear appreciation of the difficulties involved cannot point to their solution. 

Only the Word of God can lead to practices which overcome the impossibilities in the human 

situation and discharge the 

[p.78] 

responsibilities of missionary work. The theology of mission is the study of the Apostolic 

work of the Church and the basic principles of missionary work. It includes investigation of 

the most profitable God-ordained methods of preaching the Gospel which lead to the 

conversion of those who are outside Christ. Its aim is to think about the Gospel and interpret it 

in the light of each succeeding age, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Today, it calls for 

the study of the various religions, cults, and ideologies which battle for the mind and soul of 

man in the lands of the younger churches. And it demands a statement of the Christian faith 

which meets the challenge of the theological climate which prevails where resurgent religions 

and Communism are predominating factors, A true theology of mission will give us a Biblical 

evaluation of religions. Setting out with the conviction that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 

Christ is unique and universal, we may ask how a Christian is to approach those who profess 

or practise a religion which they regard as the way to God? Are non-Christian religions to be 

viewed as a search for God or are they an evidence of estrangement from Him? Do the forces 

behind such religions come from above or from beneath? Are their practices a debasing of 

purer designs? Are they the degeneration of a people’s earlier response to God’s selfrevelation 

through nature, providence or conscience? The tendency has been to swing 

between two extremes. One is to take a non-Christian religion at its best and to show how its 

quest is fulfilled in Christ. The other is to denounce everything non-Christian as valueless. 

There has been a tendency for Christians to underestimate other religions through 

concentrating on certain obvious features of the behaviour and attitude of ‘popular’ religion. 

When discussing various types of Christian approach to those of other religions and 

emphasizing the significance of the testimony given by converts from these religions, Bishop 

Stephen Neill raised the thought-provoking question as to whether Christ must not be the 

Destroyer before He can be the Fulfiller, the Saviour. It was there in the Christian’s personal 

experience of passing from death to life. Must it not be so in the case of those who pass from 

their respective religious systems to Christ? 5 

B. R. Easter writes that, standing on Scripture in its assessment of and approach to non- 

Christian faiths, Reformed Christians see the reality of God’s general revelation in creation, 

4 Lesslie Newbigin, One Body, one Gospel, one World; The Christian Mission Today, 1958. 

5 S. Neill, Creative Tension, 1959.


71-80. 

history and human life. They regard other religions as a rejection of the revealing God, i.e. a 

deliberate denial, exchange and turning from Him to darkness and chaos. General revelation 

now brings guilt and wrath (Romans i. 18 f.). They recognize God’s present activity among 

those religions in Common Grace. They stress the absoluteness and uniqueness of the Biblical 

revelation in Christ, bringing men the reconciliation, and the new light and power, that they 

need. They emphasize also the importance of a loving, personal approach to those of other 

faiths―appreciating the other’s position, feeling united with them in sin and need of grace, 

loving them as our neighbours depending on God’s Word to convict and lead to faith. 6 

Another issue on which an adequate theology must inform missionaries is that of nationalism 

and the Church’s approach to the nations. How are the nations to be regarded? Are they 

among the orders appointed by God for human society, or are they forces organized in 

independence of Him and, in some cases, in actual hostility to His will? Christians have 

tended to take opposing views, according to their interpretation of the Scriptures and 

according 

[p.79] 

to the trends of the times in which they lived. Scripture, however, makes it plain that nations 

as such shall ultimately bring glory and honour into the heavenly city. To this end, the Church 

must exercise her proper ministry among them, at times saying an emphatic ‘No’ to the 

demands of nation or state, and, at other times, serving as its spiritual illumination and 

dynamic. 

It is becoming clear that, if the whole world is to be evangelized, missionary work must be 

undertaken by the whole Church. This constitutes a challenge to missionaries and missionary 

societies to find their proper place in a true theology of the Church. It calls for a forwardlooking 

understanding of the nature of the Church, adequate to the crises, the opportunities, 

and the unexplored possibilities of the period on which we are entering. On the practical level, 

it will demand team work of the highest order between those who have become known as the 

older and the younger Churches. Such partnership is not easy. Two cannot walk together 

unless they are in agreement. There are characteristics in both partners which are open to 

misunderstanding. Each must, therefore, be willing to hear what the Spirit is saying to the 

Churches about these matters and repent of the things which grieve Him and cause resentment 

between Christian brethren. If there is to be oneness in obeying Christ’s command, there must 

be the kind of openness between us which will lead to brokenness at the foot of the Cross. 

The emphasis on the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and the Person and 

ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Theology of the Christian Mission must be definite. It is 

only as the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of forgiven sinners by the Holy Ghost that 

there is an outflow of Spirit-prompted witness to the world. In his doctrinal dissertation for 

the Department of Mission of the Free University, Amsterdam, Harry R. Boer’s thesis 7 is that 

the real impetus of the Church’s missionary outreach is to be found in the Holy Spirit’s 

descent at Pentecost. He, therefore, emphasized the need for renewed reflection on ‘the 

meaning of the Holy Spirit for the missionary proclamation of the Church. He it is who bears 

6 In Puritan Papers, 1962. 

7 H. R. Boer, Pentecost and Missions, 1961. Boer’s original dissertation, published as Pentecost and the 

Missionary Witness of the Church, n.d., contains the full documentation.


71-80. 

the witness of the Church. His is the life that her witness transmits. His the unity that makes 

the Church one.’ In practical application, he asks, ‘Have we in our mission work always laid 

the emphasis where it needed most to be placed? Do those who have come to Christ through 

our witness have an adequate understanding of the witnessing task that has now wholly fallen, 

or may soon wholly fall, upon them?’. 

The future of missions will depend, under God, on the solidity of their Biblical foundations. 

But will a book on Theology help people to rediscover these foundations? Hendrik Kraemer 

asks the question in a letter to Gerald Anderson explaining why he was reluctant to 

collaborate in his work by writing an essay on ‘Syncretism as a Theological Problem for 

Missions’ (179-182). The conviction has grown in him that such essays do not change 

missionary thinking or missionary strategy. They are read, registered as the writer’s particular 

opinion, and then put on a library shelf. Theology and missionary strategy are thus kept neatly 

separate. 

He maintains that this tendency is due to an attitude toward theological problems which 

regards them as theoretical affairs. To Kraemer, however, they are eminently practical matters 

demanding decisions followed by action. A sound theological conception is not simply a 

matter of intellectual interest, 

[p.80] 

but rather the most practical thing in the world. The indissoluble oneness of clear thought with 

vigorous action belongs to the essence of true theology, especially in relation to the Church’s 

missionary calling. 

In the meantime, he could not overcome his aversion to write ‘one article more’. He did not 

believe in its usefulness. ‘What I hope and pray for’, he added, ‘is the awakening of the 

responsible agencies to the fundamental necessities’. On that note, it may be wise to end. 

© 1963 London School of Theology (http://www.lst.ac.uk/). Reproduced by permission. 

Prepared for the Web in December 2006 by Robert I. Bradshaw. 

http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/


Attachment B 

The Relationship Between Theology 

and Missiology 


The Relationship between Theology and Missiology: 

The Missiological Hermeneutics 

Pavel Cerny, ThD 

Before we start discussing the relationship between theology and missiology we must 

briefly look at their content and the development of their mutual understanding. 

1. Theology 

The understanding of theology has gone through a long historical development and the 

individual definitions oscillate from an everyday thinking about one’s faith to highly 

academic expressions and terms. Trilhaas, for example, sees theology as a “reflective 

self-understanding of faith.” 1 Theology implies the wish to think about the reality of faith 

as deeply as possible and about its relationship to other sources of knowledge about life. 2 

Other authors look at theology from a more intellectual point and emphasize rational 

thinking or speech about God or an intellectual discourse of God. Theology is, according 

to this concept, a discipline helping the trained mind come to a more comprehensive and 

justified judgment about the claims of faith. 3 

The Enlightenment of the 18 th century forced the Christians of the Western world to 

defend their understanding of theology and its position within the university framework. 

It was the beginning of the efforts to defend theology as a legitimate science. The 

Reformed theologian Charles Hodge calls theology “a science about the facts of God’s 

revelation”, while E. H. Bancroft claims that theology is “a science about God and the 

relationship between God and the universe”. 4 The situation changes in the 1960s with the 

development of a number of liberation theologies. The emphasis is more often put on the 

practical character of theology and a reflection of the practice. Theology is no longer just 

a field of study of narrow intellectual groups but becomes a theme of a dialogue. Gustavo 

Gutiéreez understands theology “as a critical reflection on historical praxis in the light of 

the Word” and this definition became quite well known and accepted. 5 

2. Missiology 

We should remember that until the 16 th century the word mission was used for describing 

the doctrine of the Trinity. The verb mitto (to send) referred to the task of Jesus Christ 

who was sent to Earth by God the Father to fulfill the work of salvation. It was the true 

and real Missio Dei – God’s mission in this world. 

1 Quotation based on KIRK, J. A.: What is Mission? Theological Explorations. Darton, 

Longmann and Todd, London 1999, rep. 2002, p. 8 

2 Cf. HELM, P.: Faith and Undertanding. University Press, Edinburgh 1997, p. 3-76 

3 KIRK, 2002, p. 8 

4 Cf. WELLS, D.: The Theologian‘s Craft. In: WOODBRIDGE J. and McCOMISKEY, T. 

(Eds.): Doing Theology in Todays’s World. Zondervan, Grand Rapids 1991, p. 182 

5 Cf. KIRK, J. A.: The Mission of Theology and Theology as Mission. Trinity Press 

International, Valley Forge 1997, p. 14-18 

1

In the 16 th century the word mission starts to appear in the terminology of the Jesuits and 

it denotes the spreading of the Christian faith among the people who were not members 

of the Roman Catholic Church (therefore among the Protestants as well). The word was 

soon adopted by the Protestants as well as a description of their journeys to the overseas 

countries. The word then got quite closely connected with the colonial expansion of the 

European countries in the Western thinking. 

Until 1950 the word mission described sending missionaries into a given territory and 

also their activities. The word was also used for the mission agency that sent them, the 

mission field or center from which the missionaries went to other places, or a mission 

station (a church without a regular pastor, therefore dependent on its “mother church”). 

The word mission also described a series of meetings focusing on deepening or 

amplification of the Christian faith among “formal” Christians. This overview clearly 

shows how much of the meaning of the expression Missio Dei was lost over time. 

If history tells us that the ecumenical movement was born out of the mission work, then it 

is also true that the mission movement supported the renewal of the theology of mission. 

