Church Mission in the Context of Religious Pluralism
INTRODUCTION
The Church by its very nature is
missionary according to the plan of the Father, it has origin in the mission of
the Son and the Holy Spirit. The church received this task from the mission mandate
of Jesus, when he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”As we
all know that India is a multi- religious and multi- cultural nation where the
Christians constitute just above two percent of the total population. In this
context the Church mission that is to proclaim Christ means a lot. India as
cradle of all the major religions in the world; Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism,
Jainism, Islam, Christianity and tribal religions is having a lot of problems
among the religions.
In this regard mission in India is
the greatest challenge for the Church. For Christians in India “to proclaim
Christ” in the midst of our neighbors of other faiths and persecutions will be
the tremendous task. Here the questions arise,
(a) What
is the mission of the Church among other religions that are in conflict?
(b) How
does the Church approach the Fundamentalists and Fanatics movements?
In order to explain these present
issues on mission I have divided this paper into three parts. The first chapter
deals with the basic understanding of mission which highlights the Historical
and theological foundation of the Church mission, and its expansion are
explained with suitable sub topics.
The second chapter deals with the
Teachings of the Church on mission. Here the various encyclical letters from different
Popes, the Vatican Council Decree (Ad Gentes Divintus) and the apostolic
exhortations which strengthen the mission aspect of the Church are explained
with accuracy.
The
third chapter deals with the Church mission and religious pluralism in India.
As it is the heart of this scientific paper conceived with the challenges of
mission in the pluralistic religious society and its role towards the other
religious are stressed strongly.
The main aim of this paper is building
up the new human community, which is rooted in God and characterized by love,
freedom, equality, justice and peace and which lives in a critical and creative
harmony of all religions and cultures and in communion with nature.
CHAPTER I
THE BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF MISSION
1.1
Term Meaning
Strictly, it means being sent to perform a
certain work, such as the mission of Christ to redeem mankind, the mission of
the apostles and the church and it members to perpetuate the prophetic,
priestly and the royal mission of Christ. First, the term is used for the
redemptive task of Jesus and of the church in the world. In the second place it
refers to the official resignation of individual’s o congregations to carry the
Good News. The third use applies the word “mission” to an intensified free
period of pricing and pastoral activity.[1]
1.2
The historical foundation of Christian Mission
Christianity
has expanded in a serial way, i.e. when it lost ground in those regions where
it was most strong and secure; it won new followers from those people who
seemed to threaten its existence. The survival of Christianity has depended
upon its ability to adapt to new and hostile cultures.[2]
1.2.1
Jews and Gentiles
The
first Christians were Jews who had experienced in Jesus the fulfillment of
their nation’s hope. The Gospel was the good news of the messiah for God’s
people, the Jews. Then at Antioch some rather uneducated Jewish Christians from
the country areas started to tell Greeks, completer outsiders, about the good
news of Jesus (Acts 11.20). Jews had never thought that Gentiles could become
God’s people unless they were circumcised like Jews, I.e. by first becoming a
Jew. But, within a generation the majority of Christians in the world were not
Jews but Greeks. If the situation had not been like this, it is hard to see how
Christianity could ever have survived the Roman invasion of Judaea in A.D 70.
The original (Jewish) church vanished; yet the church was stronger and bigger
than ever.[3]
1.2.2
Greeks and Barbarians
In the seventh
century AD the Greek- and Latin- speaking Church in North Africa and the
eastern Mediterranean seemed to be strong and secure. The only people they
feared were the savage barbarians who threatened them from Northern Europe. When
the Church was destroyed by the brotherhood of Islam. The Church remained,
stronger, and bigger than ever in the culture where it was threatened.[4]
1.2.3
North and South
After
the changes caused by the advance of Islam, the church did not expand very much
for several centuries. But movement began again in the eighteenth century, the
era of Constantine, the emperor who made the Roman Empire Christian, has ended
and we can no longer think in simple terms of lands which have been mission
fields and those which have not. The Gospel is no longer given by the rich to
the poor or by rulers to their subjects. On the contrary, like evangelists in
the New Testament, those who are bearers of the Gospel today will bring no gifts
with them except the Gospel itself. The Church’s new centre of gravity can be
found in Latin America, Africa and the Far East, and perhaps we stand at the
beginning of a new era of cross-cultural mission. Many lands which until
recently were communist are now open to the Gospel, and it may be that the
Islamic world will also open up, just as Muslims have flooded into the lands of
Europe which were once Christian.[5]
1.3
The Theological Foundation of Mission
The Church is in
its nature missionary, ‘It exists by mission, as fire by burning.’ Moreover,
mission creates the Church, so it comes before the church’s doctrine and
theology. Theology only exists to serve the church in the mission of God.
