Following the Willingen Conference in 1952 and two decades of widespread usage of the term missio Dei, Dr. H. H. Rosin of the Department of Missiology at Interuniversity Institute undertook the task of writing ‘MISSIO DEI’: an examination of the origin, contents and functions of the term in protestant missiological discussion. The term ‘missio Dei’ which was introduced by Hartenstein in his ‘Theologische Besinnung’ about the international missionary conference in Willingen (1952), was coined by him, and intended to place mission within the widest possible framework of the ‘Heilsgeschichte’ (salvation history) and God’s plan of salvation.1 The Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions states that the term missio Dei is ‘Latin for “the sending of God,” in the sense of “being sent,” a phrase used in Protestant missiological discussion especially since the 1950s, often in the English form “the mission of God.”’2 It is an expression that is widely used in many missiological and ecumenical circles and is not limited to Protestant scholarship exclusively. Rosin, after identifying where the term missio Dei most and least often occurs in various languages and texts states, ‘This does not however in any way imply that where the term is lacking, the intended concept must also be absent.’3 Prior to Hartenstein’s coinage and the usage of the term missio Dei, the concept is argued to be evident in scripture and Augustinian theology. Rosin concludes his examination of the term with this statement,

Bosch was a significant contributor to missiology during the twentieth century for his work in paradigmatic thinking and understanding in the history of mission. He writes, ‘After the First World War missiologists began to take note of recent developments in biblical and systematic theology. In a paper read at the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932, Karl Barth ([1932] 1957) became one of the first theologians to articulate mission as an activity of God himself.’6 Barth is widely recognized for giving birth to the missio Dei concept, and he was the first in the twentieth century to speak of mission as the activity of God. Barth’s emphasis was, firstly, a focus upon what God was doing and, secondly, through the activity of God, what the church was doing. Speaking of the missio, Barth states,

Barth’s reference to the ancient church and the illumination of the Divine sending the Divine is identified in the post-biblical writings of Augustine who also articulated mission as an activity of the triune God. Consider Augustine’s understanding of a key element in the missio Dei:

Poitras notes, ‘The potential relevance of Augustine’s theology for mission today becomes evident when we notice how a descendant of his concept of the missio Dei has become commonplace in recent mission thought.’9