Missiology as a Discipline in Universities

Missiology as a Discipline in Universities 15

Missiology as a Discipline in Universities

Christopher Shelke, S.J.Snehasadan Institute for the Study of Religion, Theology of Inculturation

Missiological Roots The systematic theologian Martin Kähler (1835-1912) has stated that mission is “the mother of theology”1). According to him, Theology as a science developed as the Christian message was being articulated and proclaimed to different peoples. Thus, Kähler claimed that God is the author and promoter of the Mission, as the apostle of the gentiles states, “Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered and God gave the increase” (1 Cor 3,6). The master of the vineyard is the Lord himself, and the apostles and evangelizers are seed-sowers and irrigators. When sowers and irrigators reflect on their activity and on fruits that God gives to their efforts, the birth of Theology 1) Martin Kähler, Schriften zur Christologie und Mission (München: Chr. Kaiser

Verlag, 1908).

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takes place. One could say that the reflection of vineyard workers on the message of Christ, his activity, his death and resurrection, together with their methods of proclaiming that message has created different Christologies2). According to the context of the peoples and cultures to which the apostles announced the Good News, different Christologies have sprung up. Therefore, Theology and Missiology as sciences have their birth in Christologies. They are factually extended Christologies. It is often considered that the discourse at Pentecost by Peter to ‘Jews and devout men from every nation under heaven’ (Acts 2,4) is the first missiological act. However, Peter’s address to the hundred and twenty disciples asking them to fulfil the vacant place of Judas Iscariot among the Apostles is also based on a missio-christological consideration. It constitutes a missiological act that reveals the most important element of Christology: None can be an apostle, an evangelizer and a missionary unless he himself has some kind of experience of Jesus Christ, his activity, his death and his resurrection (Acts 1,15-26). Nonetheless, Missiology is often considered a relatively recent addition to the range of academic subjects which fall within the broad category of "Theology," although mission in a variety of forms has been practised by the Church since the Resurrection and Pentecost. Missiology as a science studied on an academic level and in academic centers goes back to Raymond Lull 2) Each of the Evangelists portrays Jesus according to his personal perception and

in accordance with the people to whom he proclaimed Jesus Christ, His events and resurrection.


(1235-1315), who founded a missionary college in Majorca in 1276. Lull perceived that “the religion of the Moslems was not a relatively primitive polytheistic belief, like the religions of the pagan Teutons and Slavs. Indeed, in their arrogance the Moslems claimed to correct the ‘errors’ of Christianity. Mohammed (570?-632), the founder of Islam, was influenced chiefly by Judaism and by the pre-Islamic beliefs of Arabia. Nevertheless the Christian faith did leave its marks on the teaching of the Prophet; and it influenced strongly some of the later developments in Islam”3). Lull undoubtedly recognized that Islam had incorporated many elements from the Jewish-Christian traditions and was erroneously proclaiming these traditions and beliefs. He perceived also that Islam was aggressive and violently approaching the Iberian Peninsula and other regions of Europe. Thus, his aims and objectives were more apologetic and defensive. For his method, he introduced a new approach, perhaps learning from Cyril (827 -869) and Methodius (815-884), the apostles of the Slavs, who introduced the liturgies in Slavic languages. Lull, a married layman, started studying Latin, Arabic, Theology, philosophy and the elements of natural science. He desired that the Christian kings and prelates would found more and more colleges in which missionaries might study languages, beliefs and customs of the Moslems, Jews and pagans. He also conceived the idea of writing books for the conversion of non-Christians4). He is one of the 3) Mary Just, Immortal Fire: A Journey through the Centuries with the Missionary

Great (London: B. Herder Book Co., 1951), 165.4) Ibid., 182-184.


first scholars who saw the importance of natural sciences and study of languages for missionary activity and the proclamation of the Christian message. In line with Lull’s perception of missionary activity, one can assert that the Christian message and science of Missiology need to be informed by the social sciences, in particular the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, ethnology and communication theory. For Mission involves contact between the Christian faith and other faiths. Thus, Missiology relates also to the discipline of religious studies and particularly the study of non‐Christian religious traditions and their history, without losing sight of the history of the apostolic activities within the bosom of the Church from her birth to the present days. Missiology cannot ignore the historical development of the Church and that of other faith-communities. With the Second Vatican Council, the systematic thinking on Mission within the Church has been enriched by numerous theological treaties and research. Documents, such as Ad Gentes, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Redemptor Hominis, Redemptor Missio, have paved new ways for practical evangelization. In the light of these documents, Missiology has emphatically entered inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary fields of study and embraced their multidimensional nature. These documents consider in a com- prehensive manner the basic experiences of the formation of Christian communities, movements of human development, and dialogue among the world religions. They regard contacts with


non-believers and relationships with political organizations as part of the basic ecclesial experience. The very first encyclical letter of Pope Paul after the Vatican II carries the title Ecclesiam Suam. The Church is His assembly and His Mission, so every missiologist and missionary should ground their activity on the genuine ecclesial experience.

