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From th e
l:.L'J'O
July 1 966
MISSIONARY RESEARCH LIBRARY
3041 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N . Y. 10027
SUbsc r i pt i on :
$3.00 per ye ar
Vol. XVII , No .7
CONTINUITY AND CONTRAST I N MISSION
Da vid M.
Stowe
In a day of theological a nd eccles iast ical faddism, it i s tempt ing to be lieve
that our situation and our chal lenge i n wor ld miss ion a re a ltogethe r d ifferent from
any previous expe r ience of the church . The thes is of th is ar t icle, however, is that
there is an a lmost startling cont inuity of themes f r om mi s sion i n 1866 to mi s sion i n
1966; and that i t i s not unreasonable to be l ieve t hat so me of t hese wi l l co nst itute
the staple of miss ionary deve lopment f or a generation or more ahead .
At f irs t glance, 1866 does seem a strange old world . Living st one was on his way
to Afr ica aft er r ou sing the co ns ci ence of Engla nd against the s lave trade , prepar ing
for his last great journey t o open t he heart of the Dark Continent . Char les G.
Finney, the arch itect of ninetee nth and twentieth century evangelism, r e signed from
the preside ncy of Ober l in Col lege in 1866; and Dwight L. Moody started the ministry
in England that produced a Grenfe l l. In Japan, newly opened to the We s t , an American
Epi s copal missionary was bapt izing the first convert to hi s church . At the same
t ime , Roman Cathol ic miss ionaries were discovering at Naga saki communit ies of be l iev ­
ers who had maintained the fa ith unde r co nt i nuou s sentence of death f or t wo hundre d
years, s ince the bloodbath that had ostens i bl y wiped out the great Catho l ic communi ­
t ies f ounded by Franc is Xav ier .
Across t he Yel low Sea, t he Western church es saw i n China a great new opportuni ­
t y. According to the 1 866 Annual Report of the Methodist Episcopal Mis si ona r y Soc i ­
ety, "God is us i ng t he Christ ian na tions o f t he West to open up China to t he go spe l ,
a nd the inf luence of these na t i on s on t he government of China is every year b e comi ng
mor e decided and salutary . " The fir s t miss ionary of the fi r s t great faith mi s s ion ,
the China Inland Miss ion , ha d j u s t a rr i ved; and t he Peking stat ion of the Ame r i can
Board of Commiss ioners reported that "the people in a l l t hat r e gion are i n a ve ry fa ­
vorable state to r e ce i ve the gospe l and t hat now is t he t ime t o se nd l a borer s. "1
The Civ i l War had set back the Chr istian mission on t his co ntine nt so seve re ly
that the pe rcentage of church member sh ip would not r ea ch t he 1860 fi gure again f or
mor e than a gene rat ion. Yet i n t he ge nera t i on after 1866 the ze a l and elo que nce of
Negr o rel ig ious l ea der s would spa r k the deve lopment of i ndepe ndent churches a nd the re
Single cop ies: 35i. Orde rs should be addres s ed: Mis sionary Research Library, P. O.
Box 590 , Manhattanville Sta t i on , New York, New York 10027.
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would be proportionately more Negro church members than white. In 1866 the American
Missionary Association was founded, part of a vast home missions enterprise which es­
tablished the foundations of Negro education.
In the 1860's the father of William Temple was writing on the comparison of
Christianity with other faiths, using no facts and no quotations referring to any sa­
cred book except the Bible. Yet the tremendous flowering of the history of all reli­
gions was just ahead. Max Muller was already at work on studies that in 1873 would
produce his Introduction to the Science of Religion. His great series of Sacred
Books of the East would begin to appear in 1880, and Frazer's Golden Bough in~90 o
So the foundation would be laid for an empirical assessment of the ancient theologi­
cal opinion that the Divine Logos is at work in non-Christian saints and seers.
