Dr. Peter F. Penner defended yesterday with success his habilitation thesis: "Missionale Hermeneutik: Biblische Texte kontextuell und relevant lesen" (230 p.) at the Károli Gáspár University in the Reformed Church.
In two public lectures on Missional Hermeneutics: Its possible place in Biblical interpretation and Lokale Theologien, Kontextualisierung und die Rolle der Missionalen Hermeneutik he argued for the importance of reading scripture through a so-called "missional" lense. His main aim was to provide a corrective to a result-oriented, pragmatic missiology. On the question what contribution this approach provides to a new mission praxis he responded that it enables first of all a denominational dialogue, which is very important in the context of Central and Eastern Europe, where there is so much division and jealousy. It helps to focus on a "common mission praxis", because of the centrality of the concept of missio Dei. He continued that a missional hermeneutik also helps to focus on the Kingdom of God. Penner further argued that by reflecting on and evaluating what others have done in mission, and by assessing what the real issues are in the context of Central and Eastern Europe a new mission perspective for the church in mission could be born.
Examiner’s Report
1. Assessment of the thesis
Dr. Penner observes that since the World
Mission conference in Edinburgh 1910 significant changes have taken place in
the discipline of Missiology, influenced by developments in world history and
world Christianity. Not only the mission praxis, but also the theology of
mission underwent significant changes. The preparation and training for
missionaries focused almost exclusively on the praxis of mission as part of
practical theology, since the middle of the 20th century sociology and
anthropological studies were added to the curriculum, at the expense of the
biblical, historical and systematic theology disciplines. These developments
did not fail to impact the theological quality of the discipline of missiology
(pg. 1-3).
A strong tendency had come up in the praxis of
mission to focus on the quantitative result of mission and evangelism through
the church growth movement. The focus increasingly
turned to questions of culture and context which led to an awareness of the
variety of expressions of Christian faith, and sharp theological discussions on
what the concept and goal of mission is. As a result missiology today deals not
only with the praxis but also with the theology of mission (pg.3-4). The
churches in the “sogenannten Ostblock” have joined these missiological
discussions only recently.
These new developments in missiology led to a
focus on a contextual reading of the bible text. Previously a “biblical theology
of mission” used only selected biblical texts to define certain mission themes
from a biblical perspective. This new
approach builds on the research work of bible scholars, experimenting with new
hermeneutical approaches in which the local or global context is emphasized,
especially for the two-thirds world. Penner rightly observes, that “die meisten
osteuropäischen Versuche der missiologischen Arbeit mit dem biblischen Text
gehen leider noch nicht über die bereits vorliegenden westeuropäischen oder
nordamerikanischen Vorbilder hinaus und blicken nur gelegentlich auf Arbeiten
aus der Zwei-Drittel-Welt.“ (pg. 5)
In the light of these developments the central
question of Penner in this habilitation thesis is clearly stated as not to
develop a biblical mission theology, a missional hermeneutic: to assess “inwieweit
eigentlich eine missionale hermeneutic notwendig ist, … um dem biblischen Text gerecht zu werden, der im Missionskontext
geschrieben und an eine missionale Gemeinschaft adressiert wurde.“ (pg. 6).
Penner is thorough in his analysis and
balanced, fair and honest in his evaluations, e.g. as he states that the church
of the Reformation “verpasste
es auf die missionale Stimme des biblischen Textes zu hören” (pg. 156). It is important that throughout
his study he keeps the focus on both the role of individual and of the
community in God’s mission, which connects a strong “evangelical” focus on the
individual and an ecumenical focus on community.
Peter Penner defines missiology as the discipline
which earlier was called mission theology and in the Middle Ages still was
referred to as propaganda fidei as “lebendig und muss die christliche
Botschaft dem Kontext gemäß abwandeln, ohne dabei das Evangelium prinzipiell zu
verändern.” (pg. 29) He
attempts to clarify the concept of mission by dealing with a number of related
concepts in the New Testament which could clarify its meaning. However, the concept “missional” is not
clarified. Sometimes mission theology and missiology are used as synonyms, sometimes
as differing from each other. The use of
the term “Osteuropa” seems to lacks consistency. Sometimes it is used in the
political way of the former “Ostblock”, sometimes in a geographical way as part
of Central and Eastern Europe.
2.
Originality,
actuality and significance of the thesis
With his habilitation thesis Dr. Peter F.
