The theological treatise on the mission “ad gentes”
The theological treatise on mission is called “missiology”, but from the perspective of evangelization or mission “ad gentes”. In fact, every theological treatise, being based on the mystery of Christ, makes some reference to the universal mission and redemption of Christ. And the missionary action of the Church since its inception is also a permanent reality. But the systematic study of the mission is recent (end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century).
The missiological science has evolved, sometimes even forming a diversity of schools, starting from the main objective that the announcement of salvation in Christ (calling for conversion and faith) or the establishment of the Church is preferred. Currently the accents fall either on a more Christological-ecclesial dimension (with anthropological and cultural derivations) or also on a more Trinitarian and pneumatological dimension. In fact, all these aspects appear in the New Testament contents. Missionary theology is called to harmonize them.
The study of missiology is part of the set of theological treatises, avoiding unnecessary dubbing. We will have to go and drink in the classic theological treatises (God the creator, Trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, grace, sacraments…), since the mission has a Trinitarian, Christological, pneumatological, ecclesiological, anthropological, etc. dimension. Starting from these more dogmatic principles, it is necessary to move on to the methodological field (missionary pastoral) and experiential field (missionary spirituality).
The current distribution of the missiology treatise
Today it is admitted by theologians that an autonomous treatise on missionary theology can be elaborated. This does not exempt from presenting the function (“kerygmatic”, evangelizing) in each of the fundamental treatises of theology. The proper missiology pays attention to issues that deserve to be treated more broadly and with a harmonic synthesis: the origin of the mission, the transmission by Christ to the Church, the implantation of the Church, the evangelizing action, the evangelizers (vocations, formation, spirituality), current situations (missiography), the history of evangelization, missionary law, non-Christian religions (phenomenology and philosophy of religion), the meaning of culture and diversity of cultures, those responsible and operational ways of (pastoral) mission, missionary cooperation and animation, the lifestyle or spirituality of the evangelizers, etc. Some auxiliary sciences will help frame the perspective of the mission, as is the case of the ethnological and anthropological sciences.
These missiological questions can be framed in three great theological-dogmatic levels (the nature of the mission, its biblical foundation and its dimensions), theological-pastoral (missionary action with all its historical and sociological implications) and theological-spiritual (the vocation and attitudes of the apostle). Missionary formation, also on this theological level, will be of great help in fostering personal and community missionary responsibility, as well as for the missionary animation of the ecclesial community.
References Missionary animation, evangelization, missionary formation, mission, mission “ad gentes”, theology.
Reading of documents AG 25-26; IN; RMi 83.
Bibliography AA.VV. Dizionario di Missiologia (Rome, Pont. Univ. Urbaniana, 1993); AA.VV., Mission for the third millennium, basic course on Missiology (Rome and Bogotá, PUM, 1992); AA.VV., The missiology today (Madrid and Estella, OMP and Verbo Divino, 1987); AA.VV., Following Christ in Mission. A Foundational Course in Missiology (Bombay, Paulines, 1995); DJ BOSCH, Transforming Mission. Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (New York 1993); AL CASTRO, Taste for the mission, Missiology Manual (Bogotá. CELAM, 1994); J. ESQUERDA BIFET, Theology of evangelization (BAC, Madrid, 1995); K. MÜLLER, Theology of Mission (Estella, Verbo Divino, 1988); A. SANTOS HERNANDEZ, Systematic Theology of Mission (Estella, Verbo Divino, 1991); H. RZEPKOWSKI, Dictionary of Missiology (Estella, EDV, 1997); A. SEUMOIS, Missionary Theology (Bologna, Dehoniane, 1993); A. WOLANIN, Teologia della missione (Casale Monferrato, PIEMME, 1989).
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
1. Vatican II requires missionaries to have a special formation in m. in addition to general knowledge of theology. The missionary “must know the doctrine and dispositions of the Church on missionary activity; he must know what paths the messengers of the gospel traveled in the course of the centuries; they have to know the current situation of the missions and the methods considered most effective today” (Decree on the missionary activity of the Church Ad Gentes, no. 26). With this, the council has given a description of m., which as a science appears relatively late in Catholic theology. In the Protestant camp it appears in the nineteenth century; goes through its founder Gustav Warneck (cf. Evangelische Missionslehre, Gotha 21897 to 1903). In the Catholic field Robert Streit OMI began his missiological studies in 1902; with the scientific missionary bibliography of him in the Bibliotheca Missionum (Mr-Aachen-Fr 1916ss) he belongs to the founders of the m movement. scientist in Germany. In his works the authentic initiator of the m could be supported. catholic: Joseph Schmidlin, who from 1914 had the first chair of m. Catholic at the University of Münster. He founded the Zeitschriftfür Missionswissenschaft (Mr 1911ss; from 1950 ZMR) and in 1911 the Internationale Institut für Missionswissenschaft. His main works are: Katholische Missionsgeschichte (Steyl 1925) and Katholische Missionslehre im Grundriss (Mr 1919, 21923).
