Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the First Edition
THE MATERIAL here presented has been developed in the course of a four-year period during which I have been privileged to lecture in theology to men and women preparing for missionary service - whether in their own countries or abroad. They come for relatively short periods. They have little time for leisurely academic study. They are facing their life work, and they want to be able to reach as much clarity as possible about the mission on which they are going. These lectures have been given in the hope of helping them to do this.
Those participating in the courses have represented a wide range of academic and practical experience. Many of them had no previous experience in theology as an academic discipline: some have had a full theological training and considerable experience. They have come from all of the six continents and from a wide range of Christian confessions.
I am conscious of the fact that these lectures leave much to be desired from the point of view of the scholar who is aware of the range of contemporary studies - biblical, theological, and missiological. I must ask the reader to remember the purpose for which and the context in which they were prepared.
The original germ of what is here presented was embodied in a pamphlet entitled "Trinitarian Faith for Today's Mission" published at the time of the integration of the International Missionary Council with the World Council of Churches. The invitation to teach at the Selly Oak Colleges has provided me with a welcome opportunity to develop these thoughts.
Because this is not a work of academic scholarship I have not attempted to furnish it with an array of footnotes indicating all the sources from which I have learned. It is indeed hardly possible to trace all these, and I must simply make the obvious remark that I am deeply in debt to countless friends and colleagues whose speech and writing have stimulated my own thought. I am especially grateful to Paul Clifford and my other colleagues in the Selly Oak Colleges for their friendship and encouragement.
Part of this material was given as a course at Princeton Theological Seminary in the summer of 1977, and I am most grateful to Dr. McCord for this invitation. I have also a special debt of gratitude to Dr. Arthur Bauer of the Lutheran Church in America, who came to these lectures and used his gracious influence to persuade me to write and Mr. Eerdmans to publish the material.
Mr. Eerdmans and his staff have been most diligent and helpful publishers, and I am most grateful for their unfailing help.
Finally I must express deep gratitude to my colleague Miss Verleigh Cant, who converted my illegible scribblings with almost flawless accuracy into lucid type, in the course of her already very busy life.
Birmingham, England
June 1978