





































Ecclesial Futures
2023 – Volume 4 – Issue 2

B O O K  R E V I E W

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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef18344

DOI: 10.54195/ef18344

Osmer, Richard R. 2021. The Invitation: A 
Theology of Evangelism

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
ISBN: 9780802876225

Reviewed by David Reissmann

Evangelism and evangelization have been largely neglected in Western academic 
theology. This has left a research gap that spans the discussions and curricula of 
many theological faculties and seminaries in the so-called “Western” world. This 
gap extends to current publications in areas such as practical theology and system-
atic theology. Meanwhile, there is a dynamic global discourse on this topic, which is 
reflected primarily in ecclesial and ecumenical documents.

Richard Osmer’s book bridges these and several other gaps in a way that is probably 
unique to date. It is unique in that it is less an exploration of this global discourse 
or a historical discussion of these ecclesial and ecumenical documents. Rather, the 
book offers what one might call a “triadic conversation” between Scripture, dogmatic 
theology (almost exclusively Karl Barth’s) and case studies. This serves the main 
purpose of the book, which is to support new thinking about evangelism that goes 
beyond the previously dominant particular way of thinking about evangelism, which 
Osmer calls evangelism as conversionism (8). “The new evangelization” then, as Osmer 
calls it, is a reimagining of evangelism in terms of Reformation theology and implies 
the transformation of evangelistic practice, especially in that it represents a funda-
mental shift in soteriology – from being saved by conversion on the basis of human 
choice to affirmation that we are saved in toto by Jesus Christ who takes our place in 
justifying and sanctifying us before God (193). In terms of terminology, this shift is 
demonstrated by Osmer using “evangelization” instead of “evangelism”. But he sees 
this shift as more than just a shift in terminology. Rather, it is part of a broader trans-
formation of the Church from an established part of Western culture to a missional 
community.



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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef18344

The various parts of the book roughly follow what I have called the “triadic conversa-
tion”: The introduction outlines the idea of evangelism as an invitation. It is followed 
by the first part of the book and develops the basic principles of evangelism in 
dialogue with Scripture. By reflecting on case studies, some basic questions are first 
extracted, such as “What is the gospel?” or “How do we invite people to respond 
to the gospel?” Answers to these questions are sought using theological guidelines 
from the Apostle Paul. The Gospel according to Mark and the Gospel according to 
John then serve to lay important biblical foundations on the topic of evangelization 
based on the different thematic focuses of these authors.

The second part of the book locates evangelism in dialogue with Karl Barth. Osmer 
offers in this part much more than a recapitulation of some important passages in 
Barth’s Church Dogmatics. He develops an independent interpretation of Barth that 
demonstrates detailed knowledge of the most current Barth research and knows 
how to deal with the blindspots of other current theological traditions. This detailed 
dialogue with Karl Barth also provides well-founded impulses for the debates in 
missiology, in which Barth has already been widely discussed.

Here – and thus also to answer the question of what is actually new about the “new 
evangelization” – Osmer gains his own point of view. Instead of thinking within the 
old framework of conversionism, Osmer wants to look with Barth through a “lens of 
witness”. Instead of trying to save people, the Church’s role is to serve as a witness 
and to point beyond itself to Christ. This is the mission of the Church. Osmer gains this 
understanding of the Church as a witness through an intensive theological discus-
sion of salvation and sanctification. Both election and reconciliation as the fulfilment 
of election are, with Barth, located entirely in the forensic atonement “in Christ”. De 
iure sanctification, and thus also conversion, takes place de facto through the Holy 
Spirit. This is precisely where the implications for the “new evangelization” lie: By 
taking (1) the Chalcedonian pattern of the unity and yet distinction of Christ and his 
Church, (2) the Church as witness and (3) the justifying, sanctifying and electing work 
of Christ in our place seriously, human agency is (4) decentred from the central role 
it often occupies in the ministry of evangelism of the Church. Instead, it places our 
reliance on the Spirit through prayer more at the centre, so that the guidance of the 
Spirit plays a much larger role as the mediator of communion than it often does in 
the “old” model of evangelism.

