Voices from the Third World on epistemological shifts in the World Council of Churches: the case of the World Mission Conference of Mexico City and Bangkok

Abstract

The pre-1960 mission conferences arranged under the auspices of the International Missionary Council (IMC) have undoubtedly contributed greatly to the worldwide body of missiological knowledge. Very creative and innovative theological thinking has gone into issues like the relationship between the church and mission and interreligious dialogue. More often than not, though, these theological-missiological constructs have not responded to the particular contexts of Africa, Asia and Latin America; this explains why in the post-1960 conferences, immediately after the integration between the IMC and the World Council of Churches (WCC), participants from these continents forced an epistemological shift upon the WCC. The shift had to do with how we know what we know in Christian mission and Missiology. Third World Christians insisted on an epistemology where the experiences of people on the ground and their stories of suffering and hope, oppression and struggle for liberation would inform Christian mission. This article shows how the input of Christians at the Mexico City and Bangkok conferences indeed brought about a quest for a new understanding in and of Christian mission. The moratorium debate about mission in the 1970s is highlighted as an African issue, impracticable and controversial as it was, that has given great impetus to the search for a new epistemology.