Mission and spirituality: Ecumenical convergence and creative tensions in a new millennium

Abstract

This article examines the discourse surrounding the concepts of “mission” and “spirituality” in the interdisciplinary fields of missiology and Christian spirituality studies at the turn of the new millennium. Borrowing the concepts of ecumenical “convergence” and “creative tension” from David J. Bosch, I argue that scholars from a variety of traditions and disciplines are converging around the idea that mission and spirituality are vitally linked, but they do not always agree on how these concepts are defined and interact in real life. After an introduction that highlights events that led to the production of much of the literature and reviews the scope of the study, I analyze works within missiology and Christian spirituality studies related to this theme. Drawing on an early framework laid out by Michael Collins Reilly in a 1980 article in Missiology entitled “Developing a Missionary Spirituality,” first I focus on the missiological literature: the convergences and creative tensions in how scholars treat the concept of spirituality, four converging ecumenical trends, and various disciplinary approaches. I counterbalance this by looking at how spirituality studies scholars use the concept of mission. Through this survey, it becomes clear that there is mounting evidence that these two interdisciplinary fields are interacting, but that there is space for further research and more collaboration.