Missions and Baptist systematic theologies.

A perusal of the writings by Baptist systematic theologians during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries leads to a rather obvious conclusion: for most of these authors the subject of Christian missions, or the worldwide mission of the church, is not a subject to be treated by or in systematic theology. (1)

Up to World War II, the Baptist systematic theologies seem with perhaps a single exception to have been totally silent about missions. One searches in vain for such in the systems of John Leadley Dagg, (2) Augustus Hopkins Strong, (3) Alvah Hovey, (4) James Madison Pendleton, (5) James Petigru Boyce, (6) William Newton Clarke, (7) Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, (8) Edgar Young Mullins, (9) Walter Rauschenbusch, (10) and John Alexis Edgren, (11) even though some of these authors were personally quite active in the support of foreign and home missions.

The beginning of a change can be seen in Thomas Polhill Stafford, who in 1936 identified as the sixth of six statements on "the mission of the church" that the church is "to win the world to Christ." "The principle of missions is the principle of all Christian activity, indeed of the Christian life itself. A non-missionary church is a dying church." (12)

The change was also perceptible in Walter Thomas Conner, who in 1945 discussed "evangelistic and missionary activity" as a sharing of the cross of Christ and treated the bringing of "others to know and serve Christ" as an aspect of "the Christian's mission and work" but did not specify missions as one of the functions of the church. (13)

In 1960, Herschel Harold Hobbs alluded briefly to the Great Commission (14); in 1962, Frank Stagg offered a more extended statement about "evangelism and missions" as part of "the ministry of the church," presenting as well a critique of the use of the term "soul-winning" (15); and in 1964, Ralph Edward Knudsen in a fourfold statement of "the mission of the church" affirmed thirdly that the church is "to evangelize the world," this being "the work of the whole church for the whole world." (16) In 1967, William Wilson Stevens mentioned as one of the objections raised against the doctrine of election that it possibly "discourages effort in winning the lost." He treated the leading of "others into saving knowledge of God" as one of five aspects of the "mission of the Christian" and discussed "evangelism and missions" as the first of five aspects of the "work and worship" of the church. (17) In 1969, Dallas M. Roark offered an entire chapter on "Why Christianity of All Religions?" He mentioned in a subsection on "The Catholicity of the Church" the Great Commission, and also cited "the missionary function" as the first of four functions of the church. (18) Dale Moody, in 1981, included in his system a subsection on "The Mission of the Church," which by using the method of New Testament theology expounded the Petrine martyria (witness), the Pauline diakonia (service), and the Johannine koinonia (fellowship), but Moody made no application to the modern world. (19) Bruce Milne, in 1982, combining the biblical and the contemporary, included a subsection on "Witness" in discussing "The Life of the Church."

Milne stated:

   Too often the church, and perhaps its theologians in particular, have
   forgotten that the great theological writings of the NT were composed by
   missionaries and evangelists engaged in costly, sacrificial evangelistic
   and pastoral work. It is difficult to see how anyone can truly evaluate
   their thought, or interpret their teaching, who has not identified with
   their mission and felt something of their throbbing passion to carry the
   world to the feet of Christ. (20)

In 1984, J. Morris Ashcraft interpreted the missionary dimensions of the Acts of the Apostles and today's "mission of the church" as "being the church," engaging in the "ministry of reconciliation," and "serving and giving." (21)

Millard J. Erickson, in a system originally published as three volumes in 1983, 1984, and 1985, continued the earlier pattern of silence regarding missions. (22) The same was true of Gordon Lewis and Bruce Demarest in 1987, 1990, and 1994, (23) of Wayne Grudem in 1994, (24) of Stanley A. Nelson in 1994, (25) and of A. J. Conyers in 1995. (26)

In the mid-1990s for the first time, Baptist systematic theologies appeared with chapters exclusively devoted to the mission of the church: those by James William McClendon in 1994 (27) and by the present author in 1995. (28) McClendon's chapter, entitled "Holy Spirit and Mission," included sections on "The Mandate of Mission" (the Great Commission, religion and religions, mission strategy, the ecumenical vs. the evangelical), "The Holy Spirit of Mission" ("the Spirit of Pentecost," ecstasy and fellowship, gifts and fruit), and "The End of Mission" ("the Spirit and the end of creation," the unity promised by God, and "the church of the Spirit"). At the outset, McClendon declared:

