HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CHRISTIAN MISSION
PART I – BOOK 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
3
THE CHURCH EMERGING IN MISSION
4
CONSTANTS IN THE CHURCH’S MISSION
7
MISSION IN THE EARLY CHURCH
8
MISSION AND THE MONASTIC MOVEMENT
11
MISSION AND THE MENDICANT MOVEMENT
14
MISSION
18
IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY
MISSION IN THE AGE OF PROGRESS
22
MISSION IN THE TW ENTIETH CENTURY
28
END NOTES
31
Since this is an overview the aim is to present the broad sweep
of events that have shaped Christian Mission. Consequently
details are not generally given and only some persons’ contributions
are noted. The development of the overview is drawn especially
from the development presented in Stephen Bevans, svd, Roger
Schroeder, svd. Constants in Context:A Theology of Mission for Today.
New York, Maryknoll: Orbis Books. 2004.
FOR FMM USE ONLY
2
1. INTRODUCTION
SENDING IN MISSION IS ROOTED IN GOD SENDING THE SON INTO THE
WORLD TO INAUGURATE THE REIGN OF GOD

Prior to considering mission with specific reference to its
historical development, it is important to recall the source of
mission is God, who sends the Son into the world to proclaim
the Reign of God. In other words mission is God’s Mission –
Missio Dei. This insight has illuminated the development of
missiology in the twentieth century – both Protestant and
Catholic.1 Our call to mission means we are participating in
God’s mission in the world through the sending of the Son and
the Spirit.2 As Bevans and Schroeder point out, the Church is
only the church insofar as it focuses on God’s reign.3

Ad Gentes stated the Church is missionary by its very nature.
(AG 9) In speaking of this text, David Bosch notes that here the
Church is not the sender, but the one sent.4 Paul VI speaks of
the witness and mission of Jesus at the very beginning of
Evangelii Nuntiandi: The witness that the Lord gives of himself
and that Saint Luke gathered together in his Gospel – ‘I must
proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God’5 – without
doubt has enormous consequences for it sums up the whole
mission of Jesus: ‘That is what I was sent to do’. These words
take on their full significance if one links them with the previous
verses, in which Christ has just applied to himself the words of
the Prophet Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord has been given to
3
me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor.’6
2. THE CHURCH EMERGING IN MISSION – THE ACTS OF THE
APOSTLES
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN APOSTOLIC TIMES, BEGINNING
WITH THOSE CHOSEN TO BE APOSTLES BY JESUS, IS THE SOURCE OF
THE CHURCH EMERGING IN MISSION, AND TODAY THE CHURCH IS
ALIVE W HEN IT IS PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL.7

4
The dynamic development in understanding mission that has
been taking place in recent years has led to recognition of
mission as the mother of theology, and mother of the Church8.
These emerging insights about Mission recognize:
o
All believers – sent in their turn - are bound together by the
great task of mission confided to them and this call to
speak the Good News of God’s love for all peoples
provides them with nourishment, focuses their energies,
heals their sinfulness and provides them with challenge
and vision.9
o
The Acts of the Apostles is the clearest New Testament
source which shows how the church comes to be as it
engages in missionary activity. Most scholars agree that
the Acts is our primary source of information about the
historical beginnings of Christian mission, as well as the
principal New Testament source for seeing the emergence
of the church’s first understanding of itself10.

A brief consideration of biblical theology offers us further insight
into the development of understanding mission:
o
o
o
Inclusivity and universality are to be found especially in the
vision of the prophets – the election of Israel was not for its
own sake but always so that, in it, all nations would receive
a blessing - Gen 12:3; Is 45:1-8; 49:1-6.11
Another source of the church’s mission is found in the
ministry and person of Jesus as he preached, served and
witnessed to the reign of God and gathered about him a
community that assisted him in his work – cf. Mk 1:4-45;
6:7-13; Lk 10:1-20… a
The mission of the church is also rooted in the postresurrection faith of the first disciples - they were called to
witness to the gospel of Jesus and the gospel about Jesus.
They held the firm conviction … of Jesus’ universal
Lordship as risen Christ, through whom humanity has
direct access to God; they believed he was the image of
the invisible God (Col 1:15) – the Word made flesh (cf
John 1:14)12:
a
Bevans and Schroeder point out that Redemptoris Missio 13 reminds
us the church is rooted in the mission and person of Jesus who is both
‘evangel’ and ‘evangelizer’. cf, Constants in Context 11
5
-
-


6
this first aspect of the apostolic faith is clearly evident in
Acts: 2:36,4:8-12, 8:5, 35; 10:34-42; 38:30; and especially
clear in Pauline literature: Gal 2:15-20; 1 Cor 1:23-24; Rom
5:15-19; 2 Cor 5:19-21; Eph 1:7-1013
the first disciples were convinced that they were called as
well to proclaim, to serve and to embody the same gospel
of forgiveness, graciousness, generosity, inclusiveness
and justice that Jesus had preached, served and
witnessed to in his own earthly ministry.14
In the Acts of the Apostles the action moves outward from
Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the
earth (see Acts 1:8). As mission takes shape, so does the
church. The Acts show us:
o
from the beginning the church is missionary by its very
nature – mission comes before the church and is
constitutive of its existence;
o
the church’s missionary nature only emerges as the
community engages with particular contexts: cf. the
example of the recognition of the Spirit among the
Samaritans, in the Ethiopian Eunuch, in Cornelius and his
household, in the community of Antioch.15
From these examples we can see that to the extent that the
Jesus community responds to the Spirit’s call to continue
Jesus’ mission in new and perhaps unthinkable ways, it
becomes the church.16

The Acts of the Apostles provides a strong biblical basis for the
dictum that the church is ‘missionary by its very nature.’ (see
Ad Gentes 2)b.17
3. CONSTANTS IN THE CHURCH’S MISSIONc
TO BE CHURCH IS TO BE IN MISSION; TO BE IN MISSION
IS TO BE RESPONSIVE TO THE DEMANDS OF THE GOSPEL
IN PARTICULAR CONTEXTS18

The existence of Christianity seems always to be linked to its
expansion beyond itself, across generational and cultural
boundaries.

