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Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom
Solidly theological, amply historical, thoroughly ecumenical, and remarkably current, Orlando Costas' 'Christ Outside the Gate' is the most succinct, yet comprehensive analysis of the missiological issues facing the church and the churches that has appeared in many years."" --Alan Neely, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest Learning and passion come together in Christ Outside the Gate to make it an outstanding contribution to missiology."" --Gabriel Fackre, Abbot Professor of Christian Theology, Andover Newton Theological School You have in your hands a new way of seeing missions--North America as a receiving country, the marginalized as the subject as well as object of missions, world evangelization with one foot in Melbourne and one foot in Pattaya. Few authors blend together so effectively so many worlds--evangelism and scholarship, northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere, sociology, and theology."" --Harvie M. Conn, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia Costas may well be or is on his way to becoming the ablest missiologist alive."" --Jorge Lara-Braud, Director, Council on Theology and Culture, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Costas writes from the background of an Hispanic Evangelical, but goes far beyond the normal concerns of that tradition. In a series of far-ranging essays, he deals with virtually every aspect of the contemporary missiological debate in a manner that is usually balanced and always provocative. While some readers will violently question his views at certain points, all will be stimulated and challenged to think more deeply and participate more effectively in the total world mission to which God has called His Church."" --Paul E. Pierson, Fuller Theological Seminary 'Christ Outside the Gate' offers us a perspective of missions that focuses on the transition from paternalism to the contextualization of the Gospel."" --Oscar I. Romo, Director, Language Missions Division, Southern Baptist Convention Costas writes from the viewpoint of those who live on the periphery of society. He challenges Christians of all denominations to a renewed understanding of the Christ who 'suffered outside the gates.'"" --John T. Boberg, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago Orlando E. Costas is also the author of 'Liberating News', 'The Integrity of Mission', and 'The Church and Its Mission'.
- GenresTheology
254 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1982
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June 27, 2024
A “REFLECTION ON CHRISTIAN WORLD MISSION” BY A LATIN THEOLOGIAN
Orlando E. Costas (1942-1987) was an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church and the United Church of Christ, as well as directing the Latin American Evangelical Council for Pastoral Studies. He has also written books such as The Church and its Mission: A Shattering Critique from the Third World; The Integrity of Mission: The Inner Life and Outreach of the Church; Liberating News: A Theology of Contextual Evangelization; Theology of the Crossroads in Contemporary Latin America; etc.
He wrote in the Prologue of this 1982 book, “It all started in 1974 when I first published a book in English… I had come to realize the importance of establishing a communication link with the church in the English-speaking world… and particularly that sector of it that has been traditionally connected with the missionary movement. My wife and I had gone to Central America as missionaries with the Latin American Mission (LAM)… These were days of tremendous social, political, and cultural fervor. The LAM was beginning a self-initiated process of ‘latinization’… But no sooner had we begun to take a few steps toward the development of a Latin American theology and a contextual missiological reflection than we began to feel the heat from Northern America… I began to be quoted---and misquoted… I started to put in writing some of my developing missiological insights. ‘The Church and Its Mission’ … was situated in the experience of a Puerto Rican Christian who, having been helped by the Anglo-American church earlier in his life, now felt constrained to minister prophetically to it. I didn’t dream that the book would have as wide a circulation as it did in evangelical circles…” (Pg. xii-xiii)
He continues, “The point of these reflections is twofold. First, they demonstrate the contextual character of missiology as ‘a theology of the crossroads,’ or a critical reflection at the point where cultures, ideologies, religious traditions, and social, economic, and political systems confront each other, and where the gospel seeks to cross the frontier of unbelief… Second, these essays reflect the ‘thinking out loud’ of an ‘outsider’---one who not only belongs to a marginalized community in the American metropolis and has lived and worked in an oppressed continent, but who has also situated himself theologically in the periphery of history… This is thus an effort to reflect on the Christian world mission … from the perspective of those who have been shaped by, and in many ways have suffered the negative impact of, the missionary movement.” (Pg. xiv)
He explains, “Let us consider the language of contextualization… This word … refers to the time-space boundaries of understanding… It is the reality that ties together, and therefore shapes, all knowledge. There is no such thing as timeless or nonspatially related knowledge… Everything that I am, everything that I know is intrinsically bound to everything that I do… Biblical contextualization is rooted in the fact that the God of revelation can only be known in history. Such a revelation comes to specific peoples in concrete situations by means of particular cultural symbols and categories. It is not possible to read the Old Testament without being struck by the human character of its revelatory claims. Theology in the Old Testament appears as a culture-bound, historically situated reflection on the God who is known in human language. In the New Testament, however, this revelation reaches its peak: God is known in human flesh.” (Pg. 4-5)