In the heartland of the New England theology, a revolution was brewing. Robert
A. Hume was about to enter Andover Seminary. There he would acquire ideas that would
lead him, as a missionary at Ahmadnagar, India, to believe that a Hindu who had not
heard of Christ in this life might have a "second chance" for salvation after death.
When that news came back to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missi on s
a storm broke that rocked the board to its Edwardian foundations. The traditional
view that missionary motivation depended on the damnation of the heathen was about to
go under a cloud.
All this ferment was linked with that va st revolution by which the Bible and
Christian doctrine came to be under stood historically and critically. Renan's Vie de
Jesus came out in 1863; Strauss' popular Leben Jesu in 1865; Kuenen's Old Testament
studIes in 1870 and following.
In 1866, Friedrich Nietzsche was 22 years old and had just abandoned his theo­
logical studies for philology and then philosophy. He was preparing for the an­
nouncement a couple of decades later that "God is dead," and that we must stop saying
"No" in slave-Jewish-Christian fashion to the vitalities of life and instead say
"Yes" to the secular city.
Meanwhile, in Britain Seeley had just published his Ecce Homo with its trumpet
call: "To reorganize society and bind the members of it together by the closest ties
was the business of Jesus' life ," Christian socialism in Britain and on the Conti­
nent, along with the American social gospel, were just about to enter the mainstream
of church history. In 1866 the American missionary at Umvoti, in Zululand, reported
"an average congregation of 400 hearers, presenting a comparatively civilized appear­
ance";2 -- registering in that phrase one version of the comprehensive social aim of
missions in that day. A missionary statesman like Secretary Clark of the American
Board put the alliance of the Christian mission with the forces of secular and social
development squarely in an address on "The Developing Power of the Gospel": "The
railway and the telegraph are henceforth the symbols of Christian as well as a mate­
rial progress. "3
While leaders of the Christian mission welcomed what was to them a peaceful and
constructive revolution being wrought by steam, electricity and education, they were
not more enthusiastic than their age about the frequently violent accompanying s oc i a l
revolution.
While some applauded the violence of Reconstruction in the American South, there
was to be no effective prote st when the counterviolence of southern white suprema­
cists shortly returned the Negro to serfdom. In China the Tai Ping revolt had just
been crushed by European and Chinese forces under that devoutly pious Englishman Chi­
nese Gordon. So the Christian We st ended the only indigenous movemen~ through which
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Chr ist ianity has e ver had an oppor t un i t y to take a leading pos i t ion in Ch i na . Karl
Marx' s Da s Kapital was in the publ is he r 's ha nds i n 1866; and h is I nterna tiona l Work­
i ng Men 's Association was ba r ely two years old . I t would perish be f or e the de cade
was out - - but not wi t hout sh edding seed s fr om whi ch su cceedi ng Interna tional s would
spring, and i n t heir gro\rth sp lit the r ock of ni ne t e e nt h century world and soc ial or ­
de r .
Ecumeni cal pr in ciples were a l ready wel l establ ished i n 1866, particular ly i n
miss io n ove r seas . I n a n i ndi gnant discu s sion of Hi gh Anglica n raids on i t s te r r ito r y
i n Hawaii , the Congregat i onal mission board r e f err ed t o the t ime -honored and gene ral ­
ly accepted "princ i ple of noninterference" in mi ss ion . Never , the Bo stoni ans af­
f i rmed , ha d they or wou l d they knowi ngly put mi s s ionar ies i nt o an area where any oth ­
er Chr ist ian group was at wor k (conve nient ly negle cti ng i n some a reas to consider
that Roman Cathol ic ism wa s "Christia n" -- bu t of course t ha t was mutual). I n 1866
word wa s go i ng round among the Roman Cathol ic b ishops that a counc i l was sh ort ly t o
be cal led at the Va ti ca n and its main business would be to de clare t he i nfallibility
of t he Pope , r aising higher the wall be t ween t he Roman church and a l l ot he r s .
