A multiperspectival critical analysis of Mekdes Haddis’s <i>A Just Mission: Laying Down Power and Embracing Mutuality</i>
This article presents a multiperspectival critical analysis of Mekdes Haddis’s A Just Mission: Laying Down Power and Embracing Mutuality . It begins by providing background information on Haddis, outlining her personal journey and the motivations behind her book. The analysis proceeds with reviews from three senior scholars—Al Tizon, Tite Tiénou, and Xiaoli Yang—each of whom explores the book’s contributions and weaknesses, focusing particularly on issues of race, power, justice, decolonizing missions, and mutuality in mission partnerships. In the subsequent section, Haddis addresses salient critiques regarding universalism, triggering language, ‘white saviorism’ and identity politics, and the dissonance between her stated aspirations for mutuality and the practical prescriptions she proposes. These critiques and responses are synthesized and analyzed by William Green, who further explores their broader implications. The article concludes with an assessment of the utility and appropriateness of A Just Mission for scholars of mission, mission leaders, practitioners of mission, and pastors.
Authors
- Tite Tiénou
- Al Tizon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3989-9757)
- Xiaoli Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0689-2361)
- William R. Green (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6404-9446)
Institutions
- North Park University (US)
- Episcopal Divinity School (US)
- University of Divinity (AU)
- Kairos (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Missiology An International Review
- Published
- 2025-04-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00918296251330183
- Primary Topic
- Religion, Society, and Development
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00