Mission bridges the gap between the Church and the kingdom of God. The goal of
the church is not its own good but the Rule of God; the Church was founded for
a future in the kingdom of God and so it is for all humankind.
1.3.1
Karl Barth’s View of Mission
It
is not only Roman Catholics who teach that mission belongs to the very nature
of the Church. Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth also pointed out that the
Church does not exist for itself. It is always free from itself; it is not
churchly but worldly. Its mission is not additional to its being. It exists as
it is sent and active in its mission.[6]
1.3.2
Attitude and Activity
At
times the Church engages in activities which are deliberately missionary. These
may involve conversion, Church planting, social work, political action, etc.
this is one reason why missions of this sort often fail. Perhaps we ought to
ask questions about the missionary activities of our Churches, and measure them
against the presence of the missionary attitude. Think that if you renew the
Church you are engaging in missionary activity. Christians who thinks in this
way may fall into the trap of being satisfied that they have got a missionary
attitude- but never actually doing any kind of missionary activity at all! Mission
is an attitude of mind which should be at the heart of the Church’s life and
work, just as it is at the heart of God, both as He is in Himself and in all He
does. The deep change in the church’s attitude towards other religions is
flowed from the renewed theology of Vatican II.[7]
CHAPTER II
THE TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH ON
MISSION
By
mission Ad Gentes the council means the missionary activity of the Church by
which she aims to proclaim the word and to implant the church among peoples and
groups where the Gospel was not yet preached on missionary activity reveal the
interpretation of the concept in various epochs according to the signs of the
times.
2.1
Encyclical Letters
2.1.1
Probe Nostis (15.8.1840)
In
this encyclical letter Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846 AD), spoke of the needs to
defend the Church and to propagate the faith through the proclamation of the
Gospel. The Church toils tirelessly to go into the mission lands to preach the
Good News to the people who have not heard of Christ and where the church is
not ecclesiastically organized. Particularly dear to his heart are the
apostolic mission in India and America.[8]
2.1.2
Ad Extremas (24.6.1893)
Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) dedicated
this apostolic encyclical to the missions in India. Pope emphasized the need
for pious and zealous priests of native origin in order that the Church may set
firm roots in India. He noted that the preservation of the Christian faith
among the Hindus would be precarious and its propagation uncertain as long as
there was not a native clergy properly trained for priestly duties, not only to
assist foreign priests, but also to be in proper charge of the administration
of the Catholic Church in their cities. The Pope stated that in India the
native clergy could ‘live among Hindus without causing any suspicion and it is,
indeed difficult to say how important this is especially in times of crises.[9]
2.1.3
Rerum Ecclesiae (28.2.1926)
Pope
Pius XI (1922-1939) through Rerum Ecclesiae expressed his two objectives
concerning missionary activity. This encyclical proposed the creation of
mission stations in the mission countries for better coordination of missionary
activity. Missionaries were encouraged construct hospitals, institutions for
the care of sick and for the distribution of medicines, elementary schools for
the young, who do not intend to take up agriculture, schools for higher
education, especially in the arts and sciences and in the professions.[10]
2.1.4 Evangelii Praecones (2.6.1951)
Pope
Pius XII (1939-1958 AD) published this encyclical. The purpose of the missions,
he said, was to bring the light of the Gospel to new peoples and to form new
Christians, with the ultimate goal establishing the Church on sound foundations
among non-Christians peoples and placing it under its own native hierarchy and
indigenous clergy.
Pope
Pius XII stated his desire for schools for the young to create an advantageous
relationship between the missionaries and the non-Christians of every class,
and to help docile young minds understand, appreciate and embrace the Catholic
doctrine.[11]
2.1.5
Redemptoris Mission (7.12.1990)
The
encyclical Redemptoris Mission was promulgated by Pope John II (1978-2005).
