First we must be clear what type of book is The Mission of God. Wright is not writing an older “Bible Basis for Mission,” book, and neither is he actually writing a biblical theology of mission. This volume takes up the challenge of two more recent scholars. New Testament scholar Jim Brownson of Western Seminary has called for a “missional hermeneutic,” and J. Andrew Kirk, retired from the University of Birmingham, states that all theology and biblical texts are rooted in the Missio Dei (mission of God). Wright explains and then models a missional hermeneutic that understands the Bible comes out of the very mission of God. Is the Bible a history book, a law book, a book of individual responses to God, or is it the story of Jesus Christ? Wright is precise, “the whole canon of Scripture is a missional phenomenon in the sense that it witnesses to the self-giving movement of this God toward his creation and us … the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God.” (p. 48)
Although Wright is lucid in his understanding about how he is using elements of postmodernism, his book (thankfully) is the best of Enlightenment order and precision. He has a Table of Contents, then an eight-page outline of the book and then a one-page chart about how the book is ordered. This makes it very easy to enter into discussions at any point, and at the same time it prevents misuse of his material, for the context (which is important, but it is not everything [pp 41-45]) is always clear. The volume is divided into four parts: “The Bible and Mission” (42 pages); “The God of Mission” (118 pages); “The People of Mission” (204 pages); and “The Arena of Mission” (138 pages). There is no other book like this that begins with hermeneutics, talks about God, but in doing so, has a larger section on idolatry than on Jesus, and then ends by talking about the earth and nations.
It is remarkable that the author is able in this volume to keep one eye on careful biblical synthesis and the other eye on the missional context today. His brief discussion on the evil nature of disease (and especially HIV/AIDS), his careful defense of creation ethics as essential to Christian mission, and his critique of global capitalism, are worth the price of the volume. However, there are some glaring omissions when it comes to speaking to our global context today.
There is virtually no discussion of the Holy Spirit (as well as Pentecostal and Charismatic movements); there is no theology of religions, nothing of substance on Islam nor on Hinduism, nor on religious violence. I thought I might have missed the discussion on the Holy Spirit, Islam/Muslims, Hinduism, so I checked the index, and I was disappointed to see only eight passing references to the Holy Spirit.
Nonetheless, I know of no volume like this that reads all of the Bible with this missional hermeneutic, and I would argue that the nature of the global church today should tell us that such a hermeneutic is not only an option, but is probably the main lens of the “majority church”: Christians in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. After reading this volume, you will not preach the same, for you will remember the passage, the pericope, the story, as part of the greater story of God’s mission to all of creation. This would certainly be healthy for American Presbyterians today.
Scott W. Sunquist is the W. Don McClure Associate Professor of World Mission and Evangelism at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
