Jos Colijn, ‘Marginal and Missional’ (24 Apr 2012)

Marginal and Missional
Lecture given at the European Conference of the ICRC
Kiev, April 24, 2012
Jos Colijn

From marginal to mainstream to marginal

The words 'marginal' and 'mainstream' refer to the position of the church of Christ and the Christian in the world. The position of the early Christian church was marginal. First having been seen as a Jewish sect, it proceeded to establish its own identity in the often hostile Roman environment. Christianity was an illegal religion, looked upon with disdain. The Christians were seen as a danger to the unity and prosperity of the empire and therefore suffered discrimination. Sometimes directly persecuted, yet always living in uncertainty and without freedom to fully live the faith, Christians truly experienced that they were strangers, travelers passing by on their way to real Fatherland.

Read the conference paper