Missio Dei and Missio Hominum: Top-Down-up Christology in Mission

Jonas Sello Thinane ORCID iD

Issue: Vol.10 No. 10 October 2024 Issue Article 2  pp.362-372
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.202410104 |   Published online 16th October, 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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In Christian theology, Christology remains a distinct branch of knowledge offering articulation of the hypostatic union or relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. Its exploration of Christ’s nature and identity moves from the pre-incarnation to post-ascension as enclosing Christ’s birth, earthly mission, resurrection, and ascension. Consequently, or in attempting to streamline such a complex knowledge, Christological theologians developed two categorization frameworks in the form of ‘top-down Christology’ and ‘bottom-up Christology’. When sketchily integrated into missiological frameworks, the missio Dei conforms to top-down Christology, whereas missio hominum conforms more to bottom-up Christology. In their transient articulation of Jesus Christ’s identity, the missio Dei on the one hand embraces the top-down Christology while the missio hominum on the other hand or correspondingly embraces the bottom-up Christology. Accordingly, or given the lack of missiological scholarship deriving the unique understanding of the missio Dei and consequently missio hominum through Christology, this article draws on literature to weave their novel understanding as anchored by Christ’s hypostatic union. Consequently, it first rationalizes the Missio Dei within top-down Christology before anchoring the Missio Hominum within bottom-up Christology. Determinedly, further studies will be required to test the novelty of this approach, as there appears to be no existential science that interprets Missio Dei and Missio Hominum through top-down-up Christology.

Keywords: Missiology; Missio Dei; missio hominum; Top-down Christology; Bottom-up Christology.

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Dr. Jonas Sello Thinane is a researcher at the University of South Africa (UNISA), College of Human Sciences (CHS) within the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR). With a PhD in Theology, specializing in Missiology, he has dedicated his entire career to the study and research of missionary work. Since then, he has published numerous scholarly articles in prestigious journals, covering a wide range of theological topics, but particularly Missiology topics. In addition to his publications, Dr. Thinane continues to actively participate in local and international conferences, seminars, and webinars. As such, his academic contributions continue to make a mark both in South Africa and internationally.

Thinane, Jonas Sello. “Missio Dei and missio hominum: Top-Down-up Christology in Mission,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 10 no.10 (2024): 362-372. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.202410104

© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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