통전적 선교신학의 태동 배경과 전망

Abstract

The concept of mission was very simple and clear by the 19th century. In a simple expression, mission was understood as “the activities that deliver the gospel and plant self supporting churches to widen the Kingdom of God.” However, as the middle of the 20th century started, mission was understood roughly in two streams. One is the view that the duty of mission needs to be changed since the circumstances were changed. The other one is that evangelism which has been carried out from the early church days according to the commandment of Jesus Christ should be continued regardless of changes of the world. The former is generally called as ‘ecumenical mission theology’, and the latter ‘evangelical mission theology.’These two sides had different views on the core of mission, and it is true that this difference caused various conflicts. In this situation,as a way of solution there appeared a mission theology so called ‘wholistic mission theology.’ So we can say that the wholistic mission theology was given birth with an intention to cover the two theologies in a good balance and strengthen the good points of the two. The purpose of this study is to seek a desirable direction of the so called 'wholistic mission theology'. For this goal, this study investigated the background why the ‘wholistic mission theology’ came out. This will include also the background of the two theologies’ birth, and the major difference of the two. Next, this study will find out the major characteristics of the wholistic mission theology. Finally, this study suggested some ideas which would be helpful for making the wholistic theology more desirable and effective for world evangelization. Even though the wholistic theology seems to be the most desirable one since it covers the both sides, in fact, it also contains some weaknesses which need to be compensated. This study has found out some weak points of the wholistic theology as ‘weak possibility of actualization,’ ‘possibility of weakening the dynamics of evangelism,' 'potential of weakening the power of carrying out,’ In these days, the Christianity especially centering Europe is getting weakened seriously. In addition, the membership of the Korean church, one of a key leader of mission among 2/3 world churches, is also being reduced. In this situation,the church should be focused more on evangelization. If the church considers 'humanization' which can be carried out many other worldly institutions also besides the church in a same level with ‘world evangelization’, the church will become weak seriously. For this reason, I suggest that though we pursue wholistic mission, still there must be core and basic in the wholistic one.