Since 1932 there are institutes of m. in the Gregorian, in the SC Prop. and in many schools of religious orders. Such institutes have also existed since 1944 in Freiburg and Spain, and since 1948 in Ottawa and Nijmegen. In addition there are chairs of m. in Munich, Würzburg, Vienna, Washington, Louvain, Paris and Lyon. In the Netherlands, under the leadership of Cardinal BJ Alfrink, a commission drew up a program for the missionary configuration of theology (cf. Het Missiewerk, The Hague 1950-62). The m. he possesses extraordinary working instruments in the Bibliotheca Missionum and above all in the Bibliografia missionaria (R 1935ss; until 1961, 24 notebooks), completed by Rommerskirchen.
Vatican II sees the task of the scientific institutes of m. especially in the formation of competent people for special tasks, who help the missionaries with their technical knowledge (Ad Gentes, no. 26); and demands first of all a fraternal and magnanimous collaboration of all the scientific institutes that study the m. or useful materials for the missions (ibid., no. 34).
According to the Decree, the mission is a task of the whole Church and not a special task of the corresponding institutions, of the missionary orders and of the missionaries. Here, as in Lumen gentium, the Church is understood dynamically, as the sacrament of salvation for all men, and the task of the mission is seen beyond the particular egoism of the partial Churches. In accordance with this conception of mission as the task of the entire Church, also the m. it must be understood, not as a special science, but as a task of all theology.
2. As a science of the missionary task of the Church, m. considers the -a mission under various aspects. Given the complexity of current theological sciences, its legitimacy as a special science, which in turn is divided into various particular fields, cannot be doubted; but here, as in the other partial disciplines of theology, the vision of the whole must not be lost.
a) As mission theory the m. it elaborates the dogmatic bases for missionary action among non-Christians, that is, it clarifies the concept, the presuppositions, the causes, the ends and the subjects of the mission. The results of this work require a new foundation of the theology of mission, a new reflection on the missionary activity of the Church looking at the importance of -> non-Christian religions within the history of salvation, as well as the ecumenical movement (in -> ecumenism, A) within Christianity and the appearance of a coexistence in the ideological and religious dimension. This task, undoubtedly the most difficult, is hinted at in the first chapter of the Decree on the missions of Vatican II (nº 2-9). The theology of the missions developed there is based on the conception of the Church as the sacrament of salvation for all men. There is no longer talk of the incorporation of the pagans into the Church, but of the insertion of the Church in non-Christian peoples and groups (ibid., n° 6, 10). In the Church the universal salvific will of God must be made visible. And above all, it is necessary to explain why this visible sign, the “Church”, is also necessary for salvation in today’s world and in today’s world.
b) As history of the missions the m. it is a special part of the history of the -> Church, and as such it has the task of exposing – without apologetic tendencies – the continuity of the missionary action of the Church. In this regard, the exposition of the successes and failures, as well as the demonstration of how its means and methods depend on the external facts of the various times, can make clear the essence of the Church as a “pilgrim”. To do this, together with particular research, it would be necessary to draw fruit from the material gathered by R. Streit and his followers in order to elaborate a history of the Church presenting it as a history of the missions.
c) As science on the current state of the missionary apostolate, the m. It includes, among other things, statistics and geography. The statistics give information on the number of inhabitants and their distribution among the various religions, on the ecclesiastical groups and the number of Catholics, on the ecclesiastical institutions, on the amount of material support from the universal Church, etc. With its help, the progress or setback of missions can be determined for a certain period of time. Missionary statistics and geography show the conditions in which missionary activity takes place within the various countries. Seen in this way, statistics is an indispensable auxiliary science for the missionary activity of the Church, since the figures reflect the living spirit of the Church. The knowledge of the missionary situation is, as well as the theory and history of the missions, the necessary presupposition for that part of the m. that immediately serves the missionary activity, that is, for that science that tries to directly answer the question about the method of the mission.
d)…