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FULL ISSUE (48 Pp., 2.5 MB PDF) Vol. 21, No.2 nternatlona• April 1997 etln• Culture: The Ambiguous Ally of Mission ast November, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, the World ary movement occurred in the Highlands of Scotland. And we L Council of Churches convened a Conference on World conclude with essays on two twentieth-century Roman Catholic Mission and Evangelism and addressed the topic of Gospel and missionary leaders-the latest contributions to our award­ culture. On page 52 of this issue readers will find the official winning Mission Legacy series. conference message. A key sentence highlights the ambiguity inherent in culture: "We have sought to understand better the way in which the Gospel challenges all human cultures and how culture can give us a clearer understanding of the Gospel." Obviously, understanding culture may be the key for entree to a On Page particular people. But both the culture of the recipients and the 50 The Dialogue of Gospel and Culture: Reflec­ culture of the messengers may also stand in the way of authentic tions on the Conference on World Mission and engagement with the Gospel of Jesus and his kingdom. Evangelism, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Our lead article provides seasoned reflections on the Salva­ Lesslie Newbigin dor conference by Lesslie Newbigin, INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN contributing editor. Newbigin reports that he perceived a one­ 53 Conference Message from Salvador sided emphasis on affirming culture at the WCC conference. One Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, cannotblindlyaffirmculture,for to do so couldlead,as Newbigin Salvador, Bahia, Brazil offers by way of illustration, to "legitimating the Afrikaner 55 My Pilgrimage in Mission reading of the Bible as validating apartheid.... The Bible cannot Kosuke Koyama be read simply as validating the [status quo or] as validating 60 Jonathan Edwards: Missionary Biographer, protest against the status quo. We have to listen seriously to each Theologian, Strategist, Administrator, Advo­ other, and listen to the whole of Scripture, if we are to be guided cate-and Missionary into the truth." Ronald E. Davies The role of culture and personal experience in shaping one's theology and missionary message is dramatically seen in Kosuke 67 Protestant Missions and the Evangelization of Koyama's "MyPilgrimage in Mission." As a youngboy, Koyama the Scottish Highlands, 1700-1850 glimpsed in Bunyan's Pilgrim'sProgress a key to the meaning of Donald E. Meek life; as a teenager, he survived the daily rain of American bombs 72 The Legacy of Mary Josephine Rogers on Tokyo. Later, he counted up the countries with which Japan Barbara Hendricks, M.M. had been at war-fifty-two. He concluded there is such a thing as "demon progress" that must be avoided at all costs. "Violence," 74 Noteworthy he writes, "has defined my life in this century." Clearly, the 80 The Legacy of John J. Considine, M.M. twentieth century's culture of violence has come to shape his Angelyn Dries, D.S.F. understanding of the message of the Gospel and the hope of 84 Book Reviews Christ's kingdom. Otherfeatures in this issue, while not addressing the culture 94 Dissertation Notices issue directly, are full of intriguing insights and hints. Ronald 96 Book Notes Davies reveals the missionarydimensions of the life and ministry of Jonathan Edwards. Donald Meek surprises us with the fact thatone of the earlieststirrings of the modernProtestantmission­ of issionary Research The Dialogue of Gospel and Culture: Reflections on the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Lesslie Newbigin he latest in a long series of world mission conferences overwhelmed by these voices. God forbid that the marginalized Tdating back to Edinburgh 1910 was held at the end of should be suppressed; yet in a meeting designed to further the 1996in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. I am grateful to havebeenpresent dialogue between Gospel and culture, it was almost inevitable as an invited guest. The invitation was a generous gesture on the that the claims of oppressed cultures to be recognized and not to part of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its Commis­ be overridden by the claims of the Gospel should dominate the sion on World Mission and Evangelism, especially in light of the agenda. fact that I have been critical of the stance of the WCC in matters Although the main emphasis was on culture rather than on of world mission. the Gospel, I do not think enough attention was paid to the Even for a seasoned ecumeniac, world conferences can be complex nature of culture. In any given society there are conser­ very hard to grasp in a coherent way. The 600 participants vative and radical elements-there are those who welcome represented a very wide range of ethnic, political, and theologi­ something new, and there are those who resist anything new. An cal backgrounds. In spite of