Vol. 16, No.2 nternatlona• April 1992 etln• Syncretistn: Good? Bad? Inevitable?

n the ancient world, few peoples were considered as There is always a concern that interreligious dialogue may I mutually hostile and incompatible as the tribes of Crete. lead to syncretism and hinder the proclamation of the Gospel in Or as brutish and unreliable (cf. Titus 1:12). Yet on at least one mission. In response to this concern, the recent Vatican document occasion the Cretans cast their lot together to unite against a on "Dialogue and Proclamation," excerpted here, gives help­ common enemy. Plutarch searched for a word to describe this ful guidance on the relationship between these two "authentic unlikely fusion and came up with "syncretism." forms of the one evangelizing mission of the church." The state­ In this issue Peter Schineller, superior of the Jesuit Nigeria­ ment affirms that, "while not on the same level," both activ­ Ghana Mission, reviews the history and use of "syncretism" ities are "legitimate and necessary ... intimately related, but to describe the phenomena associated with Christian mission. not interchangeable." Many hear only negative connotations when "syncretism" is Syncretism: by whatever name, we still must be on guard! used in this context. Others maintain that syncretism is not only inevitable but that the results are often positive and desirable. Certainly, a mixing and fusion of cultural elements inevitably takes place as the people of our globe interact. The result-if not On Page "syncretism"-may be called inculturation, accommodation, 50 Inculturation and Syncretism: adaptation, indigenization, or contextualization. What Is the Real Issue? For himself, Schineller would prefer to drop "syncretism" Peter Schineller, S./. from the missiological vocabularly because it invites fruitless ar­ gument and deflects from the real issue: how to decide what qual­ 54 After the Glasnost Revolution: ifies as authentic, valid inculturation. Soviet Evangelicals and Western Missions .As it happens, other features in this issue also bear on the Walter Sawatsky topic. Adrian Hastings, in "My Pilgrimage in Mission," recalls 60 My Pilgrimage in Mission a point in his years of service in East Africa when the strictures Adrian Hastings imposed by the expatriate hierarchy prompted him to say, in 1966, 66 Olyphant and Opium: A Canton Merchant "[We should] limit the intake of missionaries, relax canon law, Who II} ust Said 'No' " and then wait and see!" That is, rather than continuing to resist Robert Charles indigenous adaptations out of fear of syncretism, let the national 69 The Legacy of A. B. Simpson church chart its own path. Gerald E. McGaw Lesslie Newbigin's essay on the mission legacy of W. A. Visser 't Hooft gives prominence to Visser 't Hooft's concern 78 The Legacy of W. A. Visser 't Hooft about syncretism, most forcefully expressed in No OtherName-a Lesslie Newbigin concern, of course, very much taken up these days by Newbigin 80 Noteworthy himself. 82 Dialogue and Proclamation (Excerpts) Although syncretism is not overtly the focus of Walter Sa­ Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples watsky's assessment of Western mission in the republics of the and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue former Soviet Union, he nevertheless deals with the issue in con­ nection with the current danger of "Americanizing" Russian 88 Book Reviews evangelicalism, in careless disregard of Russian history and cul­ 94 Dissertation Notices ture. 96 Book Notes of •sSlonary • search Inculturation and Syncretism: What Is the Real Issue?

Peter Schineller, 5.J.

n the process of Christian mission and inculturation of that describes syncretism as an "uncritical affirmative ap­ I the Gospel, is syncretism always wrong? Are syncretism proach" to the evaluation of Eastern religions and cultures, and and inculturation incompatible? Is syncretism inevitable? Is syn­ "the unjustifiable fusion of irreconcilable tenets and prac­ cretism a necessary step in the process of inculturation? Is there tices."? any clear, agreed upon definition of syncretism? These are some A theologian from India speaks of the "fusion of incom­ of the questions raised when syncretism and inculturation come patible elements" and the "mingling [of] authentic notions face to face. and realities of the revealed faith with realities of other spiritual The word. "syncretism" has contrasting meanings and worlds.r" The concern is that one may borrow elements of another connotations, many of them pejorative. A number of theologians, religion without critically passing them through the screen of however, view syncretism more positively, often approaching it Christianity, with Christianity being watered down or destroyed from an anthropological rather than a theological perspective. For in the process. As another author puts it, "Ultimately, syn­ them it is a necessary stage in the process of inculturation. cretism is but another form of Christ-rejection.':" In light of this ambiguity, my view is that the word "syn­ We might note that Vatican II, in its Decree on the Missionary cretism" cannot be redeemed. After briefly reviewing current Activity of the Churches, in section 22 on the need for a more thinking about syncretism and citing a number of historical ex­ profound adaptation of the faith, warns against syncretism: amples of syncretism, I will focus in this essay on what I believe "Every appearance of syncretism and false particularism will is the crucial issue-namely, the criteria by which to distinguish be avoided." The concern of the Council Fathers is that true adequate and valid inculturation from inadequate and invalid Christianity will not be nourished by such syncretism but rather attempts at inculturation. diluted or destroyed. Some authors seem to wish to save the word "syncretism" The Many Meanings of Syncretism by rescuing it from inadequacies. Thus Aylward Shorter warns that many religious movements in Africa are "crudely syn­ Both in the history of its usage and in contemporary usage, cretistic.?" by which he suggests that some movements may not "syncretism" has had varied meanings. Originally it was ap­ be crudely syncretistic. Lamin Sanneh speaks against an "un­ plied to political alliances in ancient Greece. Some Old Testament critical syncretism.r" which again implies that there can be a crit­ ical syncretism. Pinto writes that "not all types of syncretism are negative and to be shunned.:" Louis J. Luzbetak asks, "Must syncretistic assimilations always be judged pejoratively'"" Boff tries to establish I similarly hold that particular cases of syncretism, or the criteria for an authentic inculturation of the Gospel, must be examined to judge whether the inculturation is adequate and authentic. In this sense syncre­ syncretism. tism refers to the necessary, ongoing process of the development of Christian life, practice, and doctrine. Michael Kirwen writes: "The term syncretism is used in scholars use it to describe the process by which ancient Israel the sense of a developmental process of historical growth in re­ assimilated elements from surrounding cultures. In the age of the ligion by accretion and coalescence of originally conflicting forms Reformation it pointed to the links between Christianity and hu­ of beliefs and practices through processes of interaction, suppres­ manism; and also to the need for Protestant and Catholic churches sion, and development.i'" We only understand and assimilate the to come together. Today it retains many of these meanings, with new in terms of the old. For Kirwen, therefore, syncretism does both positive and negative connotations. As used by anthropol­ not involve religious compromise or inconsistent eclecticism. ogists and historians of religion, it is generally used positively. Eugene Hillman believes that syncretism is more often than As used by theologians and church leaders, it may be used either not both desirable and necessary "for the progressive univ­ positively or negatively. Whether one takes a positive or negative ersalization and tangible catholicization of Christianity."10 Sanneh view will depend on how one defines syncretism and usually will writes that "the charge of syncretism, so often invoked against reflect a conservative or liberal stance. the increasing importance of African leadership in the church, Harvie M. Conn quotes the African theologian Byang Kato loses its force."!' He sees Christianity as one of the most syncre­ as saying that syncretism occurs "when critical and basic ele­ tistic of religions, basing this upon his understanding of the doc­ ments of the Gospel are lost in the process of contextualization trine of incarnation. Pinto writes that "at times syncretism may and are replaced by religious elements from the receiving cul­ be even indispensable in the process of casting off the old man ture."l Similarly, Conn refers to an Asian evangelical declaration and putting on the new.,,12 Most positive of all is Leonardo Boff, in his Church: Charism, and Power. In chapter 7, entitled "In Favor of Syncretism: The Peter Schineller, S.J., is Superior oftheNigeria-Ghana Jesuit Mission. Hereceived Catholicity of Catholicism," syncretism is seen as something pos­ his doctorate from the University of Chicago, has taught at Weston School of itive and a normal process. Syncretism reflects the church at its Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Jesuit School of Theology in best, searching openly and courageously for true catholicity. Boff Chicago, and was lecturer and dean at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, in admits that there is true and false syncretism and thus tries to Nigeria. In 1990 Paulist Press published his Handbook on Inculturation. establish criteria for authentic syncretism that will lead to the

50 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH International Bulletin growth and emergence of the true catholicity of the church. 13 of Missionary Research Examples of Syncretism Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary A number of historical cases of syncretism can be recalled, illus­ Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH trating both the negative and positive role of syncretism. Whether 1981. one calls the specific example syncretistic or not will depend upon Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by the the definition or connotation one gives to the word. 1. The Jerusalem Council. As recorded in Acts IS, the early Overseas Ministries Study Center church decided to allow Gentile converts to enter the Christian 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. community without being circumcised and following all the Jew­ Telephone: (203) 624-6672 ish dietary laws. It is clear that to some believing Jews, this was Fax: (203) 865-2857 seen negatively as a loss of the Jewish roots of Christianity. Gen­ Editor: Associate Editor: Assistant Editor: tiles, however, saw it as a valid development of doctrine. Karl Gerald H. Anderson James M. Phillips Robert T. Coote Rahner cites the Jerusalem Council as one of three key moments Contributing Editors in the history of Christianity. He believes that the breakthrough Lamin Sanneh achieved at that council is parallel to the breakthrough of Vatican Catalino G. Arevalo, S.J. 14 David B. Barrett Wilbert R. Shenk 11. Samuel Escobar Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P. 2. The feast of Christmas. Christians decided to celebrate the Barbara Hendricks, M.M. Charles R. Taber birth of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, at the time of the. Norman A. Homer Ruth A. Tucker pagan winter feast of light, a feast of the sun. Their goal was to Mary Motte, F.M.M. Desmond Tutu suppress or overwhelm that pagan feast by the good news of Lesslie Newbigin Anastasios Yannoulatos Jesus Christ. Many felt this was syncretism, an ill-advised accom­ C. Rene Padilla Andrew F. Walls modation to pagan ideas. (Some Nigerian Christians still feel this Dana L. Robert way.) But this adaptation of a pagan festival has prevailed; we Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should now celebrate December 25 as the birth of Christ and not as a be addressed to the editors. Manuscripts unaccompanied by a self-ad­ pagan feast of winter light. dressed, stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be 3. St. Thomas AquinasandAristotelian philosophy. 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In the struggle against mod­ . Jersey 07834, U.S.A. ernism, Pius IX and Pius X strongly opposed modernistic ideas. They feared the mingling of modern historical, scientific, and Advertising: philosophical perspectives would overpower the Gospel. In con­ Ruth E. Taylor trast, at Vatican II the bishops speak more positively, suggesting 11 Graffam Road, South Portland, Maine 04106, U.S.A. Telephone: (207) 799-4387 that the church can learn from modern cultures and science. This is a major shift, allowing for a critical relationship to the modern Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in: world rather than demanding an outright rejection. More recently, Lesslie Newbigin speaks of the neopaganism Bibliografia Missionaria of the West. He feels, with many others, that Western Christianity Christian Periodical Index has been overpowered by the values of the modern world. 15 Mod­ Guide to People in Periodical Literature ern culture is resistant to the gospel message. Christians too easily Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature identify with contemporary Western culture and lose the ability Missionalia to be critical in light of the Gospel. We are guided less and less Religion and Theological Abstracts by Christian principles, more and more by secular, even pagan, Religion Index One: Periodicals values. He remarks that a new, negative syncretism between Opinions expressed in the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN are those of the Christianity and modern culture has been forged and that the authors and not necessarily of the Overseas Ministries Study Center. future of Christianity is at stake. 5. Latin American religion and cults. Many of the traditional Copyright © 1992 by Overseas Ministries Study Center. All rights figures of popular religious cults in Latin America-as for instance reserved. in Brazil, where religious movements often have African roots­ are viewed as coequal with the Christian communion of saints. 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~1 6. Old Testament use of neighboring mythologies. Ancient Israel fully in discussing inculturation. Even though I incline toward took over from Persian, Babylonian, Phoenician, and Egyptian those scholars who see syncretism as a positive, necessary, and sources some of their stories and myths, adopting and incorpo­ helpful word to describe development of a tradition in new cul­ rating them into the Hebrew traditon and Scriptures. Examples tures, I do not feel the term can be saved. One's energies are too might be the stories of creation, the flood, the covenant, and the easily consumed in quarrels about the meaning of words. The celebration of various harvest feasts. all-important issue that the question of syncretism raises can thus 7. Independent churches in Africa. Often in their ritual, song, become sidetracked, namely, the issue of the criteria for distin­ and dance, African independent churches incorporate many ele­ guishing adequate versus inadequate inculturation. ments of traditional religion and culture, placing these side by side or even above elements from the Christian tradition. Many Criteria for Inculturation of these churches feature healing at the center of their worship. A glance at the Gospels reminds us that healing was often at the Before discussing the criteria of valid inculturation, we must note center of the ministry of Jesus. This healing ministry has been that inculturation is a given, not an option; it is an imperative for lost in many Western, modern expressions of Christianity. all churches and church leaders. The strong statements of Paul 8. TheZairian rite. In Zaire a modified form for celebrating the VI and John Paul II in Africa-"You may, you must have an Eucharistic liturgy has been approved by Rome for limited use. African Christianity"-make clear that each church is under ob­ It incorporates elements of Zairian culture-processions, dances, ligation to inculturate gospel values in its particular situation. The musical instruments, forms of prayer, invocation of ancestors, 1991 encyclical of John Paul II entitled "Mission of the Re­ vestments. deemer," sections 52-55, explores the necessity and meaning of 9. Changes in official church teaching. In significant cases, official inculturation in the ongoing mission of the church. church teaching has been changed or reversed. There was a time How, then, can one judge whether a particular development when the burning of heretics and the use of torture were allowed. is trulyChristian?Also, who-which indi vidual or body-willmake this judgment? These are not easy questions. There will be dis­ agreement and, in many cases, winners and losers; it will take time and effort to move to viable solutions. There will always be The basic schema for evaluation, in my view, is to be formed in the employment of the pastoral or hermeneutical circle, which disagreements as to consists of three poles-namely, the Christian message, the cul­ whether a particular tural situation, and the pastoral agent or agents." An incultur­ practice is inculturation or ation will be successful and Christian if it is faithful to the Christian message and tradition, if it is faithful to the positive, valid insights syncretism. of a particular culture or tradition, and if it can be lived out by the pastoral agent or agents and their communities of faith. 1. Faithfulness to the Christian message. Above all, each new Slavery was seen as legitimate for 1,400 years. Only with Vatican inculturation of the Gospel must be in accord with the Scriptures II was the church's view on religious liberty positively formulated. and not contradictory. It need not be found in so many words in What once was considered right is now seen as wrong, or vice Scripture, but it must be faithful to the spirit of Scripture. The versa. 16 Scriptures must not only be maintained as the basic source but These examples of inculturation are judged successful or not must also be carried forth, creatively proclaimed in new circum­ from the viewpoint of the central Christian tradition. Admitting stances and situations. We must remember too that the Scriptures that each of these cases must be studied in more detail, a few themselves are pluralistic, written over a long period of time, in general observations can be made. different places, and include within themselves religious devel­ First, there will always be disagreements among church lead­ opments. ers and theologians as to whether or not a particular action rep­ But the Christian message involves not only Scripture but resents a development of legitimate inculturation or is syncretism the history and tradition of the church, in which the councils and in the pejorative sense. creeds hold a special place. Attention also should be given to the Second, it takes time to evaluate inculturation. For example, writings of theologians and to the lives and examples of the saints. some teachings of Thomas Aquinas, once judged as heretical, This history is complex and diverse, comprised of many different were later vindicated. Slavery, once allowed, is now seen as con­ schools of theology, many different spiritual traditions, and even trary to the Gospel. What first appears to be syncretistic may later different canon laws for East and West. be judged to be orthodox. In regard to both Scripture and tradition there is the difficult Third, those in positions of power and authority will naturally question of distinguishing what is essential from what is acci­ be critical of any movement that threatens to weaken their power. dental. On one hand, Jesus Christ as risen Lord is essential for They may resist important changes by labeling them heretical or the universal church. On the other hand, women covering their syncretistic. heads in church may be seen in the United States as accidental, Fourth, some degree of openness or tolerance is needed in while in Africa it still may be viewed as essential. In making these responding to new views. The principle of Gamaliel, as reported distinctions, not only bishops but also scholars and theological in the Acts of the Apostles, is apropos: If it is from God, no one experts must be involved. can stop it; if not, it will die on its own. 2. Insertion into the cultural situation. Grace does not destroy One further conclusion is that the application of the term but builds on nature and culture. The Christian Gospel should "syncretism" to some or all of these examples is not very not destroy what is good in particular cultures but rather should helpful. In my view, the word is too ambiguous, open, and sub­ save and preserve it. Care must be taken in examining and eval­ jective and has too many different connotations to be used fruit­ uating aspects of culture, with the help of anthropologists and

52 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH social scientists, so that only what is good is kept. For example, dom and reign; the church is to be a witness and in service to the destruction of twins by exposure can never be a Christian that kingdom. Otherwise it becomes too narrowly focused and option. Yet traditional dance as a way to praise and worship God unable to expand with the freedom of the children of God, led may well be. The theological base for taking seriously the culture by the Spirit that blows where it wills.

is that the IIseeds of the Word" are found in all cultures, 4. Patience. Change comes slowly and can be painful. When according to Vatican II. If we do not discover them, then we are one is close to it, it is difficult to see where it is heading and overlooking the creative presence, challenge, and richness of the whether it is faithful to the Gospel. It may take years for the mystery of God's presence throughout human history and cul­ genius and creativity of a Thomas Aquinas to be recognized. John ture. Paul II speaks of inculturation as "a slow journey," and "a 3. Engagement by pastoral agents. Inculturation is basically to difficult process," "for it must in no way com~romise the be done by the people, but they need guidance and leadership. distinctiveness and integrity of the Christian faith." 8 Ultimately this comes from the authorities of the church, and it 5. A sense of God at work in the world. While the Bible is all­ comes more immediately from local leaders and from theological important, it functions not as an end in itself but to help us see scholars. They have the task of moving the church and the Gospel God at work in human lives today. The Bible functions as eye- into new, uncharted areas, with trust in the guidance of the Spirit. They will be making decisions as how best to live the Gospel in a particular situation. This is shared with the larger church through its official leaders, who should be respectful of the process but Each church is obliged to also critical when necessary. There will be tensions and dis­ agreements, and there may be no simple solution to many issues. inculturate gospel values But if there is dialogue, communication, and sharing of faith, in its particular cultural there is hope that the Spirit will be the guiding force in the process and not the whims of one particular group or leader. situation. Attitudes Needed for Successful Inculturation glasses, not to be looked at but to be looked through, to see the 1. Acceptance of risk. This is clear in the Jerusalem Council and reality and love of God in the world today. Tradition too is a in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. No risk, no gain. Courage resource and not an end in itself. is needed, based upon the conviction of the active presence and 6. A sense of the people of God. The sensus fidelium is a key guidance of the Spirit of God in human history and in the Chris­ criterion for Christian doctrine. Can it be lived? Does this partic­ tian community as well as in its leaders and theologians. ular teaching increase the quality of the faith life of the Christian 2. An attitude of freedom. There is no creativity without free­ community? As one author writes, "The authenticity of in­ dom. Surely freedom has its limits, but there must be not only culturation has to be sought in the concrete living out of the toleration of diversity and growth but also positive encourage­ Gospel by a community of people in a determined cultural con­ ment on the part of church leaders. The words of the ancient text.,,19 hymn to the Holy Spirit come to mind, fLecte quod est rigidum. 7. Listening. I see this as the final word. We must bring to What is rigid is often dead; what is flexible is ready to move and the process of inculturation a critical openness, an attitude of . to grow. The lives of people in the present, in new circumstances, learning and listening to the Christian message in all its richness rather than nostalgia for the past are most important. and to the various human cultures in all their diversity. This 3. A sense of the reign of God. A theology of development will listening attitude opens us to the Spirit of God, to the spirit of be an ecclesial theology, seeing the importance of the church. But truth present in all cultures, in new and exciting ways. True it must see beyond the church to the larger realm of God's king- catholicity remains ahead of us, a pilgrim goal still to be achieved."

Notes

1. Harvie M. Conn, Eternal Word and Changing Worlds (Grand Rapids, 11. Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), p. 176. 1983), p. 245. 2. Ibid., p. 177. 12. Pinto, Inculturation, p. 22. 3. Joseph Prasad Pinto, Inculturation Through Basic Communities (Banga­ 13. Leonardo Boff, Church: Charism and Power (New York: Crossroads, lore, India: Asian Trading Corporation, 1985), p. 22. 1986). 4. David J. Hesselgrave, Communicating Christ Cross-culturally (Grand 14. Karl Rahner, "Basic Theological Interpretation of the Second Vat­ Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978), p. 113. ican Council," in Theological Investigations, vol. 20 (New York: Cross­ 5. Aylward Shorter, African Christian Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis road, 1981), pp. 77-89. Books, 1988), p. 13. 15. Lesslie Newbigin, "Can the West Be Converted?" International Bul­ 6. Lamin Sanneh, Translating theMessage (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, letin of Missionary Research 11, no. 1 (1987): 2-7. 1989), p. 43. 16. Walter Principe, "When 'Authentic' Teachings Change," The 7. Pinto, Inculturation, p. 22. Ecumenist, July-August 1987, pp. 70-73. 8. Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis 17. Peter Schineller, A Handbook on Inculturation (New York: Paulist Press, Books, 1988), p. 60. 1990), pp. 61-73. 9. Michael C. Kirwen, "How African Traditional Religions Assimilate 18. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, December 1990, sec. 52. Christianity," unpublished manuscript, 1988; p. 3. 19. Felix Wilfred, "Inculturation as a Hermeneutical Question," Vi­ 10. Eugene Hillman, Many Paths (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), dyajyoti, September 1988, p. 434. p.60. 20. Peter Schineller, "Inculturation as the Pilgrimage to Catholicity," Concilium 204 (1989): 98-106.

APRIL 1992 53 After the Glasnost Revolution: Soviet Evangelicals and Western Missions

Walter Sawatsky

y 1975 Soviet Christians realized that the state effort to Christian aid and missionary efforts rose to avalanche pro­ B eradicate religion would not succeed.' Encouraged by portions in 1990. Soon Western mission agencies were seeking the revised legislation on religion of that year, evangelical and office space and working out joint ventures with Soviet evan­ Orthodox leaders shed their survival mentality and began to squeeze gelicals, often mixing evangelism with such enterprises as fur­ concessions from the state. They experienced growing pressure niture factories, printing plants, and agricultural projects. In the from the grass roots to obtain more Bibles, then other religious space of about a year, church offices in Moscow and other centers literature, then extended Bible correspondence courses and the that had functioned with a few typewriters and telephones, and addition of music students, and also for increased circulation of perhaps a lone photocopy machine, suddenly were equipped their denominational periodical. Soon delegates to the All Union with computers and fax machines (although not yet with filing Council of Evangelical Christian-Baptists (AUCECB) national cabinets). congress were even clamoring for special attention to youth. These The inundation of Western mission representatives was such initiatives began before glasnost became official policy, and well that local pastors sometimes failed to preach to their own con­ in advance of 1988, the year Soviet Christianity first experienced gregations for months on end, due to the custom of deferring to the impact of perestroika. visiting preachers. In fact, church leaders met so many guests Exceptions to this trend of concessions from the state oc­ offering new partnership projects that they rarely found time to curred among dissident groups, including the "unregistered" follow through on anything agreed upon with previous visitors. Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Baptists (CCECB), New relationships are developing, often with individuals and groups from the West who spent the previous decades supporting the cold war by looking for mission opportunities in other places. Younger leaders, many without much knowledge of their church's Soviet Christians began to recent history, have taken financial retainers from Western agen­ feel the relaxation of the cies in order to pursue projects that they-or successful-looking Westerners-deem important. This leads to disarray-in the Chris­ state's efforts to eradicate tian community, including disturbed relationships with Western religion a decade before parachurch agencies and denominational bodies that had long maintained ties to Soviet churches. There is an emerging sense perestroika. of denominational competition, and new Protestant denomina­ tions are being formed. Under these circumstances, it should not be surprising if which felt intensified pressure by the Soviet security forces. In complaints are heard that the older generation is passive. As fact, the CCECB's list of imprisoned leaders began to grow again 2 younger leaders take the churches in new directions, the older after 1979. generation cannot help wondering if time has passed it by. But once the authorities agreed to permit the 1988 millennia1 celebration of Russian-Ukrainian Christianity, the limits to reli­ Ministry' Priorities Before Perestroika gious expansion seemed to disappear altogether. The restrictive law of cults, in effect until September 30, 1990, virtually had Bybeginning these reflections with 1975 rather than 1985, the year ceased to function by the end of 1988. Enterprising evangelicals, Gorbachev announced perestroika, I emphasize that the estab­ both locally and centrally, asked officials for ever more conces­ lished leaders in the evangelical community were learning to con­ sions, and no one ordered it to stop. Sometime in late 1989 it sult, set priorities, and take new initiatives more than a decade became possible to import large shipments of religious literature before Western mission entrepreneurs began to flood in. The po­ without bothering with permits. Indeed, so much relief aid was litical transformations of 1989-91 did not suddenly give a captive entering the country, initially for Armenian earthquake victims, church its freedom. Those freedoms were being claimed gradu­ but also for hospitals generally, that if something was declared ally, if at an uneven pace, all across Eastern Europe. Furthermore, to be for charity (miloserdie became the magic word), it was waved the priorities and progress of evangelicals in that period before through customs." perestroika serve as a guide for assessing the current proliferation of activity. We must ask which Western-initiated projects rep­ resent a response to a definite need and a broadly supported vision, and which are merely standard tools of the trade for West­ Walter Sawatsky, M.A. and Ph.D. in modern Russian history, University of ern missions. It can be observed, for example, that even though Minnesota, hasworked as a research scholar on religion in the SovietUnion since Soviet evangelicals have a long tradition of ministry through trav­ 1973, sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). He hasalso been Europe program administrator and since 1979 hascoordinated the preparation of eling evangelists, there is a keen awareness that the one thing a Russian language translation of a thirty-one volumecommentary on the Bible, they really do not need now is evangelists from the West who scheduled for completion in 1992. He is currentlyAssociate Professor of Church neither speak the languages nor understand the cultures of the Historyand chair of thedepartment at Associated MennoniteBiblical Seminaries, former Soviet Union. Elkhart, Indiana, and part-time East/West consultant for MCC. The list of priorities for Soviet evangelicals between 1975 and