The church only becomes the church as it responds to God’s
call to mission, and to be in mission means to change
continually as the gospel encounters new and diverse
b
Jesus in choosing the enter into human life, freely chose to accept the
limitations of this condition – although he was divine, he did not consider
divinity something to be held onto.(Phil 2:5). Although he freely chose to be
bound by the conditions of his time, he offered his followers a foundation on
which to build. Jesus’ ways of living and relating became the basis for the
movement and mission which began and grew after Jesus’ death and
resurrection. Cf. Bevans & Schroeder, 14.
c
Constants are those elements which are always found throughout history as
integral to understanding Christian Faith; Christology, Ecclesiology,
Eschatology, Salvation, Anthropology, Culture. (cf. use of this framework by
Bevans & Schroeder in Constants in Context.
7
contexts.19 Such change … is not arbitrary; rather there have
always existed certain constants … which provide a kind of
framework by which the church identifies itself … the message
of the gospel takes shape around these constants..20

The constants which are the framework defining Christianity in
its missionary nature are:
o the ultimate significance of the person of Jesus, called the
Christ
o the continual use of the Bible
o the sacramental significance of Baptism and Eucharist
o the awareness of continuity with Israel from which
Christianity has its beginnings…
Christians….will always see themselves as a community that is
nourished and equipped for its work in the world by both word
and sacrament. … Christianity is never without faith in and
theology of Jesus as Christ, and never without a commitment
to and understanding of the community it names church.21

4. MISSION IN THE EARLY CHURCH (100 – 301)
DURING THIS EARLY HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, THERE WAS RICH
DIVERSITY, FOR EXAMPLE, IN THEOLOGY AND CHURCH MINISTRY.
LIKEWISE, MISSION WAS CARRIED OUT IN A WIDE VARIETY OF FORMS
WITHIN THE SOCIAL-POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS AND INSTITUTIONAL
CONTEXT. IN FACT, EVERY MINISTRY WAS MISSIONARY, BECAUSE AT
THIS POINT THE ENTIRE CHURCH SAW ITSELF IN THIS WAY. MISSION
WAS NOT A PART OF THE CHURCH’S REALITY, RATHER MISSION WAS
THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE CHURCH.22
8

In the thought and practice of the early Church there was a
basic understanding of the theological and missiological
relationship of mission, church and baptism.“ 23

During this early period the church shifts from being a Jewish
sect to being a Greco-Roman religion; it also spreads to the
East.24 The development of the church in the East has been
largely neglected until recently.d

The spread of Christianity at the beginning was done in a
variety of ways: travelling evangelists, teachers… but
especially through the witness of Christians who were even
willing to die for their faith.25 The Christian faith moved beyond
the Roman borders via the trade routes and migration.26

In the West the spread of Christian faith and the growth of the
church were deeply influenced by the political situation of the
Roman Empire: the Pax Romana assured a certain peace and
provided an excellent network of roads. At the same time, in
spite of a certain religious tolerance, Christians were
persecuted and many died for their faith.27
d
See Bevans and Schroeder pp 75-80; S.H. Moffett.A History of the Church in
Asia: Volume I: Beginnings to 1500. San Francisco: Harper Collins. 1992. D.T.
Irvin, S.W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement, Vol.I: Earliest
Christianity to 1453. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001; D.J. Bosch.
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1991; J. Stamoolis. Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992.
9

The growth of cities in the West greatly influenced the where,
how and why Christianity grew. On the one hand the Jewish
communities – the Diaspora – had already been present in
many of these places.
People became interested in
monotheistic religion, but at the same time had difficulties with
circumcision. Hence, the attractiveness of Christian faith when
it appeared. Also, as some sociologists point out, the large
urban centers resulted in a certain alienation for some people,
and these sought communities which provided socialization as
well as the hope of salvation.28

The first way of mission during this period was recognizing
Baptism as a call to mission: the conduct of ordinary Christians
had the greatest significance and impact for the spread of the
gospel.29 There were also Evangelists, Bishops, Apologists ,
Teachers and Martyrs who contributed to the spread of the
Christian faith.30 The catechumenate also developed during
this period. 31 Women figured prominently in the mission of the
early church.32

10
In the text of Galatians 3:28 we can discover a key expression
of the theological self-understanding of the Christian
Missionary movement: ‘there does not exist among you Jew
or Greek, slave or free person, male or female.
The
implications of this text of Galatians continue to challenge the
church in every age and in every context.33

Reflecting upon the various attitudes of the early church
towards human culture can shed some light on our present-day
concerns about inculturation / contextualization.e
5. MISSION AND THE MONASTIC MOVEMENT (313-907)
MONASTICISM POINTS OUT THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE PROPHETIC
WITNESS
ASPECT OF THE CHRISTIAN CALL AS A PART OF THE
POSSIBILITIES OF GOD’S MISSION.34