Missio Dei Before Vatican II, Theology was studied in seminaries and ecclesiastical institutions of the Catholic Church and of other churches in the missionary context as a response to the Lord’s commandment “to go out and to teach all nations.” It often served to transmit cultures of Christian nations to the newly discovered non-Christian nations. churches, along with the colonial rulers, became the major formators of culture in various geographical regions. In fact, the churches were more transferring Western culture to these newly known regions than forming the Christian culture in them. The Church, as the Body of Christ, is born in any culture through the articulation of their faith by native Christians who express and live their experience of Christ as the Lord. In the historical transference of Western culture in these new regions, however, the Church was not born in these cultures. It merely got planted there as an institution, without a clear direction focused on the pluralistic experience of indigenous believers. Unless the Church recreates her evangelical identity, she will continue to function in a pluralist society like a ship without


a rudder. An appreciation of Christianity in the spirit of being sent, i.e., through the eyes of Missio Dei or the kingdom of God in the world, can provide new theological direction for floundering Christianity5). The concept of Missio Dei, the Mission of God, is one of the key concepts in contemporary Missiology. It signifies a change of attitude from one that considers Mission as something, which the church(es) do, to one that considers it as the activity of God as he gives fruits to churches’ human endeavors. The church(es) become more and more merely agents; the real actor is God himself. Mission is visualized as something which God does. “It is not the Church that has a Mission of salvation to fulfil in the world; it is the Mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the Church (Moltmann, 1977:64). Mission is thus seen as a movement from God to the world, and the Church is viewed as an instrument for that mission (Aagaard 1974:13). There is Church because there is mission, not vice versa (Aagaard, 1974:423). To participate in Mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love towards people, since God is a fountain of sending love”6). Just as the Father sends the Son, and as Father and Son together send the Spirit, so Father, Son and Spirit send the Church into the world. The Church becomes an instrument in the service of God's sending and saving love. Visualizing Mission in this way changes the attitude completely; 5) David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission

(New York: Orbis Books, 2002), 10, 370-371.6) Ibid., 390.


Mission is not just making converts and planting churches, but rather an expression of God's love and purpose for the world. Mission is oriented towards the foundational reality of human‐fullness of the fallen humanity. It is a call for repentance, accompanied by Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom, that acknowledges the Lordship of Christ both on the individual and communitarian level and includes the eschatological dimension. It aims at the conversion of individuals in the community for the accomplishing of the final arrival of the Kingdom of God where the Lordship of Christ is established. “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,11). Missiology thus has the new challenge of investigating pneumatological aspects of evangelization. After the World War II, there followed a great change throughout the world in politics and social thinking, based primarily on religious awakening, but involved also with social and political developments in many nations and regions. The United Nations Organization (UN) was formed, and the World Council of Churches (WCC) was established in 1948.7) Following India’s independence,8) many African and Asian nations sought 7) The decision of the establishment of the World Council of Churches was taken

already in 1937 by the Ecumenical Movement, but on account of the World War II the foundation was delayed.

8) India has been one of the first nations that threw away colonial rule without any war or a violent revolution, but through Constitutional, political and non-violent means demanding a search for truth. It did so through civil disobedience under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, who took inspiration for his movement after reading the essay of Leo Tolstoy, “God’s Kingdom is within you”.


their own liberation and independence; and socio-political liberation influenced thinking about Mission and evangelization. During the following twenty years in WCC circles, "humanization" rather than "salvation" was emphasized. This emphasis carries still a strong influence today in the thinking and activity of the WCC. At the same time, however, it sprung from a reaction to the Marxist philosophy and politics that aimed at creating the paradise on earth. Documents of the Catholic Church emphasize dialogical rather than a polemical approach towards other faiths, recognizing their values and aspiration. They also take into account various mystical ways that propose to find ultimate unity and happiness in God. “All men form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth” (Acts 17,26) and because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all men (Wis 8,1; Acts 14,17; 1 Tim 2,4)”9). The Catholic Church further stress the Missio Dei by stating, “The condition of the modern world lends greater urgency to this duty of the Church; for while men of the present day are drawn ever more closely together by social, technical an cultural bonds, it still remains for them to achieve the full unity in Christ.”10) The Catholic Church has begun to see the relation between cultures and the Gospels in the new perspective of partnership and 9) Nostra Aetate, 1. All the documents of Vatican II are quoted from Walter M.

