Overview

Faith Seeking Conviviality traces the journey of a U.S. missionary into Brazil (and beyond), seeking to be faithfully present while also questioning the default settings of ""good intentions."" Taking Ivan Illich as the primary theological guide on that journey, Faith Seeking Conviviality narrates the discovery of a renewed imagination for Christian mission that arises as a response to two persistent questions. First, given the colonial history of Christian missionary expansion, on what basis do we go on fulfilling the ""Great Commission"" (Matt 28:16-20) as Christ's disciples? A second question, intimately related to the first, is: What makes it possible to embody a distinctively Christian presence that is missionary without being manipulative? In doing theology with and after Ivan Illich, Faith Seeking Conviviality does not offer a pull-off-the-shelf model for mission, but rather a framework for embodying the incarnational logic of mission that entails a ""convivial turn""--delinking missionary discipleship from the lure of techniques and institutional dependence in order to receive and to share the peace of Christ relationally.

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9781532614637

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Reviews

Reflecting upon Illich's call for conviviality, Sam Ewell has written a compelling narrative of his experience of inculturation in Brazil which presents important insights into incarnation and community, while critiquing crude and colonial understandings of mission. Far from appropriating the experience and theologizing of others, Ewell proposes immersion and friendship as core Christian practices, and offers an inspiring understanding of theology and discipleship that is full of celebration and verve. --Helen Stanton, Tutor in Ethics and Doctrine, The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK In the 1950s and 60s a new constellation appeared in the sky above the Roman Catholic Church. He was called Ivan Illich, and he preached what he called 'a new church.' In his time he was marginalized and misunderstood, but, in Sam Ewell's acute rereading and redeployment of his incarnational Christianity, Illich has found a worthy interpreter. --David Cayley, broadcaster and author of Ivan Illich in Conversation A critical need for all of us currently involved in mission is for conversation partners who bring fresh language and renewed imagination. Sam Ewell is proving to be one such companion. Here, Ewell brings alive the incarnational theology of Ivan Illich by setting his insights alongside some of the most challenging struggles of mission in the twenty-first century. The book will be greatly appreciated by thinking practitioners, students, and academics alike. --Mike Pears, Director, International Baptist Theological Seminary Centre

"""""Reflecting upon Illich's call for conviviality, Sam Ewell has written a compelling narrative of his experience of inculturation in Brazil which presents important insights into incarnation and community, while critiquing crude and colonial understandings of mission. Far from appropriating the experience and theologizing of others, Ewell proposes immersion and friendship as core Christian practices, and offers an inspiring understanding of theology and discipleship that is full of celebration and verve."""" --Helen Stanton, Tutor in Ethics and Doctrine, The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK """"In the 1950s and 60s a new constellation appeared in the sky above the Roman Catholic Church. He was called Ivan Illich, and he preached what he called 'a new church.' In his time he was marginalized and misunderstood, but, in Sam Ewell's acute rereading and redeployment of his incarnational Christianity, Illich has found a worthy interpreter."""" --David Cayley, broadcaster and author of Ivan Illich in Conversation """"A critical need for all of us currently involved in mission is for conversation partners who bring fresh language and renewed imagination. Sam Ewell is proving to be one such companion. Here, Ewell brings alive the incarnational theology of Ivan Illich by setting his insights alongside some of the most challenging struggles of mission in the twenty-first century. The book will be greatly appreciated by thinking practitioners, students, and academics alike."""" --Mike Pears, Director, International Baptist Theological Seminary Centre"

Author Information

Samuel E. Ewell III is a co-director of EAT MAKE PLAY, a neighborhood-based community co-op focused on regenerating a circular economy that is citizen-led and place-based. He also works with Companions for Hope, a Christian community based in the Summerfield parish, where he combines prison and community engagement, urban permaculture, and theological facilitation as a way of cultivating abundant community at the edges of inner-city Birmingham (UK). He is also the author of Building Up the Church: Live Experiments in Faith, Hope, and Love (2008).

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