The decline in the role of the catechumenate and the growth of
monasticism resulted in understanding mission as a particular
vocation rather than as essentially belonging to Baptism. 35

At the same time we find that the East Syrian monks insisted
on the essential interrelationship of baptism, church, and
mission as had been evident in the early church.f … It seems
See Bevans and Schroeder, pp. 98 … For example: Origen stressed
continuity between Christian faith and Greek philosophy; Tertullian
stressed discontinuity. … Irenaeus’ approach seems to fall between
these two positions as he includes both some accommodations to the
world of the ‘other’ and a lack of interest in conforming to the society
around him. Inculturation requires such a balanced ‘both/and’ approach,
discerning in each particular context both the continuity and discontinuity
e
between gospel and society.
f
The context of the East Syrian Church provides an interesting point of
reference parallel to the situation of the Christian diaspora existing today
11
that this basic mission ecclesiologyg remained prominent, in
contrast to the developments in the Latin West and Greek East.
It is possible that the minority status of the East Syrian
Christians, who had neither mass conversions nor close statechurch relations, resulted in their holding onto this basic
understanding. Also, the monastic movement was a part of
their history from about the beginning. 36

Also during this period there were moments of interreligious
dialogue – involving persons such as Alopenh, Adami and
Timothy I. j These dialogues were between Christians and
followers of Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism. Given
in many parts of the world, such as in post-Christian Europe. cf. Bevans
& Schroeder, Constants in Context, 135.
g Mission ecclesiology: a way of understanding baptism, church and
mission as essentially interrelated.
h Alopen: (7th century) Persian Nestorian Missionary in China – the first
recorded Christian missionary to enter the Chinese empire, reaching the
T’ang dynasty capital, Changan (Xian) in 635. This was the beginning
of the first opening of China to the Christian faith. Samuel H. Moffett, in
Gerald H. Anderson (editor). Bibliographic Dictionary of Christian Missions. New
York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1998 – Hereafter referred to as BDCM, 14-
15
i Adam: (8th century) East Syrian Christian, bishop, missionary and
translator, so well-known for his knowledge of Chinese language and
literature that even Buddhist missionaries came to him for help in
translating their own sacred books. S. Bevans & R. Schroeder,
Constants in Context, 105.
j Timothy I: (8th century) great Persian patriarch who combined his
Christian integrity, intelligence and diplomatic skills with missionary
vision and courage; he prayed openly that Christians would be able to
share the gospel message with Muslims… S.Bevans & R.Schroeder,
Constants in Context, 108-09
12
the time, these dialogues were quite exceptional; they also
offer a unique perspective within mission history in general.
One wonders how these persons were able to engage in such
interchange while maintaining their Christian identity and their
minority status. Looking ahead, it offers us an example of
prophetic dialogue, which will be discussed in Paths of Mission
Today, the next book in this series. 37

The emergence of Christianity in Africa during this time frame
was due especially to significant individuals and to the rise of
an indigenous African monastic movement. Eventually the
Muslim invasion had a major impact on Christianity in Africa as
it took over large sections of the continent. 38

At this same time in Europe we find the example of the
Germanic peoples who received and appropriated the Christian
message and faith.k
Andrew Walls considers this kind of
appropriation as a series of translations or retranslations of the
Christian message in a way that, rather than something new
totally replacing something old, the already existing is
transformed into something new:“39

There is much positive missionary activity during this time, but
there are very disturbing aspects also. In his efforts at
Christianization, Charlemagne used his might to control the
Saxons. Both Justinian and Augustine chose respectively to
use power and force against the pagans and the Donatists.
k
Today we call this process inculturation – cf. Bevans and Schroeder 135
13
Such moments in mission history are very wrong; unfortunately
they are repeated up to the present time.40
6. MISSION AND THE MENDICANT MOVEMENT 1000 – 1453
FOLLOW ING THE AGE OF MONASTICISM, THE MENDICANT ORDERS
REMIND US OF THE IMPORTANT LINK BETW EEN THEOLOGICAL STUDY
AND THE APOSTOLATE, BETW EEN THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION AND
MISSIONARY PRACTICE.41

In the first part of the medieval period, the Irish monks saw
wandering for the sake of Christ as the highest form of
asceticism, the East Syrian missionaries were primarily
religious and secular monks, and Liobal established female
monastic communities as part of the Anglo-Saxon missionary
outreach.

With the centers of learning shifting from the monasteries to the
universities, the Franciscans and Dominicans took up their
rightful places in the new setting ... While most of the
academic theological developments were accomplished by
members of the First Orders, one must not forget the work of
l
Lioba (710 – 780) English missionary who in connection with St. Boniface’s
intention to entrust a larger share of the missionary task to women, went to
Tauberbischofshein in south Germany. There she was Abbess of a Monastery.
She was greatly respected for her learning and her commitment to evangelism
and charity in pagan surroundings. Hans-Werner Gensichen in BDCM 403
14
such persons as Catherine of Siena,m and Raymond Lull, as
well as of John of Montecorvino and Clare of Assisi , among
the Franciscans.

