David Bosch

Life

Bosch was born on December 13, 1929, near Kuruman in the Cape Province, into an Afrikaner (white South African of Dutch descent) family. His parents were poor farmers and faithful members of the Dutch Reformed Church. He grew up amid Afrikaner nationalism and reportedly welcomed the National Party's rise to power in 1948 and its introduction of the policy of racial segregation known as apartheid. After graduating from the University of Pretoria, he earned a doctorate in New Testament studies at the University of Basel in Switzerland under Oscar Cullmann. Cullmann is credited with helping him become open to unity across denominational lines (ecumenism).

From 1957 to 1967 he served as a Dutch Reformed missionary among the Xhosa people in the Transkei, where he learned the Xhosa language. In 1967 he began teaching church history and missiology at a denominational seminary that trained Black pastors. During this period he helped found the Transkei Council of Churches and served as its first president, which brought him into contact with Roman Catholics and Anglicans. From 1972 until his death he was professor and head of the Department of Missiology at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He died in an automobile accident in 1992. His wife was Annemie Bosch.

Ministry and Achievements

Over 32 years Bosch wrote six books and more than 160 articles. In 1968 he helped found the Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS), which transcended racial and denominational lines, and he served as its general secretary until his death. He was also the first editor of the society's journal, Missionalia. In 1979 he chaired the executive committee of the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), the first multiracial gathering of Christian leaders in South Africa.

His major work, Transforming Mission, draws on the paradigm theory (a paradigm being the framework of thought shared by a given era) of the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn and the theologian Hans Küng. On this basis, Bosch sought to show how greatly the understanding and practice of mission changed over nearly two thousand years of Christian history. The book examines the views of mission in Matthew, Luke, Acts, and the letters of Paul, then treats in turn mission in the Eastern church, the medieval church, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment era. In its final section it sets forth an emerging "ecumenical paradigm." Lesslie Newbigin likened the book to a "Summa Missiologica." His other works include A Spirituality of the Road (1979) and Witness to the World (1980).

Influence on the Korean Church

Transforming Mission was translated into Korean by Kim Byung-gil and Jang Hoon-tae and published by Christian Literature Crusade (CLC), with a revised edition of 812 pages appearing in 2010. The Kukmin Ilbo described the book as the standard textbook of mission theology. The Weekly Christian News reported that since the first edition appeared in 1991, it has been used as a textbook in universities and seminaries around the world. The same paper observed that Bosch was widely respected in the World Evangelical Alliance, the Lausanne Committee, and the World Council of Churches, and that he served as a bridge between evangelicalism and liberal theology. Because of this reputation, his book has been widely read in missiology courses at Korean seminaries regardless of their denominations' theological leanings.

Assessment

Bosch rejected the racial theology of his own denomination, which had undergirded apartheid. Even so, he never left the denomination, and as a result he is said to have been pushed to its margins. In 1990, the year of his sixtieth birthday, the Southern African Missiological Society held a conference on his thought and published the papers in a Festschrift, Mission in Creative Tension.

His work has also drawn criticism. Black theologians such as Takatso Mofokeng, his colleague at the University of South Africa, wrote critiques of his mission theology from an African perspective. In Korea, opinions are divided. The Kukmin Ilbo commented that although his approach is somewhat ecumenical, it offers much for reflection to the Korean church, which has been criticized for triumphalism and aggressive mission. By contrast, others regard his emphasis that the church is not the agent of mission but an instrument for accomplishing God's mission as belonging to the mission theology of the ecumenical camp.