"Faith without works is dead" : a critical analysis of the Lausanne Covenant in the light of theological insights from Protestant Methodist theologian José Míguez Bonino.
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2011
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Abstract
This study sets out to suggest a theological and methodological framework that assists the
evangelical movement in Africa, and in Zambia in particular, to engage its missionary task
with greater effectiveness. The study is located within the radical evangelical theological
tradition. In this regard, firstly, the study posits that the evangelical movement has a heritage
of sociopolitical engagement that can be traced back to its origins in the great evangelical
awakening of the eighteenth century. Secondly, the study posits that the evangelical
movement abandoned its heritage of socio-political engagement during the first thirty years
of the twentieth century due to a number of seemingly unrelated factors that, nevertheless,
worked in concert. Thirdly, the study posits that during the third quarter of the twentieth
century, evangelicalism engaged in a process through which it inadvertently began to recover
its heritage of socio-political engagement. This process began with the International
Congress on World Evangelisation in Lausanne, Switzerland in July 1974 (Lausanne 1974).
It was an inadvertent recovery in that Lausanne 1974 did not set out to recover the lost
heritage of evangelical socio-political engagement, but to plan strategically and to encourage
evangelicals in the task of worldwide evangelism. However, during the proceedings of
Lausanne 1974, a group of radical evangelicals became dissatisfied with the Lausanne
Covenant’s proviso on the question of socio-political engagement, in its ‘two-mandate’
approach to the missionary task of the church.
This study however, argues that though the Lausanne movement has become a rallying point
and the Lausanne Covenant its expression of evangelical unity and purpose, it falls short of
providing an adequate theological and methodological framework for evangelical
sociopolitical engagement in Africa. The study posits that with key insights from José
Míguez Bonino’s theological and methodological works: socio-analytic mediation,
hermeneutic mediation and practical mediation, evangelicals in Africa, and in Zambia in
particular, will be enabled to engage in its missionary task with greater effectiveness. When
these missional tools from Míguez Bonino are engaged, evangelicals in Africa will be
equipped to engage a process of missional reflection on the contextual reality and thus
engage effectively in missional activities.
Employing these key insights from Míguez Bonino, the study argues for a process that will
free evangelicalism in Africa from the Northern American and European ‘theological
imperialism’ that prevented the development of its own theology and missiology. The study
further argues that such a process, as will assist evangelicalism in Africa to free itself from
such influence, will invariably lead evangelicalism in Africa to develop a theology and
missiology that will be more responsive to the African context.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.
Keywords
Míguez Bonino, Jose., International Congress on World Evangelization. Lausanne covenant., Evangelistic work--Africa., Evangelism--Africa., Methodist Church--Clergy., Theses--Theology.