The mendicant movement of the West offers us a model of
mission that placed less emphasis on a monastery and more
focus on going out to people and explicitly preaching the Word
of God. Perhaps one could describe the primary emphasis of
the monastic model as See and Believe! and the mendicant
model as Hear and Believe!42

The mendicants, especially Dominicans and Franciscans, both
remind us and challenge us with the witness and integrity of
their lives lived according to the Gospel. This was an essential
point in the mission of Francis, Dominic, and those who
followed their founding visions and examples. 43

As time passed, the monastic tradition generally lost this
explicitly mission dimension, and the cloistered life became
much stricter, particularly for women. This aspect of the
mendicant movement was lived out in a particular way by the
second orders of cloistered women. In the case of the
Franciscan family, Clare of Assisi renewed monasticism with a
strong sense of mission.44 She led the way to restore this
m
Catherine of Siena (1347 – 1380) Doctor of the Church, Dominican tertiary.
She is especially remembered for her mystical writings, The Dialogue, and for
her leadership in a mission of peace between the city of Florence and the
Avignon-based papacy – which was a success. Robert Ellsberg. All Saints: Daily
Reflections on Saints, Prophets and Witnesses for our Time. New York:
Crossroad, 1997. 188 - 190
15
sense of mission to cloistered life within the Franciscan
movement and we would add, within the church.45

Contemplation and prayer are essential components for
mission today. Just as Clare enfleshed this within her context,
the church, missionaries and Christians in general are
continually challenged to keep a balance in the doing-being
and contemplation-action aspects of life and work.”46

The practice of Francis of Assisi who lived during the time of
the crusades, offers considerable insights into how one should
engage in mission. He realized his desire to visit the Sultan of
Egypt in 1219. It was already rather extraordinary that Francis
had this desire, since preaching the Gospel to the Saracen (or
Muslims) was not something done at that time.47 He was the
first medieval founder of a religious community to direct his
energies toward people who had not heard the Gospel
message.48 Yet Francis’ spirituality allowed him not only to
approach the Sultan in a nonviolent manner – already a great
step – but even to be open enough to learn from him. The
Muslim Call to Prayer at different times during the day
impressed Francis deeply. Upon his return to Assisi, he wrote
a Letter to all the Friars and one to the Rulers of the People. In
the letters he asks that times of prayer be announced and that
the people be called to praise God. It was also after his visit
with the Sultan that Francis wrote Chapter XVI of the Rule of
1223 in which he expresses his deep respect for the Saracen
and gives directions to those Brothers who would go to be
among them. Today we are facing a terrible standoff situation
between many in the West and nations of Islam. We need to
ask what this means for mission in terms of interreligious
16
dialogue and reconciliation? Likewise, there is an evident
connection between Francis’s spirituality and his relation with
all of creation. Today we are rediscovering the importance of
the integrity of creation and ecology for mission.49

In 1245 Pope Innocent IV sent two Friars Minor to Mongolia.
Because their mission was unsuccessful, they returned five
months later to Lyons in November 1247. In 1289 Pope
Nicholas IV (Jerome of Ascoli – former general of the Friars
Minor) sent John of Montecorvinon to go to the Mongols.
Together with Friar Nicholas of Pistoia, Dominican, he worked
for about 13 months in India where Nicholas died. John then
continued on to Beijing in 1294. His ability to speak Persian,
Armenian and Mongol enabled him to communicate with a wide
range of people.50

The evangelical awakening in the medieval West represented
various creative expressions linking baptism, church and
mission. For example: ‘The Beguine movement was part of the
desire to ‘democratize’ religion. The desire to bring God to the
people, into the market place, flowed from the dawning
realization that Christianity was properly a way of life accessible
to all, not just a series of rites performed by an inner circle of
initiates. 51
n
John of Montecorvino, ofm 1247 c – 1328) Friar Minor, first Roman Catholic
missionary to reach China proper and first bishop of Khanbaliq (Beijing). He
learned the Mongolian language and translated the New Testament and
Psalms. Samuel Hugh Moffett in BDCM 334-335
17

The Catholic Church in the Second Vatican Council rediscovered
this vision of the interrelationship among baptism, church,
mission. While this shift in consciousness is still developing, it is
already possible to see the powerful effect that the renewed
vocation of all baptized Christians is having throughout the
church. The search for lay spirituality and concern for both
church and mission to be in dialogue with the modern world can
draw upon the example of community-in-mission.
This
spirituality grew out of the Beguine movement and this was a
spirituality practiced in the business of everyday life.52
7. MISSION IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 1492-1773
THE PERIOD OF MISSION HISTORY IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY
EXPOSES PAINFUL POINTS OF TENSION AND POLARITY IN MISSION:
CONQUEST, GENOCIDE AND COERCION VS. JUSTICE, SURVIVAL
AND GENTLENESS; EXPLOITATION, COMPETITION AND
FOREIGNNESS VS. RESPECT, MUTUALITY AND ACCOMMODATION53

18
During this time, missionary enthusiasm and confidence were
in evidence. Earlier mission was understood as the Father
sending the Son and the Father and Son sending the Spirit.
The newly founded Jesuits began using mission in a generic
sense of carrying out whatever task the pope requested. Soon
the meaning of mission specified the idea of being sent, but not
necessarily beyond one’s local area; mission was directed
toward non-Christians, non-Catholic and Catholic Christians as
well.54

In 1492 Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic; and seven
years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope
and reached the west coast of India. The opening up of these
new trade routes was important … for the commercial
revolution in Europe. These geographical discoveries would be
followed by many expeditions of soldiers, colonists and
missionaries, especially from Spain and Portugal, but also from
England, France, Holland and Scandinavia, to conquer these
‘new worlds’.55

