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1. Term and History of Meaning 1.1. “Protestantism” is a general term for the form of Christianity that originated with the 16th-century Reformation. It carries a specific reference to the “Protestatio” that the Evangelical princes presented at the Second Diet of Speyer in 1529. After that event the opponents of the Reformation called all its supporters Protestants, though the supporters themselves preferred the term “Evangelicals.” In the 17th century the terms “Protestant religion” and “Protestant c…

1. The term “ecumenical mission” denotes an understanding of Christian mission according to which witness to the one gospel is the comprehensive task of the worldwide church. Ecumenical mission views itself against the background of the divine sending to the whole world ( missio Dei; Missiology) and is oriented to the ultimate unifying of all things under the rule of God (Eschatology). 2. This understanding brings together insights from almost a century of ecumenical missionary discussion. Between the Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910) and the end of Wo…