A number of factors and events certainly played a role here: the developments in science 

and technology and also secularization attempting to present the faith in God as 

irrelevant. Now we have started to hear the shocking news that Europe itself has become 

a mission field again. The churches in Europe and North America are sending 

missionaries who have to identify the mission fields in their own countries. Also the 

missionary activities and methods of other religions are sometimes rather aggressive. A 

large number of indigenous churches has sprung up in the so called Third World 

countries (now the 2/3 or majority world) which represents another turning point in the 

overall situation. In the previous centuries, the missionaries from the West set up the 

norm of theological development and the form of the church life. Now the situation has 

changed and the young churches reject the dictate of the Western denominations. The 

Western theology is now being viewed as speculative and irrelevant. New theologies 

have emerged: African, Asian, black, contextual, liberation, Korean minjung and others. 

All of that had a significant influence on the further development of our understanding of 

mission. 

3. The relationship of theology and missiology 

The first pioneers who understood the importance of missiology in the framework of 

theology were the Protestant Gustav Warneck (1834-1910) and the Catholic Josef 

Schmidlin (1876-1944). Their writings made it possible for missiology to really start 

meeting theology. The first departments of missiology were established in the European 

and American schools of theology. It is no accident that the mission conference called to 

Edinburgh in 1910 had been connected with the subsequent development of ecumenism 

and theological dialogue. Consecutively, more biblical and theological studies were 

written proving that “In the beginning mission was more than just an activity. It was the 

2

foundation of the church life. The beginnings of the theology of mission are therefore the 

beginnings of the Christian theology as such.” 6 

The New Testament scholar Martin Hengel summarizes his survey of Paul’s concept of 

mission and the origins of the missionary orientation of the early church by stating that 

the history and theology of the early Christianity are in the first place “the history of 

mission” and “the theology of mission”. 7 Hengel says: “A church and a theology that 

forgets or denies the missionary calling of the believers as the messengers of salvation in 

the world threatened by a disaster gives up on its foundations and effectively 

surrenders.” 8 No wonder that some authors, like for example Martin Kähler, are quite 

strong about it and say that “the oldest mission was the mother of theology” 9 Martin 

Kähler adds that theology started to develop as “a supporting manifestation of the 

Christian mission”, not as a “luxury of a church that ruled the world.” 10 

Now we are faced with a serious question if this separation of theology and missiology 

did not have a devastating influence on the understanding of the mission calling of the 

church and a future theological development. This fact is now leading some theologians 

to stipulating that “theology cannot exist without mission”, or in other words, “there is no 

theology which would not be missionary at the same time”. 11 

It was Karl Barth who said in a provocative manner that the theological work must be 

done with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. He wanted to suggest that 

theology cannot be developed only for its own sake but that it carries the serious task of 

the reflection of faith and the life of the church. Theology is a continuous process of 

understanding the relationship of God’s revelation and the reality of the world. 12 

As theology developed, missiology was usually seen as a part of practical theology and 

viewed as a way of self-realization of the church in a mission situation. On the other hand 

there are good examples of establishing departments of missiology on different 

universities in Europe and America. Nevertheless, as David Bosch said, missiology was 

pushed to the side and turned into “a secretariat of foreign affairs” that concentrated on 

other countries, not the home country. 13 Even today some theologians do not understand 

why they should think about their work in connection with missiology. In reality, all the 

disciplines of theology need to incorporate the missionary dimension in their fields. 

6 KASTING, H.: Die Anfänge der urchristlichen Mission. Chr. Kaiser Verlag, München 

1969, p. 127 

7 Compare: CERNY, P.: Kristovo dílo spásy jako základ a imperativ misie. (Christ’s Work 

of Salvation as a Foundation and Imperative of Mission) L. Marek, Brno 2006, p. 15 

8 HENGEL, M.: Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest Christianity. Fortress 

Press, Philadelphia 1983, p. 64 

9 KÄHLER, M.: Schriften zu Christologie und Mission. Chr. Kaiser Verlag, München 

1971, p. 190 

10 Ibid, p. 189 

11 KIRK, J. A.: 2002, p. 11 

12 Compare ibid, p. 14 

13 BOSCH, D. J.: Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Orbis, 

Maryknoll 1991 (9. ed. 1995), p. 492 

3

Every theological specialist ought to be challenged to look at his or her discipline from 

the point of view of mission. The main reason is the fact that God makes himself known 

as the God of mission. The Bible grew over time as a book about God’s mission. It was 

written by missionaries and the reason of its creation was the continuing mission of 

God’s people and the church. 

The study of each theological question is put in a new light when we look at how it 

relates to God’s purposes. Christology gives us a normative understanding of God’s 

historical project – establishing his rule over the created world in justice, reconciliation, 

peace and compassion. Theology of missionary acts can be used for evaluating, 

correcting and setting up better foundations for the motives and actions of those who 

want to participate in responding to the request: “Your will be done on earth as it is in 

heaven”. Missiology helps to check both theory and practice in relation to the gospel and 

to comprehend history from an eschatological point of view. 14 The church cannot 

consider itself to be apostolic and catholic (universal) in the sense of “church for 

everyone” without mission. Mission is not just an activity of the church. It is the very 

expression of the existence of the church. It was gradually recognized for example by the 

mission conference in Willingen (1952) and then at the assembly of the WCC in New 

Delhi (1961), where the International Mission Council was incorporated in the 

organization. The church realized it cannot exist “above” the world or “against” the world 

but it must exist for the world. 

4. Missiological hermeneutics 

Recent studies of the biblical texts from a mission point of view suggest some serious 

facts. Mission is not just an emphasis on the so called Great Commission at the end of the 

Gospel of Matthew. Mission is far more than just a task to be performed by the followers 

of Jesus. That would be a serious narrowing of what we call Missio Dei. 

The missiological hermeneutics is founded on the very existence of the Bible. The whole 

canon of the Scripture is a missiological phenomenon, especially for those Christians 

who admit an existence of a relationship between the Bible texts and self-revelation of 

our God and Creator. 15 The Scripture suggests that God Himself acts in a self-giving way 

to His creation including us, human beings, who were created to His own image and yet 

were self-willed and rebellious. The writings that constitute our Bible are a product and 

testimony of God’s mission. The different processes that lead to the writing of the 

biblical texts are deeply missionary in their essence. Many biblical texts came out of the 

struggles, crises and conflicts in which the people of God tried to live on the basis of their 

understanding of God’s revelation and His redemptive act. Sometimes they were internal 

battles, and at other times highly polemic struggles face to face with offers and demands 

of other religions and world-views. 

14 Comp. ibid, p. 21 

15 Comp. WRIGHT, C. J. H.: Truth with a Mission: Reading Scripture Missiologically. 

Grove Biblical Series, Ridley Hall, Cambridge 2005, pp. 5-7 

4

Missiological reading of such texts is certainly not a matter of looking for the true 

meaning through an objective exegesis. Yet their missionary meaning is not just a 

homiletic post scriptum. The text itself often stems out of a problem, a need, a 

controversy or a threat that the people of God had to deal with in the context of their 

mission. The biblical text itself is a product of mission in action. 

The most systematic answer to the question of missiological hermeneutics was provided 

and summarized by Christopher Wright in his comprehensive book “The Mission of 

God”. As an Old Testament scholar and a mission theologian he presents persuasive 

evidence that the individual parts of the Old and New Testament clearly reflect a 

missionary context. Even biblical ethics derives its meaning in the context of the mission 

of Israel and the Church of Christ. The dynamics of the hermeneutic process it then 

provided by the great story of the Bible (meta-narrative) itself. Mission is about what the 

Bible is about. 16 

Wright considers the story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus to be a very apt 

example of the missionary hermeneutics. Luke 24:45-47: “Then he opened their minds so 

they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ 

will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of 

sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’” The 

introductory sentence of Jesus – “This is what is written,” is not based on one text in 

particular. The whole Scripture gives a testimony to the command that the mission of 

preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins must go to all nations in the name of Jesus. 

It shows that for Jesus the whole Old Testament concentrated on the life and death and 

resurrection of the Messiah of Israel and on a mission to all nations. Luke suggests that 

Jesus opened the minds of the disciples by these words so that they were able to 

understand the Scriptures. We can say, in our contemporary theological language, that the 

Messiah Himself showed his disciples what hermeneutics they should apply. The 

disciples of the crucified and resurrected Jesus were to read the Scriptures messianically 

and missionally. 17 

The hermeneutics of the apostle Paul expresses a similar dual emphasis. When speaking 

with Festus Paul claims (Acts 26:22b-23): “I am saying nothing beyond what the 

prophets and Moses said would happen — that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to 

rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” This 

hermeneutical approach shaped Paul’s ministry as apostle of the Messiah Jesus to the 

Gentiles. 

Wright could not keep from remarking that in most of history Christians have been good 

at their messianic reading of the Old Testament but inadequate (and sometimes utterly 

16 Comp. WRIGHT, C. J. H.: The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. 

IVP, Nottingham 2006, p. 29 

17 Comp. ibid, pp. 29-30. (Misional reading or hermeneutics are Wright’s terms. – transl. 

note) 

5

lind) at their missional reading. 18 The promised Messiah was incarnated in the identity 

and missionary calling of Israel as a representative – King, Leader and Savior. It was 

already part of the Abrahamic Covenant: Israel was to be a light to the nations and a 

means of the redemptive blessing of God to them. Christ gives us a hermeneutical matrix 

for our reading and interpretation of the Bible. Besides the Christological matrix there is 

also the missionary matrix. This approach shows the meaning and reason for the 

existence of the Bible: God who is presented by the Bible, and the people in whose 

identity and mission we are to join. The story of the Bible talks about God, people, the 

world and the future. 

5. Multicultural Hermeneutical Perspective 

The Western academic world is very slow in accepting theologies from other parts of the 

world and does not seem to be too keen to do it. Nevertheless, the influence of missiology 

presented the theological community of the West with a wide range of theological and 

hermeneutical perspectives which (at least in some cases) are a product of the missionary 

success of the past. Mission changed the map of global Christianity. In the beginning of 

the 20 th century, 90% of all Christians lived in Europe and North America. In the 

beginning of the 21 st century, at least 75% of the world’s Christians live in Latin 

America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. The whole center of gravity of Christianity 

moved south. We hear about the phenomenon of “the next Christendom”. We live in an 

age of a multinational church and multidirectional mission. The multicultural 

hermeneutics is developing on top of that. People will insist on reading the Bible for 

themselves. Wright thinks it is a great irony that the Western Protestant theological 

academy, which has its roots in the hermeneutical revolution of the Reformation 

(separation and independence from the authoritative scholastic theology), has been slow 

to give ear to those of other cultures who choose to read the Scriptures through their own 

eyes. The phenomenon of hermeneutical variety goes back to the Bible itself, though. The 

New Testament was born out of a hermeneutical revolution in reading the Old Testament. 