Copernicus and Galileo were making challenging discoveries in
the wider universe, proposing that the earth was a part of a
solar system along with other planets revolving around the
sun.56 In many different ways Europe had a new vision of the
world, which included both new possibilities and, unfortunately,
new conquests.57

The slave trade was a horrible reality of these conquests; and it
affected Christianity on both sides of the Atlantic. Slavery did
not begin at this time, but a new type of slave trade began in
the mid fifteenth century. Spaniards and later Portuguese
enslaved sub-Saharan African people to work in their newly
founded colonies. The African slave trade, which was under
Portuguese control after 1493, soon was supplying workers to
replace the diminishing number of indigenous peoples of the
Caribbean and the Americas. Acknowledging the difficulty of
obtaining accurate estimates, it seems that over a fourhundred-year period ten to twelve million Africans were
transported to the ‘New World,’ another one or two million died
in the ‘middle passage’ across the Atlantic, and possibly twelve
million more died during the march from inland Africa before
19
even reaching the holding areas on the coast. … The
magnitude of this enslavement and forced movement of
peoples makes it one of the worst tragedies in human history.58

In the second half of the sixteenth century, the popes began to
reclaim the church’s rightful responsibility for mission,
culminating with the foundation of the Sacred Congregation for
the Propagation of the Faitho (SCPF) in 1622.59 A number of
religious orders became involved in missionary activities. It is
not possible here to give the details for all, but some examples
offer the possibility of seeing some of the insights and varieties
in congregational mission history.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries the Capuchins began their
missionary history in different parts of Africa. They were in the
presence of a wide and varied field of apostolate: there was the
problem of slaves that the pirates and the merchants of
Northern Africa were trading in the thousands; the beginning of
ecumenical dialogue with the Coptics in Egypt and Ethiopia;
and they recognized the need to evangelize other parts of
Africa. The pioneers of the Capuchin missionary presence in
Africa were Fr. Juan Zuazo de Medina del Campo and Br.
Giovanni de Troia, who arrived in Egypt in the year 1549.60

In 1503 the encomienda system was set up in parts of Latin
America. Under this system indigenous peoples became
charges of particular Spanish settlers, who had the
responsibility to take care of them. Instruction in Christian faith
was also part of the responsibility. The encomienda was
o
Since Vatican II the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
20
intended to be a form of indentured labor, but it became, still
worse, a system of slavery. Theologically it was thought that
there was no salvation outside the church. Some Europeans
therefore believed that those who did not accept the invitation
to Christian faith could be enslaved.61

There were many missionaries who supported and worked
within this system. However, there were also those who spoke
out against these abuses and injustices. They became the
institutional conscience of the Spanish crown.62 Among these
was the Dominican, Bartolomé de las Casas.p

The response of Las Casas and other missionaries to the
situation of conquest and violence points both to the necessity
of opposition to such tactics and the various forms such
opposition would take. Missionaries like Las Casas stood
outside the system to confront the systemic evils of the
conquest, the encomienda system and racism – raising a
prophetic voice for justice to both the state and church. The
Franciscans, through variations of the convent model, worked
to varying degrees within the system to promote and protect
the dignity, culture and lives of the indigenous peoples. The
Jesuit reductions fell somewhere between the two approaches.
To varying degrees, they gave witness on behalf of the human
dignity and religious freedom of all people. Today we would
“…celebrated defender of the Indians in sixteenth-century Spanish
America … after experiencing a deep conversion, he set out to champion
the cause of the New World natives. A Spanish Dominican, he is credited
with making a major contribution to the modern concept of human rights.”
Jeffrey Klaiber, sj in BDCM 385.
p
21
speak of these
evangelization.63
examples
in
terms
of
a
liberating

In Asia the Jesuits successfully separated mission from
coercion and conquest, and accommodated themselves and
the Christian message to the host society and culture.64
Matteo Ricci was one of the Jesuits in China who explored
ways of entering into the culture.65

With the hindsight of today we can see that even the greatest
of missionaries who were so prophetic in challenging
prejudices and injustices, were blinded to injustice in other
areas. Las Casas, the staunch defender of Native Americans,
supported the slavery of Africans, and Valignanoqdid not
consider other non-Western peoples as ‘advanced’ and
‘worthy’ as the Chinese and Japanese. Las Casas did
eventually acknowledge his prejudice, while Valignano didn’t
live long enough to see his judgment proven wrong. We are
reminded that we are all children of our time and approach the
constants of missionary practice within our own historical,
cultural and religious contexts.”66
8. MISSION IN THE AGE OF PROGRESS – 1792- 1914
MISSIONARIES ALTHOUGH SHAPED BY THEIR CONTEXT W ITH THEIR
BLIND SPOTS , SUPERIORITY AND COMPLEXES, THEIR GENERAL
CONCERN FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OFTEN PROVIDED A MUCHNEEDED PROPHETIC CONSCIENCE TO THE COLONIAL MOVEMENT67
Allessandro Valignano, sj (1530 – 1606) – organizer of the Jesuit
Missions in Japan and China; patron of Matteo Ricci, sj. Andrew Ross.
See BDCM, 694
q
22

Missionaries often were the ones who defended the rights of
the indigenous peoples and several others were skeptical of
the correlation of mission with nationalism. Both circumstances
at times led to tensions between the missionaries and colonial
agencies.68

