Author: George R. Hunsberger

This essay explores the question of whether or not public theology and missional theology can talk to each other. While the short answer is a resounding “yes,” the author goes much further to suggest how a dialogue should start. The author begins with two stories that demonstrate the ideal union of public theology and missional theology. He then paints some broad characterizations of each discipline’s view of the other. This is helpful in understanding why it can be so difficult for the two theologies to work together. Even more helpful, though, is the bulk of the essay. This is a brief look at some recent trajectories of both public theology and missional theology. This is followed by some concerns for both. The essay ends as it starts, on a positive note, urging the reader for an imagination that thinks into a partnership of public theology and missional theology.

Learning to be a “contrast community” and living in “companionship with the world” belong together. The church walks among others in the world as a community that inhabits a contrasting vision formed by the biblical narrative, something others can therefore see and taste and grasp. But far from living in a withdrawn or oppositional way among others, the church also walks with a spirit of companionship because of what it knows the good news of God to be. It knows that it shares common life and language and culture with others, and shares common aspirations for wholeness of life. The church thus finds in contrast and companionship the twin qualities that together constitute the way of the church with the world.