The wider crisis that David J. Bosch talks about in his book is not just confined to mission. In his mind, this crisis affects "the entire church" as well as "the entire world" (p. 3).
In this second article, after checking the content of Voluntarism, I decided to skip it for a large part of the author's explanation is not relevant to my research. Instead, I immediately jumped to Toward Comprehensive Salvation, which is the subject of this current article. As for the last topic, Mission as Liberation, I think it would take two to three articles to give it a fair treatment. Bosch gave a very elaborate exposition of the subject covering a total of 16 pages (pages 432 to 447) touching on controversial issues like "liberation theology", "God's preferential option for the poor", a comparison between liberal theology and liberation theology, Marxism, and a proposal for integral liberation.
Bosch's explanation of Toward Comprehensive Salvation is not as exhaustive as what he did with Mission as Liberation. Here, he mentioned some insights that I think would greatly contribute to my research. In his view of comprehensive salvation, he recognized that the challenges we are facing today require a new kind of response.
See how Bosch introduced his idea of comprehensive salvation as the purpose of mission:
It, therefore, makes sense that in missionary circles today, but elsewhere as well, the mediating of "comprehensive", "integral", "total", or "universal" salvation is increasingly identified as the purpose of mission, in this way overcoming the inherent dualism in the traditional and more recent models. . . Missionary literature, but also missionary practice, emphasizes that we should find a way beyond every schizophrenic position and minister to people in their total need, that we should involve individual as well as society, soul and body, present and future in our ministry of salvation (p. 399).
I like the phrase "total need". I am not sure if the writer is epistemologically aware of the implication of such a phrase in the world of economics, finance, and technology. One of the pressing needs today that the Austrian economists have been arguing for decades is the need for a "sound" or an "honest" monetary system. Digesting the three sections in his book that I intend to include in my paper, it appears to me that the problem of poverty plays a vital role in his thinking about the mission. However, I am not sure if both his analysis of the root cause of poverty and the alternative he is proposing are accurate.
There are those in the financial technology sector, though not as exhaustive in their analysis of the current problem that concerns the global economy and finance in terms of ideological foundation, their interpretation of the source of the problem, and their proposed alternative made more sense than what Bosch seems to offer.
Never before in history has people's social distress been as extensive as it is in the twentieth century. . . . Poverty, misery, sickness, criminality, and social chaos have assumed unheard-of proportions. . . . Marginalized groups in many countries of the world lack every form of active and even passive participation in society; inter-human relationships are disintegrating; people are in the grip of a pattern of life from which they cannot possibly wrench themselves free . . . . in its mission the church constitutes a resistance movement against every manifestation of fatalism and quietism (pp. 399-400).
In Bosch's concept of comprehensive salvation, he identified pressing social issues including the absence of engagement on the part of the marginalized and the widespread powerlessness to liberate themselves. To address these issues, it is commendable and very courageous on the part of Bosch to describe the mission of the church as a resistance movement.
How I wish that missiologist like Bosch could see the option provided now in the digital space in attaining such engagement and freedom.
Finally, Bosch concluded his notion of comprehensive salvation with an imperative to act now.
Those who know that God will one day wipe away all tears will not accept with resignation the tears of those who suffer and are oppressed now. . . . And anyone who believes that the enemy of God and humans will be vanquished will already oppose him now in his machinations in family and society. For all of this has to do with salvation (p. 400).
Bosch's insights are commendable. Nevertheless, it is one thing to provide praiseworthy observations and quite another thing to put them into action.
Source: Bosch, David J. 2000. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. New York: Orbis Books.