It can be demonstrated that even the early church interpreted the same passages from the 

Scriptures in different ways. For example the Jewish and the Greek interpretations of the 

Christian identity were different according to the mission situation. The apostle Paul 

deals with these differences in Romans 14-15. He identifies himself theologically with 

those who called themselves “strong” but in general encourages the reader to accept 

others without condemnation and contempt. The uniting elements for him here are Christ 

and the gospel. 

The missional hermeneutics must include the multiplicity of perspectives and contexts in 

which people read the biblical texts. It is possible to speak about the hermeneutical 

richness of the global church. Wright in this context quotes a statement of James 

Brownson about the diversity of contexts and perspectives: “I call the model I am 

developing a missional hermeneutics because it springs from a basic observation about 

18 Comp. WRIGHT, C. J. H.: The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. 

IVP, Nottingham 2006, p. 30. For a christological interpretation of the Old Testament, 

See also: HELLER, J.: Bůh sestupující: Pokus o christologii Starého zákona. (God 

Descending: A Tentative Christology of the Old Testament) Kalich, Praha 1994. 

6

the New Testament: namely, the early Christian movement that produced and canonized 

the New Testament was a movement with specifically missionary character.” 19 

This approach is in many ways similar to the well-known hermeneutical spiral 

emphasizing the necessity of reading the Bible passages not only in the context of other 

passages but also in light of the relations between the authors, the original readers and 

contemporary readers. It is also necessary to consider the world of a given topic and the 

problem of speech as the medium of communication. 20 

Since we place a strong emphasis on the space for the diversity of the contextual readings 

of the missionary hermeneutics we must also point out that it does not equal relativism. 

Both Brownson and Wright argue strongly for a hermeneutics of coherence. 21 The Bible 

provides a point of orientation that goes with the plurality of certain interpretation 

emphases. Jesus himself provided the hermeneutical coherence within which all disciples 

must read these texts, that is in the light of the story that leads up to Christ (messianic 

reading) and the story that leads on from Christ to ministry and service and fulfilling the 

missionary calling (missional reading). This is the story of the gospel that flows from the 

mind and purpose of God in all the Scriptures for all nations. It is the missional 

hermeneutics of the whole Bible. This hermeneutics has certain sympathy for the postmodern 

emphases on diversity but includes safeguards against exegetical license and 

disregard for the context of the great meta-narrative of the whole Bible.) 

When we put all this perspective of “missional hermeneutics” together we can summarize 

that we need to read all the parts of the Bible: 

• “in the light of God’s purpose for all of creation, including the redemption of 

people and creation of a new heaven and a new earth. 

• “in the light of God’s purpose for the human life on this planet in general and in 

the light of what the whole Bible teaches about the human culture, ethics, 

relationships and behavior. 

• “in the light of God’s historical election of Israel, its identity and role in relation 

to the nations and in the light of the requirements on their worship, social ethics 

and the overall system of values. 

• “in the light of the central position of Jesus of Nazareth, his Messianic identity 

and mission in relation to Israel and the nations, his cross and resurrection. 

• “in the light of God’s calling of the church as a fellowship of believing Jews and 

Gentiles who make up an extended people of the Abrahamic covenant to be a 

19 BROWNSON, J. V.: Speaking the Truth in Love: Elements of a Missional Hermeneutic. 

In: HUNSBERGER G. R. and VAN GELDER, C. (Eds): The Church Between Gospel and 

Culture. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1996, pp. 232-233 

20 Comp. e.g. OEMING, M.: Úvod do biblické hermeneutiky: Cesty k pochopení textu. 

(Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutice: Way to Understanding of Text) Vyšehrad, Praha 

2001, pp. 17-18. Nebo: OSBORNE, G. R.: The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive 

Introdudiction to Biblical Interpretation. IVP, Downers Grove 199. pp. 321-326 

21 BROWNSON, 1996, pp. 257-258; WRIGHT, 2006, pp. 40-41 

7

Summary 

means of God’s blessing for the nations in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and 

for his glory.” 22 

The Bible itself is a missionary document which developed over centuries as a message 

and a testimony about the Missio Dei. God has been engaged in a mission towards man 

and man received a mandate to care for the creation (an environmental, economical and 

cultural mandate). God’s election of Israel is a missionary act leading to a blessing for all 

nations. Jesus was sent by God to fulfill his mission. The Church is here to continue in 

the mission of God’s servant. 

The ethical dimension of the life of God’s people – to be the light to the nations - is a 

solid part of the mission task as well. The agenda of the world is not a credible 

hermeneutical key to the text of the Bible. As Leslie Newbigin and Stanley Hauerwas 

emphasize, the church is the hermeneutical community charged with the interpretation of 

the gospel both by words and life. A number of words of the gospel get their meaning on 

the background of the struggle for faith and social work and in the context of the church 

fellowship. 23 Hermeneutical coherence is tightly connected with the messianic 

(Christocentric) reading of the Bible text in relation with the Missio Dei. 24 

• Missionary (missional) hermeneutics flows out of a right relationship 

between theology and missiology. 

• Missionary hermeneutics provides us with an interpretation key which 

respects the divine inspiration of the biblical text and gives us a freedom and 

variety of authors at the same time and also takes into consideration the 

different contexts of the readers. 

• Missionary hermeneutics makes plurality possible but does not allow for 

relativism. 

• Missionary hermeneutics of the Scriptures provides enough space for the 

diversity of human cultures and interpretation approaches wherever it is 

possible. The interpretation variety is possible on the basis of two matrices: 

messianic (Christocentric) and missionary. 

This Paper has been delivered in the International Conference of the Central European 

Centre for Mission Studies, Prague, Czech Republic, June 20, 2007 

22 WRIGHT, 2005, pp. 15 

23 Comp. CERNY, 2006, pp. 211-212 

24 Comp. WRIGHT, 2006, p. 41 

8


Attachment C 

Scripture, Culture and Missions 


Scripture, Culture, 

and missions 

Southwestern 

Journal of Theology

Southwestern Journal of Theology • Volume 55 • Number 1 • Fall 2012 

A Biblical Theology of 

Missions and Contextualization 1 

Terry L. Wilder 

Professor of New Testament 

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 

Fort Worth, TX 

twilder@swbts.edu 

Introduction 

When I first saw the title of the conference at which this address for 

pastors and students was delivered—Sola Scriptura or Sola Cultura?—it 

seemed presented simply as an either/or type of question. My next thought, 

I confess, was “Is that a trick question or something?” The answer to that 

question seemed so blatantly obvious, especially for Baptists who claim to 

be a people of the book, the authoritative word of God. Unfortunately, the 

answer is not as obvious to many as it is to us. 

I am not a missiologist and have no particular expertise in the discipline 

into which I now trespass. I do have an interest in the field, but I 

am no specialist. 2 So, anything I might have to say on this subject will be 

based upon Scripture, the word of God, and particularly the New Testament, 

which, frankly, is how I think it should be, even for a specialist, because our 

authority is the word of God. Scripture should dictate and govern our faith 

and practice. 

I have the challenging task and enjoyable assignment of looking at 

the biblical text to see what we might learn about evangelism, missions, and 

contextualization, particularly the latter issue as it relates to the former ones. 

Though others in this journal issue will describe “contextualization” for you 

better than me, I would like to offer some brief definitions: “Simply put, 

contextualization is taking into consideration the cultural context in which 

we are seeking to communicate the gospel.” 3 Tim Keller puts it this way: 

1 

Adapted from an address delivered at the Sola Scriptura or Sola Cultura? Conference 

held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 14-15, 2011. 

2 

This is very similar to what John Stott expressed when he, a pastor-scholar trained 

in New Testament, wrote the first edition of his book on Christian ethics. See John Stott, 

Issues Facing Christians Today, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), Preface to the First 

Edition (1984), 9. 

3 

This definition is one put forward by Juan Sanchez, “To Contextualize or Not to 

Contextualize: That is NOT the Question,” The Gospel Coalition (Dec 13, 2009). See http:// 

thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2009/12/13/to-contextualize-or-not-to-contextualizethat-is-not-the-question/ 

(accessed: 15 Oct 2012).

Terry L. Wilder 4 

Contextualization is “giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at 

all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and 

place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals 

and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.” 4 

I am grateful to Dr. Paige Patterson, who wrote the article in this issue 

covering the four Hebrew children in the Old Testament book of Daniel. 

He identified the four Hebrew children as prime examples of those who 

followed the Lord God, even when they encountered and lived in a culture 

other than their own. Despite the king’s edict to the contrary, e.g., Daniel 

still kneeled three times daily to pray and give thanks to God, as was his 

habit (cf. Dan 6:10). By looking at such texts, President Patterson lent a hand 

to me in that I do not now have to cover passages on their contextualization 

experience, which I had originally planned to do. 

It is impossible in the space allotted to look in detail at every biblical 

passage that touches on missions and contextualization. However, some 

often cited, key New Testament texts that do touch on the subject will be 

examined—for example, Matt 28:19-20, Acts 17:16-34, and 1 Cor 9:19- 

23—to derive some theological and methodological principles to help believers 

as they engage in evangelism, missions, and contextualization. I am 

not under any delusion that this address will solve any problems concerning 

contextualization issues, but as we take a fresh look at these texts in their 

biblical contexts, we may discover some truths that are overlooked, or at least, 

rarely emphasized. 

Matt 28:19–20 

At a conference that was subtitled, “Reasserting the Biblical Paradigm 

for the Great Commission in the Twenty-First Century,” it seems only proper 

that any look at the biblical text start with Matt 28:19-20. Perhaps like me 

you tire of hearing people say we need to come up with a “vision” for doing 

missions. Now, I think I know what people mean when they say such things, 

but I always want to reply, “You know what? Aren’t you fortunate?! God has 

already done that for you in his word. We have the Great Commission.” 

Indeed, Matt 28:19-20 is Christ’s Great Commission to his church, 

the command of the resurrected Lord to his disciples before his ascension 

into heaven. And in his Gospel, Matthew presents Jesus as the rejected Messiah 

of Israel, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the ever-present, divine 

Son of God who has all authority and power to establish his rule and reign. 

