Global Christianity, Mission and Sexuality

Contemporary received Christian missiology, exemplified by the Reformed theologian David J. Bosch's Transforming Mission and Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium, has placed God's mission, Missio Dei, at the centre of Christian life and witness. While this theology has been powerful in broader areas of justice, evangelism and renewal, it has often not grappled seriously with modern, post-modern and cross-cultural understandings and practices of sexuality. This failure has resulted in schisms and serious divisions in both local and global Christian churches, sectarianism based on a particular view of human sexuality (whether "liberal" or "conservative" or otherwise) and a flawed and divided Christian witness to the world. This course will attempt to explore the relation between Christian mission and sexuality in biblical, historical, theological and ecclesiological terms, respecting both the received tradition of the church but open to new manifestations of Christian faith and practice, and their relationship with the Missio Dei. The course will look at current global and local programmes relating mission and sexuality such as the Listening Process of the Anglican Communion as well as emerging areas of conflict such as changes in marriage canons to include same-sex unions. As much as possible, students will be expected to bring the experience of their churches to the course. Recognizing that many of these matters are not settled, the course is not prescriptive in requiring students to adopt a particular perspective but is designed to enable students to define their own views of mission and sexuality as they prepare for ministry at the local and global level.