Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2012-1
Tracing a Theology of the Kingdom of God in William Carey's Enquiry : A Case Study in Complex Mission Motivation as Component of “Missionary Spirituality”
Various interpretations of the essential character and argument of William Carey's Enquiry (1792) proposed by contemporary scholars omit the complexity of Carey's mission theology, especially the several reasons for mission he asserts, that can be discerned by tracing the kingdom of God/Christ motif running through the treatise: duty or obligation as mission motivation is interconnected with the nature of the age, the nature of the task, the nature of salvation/discipleship, and the nature of God as motivation. The theology of Enquiry can be read as an explanation of missio Dei and can inform a spirituality of participation in it.
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