Missiology: An International Review
2015, Vol. 43(4) 442–455
© The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0091829615590888
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New wine in old wineskins:
A critical appraisal of
diaspora missiology
Matthew Krabill and Allison Norton
Fuller Theological Seminary, USA
Abstract
In the past decade, there has been an explosion of research that uses insights from
migration studies as a way of understanding various shifts in global Christianity.
As a result, missiology has both benefited from and increasingly gravitated toward
migration studies for assessing specific global processes. Diaspora missiology, framed
as a discipline, movement, and strategy, has emerged as a contemporary missiological
reflection on globalization and migration. While some aspects of diaspora missiology
contribute helpful insights to the future of missiology, ongoing missiological reflection
that uses diaspora as its key framework raises questions that invite critique. In this
article, we describe the emergence of diaspora missiology and the various ways it is
currently being used in the broader discourse as represented by major proponents
Enoch Wan, Sadiri Joy Tira, and J. D. Payne. We then raise four points, critically and
constructively unpacking key questions under the following headings: (1) assessing
the need for a distinct discipline as an alternative to “traditional missiology”; (2)
objectifying migrants: counting and (dis)counting the world’s Christians; (3)
the “unnoticed” missionary potential of Christian migrants; and (4) immigrant
congregations and transnational ties: multidirectional mission.
Keywords
diaspora missiology, immigrant congregations, religious transnationalism, world
Christianity, African Christianity, ecclesiology
Corresponding author:
Allison Norton, Fuller Theological Seminary, 135 N. Oakland Ave, Pasadena, CA 91182, USA.
Email: anorton@fuller.edu
590888MIS 0 0 10.1177/0091829615590888MissiologyNorton
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