Missiology

Missiology is the area of practical theology that investigates the mandate, message, and mission of the Christian church, especially the nature of missionary work. Missiology is a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural field of study incorporating theology, anthropology, history, geography, theories and methods of communication, comparative religion, Christian apologetics, education methodology, and interdenominational relations.

Christian theology developed over the centuries, starting in early 2nd century and continuing its development up to now. Missiology as a theological discipline appeared quite late in the Christian era, only in 19th century. It was the Scottish missionary Alexander Duff who first developed a systematic theory of mission and was appointed in 1867 to a new chair of Evangelistic Theology in Edinburgh. This first chair of missiology was closed after Duff’s departure but the path was laid. Some years later another theologian, Gustav Warneck, was recognized as the founder of missiology as a discipline in its own right.

Warneck founded the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, the first scientific missionary periodical, in 1874. In 1897, he was appointed to the chair of missionary science at the University of Halle, Germany. His three-volume work on Protestant mission theory and his survey of the history of Protestant missionary work were extremely important for the young discipline. Influenced by Warneck’s work, Catholic Church historian Joseph Schmidlin began lecturing in missiology in 1910 at the University of Munster and was appointed to the first chair of Catholic missiology at the same university in 1914.

Missiology became recognizable first of all within the study of Christian theology. On the other hand, over the centuries of missions the missionaries encountered various cultures and attitudes to accepting the Gospel by the different peoples. This caused theologians to reflect on issues of society and Christianity, and anthropology and Christianity. Communicating the Gospel and comparing the Christian teaching with other religious or secular teachings made the task of the missionaries even more difficult. They needed a solid theoretical framework within which they could more efficiently found their mission and succeed in spreading the Good News.

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