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The E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism 1985 was a simple one. The first order of business was to get conversion of Constantine in 312). Will Soviet evangelicals con­ more Bibles. Since by 1975 most preachers had at least a New tinue to think in terms of the separation of church and state? Will Testament, the main interest was to supply each believing house­ this be separation as understood by sixteenth-century Anabap­ hold, then each believer (often at the time of baptism) with a tists, namely, that the state should not interfere in the life of the personal copy of Holy Scripture. With the explosion of Bible im­ church? Or will it be more in terms of the First Amendment to portation after 1988, the new need was to make Scriptures avail­ the American Constitution, the intent of which was to keep re­ able to the general public; twenty million copies were thought to ligion from controlling the state? Thus far, Soviet evangelicals be needed in 1989-90 before the black-market prices for Bibles have not been elected to political office, as have Orthodox clergy, would drop." By 1990 it was evident that not only was there a but they have participated in discussions about alternative dem­ major need for a children's Bible but the vast majority of the ocratic party formations. seeking Soviet public was so illiterate, in terms of religious cul­ The second unexpected issue is the way in which Christians ture, that only a Bible for children could be understood. have been invited to think of their role in society. No longer Next to the Bible, Soviet evangelicals listed the need for Chris­ ignored as second-class citizens, in 1989 they were encouraged tian literature to help believers grow in their faith and to assist to participate in newly permitted charitable societies. This has led preachers in interpreting the Bible. That also meant a serious to an ever-increasing variety of social services, from meals on emphasis on theological education. Since 1979Soviet Baptists had wheels, to drug treatment centers, senior citizen homes, and been announcing plans to open a seminary, and they received counseling ministries to prisoners. They have to decide whether official approval in 1987. As an interim measure they had man­ to join secular service agencies or confine themselves to their own aged to expand the student intake for their correspondence courses, Christian agencies, and they must decide how much effort they should devote to social ministries over against the task of evan­ gelism. In other words, Soviet evangelicals are in the process of forming their alignment on the evangelism-social action, or word­ Christians unexpectedly and-deed, spectrum. had to rethink their role in Perhaps most surprising of all is the expectation that Chris­ tians, specifically Protestants, will contribute to economic recon­ Soviet society. struction. Initially they were expected to draw on their established network with affluent Western churches, nonprofit relief agencies, and individual businessmen in order to obtain hard currency for and some of the courses had been upgraded. In 1990 they also investment in joint ventures. In 1990 Soviet evangelical busi­ organized regional Bible school level courses (mainly by corre­ nessmen-a diversity of entrepreneurs-met for a conference in spondence and weekends of intensive lectures on a quarterly Kiev. Within the year they had organized an association of Chris­ basis). tian businessmen, opened an office in Moscow, and formed an In September 1991the first Pentecostal Bibleschool was started informal partnership with the Soviet Union Network, an ad hoc in the Ukrainian city of Rovno, with thirty-two students. By this consortium of Canadian and American evangelical businessmen. time also, several parachurch agencies, Soviet and Western, had These Soviet Christians are giving much thought to their role in begun such Bible schools (often misleadingly labeled seminaries). a market economy and particularly to business ethics. Related to the teaching and ministry task was the problem The role of Christians in the economic well-being of society of information flow: how to improve church communications within has been highlighted by Dr. Alexander Zaichenko and others, geographic regions and maintain regular contact with local who, as economic advisers to former Soviet president Gorbachev, churches. The first step was to increase the distribution of the emphasized the critical role that faith and values play in the suc­ AUCECB bimonthly journal from 5,000 to 8,000 and finally to cess of a national economy. Zaichenko, himself an evangelical 20,000 copies. After the millennial year, regional church papers Christian, and other economists look favorably on the Weberian of varying quality emerged. Today there are so many church "Protestant work ethic" thesis. They argue that if the success papers that an overview has become impossible. of capitalism relates to the Protestant ethic, then perhaps what One can find public voices as early as 1974 asking for help Russia and the new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in special ministries to youth and children, even though religious need is a critical mass of Protestants before it can develop a free­ work with children was illegal. By 1985 both legal (AUCECB, market economy. Hence, such economists favor a strong Prot­ "registered") churches and illegal (CCECB, "unregis­ estant missionary thrust through which a better business climate tered") churches had de facto activity but minimal program ma­ might emerge. At the same time, of course, warnings are heard terials and no specially trained staff. So, by 1990, the major priority about misreading Weber and the inherent ethical dangers of a became the organization of training seminars for Sunday school free-market economy. staff, then the introduction of graded lessons and organized proj­ ects for youth. The Missiological Approach of Western Missions Unexpected Issues The greatest challenge facing Soviet evangelicals is evangelism As a result of perestroika, Soviet evangelicals now confront three and mission. This includes responding adequately both to the major issues that they had not thought much about. In the first demands of the public to know more about the Christian faith place, with the cessation of state hostility toward Christianity, and to the pressure from Western missions eager to launch major they need to clarify how they will relate to the state. Gorbachev's evangelism and mission projects. In order to understand the na­ invitation to the churches to contribute to the moral rebuilding ture of this challenge, we must sketch out the origins of the of society legitimized the role of the Christian community (re­ evangelical community in Russia and the approaches to the Rus­ calling the equally dramatic shift in Roman society following the sian people that Western missions have taken. As we shall see,

56 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH many missions are already very influential in shaping the evan­ identity some or all of the following characteristics in almost all gelistic task, in creating alternative religious cultures (including of the new missions. They have been established for ministry the potential Americanization of Soviet evangelicals), and in fos­ elsewhere, as for example Campus Crusade, Luis Palau Evan­ tering greater denominational diversification and competition. gelism, or the Gideons; or they may have been organized by an A fact not recognized by many new missions to Russia, individual or congregation after a visit to the Soviet Union or after Ukraine, and other members of the CIS is that evangelical mission hosting a Soviet visitor. Although some are more subtle and so­ to the Soviet peoples has a history. The first part of that history phisticated, the common assumption is that there is an evangel­ consisted of a late blooming of the general Pietist missionary ism program, package, or doctrinal framework that is right, which impulse, which contributed to the formation of "neo-Protes­ the Soviet partner should now follow. When moving in with a tant" churches in eastern and central Europe. 5 Bible colporteurs program, some missions have been reported as saying they will traveled about, Bible schools were organized (even during the do their part (deliver the literature, videos, tapes, seminars, etc.) first years of the Soviet era), and the YMCA mobilized the uni­ only if the partner works exclusively with them. Thereby they versity youth. The second part of evangelical mission history contribute to a culture of conflict and separatism. Bypassing the occurred after World War II, with its major focus on finding ways to help Soviet Christians survive state-sponsored suppression and persecution. A brief schematic of mission approaches during this latter Boris Yeltsin on Religion period can be developed by contrasting the programs of Under­ Izvestia asked Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Re­ ground Evangelism (UE) and Slavic Gospel Association (SGA). public, why so many political leaders seemed to be Organized in 1960by Joe Bass, a young Pentecostal entrepreneur, "turning to God." Yeltsin replied: "I will speak for UE (under a variety of names) became by 1970one of the largest, myself. First of all, I am baptized. My name and date of flashiest fund-raising international missions. Its most publicized birth, as was the rule, are written in the baptismal registry. program was Bible smuggling to the underground church. Radio My grandparents were believers, as were my father and broadcasting into the Soviet Union was a major expense. UE used mother, until we left the country for the city. Later, in the generic persecution stories and a computer-controlled, mass-mar­ course of a disproportionately ideological formation at school ket mailing system. Its board was self-perpetuating. A number and in university, I constantly heard, read, and-why hide of board members were financially dependent on UE, and there­ it-felt and shared the most insulting opinions concerning fore the board could not exercise the necessary control. Not sur­ the church and religion. This education was gravely wrong prisingly, financial scandal became a persistent problem. and seriously unjust, as was the classification of persons SGA, in contrast, has roots in an earlier period. Peter Dey­ into believers and nonbelievers, a distinction which today neka, Sr., who founded the association in 1934, was a White is somewhat blurred. Having said this, I have the greatest Russian emigrant who became part of the north-Atlantic network respect for the Orthodox Church, for its history, for its of the Evangelical Christian Union, organized in Russia by Ivan contribution to Russian spiritual life, for its moral teachings, Prochanov. (A major wing of the AUCECB consists of second­ for its tradition of mercy and charity. Today, the church is and third-generation Evangelical Christians.) During the decades moving ahead in these areas, and our duty is, in turn, to of silence and isolation, Deyneka's mission concentrated on evan­ reestablish the rights of the church. It is not rare for us to gelism and training among Slavic immigrants in North and South meet the Patriarch and other clergymen. When I am in a America, as well as cooperation with evangelicals in Poland. When church I take a candle. A religious service lasting four hours contact with the Soviet Union resumed after 1956, SGA pursued bores neither me nor my wife. And often, when I leave a a cautious line of relationship building. church, I feel that something new, something luminous, has come into me. And yet, I cannot make the sign of the Under the leadership of Peter Deyneka, [r., who served as cross in public. Something keeps me from doing so. To tell executive director beginning in the 1970s, the mission has oper­ the truth, there is no room for half-way belief. Generally ated as a supporting arm for Soviet churches. SGA provided speaking, the process is an ongoing task for the soul and literature, particularly teaching materials requested by Soviet which is no easier, in its way, than putting totalitarianism evangelicals; and its radio broadcasts were heard through much into question." of the former Soviet Union. Whereas UE tended to finance in­ Reported in CATHOLIC INTERNATIONAL (Paris) dependent gospel preachers without setting a program direction, 2, no. 18 (October 15-31, 1991): 873 SGA became a leader after the mid-seventies in identifying a differentiated listening market-teaching programs for believers, and new programs of dialogue with culture to attract literate unbelievers less likely to be reached by the local church. formerly established Soviet church leadership in order to work SGA came to typify a core of medium-sized missions (budget with independent and younger persons, they have also claimed under $250,000), relying on an ethnically or denominationally that the official leaders compromised themselves by functioning related constituency for support and guidance, that sought to under Communism and that their Western partners are also sus­ work in partnership with Soviet evangelical leaders. UE came to pect as coming from the world of ecumenism or from churches typify high-budget missions with a simplistic approach that ideal­ that lack the spiritual vibrancy of their own, more fundamentalist ized the suffering church and provided largesse to isolated in­ churches. dividuals across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Under the Meanwhile, the established missions, including denomina­ greater openness of perestroika, a new generation of UE types­ tional missions such as the Baptists, Pentecostals, and Mennon­ flashy and culturally insensitive-has arrived, while the SGAtypes ites, continue to stress commitment to the partnership model, seem to be struggling with their transformation." but the specifics have become more difficult. Established part­ Not all missions now active in the area can be classified as nerships are threatening to come undone as the newer missions one of these two types. Nevertheless, thinking Soviet evangelicals breeze in with offers of more money and quicker action. The

APRIL 1992 57 established missions also must ask themselves how to relate to authoritarian societies, however, it is acknowledged that a min­ leaders who were appropriate to the difficulties of the 1970s but istry of presence may be the only option. The experience of Soviet who lack the readiness for the creativity and risk taking needed Christians the last several decades, which has led to the current for contemporary opportunities. Should Western partners sup­ dramatic expansion of mission opportunities, invites careful re­ port the central leadership, or should the balance be tipped in flection on presence ministry. favor of regionalization? Furthermore, since parachurch organi­ Not surprisingly, those who thought of a presence ministry zations--special mission and service agencies--have now become in the former Soviet Union as an unfortunate necessity quickly possible inside the former Soviet Union (there are now more than shifted to a more aggressive proclamation ministry after peres­ two hundred of them), should these be the new partners? Can a troika. Western entity work to support both parachurch agencies and Those committed to a presence ministry even in environ­ the established denominational bodies? The supporting consti­ ments of relative freedom, who view a presence ministry as more tuencies of these established Western agencies are chafing under in keeping with Christ's own approach, need to keep some dif­ an apparent slowness of response, in contrast to the self-confident ferentiations in mind. When missionary presence is seen as a fund-raising missions with their ethos of hurry. natural combination of living and speaking the Christian Gospel, Still another critical feature of the partnership question is the the need for solidarity with local Christians, and even for making matter of relating to the Russian Orthodox community. By far the common cause with all others claiming to follow Christ, becomes largest confessional body, the Russian Orthodox Church is re­ paramount. Yet there is an obvious difference between the de­ ceiving the great majority of persons turning to Christianity. Open mands on local Christians and the demands on foreign mission­ Doors International, a prominent European-American mission with aries. For the former there are greater risks, and there is no a Pentecostal orientation, found itself in 1989-90 organizing a opportunity to get away and rest awhile. Yet the primary witness shipment of over one million New Testaments to the Russian across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that accounts for the dramatic changes in societal attitudes to Christianity is the result of the silent suffering and serious Christian living, espe­ cially its ethical and fellowship qualities, of local believers. Since the time of Peter the At the same time, the presence witness of the foreigner may Great, Russians have draw attention to some additional desirable features. For instance, the foreigner may be better equipped to show how faith and wrestled with the tension scholarship can be integrated, or how reconciliationcan be achieved between Western through love and understanding. Local believers may thereby be encouraged to take responsible leadership and to work for co­ borrowings and Eastern operation between rivals. At a recent conference reviewing mis­ uniqueness. sion in Eastern Europe, the most striking phrase from an East European was the reminder that people watch "your walk as much as your talk." Orthodox Patriarchate. (The Russian Orthodox Church has found Representatives of this kind of ministry emphasize the im­ it necessary to work with Protestant agencies because Orthodox portance of facilitating the "authentic self-determination of church bodies abroad are generally poor and not particularly or­ Christians in Eastern Europe in the matter of their own spiritual ganized to provide assistance.) Working with the Orthodox has development.liS This requires that the missionary be a leamer, also raised the question whether one should provide the spe­ able to provide links for finding specialized resources but never cialized theological and philosophical literature the Russian in­ making the mistake of thinking of Soviet and East European be­ telligentsia are asking for. lievers as junior Christians. Sad to say, the spiritual and cultural or racist arrogance of some missionaries to the Soviet republics On such partnership issues, the SGA experience might be has been unmistakable. More attractive is the confession of one instructive. Deyneka's commitment to partnership led him to person after living in Eastern Europe for some years: transfer as much of the work as possible to a Soviet base with ownership by Soviet believers. Specifically that meant more radio program production within Russia and the Ukraine, while main­ I learned humility in the presence of many East European Chris­ tians who are of tremendous spiritual depth. . . . These are folks taining heavy financial support from America. But SGA board who have successfully integrated the Gospel with local life and are members and some staff in North America, looking at the ne­ instrumental in helping others to do so. Most of them are quiet. cessity of publicity to sustain the skyrocketing budget, felt that They are unobtrusive. . . . They are generally not very flashy. . . . North American control of the program was essential. As a result [They are] people with spiritual depth and experience who have of this tension, Peter and his wife, Anita, terminated their rela­ been in ministry and understand how to contextualize the Gospel.9 tionship with SGA, as did several other staff members, and formed a new ministry based in Moscow. By invitation of Soviet evan­ What Will Last? gelicalleaders, the Deynekas moved to Moscow in January 1992 in order to facilitate a better network of relationships between The Soviets have learned to use the verb "to last" as indicating Soviet and Western agencies and to function as consultants on a major value in assessing something. So much of past work­ ministry," The SGA is now undergoing a major shake-up; it may manship and scholarship lacked integrity and quality. To say not be recognizable hereafter. something budet stoit-"it will last"-is the ultimate compliment. Much of the missionary energy now being expended in the Incarnational, or "Presence," Ministry former Soviet Union is based on the theory that in the great cosmic war between God and Satan, there is a temporary respite. Soon In mission circles a ministry of "presence" has long been con­ the door of opportunity may be closed again, hence we must get sidered less effective than open proclamation or persuasion. In the minimal proclamation to as many as possible. Such mission­

58 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH aries are too busy to wonder whether their style of work might cow of the AUCECB, commented on the current situation and be a precipitating factor in closing doors. on the role of Western missions: "We find ourselves involved," Most Western missions are preoccupied with evangelism, he said, "in a very large process of ministry where we are with denominational competition, and with alternative cultural experiencing great blessing and also great difficulty. All possible expressions of faith (in contrast to what one may witness in the doors to ministry are open; that is not the difficulty. Currently average ingrown Soviet evangelical congregation). These mis­ there are 314missions working here-14of themare actually work­ sions show minimal interest in church and state questions, the ing; the other 300 are just collecting money. They are collecting social role of Soviet Christians, or their potential contribution to money for very large projects costing millions of dollars, but only economics and national education. Yet the capacity of Soviet about 10 percent of this will get approved by local authorities and evangelicals to respond to such issues will determine whether get completed. With some missions," Komendant went on to say, they will be a serious factor in Soviet society, or whether they "we have close cooperation, whereas others are quite exclu­ will become increasingly irrelevant. Many concerned evangelical sive. What is vital is that such persons truly work for the kingdom leaders recognize this and are seeking discussion partners who of God, which also means that new converts must be taught to might help them think through their role on the basis of com­ relate to a localchurch. Mission without ecclesiologyis not sound.t'" paring lessons from other cultures and periods of Christian his­ I pondered those observations as I returned once more to the tory. Izmailov Hotel complex, where twelve hundred young people in Since at least the time of Peter the Great, Russians have their mid-teens to mid-twenties had gathered for three days of wrestled with the question of borrowing from the West over against charismatic preaching (American evangelists working through an the opposite extreme of stressing their Eastern uniqueness. One interpreter) and Biblestudy, before returning to their homes across obvious conclusion, applied to Marxism as an import from the the vast reaches of the CIS. Such meetings were happening West, is that what is imported will not last unless it can be adapted monthly. It seemed wonderful and astonishing-so many kids in to fit the context. Western missionary imports also will not last, jeans, with or without cigarettes, etc., carrying their Bibles with­ unless appropriately contextualized. out embarrassment. Would they find their way to a church? Would In mid-October 1991,Grigorii Komendant, president in Mos­ it last? Notes------­ 1. In this article, for lack of a better term, and in spite of the official 5. For one of the best summaries, see Wilhelm Kahle, Evangelische Chris­ dismantling of the USSR, I use the adjective "Soviet" to describe ten in Russland und derSowjetunion (Wuppertal: Oncken Verlag, 1978). the peoples of the former Soviet republics. 6. For a representative listing, see Mark Elliott, East European Missions 2. For a detailed treatment, see my Soviet Evangelicals Since World WarII Directory (Wheaton, Ill.: Institute for the Study of Christianity and (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1981), updated in my "Protestantism Marxism, 1989; 2nd ed. 1992). in the USSR," in Religion and Politics in the Soviet Union, ed. Sabrina 7. See Anita Deyneka, "Good Things Come to Those Who Network," P. Ramet (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992). Evangelical Missions Quarterly, January 1992, pp. 42-45. 3. Here was a rediscovery of language, for the word miloserdie (com­ 8. Rom Maczka, Mennonite Council of International Ministries consul­ passion or charity) had been a taboo word under Soviet Communism, tation on Eastern Europe, December 1990. until the writer Granin called for its return in 1988. 9. Ibid. 4. Mark Elliott, "New Openness to USSR Prompts Massive Bible 10. Author's paraphrase from notes, October 10, 1991. Shipments to Soviet Christians in 1987-1988, a Statistical Overview," News Network International, March 20, 1989, pp. 24-31.

Research and News Centers, and Annotated Bibliography Much of the post-World War II mission activity in the Soviet Union and A spin-off of Brother Andrew's Open Doors International is the now­ Eastern Europe was like a stab in the dark. Lack of information made the independent News Network International (available by subscription); this is Christian public in the West prey to manipulation and produced a climate a regular source for developments in Eastern Europe, though its coverage of charge and counter charge, as for example between the Bible smugglers is episodic and of uneven quality. During the past decade the Occasional and the United Bible Societies. Papers on Eastern Europe (OPREE), edited by Paul Mojzes and sponsored In the early 1970s three research centers emerged, devoted to sys­ by Christians Associated for Relationships with Eastern Europe (CAREE), tematically collecting, analyzing, and publishing reliable information. They has developed a solid reputation. OPREE consists of articles written for were the missiological and ecumenical center in Utrecht, headed by Dr. the general reader; increasingly it includes contributions by East European Hans Hebly; Glaube in der 2ten Welt (G2W) in Zurich, headed by Pfarrer writers. Eugen Voss; and Keston College in England, headed by Canon Michael Within the former Soviet Union there has been an explosion of news­ Bourdeaux. Hebly's center had less influence because its primary language papers, including religious leaflets and magazines. Among the first and was Dutch, but several of his monographs have been translated. G2W most venturesome in providing general religious news coverage is Prot­ has long been the major source of information for the German-speaking estant. In October 1991the Baptist Union closed down its English-language world. In 198~, however, its news service was terminated, and only a information bulletin (as well as its International Department) for lack of monthly journal and a book-publication program continue. For the Eng­ funds, and the Russian Patriarchate is also financially unable to circulate lish-speaking world Keston News Service and the quarterly journal Religion as much in foreign languages as in the first years of perestroika. This in Communist Lands are widely recognized for their comprehensive treat­ means that within the former Soviet republics there is no central place ment. Keston College, however, has lost much of its funding base, a for keeping track of religious developments. Soviet evangelical leaders casualty of the end of the cold war. In September 1991 the news service indicate that they are unable to make information exchange a meaningful was terminated. Only three of the staff continue at the research center priority for the next several years, due to the limitation of resources. It from Oxford, and the future of Keston's rare library and archive is un­ would seem that Western partners might well consider a joint research certain. Staff member Jane Ellis hopes to resume a news service shortly center as a major priority. from a Moscow location. Much of the post-World War II analytic and descriptive material now

APRIL 1992 59 seems dated. Nevertheless, some of the basic monographs on Soviet an overall presentation of changes under Perestroika is the second edition evangelicals and the Orthodox, as recommended in Mark R. Elliott, ed., of Kent Hill's Soviet Union on the Brink: An Inside Look at Christianity and Christianity and Marxism Worldwide: An Annotated Bibliography (Wheaton, Glasnost (Portland, Oreg.: Multnomah Press, 1991; 1st ed. title The Puzzle Ill.: Institute for the Study of Christianity and Marxism, 1988), or Paul of the Soviet Church). Mojzes, ed., Church and Statein Postwar Eastern Europe (New York: Green­ Several new publications speak to the role of religion in the revolu­ wood Press, 1987), remain the primary sources. The current standard tions of 1989-91 and the task for the churches: Niels Nielson, Revolutions treatments on Orthodoxy are Jane Ellis, The Russian Orthodox Church: A in Eastern Europe: The Religious Roots (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991); J. Contemporary History (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1986);and Dim­ Martin Bailey, The Spring of Nations: Churches in the Rebirth of Central and itry P. Pospielovsky, The Russian Church Under the Soviet Regime, 1917­ Eastern Europe (New York: Friendship Press, 1991); Ron Davies, After 1982, 2 vols. (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Valdimir's Seminary Press, 1985). Gorbachev? How Can Western Christians Help? (Eastbourne, Sussex: MARC Perhaps the most comprehensive reference work now available is a [Monarch Publications], 1991); Paul Mojzes, Religious Liberty in Eastern three-volume series edited by Pedro (Sabrina) Ramet: Vol. 1: Eastern Chris­ Europe and the USSR: Before and After the Great Transformation (Boulder, tianity and Politics in the Twentieth Century (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Colo.: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia Univ. Press, Press, 1988); vol. 2: Roman Catholicism and Politics in the Soviet Union and 1992). Eastern Europe (1989); and vol. 3: Protestantism and Politics in the Soviet See also Walter Sawatsky, "Truth Telling in Eastern Europe: The Union and Eastern Europe (1992). My own chapter in volume 3 on Prot­ Liberation and the Challenge," Journal of Church and State, Autumn 1991; estantism in the USSR is an attempt at a detailed treatment through early Mark Elliott, "New Opportunities, New Demands in the Old Red 1991. Empire," Evangelical Missions Quarterly, January 1992,pp. 32-39; WilTriggs, Two book-length descriptions using the 1988 millennial celebrations "The Soviet Union: A Different Kind of Mission Field," Evangelical for highlighting religious developments are Michael Bourdeaux, TheGos­ Missions Quarterly, October 1990, pp. 432-42; Igor Troyanovsky, ed., Re­ pel's Triumph over Communism (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, ligion in the USSR: A Guide to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and 1991; British title: Glasnost, Gorbachev, and the Gospel); and Jim Forest, OtherReligions in Today's SovietUnion(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, Religion in the New Russia (New York: Crossroad, 1990). Also helpful for 1991; offers statistics as of 1990).

