Chicken, Eggs, Carts, Horses

CNN Poll results:

Egg: 65%

Chicken: 35%

An article on CNN has claimed to solve the classic "Which came first: chicken or egg?" conundrum.

On a more theological note..

Len asked:

"Does missiology precede ecclesiology, or it it the other way around?"

Of course, this can all be useless debate, ivory tower theory that never hits the street.

but it must be wrestled and reckoned with. One of Len's readers quoted Heidegger:

“It makes a difference where one enters the circle.”

The responses he gathered are linked below:

missional ecclesiology 1

missional ecclesiology 2

missional ecclesiology 3

missional ecclesiology 4

missional ecclesiology 5

missional ecclesiology 6

Len himself shared his response under post #6 above, and then followed up with this:

missional rooting

Len's and Snyder's are among the most helpful..

My answer...which a started out as a "yes" (to both parts of the question) might be different today, thanks to many of the challenging thinkers above is here .

Andrew Jones asked a similar question (click the link to read the many responses):

Is mission the mother of theology?

Its one of the questions i have been asked to deal with this week at the camp for Baptists.

Missiology or Theology? Chicken or the egg? Is missiology a slice of the theological cake or a foundational layer? And what about the sequence that goes missiology-christology-ecclesiology? Or as Alan Hirsch has laid it out, Christology-Missiology-Ecclesiology. How would you sequence it?

Thoughts? I might not be able to respond for a few days but i would be interested if anyone had some enlightenment on this.You will no doubt quote Kähler to me [someone says "WHOOO??????"] with his famous phrase that mission is the "mother of theology" (Martin Kähler) but how do you think it all adds up? And is this consistent with a Baptist missiology - something that will be important to this group. Well, important to me anyway. link

Hirsch, says, in part:

The sequence should be like this:

Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology > Activities & Resource Use

I must admit that I have put ecclesiology first in a lot of my thinking. Often there is a good Christological and missional basis for the ecclesiology, link