In his convocation address at McMaster Divinity College in May of 1997, Theology Back to the Mission Frontier, the Bolivian missiologist Samuel Escobar invites us to consider the implications of the Western church's current situation for the task of theological reflection. He proposes that the church's recognition that it stands on a missionary frontier actually sharpens such reflection, calls for a new partnership between churches of different cultural backgrounds, and demands a new openness to the work of the Holy Spirit in our day.

Taking up this challenge, Clark Pinnock, McMaster Professor of Systematic Theology, addresses the role of the Holy Spirit in creation and redemption in a pair of essays first offered on October 3-4, 1996, as the Theta Phi Lectures at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. The first lecture, The Role of the Spirit in Creation, seeks to recapture the cosmic dimension of the Spirit’s work as the means of God's dynamic presence, gracious stewardship, and ongoing ministry of life to the entire created order. The second lecture, The Role of the Spirit in Redemption, explores the implications of a "Spirit Christology" for redemption, understood beyond merely individualist and juridical categories in terms of a transformative process of incorporation into Christ. These two articles first appeared in Asbury Theological Journal 52.1 (Spring, 1997), 47-62, and are reproduced here by kind permission of that publication.

Seeking to clarify the philosophical foundations on which the church bases its understanding and practice of justice, Joyce Bellous (Assistant Professor of Lay Empowerment and Discipleship at McMaster Divinity College) debates the role of perspective in determining norms for ethical conduct. In her article, Perspectives on Justice, she explores the differences between Aristotelian and Hebraic/Christian concepts of justice, as they apply to issues of current debate.

Kate Penfield’s essay, And Then Everywhere Will Be Called Eden Once Again, is adapted from a lecture offered on February 17, 1997 to the sixth annual John N. Gladstone Festival of Preaching at McMaster Divinity College. She explores the disjunction between the constraints on the role of women that the church has often adopted and reinforced, on the one hand, and the radical social implications of Scripture for women’s ministry, on the other.

Reviewing the history of The Black Church in Canada, Denise Gillard, a recent McMaster graduate and Baptist pastor, provides a valuable summary of the Black Church experience both in New France and under the subsequent British regime (particularly in Nova Scotia and what would later become Ontario). By way of conclusion, she identifies key metaphors for interpreting the difficulties, as well as the achievements of that experience from an Afro-centric perspective.

With a view to the situation of the church in Canada, Don Posterski (Vice President of National Programs for World Vision Canada and Associate Professor in Christianity and Culture at McMaster Divinity College) explores the topic, Future Faith Churches: In Pursuit of Soul Care and Social Care. This article summarizes the author’s several addresses to Praxis ‘97, a conference on Christian social engagement that he co-led with Ron Sider in seven cities across Canada throughout October of 1997.

Michael Knowles