Abbott, Documents of Vatican II (New York: Herder and Herder, 1966). 10) Lumen Gentium, 1.


dialogue, but always emphasizing that it has a Mission entrusted by God. “The Church has been sent to all ages and nations and, therefore, is not tied exclusively and indissolubly to any race or nation, to any one particular way of life, or any customary practices, ancient or modern. The Church is faithful to its traditions and is at the same time conscious of its universal mission; it can, then, enter into communion with different forms of culture, thereby enriching both itself and the cultures themselves”11). The Church sees her own role as a partner with other cultures and religions. Furthermore, the Church reminds Catholic believers to approach dialogue in the spirit of friendship and service12). Dialogue leads to inner purification and conversion which, if pursued with docility to the Holy Spirit, will be spiritually fruitful13). The Church sees dialogue and contact with other faiths as enrichment for both herself and different cultures. However, she has always emphasized that it is God who brings fulfillment to all who sincerely seek Him and His commandments in their daily life. She sees this as the activity of the Holy Spirit.

Contextualisation Contextualisation refers to the process of the Christian message finding expression within a particular culture and specific historical situation and context. In some circles, the

11) Gaudium et Spes, 58.12) Ecclesiam Suam, 87-88. 13) Redemptor Missio, 4.


word ‘inculturation’ is used instead of ‘contextualization’; but these two terms are virtually interchangeable. The expression emerged in the 1970s, although there are numerous examples throughout history of contextual forms of Christianity emerging in every epoch and every culture. The word ‘inculturation’ was first used by Pedro Arrupe, the General of the Jesuits, in his interventions during Vatican II and later in his Letter on Inculturation to the whole Society of Jesus in 1978, where he explained the nature of inculturation and its universal relevance for the global world. He emphasized the need of theological and philosophical reflection in the process of inculturation and pointed out requirements in the formation of those who carry out evangelization. Arrupe asserted that inculturation continues the process of divine Incarnation. It has its roots and procedural development in the Incarnation itself. The pioneers of adaptation, inculturation and contextualisation are considered in the Catholic Church, especially in Jesuit circles, to be Thomas Stephens (1549-1619), Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Robert de Nobili (1577-1656). After having spent much time in earnest conversation with Chinese scholars and the Chinese classics, Ricci came to the conviction that in the cults of Confucius and of the ancestor rites, there was in essence nothing fundamentally opposed to Christian teachings. He tried to harmonize the ancient teaching of Confucianism with the tenets of Christian dogma14). Through his book, The 14) Just, Immortal Fire, 310‐313.


Teaching of the Lord of Heaven, he interpreted divine presence and divine activity in Chinese culture. The Teaching of the Lord of Heaven became the treatise of a contextual and incultural Theology in which the new Christology was developed in the context of Chinese Mission. Robert de Nobili began a more a practical and theological approach. For him, the main question in the Indian context was to liberate the Christian message from Indian attitudes to the caste system. Christianity at that time remained among the low caste so that the Church and Christ had become foreign and strange to the Indian people as a whole as a Western religion. To counter this perception, de Nobili proclaimed to learned Brahmins that the rule of Christ was a new Veda-wisdom for every one. He adapted Christ’s teaching for high caste Hindus so that the event of Jesus could be interpreted in Vedic idioms. His approach was later followed by Brahmobandhav Upadhyaya (1861-1907) who in agreement with the Bishop of Nagpur sought to organize clerical education on the pattern of Hindu Ashrams. His articles in Sophia were already creating an incultural Theology. He claimed, “We have repeatedly said and we make bold to say again, that the religion of Christ will never be appreciated by the Hindus, if it be not divested of its Greco-European clothing. It should be restated in the term of Vedanta, before it can be properly intelligible to the Hindu mind.”15) Naturally, this bold voice was totally ignored; and the creation of an ‘Indianized