Penner offers an important contribution to the field of missiology in that he
provides a corrective to the so called managerial missiology, the pragmatic,
result-oriented missiology, which has a weak biblical foundation. These tendencies
are also present in Central and Eastern Europe (pg. 182). His emphasis on the involvement of the
missional community in the missio Dei “weitet sich der Horizont der Einzelnen
und der Gemeinschaft und relativiert sich der eigene Anspruch in der eigenen
Sache der Mission, ohne dabei die Absolute Gottes zu relativieren“ (pg.
178).
The significance of the thesis lays also in the
fact that his approach to dialogue with text oriented hermeneutical approaches
as the historical-critical method and with social hermeneutic approaches as the
liberation theology with the purpose to assess how these can be used for a
missional hermeneutic, opens new avenues of interaction between missiologists and
biblical scholars.
The fact that Penner seeks to introduce the
discussion on the missional hermeneutic in the academic discourse of biblical
scholars and missiologists of Central and Eastern Europe is important for the
role of the churches in the post-communist societies society. Penner
convincingly shows how important this approach is for developing a relevant
contextual theology for a post-communist context as he deals with the themes of
poverty and richness (Pg. 106ff, 145, 146 and 149), reconciliation and Vergangenheitsbewältigung (pg. 143), but also with the responsibility of individual and
community in God’s mission and the role of the Holy Spirit.
The candidate shows academic courage in
addressing sensitive and important issues like the problem of social injustice
and the call for an orthopraxis in relation to solidarity with the poor! He also displays academic modesty as he does
not present final conclusions but invites both biblical scholars and
missiologists to enter into the discussion on developing a missional
hermeneutic, which is “weniger eine Methode, vielmehr geht es darum die
Intention, die der Text tragt, herauszustellen und sie bei der Interpretation
einzelner Abschnitte nicht zu vergessen. Eine solche Weise des Lesens des Biblischen Text wird nicht nur die Exegese
bestimmen, sonder auch die darauf bauende Theologie und durchdringt damit alle
Bereiche der akademischen theologischen Arbeit! (pg. 179). The candidate thus manages to link
theory and mission praxis in a dynamic way.
This study into the need for a missional
hermeneutic is also significant for the Post-Christianum discussion in
missiology as it sheds new light on the life of the early Church and on what it
means to be a minority church instead of a majority church.
Penner thus makes an original contribution to
knowledge in its field which is suitable for publication
3. Structure of the thesis
The task Penner sets himself to do in a clearly
structured manner is to prove the thesis of the necessity of a missional
hermeneutic (pg 7).
In the first chapter he deals with the
historical–critical method, as a hermeneutic to build on, but which method he
expands through a “missional” interpretation using keywords of the Acts of the
Apostles in order to define the concept of mission and their field of meaning.
In the second chapter he questions the
liberation theology hermeneutic as a representative of a social hermeneutic
whether it contains useful elements for a better interpretation of the biblical
text and whether in this way it could be part of a missional hermeneutic. He
focuses on the theme of salvation for the poor which plays an important role in
the liberation theology, using again texts of the Acts of the Apostles. Then he
deals with the theme of holistic peace in order look into the question of
contextuality in liberation theology, using a case study of evangelical groups
in the former CIS and their wrestling with their context and identify in
relation to peace service.
In the third chapter of his thesis Penner deals
with a synthesis of the historical critical method and a missional hermeneutic
taking into consideration the social hermeneutic, especially that of liberation
theology (pg. 8). He convincingly proves “dass der biblische Text selbst von der
Mission Gottes und der Metaerzählung erzählt, dass der Text missional ist, weil
er zur Mission anspornt”. In this chapter he studies the meaning of the Holy Spirit in Acts as the
Spirit of mission as well as the mission prayer of the messianic community and
the Jerusalem council. It is remarkable that Old Testament texts are
interpreted in a missional way and thus become a model for the readers. He deals thus with the missional hermeneutic
in the context of the missiological discussions on the biblical text (pg.
7).
In this study Penner seeks not only to bring
missiology and the biblical sciences together in an interdisciplinary way, but
also to present and introduce a discussion in Central and Eastern Europe in and
in continental Europe which till now had been limited to the Anglo-American
context (pg. 9). Since the concept of mission and the approach to the biblical
text in Central and Eastern Europe is often different, new contextual impulses
and unique contributions from this region could be given to the discussion on
developing a missional hermeneutic elsewhere.
4.
Literature
The candidate demonstrates a thorough knowledge
of literature relevant to its subject and general field. He also shows an ability
to exercise critical and analytical judgement of that literature.
