"Seeking the absentee": a European perspective on evangelism in the wake of a feral God  

Oleh:

Jones, Peter Cruchley

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: International Review of Mission vol. 100 no. 392 (Apr. 2011), page 74.
Topik: God; Spiritual; European

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan PKPM Nomor Panggil: I32 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Isi artikel

Europe's religious "demise" is well reported and often lamented in missionary circles. This article aims to offer a contrary perspective using the common approach of evangelism: "double listening". The task is to listen to our culture and our text in conversation and to discover what the text is saying afresh to our needs and values. It is, however, largely expected that this double listening will yield itself to the means by which Christ can change and counter culture. But what if our double listening reveals the deafness of evangelism to the voice of Christ in our culture? This paper aims to explore the widespread religious experience in Europe of God's absence, and how if prompts us to re-examine the stories of Jesus and the rhetoric we use to describe Europe's religious life. It contends that much evangelism in Europe is too inhospitable or unsophisticated to see this absence as anything other than something we should rush to fill with the latest model of our reliable 24/7 god. However, it might be leading us to acknowledge something about the life of faith that Jesus seems to offer in much of his teaching. Europe's resistance to organized religion is painful to experience, but it might be inviting us into afresh conversion to what God is doing beyond our walls. If so, evangelism will have to learn afresh humility as well as to provide the fresh energy to discover and partner God there.

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