15) Brahmobhandav Upadhyaya, “Notes," Sophia 1 (1900, 12), 6.


seminary’ was stopped by the Apostolic Delegate, Ladislao Zaleski (Delegate 1892-1916). Though unrecognized during his life time, Brahmabandhav has become a great forerunner in nineteenth century for the Theology of inculturation. He envisaged the role of non‐biblical Scriptures in the formation of the Christian Theology. Thomas Stephens’ approach (1549-1619) was more practical, pedagogical and docile towards other religions. His pedagogy was not oriented merely to the classroom; rather, he took the perspective of religion as it is taught and lived in the Indian context through the celebrations of feasts, prayers, cultic liturgies and paraliturgies. He studied the Hindu Scriptures and proclaimed the history of salvation not merely as a historical event, but as a salvific event through the epic called the Christpurana, so that Indians could celebrate the life and event of Jesus by singing and chanting in their daily life. He not only translated Christian terms, but often interpreted old Hindu terms in the light of the event of Christ. His approach was not mere a catechetical approach to the Christian doctrine; rather, he proclaimed Christ and his salvific actions according to the mystical tradition of Maharashtrian society. However, due to the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and Goa, his work and approach remained curtailed for a long time. He had to publish the Christpurana in a revised version in Roman script and not in the Devanagari that the Hindus were using for devotional and spiritual writings. Today, Thomas Stephens and his works are once more read as devotional


literature, studied as literary classics and commented on theologically in modern Maharashtra, where the mystical tradition has primacy over the dogmatic tradition among the believers of all religions. The above mentioned examples demonstrate that contextualisation must not simply be seen as a tool to make Mission more effective. Truly authentic contextualisation will occur naturally as the Gospel takes roots and bears fruits spontaneously within a particular culture. The particular challenge for evangelizers is to allow the Scripture to remain authoritative within any culture. In the past, the emphasis was on catechism, teaching Christian principles. The Bible and the translation of the Bible were almost ignored. The new realization of inculturation and contextualization has developed the new consciousness that divine activity is to be interpreted, proclaimed and brought into the recipient culture through the written word of God. Thus the translation of the Scriptures has taken an exigent and important role. It is not merely translations of the Scriptures, but also interpretations of the Scripture that are affected by cultural presuppositions. Developing good skills in hermeneutics becomes a vital instrument for Missiologists and Missiology. This consciousness has strongly grown in various churches as the Bible is being translated in different languages. Missiological science has to face and develop a hermeneutical approach which should be studied and researched in centers and teaching institutes of Missiology.


The question of the relationship between the verbal proclamation of the Gospel and its transformation was and still is in many places a particularly thorny issue for evangelizers and translators. It demands fidelity to the recipient culture and to the original languages, to their cultural expressions and much more to their content. The emergence of the Social Gospel movement, which reinterprets salvation in humanistic rather than eschatological terms, has caused tensions among evangelizers, with the result that some have retreated from their commitment. Taking a diffident attitude, some have returned from the mission‐fields to their home countries. Many Western evangelizers still feel a certain degree of tension between the need to preach ‘spiritual’ salvation and work for ‘earthly’ justice; and there is need for continued reflection on biblical and theological themes relating to these questions. This tension has been strong especially among the Protestant churches. On the other hand, in the Catholic Church it surfaces in differences between the hierarchical, dogmatic Church and the Church at grass-roots level. However, this tension has to be seen in the perspective of history. Historicity emphasizes human freedom, which leads to brings creativity. Human activity in the course of history brings about new realities. However, this freedom has to be the extension of God’s activity and also in accordance with God’s design and as a human response to it. God is active in history through human agents; thus God’s Mission needs human agency.


God’s gratuitous justification does not exclude human agency rather includes it (James 2, 1-14). The biblical theme which is of a great help here is Jesus' teaching on the kingdom. With its emphasis on Jesus' concern for the whole person, the call for radical repentance and the emphasis on both the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom, it may help to resolve the apparent dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual. “The period, therefore, between the first and second coming of the Lord is the time of missionary activity when, like the harvest, the Church will be gathered from the four winds into the Kingdom of God. For the must be preached to all peoples before the Lord comes. Missionary activity is nothing else and nothing less, than the manifestation of God’s plan, its epiphany and realization in the world and in history.”16) Such an historical perspective brings new emerging understanding of the goal of Mission in the transformation of individuals, communities and societies. This transformation has been taking place in the past, and it continues through this generation in the present, but it will be fully realised only at the Parousia. Transformation is actually achieved though openness to the Spirit of the Lord by individuals and communities. Therefore, every individual and community of believers is obliged to live the conversion of self which continues in the present, but will be accomplished only in the fullness of time as the Kingdom of God. Until the fullness of the Kingdom of God breaks into a Christian believer he cannot ignore the

