For All People: Global Theologies in Contexts.

For All People: Global Theologies in Contexts. Edited by Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Holger Lam, and Peter Lodberg. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2002. 242 pages. Paper. $24.00.

This collection of essays deals with the important theme of Christian mission in a postmodern, global context. A technological age brings people closer to each other, though often in more impersonal, bureaucratic ways. How do such changes economically, culturally, and historically affect the interface between the established churches in Europe and North America and the emerging churches in the emerging two-thirds world? That is the major question addressed by the essayists in this volume.

The essays are all written as a tribute to the work of Viggo Mortensen, who has moved from the Department of Theology and Studies in the Lutheran World Federation to the chair of Global Christianity and Ecumenism at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. The contributors naturally include many Danes, testifying to the vitality of theology in the Danish church. Others have been chosen from the ranks of those who have worked closely with Mortensen. Contributors include Robert J. Schreiter, Johannes Nissen, Peter Lodberg, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Vitor Westhelle, John W. De Gruchy, Jens Holger Schjorring, Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Musimbi Kanyoro, Anna Marie Aagaard, Philip Hefner, Walter Altmann, and Niels Henrik Gregersen.

Not all of the essays can be reviewed here. The following are of note. Schreiter's "Globalization, Postmodernity, and the New Catholicity" points out that globalization can serve as a vehicle in search of more humane forms of interconnectedness and acceptance of differences. With the world shrinking with respect to information and economics due to technology--the effects of globalization--the possibility of a new catholicity, a truly universal church, one not separated geographically or limited to one continent or hemisphere, is opened. The challenge of this new church will be to accept the particularities of diverse cultures. Nissen argues in "Mission and Globalization in a New Testament Perspective" that invitation to Christ must respect the cultures to which it is offered. It must open dialogue between peoples and eschew conquest or expansion, offering instead true dialectical relations between those who share the faith with others. In his intriguing article "Religion and Globalization" Graf points out that the homo oeconomicus is dead. Hence, we need to acknowledge that religion and the economy are interwoven. Religion shapes the economic habits of diverse cultures by providing the needed security that fuels capitalism. Accordingly, we should not predict that globalization and pluralization will generate a wholly secular world.

In a more explicit comparison between European and North-American Christianity with that of the two-thirds world, Westhelle in "Is Europe Christian?" turns this question on its head: Does one need to be European to be Christian? He contends that Europeans have been blinded in seeing the relative "otherness" of others outside of Europe. However, and ironically, it will be these others who will bring the gospel back to Europe, in the long run. Schjorring in "Church Identity in the Nordic Countries--An International Perspective" notes that of late the Danish church has been infected with an anti-ecumenical strain that needs to be challenged. In contrast to its current insularity, it should lead in interfaith exchanges.

In "Lutheran Ecclesiologies Today" Wiberg Pedersen uses women's ordination as a test case for the church as a continuing reform movement. In "The Church, the Churches, the Orthodox Churches, and the World Council of Churches" Aagaard seeks to learn from the Orthodox churches how social ethics might serve as the liturgy after the liturgy in contrast to the tendency to favor political over social ethics. In a groundbreaking article, "Faith in a World of Risks," Gregersen appeals to risk theory in order to make God's love more accessible. Genuine love is limitless, precarious, and vulnerable. It involves taking risks and enduring risks (p. 233). This is exactly descriptive of the love of God revealed through Christ.

All in all, these essays testify to the fruitful ministry of Mortensen as well as provoke our awareness that current economic and technological changes across the world are bound to influence the practice of faith worldwide.

Mark C. Mattes

Grand View College

Des Moines, Iowa