He points out, “The New Testament teaches that Jesus was a thorough human being. He was a Jew, the son of a modest family, who grew up in an insignificant town in the province farthest from the capital and the most culturally backward… he was misunderstood by his family, his friends, his disciples, and the religious leaders… he lived a poor and lonely life with no permanent abode. He so identified himself with the poor that he dedicated himself to a suffering service in their behalf. It is this poor, humble, enigmatic, lonely Jewish preacher who fearlessly defended the cause of the hurt of his society whom the Christian faith confesses as the Son of God.” (Pg. 6)
He states, “Jesus’ death and suffering opens the way to God and makes God accessible to humanity. It also opens the way to humankind and makes men and women available to the kingdom of God. The Easter community confessed Jesus not only as the Son of God, but also as the Son of man… The Son of man is the symbol of humanity in its fullest potentiality… [He is] the only one who can restore humanity to its creative potential. The Son of man is the revealer of a new humanity. He is not only the One from heaven but the Person of the future. He is the bearer of justice and liberation.” (Pg. 11)
He suggests, “Insofar as Christ has assumed the identity of the hurt, he is one with them. We can affirm, accordingly, that Christ today is a black Southern African, a Latin American peasant, a Cambodian refugee, a homeless Palestinian, a persecuted Russian Jew, an orphan and homeless child, a humiliated female person. He is all of these things because he is … the one for others, ‘God of the oppressed.’ It should not be a shock to us to hear it said that Christ is black or brown, persecuted or poor… Why should it be such a shock to think of him as the poor man of Nazareth in whom the eternal Son of the Father has been revealed?... Why should we not emphasize the identity which… Jesus took upon himself in the outset of his ministry… to be the liberator of the captives, the healer of the blind, and the bearer of good news to the poor[?]” (Pg. 13-14)
He asserts, “We need to bear in mind… that Latin… America is a continent conceived in sin. The Spanish and Portuguese presence begins with the conquest and the domination of the aboriginal peoples living on the continent. This is not to deny, of course, that these peoples had their internal wars before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese. But what we, today, know as Latin America does not begin with the pre-Columbian peoples, but with their conquest and exploitation at the hand of the European invaders… Latin America has been incorporated into the world economy to provide two things---raw materials and cheap labor.” (Pg. 33-34)
He observes, “The incorporation of the modern missionary movement into the world of free enterprise did not occur by accident; it fits into the great liberal project of Europe and North America… For that reason we should not be surprised to find very early in modern missionary work key postulates of liberalism such as progress, liberty, and individualism. Thus it was not by accident that mission work took an entrepreneurial shape. It occurred because the modern missionary movement is the child of the world of free enterprises.” (Pg. 63)
He says, “Christian mission is therefore a liberation movement. To be sure, it is a liberation from the power of sin and death… in the Scriptures sin and death are understood in social and personal terms, cosmically and historically… Therefore forgiveness of sin means, on the one hand, liberation from all sorts of enmity, and, on the other, reconciliation with God, neighbor, and creation… The church … should anticipate the shalom of God’s kingdom; it should practice his justice.” (Pg. 67-68)
He notes, “The Latin American neighbor’s cry is, above all things, for JUSTICE and LIBERATION. For the last 150 years Latin America has been controlled by economic oligarchies and military forces. Externally it has been at the mercy of international capitalism, having been made an economically dependent region with an industry, a labor force, and an agriculture developed in function of the North American … metropolis. It has been dominated culturally by consumerism.” (Pg. 104) He adds, “the response to the neighbor’s cry is not a take-it-or-leave it affair. As Christians they do not have a choice. They are indebted to their neighbors! Therefore the cry of the Latin American world puts at stake the INTEGRITY of the Christian profession of faith in the United States.” (Pg. 114)
He suggests, “We can communicate the good news of salvation effectively only to the extent that it is made flesh in concrete situations. In such situations the power of the gospel can be seen at work. Only thus can its message be received as good news in the ears of the world.” (Pg. 164) He says, “All Christendom projects… have been and will always be illusory, because the church has not been called to manage the world but, rather, to bear witness to the kingdom of God in the world.” (Pg. 180) He concludes, “Therefore let us not be co-opted by the structures of Christendom but, rather, let us become apostolic agents in the mobilization of a servant church … outside the gate of a comfortable and secure ecclesiastical compound.” (Pg. 194)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Liberation Theology.