John Paul speaks of an urgency of missionary activity. The mission, Christ the
redeemer entered to the Church is still very far from completion. The urgency
of missionary evangelization stems from the face that it is the primary service
which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the
modern world.
The document speaks of three types
of situations in Church’s mission. The first is the mission. Here the Church
addresses peoples, groups, and socio-cultural contexts in which Christ and his
Gospel are not known. The second is of well-established Christian communities.
The third is the re-evangelization done mainly in countries with ancient
Christian roots where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of
the faith, or perhaps no longer even consider themselves members of the Church,
and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel. John Paul concludes by
saying that the responsibility for this mission belongs to the universal Church,
to the particular churches and to the whole people of God. Being missionary by
nature, the Church is both evangelized and evangelizing.[12]
2.2
Vatican Council Decree, Ad Gentes
Divinitus (7.12.1965)
The
second Vatican Council was the beginning of a new Pentecost in the Church and
the realization of a world Church. The Council’s decree on missionary activity
brought the mission of evangelization to the heart of the Church. The mission
has two dimensions 1) the stage of missionary activity to non-Christians who
have not yet heard of Christ; 2)missionary activity in new churches which are
in the process of maturation and which have not yet reached the fullness of
maturity. The church is only beginning her missionary activity by sending her
heralds who preach the Gospel by word and by the witness of their lives.[13]
2.3
Apostolic Exhortations
2.3.1
“Evanglii Nuntiandi” (8.12.1975)
Pope Paul VI speaks about the evangelization
in the modern world, “to make the Church of the twentieth century, every better
suited to proclaim the Gospel to the people on earth, the Christians and non-Christians,
believes and non-believers, and the secularized world”.[14] The various means of evangelization are:
witness of an authentic Christian life, preaching through images, the liturgy
of the word, the Eucharistic celebration of sacraments, the catechetical
instruction, methods of social communication, person-to-person transmission of
faith, popular piety, etc.
2.3.2
Ecclesia in Asia (6.11.1999)
Pope
John Paul II speaks about the issue of the encounter of Christianity with
ancient cultures and religions are a pressing one. This is a great challenge
for evangelization, since religious systems such challenge for Hinduism clearly
have a stereological character.
Evangelization in Asia, says the
Pope, is the proclamation of Jesus Christ in a multicultural and
multi-religious context. The Church considers with great respect all other
religions. The proclamation of Jesus as the only Savior in the multi-religious
context of Asia has brought serious challenges. He goes on saying that, today
the Church Asia like St. Paul in aeropause. (Acts 17:22-31). The document emphasizes
inculturation as an effective means of evangelization.[15]
CHAPTER III
CHURCH MISSION AND RELIGIOUS
PLURALISM
3.1
Religions in Conflict
At
the purely religious level the groups tend to be exclusivist or fundamentalist.
Because one group believes that its view of the world represents the world as
it really is, ignorance, if not falsity, is attributed to the others. Some
religions try to proselytize. They are aggressively missionary. Others may tend
to marginalize those who differ from them. Even Hinduism that prides itself of
its tolerance had actively opposed Buddhism and Jainism in the fast and opposes
Islam and Christianity as ‘foreign’ in the present. Aggressive proselytism may
lead to self- defensive reactions from other groups. In recent times religions
have also reacted in a fundamentalist way when they feel marginalized by
aggressive secularization and by a perceived discrimination by the state. Exclusivist
in religion gives rise to ignorance and prejudice concerning the others, apart
from more negative attitudes that consider others as untrue and immoral, of
course, from one’s own point of view. The binding force of religious identity,
because of its strength and integrative power, is often used as the basis of
group power in situations of social conflict.[16]
Analyzing
the Hindu- Muslim conflict in India, for instance, sociologists point out how
the Muslims recall the golden age when they were the rulers. They may look down
upon the Hindus as cowardly, promiscuous and weak. They may feel that their own
fall from power is due to their infidelity to their religious observance. They
feel marginalized and seek to assert their identity around the shariat. The
Hindus seek to assert their majority status and their glorious historical past.
