Periodic Paper # 1 Spring 2002 After September 11, 2001: Whither Mission?
Periodic Paper # 1 Spring 2002 After September 11, 2001: Whither Mission?
Periodic Paper # 1 Spring 2002 After September 11, 2001: Whither Mission?
Spring 2002
However, as many civil and religious leaders have advised, All three views of mission draw us into the tensions between
we cannot let terrorists obliterate our resolve to build a just faith and justice, and between dialogue and proclamation of
spiritual and secular order. This means that we must continue the gospel. As we grapple with these seemingly insoluble
to focus on our Christian calling to announce the Gospel tensions, we consider a modern dynamic process of moral
and to carry on positive conversations with authentic discourse, which is firmly grounded in social ethics.
believers of other traditions. We renew our intention to teach
the ethic inspired by the Gospel, even as we keep learning The Ethics of Discourse: Communicative Action
how other traditions would strive for peace. This leaves us
Most of the disagreement about the relationship between
with the challenge to re-examine the content of our message
faith and justice a few years ago was grounded in the
and renew our methods for presenting it.
seemingly conflicting claims of spiritual ministry and socio-
political activism. While I have no intention of releasing us
What, Then, Is Mission? from our calling in both of these dimensions of the apostolate,
In November of 2000, I wrote an article for Studies in the I suggest here another direction indicated to me by my own
Spirituality of Jesuits, entitled Pilgrimage Re-Envisioned, involvements between 1970 and 2000, in which there was
in which I emphasized the missionary nature of the Church no dichotomy be-
and thus the mission vocation of the Society of Jesus as tween these two
instrument of the Church. With the help of the late David dimensions. While I
Bosch, an ecumenical Protestant missiologist, I saw the do not intend to
Society as a witness to what Bosch called Gods yes and superimpose my own
Gods no to the worldthat is, Gods affirmation of history onto the
culture as well as Gods evangelical challenge to all cultures.1 world problems of
Our work of gospel inculturaltion should always affirm as today, I find a
well as critque cultures, but I offer some brief consideration memory of my own
for discussiosn here. experience among Aboriginal Dancers near
Turkey Creek, Western Australia
Native peoples as I
The fact is that no Christian can legitimately argue against examine our world mission calling, which always stimulates
a tensive interaction of interfaith dialogue and mutual faith clear moral arguments that, as scholars suggest, are
witnessa tension that characterizes our pilgrim condition. embedded in context of communicative action.6 I suggest
that this kind of exchange, when conducted in matters of
To wit, it was in respectful conversation between church religion, is essentially missionary and evangelical. Such
and Amerindian leaders that interfaith dialogue was engaged evangelical or missionary discourse follows the best tradition
even as we sustained our mission of witness to the Gospel. of the Society of Jesus, as can be read in the dialogues carried
Even more dramatic were the testimonies of many of those on by Matteo Ricci, Roberto De Nobili, and the Jesuit
native leaders that for the first time they were being listened missionaries among the Amerindians, to mention only the
to as representatives of an authentic religious tradition. Some better known figures.
even resumed their allegiance to the Church, apparently with
these conversations as a starting-point. Although they may have adopted the more adversarial tone
of their times, as opposed to the more polite exchanges of
1) It is often charged that mission as invitation to conversion 8 Turners best known work is probably The Ritual Process: Structure
is inevitably imperialistic, because it cannot avoid imposing and Anti-Structure, (New York: Aldine, 1995). I have explained his
a foreign culture. How do you respond to this? thought further in an article, Church as Structure and Communitas:
Victor Turner and Ecclesiology, Theological Studies, 58 (December,
1997), pp. 643-668.
2) Do you agree with the image of the marginal pilgrim
as a paradigm for mission, or should we choose an image 9 Victor Turner and Faith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian
that points more to solidarity with culture and society? Is Culture: Anthropological Perspectives, (New York: Columbia University
all this margin business too alienating? Press, 1978).
3) Is the process of discourse described here too wimpy 10 Ibid., pp. 9-10.
an approach to evangelization? If so, what stronger yet 11 I would suggest frequent meditation on the Presupposition to the
effective means can you suggest? Spiritual Exercises (Ex. 22).
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