The Validity of the Christian Mission
By Elton Trueblood
A Review by Dwight A. Moody
Elton Trueblood was a highly respected and often published Christian thinker in the Quaker tradition. His primary post was the faculty of Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. He wrote many books, somewhat in the line of C. S. Lewis; that is, they are learned and articulate contributions to pressing concerns in the world of faith and practice without being technical or too academic. I have read a number of his books, and this particular book I read in 1972, the year it was published. I have told that story elsewhere.
In the preface of this book, Trueblood addresses his motivation: “Notable as the missionary enterprise has been there is no doubt that today it is in serious danger, for many of the people who once believed in it now believe in it no more. What they require, and what they have a right to expect, is intellectual justification. What is widely doubted is not some detail of the Christian Mission or some denominational program, but the entire conception…. I am trying to take seriously the doubts which honest and goodhearted people have to as they question whether the Christian Mission has any contemporary justification. I write because I believe that such justification is possible and that a clear affirmative answer can be given (xf).”
The book consists of five chapters, and I would not be surprised if this material was first given as a series of lectures, in a class or a conference. Chapter one is “The Phenomenon of Mission” wherein he describes the remarkable period of Christian history known simply as “the Christian Mission” or the modern Christian missionary movement. He uses the date of 1871, the famous meeting of Henry Stanley the British reporter and David Livingstone the British author, doctor, and missionary in present day Tanzania, in East Africa. He notes that in the world of his day, 1971, he counted about 80,000 Cristian missionaries in the world, divided evenly between Catholic and Protestant traditions. Trueblood contrasts the decline in interest among students in older, traditional protestant colleges, especially in the northeastern USA with the enthusiasm of students attending the triennial gatherings on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbanna. He then traces the missional element of the Christian religion all the way back to the beginning as described in the New Testament, with special reference to Catholic missionaries in the Middle Ages and the Protestant mission in the pre-modern era. He traces both of these to the missional thrust that is at the core of the Christian message.
Chapter two traces the rise of modern criticism of the Christian Mission. He quotes John R. Mott, early leader in the 20th century student mission meeting: “the lack of sense of mission among so many men now holding positions of leadership” (25) and contrasting that with the energy and accomplishments of women. Trueblood names two things: “the first and in some ways the strongest criticism of the worldwide Christian Mission is a conclusion based on the recognition of our own failures” (29); and “the second major criticism of foreign missions, and sometimes of all forms of Mission, is inspired by the idea of absolute tolerance” (31). He writes: “The general motto of mutual toleration [as relates to culture and religion] is that of live and let live” (32). “A third criticism of the World Christian Mission which requires serious attention is that based on the doctrine of cultural relativism” (34). He illustrates the changing culture sensibilities about cross-cultural missionary work with the Somerset Maugham story, “Rain” whose villain is a missionary who is shown to be “crafty, cruel, judgmental, self-righteous, and, at last, in his reason for taking his own life, vulnerable” (38). Then comes the book and the movie, Hawaii, which “constitutes the greatest single blow which the missionary idea has sustained in recent y ears” (40). He concludes: “What is at stake … is far more than the financial support of some denominational mission board. In a deep sense, the entire Christian Cause is at stake” (43).
Trueblood begins chapter three with its title “The Defense of Mission” with a quote from Anglican bishop, missionary, and author Stephen Neill: “the only reason for being a Christian is the overpowering conviction that the Christian faith is true” (45). He summarizes it this way: “The people who confront Christ in the New Testament are introduced to an amazing story. They learn there that Christ not only lived and taught and healed, building up a small fellowship destined to continue against all odds, but that he was crucified as a criminal and, after three days, rose from the dead. Is this true or false?” (61). He uses this search for truth to counter punch the criticisms of cultural superiority, even while he asserts that the Christian message and movement have challenged ignorance, superstition and fear in many places in the world and that, also, is part of its truth package. And in an interesting and arresting aside, Trueblood argues that Christians, above all people, have a responsibility to practice “holy skepticism” stating: “To believe easily, and with insufficient evidence, is to be disloyal to Christ who taught His followers to love God with all their minds” (62).
The Field of Mission is chapter four, and here Trueblood pushed back against the tension between the mission sending region and the mission receiving region. Christians are everywhere, he asserts, and calls especially for Christians to see the business arena, the university, and even the congregations of local churches, in their own countries, as prime areas for Christian witness and action. As illustrations of some of these he tells the stories of President Timothy Dwight at Yale University and also of The Church of the Savior in Washington DC. He also praises the movement toward short-term missionaries which is an expansion of the use of the non-professional missionary, the lay person who senses a call and an opportunity. Each of these illustrates the optimization of what he calls throughout the book, the Universal Mission, by which he means both mission is the very essence of Christianity and mission is the calling of each and every follower of Christ.
These ideas he expands in chapter five, “The Theology of Mission” (91ff), especially in this assertion: “There is no way to exaggerate the potential strength of a ministry which combines evangelical theology with fearless mentality and a genuine concern for people” (109). These he illustrates, by appealing to famous practitioners Samuel Shoemaker, C. S. Lewis, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Then turns again to the universal mission of the Christian community with the phrase “Universal apostolate” (111). This ought to be “the major practical objective of local Christian congregations anywhere” (111). It is hard to argue with this conviction, but it is also hard to imagine how it might happen and where it has ever happened and why it has not happened. Even with that, Trueblood concludes his five-chapter book with this conviction: “The worldwide Christian fellowship is one of the miracles of history, providing a more powerful human bond than is known in any other connection” (111). Maybe that is true, but what many of us experience to be true is encapsulated in the final story, of Elton Trueblood sitting in a worship service in an African township outside Johannesburg, where color and language and tradition did not interfere with the fellowship and spirit and impact. “We knew that we were observing something of genuine wonder … for the kingdom of Christ is potentially coextensive with the inhabited world” (113).
It is an appealing book, at once realistic about the faults and failures of the Christian Mission and also the successes and spirituality of that Mission. Trueblood himself is a wonderful exhibit of all that the Christian gospel can create, and there are million more like him: intelligent, critical, compassionate, learned, open, and reflecting something of the grace and truth we claim to have found in Jesus of Nazareth. He is a good man, and this is a good read.