My Pilgrimage in Mission

Adrian Hastings

or a Roman Catholic fifty years ago, the word "mis­ of any kind, had absolutely none. That, then, was what I should F sion" referred principally to a week of sermons inflicted do. I struggled with this actually quite frightening idea for the upon a parish by a visiting preacher, probably a Redemptorist or next eighteen months, but I could not banish it. Passionist, to reinvigorate its fervor and bring its more lapsed Finally, in my third and final year at Oxford, I had to come members back to the sacraments. But a "missionary" was to a decision and appealed for help to myoid headmaster, Dom something else--a priest, brother, or nun whose vocation was to Ignatius Rice, at Douai Abbey. In consequence I spent Epiphany go abroad, to convert the pagan or otherwise minister in some at Douai in January 1949, unaware, I suspect, that Epiphany has remote non-Western country in conditions of particular difficulty. always been seen as the greatest of missionary feasts. Dom Ig­ It was a "special vocation." Ever since the age of six I had felt natius listened to my problems, and despite his initial and natural myself inexorably called by God to be a priest. I have no recol­ preference for the "English" option, his mind changed during lection-nor, so far as I know, has anyone else--how this sense of the festal High Mass. The African and missionary alternative seemed calling came to me, but it had become a matter-of-fact certainty so unusual that he felt it should be followed. I accepted his advice well before I went to boarding school at eight. as final, was miserable about it for quite some time, but knew I In 1946 I entered the University of Oxford to study history, could not withdraw. mostly English history, medieval and modern. At the same time Throughout this experience "missionary" and "Africa" I had to settle the question of what sort of priesthood I should had gone together. I never considered Asia or anywhere else. seek after leaving the university. The choice appeared to lie be­ The only African missionaries I knew anything about, and that tween the secular clergy of my home diocese of Birmingham and was not much, were the White Fathers, to whom I consequently the Dominicans, whom I had come to know and admire in Oxford. wrote and whose seminary of philosophy near Dorking in Surrey Then in the summer of 1947 I spent six quiet weeks in the Cis­ I entered in the autumn of that year. A few months later I wrote tercian (Trappist) priory on Caldey Island, reading books of his­ an article entitled "The Missionary Vocation" which may be tory and working in the monastery garden. In that contemplative found on pages 3--6 of White Fathers, the small English magazine atmosphere it dawned on me that I should perhaps offer to do of the society, in the issue of June 1950, though not under my something very much more demanding, even more unpleasant, name. For our theme it is a significant article because it is the first than I had hitherto thought of. Even the Trappist life appeared thing I ever wrote on the subject. Moreover that month, June to have attractions. To become a missionary in Africa, however, 1950, I also celebrated my twenty-first birthday, so it may be taken far-as it seemed to me--from the possibility of academic pursuits as representing some sort of vocational coming of age. My mother and sisters came down to Dorking to celebrate my birthday with a picnic, bringing a flask of mead and a wonderful cake iced by Adrian Hastings is Professor and Head of the Department of Theology and Re­ my mother and shaped like a great African cathedral (the model ligious Studiesat the Universityof Leeds, England, and is Editor of theJournal was Tabora) with a line of little black altar boys in their red cas­ of Religion in Africa. socks approaching the west door. I have, in a way, been en­

60 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Increase ~ ur Yield. r God has called you and invested in your ministry. Fuller Seminary is ready to help you increase the effective yield of that min­ istry through additional cross-cultural train­ ing. Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Mission has developed the Doctor of Missiology and Ph.D. in Intercultural Stud­ ies for people like you who desire to im­ prove their skills in ministry and teaching. Our doctoral programs help you inte­ grate your practical experience in the mis­ sion field with additional research and aca­ demic input. Adoctoral program gives you the opportunity to focus your ministry and acquire skills that will help you advance to the next phase of your career. While on campus you willstudywith men and women • involved in ministry in over 60 countries under the guidance of the largest School of World Mission faculty anywhere. Fuller's location in Southern California places you in the middle of the most cultur­ .4' ally diverse community in America. Fuller's ~ I W graduate schools of Theology and Psychol­ ogy offer incredible opportunities for inter­ ~ '\ disciplinary studies. If you are interested in making your min­ istry more effective, consider one of our doctoral programs in the School of World Mission. For more information,

call 1-800-235-2222 and ask for admissions at ext. 5400 or write to: Office of Admissions Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, CA 91182 Dr. Charles E.Van Engen, Associate Professor ofTheology of FULLER Mission and recognized missions consultant. THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY School of World Mission deavoring to find, construct, or reconstruct that visionary cathedral than taking them into my own. I wish to belong to a bit of Africa in all the decades since. rather than to an English province of a missionary society working That early article of mine, from which the following is quoted, for Africa. . . . The growing colour conflict in Africa threatens even shows how my mind was moving: the interior life of the Church, but such a division could be fatal The sacrifice of the missionary was, and remains, a to the Church there at the present. Even on its own tiny scale, I spiritual thing, an emptying of self and the taking on of the feel that the act of a European submitting himself to work with outlook and traditions of a strange primitive people. He and under Africans cannot but be of value. must follow the missionary example of St. Paul . . . empty When I finally wrote to Bishop Kiwanuka offering him my himself as far as is humanly possible of the effects of his services, I added that I hoped to show "by my life that I do own milieu in order to carry Christianity into a land where not think distinctions of race and colour to have the slightest it can achieve a new "incarnation." If Christianity in importance in human affairs and a fortiori in the Church." Africa were to remain a European thing it might gain en­ Bishop Kiwanuka accepted me and arranged that I should thusiastic converts for one or two generations, but it would complete my theological studies in the College of Propaganda not permanently hold the hearts of the people. . . we must Fide in Rome, where I arrived in November 1953. I found life at adapt and not destroy African ideas. Propaganda an immensely liberating and enriching experience, Doubtless such thoughts were current even in 1950, though perhaps the happiest years I have ever known. On the first morn­ rather little attempt was made to implement them, at least within ing, entering the rector's room, I saw before me a photograph of the Catholic Church. But for my own life I became determined Vincent Lebbe, and I knew at once that I had been sent to the to implement them as ruthlessly as possible. Hardly in fact had right place. Life in the college in a student community, most of I arrived in the seminary of the White Fathers than I perceived whose members were Asians or Africans but in which half the how very European such a society remained. On the Feast of countries of the world were represented, provided a quite new experience of catholicity. What had hitherto been a rather narrow vocation focused upon Africa and identification with its clergy blossomed into a much wider perception of mission and of the A white priest within a very different needs of India, Scandinavia, or Japan. It is clear local African church? I was from the quotes above that, already in 1953, my mind was moving from a slightly naive and even impossible model of "taking told that it was impossible, on the outlook of a strange primitive people" to a more contem­ unreasonable, undesirable. porary preoccupation with mid-twentieth-century realities, es­ pecially the color bar. The very next year I wrote a booklet entitled White Domination or Racial Peace? published by the Africa Bureau Christ the King, in late November 1949, I was suddenly gripped in London, which showed still more clearly the shift in my con­ by a new vocation-to substitute for membership of a missionary cern. The influence of Propaganda Fide, however, was seen most society membership of the African diocesan clergy, to serve in closely in The Church and the Nations, which was edited by me obedience to an African bishop instead of a European superior while still in the college and published in 1959 as an attempt to general. At that time there was but one black bishop of the Latin elicit a world wide range of ways in which one could be both rite in the whole of Africa, Joseph Kiwanuka of Masaka, Uganda. Catholic and national. The incarnationalist ideal of my 1950article It was said that white priests could not serve under a black bishop, had not altered, but it had widened to embrace politics, race, and and so there could not be more of the latter until in anyone place the experience of Asia. Some of the book's best chapters were there were enough black priests to staff an entire diocese. Let me those on India, Japan, and Vietnam. I experienced a realized show, I thought, that I was willing to do so, abandoning any diversity at Propaganda, and only later did I perceive how very connection with a missionary society and becoming instead a limited, beneath the surface, remained Rome's willingness to modify priest incardinated within a local African church. I was told that its traditional insistence upon uniformity. it was impossible, unreasonable, undesirable. I finally arrived in Uganda in October 1958, the one white Again for a time I hesitated. It seemed a huge and frightening priest in a black clergy, still very anxious to submerge myself in leap. Would Bishop Kiwanuka or his African clergy even want the African church but, inevitably, a far more developed person me? I was assured that they would not and that my health would than the young man who had wrestled with the issue of mis­ never stand the life anyway. I delayed a decision until early 1953, sionary vocation five to ten years earlier. I was now a doctor of when I had begun the study of theology in the White Fathers' theology with several other degrees and two published books. house at s'Heerenberg in Holland. There I received rather more Moreover I soon came to realize that, far from being encouraged encouragement, and I also discovered that in fact the Societe des to develop a new African identity, I would be employed above Auxiliaires des Missions in Louvain, founded under the inspiration all to improve the educational standards in Western terms (Cam­ of Vincent Lebbe, already existed to prepare European priests to bridge School and Higher Certificate, that is to say) of the clergy. be incorporated into dioceses headed by local bishops, mostly in I had long believed-having learned this at least from the mis­ Asia. I wrote to them but, as their members were not permitted sionary encyclicals of several popes----that the establishment of the to choose for themselves where they went, while I already felt church depended principally upon the development of an ade­ wholly committed to Africa and even Uganda, decided not to join quately numerous and well-prepared local clergy, so it was not them. In a letter dated May 14, 1953, I told the English provincial too strange to find myself for quite a number of years working of the White Fathers what I now had in mind: almost obsessively at this particularly task. My deepest desire appears to be to work with the African clergy Little by little, however, I came to question whether we were in a more intimate fashion than is possible even for a White Father; really on the right track and found it necessary to try to rethink I want to be one of them, entering into their community, rather theologically the nature and appropriate shape of the ordained

62 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH ministry. The whole concept of a minor seminary was something exchanged with Eugene Hillman about this time and published I found uncongenial; unlike all the African priests and most of in New Blackfriars in August 1967 under the title "A Missionary the missionaries, I had never studied in one myself. Quite inev­ Correspondence." Thus in one letter, dated as early as July 7, itably the clergy of Masaka were a great deal more conservative 1966, I wrote, "Give our foreign money in future to the gov­ theologically than I was and very little in touch with ideas which ernment, limit the intake of missionaries, relax canon law, and were by then elsewhere sweeping through the world church. My then wait and see!! That is my answer ... of course, neither the very concern to take seriously the job I had been given drew me Church in Europe and America, nor the Church in Africa, neither increasingly into a collision course with those I had come to serve missionaries, nor African priests, would begin to agree. People and to obey. By 1964 I was advocating, as in a little book The talk about 'adaptation' incessantly, but they talk about the frills World Mission of the Church published that year, "the wide­ of Church life most of the time, not about adaptation to a total spread ordination of trained and tested married men." To me social situation." this was becoming a keystone in any policy of genuinely Afri­ It was this "total social situation" with which I was more canizing as opposed to unmitigated Westernizing. For many of and more concerned. In a major lecture at Navan in 1968 to the my fellow African priests, who had themselves faithfully adopted Irish National Mission Week, I talked of "the three Ms"-min­ the Roman model, brought to them by an older generation of istry, marriage, and money. These three now seemed to me ab­ missionaries, it was betrayal. It was not that I wanted a peasant solutely crucial, marriage especially, but so did issues of politics church, but a varied and adaptable one, appropriate to the needs and economic development that appeared, for example, much of both the village and the university. It was to university grad­ more in my 1971Mission andMinistry than they had done in Church uates that I appealed at the end of that book to recognize that and Mission of four years before, with its narrower ecclesiastical "the Church's mission in and out of Europe will be more and and pastoral orientation. But marriage had become a central pre­ more personal, more and more a confrontation of minds." How occupation, partly stimulated by Hillman's harping on the often have the words that Francis Xavier wrote in India in his polygamy issue. 1544 appeal to Europe drummed in my ears: "I have often felt The Anglican archbishops of Africa picked up my interest in strongly moved to descend on the universities of Europe and to this, and they also recognized the need for a larger rethinking in cry aloud like a madman." I reflected: the relationship between Christian and customary marriage, so "In today's missionary confrontation with the great reli­ they asked me to do it for them, and it was wonderful to be able gions, the great idealogies, and in the mental searching and in­ to accept. Out of that came Christian Marriage in Africa, published tellectual struggle which such work must involve, it is the example early in 1973 just before I became embroiled in a great battle to of a Clement of Alexandria, a Raymond Lull, a Matthew Ricci, a expose Portuguese atrocities in Mozambique, which led to the Teilhard de Chardin, that we should have before us. Only with publication early the following year of Wiriyamu, the book in such as these can the gates of the modern world be opened" (pp. which I came nearest to a theology of liberation. That was fol- 55-56). Yet through these years, the years of the Second Vatican Council, I was myself doing little else than teaching A levels in I moved quickly from a minor seminary. When the council was over, I was suddenly and unexpectedly called to move to Tanzania and interpret the being a pre-Vatican II conciliar documents for all the dioceses of the five countries of liberal to being a eastern Africa. The next two years proved a profoundly mission­ ary experience. The commentaries I produced (subsequently re­ postconciliar radical. printed in Britain in two volumes entitled A Concise Guide to the Documents of the Second Vatican Council) and the seminars I led in each country constituted for me personally a new theological, lowed in 1975 by The Faces of God and in 1976 African Christianity. pastoral, and ecumenical education, and I moved quite quickly It was a productive time, but it was also the period in which my from being a preconciliar liberal to being a postconciliar radical. base had moved decisively back from Africa to Britain. The first major expression of this was my Church and Mission in Several things were happening to me. One was a steady Modern Africa, published in Britain and the United States in 1967 reshaping in theological understanding involving both a mod­ and subsequently translated into German and Polish. It was easily ernization of approach and a diminution in doctrinal certainty. the most influential book I had yet written. Nevertheless, while In regard to mission this led to far less clericalist preoccupations incorporating a good deal from the Vatican Council, it had mostly than I had had in the early and middle sixties and a new, more been completed before leaving Masaka in May 1966 and thus profound model of what "mission" should really mean, in­ before the more radical development of my thinking that fol­ tegrally incorporating the dimension of diakonia, secular service. lowed. It appears in fact as a relatively conservative work both The most succinct expression of my new synthesis is to be found in its theology and its practical recomendations-perhaps that was in the entry on "Mission" contributed to the English edition partly why it could prove so influential. It shared the enthusiasm of Karl Rahner's one-volume Encyclopedia of Theology: A Concise of the immediate post conciliar age without being too disturbing. Sacramentum Mundi (1975). Another longstanding development Nevertheless I was increasingly coming to believe that effective was the perplexed realization of the sheer complexity required mission required a very much more radical approach to the church's by a genuinely incarnationalist theology in such areas as culture, institutional shape. I had by then learned a good deal from read­ marriage, and politics. A third development was a slow personal ing Roland Allen, to whose books an Anglican friend in Uganda distancing from the actual functioning of the church's organized had introduced me. Moreover, far more extensive ecumenical missionary life. I had gone too far on too many points to be reliable contacts than I had formerly experienced were beginning to make in ecclesiastical eyes, and I had, upon my own side, slowly to their mark on my underlying understanding of both church and admit that I no longer felt even minimally at home in the rather mission. Some of these more radical thoughts appear in letters clericalist Catholic world to which I had belonged for over twenty

APRIL 1992 63 years. My very ecumenical involvements contributed to this, dis­ when young, full of a rather simple faith and a hugely powerful tancing me from a more purely Catholic world but not quite sense of purpose, to spend my life as a member of an African providing a congenial long-term replacement. I gave five weeks diocese. I failed to do so. The fault was not entirely my own-I of winter-school lectures on mission and church in South Africa simply could not "empty" myself to the necessary degree of in 1971 at the invitation of Archbishop Hurley and four weeks of my own judgment and culture-and it led for a while to a highly similar lectures in Nigeria a couple of years later, and I lectured creative larger involvement in missionary debate and the wider for a month each year until 1972 at Gaba Pastoral Institute in development of African Christianity. Africa had dominated my Uganda, but these were almost the last items in ten years of thoughts, perhaps too greatly, between 1949and 1953and, again, intensive labor to bring about a missionary aggiornamento in Africa. between 1958 and 1973. Very valuably between 1953 and 1958 I would continue writing books, giving occasional lectures, pro­ and then again, definitively, after 1973, while African issues re­ viding ecumenical advice, but I had now to do such things from mained of special interest, they became merged within a larger an increasingly independent base back in Britain, in due course field, theological, ecumenical, spiritual. The very survival of a university base. Christianity, of religious faith, of the meaningfulness of God, of It was not only that my advice was too often not acceptable, the relevance of Christ-such matters have now taken in my mind it was also that I was often no longer so sure as to what to advise. an absolute priority. They are the themes, for instance, of The Perhaps the writing of Christian Marriage inAfrica, cautiously worded Theology ofa Protestant Catholic (1990), and they constitute the very essence of what the central thrust of "Mission" has now to be about. Specifically African and-in a narrow sense-"mission­ ary" issues seem, in comparison, provincial and derivative. Yet A humane discernment of I have not ceased to work upon an African cathedral. The volumes the tangled web of historic of the Journal of Religion in Africa, edited by me since 1985, them­ truth is the kindest service selves constitute a kind of vast cathedral of their own. The Oxford History of the Christian Church in Africa, upon which I have for a friend can provide. yearsbeen at work, may constitute another. These are very different buildings from anything I envisaged in my first, rather antiacademic, African and missionary fervor as it was, could be taken as the point at which in my own mind of forty years ago. Acceptance of that calling and its unimagined the issues were starting to get out of control and seem almost consequences has enriched me immeasurably. I have received a incapable of sensible solution. Problems, I was beginning to re­ hundredfold. But any mission I can have today is back in the alize, do not necessarily have answers attainable within the real context of a British university, and it is one in which I can certainly world. Back in 1967, in Church and Mission, my most ecclesiasti­ not "cry aloud like a madman." In the world's central debate cally influential book, I had been clear as to solutions, and they between meaning and unmeaning, God and the devil, goodness were not, by and large, too unconservative ones. Ten years later, and evil, the force of truth and a multitude of lies and deceptive as I became far more deeply affected by the modem theological platitude, that approach would not be helpful. Nor would I know debate to which I had paid rather little attention during my four­ any more what to cry. As head, in Leeds, of a thriving nonde­ teen years in Africa, I found myself becoming ever less prescrip­ nominational department of theology and religious studies, I can tive and more descriptive or historical. A History of African but try to uphold a space within which the Christian and religious Christianity, 1950-1975, published in 1979, marks the change case may be reflected upon and restated critically and creatively, achieved. As I admitted in its introduction, it was "written by within the context of a secular university, and in which I can offer one who now stands more apart from his subject than he had my own small contribution. It is often no more than the undog­ once intended," yet it was still "written in the belief that a matic but gently warning note of a concerned historian. Thus it humane discernment of the tangled web of historic truth is the has been, I may suggest to my African and missionary friends, kindest service a friend can provide." but how it should be or how it will be, I would seldom dare to In regard to my African cathedral, the vision remains. I elected say.

64 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Missionary Archives

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Robert Charles

,'. sk a Chinese what he calls Englishmen and he'll tell you so many evils among the people, and yet of so much gain to the fttheY're opium merchants. Ask the same about French­ merchants, that I utterly despair of saying anything on the subject men and he'll tell you they're missionaries. The former ruin his that will not be regarded with dislike. I cannot, however, but health at the expense of his finances, and the latter overturn his regard it as one of the many obstacles which hinder the moral ideas," charged Tcheng-Ki-Tong, military attache at the Chinese improvement of eastern India and China.,,6 embassy in Paris, in an article published in a French review in Most merchants-"under no control, subject to no law, 1 1884. except that of self-interest," as one explained-looked upon the Had the Chinese diplomat attempted to classify Americans opium trade as an economic necessity, and as such an entirely in China according to the same two stereotypes, he likely would honorable pursuit, for it at least gave them something to sell to have qualified them as honorary Frenchmen. Yet fifty years the self-sufficient Chinese." In the words of William Jardine to a earlier, American merchants, even if not to the extent of their potential investor back in England, the opium trade was "the British counterparts, were endangering the Chinese purse and safest and most gentlemanlike speculation I am aware of." Jardine health through what in 1839 was called "a trade which every publicly defended his character as the leading opium merchant friend of humanity must deplore," what an American contem­ by citing declarations of both Houses of Parliament, "with all porary of the Chinese diplomat deplored as "the darkest stain the bench of bishops at their backs," that it was financially inex­ pedient to abolish the trade." For Bostonian Robert Bennett Forbes, involvement in the opium trade was nothing more than a matter of following "the right example of England, the East India Ask a Chinese what he Company, the countries that cleared it for China, and the mer­ calls Englishmen, and he'll chants I had always been accustomed to look up to as the ex­ tell you that they are ponents of all that was honorable in trade.,~IO Up to 1839 the opium trade "had indeed been an easy and agreeable business opium merchants. for the foreign exile who shared in it at Canton," reminisced William Hunter in the 1880s. "His sales were pleasantness and his remittances were peace. Transactions seemed to partake of upon the Christianity of the nineteenth century," and which more the nature of the drug; they imparted a soothing frame of mind recently has been labeled as "surely one of the longest-con­ with three percent commission on sales, one percent on returns, tinued international crimes of modem times ... a classic symbol and no bad debts!" According to Hunter, "I myself, and I of Western commercial imperialism-foreign greed and violence think I may safely say the entire foreign community, rarely, if demoralizing and exploiting an inoffensive people.r" First im­ ever, saw anyone physically or mentally injured by it. ... As ported in small quantities as a medicine in 1767, then in increasing compared to the use of spirituous liquors in the United States amounts as a stupefacient, until in 1800 the Chinese government and England, and the evil consequences of it, that of opium was outlawed its importation, opium by the 1830s represented "no infinitesimal.,,11 hole-in-the-corner petty smuggling trade, but probably the largest This complacent, see-no-evil view did not command unan­ commerce of the time in any single commodity ... [and] the imity among the foreign community "in Canton, however. Prot­ economic foundation of the rise of the foreign merchant com­ estant missionaries generally dissociated themselves from the opium munity in China.,,3 trade, which they viewed as a blot on the name of the Christian For Chinese authorities, opium was "vile dirt," "a flow­ West and a curse visited upon the Chinese. "There is a great ing poison" wreaking economic and moral havoc upon the Ce­ trade in opium here, the Chinese having become excessively ad­ lestial Empire and its populace." those who smoked it were no dicted to it," Robert Morrison wrote to friends in Dublin in 1828. different than "reptiles, wild beasts, dogs, and swine," de­ "This poison depraves and corrupts the Heathen and yet clared Commissioner Lin in his first placard after arriving in Can­ Christians activated by the love of gold smuggle immense quan­ ton in March 1839 with a determination to put an end to the flow tities of it into China from our Indian Possessions annually.v" A of "foreign mud.?" The foreign community in Canton, how­ major exception, however, was Karl Gutzlaff, "whose declared ever, was of divided mind on whether to regard the illegal trade horror of the opium trade proved not so strong as his passion for as primarily a moral, or an economic issue. In an 1836 letter to proselytizing.v " Fluent in Cantonese and other dialects, he was The Chinese Repository in Canton, William Milne lamented: "The approached by the English firm of Jardine & Matheson to act as vast consumption of opium on this side of India, is the source of an interpreter for the Sylph, which sailed up the coast in October 1832. In a letter to Gutzlaff, William Jardine stated openly that "our principal reliance is on opium.... The more profitable Robert Charles served during 1980-88 with Mennonite Board of Missions in the expedition, the better we shall be able to place at your disposal Brussels, Belgium, asdirector of Brussels Mennonite Center andeditor ofNATO a sum that may hereafter be employed in furthering your mission, Watch newsletter. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate in European diplomatic and for your success in which we feel deeply interested." Ac­ historyand international security studies at the Fletcher School of Lawand Di­ cording to Gutzlaff, "After much consultation with others and plomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. a conflict in my own mind, I embarked on the Sylph." The expe­

66 INTERN ATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH dition was a success, as was a subsequent one that made a profit full agreement, both the commissioner and his American visitors of over £50,000. In a later book recounting his voyages and mission had reason to be satisfied with their encounter-Lin because up­ activities, Gutzlaff made no mention of the fact that the ships on right foreigners could vouchsafe that the opium was in fact being which he traveled carried opium. 14 destroyed and not saved for resale; King and Bridgman for being Yet just as this exception was to be found to the missionary allowed to witness this magnificent "rebuke administered by condemnation and avoidance of anything to do with the opium Pagan integrity to Christian degeneracy.v'" trade, so also was a nonconformist to the prevailing practice of King's petitions to Commissioner Lin show that Olyphant & his colleagues to be counted among the expatriate merchant com­ Company were clearly in Canton to engage in and prosper through munity. Lamented Morrison to his Dublin friends, "There is trade, an activity that King thought could be carried out only if only one Christian merchant in Canton who conscientiouslx de­ foreign merchants respected Chinese laws and if Chinese au­ clines dealing in the pernicious drug. He is an American." 5 thorities respected the foreigners' property at the Canton facto­ The unnamed American merchant in Morrison's letter who ries. 25 Thus King did not stand aloof from his fellow merchants alone refused the "soothing state of mind" offered by opium when, in November 1838, they drove away Chinese authorities dealing was D. W. C. Olyphant of the firm of Olyphant & Com­ who were preparing to execute a Chinese opium dealer at the pany of New York, who had come to Canton in the 1820s to enter foot of the American flagpole in the square in front of the foreign the tea market;" Under the direction of Olyphant, "a pious factories. The attempted execution was judged by the foreigners devoted servant of Christ and a friend of China" who had been converted during an evangelical revival in 1814, and of his "sober and intense young nephew" Charles W. King, Olyphant & Com­ pany represented a singular combination of scrupulous commerce King and Olyphant saw and Christian conviction;" Olyphant's principled nonparticipa­ tion in the opium trade, "almost the only branch of the China the opium trade as a cloud trade which produced a profit during a good part of the decade over the entire foreign of the 1820s," and his key role in the beginning of American Protestant missions in China "made him such an oddity in merchant community at the Canton environment that old-timers there called the Olyphant Canton. headquarters In. t h e A mencan . fac t ory 'Z' Ion , s Corner. ' ,,18 Why did Olyphant & Company abstain from dealing in op­ ium? Foster Rhea Dulles suggests it was because "this firm "as a wanton interference with their rights to consider the alone looked on the opium question from any other than a purely foreign settlement private property." King participated in the commercial point of view.,,19 Rather than portraying Olyphant attack upon the executioners, despite Olyphant & Company's and King simply as virtuous saints willing to sacrifice profits for strong opposition to the opium traffic, which had bought about principles, however, one should recognize that the firm had solid this official Chinese reaction and which was hanging as a storm commercial and prudential grounds for avoiding what was, after cloud over the entire foreign merchant community at Canton.26 all, an illegal activity. In the opinion of Samuel Eliot Morison, King opposed the opium trade in print as well, protesting to "Their motive was not so much moral as practical. They feared . Commissioner Lin, in response to criticism that he had not con­ that a traffic forbidden by the Chinese government, however vinced any of his merchant colleagues to hand over their illegal countenanced by its officials, would breed trouble. They were opium, that he had "used his best efforts to dissuade all men right. ,,20 That trouble arrived in March 1839 in the person of from the injurious traffic. ,,27 He compared the fight against opium Imperial Commissioner Lin, who set foot in Canton in early 1839 in China to other battles being waged on other fronts. King took with the mandate and determination to stamp out the opium heart from the fact that "the spirit which has abolished slavery trade, and who was willing to suspend all foreign trade to attain in Europe and is abolishing it in America, and the spirit which his goal. At the end of March, forty-one apparently chastened has given a death-blow to intemperance in America and is ex­ foreign companies promised "not to deal in opium, nor to tending its influence to Europe, is approaching us, and it is a spirit attempt to introduce it into the Chinese Empire"-a pledge on of might, for it is the spirit of truth, and she is destined to over­ which many subsequently reneged." Conspicuous by its absence come all evil.,,28 In The Chinese Repository of January 1837, King from this list of firms was the name of Olyphant & Company, anonymously offered a prize of $400 for the "best essay on whose noninvolvement in theopium trade had been asserted by the opium trade, showing its effects on the commercial, political, King and recognized by the commissioner in a separate exchange and moral interests of the nations connected therewith, and point­ of communications at the end of March. 22 ing out the course they ought to pursue in regard to it." If King's This official confidence in the integrity of Olyphant & Com­ phrasing of the subject was dispassionate, his own views were pany was confirmed in June 1839, when Charles King and Elijah anything but that. Urging the publication to speak out upon this C. Bridgman were allowed to witness the destruction of some "evil of the deepest die [sic]," King noted that "there is 1,600 of the 20,000 chests of opium surrendered by foreign mer­ not a greater barrier to the introduction of the gospel into China chants to Commissioner Lin following his March ultimatum.23 by the hands of foreigners, than the trade in opium by foreigners King, perhaps assuming that his clean hands on the opium ques­ bearing the Christian name.... All our pretensions of doing tion entitled him to special consideration, presented the com­ good are vain while we remain connected with opium. We can missioner with two petitions. The first, a request that his ships only be accounted of by the nation as hollow-hearted hypo­ be allowed to enter and trade in Canton as before, was granted. crites.,,29 King also wrote a pamphlet, published anonymously in The second, that "speedy reparation ought to be made for all London in 1839 and addressed to the British superintendent of the losses that had been unjustly incurred" through the inter­ trade in Canton, warning of the crisis that was brewing, which ruption of his regular trade, and that basic changes be made in in fact led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Chinese Opium War in the Canton trading system, was refused. Despite not reaching 1840.30

