I wonder would
members of any western missionary society be surprised if asked how many of
their confreres are still convinced of the need for ‘Ad Gentes’ mission? And by
‘Ad Gentes’ I mean going to countries where the culture and thinking of the
people were still untouched by the message of the gospel?
It is not
so long ago that missionaries from the west were journeying eagerly to the
east, confident they had something valuable to offer. In the early days, when
they went by sailing ship, half of those who set out never got there because of
shipwreck or disease. Those who got there had no expectation of ever returning
home. Yet their commitment never faltered.
Today it is
different. The excitement of mission is gone from the west. Christianity is
less important in people’s lives. Young people are willing to travel the globe
to offer their services in humanitarian causes but most do not regard any one
faith as superior to another.
There are a
number of reasons for this. One is disillusionment with the sad state of the
Church in the west where it seems to have little to offer modern life or other
cultures. Perhaps because of that, it had been stressed that every generation has
to be re-evangelized and the situation is as urgent, if not more so, in the
west as in the east or elsewhere. Others go further and, based on the observation
that religious practices have a great similarity throughout the world, claim that
looking on Christianity as being special is just the relic of a western superiority
complex.
Similarities and Differences
This last
point is a good example of the confused thinking about mission today.
There is no
doubt that religious similarities and parallels do exist around the world.
Anyone who has read Mircea Eliade’s works on sacred symbols will
have been struck by the fact that rocks, trees, wells, fire and New Year festivals
have been treated in an almost identical religious manner in traditional
cultures all around the globe.
A similar phenomenon can be found
in the ways people seek divine intervention or help in urgent financial, health
or personal needs. I have witnessed this in places as disparate as Taoist and
Buddhist temples in Korea China Cebu and the shrine of a holy man in Lahore
In their
private live those believers were probably aware of precepts, similar to the
Ten Commandments, which they knew they should be observing and felt guilty when
they failed to keep them. They were good people, trying to do their best as their
traditions guided them. Only the identity of the deity differed. If one of those
religious acts was to be judged superior to any other it would be in terms of
which deity was more powerful or successful in providing the desired help.
Here I do
not want to make too strong a distinction between people with a ‘favor seeking
faith’ and a ‘spiritual search faith’. The reality is that the two are
intermixed but at times, in individuals and in cultures, one dominates the other.
To spell this out would take a book in itself, here I do not have the space and
hope my point is not misunderstood.
Answering Questions
In many
parts of the world today, most pressing material needs can now be solved with
human resources. In the 1980s and 90s when tens of thousand of young Koreans
were drawn to the Church it was not in the hope of divine assistance in
economic or other physical necessities but in a search to satisfy their deeper
and inner yearnings. The Church’s stand for democracy and human rights on the
national level had given them grounds for thinking it might have the answers.
What they
were looking for was inspiration in their lives, a source of encouragement and
strength, a guide for moral conduct and a gateway to the transcendent they
could vaguely sense around them. Young people in present day China
In my
experience, Christianity, and no other religion today, has the answers to the
questions emerging in minds both east and west. This is not to belittle the
role of other faiths and the important contribution they have made in the human
search for fulfillment. It was my involvement with oriental religions over a
number of decades that led me to question what was of universal value in my own
Christian tradition. In the process I also benefited personally from many of
the insight and practices I found in the great religions of the east.
It was my
search that led me to discover what is unique in the message of the gospels. I
had been warned by those closely aligned to modern thinking that it is not
possible to isolate a core Christian message because of the bias of cultural
interpretations. Theoretically that might be true, and indeed such
considerations may have persuaded many to give up the effort. However practice
shows a different reality. I have found that if the gospels are taken in their
entirety they do give a clear and coherent message that is valid for any
culture.
What I
found in the human figure of Christ was his image of a compassionate Father, of
the Spirit alive in the individual, the call to be part of a new creation, an answer
to evil in the world, a spirituality that seeks the transcendent in ordinary
life and a reaffirmation of the individual which challenges him or her in
either western or eastern culture.
Fortunately
there are enough credible mainstream theologians in the Church today to
reassure missionaries that what people in other cultures are seeking can indeed
be found in the heart of the scriptures.
Disappointment
Unfortunately,
many of the young Koreans in the 1980s and 90s did not find what they were looking
for in the Church there at that time. Despite its public stand on political and
social issues, on closer inspection the Church proved to be less democratic,
individual-orientated, supportive and Korean than they had expected. While
Korean society was becoming more liberal and forward-looking, the Church continued
to draw on the nation’s Confucian past with its emphasis on formality, doctrine
and hierarchy.
Because of
this, many of the young people left unsatisfied. That does not prove that Christianity
is deficient, it just shows that in many Churches practice has still to catch up
on teaching. As one Church leader recently put it, after the Reformation the Church
moved from evangelizing to catechizing and has to return to scripture if it is
to engage modern society.
A Further Role for Missionaries?
If western
Churches are to recover their vitality and missionary spirit, they could
benefit from a reminder of how fresh and inspiring the Christian message can be
when freed from it historical weights and presented in narrative form, relating
to the life concerns of ordinary people.
This is the
challenge that missionaries faced when they tried to bring the gospel to people
who could not appreciate the message when it was presented to them in terms,
formulations and practices borrowed from another culture and age. Many discovered
that they had not been adequately prepared for the task of identifying the
essentials of the gospel and introducing them to another culture. As a result some
took more time than others in making progress.
For over four hundred years
missionaries took a confident faith from the west to the east, knowing they
were providing the greatest service by doing so. Now it may be the time for
modern missionaries to take that faith, refined and renewed, back to their home
Churches and help rekindle enthusiasm there.
Hugh MacMahon 11/28/07
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