Catholic mission history shows that a number of non-western
people carried on mission: the work of catechists of the Pacific
Islands; the lay foundations of the church in Korea; the role of
catechists and the development of The House of God
institutions as a continuation of the tradition of Alexandre de
Rhodesr in Vietnam; and the formation of a local Catholic
Chinese church through Chinese priests, Lazarists
(Vincentians), lay leaders and ‘Christian virgins’. The Christian
virgins were women who had taken private vows, lived in the
homes of their families, and did work in the areas of teaching,
catechesis and medical care.69

Recently some non-Western peoples, who became Christians
as a result of this missionary activity, are calling for a
reinterpretation of the 19th century mission history. Lamin
Sanneh (originally from Gambia) maintains that Christianity
from its origin identified itself with the need to translate out of
one cultural-linguistic world to another. This translatability of
r
Alexandre de Rhodes sj: 1591-1660; pioneer Jesuit missionary to Vietnam. He
advocated the formation of a Vietnamese clergy, a measure contrary to the
patronage agreement the Portuguese had established with Rome. He was
forced to leave Vietnam. In 1655 he advocated policies of inculturation. He
also devised a system for writing Vietnamese in Roman letters, which became
the official writing system for the language. Bartholomew Lahiff, sj in BDCM
566
23
the gospel into another culture and language has over and over
again shown its dynamic potential to create something new.
This ‘something new’ in turn relativizes the previous translation.
No translation should or can be absolutized.70 This dynamic is
at work both through the Protestant emphasis on translation of
the scriptures and the Catholic emphasis on cultural
assimilation and adaptation.s

To use Peter Berger’s sociology of religion language, one
should not forget that …. all peoples are active social beings
constantly involved in, not only maintaining, but also
constructing and reconstructing their world (world view).
Andrew Walls describes this dynamic in religious terms: … the
Christian message that they (the missionaries) set loose in
Africa has its own dynamic, as it comes into creative and
critical encounter with African life with its needs and hurts. …
Africans have responded to the gospel from where they were,
not from where the missionaries were; they have responded to
the Christian message as they heard it, not to the missionaries’
experience of the message.71

These missiological reflections are all founded upon the
theological basis of the missio Dei:
o God’s word has its own energy and power to spark evernew inculturations which can both enrich and challenge
other inculturations.
s
This idea is developed in Constants in Context by Bevans and
Schroeder, 237; it offers the possibility of a deeper insight and
understanding into ‘inculturation’ or the encounter of the Gospel with
culture.
24
o While missionaries need continually to critique their own
context – world-view, culture, nation and church – in the
light of the gospel, God’s mission is at work with or
without missionaries in surprising ways.
o The invitation to and participation in the missio Dei
continues the pattern described in the Acts of the
Apostles of passing over human-made distinctions of
culture, race, gender and class.72

Many new religious societies of men and women dedicated to
missionary activity were founded in the second half of the
nineteenth century. Charles Lavigeriet, associated with the
revival of the North African church where he served as
archbishop of Algiers and Carthage, was one of the better
known and most influential of the time. His development of a
communal catechetical project eventually influenced the
reinstatement of the catechumenate after the Second Vatican
Council.73 Cardinal Lavigerie became the Founder of the
Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) and Sisters of Our Lady
of Africa (White Sisters).
t
Charles Lavigerie: 1825-1892; French Cardinal founder of the Missionaries of
Africa (White Fathers) and Sisters of OL of Africa (White Sisters); … he remains
unquestionably the most influential single figure in the nineteenth-century
missionary revival of the Catholic Church. Adrian Hastings. See BDCM, 387
25

Daniel Comboni also contributed greatly to Catholic missionary
efforts in Africa.u Comboni, who was from Italy, worked in
Sudan.
Later he founded a missionary institute, which
developed into two missionary societies Comboni Fathers and
Comboni Sisters. Comboni laid a foundation for recognizing
the human dignity of indigenous peoples and their role in
evangelization.74

Mary of the Passion: (1839 – 1904) was sent to South India as
a novice of the newly founded Society of Marie Reparatrix in
1865. After a few years there, during which she pronounced
her Final Vows and served as provincial, difficulties eventually
led to the separation from the Reparatrix for Mary of the
Passion and nineteen others. In 1877, having come to Rome,
Mary of the Passion and her companions requested and
received approval of a new missionary congregation,
Missionaries of Mary. In 1885 the Institute became the
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Founded in Ootacamund,
India, the new missionary Institute grew rapidly and sent
Sisters to other countries of Asia, Europe, Africa, and America
(North and South). Universal mission was and is a defining
characteristic of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. From
u
Daniel Comboni: 1831-1881); Missionary, Bishop, Founder of the Verona
(Comboni) Fathers, and later of the Comboni Sisters. With the mission
entrusted to his Institute, Comboni traversed Sudan, challenging the
institutions of slavery and founding new stations. … his fervent spirituality and
far-sighted methodology have remained an inspiration for succeeding
generations of missionaries committed to the creation of an indigenous
apostolate. Marc R. Nikkel. BDCM 146-147
26
the beginning women were accepted into the Institute from
different parts of the world.