APRIL 1992 67 This condemnation of the opium trade as an obstacle to Chris­ came to Canton on the Morrison, named after the missionary. In tian mission highlights the second aspect of Olyphant & Com­ 1834 Dr. Peter Parker and Olyphant himself (who had returned pany's "oddity" in the Canton environment: its important role to New York in 1827, leaving his business in charge of Mr. Talbot) in promoting American Protestant missions in China." arrived on the Morrison. In 1835 Olyphant offered his brig the Soon after arriving in China and meeting Robert Morrison, Huron to Stevens and Walter Medhurst of the London Missionary D. W. C. Olyphant approached the American Board of Commis­ Society for a trip up the coast to the Shantung peninsula with sioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), offering free passage out twenty thousand pieces of Christian literature, and the following and board and room in the American factory to any person the year Stevens and G. Tradescant Lay of the British and Foreign Bible Society made another "tract and Bible voyage" to the East Indies on Olyphant's Mimmaleh. 32 In addition, Olyphant served as the treasurer for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowl­ The Gospel and opium edge in China, formed in 1834 by Bridgman to use "intellectual artillery" to communicate to the Chinese "the richest fruits of IIcame together, have modern invention and discovery" and a knowledge of Western been fought for together, history and affairs. 33 and were finally legalized When the impact of Western trade and Christian missions upon China in the nineteenth century is depicted in broad strokes, together." the appraisal offered at the beginning of this century by Joshua Rowntree unfortunately must stand: the gospel and opium "came together, have been fought for together, and were fi­ board would choose to send. Over the next decade Olyphant'S nally legalized together.v'" Yet as this gloomy canvas is viewed ships transported missionaries and literature in addition to com­ close-up, finer and felicitous counterstrokes are visible. In the mercial cargoes. In late 1829, Elijah C. Bridgman, sent by the 1830s, out of personal religious conviction, enlightened self-in­ ABCFM under the offer made by Olyphant, and David Abeel, terest as traders, and a desire to promote rather than hinder sent by the Seaman's Friend Society, as well as Charles King, Western evangelizing activity in China, Olyphant & Company sailed on an Olyphant boat that "anchored among the opium produced an uncommon blend of merchandising and missions, receiving ships off Lintin" in February 1830. Edwin Stevens, also conforming neither to Chinese stereotypes of the English and sent out by the Seaman's Friend Society in 1832, and S. Wells French nor to the practice of fellow American merchants, standing Williams, trained as a printer and sent by the ABCFM in 1833, alone in "just saying 'no' " to trafficking in opium.

Notes------­

1. The articles appeared under the overall title "La Chine et les Chi­ after Elliott had ordered the British merchants to withdraw to Macao nois" and were published in Paris in Larevuedesdeuxmondes 63 (1884): following the surrender of the twenty thousand chests of opium to 278--305, 596--622, 820-55; a summary appeared in AtlanticMonthly 56 Commissioner Lin in late March 1839. Cited in Dulles, TheOld China (july 1885): 74-84. Trade, p. 158. 2. Captain Charles Elliott, British superintendent of trade, writing to 8. Chinese authorities considered their country to be "happily self­ Lord Palmerston in the Foreign Office, April 6, 1839; William Speer, sufficient, without any need of the foreign goods that the Europeans The Oldestand Newest Empire: China and the United States (Hartford: S. had to sell. She permitted the barbarians to trade with her only out S. Scranton, 1870), p. 378; John K. Fairbank, The United States and of compassion, knowing how bleak if not unbearable their lives would China, 4th ed., enlarged (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1983), p. be without Chinese goods" (Hibbert, The Dragon Wakes, 5). 162. 9. Cited in Greenberg, British Trade and'theOpening of China, pp. 104-5; 3. Michael Greenberg, British Trade and the Openingof China, 1800-1842 Samuel E. Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), pp. 104, 107. On the (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), p. 278. origins and development of the opium trade at Canton, see Jonathan 10. Cited in Jonathan Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade, 1682­ D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W. W. Norton, 1846: Commercial, Cultural, and Attitudinal Effects (University Park: 1990), pp. 128--32, 148--52; Christopher Hibbert, The Dragon Wakes: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1978), p. 49. China and the West, 1793-1911 (London: Longman, 1970), pp. 82-89; 11. Hunter, The "Fan Kwae"at Canton, pp. 72-73, 80. Foster Rhea Dulles, The Old China Trade (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 12. Cited in Hibbert, The Dragon Wakes, p. 84. Examples of Christian 1930), pp. 139--60. For a participant's account, see William Hunter, condemnations of the opium trade later in the century can be found The "Fan Kwae"at Canton Before Treaty Days, 1825-1844 (London: Ke­ in Sirr, Chinaand the Chinese, 1, p. vii; 2, pp. 296, 339; and Speer, The gan Paul, Trench & Company, 1882), pp. 64-70. On the role of Amer­ Oldest and Newest Empire, pp. 377-78. ican merchants in the opium trade, see Jacques M. Downs, 13. Hibbert, The Dragon Wakes, p. 88. "American Merchants and the China Opium Trade, 1800-1840," 14. Ibid., pp. 87-89; Maurice Collis, Foreign Mud (New York: Alfred A. Business History Review42, no. 4 (Winter 1968): 418--42. Knopf, 1947), p. 70; Arthur Waley, The Opium War Through Chinese 4. The imperial edict of 1800 banning the importation of opium into Eyes (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1958), p. 228. China, cited in Dulles, The Old China Trade, p. 146; a Chinese mem­ 15. Cited in Hibbert, The Dragon Awakes, p. 84. orialist writing in 1836, cited in Frederick Wakeman, [r., Strangers at 16. Other American companies that came to Canton from New York, the Gates: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-1861 (Berkeley: Univ. of Philadelphia, Boston, and Salem included Perkins & Company, James California Press, 1966), p. 33. Oakford & Company, Archer & Company, T. H. Smith & Company, 5. Cited in Henry Charles Sirr, China and the Chinese (London: William Russell & Company, and Wetmore & Company. Olyphant & Com­ S. Orr, 1849), 2, p. 309. pany continued in operation until 1878, even though Olyphant him­ 6. The Chinese Repository 4, no. 12 (April 1836): 556. self died at Cairo, Egypt, on June 10, 1851. 7. Robert Bennett Forbes, explaining to the British superintendent of 17. The description of Olyphant is cited in Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of trade Charles Elliott why he would continue to trade at Canton, even Modern China (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1970), p. 217; on his

68 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH conversion and Charles W. King, see Peter Fay, TheOpiumWar, 1840­ 26. Dulles, The Old China Trade, p. 153. Also Hibbert, The Dragon Wakes, 1842 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1975), p. 84. See pp. 107-9. For an eyewitness account of this incident, see Hunter, Hunter, The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, p. 115, for personal observations The "Fan Kwae" in Canton, p. 27. on Olyphant, in whose ships Hunter made several New York-Canton 27. The Chinese Repository 7, no. 12 (April 1839): 637. voyages. For this study I did not have access to Thatcher Thayer's 28. The Chinese Repository 5, no. 9 (january 1837): 416. For Olyphant & tribute, A Sketch of the Lifeof D. W. C. Olyphant (New York: Edwin O. Company, fighting opium in China must have seemed like an exten­ Jenkins, 1852). Another partner in the firm was Charles N. Talbot, sion of the fight against alcohol and slavery in North America-a con­ who for a while served as the U.S. consular agent in Canton. nection that King makes explicit. For the social and evangelizing activism 18. James C. Thomson, [r., Peter W. Stanley, John Curtis Perry, Senti­ inspired by the Second Great Awakening (1795-1820), see Robert T. mental Imperialists (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), p. 35. Handy, A HistoryoftheChurches in theUnitedStates andCanada (Oxford: 19. Dulles, The Old China Trade, p. 148. Clarendon Press, 1976), pp. 162-82. 20. Morison, TheMaritime Hisioru of Massachusetts, o. 278. 29. From King's anonymous article in TheChinese Repository 5, no. 9 (Ian­ 21. The entire text of the communication from the merchants to Com­ uary 1837): 41~18. missioner Lin is found in British Foreign and State Papers, 1840-1841, 30. [Charles King], Opium Crisis: A LetterAddressed to Charles Elliott, Esq. vol. 29 (London: James Ridgway & Sons, 1857), pp. 996--97. (London, 1839). 22. The commissioner did chide King, however, for failing to convince 31. On Olyphant's support of missions, see Kenneth Scott Latourette, A the other foreign merchants to hand over their opium. See TheChinese Historyof Christian Missions in China (London: SPCK Press, 1929), pp. Repository 7, no. 12 (April 1839): 637-38. 217-19; Edward V. Gulick, Peter Parker and theOpening ofChina (Cam­ 23. An account of the visit, written by Bridgman, appeared in TheChinese bridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 21, 64-65. Repository 8, no. 2 (lune 1839): 70-77. 32. Fay, The Opium War, pp. 84-91; Gulick, Peter Parker and the Opening 24. Cited in Fay, The Opium War, p. 77. of China, pp. 64-65. 25. What in fact did Olyphant & Company sell in Canton? Perhaps their 33. Fred W. Drake, "Protestant Geography in China: E. C. Bridgman's China-bound ships carried goods similar to those inventoried by Wil­ Portrayal of the West," in Christianity in China: Early Protestant Mis­ liam Hunter when he sailed from New York on Thomas H. Smith's sionary Writings, ed. Suzanne W. Barnett and John K. Fairbank (Cam­ Citizen in late 1824: the cargo consisted of "350,000 Spanish dollars bridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1985), p. 94. in kegs (no letters of credit on London bankers then existing), furs, 34. Joshua Rowntree, TheImperial DrugTrade (London, 1908), p. 242, cited lead, bar and scrap iron, and quicksilver" (The "Fan Kwae" at Canton, in Harold R. Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds: American Images of China p. 2). William Jardine was sure that Olyphant & Company smuggled and India (New York: John Day, 1958), p. 134. in everything else other than opium (Fay, The Opium War, pp.121­ 22).

The Legacy of A. B. Simpson

Gerald E. McGraw

here should a pastor locate if his highest priorities for born of Scottish Presbyterian ancestry on December 15, 1843. At W the 1880s included missionary promotion and the evan­ age three and a half, he was transplanted by his stern, religious gelizing of unreached masses? From what American port did family to a farm near Chatham in southwestern Ontario. overseas missionaries sail? To what harbor were nearly a million , What influences ignited his missionary zeal? With fervent de­ immigrants arriving annually to seek a new life? The answer, sire but Calvinistic submission, his godly mother Jane had prayed obviously, was New York City, which was both the haven for before Albert's birth for a son who should become a minister or new settlers and the hub of missionary departures, arrivals, and missionary if God willed and the child was so inclined. 1 Jane and information. her husband, James, a Presbyterian elder, had gained a concern Yearning to spread the Gospel abroad as well as to neglected for missions through their pastor at Cavendish, Prince Edward people nearer, an innovative middle-aged Louisville clergyman Island, John Geddie, who would in 1846sail for the New Hebrides known for captivating preaching, Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843­ as one of Canada's first foreign missionaries. When Geddie had 1919), began a pastorate at Manhattan's Thirteenth Street Pres­ baptized young Albert, in his prayer he had also dedicated him byterian Church on December 9, 1879, the dawn of a decade when to the ministry or to missionary service." In his teenage years, American urban population increased by fifty percent. Two months Simpson sensed a call to preach. Subsequently, amid physical, later Simpson launched The Gospel in All Lands, North America's emotional, and spiritual stresses he found assurance of personal first illustrated missionary magazine. salvation after reading Walter Marshall's Gospel Mystery of Sanc­ It is difficult to imagine a more vivid contrast than the dis­ tification. He studied classics in high school and with tutors, taught parity between the serenity of the isolated, rural Prince Edward school, and entered Knox College in Toronto for college and sem­ Island of Simpson's birth and the teeming New York commercial inary. metropolis where his major ministry would occur. Albert was On furlough twenty one years after baptizing the lad, Geddie inquired from Albert's father the whereabouts of the boy he had dedicated. Upon learning that he was serving as pastor of Knox Gerald E. McGraw is Director of the School of Bible and Theology, and Fuller Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario, Geddie immediately E. Callaway Professor of Biblical Studies at Toccoa Falls College, Toccoa Falls, visited Albert." "Towards the end of his own life and ministry Georgia. Simpson recognized Geddie as probably the strongest influence

APRIL 1992 69 that led him into active participation in foreign missions," notes the press, and the criticism of his loyal wife, Margaret, Simpson Daryl Cartmel.4 Simpson evidenced missionary interest while at forsook a comfortable salary to become, as he explained, an evan­ college and in his Hamilton pastorate. His call to the pulpit of gelist who would remain on the scene to follow up his converts Louisville's Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church came after he and who refused to trust anyone but God for his support. Urging preached a guest sermon in a New York church while in that city his Presbyterian fold to remain with their own worthwhile work, as one of 516 delegates attending the Sixth General Conference Simpson soon attracted followers from many denominational of the Evangelical Alliance, an interdenominational organization backgrounds to a new independent ministry, which he eventually promoting Christian unity and cooperative efforts. At this con­ formed into a local church, the Gospel Tabernacle. Within ten ference he heard convincing papers on methods of reaching the years, his movement would include a membership all over the unevangelized overseas. After he returned home, the Hamilton United States and Canada, supporting twenty-four missionaries Spectator reported, "An excellent sermon was preached last in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central America. evening in this church by the Rev. A. B. Simpson on the 'Lessons Concurrently with the commencing of his new Manhattan of the Evangelical Alliance.' ,,5 enterprise, in January 1882Simpson began publishing a new mag­ Sensing a lack of personal cleansing and anointing for service, azine, The Word, the Work and the World, which included Bible in the early days of his Louisville pastorate Simpson found as the teaching and articles urging bold outreach-both local and over­ solution the Holy Spirit's empowering." The new dynamic im­ seas. (As a result of a collapse of his health in 1880, Simpson had pelled him to unite quarreling Louisville churches in a highly turned over responsibility for TheGospel in All Lands to a Methodist successful 1875 city-wide crusade, led by Major D. W. Whittle publisher, Eugene R. Smith.) Organizing The Missionary Union for the Evangelization of the World as early as March 1883, the Gospel Tabernacle by November 1884 had already sent five male ~uided missionaries to Congo." Due to hostile traders, disease, and death, Simpson his the Congo mission quickly failed," but the bravery and faith of congregation to minister to the original missionaries later inspired others. its community with a more His new periodical's first issue contained the probing ques­ tion: "Has the time arrived when the Christians of America aggressive, popular, should be asked to unite in forming a new missionary organi­ evangelistic approach. zation for the special purpose of evangelizing, within the present generation, the unoccupied fields of the world?"IO When he shared. this ambition with W. E. Blackstone, the latter replied that such and P. P. Bliss. As Simpson beheld throngs entering the fold in an interdenominational movement should have Simpson rather this campaign, he determined to guide his congregation to min­ than himself for its founder. 11 In an 1886 sermon on the final day ister to its community in less conventional ways with a more of Simpson's first Old Orchard, Maine, summer convention, aggressive, popular, evangelistic approach. Stirred by missionary Blackstone suggested the formation of a movement to evangelize fervor at a Believers' Conference at Watkins Glen, New York, in Tibet, supposedly heathendom's final outpost. The result was the 1878, Simpson next visited friends near Chicago, where a vivid formation of two societies a year later at the July 3D-August 9, dream aroused him to missionary commitment. All the world's 1887, Old Orchard Convention. While the Christian Alliance com­ Christians sat in a vast hall while multitudes of anguished prised a home base committed to proclaiming the Word in North "heathen"-mostly Chinese--occupied the platform, wringing America, the Evangelical Missionary Alliance constituted a for­ their hands. Awaking, Simpson responded, "Yes, Lord, I will eign mission board. In recognition of Canadian participation, the go." Finding no open door, however, he eventually concluded latter society soon became The International Missionary Alliance. that his missionary call meant that he must toil for world evan­ Since the two alliances resembled two arms of one body, they gelism as enthusiastically as if he were permitted to venture over­ merged ten years later to form The Christian and Missionary seas as a resident foreign missionary. This driving conviction led Alliance, an interdenominational movement to promote overseas him to New York, where the time seemed ripe for launching a and homeland missions. As the society grew and more organi­ nonsectarian monthly periodical chock-full of factual material on zation became inevitable, it finally accepted denominational sta­ every conceivable missionary effort. Sparkling with geographical tus more than half a century after Simpson's death." and cultural data, a typical monthly issue would specialize in a given continent or major field. Mission leaders lauded it. Dr. J. M. Reid, Secretary of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Simpson's Philosophy of Mission Episcopal Church, called it "the best Missionary Magazine in the world for general purposes," and Dr. S. H. Kellog, Allegheny Simpson's philosophy of mission majored on a person rather than Seminary professor, wrote, " ... it is far beyond anything in a creed. Advocating trinitarian views, Simpson nevertheless saw the missionary line published in this country." Most issues of The Jesus Christ, the redeemer, as constituting the center, source, Gospel in All Lands survive at the A. B. Simpson Historical Library motive, goal, and dynamic for Christian living. Missions, then at the international headquarters of the Christian and Missionary must focus upon Christ, the one who died to create the Gospel Alliance, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 7 to be proclaimed. Even as missions should expound Christ's mes­ Although he had energetically served that traditional Thir­ sage, please Christ, and glorify Christ, so also the fullness of teenth Street parish for two years, at the same time he kept pur­ Christ provided the power to equip missionaries for their work. suing cross-cultural ministries in public halls and on the streets. Instead of formulating one's own objectives for service, the Chris­ Reputed to constitute the metropolis' most wealthy, fashionable tian worker must see the Lord's purposes for the world." Thus parish, his congregation refused to welcome hundreds of Italian Simpson's philosophy concerned a world view, which sought to immigrants he was winning to Christ. Consequently, despite the ascertain a divine perspective on the needs of the world and the remonstrating of his denominational colleagues, the wonder of solutions Christ advocated. Since Christ was as concerned about

70 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH a lost soul in New York as about a lost soul in Shanghai, Simpson aroused to serious effort for missions, one of Simpson's conven­ advocated home missions as well as foreign missions. He com­ tion staff members gave her jewels, estimated as worth $250, for prehended the entire worldwide task as Christ-centered work. missions. Others of the audience of only a hundred people, re­ Celebrating the centennial of William Carey's ordination, Simp­ sponded in joyous spontaneity with money or jewelry, so that son approvingly quoted the dying Carey: "Mr. Duff, you have they contributed enough to support four workers for a year. Two been speaking about Dr. Carey; when I am gone, say nothing young men also surrendered themselves for overseas service. A about Dr. Carey-speak of Dr. Carey's Saviour.v'" month later when Old Orchard convened, the momentum from Christ-centered work should build on Christ-centered doc­ Round Lake seemed present from the start. Thousands attended, trine. Missions, for Simpson, involved the proclamation of a mes­ and members of the convocation pledged support for forty-five sage centering in the Lord Jesus Christ. Four doctrinal distinctives missionaries. Later, in his article, "One Hundred Foreign Mis­ underlie his philosophy of mission. Although numbers of his sionaries," Simpson commented that after eighteen centuries of contemporaries underscored these same emphases, it was Simp­ comparative inactivity, "within a single generation, China'. son who popularly codified the message as the Fourfold Gospel: Japan, Africa and Turkey, have been thrown open to missionaries Christ as saviour, sanctifier, healer, and coming king. Believing without restriction," so that at the time of this mighty upsurge that apart from Christ people remained eternally doomed, he of missionary renewal at summer conventions, "there is scarcely considered evangelization-not education or social or medical re­ a region beneath the sky which might not now be claimed for lief-as mission's prime essential. The majority of the world lacked Christ, if the church were ready, and the men and means at an opportunity for salvation." Overseas candidates needed to hand." Although he had begun that year asking for funds to send experience Christ as sanctifier for power to present the Gospel ten new missionaries overseas, the response of the summer of convincingly, live the Gospel exemplarily, and lead converts to 1891 was such that he ended the year by consecrating a hundred mature Christian behavior. "All missionary enterprise must new missionaries, thereby demonstrating the movements abun­ have its source in deeper spiritual life.Y'" Learning of Christ as dant zeal. 20 healer in Maine in 1881, Simpson was himself suddenly spared Even aside from the aforementioned eschatological urgency, from anticipated death from a diagnosed heart condition. Al­ Simpson saw each generation as rapidly passing away with no though he resisted making divine healing the whole of the Gos­ one to minister to them except the current generation. Two ar­ pel, experience and Scripture taught him that it constituted a part ticles, "The Great Commission," and "Eloquent Figures for of the Gospel to be communicated overseas. Faith would see God the Cause of Missions," published in 1890 and 1892, respectively, confirm his Word with healing signs." form clear examples of how Simpson visualized the urgent need Simpson's philosophy of mission flowed from two major es­ and resources for missions, making statistics live. Like the Student chatological streams. Frequently recurring themes in his missiol­ Volunteer Movement, he urged the evangelization of the world ogicalliterature include premillennialism and the dependence of in his generation. In 1892 he was estimating that twenty thousand Christ's imminent return on missionary endeavor. Converted missionaries could complete the task before the century ended." himself from the postmillennialism so common in his times, Simp­ On the very day that Simpson and his associates organized son allowed postmillenarians to join the Alliance but called mis­ the Evangelical Missionary Alliance, in a Monday morning Old sion policy "foolish and short-sighted" when Christian workers Orchard sermon, he charged that "the Church is failing and aimed to establish an earthly millennium through proclamation. He held that the Jerusalem Council had proclaimed the divine intent for world evangelism in the present age. Citing Acts 15:14­ His fashionable parish 16, he complained: "If the church had ever kept this in view she would have saved herself the waste of much vain effort and refused to welcome bitter disappointment in her attempts to build up a permanent hundreds of Italian earthly institution and create on earth a kingdom without the immigrants that Simpson King."18 For him, the divine purpose for the present age includes not world conversion but the selecting of a people from among was winning to Christ. all nations to be Christ's bride. Christ will return to receive that bride only after the nations have heard the message. Quoting Matthew 24:14, he explained the relationship of world mission to coming short in her work. She is not making the work of foreign the eschatological countdown: "The wide spread aggressive missions her chief business, as Christ meant it should be. The missionary movement of our times is one of the most significant apostles gave their best men to it, but the Church today is playing signs of the end.... It is the one last condition preceding His at it.,,22 Seeing the church's feeble efforts as futile amid pressing advent-the door which we can turn.,,19 needs, Simpson often pleaded for sacrifice." Such pleas, as al­ Urgency marked his philosophy of mission. Regardless of ready noted, sometimes evoked gifts of jewelry in the offering current events, Simpson would have said that "it is a tremen­ plates. Somewhat embarrassing Simpson, such spectacular events attracted the press, with some newspapers publishing exagger­ dous emergency ... because of the insistence of the Master's 2 command and commission about it." Moreover, world needs called ated reports. for immediate action. Faith became electrified at the 1891 summer An additional feature in Simpson's philosophy, dating from conventions. Planners had earmarked for foreign missions only the 1875 Louisville crusade, was cooperation. Assiduouslyavoid­ the final Tuesday of the Round Lake convention near Albany, ing the promotion of a schism at the Thirteenth Street church, New York. An early morning Bible study speaker that day con­ Simpson found his resignation painful. When he commenced cluded by suggesting the propriety of sending the Gospel to every independent meetings, he avoided assembling at times in conflict creature within the coming decade. Although the statement was with established churches, since he wanted to unite church people not profound, virtually the entire audience arose to assure their for world evangelism instead of drawing them out of one de­ concurrence. Later that day, admitting that she had been first nomination into another. He later described his intent for his

APRIL 1992 71 ~RANSFORMING

COMMUNICATION NEW EVANGELIZATION THEORY FOR Good News to the Poor CHRISTIAN WITNESS LEONARDO BOFF Revised Edition Offers an assess ment of the past and CHARLES H. KRAFT future prospects of Christianity in Drawing upon faith experience and the Latin America and its " new social sciences, Kraft helps to create evangelization." Paper $13.95 awareness of the mystery of human communication in the service of God. Paper $19.95 WITNESS: LETTERS TO Writings of Bartolome de Las Casas CONTEMPLATIVES TRENDS IN MISSION GEO RGE SANDE RLIN, Editor WILLIA M JOHNSTON Toward the Third Millennium Arriving in the New World just ten Johnston shares the fruit of a life-long WILLI AM JENKI NSON and years after Columb us, " Las Casas study and practice of contemplative HELENE O'SULLI VAN, Editors forced his contemporaries to question Chri stian spirituality in dialogue with Majo r writings celebrating the 25th the morality of the brutal treatment of Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism. Anniversary of SEDOS, the research Indians."-The New York Times Paper $9.95 center in Rome sponsored by seventy­ Magazine two Catholic mission societies, on the Paper $12.95 key issues in mission today. ASIAN CHRISTIAN Paper $26.95 SPIRITUALITY CROSS & SWORD Reclaiming Traditions An Eyewitness History of VIRGINIA FABELLA , PETER K.H. LEE , FACES OF JESUS Christianity in Latin America DAVID KWANG-SUN SUH, Editors IN AFRICA H. McKENNIE GOODPASTURE Explores popular Asian religious tradi­ ROBERT J. SCHREITE R, c. PP.S., Editor These first-person accounts " possess tions and how they foster a liberative an immediacy that is always engaging, Christian spirituality concerned with French and English-speaking African occas ionally thrilling . .." -Los Angeles creating new patterns of relationships. theologians reinterpret chri stology for Times Book Review Paper $16.95 peoples not formed by Israelite and Paper $16.95 Western religions and cultural traditions . AFRICAN THEOLOGY IN Paper $18. 95 ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT BENEZET BUJO COMMON JOURNEY, Contemporary Africa n theology's DIFFERENT PATHS perspectives on Jesus as " Proto­ Spiritual Direction in Ancestor"-the One from whom all Cross-Cultural Perspective life flows. SUSAN RAKOCZY, Editor Paper $16.95 Presents the basic issues and the practice of spiritual direc tion in UNCOMPLETED cross-cultural settings. Paper $18.95 MISSION Christianity and Exclusivism KWES I A. DICKSON THE WILL TO ARISE Dickson reviews the roots of Christian Women, Tradition, and exclusivism, which may accept con­ the Church in Africa verts but not their culture and tradi­ ME RCY AMBA ODUYOYE and tions, and points to a God who seeks MUS IMBI B.A . KANYORO, Editors communion equally with all The reality of being African, women , peoples. and Christian is told in term s of con­ Paper $18.95 temporary culture and Christian hope. Paper $16.95 MISSION STUDIE~-.

