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Tira, Sadiri Joy and Juliet Lee Uytanlet (eds.), 
2020. 

A Hybrid World Diaspora: Hybridity 
and Missio Dei
Pasadena: William Carey Publishing

ISBN: 978–1645082880

Reviewed by Andrew Recepcion
Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome 
a.recepcion@unigre.it 

The chapters of the book are woven into a whole discourse 
on the value of diaspora and hybridity in understanding God’s 
mission today. Going beyond the perspective of mission that is 
tied to geographical territories, evangelism and church-planting, 
the book puts together the contributions of mission leaders and 
scholars through a global consultation, organized by Lausanne 
Movement and the Global Diaspora Network, on the implications 
of hybridity and diaspora in mission. Every chapter speaks of the 
different facets and nuances of hybridity and diaspora in the con-
text of cultures and experiences that capture like in a mosaic the 
different faces of people in diaspora with mission reinventing itself 
in terms of hybridity. Every experience of hybridity highlighted 



Andrew Recepcion—A Hybrid World Diaspora

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by each chapter can also be seen like a tapestry of different colors 
that come from multiple settings of geography, ethnicity, cultures 
and stories.

The contributions of different authors do speak of the need 
to face the challenge of hybridity and diaspora not simply as an 
after-thought of mission but as an indispensable foundation of 
missioning today—a constitutive part of missio Dei. 

The scope of the discussion and the value of the arguments 
presented can be validated in actual situations globally, for example 
in the case of Dekasegi communities and Nikkei identity in Japan, 
Brazil and Peru (chapter 10). Another interesting cases are on the 
Coconut Generation (chapter 11), the Chinoy or Filipino-Chinese 
(chapter 9) communities, the experience of Latinos specifically of 
being a mestizaje (chapter 8), and the complexities and challenges 
of a Jewish-Gentile intermarriage (chapter 7). These cases-in-point 
showcase that diaspora and hybridity are not simply mental con-
structs but they do indicate that we are dealing with varied experi-
ences in which “a complex, globally connected hybrid world has 
developed”; and the truth is that “in this hybrid world, individuals 
and communities flourish as well as flounder”; thus these “hybrid 
worlds are also where folly, fragility and futility afflict individuals 
and communities” (61).

The structure of the book allows readers to explore and to 
understand the themes of diaspora, hybridity and missio Dei, 
beginning with some foundational themes from scriptures and 
theology. The concept of hybridity is not something new in the 
missiological discourse. Recent developments in the areas of mi-
gration, intermarriage, and multicultural contexts outside known 
geographical and existential boundaries, have created opportuni-
ties for rethinking missionary methods that can navigate hybrid 
worlds that thrive on liminality, ambiguity and multiculturality. 
The middle part of the book opens multiple conversations on 
cases indicated above. The last part orients the readers to possible 
implications of diaspora and hybridity to Christian mission and 
ministry.



E c c l e s i a l  F u t u r e s :  Vo l u m e  2 ,  I s s u e  1

164

One of the areas that was not explored and included in the 
book is the contribution from narratives or stories of diaspora and 
hybridity in Australian, Oceanian and European contexts. The 
inclusion of these contexts might have completed the perspective 
intended by the book. The experience of diaspora both in terms 
of exile and refuge, of being uprooted and being re-planted, of 
separation and reunification, need not only be territorial but also 
existential. What is noteworthy, however, is that the whole book 
is a modest attempt to tell the stories of people and their struggles 
to live meaningfully in the midst of multiple identities, liminality, 
marginality, and ambiguity from the experience of human situa-
tions of exile, loneliness, homelessness, identity crisis, adaptation 
and integration. 

The challenge of a hybrid world to missio Dei is articulated in 
the conclusion of the book: 

We would do well to reject all-too-easy meta narratives 
and grand strategies that do not take cultural complexity 
seriously. Instead, we need to embrace realties of a glo-
balizing, hybridizing world and strive to shape the Third 
Space of globalizing mission where the marginalized 
may speak.” (227)

Mission today happens in a hybrid world. This is the way 
forward.