Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts

What must a new convert know or believe? How do they know? How can Christian teaching be translated and communicated interculturally without distorting the message? How should mission be done in an anticolonial, postmodern era charactersized by religious relativism and accusations of Christian imperialism? Hiebert focuses on three epistemological foundations or specific theories of knowledge that underlay these questions - positivism, instrumentalism/idealism and critical realism. He embraces critical realism because it allows for a real world that exists independently from human perceptions and opinions, restores emotions and moral judgements as essential parts of knowing, and creates conditions for knowing persons intimately and as fully human. Paul G. Hiebert is Professor of Anthropology and Mission, chair of the Department of Mission and Evangelism, and Associate Dean of Academic Doctorates at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.