Author Stefan Paas
Publisher SCM £25
Format pbk
ISBN 9780334058779
Paas ends this well-referenced book by writing that he ‘has tried to explore what it means to be missional in a culture that…only rarely asks for God.’ In the first chapter Paas finds that though Christianity is missionary by nature it has been ‘tainted by its past through aggressive conversion and colonisation’ and that ‘mission’ has been defined in six different ways, none notably successful. The next two chapters show that religiously committed and active people have always been in the minority despite the imposition of universal outward conformity by those in power. Paas finds a parallel between true believers in modern post-Christian states and the experience of Jews in the exile and in modern states who have been at best indifferent to religion and at worst positively hostile, leading to the question of how to keep one’s identity as a minority in an indifferent society. In the chapter ‘Scattered and Sent’ he accuses theologians of being nostalgic by failing to see that God is still active in every part of his world. A powerful section is based on an analysis of the concepts of ‘strangers and pilgrims’ and ‘royal priesthood’ in I Peter. Paas concludes that a truly priestly church needs to be rooted in the local context hence the sub-title ‘Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society’. A challenging read for all those who preach and all who try to live out the Gospel in the world as it now is.
DAVID SELLICK.
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