This series, edited by Don Carson, continues to put its readers in its debt. The present book is devoted to a matter of major importance. If the closing exhortations of Christ to his apostles in the Synoptic Gospels, his commissioning of them in John 20 and his words to them in Acts 1:8, have special programmatic significance (and this is hard to miss), the theme of world mission must be taken seriously by churches and individual Christians alike. Yet to often a preacher’s exhortation to engage in world mission is largely restricted to expositions of the Great Commission in one or more of its forms. The two authors of this volume seek to show that it is in fact a major Biblical theme. The way they have done this reveals not only fine scholarship but deep missionary passion.

They expound their subject very effectively as far as the NT is concerned, with many valuable insights. The theme is fully explored in each gospel. They show, for instance, how important it is in Matthew where we might not have expected it. Their treatment of Luke/Acts is, in my judgement, particularly helpful. They say of the theme in these two books that ‘it may be the clearest presentation of this motif in the whole of the New Testament’ (157). It is worth recalling that in one respect Luke is the Number 1 writer in the NT as the space occupied by his two books slightly exceeds that of all the letters ascribed to Paul, with the exception, of course, of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Not that we can escape the mission theme by turning from Luke to Paul, for the depth of his commitment to mission and his sense of a special divine calling to be a missionary confront us all the time in his letters.

I was just slightly disappointed by the OT section. Without doubt, within the limits of the space assigned to it, it is done well, and it would have been fine as part of a smaller book, but in a more substantial volume of ‘Biblical’ theology it would have been good to see more pages devoted to the OT teaching. Isaiah 19, for instance, with its almost incredible conclusion, merits only a passing reference in a footnote to the chapter on Luke/Acts. How Athanasius loved that passage! He saw in the advance of the gospel and the overcoming of idolatry in his beloved Egyptian diocese some fulfillment of the prophecies given there. Although in its form it is not a call to mission, it nevertheless movingly reveals the missionary heart of God.

This is a book of good scholarship presented in a clear, readable style. Its main findings are brought together in a concluding synthesis. The footnotes should not be ignored, for they give far more than documentation and often include valuable material which was put there because, presumably, the authors felt that otherwise it would have interrupted the flow of thought in the main text too much. The work is supplied with a very full and valuable bibliography.

This book should not only enable you to do well in an examination on the Theology of Mission, but, if you take its exposition of Scripture seriously, make you a missionary of Christ, whether in your present situation or in some further field in the future.

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