| dc.description.abstract | OPSOMING: In hierdie artikel word ’n perspektief gebied op die tendens wat min of meer sedert die aanvang
van die millennium ook in Suid Afrika posgevat het, naamlik om die kerk as die missionale
kerk te tipeer. Hierdie ontwikkeling in die nadenke oor die kerk is oënskynlik ’n reaksie op
’n vroeëre, statiese siening van die kerk, waar meer op die kerk as instelling gefokus is en
wat funksioneer deur mense nader te trek en deel te maak van die instelling. In teenstelling
hiermee wil die missionale kerk in haar benadering by God self begin, as die sendende God en
van daar ’n meer dinamies-kommunikatiewe siening van kerkwees ontwikkel. Laasgenoemde
beteken dat die kerk veel meer binne die kultuur van die wêreld aanwesig is om daar op ’n
nuwe werklikheid te wys. Die navorsingsvraag wat in hierdie artikel gevra word, het te make
met die filosofies-teologiese vertrekpunte van die missionale kerkweesbenadering. Watter
siening van die verhouding tussen God en die skepping, oftewel die transendente en die
immanente, lê ten grondslag van hierdie benadering? Watter invloed het die inagneming van
filosofies-teologiese oorwegings op die beoordeling van die missionale kerkgedagte? Hierdie
vrae word beantwoord deur die opvatting van missionale kerkwees, asook die institusioneelkontraktuele
opvatting van kerkwees waarteenoor dit reageer, teen die agtergrond van die
sakramentele verstaan van die kerk te plaas. Die sakramentele verstaan van die kerk was
deel van die deelnemende wêreldbeeld wat vir die eerste millennium van die kerk se lewe as
vanselfsprekend aanvaar is. ABSTRACT: The philosophical-theological underpinnings of ‘missional’ church: A critical evaluation.
This article presents a perspective on the growing tendency – also in South Africa – to
characterise the church as missional. Thinking of the church in missional terms is apparently
in reaction against an earlier, static view that focused on the church as an institution, and more
specifically, an institution that functions by drawing people to itself. In contrast, the missional
approach to church wants to start with God, as the One that sends, and from that perspective
develops a more dynamic and communicative conception of the church. An important
implication of this would be to have the church much more present in and to the culture of
the world, in order to effectively point to a new reality. The research question informing this
article has to do with the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the missional church
approach. What assumptions about the relation between God and creation, or transcendence
and immanence, underlie this approach? What implications would the consideration of the
philosophical and theological assumptions underlying the missional church movement have
for its evaluation? These questions are answered by placing the missional notion of the church,
as well as the institutional-contractual notion against which it reacts, against the background
of a sacramental understanding of the church. The latter was the notion of the church that was
almost universally taken for granted in the first millennium of the church’s existence. | en_US |