16) Ad Gentes, 9.


conflict between the Standard of Christ and the Standard of Satan 17). Missionaries and evangelizers need to discern continuously the elements and signs of the Standard of Christ from those of the opponent of the human nature. It is a continuous call, which gives them knowledge of how they belong to the Kingdom of God and how it gets realized in them18).

Mission and the Western World A strange phenomenon has taken place at the end of the twentieth century. There has been growth in the non-Western Christianity, but decline of Christianity in the West, especially in Europe and some parts of the American continent. Often the causes are attributed to secularism and humanism. With their social and mystical approaches, late missionaries like Leslie Newbigin and Alexander Duff in India, Andrew Murray and David J. Bosch in Africa, Albert Schweizer and the former Swiss Ambassador to India and Athens Jacques Albert Cuttat19) have encouraged Western society and churches to accept this phenomenon as a missiological challenge. These authors and missionaries have seen it in the light of their experience and insights of other cultures from psychological, religious and

17) David J. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya Prakashan, 1978), 136-141.

18) Ibid., 149-154.19) Jacques Albert Cuttat, Encounter of Religions (Pune: Max Mueller Bhavan,

1962). His approach is of a spiritual encounter by viewing the Hindu and Christian mystics.


spiritual points of views. Their insights and reflection demonstrate that the crisis of religion and decrease in religious practices is not due to secularism and humanism, but rather to a lack of spirituality and an exaggerated emphasis on structures. Hearing their analysis one should think more radically and should search for transformation of attitudes and changes in structures. The French revolution, though based on the Christian principles (equality, freedom and brotherhood), had become anticlerical and antimonarchical. Was not this due to a lack of willingness to change structures? The common people and lower clergy could not see any hope for a change. So the movement toward change became violent and revolutionary. Equality, freedom and brotherhood, along with the rights of the minority and the dignity of human beings, are perceived as key values of modern democracies. Can one lead a war against terrorism while making a declaration of these democratic values? Today’s war against terrorism is a product of the Western spiritual dichotomy that distinguishes politics from religion, secular from religious, material from spiritual. It is a product of the spiritual bankruptcy of the West. It stems from the lack of communitarian and integrative aspects that in Western spirituality. It is sometimes thought that so called ‘religious fundamentalism’ leads to wars on terrorism; but one has to search, rather, how monopolies and hegemonies lead to such wars Even if one accepts that discriminatory circumstances are created by religious fundamentalism, can military inventions and wars bring about


solution? Isn't it rather dialogue among religions and cultures that can foster harmony and peace? Answers to such question can be sought and fostered in academic disciplines like ‘Comparative Religions’ and ‘Missiology’ by remaining in contact with social sciences. Contextualisation, hermeneutics and biblical interpretation, and practical Theology do not have to be mostly analytical, as they are in the Western world. Rather, these sciences can seek help as well from Eastern spiritual perspectives and attitudes that seek synthesis. There is much that the West can learn from the insights of cultural anthropology, communication theories and synergetic attitudes of the East. Why is the younger generation of the West running to the East for spiritual enlightenment? It is not merely out of hunger for what is exotic and alien; it is out of a deep hunger and thirst for spirituality and mysticism. It is a missionary challenge to Western Theology and Missiology to fulfil this hunger and thirst by learning from the Eastern religions and spirituality. It is a challenge to overcome structural dogmatism by means of communitarian spirituality. Such research and its applications cannot be done in institutes and centers of pure dogmatic Theology; it is most naturally done but in academic institutes of Missiology. The academic discipline of Missiology helps Theology focus on God's redemptive purposes, enables theologians to analyze cultural contexts, and guides future ministers to develop strategies for Church transformation and evangelization both on the local and


global level. Thus methods of evangelization, means of proclamation and the ways to relate to other faiths and cultures become the primary concern of Missiology. Learning and listening to Eastern cultures and religions evangelizers can foster new growth, development and integration in the Western hemisphere.