Fundamental , of course , to truly e cumeni cal Christianity is t he dev elopment of
a n i ndige nous chu rch i n all parts of the i nha b i t ed wor ld . 1866 was the ret i rement
year of Rufus Ande rs on , mo st infl ue ntial of a l l Ameri can miss ion l eader s, who ha d
pr oc la i med through a ge ne rat ion the s l ogan r eit erat e d i n t hat ye a r 's r eport fr om Ea s t
Turkey : "The miss i on is act i ng up on the pri nc iple t hat not hing i s r eally gained until
a se lf -supporting , sel f -propag ati ng, s el f -g ove r ni ng Chr ist i a nity i s est ablis hed."4
~fuat a bo i ling p ot t he mi s sionary church and the wor ld of mission wer e i n 1866:
Problems t he r e wer e , s ome o f t he m f amili ar inde ed. One annual rep ort bemoans t he
"c ons t a nt reduct ion which i s taking place i n the number of our mi s si ona rie s. "5 But
on t he whole it was a time of t r emend ous vi tal i t y and opt i mism . Here i s Rufus
Anderson' s vale dict ory pe r spect i ve :
"Never have I had str onge r as surance than now of t he ultimate t r iump h of the
miss ionary cause . I t s progress seems t o me t o be as ce rtai n as that of t rade , or
knowledge , or f r eed om of thought and a cti on. With t he wor l d open t o eva ngeli cal ef ­
fort a s never be f ore, the truly eva ngel i cal churches wil l be l e s s and less able t o
disregard the spi ritual ly be nighted nation s; and a l l such churches wi ll r eal ize , more
an d more, that to l a bor for the ext ension of Chr is t 's kingd om t hrough the world is
indispe nsable t o their own spiritual prosper ity . "6
Doe s a l l t hat j ui ce and a l l t ha t j oy sound strange in the ears of 1966 ? Perha p s
The market is f l ooded with b ooks bear ing titles like MISSIONARY GO HOME, or THE
E~ID OF THE MI SSI ONARY ERA.
I was one of t ho se who managed t o pr ope l hims elf out of
Communi st China j u s t in t ime t o avoid getti ng crushed in i t s cl osing door . The l a s t
missi onary was deported from Burma ear ly this summe r . Vis a problems ab ound in India
and Paki stan . "Whit ey" is not exactly l oved and trusted in Africa .
so.
And yet t he world of 1 966 i s i n many ways a l so a n ope ni ng world f or mi s s i on. We
have jus t disc ove red , within the decade, that million s of Chr ist ian l ayme n are d is ­
pe rsed a r ound the wor ld -- Americ an an d Bri t i sh , Swi ss and German, J a panese and Indi­
a n Christ i a ns on home a nd f oreig n mi s si ons of bus iness , education , d iplomacy , mili ­
tary s e rv i ce , int erna tional c i v i l se rvice a nd i nte r gove r nment al a i d. They have pene ­
trated t he wor ld -- not onl y ge ographically but so ciologi cally. We ar e see ing an i m­
mense en largement and co rre cti ve of the mi nistry of the l ai t y that was cr ucial in
1866: Li v i ngs to ne a British consul ; Towns e nd Har r is, a devo ut diplomat , wor k i ng out
the t r eati e s that opened Japa n whi le Captain Jane s and othe rs i ntr odu ce d Western and
Chr i st ian education. Nor are the appa re ntly impenetrable geographic barrie rs qu ite
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so impenetrable as they seem. A friend of mine expects t o spend a good part of the
next s i x months traveling and ob s ervi ng in mainland China, and meeting Christian s
there . I have recently re ad the extensive a nd highly illuminating diary of a no t he r
friend who made that trip not l ong a go.
Our pr ed.ece ssors of 1866 saw the world opening not only under the pressure of
"benevolent" Western imperialism but b y means of the new te chnologie s of s t eam and
electricity. Today's tec hnologies of transportation and communication have greatly
extended the hopes whi ch in 1866 r e sted in the railwa y, s teams h i p and telegraph. Lo­
cal and international radi o and televi sion broadca sting, films, modern printing and
pub l i shi ng method s coupled with ad van ced te chnique s of t eaching literacy, the air­
pla ne and the outboard motor -- all these are harne ssed to missi on in all six conti­
nents .
