Migration and the Logic of Reverse Mission

Abstract

The rejection of ‘metatheology’ and an accompanying hostility toward the term mission within the very subject of missiology resonates with what has been described as the postmodern rejection of metanarratives. The influence of this intellectual climate on understandings of mission is evident in the widespread appropriation of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts in a plethora of missiological texts. Despite this, non-Western cultures are shaped by distinct indigenous epistemologies, creating tensions when migrant Christians bring very different understandings of truth into Western contexts and churches. This raises important questions for the idea of ‘reverse mission’ advanced by Jehu Hanciles. In this essay, the concept of reverse mission will be re-examined. Focusing on Akan Christian migrants from Ghana ministering in Britain, this article uses an epistemological particularist framework in order to explore how their theological knowledge might be conveyed within a cultural setting shaped by postmodern understandings of truth.