Directed by Professor Jostein Ådna (E-mail: jostein.aadna@mhs.no)

During the years 2007–2011 Jostein Ådna, Professor of New Testament at the School of Mission and Theology, co-operated with his Indian colleague Prof. Jey J. Kanagaraj and his Romanian colleague Prof. Stelian Tofana in coordinating the seminar “History and Theology of Mission in the New Testament: Global Challenges and Opportunities” in Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS). The programme for the three seminar sessions at each of the five General Meetings of SNTS, and also most of the papers presented in these sessions, can be found and downloaded under the headings Sibiu, Romania, 2007;  Lund, Sweden, 2008; Vienna, Austria, in 2009; Berlin, Germany, 2010 and Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA, 2011.

In addition to the annual sessions each summer during the General Meetings of SNTS, the seminar coordinators organized a conference at the School of Mission and Theology, 19–20 May, 2010, on The Missionary Speeches in Acts. Five of the papers read at this conference are published in the third issue of the 2011 edition of the periodical Swedish Missiological Themes: SMT 99 (2011): pp. 241–354.

The rationale of the seminar which now has come to its end, was to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion and exchange on the issue of mission – both historically, exegetically and hermeneutically. The seminar coordinators set out with the ambition that new insights regarding the early history of mission (New Testament and Early Patristics) and the interpretation of pertinent New Testament texts would be gained. Further, current global challenges and opportunities in the contemporary world added immensely to the agenda of the seminar. Finally, they hope that the seminar also served as an arena for the participants in helping each other to understand the centrality of God’s mission and the way in which theologians, New Testament scholars in particular, may be involved in mission in the pluralistic and cross-cultural set up of today’s world.