The Protestant missionary movement became the predominant
Christian mission outreach throughout the nineteenth century.
However, there were also signs of a vibrant renewal of the
Catholic missionary movement, which would grow throughout
the century. A great number of new orders and congregations
emerged, including many devoted implicitly or explicitly to
mission.75
The Protestant and Catholic missionary societies had a basic
difference in organization. Protestant mission societies cut
across denominational lines and often distanced themselves
from official church bodies at home.
Catholic mission
societies, founded upon a different understanding of church,
maintained a strong link with the institutional church,
particularly through the Vatican. Protestant mission societies
opened more opportunities to non-ordained and married
persons for involvement in mission. Catholic missionaries
consisted almost exclusively of priests, brothers and sisters.76
Among Protestants there was a spirit of ecumenism. In 1910 a
significant gathering of missionaries was convened in
Edinburgh, Scotland, which marked the beginning of the
modern ecumenical movement.77 The International Mission
Council (IMC) was formed in 1921. Eventually in 1961 the IMC
joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) founded in 1948
and became the Commission on World Mission and
Evangelism (CWME). After Vatican II CWME included Roman
Catholic consultants.78
27
The contribution of non-Western peoples to mission will continue
to increase…”79 “…the nineteenth century remains crucial
because of the way it shaped the twentieth.”80
9. MISSION IN THE TW ENTIETH CENTURY (1919 – 1991)
THE TW ENTIETH CENTURY HAS GIVEN BIRTH NOT ONLY TO A GLOBAL
CHRISTIANITY, BUT A GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY THAT HAS ITS CENTER IN
THE SOUTH, NOT IN THE NORTH81

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the different
gatherings in the Protestant community from 1910 onwards, as
well as many other gatherings at international and national
levels have led to profound questioning and profound
searching to understand the meaning of mission.82

New questions have been posed about relations with persons
who have not heard the Gospel, about faith traditions other
than Christian, about how the Gospel encounters a culture,
about how working for justice is absolutely connected with
proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel. The resources for
these queries are too numerous to indicate here. But the
questioning has touched into the nature and purpose of
existence of many missionary congregations and societies –
both Catholic and Protestant.83
28

Changes in the world and in the universe, concerns about
creation, rapid growth of technology and consequently of
communications, changes in the political structure of nations,
wars, and questions related to human rights, oppression,
justice and migration are just some of the causes which have
provoked a new moment in human history – the moment of
globalization.84

By the end of the twentieth century Bevans and Schroeder
were able to identify some basic models of mission that had
emerged. These are taken up in Paths in Mission Today – the
second booklet in this series..

As a background to the ferment of change experienced in the
20th century, especially in the second half of that century, there
is the amazing growth of Christianity in the 19th century. This
growth was the result of missionary efforts under many
different shapes and forms – Catholic, Protestant, and
Orthodox. This diversity in some cases has led to situations of
confusion, competition and contradiction – a situation that
points to the scandal of a divided gospel and sparks some calls
for dialogue among Christian bodies on various levels.85

This division urgently invites Christians (Protestant, Catholic,
Orthodox) into a common witness for the sake of the gospel,
for our human family and our world. At the same time, since
such diversity represents the dedication and ingenuity of faithfilled Christians to participate in the missio Dei, when we come
together from different denominations of Christian faith this
diversity offers us the richness of seeing things from different
perspectives and learning from each other.86
29

The majority of Christians now live in the southern hemisphere:
Latin America, Africa and Asia. By the year 2025, Africa and
Latin America will be vying for the title of being the most
Christian continent, and the two together will have half of the
Christians in the world.87 Emerging world Christianity, given
the various shifts that are occurring, will be traditionalist,
orthodox, and supernatural.
The rapid expansion of
Pentecostalism and African Independent Churches (AIC’s) is
the clearest and most predominant indicator of this trend.88
The remarkable growth of Christianity in Asia, especially in
China, the Chinese diaspora, Korea and Vietnam indicate how,
at this time, Christianity is increasingly identified with the poor
South rather than the rich North. Our awareness of these
developments requires us to ask how this will reshape
Christianity.89