One can see something of Christ’s authority, for example, in the Sermon on 

the Mount when he often says in a section known as the Antitheses, “You 

have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you” (5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 

4 

Timothy J. Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your 

City (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 98.

5 Biblical Theology of Contextualization 

38-39, 43-44). 5 At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount one reads the 

words, “The crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them 

as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” 6 Jesus did not teach like the 

scribes did. To support their statements they would say, “Rabbi so-and-so 

has said,” or “Rabbi ben–Jonah has said,” but Jesus said, “I say to you.” And 

in Matt 28:18 the resurrected Christ, who, according to Rom 1:4, “was declared 

[to be] the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, 

according to the Spirit of holiness,” issued this command. Christ is God; he 

is the Son of God; and as such, he possesses all authority in heaven and on 

earth. Therefore, in light of the fact that Christ is God and has all authority, 

he is able to commission his church. 

Christ commanded his church to “Go and make disciples.” The main 

verb in the text is the aorist imperative μαθητεύσατε (“make disciples”). 

Aorist imperatives, in general, convey a sense of urgency and immediacy 

of action. The main verb μαθητεύσατε is modified by the aorist participle, 

πορευθέντες; not “as you go,” as is frequently explained, but “Go and make 

disciples.” 7 Πορευθέντες is an attendant circumstance participle; that is, the 

action “go,” in some sense, is coordinate with the action of the finite verb, 

“make disciples.” 8 And as such, the participle takes on imperatival force as 

well. Further, the action of the participle is “something of a prerequisite before 

the action of the main verb can occur.” 9 That is to say, no making of 

disciples will take place unless you go: “Go and make disciples!” 

The object of the main verb “make disciples” (μαθητεύσατε) is πάντα τὰ 

ἔθνη (“all the nations”)—every nation on the face of the earth, every people 

group on the planet—red and yellow and black and white, all are precious 

in his sight. Followers of Jesus are to make disciples of everyone everywhere, 

regardless of color or locale. Thus, the Great Commission involves not only 

sharing the gospel (i.e., not just missions and evangelism: “Go”), but another 

great responsibility: “make disciples.” A disciple is basically a follower of 

Christ and his word/teachings. He is a learner, adherent, and follower of the 

Lord Jesus Christ, someone who seeks to spread the gospel and its teachings 

to others. Believers in Jesus are to train those with whom they have shared 

the gospel and led to the Lord. They are to do “follow-up.” They are not to 

leave converts to Christ unchurched, untrained, and undiscipled. 

The text contains two participles of means, βαπτίζοντες and διδάσκοντες 

(“baptizing” and “teaching”), that define the action of the main verb “make 

5 

Emphasis added. Unless otherwise noted, translations of the biblical text are my own. 

6 

Emphasis added. 

7 

Emphasis added. 

8 

Though Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: 

Zondervan, 1996), 640, 645, places the attendant circumstance participle “go” into the 

“disputed examples” category in the latter book, he rightly presents it as a clear example in 

his abridged The Basics of New Testament Syntax: An Intermediate Grammar (Grand Rapids: 

Zondervan, 2000), 280-81. 

9 

Wallace, Basics of NT Syntax, 280.


disciples.” 10 In other words, they make more explicit what Jesus intended to 

convey with the command to “make disciples.” Participles of means convey 

the means by which disciples are made, namely, by baptizing, then teaching. 

First of all, disciples are to be baptized/immersed. Before they are baptized 

they have no doubt to come to an understanding that as Christ’s followers, 

they are dead to sin, buried with Christ in his death, changed and raised 

to walk in a new way of life. When they are baptized, they are immersed, 

notice: “in the name [sg.] of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” 

(εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος; the triune 

God). 11 Baptized followers of Christ will need to be trained, and so another 

crucial means by which Christians make disciples is teaching. They are to be 

taught “to keep/obey all things as many things as Jesus commanded” (τηρεῖν 

πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν). In other words, they are taught the teachings 

of Christ, the things that Christ commanded, the word of God; and, not only 

are they trained, they are taught to obey the commandments of Jesus. 

Jesus concluded the Great Commission with the words: “And behold 

I am with you always to the end of the age” (καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθʼ ὑμῶν εἰμι 

πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος). 12 Earlier in Matt 1:23 his 

readers were told of the promised Savior, the Messiah to be born to Mary, 

Jesus, who will be called Immanuel, “God with us.” God himself through 

the person of Jesus was promised to be present amongst humanity. And, he 

was present on the earth through the Incarnation. In these climactic verses 

of Matt 28:19-20 the resurrected Lord who commissioned his followers also 

promised to be ever-present, with them always to the end of the age. That 

truth ought to be a comfort and an assurance for believers in Jesus as they are 

engaged in missions and making disciples. 

Several principles can be derived from this text. First, followers of Jesus 

are vested with an authoritative message from the authoritative Christ. 

Second, they are commanded to go and make disciples. Third, they are commanded 

to make disciples of the people of all nations. Fourth, they are commanded 

to make disciples by means of baptizing (in the name of the Triune 

God) and teaching (which includes teaching them to obey Christ’s commandments). 

Fifth, the authoritative Christ through his Holy Spirit always 

accompanies and empowers believers as they do. 

Acts 17:16–34 

When considering the book of Acts, one first needs to consider the 

Gospel of Luke. Scholars treat these biblical books together as Luke-Acts 

because they are believed to be written by the same author, Luke, and because 

Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. In his Gospel, Luke used eyewitness 

reports and written accounts to provide his own orderly, trustworthy 

10 

See Wallace, Greek Grammar, 645. 

11 

Insert added. 

12 

Emphasis added.


version of Christian origins (Luke 1:1-4). The purpose for the good doctor’s 

Gospel is specifically found in Luke 1:4. He writes to Theophilus (and no 

doubt others like him) so that he/they might know of God’s pledge-promise 

(ἀσφάλεια; most often translated as “exact truth”) to him/them with respect 

to Jesus Christ and the preaching of the gospel. He/they were given a pledge 

assuring him/them of the truthfulness of Christ’s passion and the certainty 

that the gospel will spread in spite of opposition. 

Luke wrote with the above theme and purpose in mind; his Gospel is 

indeed one of promise and fulfillment. For example, God promised Zechariah 

through an angel that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son whom 

they would name John (1:13). That promise was fulfilled with the birth of 

John the Baptist (1:57-66). Through this same angel God promised that John 

the Baptist would be the forerunner to the Christ, the Messiah (1:16-17). 

That promise came to pass in the ministry and preaching of the Baptist (3:1- 

20; esp. 3:3-6, 16-17). The angel Gabriel promised Mary that she would give 

birth to a son named Jesus (1:26-38). That promise was fulfilled of course 

when Jesus was born (2:6-7). An angel of the Lord proclaimed Christ’s birth 

to shepherds and gave them a sign: they would find the baby lying in a 

manger (2:8-12). Later, the shepherds found the infant lying in the feeding 

trough (2:16-17), just as the angel promised. Jesus stood in the synagogue at 

Nazareth to read Isa 61:1-2, an OT promise about the Messiah (4:16-22), 

then sat down and told those attending that particular Scripture was fulfilled 

in him that day (4:21). When his disciples asked about future things to come, 

Jesus gave them a climactic promise concerning the preaching of the gospel, 

viz., as they preached Christ as the Messiah they would be brought “before 

governors and kings” because of him, leading to an opportunity for witness 

(21:12-15). Christ’s promise to them is fulfilled throughout the book of Acts 

as the disciples are engaged in ministry, persecuted, seized, and brought before 

the magistrates. The resurrected Jesus also gave his disciples the promise 

par excellence, the Holy Spirit, telling them to wait in the city of Jerusalem 

until they received power from on high (24:49). The fulfillment of that 

promise occurs in Acts in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). 

Acts shows the sovereign spread of the gospel with all “bold speech” 

amidst great opposition. Key terms in Acts are παρρησία (“boldness; bold or 

frank speech”), παρρησιάζομαι (to preach boldly, fearlessly), and their cognates. 

Jesus’ disciples practice this kind of speech throughout the book of 

Acts. In addition to bold proclamation, other themes found throughout Acts 

include prayer and persecution. All three of these themes are perhaps best 

exemplified in Acts 4:23–31 and its context. Peter and John have healed a 

man and were preaching that salvation comes through no one else but Jesus 

Christ (4:12). Consequently, they were brought before the Jewish leadership, 

examined, threatened, and released, but told never again to do these things. 

They replied to those who tried them “we are unable to stop speaking about 

the things we have seen and heard” (4:20). Subsequently, Peter and John go 

back to their own people and report what had happened; then, they do not


pray for deliverance, but instead lift their voices in one accord in prayer to 

God asking him to do great works through the name of Jesus and to give 

them boldness (παρρησία) to keep preaching Jesus fearlessly (4:29-30). 

In the book of Acts, Paul had also been boldly preaching. He was 

preaching in Thessalonica (17:1-9) until a mob riot of jealous Jews caused 

him to leave for Berea (17:10-15). In Berea, Paul’s preaching was warmly 

received until the Jews from Thessalonica followed him, discovered he was 

preaching Christ, and caused trouble for him there as well (17:13). Consequently, 

Paul was escorted by believers to the city of Athens (17:15). 

In Athens Paul was greatly distressed (παροξύνομαι; “provoked”) seeing 

that the city was full of idols (17:16). This word is often used in the LXX 

to describe the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who is “provoked” to 

anger when he sees idolatry. 13 Paul was “provoked” in spirit by the idolatry 

he saw and no doubt had a desire to convert the Athenians from idolatry to 

belief in the true and living God. This provocation is sometimes described 

as “jealousy.” 14 Exod 34:14 states that “the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a 

jealous God” (LXX). The Lord God resents competition; he brooks no rivals. 

When Paul saw the idolatry in Athens, his very soul revolted at the sight of 

people giving to others and to things the worship that rightfully belonged 

to God. 15 

Seeing others give their worship to idolatry, i.e., God-substitutes, 

should move the followers of Christ in a similar fashion because people’s 

worship should go to the Lord God Almighty. Motivation for doing missions 

and evangelism should be obedience to the Great Commission, and 

compassion should motivate believers to action as well, but so also should 

jealousy or zeal for God’s glory and Jesus Christ his Son. Paul’s response to 

the idolatry he saw resulted in witnessing to others: bold preaching. In other 

words, Paul’s reaction compelled him now to give gospel testimony (17:17). 

