台灣基督長老教會的宣教典範變遷與展望

Paradigm Shifts in the PCT's Mission

李孝忠(Hau-tiong Li)

《神學與教會》 40卷2期 (2015/06) Pp. 370-394

https://doi.org/10.6888/TC.201506_40(2).0006

並列摘要

Thomas Kuhn defines a paradigm as ＂the entire constellation of beliefs, values, and techniques and so on shared by the members of a given community＂. He pointed out that no individual or group can actually create a new paradigm; rather it grows and ripens within the context of an extraordinary network of diverse social and scientific factors. David J. Bosch noted that the transition from one paradigm to another is not abrupt. A new paradigm has its trailblazers, who still operate in the old paradigm . Confronting socio-political change, cultural plurality, religious diversity and problems which arise in church, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has inevitably to change its mission paradigms in the new century. The target of the church's mission movement has been reset as ＂the Reign of God＂ since 1990s. To actualise this mission goal, we need to adopt adequate mission paradigms, which must be relevant and practical to the Taiwanese context. The Sunflower Student Movement was driven by a coalition of students and civic groups between March 18 and April 10, 2014. It created a new sociopolitical context to the democratic movement of Taiwan. While celebrating the 150th Anniversary of PCT's Mission in Taiwan, the church has to discern the change of the time and shift its mission paradigm to adapt the new context. ＂ Prophetic Dialogue＂, proposed by Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder could be an underlying theology of mission for the third millennium. Its components include:(1) witness and proclamation,(2) liturgy, prayer and contemplation, (3)justice, peace and the integrity of creation,(4)interreligious dialogue, (5)inculturation, (6)reconciliation. Having reflected on PCT's mission movements in the last decades, I would suggest that reconciliation, dialogue and the integrity of creation are the inevitable tasks of the church to cope with in the 21th century.