Gravedigger Missiology and the Crisis of Evangelism

Authors

• Jose Philip, Asbury Theological SeminaryFollow

Abstract

This article argues that the crisis of evangelism in late-modern North America reflects not only disaffiliation and secularization but also a structural and Christological deficit. Evangelism is often "practiced as managed impact under the language of missio Dei rather than as participation in the living agency of Jesus Christ.” Developing Peter Berger’s claim that Christianity has been “its own gravedigger,” the article reads Berger in two registers. The Social Construction of Reality and The Sacred Canopy explain how plausibility structures sustain belief and how their erosion weakens inherited evangelistic models. The Precarious Vision exposes how religious roles and language can become alibis of bad faith, lending sacred legitimacy to institutional survival. In dialogue with Dallas Willard’s epistemic realism and William J. Abraham’s account of evangelism as initiation into God’s kingdom, the article presents Christ as the self-authenticating reality who destabilizes and reconstitutes plausibility structures. It proposes a reflexive missiological grammar centered on agency, plausibility, integration, and exodus, reframing evangelism as participation in Christ’s ongoing action rather than the management of religious impact.

Recommended Citation

Philip, Jose (2026) "Gravedigger Missiology and the Crisis of Evangelism," Witness: Vol. 40: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/witness_aete/vol40/iss1/6