First, he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and God-fearers (Gentiles 

who sought after God in the synagogue). No doubt he would have proclaimed 

there that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah of their Old Testament 

Scriptures. Second, he also witnessed daily to anybody who happened 

to be present in the ἀγορά (marketplace). Third, he also encountered and 

conversed with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers (17:18). The Epicureans 

were philosophers who “considered the gods to be so remote as to take 

no interest in, and have no influence on, human affairs.” 16 They believed that 

the world came into being through chance, a random coming together of atoms. 

17 They also thought there would be no continued existence after death, 

13 

John R.W. Stott, The Message of Acts, The Bible Speaks Today, gen. eds. J.A. Motyer 

and John R.W. Stott (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 278. 

14 

Ibid. 

15 

Ibid., 279. 

16 

Ibid., 280. 

17 

Ibid.


and thus, no judgment. 18 Pleasure was their aim in life, and they sought to 

live free of pain and fear. The Stoics, on the other hand, acknowledged a 

supreme being but did so in a pantheistic, God-is-everything, sort of way. 19 

They believed in fate, self-sufficiency, doing their duty, and living in accord 

with reason and the natural world. 20 Several of these philosophers would appear 

on the Aeropagus council before which Paul would later appear. 

The philosophers with whom Paul had been sharing the gospel reacted 

to his message in a couple of ways. First, some insulted him, “What does this 

scavenger of information (σπερμολόγος) wish to say?” (17:18). They thought 

he had no original thoughts or ideas of his own. “But others said, ‘He seems 

to be a proclaimer of strange/foreign deities’ (ξένων δαιμονίων)” (17:18). 

Luke tells us that they made that remark because Paul was preaching Jesus 

and the resurrection. Stott suggests that they thought Paul was introducing 

to Athens a new male God named Jesus with his female consort, Anastasia 

(ἀνάστασις, the Greek word for “resurrection,” also a lady’s name), to add to 

their pantheon of gods. 21 If so, notice Luke did not record in Acts a response 

by Paul that we might imagine as contextual and cultural-friendly: “Well, 

I’ll just let them keep on thinking that for the sake of culture. That’s part of 

their culture and now that I’ve got a foothold amongst them with their idea 

of the resurrection, I’ll just let them keep thinking that, and then later on 

when they are ready, I will explain to them more fully what the resurrection 

really is.” 

No, Paul’s preaching instead led to his being taken and having to give 

an account for his teaching before the supreme council of Athens: the Aeropagus 

(17:19). 22 The members of the council wanted to know what this new 

teaching was that Paul was proclaiming (17:19). They explained they wanted 

to know what these astonishing things meant (17:20). This reaction is understandable 

because to them, what Paul was preaching seemed to be a trendy 

thing (cf. 17:21). So, standing before the Aeropagus council members, and 

in response to their request, Paul masterfully guided them to an explanation 

of the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ. The verses that follow are at the 

heart of matters regarding contextualization. 

As Paul began to address the council he told them that he had observed 

they were “religious in every way” (17:22). This observation was no understatement 

because of the rampant idolatry in the city. He next explained that 

as he was looking at their objects of worship throughout the city, he had even 

seen inscribed upon an altar the words: “To An Unknown God” (17:23). He 

then “eagerly seized on this inscription as a way of introducing his proclamation 

of the unknown God. There was, to be sure, no real connection 

18 

Ibid. 

19 

Ibid. 

20 

Ibid., 280-81. 

21 

Ibid., 282. 

22 

Literally: “the hill of Ares” (Roman: Mars). At this point in time, however, it referred 

to the council of Athens and not the place.


between ‘an unknown God’ and the true God; Paul hardly meant that his 

audience were unconscious worshippers of the true God.” 23 In other words, 

Paul was not acknowledging the authenticity of their unknown God nor 

their pagan worship. Rather, he took advantage of the Athenians’ knowledge 

of an anonymous altar he had come across while in their city and used their 

acknowledgment of an unknown God to enlighten their ignorance. As Marshall 

explains, he drew “their attention to the true God who was ultimately 

responsible for the phenomena which they attributed to an unknown God.” 24 

Christ-followers engaged in missions and evangelism ought also to 

look for similar items to pique the interest of their hearers, i.e., ways to connect, 

conversation starters if you will, as they present the gospel to those who 

do not know Jesus. I can remember sharing the gospel with an orthodox Jew 

on one occasion as I returned from the country of Turkey. After exchanging 

pleasantries, my initial bridge or way to connect with him was to discuss not 

only Isa 7:14 but also the role of the Ten Commandments in Judaism. These 

subjects are important to believers in Jesus, but they are especially important 

to Jews, and out of that discussion, with that way to connect, I was able to 

share the gospel. Or, I think of the illustration that President Patterson once 

gave in a Southwestern Seminary chapel service when he told how he had 

met on a flight a man who obviously had an interest in hunting. The man 

had observed, as I recall, that Dr. Patterson was reading something related 

to hunting, and he asked the president, “Are you a hunter? He replied, “Why 

yes I am; I hunt goats.” The man thought about it for a moment and then 

said, “Okay, I’ll bite,” and Dr. Patterson then shared the gospel with him after 

that conversation starter. 

Paul next began to describe the God of the gospel for the members 

of the Aeropagus (17:24). When he did, he focused on only a few points 

of agreement between their different religious systems/worldviews and the 

Christian message. Mostly, however, and this is important to note, he drew 

out the contrasts between their beliefs. Paul used a contrastive bridge, if you 

will, as he presented the gospel. First, Paul preached that God is the Creator 

of the universe (17:24). 25 This proclamation struck at the heart of building 

structures for idols for “a God who is Creator and Lord clearly does not live 

in a temple made by human hands.” 26 The apostle pointed out a difference 

between the Athenians’ manmade idols and the true and living God. Second, 

Paul preached that God is the source and sustainer of all life (17:25). 27 

Thus, “such a God has no need of men to supply him with anything; on the 

contrary, it is he who is the source of life.” 28 Third, Paul preached that God is 

23 

I. Howard Marshall, Acts: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC, gen. ed. Leon 

Morris (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 286. 

24 

Ibid. 

25 

Stott, Acts, 285. 

26 

Marshall, Acts, 286. 

27 

Marshall, Acts, 287; Stott, Acts, 285. 

28 

Marshall, Acts, 287.


sovereign over all the nations (17:26–27). He created from one man (Adam) 

everyone on the face of the planet, fixed their days and time, and even determined 

the boundaries of their countries and where they would live. God’s 

purpose in all of this (according to 17:27) was that people “might seek after 

him in the hope of touching and finding him.” 29 Paul relayed that seeking 

and finding him should not be difficult because God is not far from each one 

of us (17:27). This line of thought was apparently current in Stoic philosophy 

but only in an impersonal, intellectual sense. As a follower of Christ, Paul of 

course meant it in a personal sense. 30 Fourth, Paul proclaimed that God is the 

Father of all mankind (17:28–29). He used some truth that he found in pagan 

philosophy and applied it to God. He spoke out against their idolatry on 

the basis of the fact that mankind is God’s offspring. 31 Fifth, Paul preached 

that the God is the Judge of the world (17:30–31). 32 

If one reviews several of the contrasts that Paul pointed out as he proclaimed 

the gospel, he will see that the ideas that he preached exposed the 

false ideas about God that the Council, these philosophers, had. The gospel 

Paul preached as he spoke about God goes against ideas like men should 

be self-sufficient. Paul taught that God sustains life. Paul’s preaching goes 

against the idea that the world was created by chance. He taught instead 

that God is the Creator. Paul’s preaching about the God of the gospel went 

against all of their idolatry, and then he zeroed in on the fact that God will 

judge them (17:30–31). It is difficult to argue that such preaching is seekersensitive 

and contextualization friendly. Paul has just met these men, and 

shortly later he started preaching judgment. He told them that God, in his 

mercy, had been very patient with them up to this point; he had overlooked 

their ignorance and idolatry, and had not yet visited it with the punishment 

that it deserved (17:30). But now, Paul told them, you have no excuse because 

God commands all men everywhere to repent—to make an “about-face,” to 

change their minds and make a 180-degree turn away from sin and towards 

God—because of the certainty of the coming judgment (17:31). 

Indeed, he has fixed a day when he will judge the world—everyone 

will be judged; it is all-inclusive in scope; no one is exempt. On that day, 

God will judge the world righteously, with justice. And that day is fixed; it 

is definite, and the judge has already been appointed. The Judge is the Man 

whom God has appointed—Jesus Christ. God has committed the judgment 

to his Son Jesus, and he has given proof of this judgment to come by raising 

Christ from the dead. Verse 32 says that when they heard of the resurrection, 

some sneered, some said—whether they meant it or not—we will hear you 

again sometime, so Paul left their midst. A few (Dionysius the Areopagite, 

Damaris, and some others), however, became followers and believed (17:34). 

Despite the rejection, those who were saved made it all worthwhile. 

29 

Ibid., 288. 

30 

Ibid. 

31 

Ibid., 289. 

32 

Stott, Acts, 287.


Principles that might be learned from this passage in Acts that touch 

on evangelism, missions and contextualization include the following. First, 

followers of Jesus need to ask God to burden them for the souls of people, 

i.e., to feel the way that he does toward them, and that is, to grieve for those 

who reject Jesus as Savior and Lord, seeing them as sinners, people precious 

in the sight of God who stand in need of salvation from the penalty and 

judgment of sin. God forbid that the reason that Christians do not witness to 

others as they should is because they do not feel the way that God does about 

people. Second, followers of Christ need to develop and sharpen their skills 

in proclaiming the gospel. They should learn to seek out common interests 

with people so that they can be used to share the gospel with them. These are 

things to take advantage of so as to present the gospel message. Compromise 

here is not an option. Believers in Jesus do not accept or acknowledge, even 

for a short period of time, the false ideas or designations of worldviews contrary 

to the gospel. Third, believers in Jesus need to learn to expose false ideas 

that are contrary to the gospel. This is indeed bold preaching. And, as you 

explain the gospel, you do not focus so much on any similarities as you do instead 

pointing out the contrasts between Christianity and the belief systems 

of others. That is part and parcel of being a gospel preacher. Christ-followers 

are distinctively different and so is their doctrine. Believers in Jesus need to 

know Scripture well enough to deal with false ideas whenever they encroach 

upon the gospel and the truth of God’s word. Likewise, they ought to be 

familiar with some other belief systems outside of Christianity, particularly 

if they become involved in missions to a specific locale. For instance, if one is 

going to serve in India, he should know the beliefs of Hinduism fairly well. 