the good-faith efforts of the confer­ examplewouldbe SouthIndia, where the Gospel came as a word ence organizers to include those with strong evangelical convic­ of liberation to the Dalits but as a threat to the Brahmins. tions, Pentecostal missions, which represent such a large propor­ In spite of some individual voices, and some scattered refer­ tion of the total Christian enterprise, were thinly represented. ences through the documents, Imustsay thatImissed very much The strongest voices were from those who have been grievously the sense that we do have a Gospel-that we have good news, hurt by the globalization of the free market and the power of the and that it has been entrusted to us as a precious treasure on Western and Northern nations, and who see the modern mis­ behalf of the whole world. I do not mean to say that the tone of sionary movement as deeply involved in oppression. Represen­ the conference was overwhelmingly negative. On the contrary, I tatives of aboriginal peoples were particularly vocal. Some of the was struck by the liveliness of the plenary sessions and the way participants representing the traditional sending churches of the in which members spontaneously applauded when something North and West, who had not had previous experiences ofWCC was said that touched their hearts. And all of us were greatly meetings, found this threatening. uplifted by the worship of the conference at the beginning of each day. Nevertheless, in the plenary discussions and in the findings Worship and Repentance at a Slave Wharf there was hardly any reference to evangelism as a joyful exercise to which we are all invited. Without question, the most moving moment in the whole con­ ference was the Saturday morning service at the dockside where Proselytism a Major Concern for centuries slaves exported from West Africa (at least those who had survived the passage) were unloaded and auctioned at An important factor here was the anger generated among the dockside. The service was conducted by representatives of churches, particularly the Orthodox and those in the former the descendants of those slaves, with the deepest sensitivity and Eastern bloc countries, about the aggressive and heavily fi­ a real acknowledgment of the fact that we all share in the guilt. nanced efforts of Western missionary agents in their territories. The impact of that service will, I think, make this event the The issue of proselytism was never far out of sight. I am bound longest remembered of the whole conference. to sympathize with those churches that have struggled to pre­ Throughout the Salvador conference I could not help think­ serve a Christian witness during the long years of Marxist ing of the contrastbetweenthis gathering and that of 1910.Those dominance and who now find themselves treated as though they who gathered in Edinburghwere those whowere in chargeof the were heathen people to whom the Gospel had never been world mission. Except perhaps for the five-minute speech in whichthe yOtIngVedanayagamAzariahvoiced the aspirationof Indian Christians to be friends and not just objects of missionary Even for a seasoned strategy, the voice of the 1910 conference was that of those who were in charge of operations. ecumeniac, world mission By contrast, the WCC seeks always to give a voice to the conferences are hard to voiceless-to those who have been on the margins. This makes for a very different kind of meeting, one that brings its own grasp in a coherent way. problems. Those who have been deeply hurt, who feel that their integrity and the integrity of their native cultures have been pushed aside, have here an opportunity to voice their grievance preached. Ihave sharedthesefeelings myselfwhen,as the bishop on a world stage. The danger is that the meeting can become of a South Indian diocese, I have met enthusiastic American missionaries who, not having the time to learn any Indian language thatwould enable themto reach the Hindu population, Lesslie Newbigin, a contributing editor, was a bishop in the Church of South were proposing in their own words, "to evangelize the nominal India. He wasgeneral secretary oftheInternational Missionary Council at the Christians." It is against this background that one has to under­ time of integration with the World Council of Churches in 1961. He is now stand the many negative statements in the conference findings retired in London. about aggressive and insensitive forms of preaching. 50 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH -_._~ However, I think it is also necessary to challenge the Ortho­ International Bulletin dox churches, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, which seems to be trying to preserve the old territorial principle that of Missionary Research regards the presence on Russian soil of any form of Christianity Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the other than its own as illegitimate. These issues of proselytism, Missionary Research Library.
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