Category Archives: Public Missiology

The missiology of trouble: Liberal discontent and metamodern hope — in 8 points

This post includes the full text and slides from my 2016 presidential address to the American Society of Missiology. My speech was given shortly before UK’s Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election — both of which empirically validated several of the points I made. I make the case that the social (and even religious) liberalism — liberal democracy — that has defined American life through most of its existence has fractured, including its institutions and traditions, and is losing the public’s confidence. Much of today’s social confusion — I call it ‘post-political libertarianism’ — is the result. Can we restore healthy political and civic institutions, and mature public citizenship?

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Public missiology: A brief introduction

I, like many others, religious and secular, am deeply concerned about where our societies — and the planet itself — are headed as we look toward a mid-century time frame. A crisis, both ecological and technological, looms — one well-described by Bill McKibben in his latest book Falter, in my opinion one of the most important books of 2019. All fields of research and practice (I would hope) are retooling themselves to address this and other emerging crises. Missiology, my field, is no different. What follows is a public statement addressed to colleagues in our field, and a challenge to radically rethink what we are doing.

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