With the latter religion, if a preacher does not point out contrasts and spell 

out the gospel clearly, the Hindu will simply incorporate Jesus into his belief 

system as one of his many other gods. Similarly, if one is going to serve in 

the Middle East, then he should know the beliefs of Islam well, and so forth. 

1 Cor 9:19–23 

First Corinthians 9:19–23 is probably one of the clearest and yet most 

controversial texts of all when it comes to discussing evangelism, missions, 

and contextualization. Some background information is necessary before we 

plunge into this passage. The occasion behind 1 Corinthians goes something 

like the following. Paul’s founding visit to Corinth is in Acts 18 (c. A.D. 50- 

52). A couple of years later, while Paul was in Ephesus, he wrote the “previous 

letter” (5:9). Though the contents of this letter are unknown, it surely 

must have dealt with the problem of sexual immorality in the church. Paul’s 

words in 1 Corinthians 5 suggest that the Corinthians had misunderstood 

his directives in this letter. This misunderstanding led to the writing of 1 

Corinthians (c. A.D. 55). This letter was occasioned by several events: (1) 

Paul heard from Chloe’s people (1:11) that a factional party spirit had de-


veloped in Corinth; (2) he also received a letter from the Corinthian church 

to which he began to respond in 1 Corinthians 7. He took up the items in 

the church’s letter one by one, most of them introduced by the words “now 

about” (cf. 7:1, 25, 8:1, 12:1, 16:1, 12). Most likely, this letter from Corinth 

was written as a response to Paul’s “previous letter” and was carried to Paul by 

three men (Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus) from Corinth (16:15-17). 

This Corinthian delegation may also have brought oral reports to Paul about 

the problematic situation in Corinth; things were not going so well. 

Paul wrote to chide the Corinthian church into acknowledging the 

Lord’s “ownership” of them and the implications of that ownership in the 

different areas of their lives (cf. 6:19-20). The Corinthian church was chock 

full of problems. As Paul penned this letter, he critiqued the division within 

the church (1:11-15) and the errant beliefs which led to this split. He taught 

them that they did not belong to Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and others (cf. 1:12), 

but rather they belonged to Christ. They were not their own and had been 

bought with a price, thus they were to glorify God with their bodies (6:19- 

20), i.e., their slave-bodies (σῶμα). 33 Paul also sought to address the questions 

raised by the Corinthian church. 34 They had questions about spiritual 

gifts; they had questions about marriage, and in 1 Corinthians 8 they had 

questions about meat offered to idols. 

Whenever idol worshippers offered sacrifices, the shares of what was 

left of the animals that had been burned up was given first to the priest, then 

to the families who had presented the offerings. The leftover meat was eaten 

at dinners in the pagan temple or its vicinity, or at home by their families, 

guests, and friends, or it would end up in the marketplace to be sold. So 

you can see how this situation might become difficult. The Corinthians had 

some questions about eating this kind of meat. Does a follower of Christ eat 

meat offered to idols? Some of the Corinthians said, “Yes, it doesn’t violate 

our conscience; it doesn’t hurt our testimony, no problem!” Whereas others 

thought it was a sin to eat meat like that. Someone, somewhere along the 

way, must have said, “I know! Let’s ask the apostle Paul.” So they did. 

Paul told the Corinthians that there really is no such thing as an idol 

(8:4); however, he went go on to say that not everybody knows this fact (8:7). 

For Paul, idols are of no significance because there is only one true God (8:5- 

6). But in the matter of meats offered to idols, he said, love must regulate 

your knowledge that there is no such thing as an idol by giving up rights 

which will cause a weaker brother to stumble (8:7-13). Some Christians 

did not realize that there is nothing wrong with this, and they would defile 

their consciences by eating the meat (8:7-8). And if you eat the meat, Paul 

said, you are going to ruin your weaker brother and cause him to sin against 

Christ (8:9-12). And so, Paul told the church in 1 Cor 8:13 that the liberty of 

believers in this matter should be limited by concern for their brother’s well- 

33 

First Corinthians contains much slavery language, of which this is but one example. 

34 

He also instructed the Corinthians to participate in the offering for the Jerusalem 

saints (16:1-4).


being: “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat 

again, so that I may not cause my brother to stumble.” So, some important 

principles of Christian liberty are found in chapter 8 that need review before 

proceeding to chapter 9. 

After warning the church in chapter 8 how improperly exercising one’s 

liberty in Christ might lead to the ruin of those who are weak in faith and 

conscience, Paul then illustrated how he was more than willing to exercise 

restraint, even when it came to the liberties he had as an apostle of Jesus 

Christ. And Paul’s relinquishing of his privileges as an apostle in order to 

preach the gospel illustrates the attitude towards Christian liberty that gains 

God’s approval (9:1-27). 

Paul started chapter 9 with a series of four questions that each anticipate 

the answer “Yes.” He demonstrated he was a true apostle who had certain 

rights that go with his office. His position as an apostle was based on his 

vision of the resurrected Christ and the evidence of his apostolic work (9:1- 

3). He had the right to eat and drink as he was involved in his missionary 

endeavors (9:4). He had the right to take along a believing wife, as did others 

(9:5). Paul also taught that he had a right to refrain from working with his 

hands; his apostleship entitled him to financial support because any worker 

is deserving of his wages as the Lord had commanded (9:4-14). Nonetheless, 

he had not used these rights and was also not trying to secure them for himself 

(9:15). Apparently, some critics in Corinth criticized Paul for not taking 

support (cf. 2 Cor 11:7-12). He pointed out, however, that rather than using 

that right, he endured all things—(catch this if you catch nothing else)—so 

that he would cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ (9:12). That is one of the 

extremely important, key operative principles for Paul as he lived out his life 

and engaged in ministry. Paul put up with anything rather than hinder the 

gospel of Christ. 

For Paul, the gospel put the importance of his apostolic work into perspective. 

He had used none of his apostolic rights to support. He gave up 

those rights in order to gain a reward for going beyond his duty (9:15-18). 

He did not want his reason for preaching the gospel to be suspect. Paul knew 

that he had to preach the gospel without thinking about compensation. He 

belonged to the Lord and was indebted to preach (9:16). He knew he would 

receive a reward from God if he willingly preached the gospel apart from 

the praise of men and remuneration. 35 Even when he did not feel like it, 

nonetheless God had still entrusted him with the gospel, a stewardship in 

trust (9:17). Stewards (chief household slaves in those days entrusted with 

the affairs of their masters) did what their masters told them to do whether 

they liked it or not. Paul’s reward involved offering the gospel he preached 

without cost; he did not want to use or abuse his right to financial support; 

offering the gospel to the lost without charge was his reward (9:18). 36 

35 

Robert G. Gromacki, Called to be Saints: An Exposition of I Corinthians (Grand 

Rapids: Baker, 1983), 112. 

36 

Ibid.


Paul also taught that the gospel puts the methods of his ministry into 

perspective (9:19-23). Now remember, the context of this passage has Paul 

refraining from the use of his rights/liberty in Christ. So, we need to be careful 

here. The point here is not to stress how much liberty I have and what all 

I might do and get away with as I am engaged in missions and contextualization, 

but rather, from what should I refrain as I am attempting to reach 

others for the Lord/gospel. That distinction is an important one. Paul gave 

up personal rights in other areas as well in order to win more to the gospel. 

Notice that this text begins in 9:19 with Paul’s remark that though he is free 

from all, he has “made himself a slave [a slave has no rights] to everyone,” 37 

and then he fleshed that statement out with some concrete examples of the 

type of people whom he serves as such when engaged in mission. In the examples 

that follow in 1 Cor 9:19-23 Paul’s words are not without restriction. 

He never meant something like, “To the adulterer, I became as an adulterer. 

To the embezzler I became as an embezzler. To the cannibal, I became as 

a cannibal.” He would not say such things. What about to the New Ager? 

“I became as a New Ager?” “To the Hindu, I became as a Hindu?” “To the 

Muslim, I became as a Muslim?” Would Paul say that? What did he mean? 

Paul said, “I made myself a slave (δουλόω) to everyone” (9:19). First, 

“To the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain Jews” (9:20). How did Paul 

do that? We have some concrete examples in Scripture. He preached in the 

synagogues on the Sabbath (throughout Acts). He had Timothy, a half Jewish 

and half Greek co-worker, circumcised so that his mission team might 

be more effective (Acts 16:3); as a witness to Jerusalem Jews, Paul agreed to 

the request to associate himself with Jews who had undergone purification 

vows (Acts 21:20-26). 38 So, there are ways in Scripture that Paul “became as 

a Jew to the Jews.” Second, “To those under the law I became as one under 

the law” (9:20). This phrase may be epexegetical and refer to the Jews he just 

mentioned in 9:19, or it may refer to Gentile proselytes to Judaism. Third, 

“To those without law I became as one without law” (9:21), i.e. Gentiles (we 

have already seen an example of an approach to Gentiles in Acts 17), though 

Paul did not want anyone to misunderstand; he made it clear that he was not 

without morals. He was not without God’s law for he was still under the law 

of Christ; indeed, he was a slave to Christ and his teachings. Fourth, “To the 

weak I became weak” (9:22). We have already seen an example where Paul 

became weak to the weak. This reference either refers to unbelievers or likely 

back to 1 Corinthians 8 where Paul spoke of the weak. In the latter case, if 

eating the meat caused his weak brother to stumble he would not eat meat; 

he would not do anything to hinder the gospel of Christ. It is important to 

note that Paul is not in any of these categories. He is no longer a Jew under 

the law; he never was a Gentile; he is not a weak brother—no; he has accomodated 

his weak brother in Christ. But, he “flexes,” as many have put it, 

37 

Insert added. 

38 

Examples borrowed from Gromacki, Called to be Saints, 113.


to communicate the gospel. 

Paul became “all things to all men” (9:22). He was a slave to all. On 

Paul’s words here Tullian Tchvidjian aptly remarks, 

Becoming ‘all things to all people’ does not mean fitting in with 

the fallen patterns of this world so that there is no distinguishable 

difference between Christians and non-Christians. While 

rightly living “in the world,” we must avoid the extreme of accommodation—being 

‘of the world.’ It happens when Christians, 

in their attempt to make proper contact with the world, go out 

of their way to adopt worldly styles, standards, and strategies. 