Ecumenism and Mission The Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910) has been the landmark in uniting the different churches in their orientation of missionary activity. The outcome of the conference resulted in the establishment of two organizations, The World Council of Churches and The International Missionary Council, both of which have contributed greatly to the cause of ecumenism as it is mentioned above in the introduction. They emphasized the Missionary aspects of ecumenism and developed new ventures and structures, especially in South Africa and India, where an amalgamation of churches has taken place. Most of the ‘Protestant churches’ are united either in the ‘Church of South India’ or ‘the Church of North India’. Naturally, this amalgamation has brought theological and administrative problems, but it has demonstrated how ecumenism can foster missionary activity in the democratic and multi-pluralistic society of India. The real obstacles for evangelization in India are neither from democratic structures and divisions nor from the extreme fundamentalist organizations of Hindus or Islam. They come rather from aggressive sects and groups supported with the foreign


money. Such sects are breeding fundamentalism in the spheres of Hinduism and Islam also. Ecumenism among the churches can provide a bulwark against the commercialization of religion and spirituality they involve, but it must also extend to other religions. The Greek word oikoumenikos us derived from the word oikos, which means house or habitation. Through faith, every religious believer lives in the ‘house’ of his or her religiosity and is ‘at home’ with the spirit that leads him. The ecumenical movement should make a religious believer feel at home in his own religion while providing a ‘hospice’ of dialogue in the company of other religious believers, where all can be at home. The ‘hospices’ in Europe were initially created not for the crusaders, but for the pilgrims to the holy land, but all believers are pilgrims. On the Catholic side, since the Second Vatican Council, it has been realized that at base the commitment to ecumenism is rooted in the conversion of the heart, as the Council clearly affirms: "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion. For it is from newness of attitudes of mind, from self‐denial and unstinted love, that desires of unity take their rise and develop in a mature way"20). Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized completely different and new aspect of ecumenism in Deus caritas est (1 John 4,8; 4,16). He demonstrates how in the Eucharistic Service the churches find their true communion and how the celebration of the Eucharist through sacramental re-actualization can foster ecclesial commun-

20) Unitatis Redintegratio, 7.


ion in true agape. Any division and fragmentation of the community goes against Eucharistic worship and the celebration of agape.

Here we need to consider yet another aspect: this sacramental “mysticism” is social in character, for in sacramental communion I become one with the Lord, like all the other communicants. As Saint Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10,17). Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ just for myself; I can belong to him only in union with all those who have become, or who will become, his own. Communion draws me out of myself towards him, and thus also towards unity with all Christians. We become “one body”, completely joined in a single existence. Love of God and love of neighbour are now truly united: God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God's own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us. Only by keeping in mind this Christological and sacramental basis can we correctly understand Jesus' teaching on love. The transition which he makes from the Law and the Prophets to the twofold commandment of love of God and of neighbour, and his grounding the whole life of faith on this central precept, is not simply a matter of morality ― something that could exist apart from and alongside faith in Christ and its sacramental re- actualization. Faith, worship and ethos are interwoven as a single reality which takes shape in our encounter with God's agape. Here the usual contraposition between worship and ethics simply falls


apart. “Worship” itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented21).

Fragmentation of community goes against the Eucharist. It amounts to a rejection of God’s love. Pope Benedict XVI also emphasizes that one cannot separate love for God and loving service for human beings. Thus the Eucharistic enters the daily life and activity of the Christian faithful. In line with this understanding of the Eucharist, Missiology as a university discipline should uncover dimensions of ecumenism in the history of the Missionary activity. It should do so concerning Missionary activity in different churches, in the teaching of different catechisms, in the development of catechisms and in other concrete ways of communicating faith in different parts of the world without fostering rivalries. The pastoral activity of different churches should be studied in the same light; and future teachers of faith - be they clerics, religious or lay - have to be formed with ecumenical slants that should extend to give solid unitive testimony of Jesus Christ and His love for humanity. Jesus’ love should not be limited, moreover, to Christian churches and among Christians. The academic discipline of Missiology should reach out to other religions. It should study and research the history of other religions, the development of their religious tenets and beliefs, their means of proclamation and 21) Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (Rome: Vatican Press, 2006), Nr. 14.


communication and their spirituality. This should be the work not merely of Christian theologians and researchers, but rather Missiologists and Missiological centers that maintain collaboration with scholars and theologians of the other religions. This is a totally new task for the faithful of every religion. The Church has taken the lead in interfaith dialogue, prayer meetings and assemblies, but the Mission of Christ invites all for communion. It invites church(es) to take the lead in studying and searching for the communion among believers. It constitutes a call for baptising researches and sciences for the seeking of truth and establishing the Truth that becomes Light for every nation, culture and religion because in that Light we live. Darkness, on the contrary, leads to decay and death.

