The Urgent Demands of the Present: Missiological Discernment in a Wounded World

Abstract

This article considers implications of the IAMS 15th Assembly theme “Powers, Inequalities, and Vulnerabilities: Mission in a Wounded World.” After describing the theme’s origins and reflecting on wounds and woundedness in Christian mission, it develops a framework to consider missiology shaped by the theme, that is, when prioritizing mission as constituted by its setting in a wounded world shaped by powers, inequalities, and vulnerabilities. After presenting that framework, which features the medical terms triage, diagnosis, therapy, and prophylaxis, it offers brief and tentative missiological discernment of the present moment, highlighting, besides climate change, 1) rampant religious disaffiliation among onetime Christians and 2) intra-Christian polarization and divisions as particularly urgent priorities for missional engagement and contemporary mission studies.