When Christians try to eliminate the counter-cultural, unfashionable 

features of the biblical message because those features are 

unpopular in the wider culture—for example, when we reduce sin 

to a lack of self-esteem, deny the exclusivity of Christ, or downplay 

the reality of knowable absolute truth—we’ve moved from 

contextualization to compromise. When we accommodate our 

culture by jettisoning key themes of the gospel, such as suffering, 

humility, persecution, service, and self-sacrifice, we actually do 

our world more harm than good. For love’s sake, compromise is 

to be avoided at all costs. 39 

Yes, Paul engaged in contextualization, but only up to a point. He never 

compromised the gospel message; he never compromised his morals, nor did 

he ever contradict the teaching of Christ and the will of God as found in 

the teaching of the word of God. He clearly operated within boundaries. He 

was flexible, yet firm, accommodating his lifestyle and the methodology with 

which he shared the gospel to the group he was aiming to reach for Christ. 40 

Paul willingly gave up the exercise of his rights “on account of the gospel” 

and by doing so saw himself as participating in it (9:23). The example par 

excellence of one who gave up his rights is found in Jesus and the Incarnation. 

He is the basis for our mission and contextualization efforts. Though he is 

God he did not take advantage of that right; rather he forsook the glory of 

heaven to become a slave, taking on human form, amongst us. He did so in 

order to save humanity through the cross (Phil 2:5-8; cf. Heb 2:14-18). 

Paul went on to say that the gospel puts the discipline of his life into 

perspective (9:24-27). Within boundaries, he did whatever it took to share 

the gospel with others. In this passage, Paul explained that he gave up his 

rights to gain God’s approval in the same way that an athlete disciplines himself 

in order to win the prize. Athletes would constantly train under oath ten 

months prior to the games, eat the right diet, and abstain from indulgences. 

39 

Tullian Tchvidjian, “Contextualization without Compromise,” Resurgence (online at 

http://theresurgence.com/2010/04/22/contextualization-without-compromise; accessed: 13 

April 2011) 

40 

Gromacki, Called to Be Saints, 112-13.


Paul used the illustrations of running and boxing, probably taken from the 

Isthmian games held at Corinth, to underscore the need for self-control in 

the Corinthians’ Christian lives (9:26). He declared that he himself did not 

run without a definite goal in mind and did not box as one “beating the air.” 

This statement referred to the image of when a boxer threw a punch in a 

fight. The opponent would do his best to dodge the blow so that it would 

be uselessly thrown in the empty air. To connect with one’s punches was extremely 

important in antiquity because the ensuing momentum of a missed 

punch would make the boxer extremely vulnerable to his adversary’s brutal 

blows. Greek boxing gloves (himantes) were leather straps wrapped around a 

boxer’s hands and wrists in such a way to become like a club. The Romans in 

turn modified the leather thongs by adding a metal insert so that the boxing 

gloves (caestus) were even more deadly. Paul maintained that every punch 

that he threw connected. He did not throw empty and meaningless punches 

in the air when it came to the preaching of the gospel and the contextualization 

of that gospel to others. 

Several principles may be derived from this passage and its context. 

First, for the sake of Christian love and the propagation of the gospel of 

Christ, we need to be willing to refrain from the exercise of any rights that 

we may have as believers or individuals. Second, we must do nothing to hinder 

the gospel of Christ. Third, we need to be flexible and firm as we operate 

within boundaries and accommodate our lifestyles and methodologies to 

share Christ with different peoples. Those boundaries would include never 

violating the word of God as we do so. We should also never compromise 

the Christian message of the gospel nor our morals. Once we do, we lose our 

credibility and further, the blessing of God. Fourth, we must be disciplined 

and exercise self-control as we are engaged in evangelism and missions being 

as effective as we possibly can, making our opportunities count. Fifth, in all 

of this, we keep our eyes focused on the Lord Jesus, who is the basis for our 

contextualization (Phil 2:5-8). 

A Concluding Prayer 

Father, burden us for the souls of people and empower us through your 

Holy Spirit and by your grace not to do anything that might hinder the gospel 

of Jesus Christ as we are engaged in mission. The gospel of Jesus puts all 

of our evangelistic, missionary, and contextualization efforts into perspective. 

Help us to remember that fact. Protect us, we pray, from the evil one. Let 

us neither compromise the gospel, nor compromise ourselves. Instead, let us 

lead holy, disciplined lives, and be distinctively different so that the world 

sees the love of Christ in our lives and in the message of reconciliation with 

which we are entrusted. God help us and bless us as we seek to be effective 

and faithful stewards. In Jesus’ precious name, we pray. Amen.





The e-Advocate Quarterly 


Issue Title Quarterly 

Vol. I 2015 The Fundamentals 

I 

The ComeUnity ReEngineering 

Project Initiative 

Q-1 2015 

II The Adolescent Law Group Q-2 2015 

III 

Landmark Cases in US 

Juvenile Justice (PA) 

Q-3 2015 

IV The First Amendment Project Q-4 2015 

Vol. II 2016 Strategic Development 

V The Fourth Amendment Project Q-1 2016 

VI 


Juvenile Justice (NJ) 

Q-2 2016 

VII Youth Court Q-3 2016 

VIII 

The Economic Consequences of Legal 

Decision-Making 

Q-4 2016 

Vol. III 2017 Sustainability 

IX The Sixth Amendment Project Q-1 2017 

X 

The Theological Foundations of 

US Law & Government 

Q-2 2017 

XI The Eighth Amendment Project Q-3 2017 

XII 

The EB-5 Investor 

Immigration Project* 

Q-4 2017 

Vol. IV 2018 Collaboration 

XIII Strategic Planning Q-1 2018 

XIV 

The Juvenile Justice 

Legislative Reform Initiative 

Q-2 2018 

XV The Advocacy Foundation Coalition Q-3 2018 


XVI 

for Drug-Free Communities 


Juvenile Justice (GA) 

Q-4 2018 



Vol. V 2019 Organizational Development 

XVII The Board of Directors Q-1 2019 

XVIII The Inner Circle Q-2 2019 

XIX Staff & Management Q-3 2019 

XX Succession Planning Q-4 2019 

XXI The Budget* Bonus #1 

XXII Data-Driven Resource Allocation* Bonus #2 

Vol. VI 2020 Missions 

XXIII Critical Thinking Q-1 2020 

XXIV 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative Project 

Q-2 2020 

XXV International Labor Relations Q-3 2020 

XXVI Immigration Q-4 2020 

Vol. VII 2021 Community Engagement 

XXVII 

The 21 st Century Charter Schools 

Initiative 

Q-1 2021 

XXVIII The All-Sports Ministry @ ... Q-2 2021 

XXIX Lobbying for Nonprofits Q-3 2021 

XXX 

XXXI 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

Domestic 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

International 

Q-4 2021 

Bonus 


Vol. VIII 

2022 ComeUnity ReEngineering 

XXXII 

The Creative & Fine Arts Ministry 

@ The Foundation 

Q-1 2022 

XXXIII The Advisory Council & Committees Q-2 2022 

XXXIV 

The Theological Origins 

of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Q-3 2022 

XXXV The Second Chance Ministry @ ... Q-4 2022 

Vol. IX 2023 Legal Reformation 

XXXVI The Fifth Amendment Project Q-1 2023 

XXXVII The Judicial Re-Engineering Initiative Q-2 2023 

XXXVIII 

The Inner-Cities Strategic 

Revitalization Initiative 

Q-3 2023 

XXXVIX Habeas Corpus Q-4 2023 

Vol. X 2024 ComeUnity Development 

XXXVX 

The Inner-City Strategic 

Revitalization Plan 

Q-1 2024 

XXXVXI The Mentoring Initiative Q-2 2024 

XXXVXII The Violence Prevention Framework Q-3 2024 

XXXVXIII The Fatherhood Initiative Q-4 2024 

Vol. XI 2025 Public Interest 

XXXVXIV Public Interest Law Q-1 2025 

L (50) Spiritual Resource Development Q-2 2025 


LI 

Nonprofit Confidentiality 

In The Age of Big Data 

Q-3 2025 

LII Interpreting The Facts Q-4 2025 

Vol. XII 2026 Poverty In America 

LIII 

American Poverty 

In The New Millennium 

Q-1 2026 

LIV Outcome-Based Thinking Q-2 2026 

LV Transformational Social Leadership Q-3 2026 

LVI The Cycle of Poverty Q-4 2026 

Vol. XIII 2027 Raising Awareness 

LVII ReEngineering Juvenile Justice Q-1 2027 

LVIII Corporations Q-2 2027 

LVIX The Prison Industrial Complex Q-3 2027 

LX Restoration of Rights Q-4 2027 

Vol. XIV 2028 Culturally Relevant Programming 

LXI Community Culture Q-1 2028 

LXII Corporate Culture Q-2 2028 

LXIII Strategic Cultural Planning Q-3 2028 

LXIV 

The Cross-Sector/ Coordinated 

Service Approach to Delinquency 

Prevention 

Q-4 2028 


Vol. XV 2029 Inner-Cities Revitalization 

LXIV 

LXV 

LXVI 

Part I – Strategic Housing 

Revitalization 

(The Twenty Percent Profit Margin) 

