Anastasios Yannoulatos: Modem-Day Apostle

Luke A. Veronis

F or the first half of the twentieth century, the Orthodox

Church was relatively inactive in missions. The great
missionary efforts of the Russian church came to a close as the
"consider if you can," there is only a definite, clear cut command
of Our Lord.... If we let ourselves rest peacefully in this habitual
inertia in the matter of foreign missions, we are not simply
Communist curtain placed the church in bondage. Meanwhile, keeping the pure light of the Faith "under the bushel," but we are
the Orthodox churches of the Balkans struggled to overcome the betraying one of the basic elements of our Orthodox tradition. For
missionary work has always been a tradition within the Orthodox
effects of the previous five centuries of Muslim subjugation.
Church.... Missionary activity is not simply something "useful"
Although the Orthodox lands of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and or just "nice," but something imperative, a foremost duty, if we
Serbia gained their independence, a strong sense of nationalism really want to be consequent to our Orthodox Faith.'
prevailed within the churches, and the idea of outreach beyond
the borders of their own countries was a concept to which few Yannoulatos emerged as a leading missions advocate in the
gave much thought. following years. He dared the Orthodox faithful to recover the
It was not until the late 1950s that a number of young authentic meaning of the "one holy catholic and apostolic
Orthodox theologians began to raise their voices about the need Church," in the words of the Nicene Creed. He even hoped to
for external missions. From an international Orthodox youth establish some type of external Orthodox mission center. His
conference held in 1958 in Athens, a call toward missions began enthusiasm, however, was derided within most Orthodox circles
to develop. These young people expressed the idea that the as an unrealistic goal. Following an address he gave on this issue
church's responsibility toward missions was not simply some­ to theological students at the University of Athens in January
thing of the past but a call for the contemporary church as well. 1959, someone in the audience remarked skeptically that "the
Despite the struggling situation of a poor church just freed from organization of an Orthodox External Mission is tantamount to
bondage, the apostolic call of the Lord demanded a response. The a miracle." To this Yannoulatos responded, "We fully agree. But
leader of this fledgling group was Anastasios Yannoulatos, a as Christians we do believe in miracles.'?
young Orthodox theologian from Greece. He challenged the The life and work of Anastasios Yannoulatos, probably the
Church of Greece, as well as the Orthodox Church at large, to foremost Orthodox missiologist in the world today, exemplifies
recover its long-held missionary tradition. the realization of this miracle in the contemporary Orthodox
In 1959 Yannoulatos helped found Porefthentes ("Go ye"), a Church.
missionary movement whose goal was to rekindle the mission­
ary conscience of the Orthodox Church, as well as to educate the His Early Life
non-Orthodox world about the rich missionary heritage of the
Anastasios Yannoulatos was born on November 4, 1929, to a
pious Orthodox family in Greece. Raised within the faith, he
Yannoulatos challenged the participated actively in the church during his formative years.
His first great interest was in mathematics, and throughout his
Church of Greece, as well teenage years Yannoulatos thought of pursuing a career in this
as the Orthodox Church at field. His views changed with the coming of World War II.
During the war years, Yannoulatos began to experience his faith
large, to recover its long­ in a very personal way. He witnessed much suffering and disas­
held missionary tradition. ter from the war and could make sense of the chaos only by
delving deeper into his faith. For the world and for his own
country to recover from the evil of both the Second World War
Eastern Church. This movement began to produce a journal in and the ensuing Greek Civil War, Yannoulatos understood the
Greek and English called Porefthentes. In its inaugural issue, urgent need for a message of eternal peace, the peace that comes
Yannoulatos wrote a provocative article entitled "The Forgotten through Jesus Christ.
Commandment," which challenged the church to rediscover the This experience led Yannoulatos to abandon his interest in
missionary zeal of previous generations. In this article, other disciplines and to pursue theology. So fervent was his
Yannoulatos questioned the accepted apathy toward missions desire that he has said, "It was not enough for me to give
that prevailed in the contemporary Orthodox Church: something to God, I had to be given totally to Him. I wanted to
live with my whole being in Christ.PThus, in 1947he entered the
It is not a question of "can we?" but of an imperative command Theological School of the University of Athens. He graduated
"we must." "Goye therefore and teach all nations." "Goye into all with highest honors in 1952.
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." There is no Following two years of service in the army, Yannoulatos
joined the brotherhood of ZOE, a religious organization focused
on the spiritual renewal of the church in Greece. Yannoulatos's
LukeA. Veron isiscurrentlyamissionary priestfortheOrthodox Autocephalous
Church of Albania. He served as a short-term missionary for the Orthodox personal responsibilities included missions to the youth of his
Church in EastAfricaduringfive different periods from 1987 to 1993. He is a country. He became the leader of student movements and teen­
graduate ofPennsylvania StateUniversity, HolyCross Greek Orthodox School age camps and strove to make the Orthodox faith real and
of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, and Fuller Theological Seminary's concrete to his young charges. Through these experiences,
School of WorldMission in Pasadena, California. Yannoulatos discovered the impact such outreach programs had

