Missions and Money: Affluence as a Missionary Problem...Revisited (Revised)

by Jonathan J Bonk

Overview

First published in 1991, Missions and Money became a much-discussed book in American Christian missionary circles. In this revised edition, Jon Bonk offers new reflections in the light of a changed situation, one marked by increases in the number of short-term missioners and increases in the numbers of Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans who are leaving their homelands to serve as missionaries to other peoples.

The conversation on the ambiguity of wealth and Christian missionary outreach is deepened with essays by Christopher J. H. Wright on the righteous rich in the Hebrew Bible and by Justo González on faith and wealth in the Christian Bible and the early church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781570756504
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	03/01/2007
Series:	American Society of Missiology , #15
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.17(w) x 9.15(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Jonathan J. Bonk as served as director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center, the editor of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, and is editor of the monumental internet-based Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

Table of Contents

Preface to the ASM Series     ix
Foreword: Missions and Foreign Money   Walbert Buhlmann     xi
Foreword: An African Viewpoint on Wealthy Missionaries   Zablon Nthamburi     xvii
Introduction to the Revised Edition     xxi
Introduction to the First Edition     xxvii
The Context of Western Missionary Affluence     1
The Fact and the Extent of Western Missionary Affluence     3
The Historical and Cultural Context of Missionary Affluence     17
The Rationale for Missionary Affluence     37
Economic Arguments     39
Domestic Rationale     43
Social Justification     45
Strategic Validations     47
Consequences of Western Missionary Affluence     51
Relational Costs of Missionary Affluence     53
Affluence and Missionary Insulation     53
Affluence and Missionary Isolation     55
Affluence and Social Gulf     57
Economic Disparity and the Illusion of Superiority     58
Affluence and Relational Mistrust     60
Affluence, Envy, and Hostility     64
Communicatory and Strategic Consequences of Missionary Affluence     69
Communicatory Costs of MissionaryAffluence     70
Strategic Costs of Missionary Affluence     79
Theological, Ethical, and Biblical Considerations on Missionary Affluence     89
Theological and Ethical Considerations     90
An Outline of Biblical Teaching on Wealth and Poverty     98
Conclusion     156
The Challenge of Western Missionary Affluence     57
Toward a Missiology of the Righteous Rich     159
Setting the Direction     164
A Place to Begin: Toward a Missiology of the "Righteous Rich"     165
Practical Steps     172
Back to Our Foundation: Theological Moorings     182
Faith and Wealth in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Early Church     189
The Righteous Rich in the Old Testament   Christopher J. H. Wright     191
A Canonical Survey     192
A Thematic Summary     199
New Testament Koinonia and Wealth   Justo L. Gonzalez     203
The Setting     204
From the Jesus Movement to the First Urban Churches     207
The Growth of the Urban Communities     211
The Meaning of Koinoia     212
The Later Books of the New Testament     220
Wealth in the Subapostolic Church   Justo L. Gonzalez     223
The Didache     223
Pseudo-Barnabas     226
Epistle to Diognetus     227
Hermas     228
Other Apostolic Fathers     232
The Apologists     234
Select Bibliography     237
Index     261