They consider the Muslims violent, dirty (not observing all their
purity/pollution laws), sexually aggressive and religiously intolerant and
narrow. Such prejudices can reach deep unconscious levels when the spirits that
possess the Hindus turn out to be Muslims who urge them to indulge in behavior
like meat - eating that are abhorrent to the Hindus.[17]
3.2
The Church with Other Religion
The Church attitude was apologetic
and missionary; she defended her uniqueness and invited other to join her,
co-existence, collaboration and solidarity in the common struggle against
atheism and evil materialism in an effort to build a better world were not
within her scope.[18] The
Church as well as the other religions is pilgrims towards this future
consummation. This vision has been spelt out in terms of universal harmony. Our
approach to their religions has so far been a priori. Our starting point has
been that we have the truth about God and the appropriate means to reach God
and be saved. Salvation is the context in which we have looked at other
religions. The new starting point is the affirmation that in virtue of creation
, especially of the humans as images of God, God is in contact with the humans,
as individuals and as groups, as befits the social nature of the humans. Our
quest for the Kingdom of God therefore calls us to collaborate with the
believers of other religions and all people of good will. As a matter of a
fact, the Church does affirm the need for such collaboration in the pursuit of
a just society on this earth. John Paul II, speaking to leaders of other
religions in Chennai, in Feb.1986, said: As followers of different religions we
should join together in promoting and defending common ideals in the spheres of
religious liberty, human brotherhood, education, culture, social welfare and
civic order. Since Kingdom is the goal of mission, then collaboration with the
other religions and with all people of good will is the way of mission.[19]
3.3
The Role of the Church towards Mission
The
primary task is to contribute to the building up of a human community of
freedom and fellowship, equality and justice. This has economic, political and
religious dimensions. Love, justice and care for the poor characterize this
universal fellowship. The church itself is a group of people sent into the
world to be the symbol and the servant of this Kingdom. Even in this task the
church is only collaborating with the spirit who is already present and active
in the world carrying on God’s cosmic project.
The
mission of the Church then is universal reconciliation. But there are forces in
the world that keep hindering such reconciliation: exclusivist, egoism, quest
for power and domination, injustice, exploitation of the other for one’s own
benefit. The disciples of Jesus are called to struggle against these forces and
the oppressive structures they have created.[20]
3.3.1
A
Multi- Religious Society
From the religious point of view we
are now faced with two different ideologies in the country. On the one hand we
have the secularists, who seek to privatize religion and to build up a
community that will be based on modern, scientific principles. On the other
hand, we have the proponents of the Hindutva, who seek to build the unity of
the country by asking everyone to identify with an Indian national culture,
which is interpreted as rooted in Hinduism.
We
must consciously build up a multi-religious society, in which every religious
community is recognized, accepted and respected and has an opportunity to
collaborate in the building up of the national community. We have to evolve a
new kind of democratic order in which numbers are not important and a majority
does not impose its will on the minorities. This new order will be respectful
of diversity and participative, allowing each group to contribute its riches to
the good of all.[21]
3.3.2
Peace
Makers
Religious
conflicts have often economic, political and social causes. These need to be
identified and addressed in an effective way. Conflicts also have sources in
prejudice and ignorance. These can be dispelled through mutual discovery
programmers, participation in festivals, etc. Fundamentalist currents also need
to be tackled at the strictly religious level. I think of much these can be
done in the context of multi- religious groups of people who are committed to
the promotion of justice, equality and peace in the community. Christians could
take it as their special mission to organize these committees and animate them.
Collaborative action and conversation can help in freeing people from
communalism.[22]
3.3.3
Inter- Religious Dialogue
Inter-
religious dialogue is not opposed to welcoming people who wish to become
disciples of Jesus Christ and collaborate with him in his historical project,
inspired or attracted either by the person and teachings of Jesus or by the
witness of his disciples. If we join all believers in promoting social justice
and equality for all then we may discover that people are not interested in
getting converted anymore for socio-economic reasons.[23]
The mission of God makes our
mission automatically dialogical. There is no dialogue without witness, but the
witnessing should not be aggressive, though we have to take great care to keep
it so in the pluralistic context of India. In a conflictual situation dialogue
is difficult and is seen as much broader than merely religious. Religion is
only one dimension of human life in society and it cannot be isolated. Though
we have talked about the multi-religious situation in the Indian context, once
we start forming wider communities that transcend local and limited identities
then the search for community will transcend national boundaries and reach out
to the whole universe.[24]
CONCLUSION
The Church is the community of
Jesus’ disciples who are called together by his word and animated by his spirit
to continue his mission and carry it out in all the nations and among all the
peoples of the world. The Church’s mission is none other than that of Jesus
himself. He went about doing good and proclaiming the good news that God is
powerfully present and is transforming this world, gifting his rule to all and in particular to the poor,
oppressed, week, marginalized and outcaste.