Orlando E. Costas (1942-1987) was an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church and the United Church of Christ, as well as directing the Latin American Evangelical Council for Pastoral Studies. He has also written books such as The Church and its Mission: A Shattering Critique from the Third World; The Integrity of Mission: The Inner Life and Outreach of the Church; Liberating News: A Theology of Contextual Evangelization; Theology of the Crossroads in Contemporary Latin America; etc.
He wrote in the Prologue of this 1982 book, “It all started in 1974 when I first published a book in English… I had come to realize the importance of establishing a communication link with the church in the English-speaking world… and particularly that sector of it that has been traditionally connected with the missionary movement. My wife and I had gone to Central America as missionaries with the Latin American Mission (LAM)… These were days of tremendous social, political, and cultural fervor. The LAM was beginning a self-initiated process of ‘latinization’… But no sooner had we begun to take a few steps toward the development of a Latin American theology and a contextual missiological reflection than we began to feel the heat from Northern America… I began to be quoted---and misquoted… I started to put in writing some of my developing missiological insights. ‘The Church and Its Mission’ … was situated in the experience of a Puerto Rican Christian who, having been helped by the Anglo-American church earlier in his life, now felt constrained to minister prophetically to it. I didn’t dream that the book would have as wide a circulation as it did in evangelical circles…” (Pg. xii-xiii)
He continues, “The point of these reflections is twofold. First, they demonstrate the contextual character of missiology as ‘a theology of the crossroads,’ or a critical reflection at the point where cultures, ideologies, religious traditions, and social, economic, and political systems confront each other, and where the gospel seeks to cross the frontier of unbelief… Second, these essays reflect the ‘thinking out loud’ of an ‘outsider’---one who not only belongs to a marginalized community in the American metropolis and has lived and worked in an oppressed continent, but who has also situated himself theologically in the periphery of history… This is thus an effort to reflect on the Christian world mission … from the perspective of those who have been shaped by, and in many ways have suffered the negative impact of, the missionary movement.” (Pg. xiv)
He explains, “Let us consider the language of contextualization… This word … refers to the time-space boundaries of understanding… It is the reality that ties together, and therefore shapes, all knowledge. There is no such thing as timeless or nonspatially related knowledge… Everything that I am, everything that I know is intrinsically bound to everything that I do… Biblical contextualization is rooted in the fact that the God of revelation can only be known in history. Such a revelation comes to specific peoples in concrete situations by means of particular cultural symbols and categories. It is not possible to read the Old Testament without being struck by the human character of its revelatory claims. Theology in the Old Testament appears as a culture-bound, historically situated reflection on the God who is known in human language. In the New Testament, however, this revelation reaches its peak: God is known in human flesh.” (Pg. 4-5)
He points out, “The New Testament teaches that Jesus was a thorough human being. He was a Jew, the son of a modest family, who grew up in an insignificant town in the province farthest from the capital and the most culturally backward… he was misunderstood by his family, his friends, his disciples, and the religious leaders… he lived a poor and lonely life with no permanent abode. He so identified himself with the poor that he dedicated himself to a suffering service in their behalf. It is this poor, humble, enigmatic, lonely Jewish preacher who fearlessly defended the cause of the hurt of his society whom the Christian faith confesses as the Son of God.” (Pg. 6)
He states, “Jesus’ death and suffering opens the way to God and makes God accessible to humanity. It also opens the way to humankind and makes men and women available to the kingdom of God. The Easter community confessed Jesus not only as the Son of God, but also as the Son of man… The Son of man is the symbol of humanity in its fullest potentiality… [He is] the only one who can restore humanity to its creative potential. The Son of man is the revealer of a new humanity. He is not only the One from heaven but the Person of the future. He is the bearer of justice and liberation.” (Pg. 11)
