ANUARUL ACADEMIC 2003-2004 - Facultatea de Teologie "Andrei ...

Dealing with the origin and content of the concept missio Dei, professorTormod Engelsviken writes that the term missio Dei has a long history that goesback to Augustin and relates to the doctrine of the Trinity. 116 The theocentricperspective was not new in the 20 th century. It can be found in Martin Luther’sthinking about mission. For him, “mission is always pre-eminently the work of thetriune God – missio Dei- and its goal and outcome is the coming of the kingdom ofGod. Luther sees the church, along with God’s word and every baptized believer,as crucial divine instruments for mission. Yet nowhere does the reformer make thechurch the starting point or the final goal of mission, as the 19 th –centurymissiology tended to do”. 117Although one of the main reasons for the fame of the Willingen conference(1952) is the introduction of the concept of missio Dei, it cannot be found in thedocuments of the conference itself, as professor Tormod Engelsviken notices 118 ,and he adds that it seems that it was Karl Hartenstein who, in his report fromWillingen, coined the phrase when he spoke of mission as participation in thesending of the Son, in the missio Dei, with an inclusive aim of establishing thelordship of Christ over the whole redeemed creation.The emphasis in Willingen on a trinitarian basis of mission is even moreimportant than the somewhat ambiguos phrase missio Dei. It is this trinitarian basisof mission that should form the foundation of any understanding of missio Dei.This idea is also shared by an Indian theologian: “Christian mission should beunderstood as Christian participation in the mision of God. Missio Dei puts God atthe centre and as the source and author of mission, it suggests that mission shouldbe understood as being derived from the very nature of the triune God, that is, Godthe Father sends the Son, and God the Father and the Son send the Spirit, and thetriune God sends the church into the world ” 119 . Wilhelm Richebacher also points116 Tormod Engelsviken, 2003, ”Missio Dei : The Understanding and Misunderstanding of aTheological Concept in European Churches and Missiology”, in IRM, XCII ( 367, October 2003),p.482117 James A.Scherer, ed., Gospel, Church, & Kingdom: Comparative Studies in World MissionTheology, Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1987, p.55.118 Tormod Engelsviken, op. cit., p. 482.119 Lalsangkima Pachuau, 2000, ”Missiology in a Pluralistic World. The Place of Mission study inTheological Education”, in IRM LXXXIX,(355,October 2000 ), p.543177