Ministry, Mission and the Social Services

Abstract

"This series of articles tries to survey in a Baptist context some of the ways in which the social sciences relate to and can inform the mission and ministry of the Church. Obviously, this must be highly selective. It is impossible for anyone to pretend to be able, in any sense, to be equally aware of anything like the total possible field, theoretical and practical, especially as the social sciences continue to proliferate at an alarming rate. So to make it manageable and to try to relate to the more immediate concerns of Baptists, four marks of our tradition will provide foci for a number of topics of a general nature. Within the limited space there is opportunity only to indicate the broad delineations of a subject, some of the ways it relates to the life and work of the Church and some specific reference to the Baptist tradition. At the same time extensive bibliographical footnotes indicate where to go to develop various themes."