The Contribution of Women The very first of apostle of the resurrected Lord was a woman, the woman who washed the feet of the Lord, offering him that service which the friendly and open‐minded Pharisee Simon had not performed for him. She is certainly the one who followed the Master carrying his cross; she is the one who stood by the cross along with Mary his Mother; she is the one who had anointed the dead body of the Lord and wanted to do more honour to His dead body. She might not have been at the Last Supper. This shows that in the Church and its missionary apostolic activity, women have still greater roles to play because of their feminine characteristic and values. There is no completion of human society


and human activity in any society without the inclusion of the valuable contributions which women are rendering. Naturally, Missiology as a science has to honour and accept collaboration in partnership with many, Marys, Salomes, Lydias and Damarises. “St. Paul was aided continually in his ministry by holy women and his epistles have immortalized the names of twenty five of those women apostles Before Constantine the great (306-367) gave freedom to the faith, half of the parish churches in Rome had been erected by wealthy Christian women; and they had afforded the persecuted faithful the refuge of no less than twenty-four catacombs.... St. Jerome (340-420) was aided in his tremendous work of translating the Bible by St. Melanie, St. Paula and St. Eustochium.”22) The Church has always honoured virgins, widows, women founders of religious congregations and women martyrs. Missiological science has so far almost neglected the services of such dedicated women, though in hagiography and spirituality one does study them. Feministic Theology may contribute more tender and loving characteristics to Theology, but Missiology should also bring to attention the heroic, faithful and merciful labour of the various missionary women. This field of research and studies requires still much to be cultivated.

The Relationship between Missiology and Theology Finally, in their themes and objectives Missiology and Theology embrace each other. Very often these two sciences cannot be 22) Just, Immortal Fire, 509-510.


separated from one another by a clear-cut dividing line. Articulating the above mentioned areas from the perspective of witness and with a view toward concrete dialogue with various sciences and peoples, Missiology expresses itself differently from Theology and also from its branches of practical Theology and pastoral Theology. Theology and Missiology are not to be considered as rivals, but as two sisters who are much alike, but totally different in their features and beauty. The beauty of one sister does not shadow the beauty of the other. Missiology and Theology are like Martha and Mary. Both sisters are friendly with Jesus; however, their friendship is expressed in totally diverse ways. Martha is occupied with many things of domestic affairs; she is an outgoing person, she runs out of house at the Jesus’ arrival to welcome him; she is bothered about the guests and anxious about serving them. Her faith is remarkable. She trusts in Jesus even at the death of her beloved brother Lazarus; she acknowledges, “but even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” She acknowledges further her belief that “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” On the contrary, Mary remains in the house. She sits at the feet of the Master; she washes and wipes his feet and anoints them with costly fragrant oil. The friendship and dedication of these two women is beyond doubt. Each has chosen the path most appropriate to her in accordance to her temperament. At Martha’s request to Jesus that Mary should be helping her in the task of


executing so many things of daily life, Jesus replies, “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Often the verse is interpreted that Jesus is emphasizing contemplative and prayer-filled life over against the active apostolic life of Martha. Mary certainly represents the community that celebrates the liturgy, prayerful worship and the sacramental life in the Church. Martha, on the other hand, is a the representative of the community that is involved with the world, reaches out to the last boundaries to announce the good News and to proclaim the mystery of the Name of Jesus Christ “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,10-11). The example of these two friends of Jesus demonstrates that doubtlessly only one thing is needed whether one is contemplative or active, whether one is celebrating the liturgy or involved in pastoral care, or performing service to the sick, the wounded and the poor. Whether engaged in Theology or Missiology, what is needed is discipleship. It is the discipleship of the Master that makes the difference. It is the discipleship that brings other disciples along with one. The Evangelist John explains the call of the first disciples, “Come and see. They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day; now it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and


followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘we have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus” (John 1,39-42). Whether it is Missiology or Theology, both these disciplines require the most essential character and the attitude of discipleship. Missiology as an academic science can teach discipleship to Christian believers and also other believers so that the union of thought and communion of living becomes the reality.


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