Pavel Černý
Recapturing the Meaning of Mission and Evangelization
Due to the fact that the word mission has been often misused by various ideologies and deformed by incorrect historical interpretations, it evolved merely into a swear-word or at least into a word with pejorative connotations. The mission of the church is closely related to the practice of the Gospel in the secular environment of the Czech Republic. Through its new understanding, which springs from re-reading the Bible from a missionary perspective and a radical contextualization of the Gospel of Christ, mission inspires ecumenical dialogue, helps churches in their orientation, and leads to their cooperation in the practice of the Gospel. Repeatedly, Professor Pavel Filipi has stressed that the Gospel of Christ crosses various borderlines between peoples, and it connects, unifies, and overcomes differences, contradictions, and disputes (Církev a církve: Kapitoly z ekumenické eklesiologie [Brno: CDEK, 2000]). How can the Gospel of Christ influence the theology of mission of the Christian churches and practice of the Gospel in the thoroughly secular Czech Republic?
First, we need to admit that in the Czech environment the words mission and evangelization are not commonly used anymore. It may be the result of the long life of our churches under totalitarian regimes, when very limited and restricted religious freedoms were preserved, with a focus mainly on the performance of liturgical acts inside churches, chapels, and prayer rooms. The churches were not allowed to appear in public. Thus churches and congregations, little by little, became used to caring more for themselves than for missionary work and evangelization outside their communities. Even now some Christians react antagonistically upon even hearing the terms mission or evangelization and consider them to be anachronistic relics of the past. Thus, the practice of mission and evangelization is problematic in the Czech environment. After all, it means to approach people, search for a comprehensible language, disrespect any limitations, and disturb the self-confidence of an isolated island of a few rescued. This is exactly where we have to deal with serious questions of our understanding of the missionary work of the church. I highlight for consideration only the four most pressing questions regarding mission and evangelization.
Mission in a Multi-Faith World
The peaceful coexistence of world religions is very important, and inter-religious dialogue is deeply rooted in the ground of the theology of mission. Nevertheless, it is important to discern what exactly we expect from this dialogue. It seems that proselytizing among Christian churches has been overcome and nearly eliminated. The churches mutually respect their affirmations of the Savior’s grace and diversity of gifts of the Spirit. Is it possible, however, to adopt such a stance also toward other religions? Is it not the case that we should rather proselytize among members of those religions and give them the same chances? Is it not rather important to grasp anew Him whom the Christian churches worship and serve? Theological research should help us make a clear decision as to whether we want partnership or association with other religions or whether we should try to proselytize among their adherents–-on the assumption that other religions will do the same.
Certainly we have to respect other religions and treat them with dignity, but it does not mean that our testimony of Jesus Christ should be concealed as an esoteric teaching. In an inter-religious dialogue, it is the very integrity of our faith which is tested. A dialogue with partners who hide the most precious belief they hold soon ceases to be interesting. Members of other religions very often express disdain and mockery for those unable or unwilling to confess their faith. Professor Filipi also warns about the danger of confessional vagueness. False tolerance, which defends itself with such vagueness, is not a positive value. Inter-religious dialogue should not be taken as a “warehouse” of diverse beliefs. Friendly relations among people of different religions should not be an obstacle to confessional forthrightness in the context of the Christian understanding of salvation.
Secularization or the Return of God
Friedrich Nietzsche foretold the death of God and many after him repeated monotonously “God is Dead,” but it seems that the phrase “God is back” would better fit the current situation. Everything points toward the fact that the global trend of secularization has stopped. In 1990, 67 percent of people professed one of the world’s four largest religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism). In 2005 it was already 73 percent. According to estimates, the number will rise to 80 percent of the world population by 2025. In contrast, in the 1960s and 1970s, many theological documents considered secularization irreversible. European theology in particular has been strongly affected by secularization as church membership has declined year after year, and Christianity gradually has become a minority religion. Undoubtedly, certain waves of secularization have taken place. On the other hand, it must be said that on a global scale secularization is not as successful. Be it the effect of migration of population or the spreading of the postmodern paradigm of spirituality and desire for transcendence, we can speak about the “return of God” in Europe.