Part II – Jobs Training, Educational 

Redevelopment 

and Economic Empowerment 

Part III - Financial Literacy 

and Sustainability 

Q-1 2029 

Q-2 2029 

Q-3 2029 

LXVII Part IV – Solutions for Homelessness Q-4 2029 

LXVIII 

The Strategic Home Mortgage 

Initiative 

Bonus 

Vol. XVI 2030 Sustainability 

LXVIII Social Program Sustainability Q-1 2030 

LXIX 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative 

Q-2 2030 

LXX Capital Gains Q-3 2030 

LXXI Sustainability Investments Q-4 2030 

Vol. XVII 2031 The Justice Series 

LXXII Distributive Justice Q-1 2031 

LXXIII Retributive Justice Q-2 2031 

LXXIV Procedural Justice Q-3 2031 

LXXV (75) Restorative Justice Q-4 2031 

LXXVI Unjust Legal Reasoning Bonus 


Vol. XVIII 2032 Public Policy 

LXXVII Public Interest Law Q-1 2032 

LXXVIII Reforming Public Policy Q-2 2032 

LXXVIX ... Q-3 2032 

LXXVX ... Q-4 2032 


The e-Advocate Monthly Review 

2018 

Transformational Problem Solving January 2018 

The Advocacy Foundation February 2018 

Opioid Initiative 

Native-American Youth March 2018 

In the Juvenile Justice System 

Barriers to Reducing Confinement April 2018 

Latino and Hispanic Youth May 2018 


Social Entrepreneurship June 2018 

The Economic Consequences of 

Homelessness in America S.Ed – June 2018 

African-American Youth July 2018 


Gang Deconstruction August 2018 

Social Impact Investing September 2018 

Opportunity Youth: October 2018 

Disenfranchised Young People 

The Economic Impact of Social November 2018 

of Social Programs Development 

Gun Control December 2018 

2019 

The U.S. Stock Market January 2019 

Prison-Based Gerrymandering February 2019 

Literacy-Based Prison Construction March 2019 

Children of Incarcerated Parents April 2019 


African-American Youth in The May 2019 

Juvenile Justice System 

Racial Profiling June 2019 

Mass Collaboration July 2019 

Concentrated Poverty August 2019 

De-Industrialization September 2019 

Overcoming Dyslexia October 2019 

Overcoming Attention Deficit November 2019 

The Gift of Adversity December 2019 

2020 

The Gift of Hypersensitivity January 2020 

The Gift of Introspection February 2020 

The Gift of Introversion March 2020 

The Gift of Spirituality April 2020 

The Gift of Transformation May 2020 

Property Acquisition for 

Organizational Sustainability June 2020 

Investing for Organizational 

Sustainability July 2020 

Biblical Law & Justice TLFA August 2020 

Gentrification AF September 2020 

Environmental Racism NpA October 2020 

Law for The Poor AF November 2020 

… 


2021 

Biblically Responsible Investing TLFA – January 2021 

International Criminal Procedure LMI – February 2021 

Spiritual Rights TLFA – March 2021 

The Theology of Missions TLFA – April 2021 

… 


The e-Advocate Quarterly 

Special Editions 

Crowdfunding Winter-Spring 2017 

Social Media for Nonprofits October 2017 

Mass Media for Nonprofits November 2017 

The Opioid Crisis in America: January 2018 

Issues in Pain Management 

The Opioid Crisis in America: February 2018 

The Drug Culture in the U.S. 

The Opioid Crisis in America: March 2018 

Drug Abuse Among Veterans 

The Opioid Crisis in America: April 2018 

Drug Abuse Among America’s 

Teens 

The Opioid Crisis in America: May 2018 

Alcoholism 

The Economic Consequences of June 2018 

Homelessness in The US 

The Economic Consequences of July 2018 

Opioid Addiction in America 


The e-Advocate Journal 

of Theological Jurisprudence 

Vol. I - 2017 

The Theological Origins of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Scriptural Application to The Model Criminal Code 

Scriptural Application for Tort Reform 

Scriptural Application to Juvenile Justice Reformation 

Vol. II - 2018 

Scriptural Application for The Canons of Ethics 

Scriptural Application to Contracts Reform 

& The Uniform Commercial Code 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Property 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Evidence 


Legal Missions International 



Vol. I 2015 

I 

II 

God’s Will and The 21 st Century 

Democratic Process 

The Community 

Engagement Strategy 

Q-1 2015 

Q-2 2015 

III Foreign Policy Q-3 2015 

IV 

Public Interest Law 

in The New Millennium 

Q-4 2015 

Vol. II 2016 

V Ethiopia Q-1 2016 

VI Zimbabwe Q-2 2016 

VII Jamaica Q-3 2016 

VIII Brazil Q-4 2016 

Vol. III 2017 

IX India Q-1 2017 

X Suriname Q-2 2017 

XI The Caribbean Q-3 2017 

XII United States/ Estados Unidos Q-4 2017 

Vol. IV 2018 

XIII Cuba Q-1 2018 

XIV Guinea Q-2 2018 

XV Indonesia Q-3 2018 

XVI Sri Lanka Q-4 2018 


Vol. V 2019 

XVII Russia Q-1 2019 

XVIII Australia Q-2 2019 

XIV South Korea Q-3 2019 

XV Puerto Rico Q-4 2019 


Vol. VI 2020 

XVI Trinidad & Tobago Q-1 2020 

XVII Egypt Q-2 2020 

XVIII Sierra Leone Q-3 2020 

XIX South Africa Q-4 2020 

XX Israel Bonus 

Vol. VII 2021 

XXI Haiti Q-1 2021 

XXII Peru Q-2 2021 

XXIII Costa Rica Q-3 2021 

XXIV China Q-4 2021 

XXV Japan Bonus 

Vol VIII 2022 

XXVI Chile Q-1 2022 


The e-Advocate Juvenile Justice Report 

______ 

Vol. I – Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Vol. II. – The Prison Industrial Complex 

Vol. III – Restorative/ Transformative Justice 

Vol. IV – The Sixth Amendment Right to The Effective Assistance of Counsel 

Vol. V – The Theological Foundations of Juvenile Justice 

Vol. VI – Collaborating to Eradicate Juvenile Delinquency 


The e-Advocate Newsletter 

Genesis of The Problem 

Family Structure 

Societal Influences 

Evidence-Based Programming 

Strengthening Assets v. Eliminating Deficits 

2012 - Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Introduction/Ideology/Key Values 

Philosophy/Application & Practice 

Expungement & Pardons 

Pardons & Clemency 

Examples/Best Practices 

2013 - Restorative Justice in The US 

2014 - The Prison Industrial Complex 

25% of the World's Inmates Are In the US 

The Economics of Prison Enterprise 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons 

The After-Effects of Incarceration/Individual/Societal 

The Fourth Amendment Project 

The Sixth Amendment Project 

The Eighth Amendment Project 

The Adolescent Law Group 

2015 - US Constitutional Issues In The New Millennium 


2018 - The Theological Law Firm Academy 

The Theological Foundations of US Law & Government 

The Economic Consequences of Legal Decision-Making 

The Juvenile Justice Legislative Reform Initiative 

The EB-5 International Investors Initiative 

2017 - Organizational Development 

The Board of Directors 

The Inner Circle 

Staff & Management 

Succession Planning 

Bonus #1 The Budget 

Bonus #2 Data-Driven Resource Allocation 

2018 - Sustainability 

The Data-Driven Resource Allocation Process 

The Quality Assurance Initiative 

The Advocacy Foundation Endowments Initiative 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

2019 - Collaboration 

Critical Thinking for Transformative Justice 

International Labor Relations 

Immigration 

God's Will & The 21st Century Democratic Process 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

The 21st Century Charter Schools Initiative 

2020 - Community Engagement 


Extras 

The Nonprofit Advisors Group Newsletters 

The 501(c)(3) Acquisition Process 

The Board of Directors 

The Gladiator Mentality 

Strategic Planning 

Fundraising 

501(c)(3) Reinstatements 

The Collaborative US/ International Newsletters 

How You Think Is Everything 

The Reciprocal Nature of Business Relationships 

Accelerate Your Professional Development 

The Competitive Nature of Grant Writing 

Assessing The Risks 



About The Author 

John C (Jack) Johnson III 

Founder & CEO 

Jack was educated at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rutgers 

Law School, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1999, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue 

greater opportunities to provide Advocacy and Preventive Programmatic services for atrisk/ 

at-promise young persons, their families, and Justice Professionals embedded in the 

Juvenile Justice process in order to help facilitate its transcendence into the 21 st Century. 

There, along with a small group of community and faith-based professionals, “The Advocacy Foundation, Inc." was conceived 

and developed over roughly a thirteen year period, originally chartered as a Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Educational 

Support Services organization consisting of Mentoring, Tutoring, Counseling, Character Development, Community Change 

Management, Practitioner Re-Education & Training, and a host of related components. 

The Foundation’s Overarching Mission is “To help Individuals, Organizations, & Communities Achieve Their Full Potential”, by 

implementing a wide array of evidence-based proactive multi-disciplinary "Restorative & Transformative Justice" programs & 

projects currently throughout the northeast, southeast, and western international-waters regions, providing prevention and support 

services to at-risk/ at-promise youth, to young adults, to their families, and to Social Service, Justice and Mental 

Health professionals” everywhere. The Foundation has since relocated its headquarters to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and been 

expanded to include a three-tier mission. 

In addition to his work with the Foundation, Jack also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law & Business at National-Louis 

University of Atlanta (where he taught Political Science, Business & Legal Ethics, Labor & Employment Relations, and Critical 

Thinking courses to undergraduate and graduate level students). Jack has also served as Board President for a host of wellestablished 

and up & coming nonprofit organizations throughout the region, including “Visions Unlimited Community 

Development Systems, Inc.”, a multi-million dollar, award-winning, Violence Prevention and Gang Intervention Social Service 

organization in Atlanta, as well as Vice-Chair of the Georgia/ Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership, a state-wide 

300 organizational member, violence prevention group led by the Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University and The 

Original, Atlanta-Based, Martin Luther King Center. 

Attorney Johnson’s prior accomplishments include a wide-array of Professional Legal practice areas, including Private Firm, 

Corporate and Government postings, just about all of which yielded significant professional awards & accolades, the history and 

chronology of which are available for review online. Throughout his career, Jack has served a wide variety of for-profit 

corporations, law firms, and nonprofit organizations as Board Chairman, Secretary, Associate, and General Counsel since 1990. 

www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org 

Clayton County Youth Services Partnership, Inc. – Chair; Georgia Violence Prevention Partnership, Inc – Vice Chair; Fayette 

County NAACP - Legal Redress Committee Chairman; Clayton County Fatherhood Initiative Partnership – Principal 

Investigator; Morehouse School of Medicine School of Community Health Feasibility Study - Steering Committee; Atlanta 

Violence Prevention Capacity Building Project – Project Partner; Clayton County Minister’s Conference, President 2006-2007; 

Liberty In Life Ministries, Inc. – Board Secretary; Young Adults Talk, Inc. – Board of Directors; ROYAL, Inc - Board of 

Directors; Temple University Alumni Association; Rutgers Law School Alumni Association; Sertoma International; Our 

Common Welfare Board of Directors – President)2003-2005; River’s Edge Elementary School PTA (Co-President); Summerhill 

Community Ministries; Outstanding Young Men of America; Employee of the Year; Academic All-American - Basketball; 

Church Trustee. 


www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org 



The e-Advocate 

Monthly 

…a Compilation of Works on: 



Matthew 28:19-20 

Mark 16:15 | Acts 1:8 

Romans 10:13-14 | Revelation 14:6 


“Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential” 

Special Edition| TLFA – April 2021

The Theology of Missions

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