AFTER PATRIARCHY NEW DIRECTIONS Feminist Reconstructions of IN MISSION & the World Religions PAULA COOEY, WILLIAM R. EAKIN EVANGELIZATION: 1 Documents 1974-1991 and JAY B. McDANIEL, Editors Basic JAMES A. SCHERER and Women from different faith and culture STEPHEN B. BEVANS, editors tradit ions search for answers in a post­ A vital compendium of basic docu ­ patriarchial context while exploring ments , including texts from Evangelical , their own heritages. Paper$16.95 Cloth $39.95 Orthodox, World Council of Churche s, and Catholic conferences. Paper $16.95 ONE CHRIST­ MANY RELIGIONS TRANSFORMING Toward a Revised Christology STANLEY 1. SAMARTHA MISSION Paradigm Shifts in "A book of subtlety and grace . .. Theology of Mission theologi cally credible, spiritually satis­ WORLD RELIGIONS & American Society of Missiology Series fying, and pastorally helpful ." DAVID 1. BOSCH - TISSA BALASURIYA HUMAN LIBERATION The entire sweep of Christian history DAN COHN-SHERBOK, Editor Paper $16.95 Cloth $39.95 and tradition through six paradigms Christian liberation theol ogy encoun­ encapsulating the understanding of ters the basic ethic al visions of world mission . JESUS CHRIST AT religions. Paper $24.95 Cloth $44.95 THE ENCOUNTER OF Paper $16.95 Cloth $39.95 WORLD RELIGIONS RECONCILIATION JACQUES DUPUIS, SJ. AN APOLOGY FOR Finds in the innermost dynamics of Mission and Ministry in a APOLOGETICS Changing Social Order Christianity the grounds for enriching Orbis-B.T./. Series , Vol. 3 dialogue with other faiths. A Study in the Logic of ROBERT 1. SCHREITER, c.PP.S. Paper $18.95 Cloth $39.95 Interreligious Dialogue PAUL 1. GRIFFITHS Uncovers layers of forgotten meaning Griffiths argue s for a spirited defense and brings forward the uniqueness of THE CHURCH IN THE of each religious trad ition by people the ministry of reconciliation be­ AFRICAN CITY who are committed to its "truth," but queathed to follower s of Christ. Paper $10.95 AYLWARD SHORTER open to hear serious criti cisms. Paper $16.95 Cloth $39.95 The rapid urbanization in the African continent presents a complex of prob­ lems that will determine the face of THE NEW African Christianity. Paper $19.95 UNIVERSALISM Foundations for a Global Theology DAVID 1. KRIEGER "A ground-breaking work in an area of the very greatest theol ogical and cul­ tural concern."-LANGDON GILKEY Paper $16.95 Cloth $39.95

ORBIS BOOKS Maryknoll, NY 10545 1-800-258-5838 In NY Collect 914-941-7687 original Missionary Alliance thus: "Its scope shall be universal, In addition, he advocated planning, preparation, and field and its character and spirit catholic and un sectarian and it will research prior to overseas advance. Preaching held a vital place seek to unite Christians of all evangelical denominations in its in spreading the Gospel. After converts made a decision, instruc­ work." Moreover, he affirmed a willingness to send workers over­ tion, discipling, and follow-up required priority attention. seas "without regard to their denominational preferences." Simpson repeatedly taught that the responsibility for mis­ He saw the demands of the world mission as urging the discard­ sions lies with all Christians rather than with a select number of ing of denominational barriers. In an April 1890 sermon in the called ones whose circumstances permit overseas service. Some­ Gospel Tabernacle, Simpson noted that "the churches of the one must support missionaries with generous finances and in­ mission field are growing weary of denominational names and tercession. Frugal economy, responsibility, and care characterized finding the necessity of presenting to the colossal wall of heath­ his fiscal policies. Although all Alliance missionaries served sac­ enism the "mighty front of the united Church of Christ." Cartmel rificially, the 1890s provide a startling example of economical op­ has researched Simpson's attitude toward various interchurch eration. Seeking earnestly for missionaries for north China, Simpson actions and conferences, including his critical but positive com- agreed to appoint forty-five from a pool of two hundred volun­ teers from Sweden, who had expressed a willingness to live on an allowance of $200 per year. Twenty-one of these missionaries and fifteen children lost their lives in the Boxer rebellion. He saw the demands of Overseas churches should work diligently toward self-sup­ world mission as urging port to release funds for dispatching additional missionary pi­ oneers. All efforts should build toward indigenous operation. the discarding of Originally advocating a self-sustaining mission concept in which denominational barriers. missionaries earned their own support on the field through sec­ ular pursuits, Simpson forsook the plan when it proved imprac­ tical. Instead of paying workers a salary, however, he adopted a mendations of the Edinburgh Conference of 1910, his approval support concept which involved allocating living allowances based of a plan to merge Presbyterians and Congregationalists in South on individual field needs. While the faith principle must underlie the entire missionary enterprise, yet he believed that personnel India, his support for the Student Volunteer Movement, and his transfer of a China mission station to the Reformed Presbyterian would be wasting time and resources by raising their own sup­ mission. Eschewing lengthy involved creeds, he shared a com­ port. Annual conventions where Bible teaching abounded and mon heritage with evangelicals, receiving members who ascribe furloughing missionaries reported on their work constituted the very core of the early Alliance movement. In addition to national, to belief in the Trinity, verbal inspiration, vicarious atonement, eternal salvation, and eternal punishment. Even though he be­ district, and state conventions, every Alliance branch and affili­ ated independent churches conduced conventions. The mission­ lieved Christians share many tenets in common, he saw other world religions as satanic counterfeits.25 ary cause raised support by appealing to those in attendance to sign a pledge card to commit themselves to God alone to give to Simplicity characterized Simpson's approach. If one can treat missions in the ensuing year. This dignified method of instilling a matter directly, why create a cumbersome process? Instead of regular giving remains as the lifeblood of missionary support erecting institutional barriers against missionary preparation and more than a century after the Alliance's inception. 28 selection, a mission should adopt open policies that encourage involvement in mission. Instead of introducing complexity over­ seas, missionaries should suggest simple church government-not Simpson's Many Roles imposed but natural. Instead of adopting complex doctrinal for­ mulations that polarize, Simpson held that unity results from Although he ventured overseas on several tours, Simpson never starting with a few distinctive points about Christ on which many served as a resident overseas missionary. Instead, his contem­ will readily concur. Although one should not regard the essentials poraries saw him as a missionary planner, organizer, and pro­ of historic faith as inconsequential, he or she should concentrate moter with keen leadership skills. People whom he mobilized for on great truths rather than on moot points where honest thinkers action were attracted by his winsome personality, spiritual warmth, have long disagreed. candor, and sincerity. He should be characterized as a pragmatist in the sense that Methodology he appreciated practical action more than theory. As a missions promoter, he depicted the feasibilityof world evangelization within Simpson traced Jesus' major directions from the instructions to a few years if God's people would heed his call to all-out action. the Twelve (Matt. 10), the Seventy (Luke 10), etc. Since the Sev­ As a theological writer and professor, he disdained theology for enty were to pray for additional workers and to precede Christ's its own sake, preferring to speak of great truths. As an educator, own coming, Simpson described them as "the pioneers of the he expressed dissatisfaction with the common lengthy courses of mighty army who were to succeed them in the coming ages." study that equipped potential workers with a classical education His chapter, "The New Testament Pattern of Missions," ex­ in the humanities but lacked training in desperately needed skills. plores specific directives. 26 Having urged the founding of missionary training colleges Several additional methods deserve mention. Believing in as early as 1880, Simpson arose to his own challenge. With no pioneer missions, Simpson sought out inaccessible neglected areas desire to replace existing colleges or theological seminaries for rather than areas already reached by another mission. Thus the students who could attend them, he nevertheless perceived that aim expressed in the Evangelical Missionary Alliance constitution he could mobilize many lay people for evangelism overseas or in asserts the objective of carrying the Gospel to all nations but the metropolis nearby if they had some basic training. Simpson "with special reference to the needs of the destitute and un­ believed the world's oldest Bible college to be the Chrischona in occupied fields.,,27 Basel, Switzerland, although he mentioned similar schools in Ger­

74 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH many, Sweden, and Denmark as well as England. Following the evangelizing immigrants, abandoning pew rents, or ministering lead of Henry Grattan Guinness's successful East London Insti­ divine healing. He did not hesitate to use women on his platforms tute, the Mildmay organization's Zenana training school in Lon­ and boards and wrote of the Holy Spirit as portraying feminine don, and the China Inland Mission's school for Chinese work, qualities within the Godhead. Although he valiantly defended Simpson in 1882 founded the New York Missionary Training Col­ the historic Protestant heritage in works like The Old Faith and the lege, North America's earliest surviving Bible college (now Nyack New Gospels, he lacked patience with traditionalist rigidity-es­ College), the forerunner of hundreds of such colleges in North pecially when it proved intolerant of the Fourfold Gospel or loath America. In contrast to the usual missionary education of his day, to plunge into vigorous world evangelization. Simpson called for a speedier, more action-centered training for Whereas the roots of Simpson's theology grew out of tradi­ "light infantry" missionary workers. Nyack currently main­ tional Calvinism, in time his position moderated. In fact, he found tains a strong emphasis on missionary and ministerial preparation that "neglected truths" he had been uncoverin~deviated from through its graduate division, Alliance Theological Seminary. his traditionalist seminary education. In additioruas lie worked Delighting in pulpit ministry, from his graduation and mar­ with Arminians as well as Calvinists, he appreciated the fact that riage at age twenty-one until his death, Simpson continuously truth often seemed to lie somewhere between extremes. Prefer­ .served pastorates. For years he conduced on Fridays the largest ring to concentrate on Christ the unifier rather than on doctrine weekday religious service in New York City. In addition to serving (a source of division), he sought to work with earnest people in as chief administrator of his college and of his Alliance movement, both camps. The resulting doctrinal tension seems to surface at he took time to pen 101 books and 300 hymns and to edit at least various points in his writings. Never choosing to renounce the one periodical continuously from 1880 through 1919. He claimed revered reformed heritage, he nevertheless supplemented it with that "there is no more effective instrumentality today for awak­ new insights he believed to be biblical. ening missionary interest for summoning the workers to the har­ vest field than the printed page and the consecrated pen.,,29 He composed an abundance of articles and editorials on religious There was a radical subjects. Sensing the multiplicity of his projects, the New York Times asserted that "there was almost no end to Mr. Simpson's contrast between religious activities. ,,30 Simpson's traditional Tensions ministry in Hamilton and his aggressive evangelism Simpson wrestled with several tensions in his life and ministry. Several which he encountered at great formative transition points in New York. in his ministry appear to have found resolution in his thinking, but a few likely clung to him through the years. Many religions consider a saint as a holy person withdrawn More quickly resolved in his thinking were such tensions as from distractions and spending his or her life enjoying beatific the relation between traditional education and practical training. communion with God. A missionary, to the contrary, as a divine Although he profited highly from his own classical and advanced messenger reaches out to lost and suffering people. In scrutinizing education, he believed that the times called for urgent action by his biography, one senses that Simpson at times pondered the trained irregulars to supplement the inadequate quantity of highly two contrasting roles. When on one occasion he sequestered him­ educated (but sometimes inadequately trained) missionaries and self away, intending to remain alone until he received a fresh pastors. In view of unfulfilled needs, one must not limit involve­ spiritual enduement, he read after a few days the Great Com­ ment in Christian work to men who have completed traditional mission in context, which convinced him that the divine empow­ college and seminary preparation. Consequently, in addition to ering would only be available as a person obeyed the charge to opening his pioneer Bible college, he supported additional Bible go into the world to minister to the needy. As a promoter of colleges springing up throughout the continent and opened Bible Christ-likeness and a revered example of his teaching, Simpson schools overseas for nationals. Simpson, nonetheless, employed yet avoided the temptation of isolating himself from his mission. a number of highly educated professors in his training college. Certainly Simpson appeared as no recluse; his holiness tran­ In his earliest pastorate, Simpson defended traditional min­ scended contemplative monasticism. Pouring himself out in con­ isterial methodology, spurning novel approaches. Thus, one can stant ministries, he promoted relief work to the destitute, sponsored discern a radical contrast between Simpson's composed, tradi­ rescue missions for the dissolute, operated Berachah as a healing tional ministry in Hamilton and the vigorous whirl of aggressive home for the suffering, and engaged in bold evangelistic ventures evangelism that characterized his New York work and much of to the unsaved. In so doing, he proved the validity of his state­ his Louisville service. ment in an 1894 article: "This great commission is backed up Similarly, the years at Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church by a mighty promise, pledging all the needed power for its ac­ bring into sharp focus the tension he himself was experiencing complishment," for Matthew 28:18 accompanies Matthew 28:19. 31 as a clergyman serving a staid parish and at the same time a Another ongoing tension concerns liberalism vs conserva­ zealous evangelist and editor bent on rescuing both lost immi­ tism. Although Simpson never seemed to share the struggles of grants in New York and unevangelized nations abroad. his contemporaries on issues like scriptural inspiration, the lit­ eralness of the virgin birth and of Christ's resurrection, or evo­ Weaknesses lution vs. fiat creation, yet he was a liberal innovator both in relation to what he called "neglected truths" and in evange­ Some writers have discovered inconsistencies in Simpson's life listic and service methods. Thus, Simpson disparages "con­ and work. In his striving for practicality, Simpson sometimes servative" churches unresponsive to his innovative ideas of ventured impracticably. Tending to dream like a visionary, some

APRIL 1992 75 of his ideas proved dismal failures. Undaunted, he would look movement because he considered it extremism to insist that all for a more workable program. Never chained to his own past who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit must speak in tongues starts, he maintained a flexibility that could always see new ho­ as the evidence. When three non-Alliance Y.M.C.A. new mis­ rizons. sionaries died from untreated disease in Sudan, some writers Some have charged Simpson with forgetting that charity be­ heaped harsh criticism on Simpson, who had allegedly influenced gins at home. Amid domestic discord, he first dragged his family their views toward a simple lifestyle and toward divine healing. 32 to the nation's metropolis and later launched out from the ordered Always urging Alliance missionaries to make their own choices ministry of his denomination and its comfortable salary to become on use or refusal of medication, Simpson sought to build faith an unsupported independent preacher. Much grief resulted from without living presumptively or inviting charges of extremism. these decisions. Some have pointed out that Mrs. Simpson's qualms In conclusion, the New York Times called him "one of the about rearing children in the wicked urban setting proved founded. leading ... executives in foreign missionary work," and The Sun­ Like various other leaders of his time, he tended to neglect his day School Times estimated that "he probably had no superior natural family to enlarge and edify the family of God. in missionary appeal.t" Simpson's contribution to missions has Probably the deepest criticisms of Simpson have surrounded proven to be noteworthy. Besides influencing many other missions his more distinctive and successful innovations. Critics viewed and individual missionary statesmen, he fathered a "sending" the Bible college as a dangerous educational short-cut; they dis­ organization that has demonstrated its viability in pioneering, trusted his nontheological approach, his departure from the reg­ sacrifice, evangelism, and church growth. Regarded by the Bible ular workofdenominational ministry-whichallegedlycheapened college movement as its founder, he instigated a kind of insti­ the Gospel-and his doctrinal emphases on divine healing, prem­ tution that has contributed to the education of some seventy-five illennialism, and sanctification. Traditionalists sometimes re­ percent of current evangelical missionaries. 34 Various churches garded his view of sanctification as unnecessarily requiring an and missions have learned from his plan of the missionary con­ artificial two-stage approach or as requiring too much sanctifi­ vention and the missionary pledge. His coooperative spirit and cation prior to death; he conceived of sanctification as a prepa­ his sense of the urgency of the missionary task deserve emulation. ration for living as well as for dying. Others withdrew from his

Notes------­

1. A. W. Tozer, Wingspread: Albert B. Simpson-A Study in Spiritual Al­ Birthofa Vision(Beaverlodge, Alberta: Horizon House, 1986), pp. 203, titude, Centenary ed. (Harrisburg: Christian Publications, 1943), p. 206. 12. 18. A. B. Simpson, TheChallenge ofMissions (New York: Christian Alliance 2. Daryl Westwood Cartmel, "Mission Policy and Program of A. B. Pub. Co., 1926), p. 47. Simpson" (M.A. thesis, Kennedy School of Missions of Hartford Sem­ 19. A. B. Simpson, "Having Understanding of the Times," The Word, inary Foundation, 1962), pp. 1--4. Work and World, October 1886, p. 222. 3. A. E. Thompson, The Life of A. B. Simpson, official authorized ed. 20. A. B. Simpson, "One Hundred Foreign Missionaries," The Chris­ (Brooklyn: Christian Alliance Pub. Co., 1920), p. 118. tian Alliance and Missionary Weekly, August 7, 1891, p. 93; Niklaus, 4. Cartmel, p. 14. Sawin, and Stoesz, All for Jesus, pp. 89-93. 5. See editorials, articles, and sermons in the Hamilton Spectator, October 21. A. B. Simpson, "Redeeming the Time," The Evangelical Christian, 9, 14, 17, 20, 1873; Thompson, p. 51; Cartmel, p. 16. January 1912, p. 11; A. B. Simpson, "The Great Commission," The 6. Gerald E. McGraw, "The Doctrine of Santification in the Published Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly, May 15, 1890, pp. 306-11; Writings of Albert Benjamin Simpson" (Ph.D. diss., New York Uni­ [Simpson], "Eloquent Figures," pp. 43-46; Cartmel, pp. 90, 152-54. versity, 1986), pp. 144-88. 22. A. B. Simpson, "Mission Work," Supplement to The Word, Work 7. "Kind Notice of Our Magazine," The Gospel in All Lands, July 1880, and World, August 1887, p. 106. back cover. 23. A. B. Simpson, "The Scriptural Principles of Missionary Work," 8. H. M. Shuman in Robert B. Ekvall, After Fifty Years: A Record of God's The Christian Alliance and Foreign Missionary Weekly, August 24, 1894, Working through theChristian andMissionary Alliance (Harrisburg: Chris­ p.172. tian Publications, 1939), p. 17. 24. McGraw, "The Doctrine of Sanctification," pp. 103-4, 580-81. 9. Robert L. Niklaus, John S. Sawin, and Samuel J. Stoesz, All for Jesus: 25. Simpson, "The Great Commission," p. 310; Cartmel, pp. 61-62, God at Work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance over One Hundred 175-79. Years (Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1986), pp. 57--60. 26. A. B. Simpson, Missionary Messages, with an Introduction by Walter 10. [A. B. Simpson], "A New Missionary Movement," in The Word, M. Turnbull (New York: Christian Alliance Pub. Co., 1925), pp. 23, the Work and the World, January 1882, pp. 33-34. 19-38. 11. A. B. Simpson, "Introduction," in George P. Pardington, Twenty­ 27. Christian Alliance Year Book, 1888, p. 52. Five Wonderful Years (New York: Christian Alliance Pub. Co., 1914), 28. Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, The Birth of a Vision, pp. 208-11, 217-18; p. 6; A. B. Simpson, "Appii Forum," The Alliance Weekly, Novem­ Simpson, Missionary Messages, pp. 68, 127-30. ber 10, 1917, pp. 82-83. 29. Simpson, Missionary Messages, pp. 45-46. 12. Niklaus, Sawin, and Stoesz, All for Jesus, pp. 70-76, 99, 229-30. 30. "Rev. A. B. Simpson, Evangelist, Dies," New York Times, October 13. A. B. Simpson, "Consecrated Service," in The Word, Work and 30, 1919, p. 13. World, September 1886, p. 172. 31. Daniel Joseph Evaritt, "The Social Aspects of the Ministry and 14. [A. B. Simpson], "William Carey," in The Word, Work and World, Writings of Albert B. Simpson" (M. A. thesis, Drew University, 1980); September 1886, p. 25. Simpson, "Scriptural Principles," pp. 172-75. 15. [A. B. Simpson], "Eloquent Figures for the Cause of Missions," 32. Cartmel, "Mission Policy," pp. 64--68. The Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly, July 15, 1892, p. 44. 33. "Rev. A. B. Simpson, Evangelist, Dies," New York Times, p. 13; 16. A. B. Simpson, "Aggressive Christianity," The Christian and Mis­ Frederic H. Senft, "A. B. Simpson's Spirit-Given Gifts," The Sunday sionary Alliance, September 23, 1899, p. 260. School Times, November 29, 1919, p. 696. 17. T. V. Thomas with Ken Draper, "A. B. Simpson and World Evan­ 34. Kenneth Gangel, "The Bible College: Past, Present, and Future," gelization," in David F. Hartzfeld and Charles Nienkirchen, eds., The Christianity Today, November 7, 1980, p. 1325.

76 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Bibliography

Selected Books by A. B. Simpson 1894 Millennial Chimes: A Collection of Poems. New York: Christian 1886 The King's Business. New York: Word, Work & World Pub. Alliance Pub. Co. Twenty-three missions poems in a collec­ Co. Of its twenty chapters, seven appeared in 1900and 1966 tion of sixty-two. editions as Service for the King. [1896] Paul-the Ideal Man and Model Missionary. New York: Chris­ 1888 TheFour-Fold Gospel, New York: Word, Work & World Pub. tian Alliance Pub. Co., n.d. Co. 1899 Providence and Missions. New York: Christian Alliance Pub. 1888-1920s Christ in the Bible series. 26+ vols. Harrisburg: Christian Co. Publications and publishing predecessors. See Sawin's chart 1900 TheStoryof theChristian andMissionary Alliance. Nyack, N.Y.: in Hartzfeld and Nienkirchen, The Birth of a Vision (Beav­ Alliance Press. Besides recounting origins, this unsigned erlodge, Alberta: Horizon House, 1986), pp. 282~ for de­ promotional work attributed to Simpson spends fifty-sixpages tails on this set of five commentaries, prepared as college on seven overseas missionary areas. class lectures, and more than twenty sermon collections. 1925 Missionary Messages. New York: Christian Alliance Pub. Co. 1892 A Great Missionary Movement. New York: Christian Alliance Posthumously published collection of sermons preached 1892­ Pub. Co. 1913. 1893 Larger Outlooks on Missionary Lands. New York: Christian 1926 TheChallenge of Missions. New York: Christian Alliance Pub. Alliance Pub. Co. Published following a round-the-world Co. Posthumously published collection of sermons preached tour. 1897-1910.

Periodicals as Sources of Missions Articles by A. B. Simpson The Christian Alliance and Missionary Weekly (Editor 1889-93). The Gospel in All Lands (Editor 1880--81). The Christian Alliance and Foreign Missionary Weekly (Editor 1894-97). The Workand the World (Editor 1882). The Christian and Missionary Alliance (Editor 1897-1911). TheWord, the Workand the World (Editor 1882). Living Truths (Editor 1902-1907). The Word, Workand World (Editor 1883--87). The Alliance Weekly (Editor 1911-19). Later called The Alliance Witness and The Christian Alliance (Editor 1887--89). since the centennial now The Alliance Life.

