This serious read, part of Regnum’s Global Voices series, originated as a PhD thesis in Portuguese. It challenges long-held Protestant missiological assumptions and is especially helpful for any church or mission leader, whether from the Global North or the Global South.
The author, Analzira Nascimento, strongly challenges "a one-way movement from the West to 'the others,'" which, as she repeatedly puts it, objectifies "the other."
In her preface, she states, "… the church has adopted evangelizing practices … strongly marked by the ideals of the … colonial expansion in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. … the church … continues to replicate the same colonialist logic of domination."
She continues, "Evangelical communities, in their majority, have closed themselves in their ghettos and are talking to a world that already no longer exists."
Drawing particularly on her 17 years of experience as a Brazilian missionary in war-torn Angola, she calls on the church to re-examine its "banking" approach—"depositing content into people." She challenges the status quo and introduces historically influential figures largely unknown in the English-speaking world (e.g., Bartolomeu de Las Casas, pages 13–16).
She argues that Christian mission must engage far more respectfully with "the other," and that changes in today’s world offer a valuable opportunity to re-examine mission practices. One chapter title summarizes this opportunity as "Rediscovering the Path to Dialogical Practice."
"We have the classic example of the apostle Paul, who renounced his career and reputation in Jewish society to be one of the precursors of a new religious movement that emerged, deciding to live at the edge of dominant thinking," she writes.
"Moving through history, we have numerous models of people who were solitary voices in their times…"
Her observations about "the invention of the notion of savagery" and related racial undertones ("labelling the different as defective or inferior") make for uncomfortable yet insightful reading.
Anyone who believes in "Manifest Destiny" should read her third chapter.
In 2024, her observations about the end of Western hegemony (and what she calls its "brand of mission") in chapter four seem especially relevant. She describes postcolonial studies as a key to potentially shedding helpful new light on Scripture and mission.
As she puts it, "We need to bring the theme of coloniality to missiological reflection," and "history brings precious lessons to those who sincerely want to reflect." However, she also says, "We need to revisit history with humility, caution, and responsibility," discovering "how to work with people and not any more for them."
"Thinking about mission starting with Missio Dei … brings more relational and less managerial practices."
The author’s stated purpose is "to invite the reader on an investigative journey which attempts to retrieve the relevance of the mission project from the Bible."
Her book is a call to an integrated, holistic Christian mission that listens and loves. In David Bosch’s words, it also "refuses to accept reality as it is and aims to transform it."
She points to figures like Francis of Assisi and Raymond Lull, calling them both "prophets who walked at the margins" and "true ambassadors of the kingdom of God."
Evangelization or Colonization? Analzira Nascimento, Regnum Books International, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-913363-96-3
