Mission in Bold Humility

Book excerpt: In Mission in Bold Humili/ty, an international group of scholars explore and assess the life and work of David Bosch. In 1991 the publication of David Bosch's magnum opus, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, marked a high point in a long and distinguished career. Immediately acclaimed as one of the most significant texts on missiology in the past century, it was to be the scholar's last major publication due to Bosch's untimely death in 1992.In Mission in Bold Humility, editors Willem Saayman and Klippies Kritzinger, Bosch's longtime colleagues in the missiology faculty of the University of South Africa, gather appraisals of Bosch's work from a variety of theological perspectives and mission contexts. Together the distinguished authors offer invaluable critiques of Bosch's thought and insights into Transforming Mission. At the same time, Mission in Bold Humility assesses the significance of Bosch's many scholarly and humanitarian contributions: as a missiologist, as a man of the church, and as one who labored courageously on behalf of peace and justice in his native South Africa. Particularly notable is Frans J. Verstraelen's chapter on the influence of Africa in Bosch's thought, offering a penetrating analysis and criticism of an important facet of his life's work that is hardly known outside his native continent.Contributors: the editors, Dana L. Robert, Wilbert R. Shenk, Chritopher Sugden, Gerald H. Anderson, John S. Pobee, William R. Burrows, Jacob Kavunkal, Margaret E. Guider, Frans J. Verstraelen, Curt Cadorette, and Emilio Castro.