Selected Works about A. B. Simpson 1892-1919 Annual Reports, International Missionary Alliance, and The 1983 Sawin, John S. "Missionary Sermons by A. B. Simpson." Christian and Missionary Alliance. Unpublished Manual. Nyack, N.Y.: [The Christian and Mis­ 1914 Pardington, George P. Twenty-Five Wonderful Years. Intro­ sionary Alliance]. Including both chronological and alpha­ duction by A. B. Simpson. New York: Christian Alliance beticallistings and an introduction, this valuable work contains Pub. Co. This early history by a well-educated early Nyack a brief paper on "The Missiology of A. B. Simpson." College professor has been brought back into print this dec­ Several Sawin manuals like this one, a handwritten Simpson ade as a part of a forty-eight volume facsimile reprint series, diary and other primary sources, early missionary memor­ "The Higher Christian Life," edited by Donald W. Day­ abilia, Simpson books and periodicals, and a number of theses ton and issued by Garland Publishing. and dissertaions on Simpson are preserved in the A. B. 1920 Thompson, A. E. TheLifeofA. B. Simpson. Officialauthorized Simpson Historical Library at the denominational head­ ed. Brooklyn: Christian Alliance Pub. Co. Although the of­ quarters. ficial edition by a Canadian missionary to Palestine con­ 1984 Wilson, Ernest Gerald. "The Christian and Missionary tained additional chapters by other authors whose work does Alliance: Developments and Modifications of Its Original not remain in print, all the Thompson material survives in Objectives." Ph.D. diss. New York University. Ann Arbor: a current edition entitled A. B. Simpson: His Life and Work. University Microfilms. A pastor's significant analysis, draw­ 1939 Ekvall, Robert B. After Fifty Years: A Record of God's Working ing heavily on periodicals and reports. through the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Harrisburg: 1986 McGraw, Gerald E. "The Doctrine of Sanctification in the Christian Publications. Published Writings of Albert Benjamin Simpson." Ph.D. diss., 1943 Tozer, A. W. Wingspread: AlbertB. Simpson-A Study in Spir­New York University. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. In itual Altitude. Centenary ed. Harrisburg: Christian Publica­ Simpson's thought, sanctification provides the dynamic for tions. effective missions. 1948 McKaig, C. Donald. "The Educational Philosophy of A. 1986 Hartzfeld, David F., and Nienkirchen, Charles, eds. TheBirth B. Simpson, Founder of the Christian and Missionary Alli­ of a Vision: Essays on the Ministry and Thought of Albert B. ance." Ph.D. diss., New York University. Simpson. His Dominion, Supplement no. 1. Beaverlodge, Al­ 1962 Cartmal, Daryl Westwood. "Mission Policy and Program berta: Horizon House. Centennial essays by faculty mem­ of A. B. Simpson," M.A. thesis, Kennedy School of Missions bers of Canadian Theological Seminary and Canadian Bible of Hartford Seminary Foundation. College, including "The Missionary Eschatology of A. B. 1971 McKaig, C. Donald., ed. "Simpson Scrapbook." Nyack, Simpson," by Franklin Pyles; "A. B. Simpson and World N.Y.: By the Author. An unpublished collection by a Nyack Evangelization," by T. V. Thomas with Ken Draper; "A. College professor. B. Simpson and the Tensions in the Preparation of Mission­ 1980 Evaritt, Daniel Joseph. "The Social Aspects of the Min­ aries," by Jacob P. Klassen; "Early Alliance Missions in istry and Writings of Albert B. Simpson." M.A. thesis, Drew China," by Paul L. King; and eight additional chapters. University. 1986 Niklaus, Robert L.; Sawin, John S.; and Stoesz, Samuel J. 1982 Reynolds, Lindsay. Footprints: The Beginnings of the Christian All forJesus: God at Workin theChristian andMissionary Alliance andMissionary Alliance in Canada. Toronto: Christian and Mis­ over One Hundred Years. Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian Publica­ sionary Alliance in Canada. Much attention to early peri­ tions. A well-researched history by an editor, an archivist, odicals and newspaper accounts in a history researched and and a seminary professor. written by a chemical engineer.

APRIL 1992 77 The Legacy of W. A. Visser 't Hooft

Lesslie Newbigin

illem Adolf Visser 't Hooft (Wim to all his friends and the YMCA in its newly established department for boys' work. W colleagues) is widely remembered and honored as the From this point onward, Geneva was to be his home as he was first general secretary and (in large measure) the architect of the called in succession to the leadership of the World's Student World Council of Churches. It is less often remembered that his Christian Federation and the World Council of Churches. Their central passion from beginning to end of his active life was for family-a daughter and two sons-were to be born and grow up the missionary faithfulness of the church. in Geneva, and it was there that Wim lived in very active retire­ Visser 't Hooft was born in 1900 in Harlem in the Netherlands ment till his death in 1985. into a distinguished family. His grandfather was a judge, and his From Mott, Visser 't Hooft had caught the vision and the father a lawyer. In the "Declaration" made at his ordination passion of a world mission, to bring the Gospel to every nation. he said: "The home in which I was brought up was one in From Barth he had learned to distinguish that Gospel as the very which there were firm moral beliefs but where Christianity was word of the living God from the mish-mash of religious and something very undefined." As a schoolboy he read voraciously philosophical ideas that formed so much of the "Christianity" and was soon a master of Latin, Greek, English, French, and of Europe. In his early years in Geneva he came under the influence German. The minister who prepared him for confirmation was a of J. H. Oldham-the creative mind behind the Edinburgh Con­ Hegelian much given to religious speculation, and (according to ference of 1910 and the International Missionary Council. Oldham his own testimony) Wim "was on the verge of becoming a had become convinced that the most formidable adversary con­ syncretist." But other influences, three in particular, were to turn fronting the Gospel was no longer to be found among the world him in another direction. religions, which had occupied the attention of the Edinburgh The first was the Dutch Student Christian Movement, which Conference, but in the secularism that had overwhelmed the old introduced him to Christianity not as a matter of speculation but Christendom and was beginning to take over the rest of the world; as a personal call from the Lord Jesus Christ with the challenge the Jerusalem conference of 1928 had this in the center of its attention but gave the suggestion that the world religions might be regarded as in some sense allies in confronting this new ad­ The central passion of versary. For Visser't Hooft, intellectually fired by Barth, this was no Visser 't Hoeft's life was way forward. Oldham did not find in the missionary agencies for the missionary the vision to recognize and deal with this new situation. He sought support in the Life and Work movement, which had flowed from faithfulness of the church. the Stockholm Conference of 1925. Visser 't Hooft became one of Oldham's allies. He never ceased to demonstrate his commitment to the enterprise of "foreign missions," as many of his writings to give his life to him. The second was his meeting, as a student, and speeches show, but he also saw that this enterprise had been with John R. Mott. As a young YMCA secretary, he recalled how corrupted by the fact that Western churches were hopelessly com­ Mott "captivated me by his massive faith and the breadth of promised by syncretism. They had allowed the Gospel to be con­ his vision." Forty years later Visser 't Hooft was still reminding fused with European culture, with all kinds of philosophy and students of "the common obligation of all churches to finish with ideologies such as democracy in the Anglo-Saxon world and the unfinished task of the evangelisation of the world." The third nationalism in Europe. To use one of his favorite images, the event that shaped the whole of the rest of his career was his voice of the one Good Shepherd was either drowned out or con­ encounter with Karl Barth in the Epistle to the Romans. His theo­ fused by other voices. logical training had introduced him to a range of critical, historical, From his position as general secretary of the World's Student sociological, and philosophical questions about religion but had Christian Federation, Wim was in touch with the ablest young not helped him to find a clear standpoint, a criterion of truth. people in all parts of the world, and he used his position to issue Barth did that for him. "This was a man who proclaimed the an unrelenting challenge to the coming generation to give their death of all the little comfortable gods and spoke again of the absolute allegiance to Christ and to him alone. His first major living God of the Bible.... This was the message for which I work of Christian apologetic was entitled None Other Gods. The had been waiting."! West, he argued, owes its spiritual substance to Christianity, but In 1924 Visser 't Hooft completed his theological studies, there is no longer a "Christian West." There is a syncretistic married Henrietta Boddaert, and moved to Geneva to work for mix of Christianity and pagan beliefs. The churches are deeply compromised. Now, he wrote, "Everything depends on the existence among Christians of a deep consciousness of the pe­ culiar mission of Christianity. And it is precisely in such times Lesslie Newbigin, a contributing editor, was for many years a missionary and that the Christian Church should re-affirm the sovereignty of its bishop of the Church of South India in Madras. While serving as director of the Lord over alllife.,,2 International Missionary Council and later director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism in the World Council of Churches, he worked closely When he first visited the United States he found the same with W. A. Visser 't Hooft. He is now retired in Birmingham, England, where syncretism but with a different form of paganism, in which he served for several years on the faculty of Selly Oak Colleges. "democracy was identified with the kingdom of God" because

78 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH (as Americans seemed to think) "God is found as individuals 't Hooft replied: "Why not?" and he did not hesitate to draw find themselves in the great cooperative enterprise of human a tough conclusion. progress.':" He found the same syncretism in the famous "Lay­ men's Report on Foreign Missions," which he discussed in a If there is a country where a Christian church has been planted, a scathing article in The Student World under the title "Spineless relatively new church, and that church says "We want to do Mission." the job ourselves" (it is clear that it cannot do so)---what happens? As the clamor of the pagan ideologies became louder, Visser I do not think that any church has the right to close the door to 't Hooft saw the calling of Christian students more clearly. "There any part of the world. The rest of the Christian world will have to talk with that church and force the door. That is true for all churches are two decisive questions for us Christians to face today: are we in all parts of the world. Missions is a responsibility, a world-wide witnesses, and thus forcing men to make their own choices for responsibility for the total Christian evangelisation of the world, or against the call of God? And, is our witness to Jesus Christ so which goes beyond inter-church aid." clear that no one can mistake it for the voice of one or other of the new deitiesj" " It must now be clear that "the normal task This very tough stance had to be considered in a different of a Christian is to share in the evangelistic task of the Church.r" context when Visser 't Hooft, as secretary of the WCC, had to The corollary of this passionate concern that the word of the deal with the bitter complaints of the Orthodox churches of the Gospel should be set free from its entanglement with the many Middle East against the activities of Protestant missions from the words of men was an equally passionate concern for the unity of Anglo-Saxon world who were recruiting members from the Or­ Christians. How can the world hear the voice of the Good Shep­ thodox fold. And, in another context, he was deeply concerned herd if the church consistently ignores it and insists on dividing into separate flocks whose respective identities are defined by na­ tionalist or by some other human and cultural commitment? How can churches which find their identity more in their nationhood The unique and universal than in the Gospel possibly be faithful witnesses to the Gospel? lordship of Christ is In a powerful address delivered in the early years of the war obscured when a church is to the Basel Mission, entitled "Mission als Oekumenische Tat," he affirmed that the freedom of the Gospel is only truly acknowl­ content to live within the edged when the church is free to be truly the Una Sancta, free frontiers of its own from its compromising alliances with national cultures. Its unity must be a tension-filled unity that can include great cultural di­ society. versity in an overriding allegiance to the one Lord. 6 Speaking to a Western-based missionary society, he reminded his hearers that missionaries in non-Western societies will have a true discern­ with the problem of religious liberty as it affected the minority ment of the dangers of syncretism only if they have first been Protestant churches in Roman Catholic countries. liberated from the syncretism endemic in the national churches While adamant about the permanent necessity of foreign mis­ of Europe. Only as the church is one across national frontiers can sions, Visser 't Hooft was well aware of the factors that have it witness to the royal freedom of.the Gospel. At that moment, made foreign missionaries the object of severe and justified crit­ Visser 't Hooft could point to a fine illustration of his theme. The icism. He saw the root of the trouble in the syncretism of Western "Orphaned Missions" program of the International Mission­ Christianity, which led missionaries into being the agents of cul­ ary Council was enabling Christians to support the missionary tural colonialism rather than simply witnesses of the Gospel. While work of those with whom they were at war. unrelenting in his attack on the relativism that invaded a syncre­ But the link between world mission and Christian unity was, tistic European Christianity, he was compelled to wrestle with for Visser 't Hooft, something that worked in both directions. If the question of religious liberty, especially during the years of authentic missionary witness required unity, it was also true that the Second Vatican Council. Evangelism needs a measure of re­ unity required active missionary commitment. The unique and ligious freedom and therefore religious pluralism, or at least re­ universal lordship of Christ is obscured when a church is content ligious plurality, while the Christian missionary must proclaim to live within the frontiers of its own society. Foreign missions the total lordship of Jesus over all life. Its raison d'etre is to bring have therefore a permanent role in the life of any church that all men and women to Christ." Nevertheless Visser't Hooft was wishes to give faithful witness to the universal lordship of Christ. able to see positive possibilities in pluralism. "Pluralism, rightly They are a necessary safeguard against the perennial temptation understood, creates for the Church a situation in which it is less of the church to allow the Gospel to be domesticated within the in danger of falsifying its own nature, and in which it is better life of a nation. And so, to a decidedly skeptical audience at the able to manifest its true calling. Pluralism provides the Church WSCF Conference in Strasbourg (1960), Visser 't Hooft affirmed with a God-given opportunity to live according to its own inherent his belief that "foreign missions reflect the truly cosmic character spiritual law .... The Church is in the right place, the normal of the lordship of Christ. Every church which is able to do so position when, according to Pascal, it is supported only by God."tO must, therefore, take part in this form of specific witness to the True evangelism will be distinguished from proselytism by the universality of the Gospel.':" The mission is indeed the mission fact that when the authentic voice of the Good Shepherd is heard, of the entire Una Sancta, but this does not mean the end of those who hear it will seek to be one flock. "foreign missions," and neither "world development" or Visser 't Hooft's intellectual and spiritual formation was ob­ "interchurch aid" can replace them. viously in the European context. His book The Kingship of Christ, This conviction was brought out most sharply at a WSCF published in 1948, was primarily concerned with issues in the life meeting in 1949, when Visser 't Hooft was challenged by the of the Western and particularly European churches. It was a pow­ young K. H. Ting, who asked: "Why go to faraway places? Is erful affirmation of the sovereignty of Christ over the worlds of the task of evangelism not the task of the local church?" Visser politics and economics and the whole of public life. Thesame

APRIL 1992 79 year saw the inauguration of the World Council of Churches (in the story of God's dealing with men is, as it were, a constant echo process of formation since 1939), and from that time onward he of this first call. In Christ's life we find again and again that he was necessarily' drawn much more deeply into the problems of overrules the questions put to him by anew, a more decisive the churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He recognized question, namely that of their relationship to God and to himself. their need to develop their thought and life in contexts very dif­ The turning points of his dealings with his disciples are questions: ferent from that of Europe. His acute awareness of the syncretism "But who do you say that I am?" "Simon, lovest thou me?" To be a Christian is to take those questions more seriously than that infected the European churches made him cautious in wel­ any other, to see one's whole life as an attempt to answer the call coming moves toward "indigenous" theologies in Asia. He which is implied.f

Visser 't Hooft gave reasons for rejecting the term "in­ Syncretism in Western digenization." "Contextualization" is a word coined only in 1972 after the period of his active involvement. He preferred the Christianity led term "accommodation." How, he asked, and by what criteria missionaries into being are we to test proposals for "accommodation"? He listed four. First, does this new presentation interpret the Gospel in the light agents of cultural of the Bible as a whole, or does it take only those bits of the whole colonialism. canon that can be fitted easily into the new frame? Does it rec­ ognize that the New Testament is radically misunderstood if it is taken apart from the Old? Second, does the new presentation tell took as a model for the proper relation of the missionary to the the great deeds of God? The Bible is not a book of religion but indigenous culture his friend Hendrik Kraemer's work in Indo­ the history of God's mighty acts. In every culture this history nesia. "He [Kraemer] considers that the real missionary is one must be told. Third, does the message in its new form make clear who is completely bound to the Gospel, but who, precisely for that the Gospel is concerned with the personal encounter with the sake of the Gospel, seeks to enter as fully as possible into the the living God and with the formation of a community based on spiritual life of the people to whom he is sent."! He wanted the this encounter? If this does not happen, if there is a compromise churches of Asia and those of the West to enter into a life of with impersonal ideas of God, then the church becomes the sugar, mutual correction, a life in which there would be tension between not the salt of the world;" Fourth, does the message in its new different cultural expressions of the Gospel but in which all would form fill the local cultural or religious concepts (which have to be profit by the correction offered by others. All this presupposes, used) with biblical substance and so revolutionize them? Is the of course, the absolute supremacy of the one Good Shepherd. accommodation, in Kraemer's phrase, "subversive fulfilment" He is clear that the Christian message is not to be formulated that fills old words and concepts with new biblical meaningr'" as an answer to the questions that people (in any society) ask. He quotes as supreme examples the ways in which Paul and John, in bringing the Gospel from its Hebrew origins into the world of The foundation of Christianity is a question asked by God. On the Greek thought, use Greek words but fill them with a new meaning first page of the Bible God calls Adam: Adam, where art thou? and that is determined by the history of God's doings in and for Israel.

Note-worthy

American Baptist Churches, then taught missiology and com­ Personalia parative religion at Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Eastern Baptist Seminary in Philadelphia, and Southern Bap­ John H. Orme is the new Executive Director of the Interden­ tist TheologicalSeminary in Louisville, Kentucky. During 1961­ ominational Foreign Mission Association of North America, 66 he was director of the Missionary Research Library, editor replacing Jack Frizen, who retired on September 30, 1991, after of the Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library, twenty-eight years. For fourteen years Orme was a missionary adjunct professor of the history of religions at Union Theo­ with CAM International (formerly Central American Mission), logical Seminary in New YorkCity, and also research secretary serving as chairman of the department of theology and dean for the Division of Overseas Ministries, National Council of of the graduate school of the Central American Theological Churches in the U.S.A. From 1966 until retirement in 1985 he Seminary, Guatemala City. More recently he served as chair­ taught religious studies, Asian studies, and international de­ man of the cross-cultural studies program of William Tyndale velopment at Michigan State University. College, Farmington Hills, Michigan, and associate pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church, Southfield, Michigan. Announcing Herbert C. Jackson, former director of the Missionary The American Society of Missiology will hold its 1992 annual Research Library, died on January 18, 1992, in Asheville, North meeting at Techny Towers in Techny, Dlinois (near Chicago), Carolina, after a brief fight against cancer of the pancreas. He June 12-14. The theme of the meeting will be 1/1492, 1792, was seventy-four years old. A graduate of Southern Baptist 1992: Mission in Quincentennial Perspective." The Associa­ Theological Seminary and YaleUniversity (M.A., Ph.D.), Jack­ tion of Professors of Mission will meet June 11-12 at the same son was a missionary in South India, 1944-49, under the place in conjunction with the ASM. The theme of their meet­

80 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH If this "subversive fulfilment" does not take place, the result to enlist O. H. Lawrence as an ally of Christianity and asks what can only be confusion. Lawrence would have had to write to convince the bishop that Alert as he always was to the danger of syncretism, Visser he was not. He saw Europe sinking still deeper into the mire of 't Hooft had no doubt about the necessity of expressing the Gospel relativism. His book No OtherName, published in 1963, was one in terms of the local culture. He was horrified to find the East more powerful statement of the uniqueness, the decisiveness, Asia Christian Conference singing the hymns of Moody and San­ and the finality of Jesus Christ. In the same year he addressed key (and O. T. Niles's EACC hymnal was the result of his wrathful the Mexico Conference of the WCC's Commission on World Mis­ explosion), but he was always most aware of the syncretism of sion and Evangelism under the title "Mission as the Test of Western Christianity and insisted that the Western churches needed Faith." "Faith is tested in various ways," he said, "but there the correction that could come from other local theologies. But he insisted that this mutual correction would take place only if the dialogue between the churches was conducted on the basis of the absolute supremacy of the Bible as the norm by which all Let the church do its job theologies were to be tested. with a single attention to Visser't Hooft saw that this potentially fruitful dialogue be­ tween Eastern and Western churches was complicated by the fact its one sovereign Lord. that all societies were being increasingly dominated by the sci­ ence, technology, and political ideas originating in the West. So there is a special burden of responsibility resting on the Western is no more decisive test than the one concerning the translation churches. They have not themselves learned to face the problems of faith into missionary witness. A central question in the great created by the kind of civilization that they have helped to export examination is: Are you ready in all circumstances to proclaim to the rest of the world. Christians in Europe are therefore on a that Christ is the Lord?,,16 The test of the real faith of a church is missionary frontier. its obedience to the call for missionary obedience among all the nations. He quotes a range of the most influential thinkers of our European culture has become a debate between three forces: Chris­ time to show their total rejection of the Christian faith. The world, tianity, scientific rationalism and neo-pagan vitalism. For a long he says, is simply doing its job; we have no reason to be surprised. time it had seemed that scientific rationalism would take the lead. So let the church do its job with a single attention to its one But recently the picture has changed. The atomic threat, the terrible sovereign Lord. pollution, the lack of meaningful perspectives which the techno­ cratic civilization has brought, have led to the growth of a new irrationalism. . . . The lay-preachers of paganism in the period be­ tween the two world-wars, D. H. Lawrence and Hermann Hesse, are more widely read than ever before. 15

Visser 't Hooft was going against the stream, and he knew it. He comments sarcastically on Bishop John Robinson's attempt

ing will be ''Moving Toward the Center: Missiology for sures that required a reduction in administrative staff. Four Pastoral Education." Lois McKinney of Trinity EvangelicalDi­ new program units will have responsibility for the council's vinity Schoolis president of the ASM,and MaryMotte, EM.M., programs. The programs that were formerly in the Commis­ of the Mission Resource Center in North Providence, R.I., is sion on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME)will now be president of the APM for 1991-92.Forfurther information and part of Program Unit 2: Mission, Education, and Witness registration for both meetings, contact: George R. Hunsber­ (MEW). This unit will be responsible for program emphases ger, Western Theological Seminary, 86 East 12th Street, Hol­ dealing with evangelism, unity in mission, education for all land, Michigan 49423. God's people, mission to challenge unjust structures, Gospel and culture, healing and transformation, and theological sig­ The next conference of the International Association for nificance of religions. The concerns of the former subunit Dia­ Mission Studies will be held August 3-11, 1992, at Hawaii logue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies (formed in Loa College, Kaneoku, Oahu, Hawaii. The theme of the con­ 1971)will continue to be important ecumenical concerns but ference is "New World, New Creation: Mission in Power will no longer be centered in a single office. Ongoing rela­ and Faith." For membership applications in lAMS and further tionships with other faith organizations will be located within information on the conference, write to: Joachim Wietzke, the general secretariat in an Office on Interfaith Relations. General Secretary of lAMS, Mittelweg 143, 0-2000, Hamburg Substantive discussion of the significance of the existence of 13, Germany. other faiths for Christian theology and mission will be the responsibility of MEW.Specificquestions related to the church The World Council of Churches, in September 1991,ap­ and the Jewish people will be considered in Program Unit 1: proved a radical restructuring, partly due to economic pres­ Unity and Renewal.

APRIL 1992 81 Notes

1. Memoirs (1973), pp. 15-16. 10. Ibid., p. 145. 2. None OtherGods, p. 110. 11. Introductory note in From Mission Field to Independent Church, by Hen­ 3. Ibid., p. 19. drik Kraemer (1958), p. 8. 4. The Student World 26, no. 4 (1933): 361. 12. NoneOtherGods, p. 126. 5. Ibid., 27, no. 4 (1934): 191. 13. "Accommodation, True or False," South East Asia Journal of Theology 6. "Mission als Oekumenische Tat," Evang. Missions-Magazin, 8, no. 3 (january 1967): 9. September 1941, p. 138. 14. Ibid., p. 10. 7. The Student World, 54, nos. 1-2 (1961), p. 34. 15. International Review of Mission, 66 (October 1977), p. 355. 8. WSCF Missionary Consultation, Rolle, 1949, typescript in WCC ar­ 16. Witness in Six Continents, Ronald Kenneth Orchard, ed. (London: chives, pp. 7-8. Edinburgh House Press, 1964), pp. 21-22. 9. Ecumenical Review, 18 (April 1966), p. 144.

Bibliography

Selected works by W. A. Visser 't Hooft Selected works about W. A. Visser 't Hooft

Le Catholicisme non-Romain. Paris: Cahiers de Foi et Vie, 1933. English Van der Bent, Ans J., ed., Voices of Unity: Essays in Honour of Willem Adolf trans., Anglo-Catholicism and Orthodoxy: A Protestant View. London: Visser 't Hooft on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Geneva: WCC, SCM Press, 1933. 1981. None OtherGods. London: SCM Press, 1937. Chirgwin, A. M., These I Have Known: William Temple, William Paton, W. The Kingship of Christ: An Interpretation of Recent European Theology. New A. Visser 't Hooft, Martin Niemoller. London: London Missionary So­ York: Harper, 1948. ciety, 1964. TheMeaning of Ecumenical. London: SCM Press, 1953. Gerard, F. "The Concept of Renewal in the Thought of W. A. Visser TheRenewal of the Church. Philadelphia: Westminster Press; and London: 't Hooft." Ph.D. Diss., Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1969. SCM Press, 1956. Mulder, D. C., "'None Other Gods'-'No Other Name,' " Ecumenical The Pressure of Our Common Calling. New York: Doubleday, 1959. Review 38, no. 2 (April 1986): 209-15. No Other Name: The Choice Between Syncretism and Christian Universalism. Nelson, J. Robert, ed., No Man Is Alien: Essays on the Unity of Mankind. London: SCM Press, 1963. Leiden: Brill, 1971. Memoirs. London: SCM Press; and Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. 2nd ed. Geneva: WCC, 1987. The Fatherhood of God in an Age of Emancipation. Geneva: WCC, 1982. Visser 't Hooft's papers are in the archives of the World Council of Churches, The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches. Geneva: WCC, Geneva, where there is also a full list of his books and articles, numbering 1982. about 1,275 items.

