Comprehending Mission: The Questions, Methods, Themes, Problems

Winner, first annual American Society of Missiology Book Award

Whether for students entering the field, or for seasoned scholars, Comprehending Mission offers an inviting new proposal for how to conceptualize this field of study. This comprehensive book offers a concise overview of the development of missiology over the last century, an introduction to its characteristic methodologies, and insight into the kinds of questions missiologists typically bring to the study of their subject.

In the twentieth century this task was complicated by multiple contending understandings of the field. Initially dominant was an understanding of missiology that emphasized the practical challenges of foreign mission service. More recently, missiologists have highlighted the intercultural aspects of Christian outreach. In this case, missiology is less a form of practical theology than a field of study where theological concerns intersect with critical studies of Christian mission undertaken by anthropologists, historians, and other scholars.