We also recognize the fact that
India is a multi religious and pluri-cultural country. Such diversity is its
divinely bestowed blessing and grace. The Church’s mission in this context
calls for it to be a truly dialogical community. The dialogical mission of the Church also
implies that it becomes an agent of reconciliation and peace among the various
groups. It has to keep in mind its vocation to be the “light of the world” and “salt
of the earth.” We have to create a common forum of dialogue and liberalize
action through which mutual misunderstanding, hatred, discord and discrimination
could be opposed, and we could together build up a nation with justice, peace
and harmony.
The Church should also make all
efforts to remove every trace of triumphalism, exclusivist and any attitude of
superiority in its teachings, structures, evangelizing activities and the style
of the functioning of its institutions. Particularly, it has to ensure that its
educational enterprises, charitable activities, health care services and social
involvements are geared to the genuine promotion of people`s well-being and
progress and not in any way to conversion from their religions. However, it
should be pointed out that the Church always defends the right of individuals
to profess the religion of their choice. All the same, it denounces
proselytisation using questionable means, such as, fraud, force and allurement.
The main aim of this scientific
paper is to create a common forum of dialogue and liberative action through
which mutual misunderstanding, hatred, discard and discrimination could be opposed,
and we could together buildup a nation with Justice, peace and harmony.
[1]
Michael Glazier and Monica K. Hellwig, The
Modern Catholic Encyclopedia (Bangalore: Claretian Plublications, 1997),
575.
[2]
Roger Bowen, So I Send You a Study Guide
to Mission (London: ISPCK Publication, 1996), 7.
[3]
Francis Sullivan and Sue Leppert, eds., Church
and Civil Society, ATF Series No-8 (Adelaide: ATF Publication, 2004),
82-84.
[4]
Roger Bowen, 8.
[5]
Roger Bowen, 9.
[6]
Roger Bowen, 12.
[7]
Gregory Karotemprel and Jacob Marangattu, eds., Evangelizing In The Third Millennium, Series No-1 (Rajkot: Deepti
Publication, 2006), 62.
[8]
Shaji Jerman, Mission: Missiological and Canonical Perspectives (Alwaye:
Pontifical Institute Publication, 2005), 104-105.
[9]
Shaji Jerman, 108.
[10]
Shaji Jerman, 114-115.
[11]
Shaji Jerman, 122.
[12]
Julian Saldana, Mission Today: Themes and
Issues (Bangalore: Claretian Publications, 2006), 20.
[13]
Julian Saldana, 15.
[14]
Shaji Jerman, 140-142.
[15]
Shaji Jerman, 150.
[16]
Amaladoss, “Our Mission in India Today”,
Vaigarai 6, no. 2 (September 2001):
12-15.
[17]
Thomas Malipurathu and L. Stanislaus, eds., A
Vision of Mission in the New Millennium (Mumbai: St Paul’s Publications,
2001), 68.
[18]
Gregory Karotemprel and Jacob Marangattu, eds., 55.
[19]
Thomas Malipurathu and L. Stanislaus, eds., 75.
[20]
Gregory Karotemprel and Jacob Marangattu, eds., 17-29.
[21]
Thomas Malipurathu and L. Stanislaus, eds., 77.
[22]
Thomas Malipurathu and L. Stanislaus, eds., 78.
[23]
Joseph Puthenpurakal, ed., Mission Today,
vol-1 (Shillong: Vendrame Institute Publication, 1999), 49-50.
[24]
Thomas Malipurathu and L. Stanislaus, eds., 81.
Bro. M. Francis Amaladoss
Theology I Year
St. Joseph Seminary, Mangaore