The candidate consistently follows the path he
sets out to do, thoroughly analysing and comparing and entering in debate with
a wide variety of German and English sources of different continents and
Christian traditions which shows clearly how he is at home in this subject. He
is as much aware of the ongoing debate in the Gospel and Our Culture Network
with scholars like George Hunsberger and Darrell Guder as he is of the
discourse in the BISAM study group of the International Association of Mission
Studies. With an academic openness combined with great diligence and German Gründlichkeit he fulfils this task.
At the same time he does not hide his own
position and bias, drawing the reader in a gentle but sometimes provocative way
into the discussions, offering a wealth of material for further study in the
well documented footnotes, which wets the appetite for entering deeper into the
discussion. At the same time he succeeds
in keeping his study focused, making clear his decisions on the choices he had
made in limiting his thesis.
Although it is not the main focus of his study,
it is a pity that not more sources are used to illustrate the relationship to
and the contextualization of the study into the Central and Eastern European
context. Obviously, the task ahead for scholars of Central and Eastern Europe
is to translate the discussion on the missional hermeneutic into their own
context, and to relate it to their own biblical and missiological discourses in
the vernacular.
5. Methodologies
This study displays a mastery of appropriate
methodology and theoretical material and the ability to communicate this
complex field in clear way to its readers.
Its interdisciplinary method extends to both the biblical sciences and
missiology. Throughout the methodology used is made explicit, like e.g. words
studies used to define the concept of mission show that the instruments and the
approach of the historical-critical method is helpful and necessary, but also
the limitations of a certain methodology are presented clearly (pg 40).
6. Publication
The thesis is worthy of being the basis of a
publication, not only in German, but also in English, and Hungarian and in some
of the local languages of Central and Eastern Europe.
Some minor corrections
are needed:
pg. 158:
David Bosch, Transforming Mission is
published not in 1992 but in 1991.
pg. 180: 2nd
par: The local perspective seems to disappear, only the regional and global remain.
passim:
Stász J. should be: Szász J.
passim: Szegények
mindig lesznek valetek should be …………veletek.
7. Conduct and Presentation
The present study meets internationally
recognized standards for the conduct and presentation of research in its field.
The formal presentation can be considered as an excellent model. The references
are always exact. The thesis is written in a good and readable style, and has a
clear structure, closing each chapter and thematic treatment with a clear
summary. He clearly manages throughout to show that the academic discourse he
embarked on is of great relevance for the praxis of mission, without falling
into pragmatism. Moreover, he succeeds in shedding new, fresh and sometimes
surprising light on well-known passages through the method he employs. He also
succeeds to keep the attention of the reader when he maps out what may be
unknown territory to him or her.
8. Remarks, comments and questions
1.
The
title of the study is formulated in a rather general way: “Missionale Hermeneutik: biblische
Texte kontextuell und relevant lesen“ whereas throughout the texts and
illustrations are taken from the books of Acts. It is stated that the method
can be extended to other books of the Bible. How could a missional hermeneutic
be applied to the reading of an OT book like Leviticus or a NT book like
Hebrews?
2.
As
Stephen Neill supposedly stated: “when everything is mission, nothing is
mission”. On pg. 230 the candidate
states in relation to the challenge of a dialogue on the missional hermeneutic
that it can serve to overcome the crisis in mission theology and praxis but
also in the biblical hermeneutic. “Dabei besteht die Gefahr, Mission so allumfassen zu präsentieren, dass sie
sich am Ende ganz verliert, oder ihr aber einengend eine geschützte Nische
zuzuweisen, in der es vor allem um die pragmatische Praxis der Mission geht.
Beides wäre fatal nicht nur für die Mission der Kirche, sondern auch für die
gesamte Theologie als Wissenschaft.“ In what way could this danger be avoided in a situation where the
concept of mission is already very broad, and almost identical to all
activities in the church?
3.
The
explicit intend of this study is to initiate a discussion on developing a
missional hermeneutic in Central and Eastern Europe. When the candidate would
be asked to design a research project with scholars from different Christian
traditions and different countries in this region, with what three main issues
would he start? How to go about setting up such a research project in a
situation where divisions even within Christian traditions are so sharp. How would he explain the relevance of this
project to the churches in order for them to support and bless this project?
On the basis of the above
assessment I recommend the thesis to be accepted and to allow the candidate to proceed
to the public lectures.
Budapest, 18th
February 2012.
Prof.
Dr. habil Anne-Marie Kool
Central and
Eastern European Institute for Mission Studies
of the
Károli Gáspár University in the Reformed Church.
