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

out that the expresion missio Dei was not used during the Willinger conference, butin the report: “ The sending of the Son to reconcile the universe through the powerof the Spirit is the foundation and purpose of mission. The missio ecclesiae comesfrom the missio Dei alone. Thus, misson is placed within the broadest imaginableframework of salvation history and God’s plan for salvation” 120 , and he continuesby saying that we have to speak about the missio Dei Triunius , because “ themission of the triune God is an invitation to life in all its fullness in the redeemingpresence of the risen one” 121 .In the relatively recent document on mission adopted as a study document bythe Commission on World Mission and Evangelism we read :“The mission of God (missio Dei) has no limits or barriers; it has been addressedto and has been at work within the entire human race and the whole of creationthroughout history. … the Logos ( Word), God’s co-eternal and consubstantialSon, was and is present with the Father and the Holy Spirit in all God’s acts… Atrinitarian approach to the missio Dei is therefore important. On the one hand,this promotes a more inclusive understanding of God’s presence and work in thewhole world and among people, implying that signs of God’s presence can andshould be identified, affirmed and worked with even in the most unexpectedplaces. On the other hand, by clearly affirming that the Father and the Spirit arealways and in all circumstances present and at work together with the Word, thetemptation to separate the presence of God or the Spirit from the Son of God,Jesus Christ, will be avoided”. 122There is no place for christomonism or for pneumatomonism.However, the concept of missio Dei is not free from difficulties. In Willingenand in the following period, two major and somewhat competing approaches tomissio Dei emerged. The first one, a dominant view at the Willingen meeting,understood mission as God’s evangelizing action through the church. The second,which raised serious opposition to the dominant Willingen view conceived missioDei as God’s activity in the secular world over and above the church, saying :“Theworld provides the agenda”. The missio Dei concept, which is often presumed to be120 Wilhelm Richebacher, ”Missio Dei: The Basis of Mission Theology or a Wrong Path?”, in IRMXCII (367,October 2003), p.589, 590121 Wilhelm Richebacher, op. cit., p. 596.122 ”Mission and Evangelism in Unity Today”, in the vol. : “You are the Light of the World”Statements on Mission by the World Council of Churches 1980-2005, Geneva , WCC Publications,2005, p.65178