Dialogue and Proclamation (Excerpts)

Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Councillor lnierreligious Dialogue

Thisdocument, released bytheVatican onJune 20,1991, waspublished in English and Mission.'?' This document states that the evangelizing mission of the in L'Osservatore Romano on July 1, 1991, and in Origins: CNS Documen­ church is a "single but complex and articulated reality." It indicates tary Service, July4, 1991. These excerpts from theVatican's English translation the principal elements of this mission: presence and witness; commitment retain theoriginal paragraph numbers, but thefootnotes arenot included. Copies to social development and human liberation; liturgical life, prayer and of thecomplete text may beordered from Catholic News Service, 3211 4th Street contemplation; interreligious dialogue; and finally, proclamation and ca­ N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1100. techesis. Proclamation and dialogue are thus both viewed, each in its own place, as component elements and authentic forms of the one evangelizing Introduction mission of the church. They are both oriented toward the communication of salvific truth. It is 25 years since Nostra Aetate (NA), the declaration of the 3. The present document gives further consideration to these two ele­ l • Second Vatican Council on the church's relationship to other ments. It first puts forward the characteristics of each and then studies religions, was promulgated. The document stressed the im­ their mutual relationship. If dialogue is treated first, this is not because portance of interreligious dialogue. At the same time it recalled that the it has any priority over proclamation. It is simply due to the fact that church is in duty bound to proclaim without fail Christ, the way, the dialogue is the primary concern of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious truth, and the life, in whom all people find their fulfillment (cf. NA, 2). Dialogue, which initiated the preparation of the document. 2. To foster the work of dialogue, Pope Paul VI set up in 1964 the Sec­ 4c. The practice of dialogue raises problems in the minds of many. There retariat for non-Christians, recently renamed the Pontifical Council for are those who would seem to think, erroneously, that in the church's Interreligious Dialogue. Following its plenary assembly of 1984, the sec­ retariat issued a document titled "The Attitude of the Church Towards "Published in INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, October the Followers of OtherReligions: Reflections and Orientations on Dialogue 1985.-Ed.

82 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH mission today dialogue should simply replace proclamation. At the other of religious adherence and particularly to embracing the Christian faith. extreme, some fail to see the value of interreligious dialogue. Yet others When the term conversion is used in this document, the context will show are perplexed and ask, If interreligious dialogue has become so important, which sense is intended. has the proclamation of the Gospel message lost its urgency? Has the 12. The terms religions or religious traditions are used here in a generic and effort to bring people into the community of the church become secondary analogical sense. They cover those religions which, with Christianity, are or even superfluous? There is a need therefore for doctrinal and pastoral wont to refer back to the faith of Abraham as well as the religious traditions guidance to which this document wishes to contribute, without pretend­ of Asia, Africa and elsewhere. ing to answer fully .the many and complex questions which arise in this connection. 13. Interreligious dialogue ought to extend to all religions and their fol­ As this text was in its final stages of preparation for publication, the lowers. This document, however, will not treat of dialogue with the fol­ Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, offered to the church his encyclical letter lowers of "new religious movements" due to the diversity of situations

Redemptoris Missio in which he addressed these questions and many more. iloilo which these movements present and the need for discernment on the The present document spells out in greater detail the teaching of the human and religious values which each contains. encyclical on dialogue and its relationship to proclamation (cf. RM, 5S­ 57). It is therefore to be read in the light of this encyclical. Before proceeding it will be useful to clarify the terms being used in I. Interreligious Dialogue this document. A. A Christian Approach to Religious Traditions 8. Evangelizing mission, or more simply evangelization, refers to the mission of the church in its totality. In the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 21. Turning to the New Testament we see that Jesus professes to have the term evangelization is taken in different ways. It means "to bring come to gather the lost sheep of Israel (cf. Matt. 15:24) and forbids his the good news into all areas of humanity, and through its impact to disciples for the moment to tum to the gentiles (cf. Matt. 10:5). He never- transform that humanity from within, making it new" (EN, 18). Thus, through evangelization the church "seeks to convert solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, their Proclamation is the ways of life and the actual milieux in which they live" (EN, 18). The church accomplishes her evangelizing mission through a variety of activ­ foundation, center, and ities. Hence there is a broad concept of evangelization. Yet in the same document, evangelization is also taken more specifically to mean "the summit of evangelization. clear and unambiguous proclamation of the Lord Jesus" (EN, 22). The exhortation states that "this proclamation-kerygma, preaching or ca­ techesis--occupies such an important place in evangelization that it has theless displays an open attitude toward men and women who do not often become synonymous with it; and yet it is only one aspect of evan­ belong to the chosen people of Israel. He enters into dialogue with them gelization" (EN, 22). In this document the term evangelizing mission is used and recognizes the good that is in them.... for evangelization in its broad sense, while the more specific understand­ 25. [The] early Fathers offer what may be called a theology of history. ing is expressed by the term proclamation. History becomes salvation history inasmuch as through it God progres­ sively manifests himself and communicates with humankind. This process 9. Dialogue can be understood in different ways. First, at the purely human of divine manifestation and communication reaches its climax in the in­ level, it means reciprocal communication, leading to a common goal, or carnation of the Son of God in Jesus Christ. For this reason, Irenaeus at a deeper level, to interpersonal communion. Second, dialogue can be distinguishes four "covenants" given by God to the human race: in taken as an attitude of respect and friendship, which permeates or should Adam, in Noah, in Moses and in Jesus Christ. The same patristic current, permeate all those activities constituting the evangelizing mission of the whose importance is not to be underestimated, may be said to culminate church. This can appropriately be called "the spirit of dialogue." Third, in Augustine, who in his later works stressed the universal presence and in the context of religious plurality, dialogue means "all positive and influence of the mystery of Christevenbefore the incarnation. In fulfillment constructive interreligious relations with individuals and communities of of his plan of salvation, God, in his Son, has reached out to the. whole other faiths which are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment" of humankind. Thus, in a certain sense, Christianity already existed "at ("Reflections and Orientations on Dialogue and Mission," 3), in obe­ the beginning of the human race." dience to truth and respect for freedom. It includes both witness and the exploration of respective religious convictions. It is in this third sense that 29.... all men and women who are saved share, though differently, in the present document uses the term dialogue for one of the integral the same mystery of salvation in Jesus Christ through his Spirit. Christians elements of the church's evangelizing mission. know this through their faith, while others remain unaware that Jesus Christ is the source of their salvation. The mystery of salvation reaches io. Proclamation is the communication of the Gospel message, the mystery out to them, in a way known to God, through the invisible action of the of salvation realized by God for all in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit of Christ. Concretely, it will be in the sincere practice of what is Spirit. It is an invitation to a commitment of faith in Jesus Christ and to good in their own religious traditions and by following the dictates of entry through baptism into the community of believers which is the church. their conscience that the members of other religions respond positively This proclamation can be solemn and public, as for instance on the day to God's invitation and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, even while they of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:5-41) or a simple private conversation (d. Acts do not recognize or acknowledge him as their savior (cf. Ad Gentes, 3, 9, 8:3~38)\1t leads naturally to catechesis which aims at deepening this 11). faith. Proclamation is the foundation, center and summit of evangelization (cf. EN, 27). 31. To say that the other religious traditions include elements of grace 11. Included in the idea of conversion there is always a general movement does not imply that everything in them is the result of grace. For sin has been at work in the world, and so religious traditions, notwithstanding toward God, "the humble and penitent return of the heart to God in human spirit, sometimes the desire to submit one's life more generously to him" ("Dialogue their positive values, reflect the limitations of the and Mission," 37). More specifically, conversion may refer to a change inclined to chose evil. An open and positive approach to other religious traditions cannot overlook the contradictions which may exist between them and Christian revelation. It must, where necessary, recognize that **See excerpts of the encyclicalRedemptoris Missio in INTERNATIONAL BULLEIlN there is incompatibility between some fundamental elements of the Chris­ OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, April 1991.-Ed. tian religion and some aspects of such traditions.

APRIL 1992 83 32. This means that, while entering with an open mind into dialogue with of differences, or even of contradictions, and on the other, respect for the the followers of other religious traditions, Christians may also have to free decision of persons taken according to the dictates of their conscience challenge them in a peaceful spirit with regard to the content of their (cf. Dignitatis Humanae, 2). The teaching of the council must nevertheless belief. But Christians too must allow themselves to be questioned. Not­ be borne in mind: "All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in withstanding the fullness of God's revelation in Jesus Christ, the way what concerns God and his church, and embrace it and to hold on to it Christians sometimes understand their religion and practice it may be in as they come to know it" (DH, 1). need of purification. C. Forms of Dialogue B. The Place of Interreligious Dialogue in the Evangelizing Mission of the Church 42. There exist different forms of interreligious dialogue. It may be useful to recall those mentioned by the 1984 document of the Pontifical Council 35. To the church, as the sacrament in which the kingdom of God is for Interreligious Dialogue (d. "Dialogue and Mission," 28.-35). It spoke present "in mystery," are related or oriented (ordinaniur) (cf. Lumen of four forms, without claiming to establish among them any order of Gentium 16) the members of other religious traditions who, inasmuch as priority. they respond to God's calling as perceived by their conscience, are saved a) The dialogue of life, where people strive to live in an open and in Jesus Christ and thus already share in some way in the reality which neighborly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their human problems is signified by the kingdom. The church's mission is to foster "the and preoccupations. kingdom of our Lord and his Christ" (Rev. 11:15), at whose service she b) The dialogue of action, in which Christians and others collaborate is placed. Part of her role consists in recognizing that the inchoate reality for the integral development and liberation of people. of this kingdom can be found also beyond the confines of the church, for c) The dialogue of theological exchange, where specialists seek to example in the hearts of the followers of other religious traditions insofar deepen their understanding of their respective religious heritages and to as they live evangelical values and are open to the action of the Spirit. It appreciate each other's spiritual values. must be remembered nevertheless that this is indeed an inchoate reality, d) The dialogue of religious experience, where persons, rooted in which needs to find completion through being related to the kingdom of their own religious traditions, share their spiritual riches, for instance Christ already present in the church yet only realized fully in the world with regard to prayer and contemplation, faith and ways of searching for to come. God or the absolute. 36. The church on earth is always on pilgrimage. Although she is holy by divine institution her members are not perfect; they bear the mark of II. Proclaiming Jesus Christ their human limitations. Consequently, her transparency as sacrament of salvation is blurred. This is the reason why the church herself, "insofar A. The Mandate from the Risen Lord as she is an institution of men here on earth," and not only her members, is constantly in need of renewal and reform (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 6). 55. The Lord Jesus gave to his disciples a mandate to proclaim the Gospel. This fact is reported by all four Gospels and by the Acts of the Apostles. 38. Against this background it becomes easier to see why and in what There are, however, certain nuances in the different versions.... sense interreligious dialogue is an integral element of the church's evan­ Announcing the good news to all, witnessing, making disciples, bap­ gelizing mission. The foundation of the church's commitment to dialogue tizing, teaching, all these aspects enter into the church's evangelizing is not merely anthropological but primarily theological. God, in an age­ mission, yet they need to be seen in the light of the mission accomplished long dialogue, has offered and continues to offer salvation to humankind. by Jesus himself, the mission he received from the Father. In faithfulness to the divine initiative, the church too must enter into a dialogue of salvation with all men and women. 56. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel from God, saying: "The time is ful­ filled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the 39. Pope Paul VI taught this clearly in his first encyclical Ecclesiam Suam. Gospel" (Mark 1:14-15). This passage sums up the ministry of Jesus. Jesus Pope John Paul II, too, has stressed the church's call to interreligious does not proclaim this good news of the kingdom. by word alone, but dialogue and assigned to it the same foundation. Addressing the 1984 also by his actions, attitudes and options, indeed by means of his whole plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the life and finally through his death and resurrection. His parables, his pope declared: "(Interreligious) dialogue is fundamental to the church, miracles, the exorcisms he works, all are related to the kingdom of God which is called to collaborate in God's plan with her methods of presence, which he announces. This kingdom, moreover, is not just something to respect and love toward all persons." He went on to call attention to a be preached, quite unrelated to his own person. Jesus makes it clear that passage from Ad Gentes: "Closely united to men in their life and work, it is through him and in him that the reign of God is breaking through Christ's disciples hope to render to others true witness of Christ and to into the world (cf. Luke 17:20-22), that in him the kingdom has already work for this salvation, even where they are not able to proclaim Christ come upon us, even though it still needs to grow to its fullness. fully" (AG, 12). He prefaced this by saying: "Dialogue finds its place within the church's salvific mission; for this reason it is a dialogue of salvation." B. The Role of the Church 40. In this dialogue of salvation, Christians and others are called to col­ laborate with the Spirit of the risen Lord, who is universally present and 58. It is against this background that the mandate given by the risen Lord active. Interreligious dialogue does not merely aim at mutual understand­ to the apostolic church needs to be understood. The church's mission is ing and friendly relations. It reaches a much deeper level, that of the to proclaim the kingdom of God established on earth in Jesus Christ, spirit, where exchange and sharing consist in a mutual witness to one's through his life, death and resurrection, as God's decisive and universal beliefs and a common exploration of one's respective religious convictions. offer of salvation to the world. For this reason "there is no true evan­ In dialogue Christians and others are invited to deepen their religious gelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom commitment, to respond with increasing sincerity to God's personal call and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, are not proclaimed" and gracious self-gift, which, as our faith tells us, always passes through (EN, 22). There is continuity between the kingdom preached by Jesus and the mediation of Jesus Christ and the work of his Spirit. the mystery of Christ announced by the church. 41. Given this aim, a deeper conversion of all toward God, interreligious dialogue possesses its own validity. In this process of conversion "the H. Proclamation in the Evangelizing Mission of the decision may be made to leave one's previous spiritual or religious sit­ Church uation in order to direct oneself toward another" ("Dialogue and Mis­ sion," 37). Sincere dialogue implies, on the one hand, mutual acceptance 75. The church's evangelizing mission has sometimes been understood

84 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH as consisting simply in inviting people to become disciples of Jesus in the emulation and of respect for the mystery of God, the members of the church. Gradually a broader understanding of evangelization has devel­ church and the followers of other religions find themselves to be com­ oped, in which proclamation of the mystery of Christ nevertheless re­ panions on the common path which humanity is called to tread .... mains central. The Second Vatican Council's "Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church," when dealing with missionary work, mentions C. Proclaiming Jesus Christ solidarity with mankind, dialogue and collaboration, before speaking about witness and the preaching of the Gospel (cf. AG, 11-13). The 1974 Synod 81. Proclamation, on the other hand, aims at guiding people to explicit of Bishops and the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi which fol­ knowledge of what God has done for all men and women in Jesus Christ, lowed it have both taken evangelization in a broad sense. In evangeli­ and at inviting them to become disciples of Jesus through becoming mem­ zation, the whole person of the evangelizer is involved, words, actions, bers of the church. When, in obedience to the command of the risen Lord witness of life (cf. EN, 21-22). Likewise its aim extends to all that is human and the Spirit's promptings, the church fulfills this task of proclamation, as it seeks to transform human culture and cultures with the power of this will often need to be done in a progressive manner. A discernment the Gospel (cf. EN, 18-20). Yet Pope Paul VI made it quite clear that is to be made concerning how God is present in each one's personal "evangelization will always entail-as the simultaneous foundation, history. The followers of other religions may discover, as may Christians core and summitof its dynamism-aclear proclamation thatin Jesus Christ, also, that they already share many values. This can lead to a challenge the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation in the form of the witness of the Christian community or a personal is offered to all as a gift of God's kindness and mercy" (EN, 27). It is profession of faith, in which the full identity of Jesus is humbly confessed. in this sense that the 1984 document of the Pontifical Council for Inter­ Then, when the time is right, Jesus' decisive question can be put: "Who religious Dialogue lists proclamation among the various elements which do you say that I am?" The true answer to this question can only come make up the church's evangelizing mission (cf. "Dialogue and Mis­ through faith. The preaching and the confession, under the movement sion," 13). of grace, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God the Father, the risen 76. Still it is useful to point out once again that to proclaim the name of Lord and savior, constitutes the final stage of proclamation. One who Jesus and to invite people to become his disciples in the church is a sacred freely professes this faith is invited to become a disciple of Jesus in his and major duty which the church cannot neglect. Evangelization would church and to take a responsible part in her mission. be incomplete without it (EN, 22), for without this central element the others, though in themselves genuine forms of the church's mission, D. Commitment to the One Mission would lose their cohesion and vitality. . . . 82. All Christians are called to be personally involved in these two ways III. Interreligious Dialogue and Proclamation of carrying out the one mission of the church, namely proclamation and dialogue. The manner in which they do this will depend on the circum­ A. Interrelated Yet Not Interchangeable stances and also on their degree of preparation. They must nevertheless always bear in mind that dialogue, as has already been said, does not 77. Interreligious dialogue and proclamation, though not on the same constitute the whole mission of the church, that it cannot simply replace level, are both authentic elements of the church's evangelizing mission. proclamation, but remains oriented toward proclamation insofar as the Both are legitimate and necessary. They are intimately related, but not dynamic process of the church's evangelizing mission reaches in it its interchangeable: True interreligious dialogue on the part of the Christian climax and its fullness. As they engage in interreligious dialogue, they supposes the desire to make Jesus Christ better known, recognized and will discover the "seeds of the Word" sown in people's hearts and in loved; proclaiming Jesus Christ is to be carried out in the Gospel spirit t~e .religious traditions to wh~ch they b~long. In deep~ning their ap.p~e­ of dialogue. The two activities remain distinct but, as experience shows, nation ~f the mystery of Chnst they will be able to.discern the positive one and the same local church, one and the same person, can be diversely values In the human search for the unknown or Incompletely known engaged in both. God. Throughout the various stages of dialogue, the partners will feel a great need both to impart and to receive information, to give and to receive 78. In ac~al fac~ the way of fulfilling the church's mission depen.ds.upon explanations, to ask questions of each other. Christians in dialogue have the pa~cuI~r arcums~ances ?~ ~ach local ch~rch, of each C?~stian. It .the duty of responding to their partners' expectations regarding the con­ always Implies a certain sensitivity to the social, cultural, religious and tents of the Christian faith, of bearing witness to this faith when this is political aspects of the situation, as also attentiveness to the "signs of called for, of giving an account of the hope that is within them (1 Pet. th~ ~mes" throug~ ~~ch the spi~t of Go~ is speaking, teaching a~d 3:15). In order to be able to do this, Christians should deepen their faith, guiding. Such sensitivity and attentiveness IS developed through a Sptr- purify their attitudes, clarify their language and render their worship more ituality of dialogue. This requires a prayerful discernment and theological and more authentic. reflection on the significance in God's plan of the different religious tra­ ditions and the experience of those who find in them their spiritual nour­ ishment. Conclusion 89. Dialogue and proclamation are difficult tasks, and yet absolutely nec­ B. The Church and Religions essary. All Christians, according to their situations, should be encouraged to equip themselves so that they may better fulfill this twofold commit­ 79. In fulfilling her mission, the church comes into contact with people ment. Yet more than tasks to be accomplished, dialogue and proclamation of other religious traditions. Some become disciples of Jesus Christ in his are graces to be sought in prayer. Mayall continually implore the help church as a result of a profound conversion and through a free decision of the Holy Spirit so that he may be "the divine inspirer of their plans, of their own. Others are attracted by the person of Jesus and his message, their initiatives and their evangelizing activity" (EN, 75). but for various reasons do not enter the fold. Yet others seem to have but little or no interest in Jesus. Whatever the case may be, the church's Pentecost, May 19, 1991 mission extends to all. Also in relation to the religions to which they belong, the church in dialogue can be seen to have a prophetic role. In CARDINAL FRANCIS ARINZE CARDINAL JOZEF TOMKO bearing witness to Gospel values, she raises questions for these religions. President, Pontifical Council Prefect, Congregation for the Similarly, the church, insofar as she bears the mark of human limitations, for Interreligious Dialogue Evangelization of Peoples may find herself challenged. So in promoting these values, in a spirit of

86 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Lines in the Sand The Meaning ofPeace Justice and the Biblical Studies Gulf War Perry B. Yoder and Willard M Swartley, Editors Alan Geyer and ''These are important studies by respected scholars , Barbara G. Green most of them available now for the first time in Foreword by Major English."-Vietor Paul Furnish General Kermit D. ".. .of interest not only to Biblicalscholars but also to Johnson theologians and ethicists and-most important-to A provocative yet all Christians. .."-Richard B. Hays responsible look at U.S. Paper $19.95 foreign and military policies, focusing on the Gulf War and the moral issues raised by that war. As timely as tomorrow! Paper $11.95 Just Peacemaking Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace Glen H. Stassen "Because this book refutes the conventional wisdom of peace through strength and develops the strategy of just peacemaking, I recommend its reading for a wide public."-William Sloane Coffin, President Emeritus, SANE/Freeze Paper $16.95 The Gospel ------of Peace Coloring the Wind A Scriptural Message David P. Young for Today 's World An accomplished photographer and poet, Ulrich Mauser David Young, combines his talents to Using the Bible as a guide for present-day peace create a unique and inspirational book. efforts, Ulrich Mauser draws on interpretation of Through visual images and compelling the power of peace in the New Testament, insights, he challenges us to rediscover interlaced with elements of the Old Testament childlike wonder, freedom, and closeness idea of Shalom, including the wars of Yahweh. to God. Paper $12.95 Paper $16 .95

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Our Globe and How to Reach It: Seeing the World Evangelized by A.D. 2000 and Beyond.

By DavidB. Barrett andTodd M. Johnson. Birmingham, Ala.: New Hope, 1990, Pp. vii, 136. Paperback $6.95.

The work of the Global Evangelization have avowedly given us a mobilizing ernmental or ecclesiastical sources de­ Data Base is a many-splendored gift to text. Pages 83-112 present a "kal­ fine them to be. In religious matters, the entire church. David Barrett and eidoscopic global action plan" in­ however, there is often a gulf between his team, generously supported by the tended to build on the "mega official classification and actual spirit­ Southern Baptists, have already made complex of 2000current plans targeted uality. Sociological research is needed. immense contributions for which we on A.D. 2000." By using "Christian" as a broad cul­ all can be grateful. This particular text My primary concern? Describing tural category containing 1.8 billion is well arranged and diagrammed, pre­ and prescribing are interwoven. Thus, persons, the authors place countries senting a remarkable amount of data a superlative work of reference merges such as Australia (99 percent evange­ within a short space. There is much to into a crusade for a particular approach lized, 66 percent church members) and fascinate and to challenge. Radiating to Christian missions, a missiological France (97percent evangelized, 82 per­ enthusiasm for their field, the authors stance that mandates actions that can cent church members) in the Christian be debatable. It would have been better world and are then able to assert that to keep the research pure, letting prac­ Christians spend 99.9 percent of their titioners use it as a generic resource for income on themselves. This dilutes the Donald McGilchrist, a British citizen, is cur­ their various callings and advocacies. value of their analysis for missiological rently an International Vice President for The The authors seem to hold it as ax­ action. Navigators, based in Colorado Springs, Colo­ iomatic that we should go to those who The authors calculate that there are rado. have never heard of Christ before we only 500 million active Great Commis­ go to those who have ignored or re­ sion Christians. Until this estimate is jected him, or who heard of him in a available by country and tradition, context that lacks all appeal. This, however, it is hard to assess how func­ ('illI()IJ(~ however, is by no means self-evident. tional it is. rn~X)ll)(;I(:·\lJlT~I()~ Gifts and calling and strategic focus and The cascade of statistics in this im­ spiritual sensitivity can all point else­ pressive document needs careful inter­ where. In general, the New Testament pretation. Perhaps it is a question of Continuing in our tradition of excellence priority is the lost among all nations, knowledge versus wisdom, or of data Catholic Theological Union at Chicago not the least-accessible lost. versus information. But we are un­ proudly announces the inauguration of a Another fundamental concern is doubtedly the richer for possessing such Doctor of Ministry Program.* that the number of persons labeled a stimulating resource. Christian is determined by what those -Donald M. McGilchrist The first class will be accepted in the fall individuals claim to be or what gov- of 1992, our Jubilee year marking 25 years of leadership in theological education. Concentrations within the Doctor of Marx and the Failure of Ministry Program: Liberation Theology. • Cross-cultural ministries • Liturgy By Alistair Kee. London: SCM Press; and Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, Contact: Edward Foley, Capuchin 1990. Pp. xii, 302. Paperback $21.95. Director, the Doctor of Ministry Program Catholic Theological Union - mMR Given recent events, one might con­ and ends up serving the interests of 5401 South Cornell clude-incorrectly-thatthis isanother the ruling class. Chicago,IL 60615 diatribe against Latin American liber­ For those who now assume that (312) 324-8000 ation theologians for tying their the­ Marxism is a thing of the past, Kee's ology to the outmoded and now defunct book will appear anachronistic. But * ATS and NCA Accreditation Pending economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Kee's position, however, is quite the opposite. The failure of which he speaks Alan Neelyis theHenryWinters Luce Professor is not the use or overuse of Marxism of Ecumenics and Mission, Princeton Theolog­ by liberation theologians but rather their ical Seminary. Hewasamissionary toColombia, failure to attend to the most devastat­ 1963-76, and taught at Southeastern Baptist ing of Marx's critique of religion, Theological Seminary from 1976 until going to namely, that all religion falsifies reality Princeton in 1988.

