COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL TO A MULTI-CULTURAL WORLD. READING ST. PAUL’S SPEECH IN ATHENS IN A MISSIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7391987Keywords:
Acts of the Apostles, gospel, Christian mission, Apostle Paul, preachingAbstract
Communicating The Gospel to a Multi-Cultural World. Reading St. Paul’s Speech in Athens in a Missiological Framework.
The evangelization of the world started, as Jesus commanded, “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria”, but its final scope was “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1.8). Carrying on this worldwide and centuries-old mission, local churches, missionary organizations and seminars from all over the world still tackle the issue of communicating the gospel in a manner that would be faithful to the biblical truth and accessible to people of their generation in the same time. In this article I will examine the discourse that the Apostle Paul delivered before the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17.16-34) in order to emphasize some major missional truths that proved to be of paramount importance for an effective communication of the gospel. Subsidiarily, I will show that despite the unyielding and scoffing rejection of some of the Christian ideas by the Greek philosophers, the apostle successfully established a link with them without compromising the gospel.
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