Our idea of the s cope of mi s sion t oday include s, a s it did in 1866, the rec ogni­
t i on that America is a mi ssion field -- along with a l l the so - cal l ed "Christian
We st." For a generation or t wo , even wi s e leader s were telling us that the era of
hOlue mi ss i ons was over. The church had f ollowed all the fr ontiers until there were
no mor e ; the fl ood of immigrants had dwindled t o a trickle, and most of them had
f ound their wa y into pari she s provided f or them along comfortable ethnic a nd c onfes­
si onal lines. The Negro college s were str ong a nd broadly s uppor t ed ; the Negro
churches had evangelized their pe ople. Then s udde nly it became cl ear that ours i s a
far fr om Christian cult ure -- perhaps post-Christian in part; certainly pre-Chri stian
i n part. In any event it belong s t o what the Mexico As sembly of the Commis sion on
World Mis s ion and Evangelism identified in 1963 as the field f or "mission in six con­
tinents ,"
Theologi cally, the s ame movement of departure and r eturn ha s oc curr ed . Chri s­
tian mi s sion in 1866 was just beginning to rethink its f oundations, perspectives a nd
ob j e c t ives under the challenge of criti cal histori cal method s a nd the scientific
sp i r i t . In various ways the theological enterprise of Europe and America was seeking
to reinterpret the ancient gospel in modern terms. Then came World War I, and amid
the ruin s of Eur opean self-confidence Karl Barth and hi s co-laborer s tugged at the
b ell-rope in the s teepl e of the church. The note s that pealed f orth had a bracing,
ol d - f a shi one d biblical ring, which served f or a long generati on t o r emind the mis ­
s ionary church of its r oots. But by 1966 the l ogi c of the Kirkliche Dogmatik had
\for ked itself out -- perhaps the l ast s uch dogmat i cs that will ever be written? The
great f i r s t General Secr e tary of the World Council of Churche s , who had stamped the
ecumenical movement with his pas sionate ne o- orthod oxy, was r etiring; and Chri stians
wer e pa ying l arge s ums of mone y t o have bright young theologians (or journali sts)
tell them what the thinker s of 1866 had confronted -- the s usp i cion that God mi ght be
dead . The t ask of mi ssionary the ology today i s ag ain t o articulate a nd proclaim the
go spe l in ways that t ake the world seriou sly -- its agenda, its que stions a nd its
convi ct i on s . As in 1866, the a chi evement of relevance is primary.
~fuere Christians fa ce men of other f aiths the nece ssity f or relevance a nd the
mode of dialogu e be come part i cularly vi t al. In 1866 We stern Christians were on the
t hr e shol d of the serious s t udy of other religi ons. The most important finding of
t hi s ce nt ury of a cademic studie s ha s been that the interreligious que s t ion is more
than an a ca demic question. The Scr i pt ure s have been compared; but now we are f a ce t o
fa ce wi t h men of ot he r faith s, in New York a nd Berkeley as well a s Bangkok a nd Bei­
rut. And s o we begin now with persons what our prede ce ss ors 100 years ag o were be­
g i nn i ng wi t h texts.
We ear l i er identified the beginnings, ab out a century a go , of a social or ient a ­
t i on in Christian mi ssion; while in the ba ck ground a n approa ch i ng s tor m of Communist
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r evolut i on r umbled almost inaudibly. In the United States, the fir st Negr o r evolu­
t i on " a s i n full swi ng . Cult ural imperiali st s fr om the We st, most notably Chri s tian
ed uca t i oni s t s , were introducing the ferment of liberal democratic i de a s int o soc i ­
e t ies gove r ned s i nc e the Stone Age by a s sumpti ons of ca s te , privilege a nd a uto cra cy .