A thorough sociological analysis of secularization trends and its opposites is offered in Zdenek R. Nešpor’s Priliš slábi ve vire: Ceská ne/religiozita v evropském kontextu [Too Weak in Faith: Czech (Non)Religiosity in the European Context] (Prague: Kalich, 2010), which strongly challenges Europe’s understanding of secularization. Nešpor contends, “Contemporary Czech society is still not as atheist as it might like to ‘proudly’ think and claim about itself. It is, rather, anti-clerical. Generally speaking, Czechs refuse the Christian God. But they do not cease to believe in something, identifying it occasionally with the structures of the fragmentary Christian memory tucked in the social consciousness”(p. 188). The current missionary condition is actually much closer to that of the first century A.D. than to the past four or five decades. Today we also encounter polytheism, myriad mystery cults, and various forms of old and new religions. It is quite obvious that Communist totalitarian ideology also had its religious content and character. From this point of view it is quite surprising that emphasis upon the rational aspects of faith still prevails over religious experience in many Protestant churches.
Dialogue and Cooperation with Churches of Other Languages
Today non-native English–speaking immigrants prevail among participants of Sunday worship in London. This is an example of the fact that some European cities are experiencing an increase of influence of immigrant church communities. The Czech Republic still does not have as many immigrants as Western Europe. However, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Japanese, and multinational congregations have emerged on Czech territory. Some of these churches belong to traditional denominations, while some are independent. This is a great chance for theological dialogue and mutual enrichment in the field of mission. At a time when the European concept of multiculturalism is in decay or even in ruins, Christian churches should be able to manifest their ability to overcome ethnocentrism and cultural differences. New churches now evangelize among Czech citizens and spread their faith in a country which, to them, is foreign. Will Czech Christians be able to create a favorable environment for newly contextualized missionary church models? Will they be open to dialogue which can positively influence the missionary work of existing churches? This still remains an open question.
Culture
Missiologist and theologian Jonathan J. Bonk has written that “theology can be liberated from cultural bounds only through mission” (“Missions and the Liberation of Theology,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 34 [No. 4, 2010], 194). This understanding is hardly new; we can verify its validity on the pages of Scripture itself, depicting the development of the early church. The Apostle Paul is an archetypical bearer of the missionary quest who preaches the Gospel connecting Jewish and Greek thought. His theology is shaped by his mission, which entails a spiritual struggle to contextualize the Gospel in a foreign cultural environment.
A 2010 European Jesuit conference which interpreted secular culture as a challenge for new evangelization. Since modernity stands on two pillars – the development of science and a new selfunderstanding of the individual - the postmodern era brings religion back on the stage, even though it has the shape of a wide pluralism. Irish Jesuit Michael Paul Gallagher describes postmodernity as “cultural hopelessness and inconsolability,” but, on the other hand, it also means “new openness to faith” (Jan Regner, “Evangelizace v sekularizovaném svete,” Universum 21 [No. 1, 2010], 30-31). A rationale for missionary efforts very often shines through the pages of the Old and New Testaments. To approach the biblical text withoutany knowledge of the missionary quest of Israel and that of the early church means giving too much space to modern culture (Pavel Černý, “The Relationship between Theology and Missiology: The Missiological Hermeneutics,” European Journal of Theology 21 [No. 2, 2010], 104-09).
Conclusion
Europeans once played a leading role at theological conferences; now it is their time to show humility and accept the missionary call of non-European churches, even in Europe. It is not easy to learn from those whose Christianity is still relatively young. We should pay attention to cultural study of the present epoch in which we live, because culture determines much more than we are willing to admit. That being the case, theological schools should make what we might call a “missionary audit” of their curricula and ethos to improve their service to the church’s missionary quest and to answer today’s challenges. Theology that does not take seriously the church’s missionary imperative is in danger of escapism, can lose its relevance, and can blind itself to the necessity of evangelization and the social mission of the church.
Materially saturated Europe has been manifesting a spiritual hunger in recent years. Just “googling” the words Europe and spirituality produces four million links. Despite the fact that many of these items deal with occultism or paranormal phenomena, we still can recognize that many millions of Europeans sense that there might be something more than material life. People seek answers to their difficult questions. They crave spiritual experience and search for meaning in life. What will be the answer of Christian theology— and practical theology in particular—to this spiritual need?
Edited excerpts reprinted with permission from Central European Missiological Forum, 2011; http://www. missioncentre.eu/files/CEMF%202011.pdf.
Pavel Černý is a pastor in the Church of the Brethren. He was formerly president of the denomination and president of the Czech Republic Ecumenical Council of Churches. He also teaches at the Evangelical Theological Seminary, Prague.