122 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH

on the church at large. He realized that without such missionary that he could both learn from other Christian traditions as well as
outreach, the church loses its focus and ultimately diminishes. introduce these members to the rich missionary heritage of the
During these years, Yannoulatos also participated in an Orthodox Church. In 1963, Yannoulatos became the youngest
international Orthodox youth movement called Syndesmos. He member of the CWME at a conference in Mexico City. He has
served as the general secretary of the Committee for Missions continued to playa pivotal role in this ecumenical setting and
during 1958-61, and as vice-president of the whole movement ultimately served as its moderator from 1984 to 1991, the first
from 1964 to 1977. Here he met other young leaders with a similar Orthodox missiologist to hold such a place of leadership.
zeal for proclaiming the Gospel. Together they began to realize
how Christ could never be satisfied with proclaiming the Gospel The 1970s-Planting Missionary Foundations
simply within the church. His original command was to go to"all Within the Church
nations." Thus missions are not merely internal, but external as
well. The Great Commission of the past is an imperative respon­ During the following decade, the Church of Greece began to hear
sibility for the present. Yannoulatos wrote at the time: and respond to the voice of this bold visionary. In 1968
Yannoulatos and his Porefthentes staff established the frame­
Church without mission is a contradiction in terms.... If the work of the Bureau of External Missions within Apostoliki
Church is indifferent to the apostolic work with which she has
Diakonia (the service branch of the Church of Greece). The
been entrusted, she denies herself, contradicts herself and her
essence, and is a traitor in the warfare in which she is engaged. A establishment of a permanent missionary organization within
static Church which lacks vision and a constant endeavor to the official Orthodox Church in Greece was a milestone. The
proclaim the Gospel to the oikoumene could hardly be recognized church recognized the work of Yannoulatos by elevating him on
as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to whom the Lord November 19, 1972, to the episcopacy with the title "Bishop of
entrusted the continuation of His Work.' Androussa" and making him general director of the whole
department of Apostoliki Diakonia. Through Bishop Anastasios's
The 1960s-Following the Call of God leadership, this commission of the Church of Greece acted as the
main body for all the missionary efforts of the church both within
This understanding of the importance of external missions for Greece and abroad.
the church filled the heart of Yannoulatos. Following his ordina­ Along with his ecclesiastical responsibilities, Bishop
tion to the diaconate in 1960, Yannoulatos proceeded to found Anastasios continued to be active on the academic level. In 1972
the inter-Orthodox mission center Porefthentes. The goal of this
center was to educate the church in the area of missions, as well
as to motivate and send missionaries throughout the world. It was Yannoulatos's thesis
Yannoulatos himself planned on becoming a foreign mis­
sionary. In fact, immediately following his ordination to the that it was impossible to be
priesthood on May 24, 1964, he left for East Africa and celebrated truly Orthodox without
his first liturgy in Uganda. Shortly after his arrival, however, the
young priest contracted malaria and returned to Greece. Despite h~vi~g an interest in
the doctors' recommendation that he not return to Africa, rrussions.
Yannoulatos was not daunted by the setback. He realized more
than ever the importance of increasing the missionary awareness
in the church and sought new ways to fulfill the Great Commis­ the University of Athens elected him as associate professor of the
sion of Christ. Following the advice of one of his professors, history of religions. At the university, he established and di­
Yannoulatos decided the best way he could influence the church rected a center for missionary studies during 1971-76. This center
was by making a significant contribution in the academic world. paved the way for another landmark, when a chair of missiology
He believed that if he could not directly work in the mission field, was finally created in 1976. In this academic atmosphere Bishop
he could still try to pave the way for others to go. Thus, he Anastasios continued to proclaim his "wake-up" call to the
decided to pursue further studies in missiology and the history church, challenging its complacency in missionary outreach:
of religions.
From 1965 to 1969, Yannoulatos studied the history of reli­ Inertia in the field of mission means, in the last analysis, a negation
gions at the universities in Hamburg and Marburg in Germany, of Orthodoxy, a backslide into the practical heresy of localism....
wi th an em phasis on religious pIurality and the Orthodox Church. It is unthinkable for us to speak of "Orthodox spirituality," of "a
life in Christ," of emulating the Apostle Paul, founder of the Greek
His work focused on the general history of religions, African
Church, while we stay inert as to mission; it is unintelligible to
religions, missiology, and ethnology. He traveled to Makerere write about intense liturgical and spiritual living of the Lord's
University in Kampala, Uganda, to conduct field research and Resurrection by us, while we abide slothful and indifferent to the
collect material for his doctoral thesis, entitled "The Spirit call of ecumenical missions, with which the message of the Resur­
Mbandwa and the Framework of Their Cults: A Research of rection is interwoven."
Aspects of African Religion." Overall, he desired to establish a
basis for the whole process of a serious study of missions in the Bishop Anastasios continually tried to educate the Orthodox
Orthodox Church. Through this research, he sought support for faithful to a fuller understanding of the Nicene Creed, which
his original thesis that it was impossible to truly be Orthodox proclaimed the belief in"one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church."
without having an interest in missions. Professing such a creed while staying indifferent to missions,
Along with his studies, Yannoulatos actively participated in Yannoulatos held, was hypocrisy. As he noted,
the worldwide ecumenical movement. By taking part in the
Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the Only when it is realized that worldwide ecumenical mission is an
World Council of Churches (WCC), the budding missiologist felt initial and prime implication in a fundamental article of the

July 1995 123

 "Credo," elemental for the Orthodox comprehension of what the sions tradition. As he noted in an earlier writing, "The incarna­
Church is, and that what is termed "foreign mission" is not an tion of God's Word in the language and customs of a country has
"external" matter but an inner need, a call to repentance and been and must be the first concern of all Orthodox mission. Its
aligning ourselves with the spirit of the Gospel and the tradition intent is the planting and growth of a native Church, self­
of our Church, only then shall we have the proper and hope­
powered and self-governing, able to turn to account all the
bearing theological start for what comes next."
genuine strands of national tradition, transforming and hallow­
Foreign missions is not simply a branch of authentic Ortho­ ing them in harmony with the people's nature, to the glory of
dox life, or even Orthodox theology, but rather is central to a God."9
proper understanding of the church. When Orthodox Christians In 1972, Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus built an Ortho­
confess, "I believe in one ... apostolic Church," "apostolic" does dox Seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, but political instability in
not refer only to apostolic succession. More important, it implies Cyprus prevented the archbishop from completing his project.
having an "apostolic fire and zeal to preach the gospel 'to every The school remained vacant for ten years. Bishop Anastasios's
creature' (Mk 16:15),because it nurtures its members so that they first action as the new leader of the church was to finish the
may become 'witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, seminary and open it immediately. During the 1970s, many of the
and to the end of the earth' (Acts 1:8)."7 faithful within the African Orthodox Church became disillu­
Bishop Anastasios continued to challenge the apathetic atti­ sioned and disheartened with the floundering church and began
tude of the church toward missions by writing: to leave. Yannoulatos realized that the only way to bring these
people back, as well as to bring new converts into the faith, was
The Gospel is addressed to all peoples, and therefore the work of through the training of local leaders and priests.
the Church remains incomplete as long as it is restricted to certain Hence, Bishop Anastasios officially opened the Archbishop
geographical areas or social classes. Its field of action is universal Makarios III Orthodox Patriarchal Seminary in 1982. Over the
and is active both in sectors that welcome the good tidings and following decade, the school averaged 45 students annually,
those which at first may reject them. Mission was not the duty of using 12 professors from East Africa, Europe, and the United
only the first generation of Christians. It is the duty of Christians States. The acting archbishop eventually ordained 62 priests and
of all ages.... Witness is the expression of the vitality of the Church deacons, as well as 42 readers and catechists, from the school's
as well as a source of renewal and renewed vigor.... Everyone
graduates. These indigenous leaders came from eight different
should contribute to and participate in it, whether it be directly or
indirectly. It is an essential expression of the Orthodox ethos." tribes in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania and provided the founda­
tion for the renewal of the church in East Africa.
Along with influencing the academic world in Greece and Along with training local leaders, the acting archbishop also
abroad, Bishop Anastasios had an impact on other areas of supported the Orthodox missionary tradition of translation,
church life as well. In 1972 the bishop worked together with Fr. which he believed was sanctioned by Christ during the event of
Anthony Romeos and founded a monastery of nuns whose Pentecost. Thus, he concentrated on publications, organizing the
emphasis would be on external missions. This group became the translation of services into seven different languages.
Convent of St. John the Forerunner in Kareas, Greece. Bishop Bishop Anastasios also tried to establish a sense of perma­
Anastasios helped guide these women to become nuns who nency in the structures of the church by guiding the construction
would actively participate in missionary work throughout the of 67 new church buildings, 23 of them stone, and 44 wooden and
world. The convent also welcomed women from foreign lands to mud. He also helped renovate 25 existing church buildings. His
join their community and learn the monastic way of life, with the construction accomplishments included seven mission stations,
goal of carrying the monastic lifestyle back to their home coun­ seven health-care stations, five primary schools, and twelve
tries. nursery schools.
His work in Africa drew worldwide attention. The Greek
The 1980s-Theory Becomes Practice Orthodox Church in America assisted him by sending mission­
aries to East Africa. The impact of these missionaries was felt not
In the 1960s, when Yannoulatos first fell ill to malaria, his doctors only within the Church of East Africa but also throughout
told him that he would never be able to work overseas as a America. Many of the short-term missionaries, returning to their
missionary. The providence of God spoke differently. In 1980 the homes in the United States, helped increase a missionary aware­
Orthodox Church of East Africa faced great difficulties. The ness and consciousness within their own parishes. The Orthodox
region had been the most active Orthodox mission field in the Church in Greece and Finland also responded to a series of
world over the past two decades. The church's footing, however, lectures the bishop gave on the imperative of missions by send­
was jeopardized by internal problems that ultimately led to the ing missionary teams of their own to Kenya.
defrocking of a Kenyan bishop by the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The most important aspect of Bishop Anastasios's work in
The East African Orthodox Church seemed to be on the verge of East Africa, however, was not the ordinations, the publications,
collapse. or the missionary interest created by the mission teams. It was
During this time Patriarch Nicholas, the head of the Ortho­ instead his efforts to assimilate with the indigenous Christians.
dox Church in Africa, invited Bishop Anastasios to become By identifying closely with the Orthodox Christians of this
acting archbishop of the Archdiocese of East Africa. The bishop region, he encouraged and empowered them to embrace the faith
consented but continued to keep his responsibilities both at the as authentically their own. As a result, the Church of East Africa
University of Athens and in Apostoliki Diakonia. During this continued to mature even after his departure as acting arch­
transitional period, Yannoulatos saw his role as one of reorganiz­ bishop in 1991.
ing the Church of East Africa. His main priority was to create a In addition to his achievements in Africa, Bishop Anastasios
strong Orthodox community led by local leaders. has left his mark in other ways. In 1981, the bishop began editing,
By focusing on the training and establishing of indigenous through the auspices of Apostoliki Diakonia, the first official
leaders, Bishop Anastasios remained faithful to Orthodox mis­ missionary magazine of the Church of Greece, entitled Panta ta

124 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH

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Eihne (All nations). This magazine continues to disseminate ing his first three years of episcopacy were to train local leaders,
mission informa tion and challenge Orthodox Christians through- perform responsible pastoral work to approximately one quarter
out Greece to respond to the missionary mandate. of the popula tion tha t claimed an Orthodox heritage, and to open
The 1980s also saw Bishop Anastasios intensify his activity dialogue and bridges to people of other faiths or no faith. In
in the WCe. After participating in the World Mission Conference response to his leadership, the church quickly established the
at Melbourne in 1980, as well as the general assembly of the WCC Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Seminary in a rented hotel
at Vancouver in 1983, the bishop became the moderator of the building in the city of Durres. The school presently has a three-
CWME during 1984-91 and presided at the World Mission year program, with each class containing approximately thirty
Conference at San Antonio in 1989. His missiological impact not students. Through this seminary sixty new priests and deacons
only influenced the Orthodox world but also touched broad have joined the ranks of clergy within the first three years of
ecumenical circles. As the prominent Protestant theologian and Archbishop Anastasios's episcopacy. The archbishop's latest
missionary David J. Bosch noted, plans include moving the seminary into a new two million dollar
spiritual center by the end of 1995.
Anastasios has remained the driving force behind the missionary Along with training local spiritual leaders, Archbishop
movement in Orthodoxy. And since the Orthodox churches joined Anastasios has mobilized the laity through various intellectual,
the wee in 1948, he and others have made a major contribution youth, and women's groups. These organizations have partici-
to missionary thinking and practice in ecumenical circles.... The
pated in the overall ministry of preaching, teaching, and sharing
cross-fertilization in the area of Missiology between Orthodoxy
and Protestantism has indeed been a major area of theological the good news of Jesus Christ to believers in cities and villages
renewal in the ecumenical movement since 1961. Only three throughout Albania. The archbishop has also organized work in
papers were read in the conference plenary during the first few a variety of other areas. He is helping to reestablish the physical
days. . . . Whereas the first two papers were interesting and presence of Orthodoxy by building and renovating churches
challenging, it was Anastasios' presentation that provided the throughout Albania. At present, thirty-eight new churches have
theological framework for the conference theme "Your Will Be been built, and forty-three others have been renovated. Sixty
Done" ... its overall thrust was truly ecumenical in the best sense other projects, which include church centers and a medical clinic,
of the word." are in progress. A printing house produces the monthly newspa-
per Ngjallja (Resurrection), along with Orthodox books and
The 1990s-the Culmination of His Work various catechetical materials. Its goal is to disseminate church
A new challenge confronted Bishop Anastasios with the coming news and religious education throughout the country. Another
of a new decade. In January 1991, the Patriarchate of office, called Service of Love, is devoted to a social outreach
Constantinople elected Anastasios to go to Albania as "Patriar- ministry, which helps distribute humanitarian aid and cultivate
chal Exarch" with a mandate to contact and organize Orthodox long-term developmental projects.
people irrespective of their ethnic origin. On June 24,1992, he was During this short period of reestablishment, the Orthodox
unanimously elected Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania. His Church has quickly left its former isolation and joined the world-
task then became one of reestablishing the Orthodox wide Christian community. Efforts have been made for official
Autocephalous Church of Albania. The Orthodox Church in relationships not only within pan-Orthodox circles but also
Albania had been decimated after forty years of the most severe within ecumenical organizations as well. In fact, the church has
persecution. During the years of Communist control the number already become a full member in both the Conference of Euro-
of Orthodox clergy had diminished from 450 in 1945 to 22 in 1990. pean Churches and the World Council of Churches.
Despite obstacles and restrictions placed upon the church
from various sources within Albania, the future looks bright. The
reawakening of Orthodox faithful combined with the influx of
To resurrect the Church converts are a result of Archbishop Anastasios's holistic outreach
from its atheistic abyss to nominal Christians, non-Christians, and atheists alike.
would require a miracle,
Conclusion
but Archbishop Anastasios
believes in miracles. Over the past thirty years, the impact and influence of Anastasios
Yannoulatos cannot be overstated. As a young theologian in the
1950s, he had a vision to rekindle the missionary spirit of the
All the surviving clergy were over the age of seventy. A new Orthodox Church. Thirty-five years later, it is clear he has achieved
opportunity to revive life into a church that had been almost his goal. Indeed, missions has truly become part of the basic life
destroyed confronted Archbishop Anastasios. of twentieth-century Orthodoxy. As the archbishop notes him-
Anastasios saw this new challenge as an opportunity to self, "Here is the first and major contribution I have made-a
synthesize the elements of his life. Before Communism, Albania theological contribution to help the church rediscover who she
was a country with a 69 percent Muslim population. Archbishop really is. It was a contribution of LIFE. My theological position has
Anastasios had written a book and many articles on Islam. The always been to live the mystery of the one holy catholic and
uncertainties that the church faced with various political groups apostolic Church. To live the mission of the church with its
was something familiar for him from his work in East Africa. The proper universal and eschatological perspective."
challenge to resurrect a local church from an atheistic abyss A summary of the archbishop's life can be seen in his
would require a miracle, more radical than the miracle required initiatives on four different frontiers. First, out of concern for the
in the early 1960s to establish an external Orthodox mission. But Orthodox Church itself, he sought to revive missionary interest
as his life has shown, Archbishop Anastasios believes in miracles. and consciousness tha t has been a part of its tradi tion throughou t
Overall, Archbishop Anastasios's priorities in Albania dur- the ages.

126 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH

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 Second, he has made significant contributions to the field of The third frontier has been his life in East Africa and Albania.
missiology. Archbishop Anastasios has written nine scholarly He desired to live the life and share in external missions of the
books, five catechetical books, over sixty treatises, and more than church. He wished to show all people of the world, regardless of
eighty articles. He founded and published two mission maga­ their origin, that God loves and cares for them.
zines, Porefthentes (1960-70) and Panta ta Ethne (1981-92), and Finally, the last frontier has been in ecumenical circles.
since 1981 he has been a contributing editor of the INTERNATIONAL Through the WCC, Archbishop Anastasios has given witness to
BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH. Along with this, he has ap­ Orthodox mission theology and spirituality to the non-Orthodox
peared numerous times on television, appealing to the public to world. He has worked together with his Christian contemporar­
embrace the eternal message of Jesus Christ and his holy church. ies to define missions in the twentieth century and to witness
In 1989, the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in effectively to other faiths and traditions.
Brookline, Massachusetts, granted an honorary Doctor of Theol­ Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos's life and work can be
ogy degree to the archbishop. And in 1993,Archbishop Anastasios summarized in his own words. Throughout his sixty-five years
was unanimously elected correspondent member of the Acad­ of life, he has tried to live and proclaim the mystery of the "one,
emy of Athens, which is the highest academic society of Greece. holy, catholic and apostolic Church," that is, to live the mission
And in 1995, the Theological School of Thessalonika awarded of the church within its proper universal perspective. "Mission is
him an honorary Doctor of Theology degree and the Historical an essential expression of Orthodox self-consciousness, a cry in
Archeological School of loannina gave him an honorary Doctor action for the fulfillment of God's will'on earth as it is in heaven.'
of Philosophy degree. ... Indifference to mission is a denial of Orthodoxy.":"

Notes----------------------------------------­
1. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "The Forgotten Commandment," Theological Quarterly 3 (1964): 140.
Porefthentes 1 (1959): 2-3. 8. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Theology-Mission and Pastoral Care,"
2. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Orthodox Spirituality and External Mis­ Greek Orthodox Theological Review 22 (1977): 162.
sion," Porefthentes 4 (1962): 8. 9. Yannoulatos, "Initial Thoughts," p. 21.
3. Interview by author, Tirana, Albania, May 25, 1993. 10. David J. Bosch, "Your Will Be Done? Critical Reflections on San
4. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "The Purpose and Motive of Mission," Antonio," Missionalia 17 (1989): 127.
International Reviewof Mission 54 (1965): 295. 11. Interview by author, Tirana, Albania, May 25, 1993.
5. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Initial Thoughts Toward an Orthodox 12. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Orthodox Mission-Past, Present, Fu­
Foreign Mission," Porefthentes 10 (1968}: 19. ture," in Your Will Be Done: Orthodoxy in Mission, ed. George
6. Ibid., p. 20. . Lemopoulos (Geneva: WCC, 1989), p. 88.
7. Anastasios Yannoulatos, "Orthodoxy and Mission," St. Vladimir's

Book Reviews

A Word in Season: Perspectives on

Christian World Missions.
By Lesslie Newbigin. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, and Edinburgh: Saint Andrew
Press, 1994. Pp. xi, 208. Paperback $14.99.

Spanning some three decades from 1960 role of an inner-city pastor (challenging to day-to-day involvement in missionary
to the early 1990s, here is a collection of pastors everywhere), the complex rela­ activity, whether in an Indian village, an
never-before-published speeches, essays, tionships between Christianity and West­ inner-city parish, or at the highest levels of
and sermons by one of the most outstand­ ern culture, the difficult issues of ecumenical thought and action. Experi­
ing exponents of Christian world mis­ Christianity's relationship to the leading ence and conviction mold a coherent and
sions (the "s" is important, for Bishop religions of the world, the authority with compelling statement of the Christian
Newbigin was never happy when the In­ which we dare to preach, the missions message to the world, apologetics at its
ternational Reviewof Missions dropped its agenda of the Christian community-all best.
last letter). Here is vintage Newbigin, a expressed with a compelling logic, admi­ Particularly refreshing is Newbigin's
treat for those of us who over the years rable humility, and flashes of engaging willingness to critique some of the sacred
have been inspired and challenged, time humor. Throughout there is an insistence cows of missions and of the church, and
and again, by his lucid defense of the on Christian truth in the midst of the easy also to plunge into controversial subjects.
Christian missionary task both abroad relativities so prevalent in contemporary Inevitably he engages in discussions on
(mainly India) and at home (mainly the thought. Repeatedly one exclaims (this which opinions differ widely. For ex­
United Kingdom). reviewer does, anyway), "Of course, why ample, he attacks the idea of the "larger
The breadth of Newbigin's concerns didn't I think of that myself?" ecumenism" that would include other
is indeed amazing-among others, the Behind these writings is a lifetime of world religions (p. 125). He tends to irk

128 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH