Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall et al. on Christian Mission

Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall (eds.), Christian Mission: Old Testament Foundations and New Testament Developments, McMaster New Testament Studies (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2010), xii + 259pp., ISBN 9781608996551.

Previous volumes in the McMaster New Testament Studies series have been published by Eerdmans. With this one (the ninth in the series), it moves under the banner of McMaster Divinity College Press in conjunction with Wipf & Stock.

The contributions to this volume flow out of a 2006 colloquium on Christian mission, and I’m looking forward to getting to each essay in its turn:

Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall

Introduction: Christian Mission: Old Testament Foundations and New Testament Developments

Mark J. Boda

‘Declare His Glory Among the Nations’: The Psalter as Missional Collection

Brian P. Irwin

The Book of Daniel and the Roots of New Testament Mission

Michael P. Knowles

Mark, Matthew, and Mission: Faith, Failure, and the Fidelity of Jesus

Craig A. Evans

A Light to the Nations: Isaiah and Mission in Luke

Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall

A Cord of Three Strands: Mission in Acts

Stanley E. Porter

The Content and Message of Paul’s Missionary Teaching

Eckhard J. Schnabel

Paul’s Missionary Strategy: Goals, Methods, and Realities

Cynthia Long Westfall

The Hebrew Mission: Voices from the Margin?

Michael W. Goheen

Bible and Mission: Missiology and Biblical Scholarship in Dialogue

The Introduction notes that the colloquium topic was focused on answering the question: How did a first-generation Jewish messianic movement develop the momentum to become a dominant religious force in the Western world?

It goes on to summarise the salient points of each essay.

Michael Goheen, it seems, was assigned the task of responding to the papers ‘by setting up a dialogue between the participants and key themes that are current in mission studies’ (9).

The editors aver that ‘in the ensuing dialogue, Goheen’s significant and developed contribution, cautions, and call to dialogue between missiology and biblical studies has been heard, so that perhaps we have made progress together in that area’ (11).