Toda y the Marxian revolutions have come t o full flower in Eura si a; i nde ed, s t i r ­
r ing s wi t h i ~ t hem s uggest the po s sibilit y of r evoluti on within r evolution. St i l l an ­
ot he r maj or cont i ne nt a l region -- Latin Ame r ica - - t ee t er s on the brink of commun ism.
The s econd Negro re vol ut i on ga thers s peed in Ameri ca; and it is linked with a wi der
r evolu t ion of al l the Ame r icans who a re trapped in pock e t s of poverty. The post u ­
lates of democr acy a r e dominant , from Africa where a r acial cas te sys t em i s t ottering
t o Britain where a n a nc ie nt social caste system shatters under t he a s saults of a ngr y
yO llilg men . Around the world the line between poo r na t ion a nd ri ch nation , the sout h
a nd t he north, or Hhat Lin Piao calls "the count r y an d the city" gr oHs sharper and a t
the same ti me mor e precar ious. As i t was a ce nt ury ago , r evoluti on i s i n t he a i r .
I n 1866 , mi s si onary cooperat ion t hrough re cogniti on of comit y i n var i ous field s
was showing signs of s er i ous strain . Denominationali sm a t h ome a nd abroad was abo ut
t o fl o~e r . For t wo ge ner a t ions i t bloomed the world a r ound ; a nd then i t s bitter
f r ui t be came a ll t oo apparent a nd a not he r gr eat rever sal began. Now in 1966 He a r e
a t t he end of one e cume ni cal era, and a t the threshold of a not he r . One s ymb ol i s the
r etir ement fr om the ce nte r of t he World Counc il General Se cre tar i at of a great e cume­
n ist Wl10 wa s e ssentially a p i one er, a char ismatic pr ophe t of unity, a n a nt i -organi za=
t i on man wh o car r ied t he ecumenical movement in hi s hat and s t er nl y forbade it t o be­
come ope r a t i ona l . Hi s s uccessor i s a not he r gr eat ecume nist who i s not only a pr ophet
but al s o a superb admi ni s t rat or and an operator par ex cellen ce . In 1966 COCU (Con­
s ult a t i on on Church Unity) became a hous ehold - of - fa i t h Hord ; and JAM be gan to me an,
not sorne t h i ng s t icky and good wi t h bre ad and t ea, but J oint Act ion f or Mis sion -­
prope r l y unders tood , a pl a n of a ct i on that means the destruction of de nominati onal
sovereignt ies around t he wor l d.
And i n 2066? It doe s not seem ve r y da r i ng to project this increasing intensity
and r ange of Chr ist ian ecume nism t oward some kind of near- es chatological fulfillment
i ~ a h undr ed year s.
Ca r l McIntire an d the American Coun cil of Chri sti a n Churches one
wi t b Ni neveh and Tyr e~ The Soc i ety of J e sus, a COCU Commis s ion on World Mini stri es
and the Ecumenical Patriar ch ate all mixe d up t ogether in great sche mes of J oint Ac­
t ion for Mis s ion . What could s t op it ? For one thi ng, the nonarrival of 2066 a t a l l .
A Col umbi a Uni ver sity profe s s or ha s re cently pointed out a good r e a s on f or our blank
s t ar e into t he futur e. ". . . If we had be gun dr opp i ng an Hir oshima bomb t he day Chri st
Has born , a nd had co nt i nue d dropping a b omb a day .. . fr om the year zero up to the
pre s ent , we in the United State s would s t i ll have a l ot of megaton s left over Lan3J
each one of t he se bombs ca n kill 100, 000 people . . . . "
'le t surely the first wor-d of the Christi an gospe l is hope . Biblical f aith ha s
taught us, i f i t h a s t aught us anythi ng , t o r ead i n our experience of nature a nd his ­
t ory s i gns of the inexhaustible, i nde f atigable , e ndless cr eat ivi ty of the living God.