He suggests, “Insofar as Christ has assumed the identity of the hurt, he is one with them. We can affirm, accordingly, that Christ today is a black Southern African, a Latin American peasant, a Cambodian refugee, a homeless Palestinian, a persecuted Russian Jew, an orphan and homeless child, a humiliated female person. He is all of these things because he is … the one for others, ‘God of the oppressed.’ It should not be a shock to us to hear it said that Christ is black or brown, persecuted or poor… Why should it be such a shock to think of him as the poor man of Nazareth in whom the eternal Son of the Father has been revealed?... Why should we not emphasize the identity which… Jesus took upon himself in the outset of his ministry… to be the liberator of the captives, the healer of the blind, and the bearer of good news to the poor[?]” (Pg. 13-14)
He asserts, “We need to bear in mind… that Latin… America is a continent conceived in sin. The Spanish and Portuguese presence begins with the conquest and the domination of the aboriginal peoples living on the continent. This is not to deny, of course, that these peoples had their internal wars before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese. But what we, today, know as Latin America does not begin with the pre-Columbian peoples, but with their conquest and exploitation at the hand of the European invaders… Latin America has been incorporated into the world economy to provide two things---raw materials and cheap labor.” (Pg. 33-34)
He observes, “The incorporation of the modern missionary movement into the world of free enterprise did not occur by accident; it fits into the great liberal project of Europe and North America… For that reason we should not be surprised to find very early in modern missionary work key postulates of liberalism such as progress, liberty, and individualism. Thus it was not by accident that mission work took an entrepreneurial shape. It occurred because the modern missionary movement is the child of the world of free enterprises.” (Pg. 63)
He says, “Christian mission is therefore a liberation movement. To be sure, it is a liberation from the power of sin and death… in the Scriptures sin and death are understood in social and personal terms, cosmically and historically… Therefore forgiveness of sin means, on the one hand, liberation from all sorts of enmity, and, on the other, reconciliation with God, neighbor, and creation… The church … should anticipate the shalom of God’s kingdom; it should practice his justice.” (Pg. 67-68)
He notes, “The Latin American neighbor’s cry is, above all things, for JUSTICE and LIBERATION. For the last 150 years Latin America has been controlled by economic oligarchies and military forces. Externally it has been at the mercy of international capitalism, having been made an economically dependent region with an industry, a labor force, and an agriculture developed in function of the North American … metropolis. It has been dominated culturally by consumerism.” (Pg. 104) He adds, “the response to the neighbor’s cry is not a take-it-or-leave it affair. As Christians they do not have a choice. They are indebted to their neighbors! Therefore the cry of the Latin American world puts at stake the INTEGRITY of the Christian profession of faith in the United States.” (Pg. 114)
He suggests, “We can communicate the good news of salvation effectively only to the extent that it is made flesh in concrete situations. In such situations the power of the gospel can be seen at work. Only thus can its message be received as good news in the ears of the world.” (Pg. 164) He says, “All Christendom projects… have been and will always be illusory, because the church has not been called to manage the world but, rather, to bear witness to the kingdom of God in the world.” (Pg. 180) He concludes, “Therefore let us not be co-opted by the structures of Christendom but, rather, let us become apostolic agents in the mobilization of a servant church … outside the gate of a comfortable and secure ecclesiastical compound.” (Pg. 194)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Liberation Theology.
June 3, 2023
Great book to get a glimpse of Latin American theologies. Costas is one of my favorites!
June 9, 2011
Read it many years ago -- but excellent reminder of the breadth of God's mission.
Read
January 25, 2018A challenging but fruitful read for me. Though written in the 1980s, many of Costas's critiques of North American Christianity are still relevant. That, more than anything else, is what struck me: how many of the issues he underscored are ongoing.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews