EMQ » July–September 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 4
God at Work in the World: Theology and Mission in the Global Church
By Lalsangkima Pachuau
Baker Academic, 2022
192 Pages
US$22.99
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Reviewed by Anish Puthusseril Joseph, who has served as an assistant professor of biblical studies in India and is currently a PhD student in intercultural studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Leveraging his extensive teaching and mission experiences spanning over two decades in India and the United States, Lalsangkima Pachuau endeavors to adopt a global perspective to understand God’s work, that is, his mission in the world. His goal is to offer a theological framework that can inform the missionary calling of the Church, and in doing so, he seeks to purge missiology of any distorted perceptions that may have crept in (3). Pachuau’s focus is on identifying fundamental doctrinal themes and concepts that can serve as the basis for mission practices, rather than getting bogged down in the specifics of those practices.
According to Pachuau, recognizing God’s presence and work in the world, regardless of differing opinions on the extent and nature of that work, is crucial for a deeper understanding of mission theology (4). In his book, Pachuau explores the theological basis of mission, beginning with a discussion on the trinity and its relationship to mission and the incarnation (chapter 1). He then examines the concept of God’s economy of salvation, framing it as a form of missionary engagement and discussing biblical and theoretical motifs for salvation (chapter 2).
In chapter 3, Pachuau explores the dimensions and global scope of salvation. Moving on to the experiential side of salvation, Pachuau examines different conceptions. In chapter 4, Pachuau looks at ecclesiology and traces various features of God’s mission. Finally, in the last chapter, Pachuau discusses the relationship between the gospel and culture, aiming to establish the gospel’s universality as the foundation for mission theology amidst cultural plurality.
Pachuau extends the discussion on the foundation of the trinitarian theology of mission by exploring salvation, ecclesiology, and culture. In order to present a contemporary integrative summary of the biblical image and Christological motifs of salvation, Pachuau relies on Fleming Routledge’s work to move beyond traditional theories of salvation, such as Christ the victor, the satisfaction, and the moral exemplar (67).
However, Pachuau does not reach a definite conclusion on the scope of salvation. Instead, he holds together the tension between the particularity of Jesus’s work and God’s desire to save all (108). To develop a theology of culture, Pachuau employs the Jesus model, which affirms and transforms culture (164). Ultimately, he remains inconclusive on whether culture follows theology or vice versa, acknowledging the difficulty in determining a clear answer (150).
Pachuau’s case for a theology of mission is constructed by building on Rowan Williams’s three characteristics of theology, namely, the celebratory, the communicative, and the critical, and adding the confessional and the contextual aspects of theology. His interlocutors include prominent theologians and missiologists, such as Jurgen Moltmann, Keith Ward, Raimundo Panikkar, Karl Rahner, and Fleming Rutledge, among others. Overall, God at Work in the World is a valuable contribution to the field of missiology and provides a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the theological foundations of mission practices from a global church perspective. Pachuau’s work offers a framework for understanding God through missionary dimensions and will be of interest to scholars, theologians, and missiologists
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 4. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