This rich dogmatic discussion leads into the third part of the book and back to a 
practical-theological discussion of evangelistic practice. The discussion of this is 
based on the already mentioned understanding of soteriological objectivism and 
the broader transformation of the Church from an established part of Western 



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culture to a missional community. In this final part of the book, Osmer takes up the 
initial definition that he presented in the introduction – that evangelism is the invi-
tation to respond to the gospel, the good news of God’s salvation of the world in 
Jesus Christ, which is offered to others as part of the witness of the Church under 
the guidance and persuasive power of the Holy Spirit – and completes it through 
numerous “guidelines” that emerged in tandem with the insights of the Apostle Paul, 
the Gospels according to Mark and John, as well as through the dogmatics of Karl 
Barth. For example, Osmer emphasizes in his guidelines that it is important for the 
new evangelization to recognize not only significant moments of change but also 
longer processes of coming to trust in Jesus’ call. It is also less the individual than the 
congregation that is the first witness to the gospel. Evangelization then develops not 
only a variety of ways of sharing the gospel, it also involves entering into the pain and 
suffering of other people as well as celebrating the glory of God and God’s beauty. 
More could be said about these guidelines – about church planting, focusing on 
 children’s experience, beginning with God’s Yes, helping Christians hear the gospel 
again and again, good leadership – but it all serves the vision of a broader transfor-
mation of congregations becoming missional communities. Ultimately, this reflects 
the book’s normative commitment to practical theology and concrete congrega-
tions, which grows from the roots of Osmer’s theology in the Church Dogmatics of 
Karl Barth.

The last chapter of the book outlines in more detail what looking at evangelization 
through the lens of practical theology means, especially to teach evangelization. 
Here Osmer makes his case for case studies as his methodological tool of choice, 
and he provides specific insights and materials from his own teaching experience. 
The materials are prepared in such a way that they can be easily adapted for one’s 
own teaching or even adopted directly. Case studies, Osmer argues, give students 
the opportunity to think about problems they may face when they begin work in the 
future. They also help students learn the importance of attending to the particular-
ities of each case, which is the prerequisite of learning to contextualize. And they 
also learn a lot about themselves, their personality, gifts, history and how to develop 
their own point of view out of this. After all, practical theology ought to bring prac-
tice into the classroom and put knowing in relation to doing, thus turning theology 
into a lived theology.

Whether the book will develop enough argumentative power to advance the case of 
evangelization in Western academic theology and cement the issue in their debates 
remains uncertain. To achieve this, it must reveal the blindspots of the powerful 
alternatives in the discourse and illuminate their contingencies on the basis of the 
new evangelization. But Osmer does so and reveals some contingencies of the old 



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paradigm of evangelism as conversionism in this book. The rich biblical and theolog-
ical material is a milestone on the Church’s path towards missional communities. The 
fact that Osmer, as a practical theologian, gives this topic a place in practical theology 
is a process that is, not entirely but almost, unique, in terms of the field of practical 
theology.

The final pages of the book are devoted to an exploration of the relationship between 
Practical Theology and Karl Barth. This is where the discussion moves beyond 
the core topic of the book to a general discussion of the foundations of practical 
theology. While this part is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the book, this 
move from the concrete to the general not only concretizes Osmer’s point of view 
and methodological commitments, which, as is good scientific practice, he does not 
hide behind cloudy formulations. It also takes the topic deeper than an awareness 
and analysis of context and to the Word of God in its threefold form (God revealed 
through Jesus Christ, Scripture, and the proclamation of the Church) as prerequisite 
of ultimately resisting all forms of systematization, including the formulation of a 
practical programme.

In any case, the combination of biblical anchoring and profound dogmatic discus-
sion with practical theological reflection and embedding in concrete case studies 
is a ray of hope from the field of practical theology. It fits into the framework of 
a small but fine renaissance of exactly this kind of working method, which is also 
becoming evident in other places of theological work where the theologically mostly 
dry wells of mere correlational approaches to theology fail to nourish and convince. 
The subject matter of theology must, as Karl Barth argued, determine the methods 
appropriate to its investigation. For anyone who can agree, the book offers some of 
the best theological material on evangelization that I know of. For those who disa-
gree, the book still contains a number of fine arguments to engage with. In any case, 
it will help to rethink the currently prevailing ideas and concepts about evangelism 
and evangelization.

About the author
David Reissmann, Research Center for Christian Empowerment in Secularity (CES), 
Research Unit for Missional Church Development (MKG), Martin- Luther-Universität 
Halle-Wittenberg.
david.reissmann@theologie.uni-halle.de

mailto:david.reissmann@theologie.uni-halle.de

