1993 Transforming Mission. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.

reading Transforming Mission

February 25, 2009
Arthur asked whether I’d create a space where Transforming Mission, te well-known book by
David Bosch, can be discussed, and starting in a few weeks, this will happen. The group will be
joined by myself, and maybe one or two other young pastors from our denomination, some
friends from TGIF, some friends from Nieucomminuties, and Annemie Bosch, the wife of David
Bosch.

Hopefully we’ll start in the week of 9-13 March, although we still need to find a day that would fit
everyone, and then get together every second or third week. I’ll be blogging on this as the
discussion go on, and invite all who cannot physically join us, to join us in blogging about
Transforming Mission. I’ll blog about some updates on what we’ll be reading, and sometimes
some info that might be important when reading as well. So here is the first mail I sent out last
night:

OK, so now that everyone is back in SA, it might be time to get digging into Transforming
Mission.

I suggest we get together during the day, morning or afternoon, rather than evenings. Let me
suggest Wednesday mornings, starting on March 11. Let me know if this won’t work for you. I’m
happy with doing a weekly thing if everybody is up for it, but maybe getting together every
second or third week might be better for those who are already highly committed at other places
(which is everyone).

Lesslie Newbigin described Transforming Mission as a Summa Missiologica.

“It has been said that “any missiology can only be done as a footnote to the work of David
Bosch” (Bevans & Schroeder 2005:69), making it analogous to the words of Albert the Great which
were spoken at the funeral of Thomas Aquinas, that theology after Aquinas will be only a
footnote to his work After the death of Bosch, König (1993) described him as probably the
greatest theologian ever to come out of South Africa, particularly where scientific theology is
concerned.”
I believe that at least three academic fields/qualities come together within Transforming Mission.
Bosch as historian, Biblical scholar, and missiologist. It was the combination of these three (at
least) that made the writing of this work possible.

For the first discussion, read the Introduction and Chapter 1. The significance of starting in this
way shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s not neccesarily obvious. Looking at Jesus and the early church
before describing three different “missiologies” from within the New Testament open some
windows into the approach Bosch used at other times as well. Of special significance in
understanding Bosch (although you might well differ from me in my highlighting of this one
aspect above the rest) might be the long quote from Schweizer on page 47. His own words after
this quote was: “In all our discussions about Jesus’ mission we should keep this perspective in
mind”. Read the chapter, let’s discuss the significance of this.

To attempt and get a grip on the work, I’d suggest you take a look at the three short chapters:
Five, Eleven and Thirteen.
The subtitle of the book “Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission”, might have more than one
meaning, but one of them would be the fact that Bosch works with paradigm theory, consider a
paradigm shift to be under way, and attempts to point a way forward for mission within this
emerging paradigm (used long before the emerging church got it’s name). Chapters 5 and 11
comes before and after the description of the different paradigms from the time of Jesus
onwards. And would give a picture of underlies the writing of the book.

Proffesor Piet Meiring always talk about chapter 13 as “vintage Bosch”. The student of Bosch
become almost frustrated at times, because you struggle to find the voice of Bosch within
Transforming Mission. This summary of mission up to the end of the 80’s, foundation for the 90’s
onwards, sometimes seem to hide the voice of the author. Chapter 13 provides the reader with a
glimpse into Bosch’s vision of what this might mean, captured in only a few pages.

I pray that the reading of this would be much more than a mere intellectual exercise, but that it
would be a spiritual journey of discovering the life with Christ which calls us to be part of the
mission of God and the church within this world.

Some questions you might consider is to try and see the tensions and similarities between
Transforming Mission and your own tradition and thoughts.
The implication for the church of what we are reading.
How this relate to our current context in South Africa.
And make notes where something seem unclear. This is not the easiest book you will ever read.

Looking forward to reading this with you.

Cobus

So, if you want to blog on the Introduction and Chapter 1 within the next few weeks, that will be
a great way of taking part in the conversation. If you do, let me know, and I’ll link to all the posts
as we go along.

Book Review On Transforming Mission

TRANSFORMING MISSION BOOK REVIEW
(Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission)
(Author: David J. Bosch)

This paper intends to analyze the writings of David J. Bosch in his book entitled “TRANSFORMING
MISSION Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission:” This book review shall be presented in four (4)
parts. First, is an introduction and a statement of the author’s intention for writing the book;
secondly, a summary shall be presented about the major insights presented in this book. Thirdly, I
shall present some comments and reactions that I had about the author and his writings. Last is
the concluding part where I shall present my evaluation about the book in review, as well as my
own opinion and understanding of “mission” as influenced by my readings in this book.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND AUTHOR’S INTENTION

The first and foremost thing that is important to our analysis of this book is our understanding
of why the book is entitled as such. What message does the book title “Transforming Mission”
want to imply? As suggested by the author in its foreword, the title of his book is ambiguous. At
one instance, “transforming” can be used as an adjective describing “mission.” In this case,
mission is understood as an enterprise that transforms reality. On the other hand, “transforming”
can, however, also be a present participle, the activity of transforming; of which “mission” is the
object. Here, mission is not the enterprise that transforms reality, but something that is itself
being transformed.

The author relates that he at first had misgivings about using this title for his book. However,
after thorough evaluation and discussion with his colleagues, he finally decided to use this as his
book title. I may say that it is aptly titled, because the ambiguity in the book title in fact, reflects
the subject matter of the book very accurately. Using the idea of “paradigm shifts,” Bosch
attempts to demonstrate the extent to which the...