88 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH those who regard the spread of un fet­ incognita (P. Berger) of the explosion of trine" of pacifism [pp . 12/ , d . p. 187]). tered capitalism with less tha n san­ enthusiastic conservative Protestant­ "Peacea bility helps ensure that the guine anticipation will find the account ism in Latin America . Mar tin ana lyzes radical coding inside the cell is pre­ of Marx's life and development of his the stages of this astound ing revolu­ served in tact" (p. 287). But peaceability religious views informative and Kee's tion with a view to the clash betw een also determines the eva ngelical dy­ anal ysis of Latin Ameri can liberation the Anglo-Saxon and Latin American namics vis avis Latin society's patterns the ology pro vocative. A reader in re­ civilizations: The "a ll-encompassing of brutality and machismo and chal­ ligious studies in the University of [Latin socioreligious] sys tem cracks, lenges its "ready made spiral of Edinburgh, Scotland, Kee insists that evangelical Christianity pours in and violence," i.e. , the free social space of neither the precursors (Che Guevara, by its own autono mous native power the evangelicals turns into an effective Camilo Torres, or Helder Camara) nor creates free social space" for its exist­ haven of refuge and peace for the dis­ its current advocates have fully appre­ ence and expansion (p. 280). placed peasants in a Latin American ciated and utilized Marx. To substan ­ Martin shows that this space is metropolis. It becomes the spi ritual tiate his point, Kee analyzes the writings characterized by "peacea bili ty" home for oppressed people, the ex­ of prominent Latin American theolo­ (discussed in reference to the "doc- ploited , the voiceless. gians: Gus tavo Gutierrez, Juan LUIS Segundo, Jon Sobrino, Leonardo and Oodovis Boff,Jose Miguez Bonino, Jose Porffrio Miranda, and Hugo Assmann. Some of Kee's criticisms cannot be A n ~rnpartant book far all u:ha are dismissed, and doubtless he is correct ~Qncern~d in saying, "When Marx criticized .1'1. with theJmpactof religion, it was the Christian religion, Christianity on tada')"s .tparld. and with regard to capitalism it was the Protestant religion, and especially the Prussian Lutheran Church" (p. 253). It strikes me, however, that Kee's prin­ Societies like ours that cipa l contention that liberation theo­ have undergone "modern­ logians have not dealt with Marx' s ization " tend to regard the world's religions as rejection of all religion because it re­ agencies for the cultiva­ verses reality, demands in effect that tion of privately held re­ they accept both Marx's (and Kee's) ligious opinions - a~en­ fundamental presupposition about re­ cies that can be studied ligion. To put it another way , is Kee with the tools of soci­ justified in criticizing Latin American ology, psychology, and liberation theologian s for bein g un­ other secular disciplines. willing to saw off the philosophical and theological limb on which they are sit­ ting? To suggest on this basis tha t they have not examined their faith assump­ tions betrays an ignoran ce of the strug ­ gle all believers in Latin America are enduring in tryin g to maintain faith in a cont ext of blatant injustice, ruthless oppression, and unrelenting suffering. -Alan Neely

Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Lesslie Newbigin runs counter to the prevailing By DavidMartinwith a Foreword by Peter subjectivism and skepti­ Also by Newbigin: Berger. Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Black­ cism in our society re­ garding the possibility of FOOLISHNESS TO well, 1990 . Pp. xiii, 352. $39.95. knowing ultimate truth. THE GREEKS In this book he affirms The Gospel and Western Culture David Martin's book is the result of a the Christian gospel as ISBN 0-8028-0176-5 . Paper, $12.95 three-year research proj ect sponsored the troth - not only for by the Institute for the Study of Eco­ personal life but also for THE GOSPEL IN A nomic Culture, in Boston. Against a life at the public, societal PLURALIST SOCIETY broad sweep of penetr ating sociohis­ level. ISBN 0-8028-0426-8 • Paper, $14.95 torical summaries, he enters the terra

At your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521; FAX 616-459-6540 Karl-Wilhelm Westmeier, a German, is Asso­ ciate ProfessorofMissiology and Theology at the 173 WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. Alliance Theological Seminary, Nyack, N. Y. He _ II\\ 255 JEFFERSO N AVE.5.E. I GRAND RAPIDS, MICffiGAN 49503 worked for twenty-one years as a missionary ill Colombia, South America .

A PRIL 1992 89 Tongues of Fire is disturbing and thusiastic Protes tantism roo ted in the The Life and Thought of Henry fascinating. Martin points out that Latin hopes of millions of Latin Ame rican Gerhard Appenzeller (1858-1902): Americ an Protes tantism is essentially poo r" (p. 3). Missionary to Korea. Anglo-Saxon (which, of course, could Peter Berger observes that it is also be said of liberation theology's Base "a book of very grea t importance By DanielM. Davies. Lewiston, N.Y.: Ed­ Commun ities, d. p. 290). The Protes­ [an d] should be read by anyone inter­ win Mellen Press, 1988. Pp. xio, 461 . tant epitome is voluntarism and that ested in . . . the Americans, bu t also $59.95. individual and cultural unfolding which by anyone concerne d wit h the relation is at the center of the etho s of the of religion and social change through­ In the history of Prote stant missions, ("peaceable"??) Anglo-Saxon United out the contemporary world" (p . ix). Korea's churches are legendary. The States. But in spite of this, what has - Karl-Wilhelm Westmeier first Protestant missionaries arrived in developed is "an indi genous en­ China in 1807 and in Japan in 1858. Trailing the nor theast Asian neighbors by several decades, Korea's Protestant beginnings in 1885 nonetheless pro ­ duced remarkable growth under years of persecution , first by the Japanese and then the communists. Conserva­ Cut Your Travel Costs tive esti ma tes claim tha t more than 25 percent of Korea ns today are Chris­ tians . In God 's ironic providence, both Presbyterian and Meth odist boards sent pioneer mission aries to Korea in the same year. Among the first Meth odists we re Hen ry and Ella Appenzeller, who arrived in Korea on AprilS, 1885(Easter Sunday). Until recently, the letters and diaries of Henry Appenzeller lay in bundles stored in the upper reaches of the Missio nary Research Library. Now thanks to Paul A. Byrnes, Chief Bib­ liogra pher and Archivist, Union The­ ological Seminary, New York, these mate rials have been cataloged for ready access . And than ks to author Daniel M. t~vel Davies, himself an archivist at the Complete setvices forindividuals, United Methodist Archives at Drew University, Madison, New Jerse y, we tour and study groups. have this significant study, a thorough • Budget-saving air fares and Raptim subsidy. combing of the Appenzeller materials and of those closely associated with him We save you travel dollars. in mission, diplomatic service, and • Travel specialists to developing countries. general relations with Korea in the late nineteenth century. His book provides We know the areas in which you serve. fascinating reading and better under­ • Fast, reliable visa services. standing of the beginnin gs of Protes­ tant mission in a land where one now We save you time and trouble when applying for visas. finds the largest Protestant church of just about every major de nominatio n. ~ > For th ose in terest ed in further The Leader in Mission Travel from the U.S.A. study of Protestant beginnings in Ko­ rea, Davies includes an extensive bib­ For more information call your nearest MTS TRAVEL toll-free liography as well as lengthy footnotes or return the coupon below: evaluating the available materials. Bloomfield. NJ Claremont, CA Col o. Sp r.• CO Ephrata, PA Jacksonville, Fl Wheat on,lL - Everett N. Hunt, Jr. (201) 338 -4000 (714) 621-0947 (7 19) 471-45 14 (717) 733-4 131 (904) 464 -0444 (708) 690 -7320 (800) 526-627 8 (800) 854 -7979 (800) 444-3004 (800 ) 642-831 5 (800! 888-8 292 (800) 395-432 1

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90 INTERN ATIO NAL B ULLETIN O F MISSIO NARY R ESEARCH Christianity in China: A in China that used library and archival The Meaning of Christ: Scholars' Guide to Resources in resources available in the United States. A Mahayana Theology. the Libraries and Archives of the Rath er, it is an inventory of published United States. catalogs, directories, and indexes of ByJohn P. Keenan.Maryknoll, N.Y. :Orbis holdings related to China. Books, 1989. Pp. viii, 312. $29.95; paper­ By Archie Crouch, Steven Agoratus, Ar­ This impo rtant research tool de­ back $16.95. thur Emerson , and Debra E. Soled. Ar­ serves a special place in the libraries of monk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1989. Pp. l vi, ins titutions and researchers concerne d Many h ave won d ere d what shape 709. $95.00. with the study of Christiani ty in China. Christianity would ha ve taken had its - Jean-Paul Wiest primary spread .been into Asia rather About ten years ago, a notice appeared than into Africa and Europe. One pos­ in several journals announcing Archie sibility is that it would have adopted Crouch's plans to gather data from li­ Buddhist categories instead of the Greek braries and archives of the United States on materials related to Christian mis­ sions in China . Crouch and his team have met the challenge of this monu­ mental task and published what is so far the most extensive and compre­ Some Words hensive guide of missionary records dealing with China. Based on a survey of over twelve hundred libraries, archives, historical From Our R societies, religious orders, and denom­ inational headquarters throughout the United States, the Guide provides de­ tailed information on 554 repositories of mission materials and their hold­ ings. It is hoped that repositories that failed to provide an adequate or com­ plete description of their holdings will send necessary corrections for the next edition. This reference work is organized geographically by state and city, ac­ cording to a system of hierarchic code numbers based on a program devel­ oped by the National Historical Pub­ lications and Records Commission for the purpose of indexing guides relat­ ing to historical research. Understand­ ing of the arrangement of the book below the city level is greatly facilitated ''We need Urban Mission, the first and still the "...a reliable instrument that provides direction by an opening section entitled "How best journal for keeping in touch with God's and identifies'important landmarks...." To Use the Guide ." Each entry is or­ urbanagendas." -RobertLupton, Director ganized according to a standard entry - Ray Bakke. Executive Director FSCUrban Ministries. Atlanta form so that the categories of infor­ International Urban Associates mation follow each other in identical sequence for each repository. "Urban Mission isone of a kind. Every issue The search for information is has material that is pertinent and helpful." greatly facilitated by union lists (serial -Craig Ellison. Professor titles, oral histories, and dissertations) Alliance Theological Seminary and subject, personal name, and re­ "If you're committed to urban ministry, you pository in dexes. Unfor tu na te ly, ought to be reading Urban Mission. It's the head ings with incomplete or wrong lo­ urban journal I read first." cators are too common in the subject -RobertLinthicum. Director and personal name indexes. Some­ Urban Advance. World Vision, Int. times, these locators are also too vague to allow easy retrieval of specific index headings in collections with large hold­ ings. The bibliography in the appendix is not a listing of works on Christianity

Jean-Paul Wies t is Research Director of the Marykn ol1 Society History Program . He is the author of Marykn oll in China: A History, 1918--1955 (M. E. Sharpe, 1988).

APRIL 1992 91 ones that have played so fateful a role. In recent years the dialogue between Christians and Buddhists has begun to suggest what Chri stians might have appropriated from Buddhism . Keenan goes farther than anyone else in spelling this out. His view is that Western Christianity has suffered from being unable to balance its mys­ tical and discursive elem ents. The lat­ ter has dominated, and Christian the­ ologians ha ve been unable to appropriate th e more founda tional wisdom of Christian mystics. Buddh­ ism, especially in its Yogacara form, has achieved the right balance, giving priority to mystical experience but in such a way that discursive formula­ tions are not disparaged . This Buddhist attainment d e­ pends on its understanding of reality as empty or as constituted of depend­ ent origination. For Christians to ben­ efit from the encounter with Buddhism, the y need to replace the ontological categories derived from the Greeks with 1 Admissions Director this fundamental Buddhist insight. When the y do so, they will be able to WHEATON COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL reappropriate th e true meaning of 1­ Wheaton, Illinois 60187-5593 Phone: 708-260-5195 Christ, the incarna tion, and the Trin­ Whea ton Colltgt romplitswithftdtTalandstatt requ irements on tht basis ofhandicap, sex, race, color, nationalor ity. ethnicorigin in admissionsandaccess to its programs andactivities. The most fundamental question a Pro testant mu st ask about Keenan's impressive achievem ent is whether it is true that mystical experience is the THIRSTY FOR FRESH IDEAS? heart of Chri stianity. If one judges, as Uve and Learn I do, that it is not, the n one may still learn a great deal from this profound at the Try CaJholic book, but one cannot follow its fun­ Theological Union's damental argument. On e fears that in Overseas Ministries World Mi ssion the end the Buddhist anal ysis of emp­ Program. Whether tine ss and its experiential realization you're coping with become the norm for understanding the Study center experience of Jesus and all authentic fresh water Christian experience, so that much of shortages in the what seems even more important in Philippines , water biblical understanding is lost. But if one conservation in rural disagrees with Keenan, one has the re­ America, or helping sponsibility to wrestle with the de­ parishes meet urban tailed historical account with which he chall enges, buttresses his interpretation of the Bi­ ble and Chri stian faith . This is a heavy­ -and find renewal for weight book . Catholic Thl!ologicaJ Union offers con temporary - John B. Cobb, Jr. world mission responses 10 mi ssionaries at home and abroad . Creative missiologists include: Claude-Marie Barbou r, Fully furnished apartments Stephen Bevans, 'S VD, Eleanor Doi dge , loB, John B. Cobb , [r., retiredproiessor of theology, Archimedes Fornasari, MCCJ, Anthony Giuins, CSS p, and Continuing Education John Kaserow, MM , Jamie Phelps, OP, Ana Ma ria School of Theology at Claremont, California, is program of weekly seminars Pineda , SM , Robert Schreiter, CPPS. Contact: the author of Christ in a Pluralistic Age and Beyond Dialogue. Write for Study Programand Application for Residence C~Tl IOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION Overseas Ministries Admissions Otrice-UIDK Study Center 5401 South Cor nell • Chicago, IL 60615 USA (312) 324·8000 490 Prospect Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511

92 INTERNATIONAl. B Ul.l.ETIN OF MISSIONARY R ESEARCH Images of Jesus: How Jesus is this enriched their understanding of Perceived and Portrayed in Non­ Eastern faiths; for others, such as [ung European Cultures. Young Lee, Eastern thinking can pro­ vide fresh frameworks for understand­ By Anton Wessels. Grand Rapids Mich.: ing Christ. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990. Wessels concludes by proposing Pp. 195. Paperback $12.95. an "interplay between Christ and cultures" (p. 163) in which aspects of The portrayal of Christ has always been In Asian (Wessels insists on using Jesus' person are discovered that could more diverse than most Chri stians, the offensive term "Asiatic") think­ not have been known before. If pre­ raised in the narrow confines of their ing Christ helps us move toward Christian understandings were oper­ family and community, have noticed . knowledge of highest union with the ative when Christ was on earth, even Anton Wessels, who is Professor of absolute. For some, such as Gandhi, if we believe God appeared in Jesus Missions and Evangelism at the Free University of Amsterdam, has played an important role in reminding us that it is no longer possibl e to ignore the righ imagery that Christians-especially those outside Europe and North Amer­ ica-are using to expre ss their faith in Jesus. Assembling a wide range of im­ ages-pictures, poetry, and theological themes-Wesselshas openedup an im­ portant area of study: a kind of cross­ cultural Christology. Throughout he • Diverse editorial reflections on contemporary life asks whether and to what extent a • Challenging, sometimes provocative, handing over of Christ to others, in the theological essays and critique of ~ process of evangelization, is a betrayal: Can Christ be handed down without literature and academe _,~ "'-:­ ' - '­ e-ee, being handed over? Or is Christ better • Vigorous reader dialogue on issues £ understood through the variety of im­ ...... ~~""~!-- ~ ages used to express his reality? of faith and culture ~-~ tfw Q un::h in to ~Fu~ Ten.e For the Jews, he notes, Jesus ap­ • Significantreviews of major peared to betray God by tying the tran­ scen den t down to this specific Christian titles :=-E"Z': ~toG~ :' revelation. Ha s this been because • 'And for Preachers,' a monthly Christology has become primarily a !~- theen:- Gentile faith and so has lost its Jewish feature for parish clergy _'l...... ~ ... tht~ roots? Similarly We ssels wonders • Continues the forty-year tradition [{ ~ _ . - whether the Qu'ran has rejected es­ ...... --:; ...... -..--­ ofthe Reformed Journal :~c:::::..~~ sential ideas or what are not "au­ thentic Christian notions" (p. 43)? Perhaps the picture of Christ (as Rifa) in Naguib Mahfuz's famous novel as a spiritual rather than politicalsavior may show how Christ can best be under­ Send me Perspectives stood by Moslems . In Latin America against the back­ ground of a scourged Christ, Chris­ Name _ tians have been drawn to see Jesus as a Liberator of the oppressed. Similarly Address _ James Cone has argued that it is im­ possible for blacks to understand Jesus City, State _ outside the experience of oppression. In Africa Jesus has been seen in the ZIP or Postal Code _ light of the role of the ancestors and the cry for healing. But only recently in the African Independent Churches has distinctly Africanreflection on Christ Please remit $15 ($22 in Canada) with your order. as Victor, Chief, healer, and ancestor begun . Mai l this coupon (or a photocopy) to:

William Dyrness, Dean oftheSchoolofTheology Perspectives and Professor of Theology and Culture, Fuller S02 Edgeworthe Sl~ Theological Seminary; Pasadena, California, is the authorof Learning About Theology from Grand Rapids, MI 49S4()-%2] the Third World (Zondervan, 1990).

APRIL 1992 93 bringing salvation, can we deny that Christian dialogue as a key, but this the process of revealing that reality is fruitful idea is left undeveloped at the still going on? end. How is this important for our Dissertation Professor Wessels has done the Western thinking about God? Finally, church a service in raising important what critical framework can we use to questions in an interesting way. Still evaluate better or worse portrayals of Notices at the end, the reader is left with a Christ? Are we left to look at them all sense of dissatisfaction. How do we as equally valid expressions of faith? Lekunze, Edward Forcha. make our way through this bewilder­ -William Dyrness "Chieftaincy and Christianity in ing maze? He begins to use the Jewish­ Cameroon, 1886-1926: A Historical and Comparative Analysis of the Evangelistic Strategy of the Basel Mission." Ph.D. Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology, 1987.

Morris, Nancy Jane . 1993-1994 "Hawaiian Missionaries Abroad." Ph.D. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii, 1987. Doane Missionary Scholarships Pan, Chia- Yao. Overseas Ministries Study Center "The Chinese Response to the New Haven, Connecticut Early Protestant Missions at the Chinese Treaty-Ports: A Study of the Missionary Work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Canton and Amoy Between 1842 and 1852." Th.D. Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology, 1987.

Paquette, Jean . "An Uncompromising Land: The London Missionary Society in China, 1807-1860." Ph.D. Los Angeles: Univ. of California, The Overseas Ministries Study Center announces the Doane Missionary 1987. Scholarships for 1993-1994.Two $2,500 scholarships will be awarded to mission­ aries who apply for residence for eight months to a year and wish to earn the Ponniah, Melchizedek Mithraraj. OMSC Certificate in Mission Studies. The Certificate is awarded to those who participate in fourteen or more ofthe weekly seminars at OMSC and who write a "The Concept of Contextualization paper reflecting on their missionary experience in light ofthe studies undertaken and Its Implications for the Seventh­ at OMSC. Day Adventist Theological Education in India." Applicants must meet the following requirements: • Completion of at least one term in overseas assignment Ph.D. Berrien Springs, Mich. : Andrews • Endorsement by their mission agency Univ., 1986. • Commitment to return overseas for another term of service • Residence at OMSC for eight months to a year Smith, HenryNewton . • Enrollment in OMSC Certificate in Mission Studies program "Chinese Ancestor Practices and The 0 MSC Certificate program allows ample time for regular deputation and Christianity: Toward a Viable family responsibilities. Families with children are welcome. OMSC's Doane Contextualization of Christian Ethics Hall offers fully furnished apartments ranging up to three bedrooms in size. in a Hong Kong Setting." Applications should be submitted as far in advance as possible. As an alternative Ph.D. Ft. Worth, Tex. : Southwestern to application for the 1993-94 academic year, applicants may apply for the 1994 Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987. calendar year, so long as the Certificate program requirement for participation in at least fourteen seminars is met. Scholarship award will be distributed on a Terry, John Mark. monthly basis after recipient is in residence. Application deadline: February I, "An Analysis of Growth Among 1993. For application and further information, contact: Southern Baptist Churches on Gerald H. Anderson, Director Mindanao, Philippines, 1951-1985." . Overseas Ministries Study Center Ph.D. Ft. Worth, Tex. : Southwestern 490 Prospect Street Baptist Theological Seminary, 1986. New Haven, Connecticut 06511 (203) 624-6672

94 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH Sept. 10-12, 1992: Workshop on Sept . 29-0ct. 2: Toward Century 21 Grant Seeking and Proposal Writ­ in Mission. Dr. Gerald H. Anderson, ing for Overseas Mission Projects. OMSC.Cosponsored by MARC/World Mary Jeanne Lindinger, Mission Pro­ Vision and Mission Society for United ject Service, New York. 575 Methodists. 565

Get out of the routine and into Sept. 14-16: Developing Your Oct. 5-9: "Passages" and Vocational Church and Mission Archives. Dr. Renewal in Missionary life. Maria Stephen L. Peterson, Trinity College, F. Rieckelman, M.D., Maryknoll Sisters, Today's Hartford, and Martha Lund Smalley, and Dr. Donald Jacobs, Mennonite Yale Divinity School. $75 Christian Leadership Foundation. 595 Mission Sept. 17-19: Oral History: Helping Oct. 12-16: Writing Workshop: Christians Tell Their Own Story. Communicatingwith the Folks Back Dr. Jean-Paul Wiest and Cathy Home. Robert T. Coote, OMSC. 595 Issues at McDonald of "Maryknoll in China" Oct. 26-30: Christians Meeting project. Cosponsored by F.M.M. Mis­ Muslims: Dr. David A Kerr, Mac­ sion Resource Center. 575 donald Center for Study of Islam and OMSC Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford ATTEND BOTH ARCHIVE AND Seminary. 595 ORAL HISTORY SEMINARS Nov. 2-6: Guidelines for a Biblical FOR ONLY $110 TheologyofMission. Canon Graham Kings, Henry Martyn Lecturer in Mis­ siology, Cambridge, England. 595 Nov. 10-13: Lessons for Mission from Korea andjapan. Dr. James M. Phillips, OMSC. 565 Nov. 16-20: Pentecostal/Charis­ matic Mission Theology and Strat­ egy. Dr. Gary B. McGee, OMSC Senior Mission Scholar in Residence. $95 Nov. 30-Dec. 4: Missions and Spirit­ ual Warfare. Dr. Paul G. Hiebert, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Sept. 21-25: Nurturing and Educat­ Cosponsored by Baptist General Con­ ing Third Culture Kids. Shirley ference, Christian & Missionary Alli­ Torstrick of INTERFACES and Rev. ance, Eastern Mennonite Board of David Pollock, International Con­ Missions, Latin America Mission, Men­ ference on Missionary Kids. Cospon­ nonite Board of Missions, and SlM sored by OC International. $95 International. $95

Overseas Ministries ,------­ I send more information about these seminars: _ Study Center ,------­ 490 Prospect sr. I_~ ------­ New Haven, CT 06511 I I -N--AME------­ ­ Tel. : 203-624-6672 IADDRESS FAX: I CllY STATE ZIP 203-865-2857 I Publishersof INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH I Book Notes In Corning Blum, William G. Forms of Marriage: Monogamy Reconsidered. Issues Nairobi, Kenya: AMACEA Gaba Publications, 1989. Pp. xxiii, 317. Paperback. No price given. Recent Mission Statements: How Brandeune, Ernest. They Are Developed and What They When Giants Walked the Earth: The Life and Times of Wilhelm Schmidt, Tell Us S.V.D. Stephen B. Bevans and James A. Scherer Fribourg, Switzerland: Univ. Press, 1990. Pp. 357. Paperback SFr 58. Messianic Judaism: A Case Study in Ellsberg, Robert, ed. Religious Identity Gandhi on Christianity. Walter Riggans Maryknoll, N. Y: Orbis Books, 1991. Pp. xviii, 117. Paperback $12.95. Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Fujita, Neil S. Kenneth Cragg on Islam as a Way of Japan's Encounter with Christianity: The Catholic Mission in Pre-Modern Japan. Salvation Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 294. Paperback $13.95. Richard J. Jones

Janssen, Gretchen. My Pilgrimage in Mission-A Series, Women Overseas: A Christian Perspective on Cross-Cultural Adaptation. with articles by Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, 1989. Pp. xiii, 144. Paperback $14.95. Simon Barrington-Ward H. Daniel Beeby Kaam, Adrian L. van. Donald R. Jacobs A Light to the Gentiles: The Life Story of the Venerable Francis Libermann. Louis J. Luzbetak, S.V.D. Lanham, Maryland: Univ. Press of America, 1985. Pp. viii, 361. Paperback $23.25. Samuel H. Moffett William Pannell Maleissye, Marie-Therese de, ed. John V. Taylor Femmes en Mission. and others Lyon, France: Editions Lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire, 1991. Pp. 369. Paperback F 170. In our Series on the Legacy of Marins, Jose, Teolide Maria Trevisan, Carolee Chanona. Outstanding Missionary Figures of The Church from the Roots: Basic Ecclesial Communities. the Nineteenth and Twentieth London: CAFOD [Catholic Fundfor Overseas Development], 1989. Pp. xi, 70. Paperback Centuries, articles about £3.00. Charles H. Brent Amy Carmichael Martin, Edwin W. Donald Fraser The Hubbards of Sivas: A Chronicle of Love and Faith. Melvin Hodges Santa Barbara, Calif.: Fithian Press, 1991. Pp. 318. Paperback $11.95. J. C. Hoekendijk Jacob [ocz Meier, Johannes. Lewis Bevan Jones Die Anfange der Kirche auf den Karibischen Inseln. Johann Ludwig Krapf Immensee, Switzerland: Neue Zeitschrift fUr Missionwissenschaft, Supplementa vol. 38, Lars Peter Larsen 1991. Pp. xxxiii, 313. Paperback SFr44. John Alexander Mackay W. A. P. Martin Newbigin, Lesslie. LottieMoon Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth. Constance E. Padwick Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Geneva: World Council of John Philip Churches, 1991. Pp. v, 90. Paperback $6.95. Timothy Richard John Ritchie Nordic Institutefor Missionary and Ecumenical Research. Ruth Rouse Misslo Nordica: Bibliography of Nordic Mission Literature, 1990. William Taylor Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Institutefor Missionary and Ecumencal Research, 1991. Pp. Franz Michael Zahn xvii, 173. Paperback. No price given.

O'Neil, Robert J. Mission to the British Cameroons. Mill Hill, London: St. Joseph's College, 1991. Pp. xix, 185. Paperback £7.50.