Eve n i f we l ook t oward 2066 with hope, however, we ar e l ikely to think of our pa t h as
l e udi ng into a wor l d cha nged beyond r e cognition. In f a ct a kind of total un ce r tai nty
ab out the l ong f ut ur e may well repres ent the main differen ce between our per spe ctive s
en mi s s i on in 1966 and in 1866 , Thing s we r e changing then; but they seemed t o be
ch angi ng in ivays that perm i t ted ext rapo lat ion fr om pre sent e xpe r ienc es a nd ass ur ­
an ce s. I n 1866 the new powers of man were i nt e r pr e t ed a s means of i mplementing v i ­
~ion s a l r e ady held , Hhe t her r adi cal or co ns ervative . But in 1966 our power s have-an
ex plo si ve qual i t y , and our visi on i s d izzi ed by the fa ct that re corded knowl edge dou­
bles every 1 5 years.
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Yet I am not convi nced that a Que s tion mark i s the onl y s i gn we have f or the
ce nt ury ahead i n Chri stian mis sion. For the next hundred years t he domina ting Que s­
tion will be that of wor l d community , world peace, wor l d just ice . Every s igni fica nt
chal lenge t o Chri s ti an mis sion, no matter how preci sely foc us ed in a place, will be
li nk ed wi t h the shape of t he whole inhabit ed wor ld ( incl uding by 2066, per haps , a f ew
co l on ies in space where me n speak a strange mixt ure of Rus sian , Engli s h and Chine se) .
A world population s t ab i l i ze d a t perhap s thre e time s the present number will be com­
pletel y interlocked by global t echnical de v i ces f or communi cations and tran sport,
powe r, thoroughly i nternationali zed commun ities of l earning and busine s s, a worldwide
cosmopolitan cult ure , and s ome immensely strengthened suc cess or to the Uni ted Na ­
tion s. Any relevant miss i on a nywhe re , even i n Angels Camp, Californi a, Sleepy Eye ,
Mi nnes ota , or Ho- Ho-Kus, New J er s ey, must be per for med in relation t o the global t ask
of the un iver sal church .
In s uc h a ce nt ury , the gr e atest ch allen ge t o the church will be t o provide the
sp i r i t ua l ba sis f or a world order . We have the germ of a wor l d orde r now, ba se d on
wha t might r oughly be called the "Amer i ca n i zat i on " of the world . Thi s i s a s t yl e of
life, s haped by the appl i cat i on of our rapidly multiplyi ng knowledge, which a i ms t o
produce the maximum amount of good s a nd se rv ice s for the l arge st poss i bl e group . The
res ult is a community ri ch in co ns ume r goods, relatively open a nd eQualitarian , dedi ­
cated t o material well-being, rati onalisti c and ut il i tar ian r ather than my stical or
a e s t he t i c . Anot he r term of t en us ed f or some s uc h con ste llati on of chara ct e r ist i cs i s
" secularizati on . " This s t yl e of l ife is now the pr i mary basi s f or what world order
exists . And it i s not goo d e nough .
I beli eve that a fruit ful and humane world or der can be t ho ught ab out onl y in
t he t erm s used in the Book of Acts . There Pa ul of Tars us a f f irms that now God " com­
mands a l l men eve ry¥The r e t o r epent, because he has fi xed a day on whi ch he wi l l judge
the whole wor ld i n righte ousnes s, by Lthe standard
a man whom he has appointed. "7
That i s, God i s building a un i f i ed world, and he i s building it on the s t andar d f or
human life t hat we see in J e sus.