   Here the surprise is that systematic theologians have rarely listed mission
   among the essential theological doctrines, leaving it aside as only a study
   of effective methods. (Thus this volume displays some originality in
   treating mission as an essential part of doctrinal theology. (29)

The present author's chapter, "The Mission of the Church(es)," the second of eight ecclesiological chapters, consisted of the Old Testament and mission (universalist elements, attraction to Israel's faith, mission to the nations), the intertestamental era and mission, the New Testament and mission (life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus; death, resurrection, and Great Commission; Pentecost; Acts 3-12; Pauline mission to the Gentiles; general epistles and Revelation), the missionary history of Christianity (missionary obligation, missionary agency, the modern era), and ten contemporary missiological issues.

William Boyd Hunt in a subsection on "The church is called to wholistic mission" lists as the four functions of such mission "worship," "nurture," "evangelism," and "social service," but there is no elaboration on worldwide missions. (30) Although not devoting a chapter to missions, Stanley J. Grenz has devoted a subsection to the "outreach" of the church as both "evangelism" and "service." (31)

Hopefully in Baptist systematic theologies of the twenty-first century any omission of missions will be the exception.

Endnotes

(1.) Doctrinal study course books, especially those published by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, are not included in the present study.

(2.) A Manual of Theology (Charleston, S.C.: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1857; Harrisonburg, Va.: Gano Books, 1990).

(3.) Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Griffith and Rowland Press, 1907-09; 1 vol. ed.; Philadelphia: Judson Press, n.d.).

(4.) Manual of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1877); Manual of Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (New York: Silver, Burdett, 1900).

(5.) Christian Doctrines: A Compendium of Theology (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1878).

(6.) Abstract of Systematic Theology (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1887).

(7.) An Outline of Christian Theology (Cambridge, Mass.: J. Wilson and Son, 1894; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898).

(8.) Christian Theology (Rochester, N.Y.: Press of E. R. Andrews, 1894).

(9.) The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression (Philadelphia: Roger Williams Press, 1917; Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1932, 1974; Nashville: Broadman Press, n.d.).

(10.) A Theology for the Social Gospel (New York: Macmillan Company, 1917; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1945).

(11.) Fundamentals of Faith, trans. J. O. Backlund (Chicago: Baptist Conference Press, 1948).

(12.) A Study of Christian Doctrines (Kansas City, Mo.: Western Baptist Publishing Co.), 525-26.

(13.) The Gospel of Redemption (Nashville: Broadman Press), 130-31, 220-21, 276-80.

(14.) Fundamentals of Our Faith (Nashville: Broadman Press), 133-34.

(15.) New Testament Theology (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1964), 268-70.

(16.) Theology in the New Testament: A Basis for Christian Faith (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press), 361-63.

(17.) Doctrines of the Christian Religion (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1967; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 215, 270-71, 317-18.

(18.) The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Christian Thought (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), 25-51, 265, 269-71.

(19.) The Word of Truth: A Summary of Christian Doctrine Based on Biblical Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 427-33.

(20.) Know the Truth: A Handbook of Christian Belief (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1982), 226-28, esp. 227.

(21.) Christian Faith and Beliefs (Nashville: Broadman Press), 269-71, 295-97.

(22.) Christian Theology, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1999). Erickson has a section on "Evangelism," but the treatment of "to the end of the earth" is very brief (1st ed., 1052-54; rev. ed., 1061-63).

(23.) Integrative Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House).

(24.) Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, U. K.: InterVarsity Press; Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House).

(25.) A Believers' Church Theology: The Systematic Theology Lecture Notes of Stanley A. Nelson, rev. ed., Herbert Drake and Matthew Wysocki, ed. (Taejon, Korea: Widows Mite Computer Products).

(26.) A Basic Christian Theology (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1995).

(27.) Doctrine. Vol. 2 of Systematic Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press), 417-52.

(28.) Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), 2:482-501.

(29.) McClendon, Doctrine, 417-18.

(30.) Redeemed! Eschatological Redemption and the Kingdom of God (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1993), 196-98.

(31.) Theology for the Community of God (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 653-64.

James Leo Garrett Jr. is Distinguished Professor of Theology, Emeritus, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.