Another worldwide phenomenon is the reemergence of Muslim
power in the political, economic and religious spheres. This
movement will most probably continue to have a – if not the –
major impact on the future of Christianity and the world through
the first part of the twenty-first century. Based on their
economic strength as oil-producing nations and their political
strength, particularly in the Middle East and western Asia, the
Muslims have reclaimed their place on the world stage.
Tragically, this has led to a series of confrontations – marked
by war and violence on all sides – between Muslims and
Muslims, Muslims and Western nations, Muslims and Jews,
and Muslims and Christians. Regarding the latter, these
conflicts are not solely religious ones; rather, they are most
often driven by a combination of ethnic, national, economic and
religious motivations – as seen for example in the brutal Sudan
30
conflict between the light-skinned, Arabic-speaking Muslims in
the north and dark-skinned Christians and traditionalists in the
south.
Political developments, with threats of war and
terrorism, have fueled a crusading mentality among many
Christian, Muslim and Jewish individuals and nations. How will
Christianity participate in the missio Dei in these contexts,
which call for peace, reconciliation and interreligious dialogue?
How will this reshape Christianity?”90
END NOTES
1
see David Bosch. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology
of Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992. 390 ff.; Stephen B.
Bevans, Roger P. Schroeder. Constants in Context: A Theology of
Mission for Today. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. 292-303
2 Constants in Context 292.
3 Ibid. 9
4 David Bosch. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of
Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991. 372
5 Luke 4:43
6 Evangelii Nuntiandi n. 6
7 Constants in Context 11
8 Ibid. 11
9 Ibid. 11
10 Ibid. 11
11 Ibid. 11
12 Ibid. 11
13 Ibid. 11
14 Ibid. 11,12
15 Ibid. 13
16 Ibid. 30
17 Ibid. 30
18 Ibid. 72
19 Ibid. 72
20 Ibid. 72
31
21
Ibid. 33
22
Ibid. 83
This interrelationship was rediscovered by the church (both Protestant
and Catholic) in the middle of the twentieth century.
These
rediscoveries, as Bevans and Schroeder point out, resulted in the shifts
concerning mission…
o The integration of the International Missionary Council and the World
Council of Churches – New Delhi 1961, symbolized this shift in the
Protestant world, and brought the missionary movement increasingly
into the churches, rather than being solely sponsored by the mission
agencies;
o For the Catholic world this shift was symbolized in the results of the
Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which:
Reclaimed a mission ecclesiology of the local church within the
Catholic Church
Stated the ‘pilgrim church’ is missionary by its very nature (AG 2)
Shifted from a hierarchal to a communion (people of God)
ecclesiology
Reintroduced central role of laity in the church
Recognized baptism, not ordination, as the primary sacrament for
being church and therefore for being in mission.
Christian liturgical practices has reinforced the foundational theology of
mission, church and baptism. Such renewal in the
Catholic Church has led to a more communal celebration of the
Eucharist and other sacraments, restoration of the catechumenate
process (RCIA), a revitalization of the importance of scriptures and a
rediscovery of the close connection between liturgy and mission. On this
latter point, much can be learned from the Orthodox tradition: ‘the
Eucharist is always the End, the sacrament of the parouisia, and yet is
always the beginning, the starting point : now the mission begins. … The
23
32
Eucharist transforming ‘the church into what it is – transforms it into
mission.´(Constants in Context p.97 -98)
24
Ibid. 74
Ibid. 74
26 Ibid. 75 - 80
27 Ibid. 80
28 Ibid. 80 - 81
29 Ibid. 86 - 88
30 Ibid. 83 -86
31 Ibid. 92-95
32 Ibid. 89 - 92
33 Ibid. 98 quoting Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza. In Memory of Her: A
Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. Crossroad:
New York, 1987. 199.
34 cf. Constants in Context Chapter 4
35 Ibid. 134
36 Ibid. 135
37 Ibid. 135
38 Ibid. 113 - 115
39 Ibid. 135-136; Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian
History (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996) 20.
40 Constants in Context 136
41 Ibid. 168
42 Ibid. 168
43 Ibid. 168
44 Ibid. 168
45 Ibid. 168-169
46 Ibid. 169-170
47 Mary Motte, fmm. “The Image of the Crucified God: A Missiological
Interpretation of Francis of Assisi” 79- 81 in Dale T. Irwin and Akintunde
E. Akinade (editors). The Agitated Mind of God: Essays in Honor of
Kosuke Koyama. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.1996
48 Ibid. 79-81
49 Ibid. 170
25
33
50
Arnulf Camps, ofm, Pat McCloskey, ofm. The Friars Minor in China:
1294-1955. Rome: General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization –
OFM, 1995. 2-3
51 Constants in Context, 170
52 Ibid. 170
53 Ibid. 203
54 Ibid. 173-174
55 Ibid. 172 ff.
56 Ibid. 172
57 Ibid. 172
58 Ibid. 172-173
59 Ibid. 191-192
60 The Capuchins in Africa: Proceedings of the Pan African Capuchin
Conferences’ Meeting, Curia Generale OFMCap: Rome, 1993. 28
61 Constants in Context 175-177
62 Ibid. 175
63 Ibid. 203-204
64 Ibid. 204
65 Ibid. 187
66 Ibid. 203-205
67 Ibid. 236
68 Ibid. 236
69 Ibid. 226-227
70 Constants in Context 236-237
71 Ibid. 238
72 Ibid. 238
73 Ibid. 224-225
74 Ibid. 225
75 cf. Ibid. 222
76 Constants in Context 226
77 Mary Motte, fmm. “World Mission Conferences in the Twentieth
Century” 20-21. in Mission at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Ed. Paul
Varo Martinson. Minneapolis, MN: Kirk House Publishers, 1999. 19 - 31
78 Ibid.19-31.
79 Ibid. 238
80 Ibid. 238
81 Ibid. 279
34
82
cf. Constants in Context Chapter8
cf. Constants in Context Chapter 8
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid. 279
86 Ibid. 279
87 Ibid. 279
88 Ibid. 279 - 280
89 Ibid. 280
90 Ibid. 280
 “…this particular moment in the history of Christianity … offers us some
key points as we approach the issue and reality of inculturation today:
o complexity, ambiguity and messiness in the lengthy process;
o inevitability and necessity of continuity with the past;
o difficulties and limitations of using categories such as religion and
culture/society;
o acknowledgment of factors operating simultaneously on various
‘levels’ and in different ‘areas’;
o recognition of the roles of the outsider (missionary) and insider (local
people);
 the importance and challenge of continually discerning new
appropriations of the Christian faith, while letting go of attitudes of
superiority from old appropriations.
 The delicate interplay of these questions provides important parameters
for understanding inculturation as prophetic dialogue.
Furthermore,
missionaries and local communities in diverse contexts may be
contemporaries, but they shape this process very differently – such as,
Alopen and Adam and the Chinese, Cyril and Methodius90 and the
Moravians, Augustine90 and Boniface and the Germanic peoples, as well
as the Christians in Ethiopia, Ireland and India.”
83
35
36