otl
That propo sa l poi nts t o some thing e l se ah ea d - - a va stly enl a r ged un der standing
of ecumeni city . Our t ou ch stone f or sp i r i t ua l que sting a nd theologi cal probing wi ll
not be the church , so c i ologi ca l ly or confe s si onally de f i ned . Ecumeni cal di a l ogue
wi l l be no i ntramural affair among f os sil remains of old Chr ist ian Quarrels. The i s ­
s ues a nd op t ions t o be examined in e cumeni cal ope nness wi l l be t hose generat ed by the
gr e at non-Christi an norm s for human l i f e . We shal l li sten wi t h a cute al er t ness t o
wha t i s being said and why, when an Indones i an l ea der explains a mass a cre by say i ng ,
"We ar e Mosl ems ; we do not turn t he other ch eek . "S Or t o a Buddhist when he sa ys
that non -being i s "the absol ut e ly affir mat i ve principl e wh ich, go i ng through t he op ­
po s i t ion between being and non -bei ng down t o their root -source, makes both the affir ­
ma t ive a nd ne gative pos sible . Non-be i ng or nothingnes s i s thus ... the ulti mate prin ­
ciple by whi ch everythi ng i s f ounded in it s own di stinctive peculiarity ." 9
But what ab out that co r ne rstone of current literary theology -- the a s sumpti on
that t he r eligi ous man no l onger exi st s ? There i s little a ct ual e vidence that s eri­
ou s religi ou s con cer n i s fading , In a recent cr os s -secti on poll, adult Ameri cans
were a s ked t o name t he i r i nt e r es t s . Reli gi on he aded the list, ahead of spor t s, music
a nd pol i t ics in that or de r -- with half a dozen ot h ers fluther down. I n a col l ege
graduate sample religi on had dr opped below internati onal a f fai rs , poli tics, music a nd
s po r ts -- but was st i l l f ar ahead of literatur e, s c i en ce , a rt a nd cooki ng . 10 A New
Yor k Times nati onal survey re centl y confirmed that s t ude nts are e nrol l i ng fo r cour s es
on religion in r ecord numbers . The mood i s not p ious or dogmat ic . But it i s a
s ear ch f or dire ction and identi t y -- that i s , a religiou s search, ll
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Human symbols of the v i t a l i t y of religion in a secularizing age ar e fami l i ar
enou gh -- John XXI I I , Euge ne Car son Bl ake, Billy Graham, Thi ch Tri Quang, and a host
of ot he rs estimable and ot h er wise . The perpetua l battle of Communist e stablishments
agains t persi stent concern about a t r anscendent r eference f or human existence is per ­
h aps the most eloquent witness of a l l .
I con clude that i n the generati on ahead the ineluct able re ach of man 's heart f or
r e l a t i on ship with t he eterna l will not ch ange ; nor will the need f or Jesus Chri st a s
the norm f or human existence. The co nt ex t of mis s ion will be an emerging world or ­
der, wh ich will nee d above all a n adequate spi r i t ua l basi s . We shall work within the
context of a universal ecumeni city.
Our mi s sion will be t o manife st that fundamental r ea l i t y of b iblical religi on ,
the omni pr ese nc e of the livi ng, righte ous, merciful God . To spe ak a bout that we
sh a l l need words ne wl y minted f or the new voca bula r i e s of t he twenty-first ce ntury.
But e ven more ne ce s sary will be the kinds of act ion that a r e par t of the presence and
action of God, himself breaki ng f orth wherever men s t udy a nd suffer, sing and st arve,
think and slay, think a nd serve and pra y .
FOOTNOTES
1. Mis si onary Herald , 1867, p . 9 .
2 .
Ibid. , p. 3.
3 . Ibid . , 1873, p. 344 .
4 . I b i d . , 1867, p . 5·
5· Ibid. , 1866, p . 328.
6 . .Ib id . , p . 367.
7 . Acts 17: 31.
8 . Th e New York Times Magazine, May 5, 1966, p . 8.
9 · Abe Masao, "Buddhism a nd Christiani t y a s a Probl em of Tod ay ."
gions , Aut umn 1963, p. 16 .
10 .
Saturday Review, May 14, 1966, p. 23.
11 .
The New York Times, May 1, 1966, p. E9 .
Japanes e Rel i­