HISTORY OF MISSIONS

History of Missions

History of missions

Introduction

Missiology as a separate discipline is a recent development of the last hundred years. It emerged from the field of ecclesiology, which itself only developed as a separate discipline in response to the Protestant Reformation. While this may seem to indicate that missiology is a subcategory of ecclesiology, the modern understanding of mission is quite the opposite. Vatican II affirmed that the pilgrim church is “missionary by its very nature. Emile Brunner describes it in this way, “the church exists by mission just as fire exists by burning.” This has led theologians to call mission not only the mother of theology, but the mother of the Church.

This paper will look at how the Church understands of mission since Vatican II relates to its social teaching. It will first examine the historical development of mission and then examine the models that have emerged since Vatican II. It will then looks briefly at the development of Catholic social teaching and examine how since Vatican II the religious and social mission of the Church relates to one another. This paper relies heavily on Constants in Context, a Theology of Mission for Today (Orbis 2005) by Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, particularly for the historical context(McKenna, 1998).

Survey of the Development of Mission

Bevans and Schroeder contend that the historical connection between the various expressions of the Christian community over the centuries has been maintained by the continuity of its missionary vision. In other words, although the historical contexts have changed over time, there is in Christianity an 'essential continuity' by which it remains itself as it transforms itself in missionary outreach. These six constants are the questions that Christians needs to answer in each context in which they find themselves: 1. Who is Jesus and what is his meaning? (Christology) 2. Whead covering is the environment of the Christian church/community? (Ecclesiology) 3. How does the Church consider its eschatological future? (Eschatology) 4. what covering is the environment of the salvation it preaches? (Salvation) 5. How does the Church value the human being? (Anthropology) 6. What is the value of human culture as a context in which to preach the Gospel? (Culture).

A historical survey of the Church's missionary outreach shows how it addressed these constants in varying contexts, sometimes with more success and faithfulness to the Gospel than others(Mich, 2004)

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Scripture

The foundations for mission are found in scripture. There is a tendency to view Israel's history in the Old Testament as having had an inward focus that had little concern for world mission. However, upon a more careful reading of the Old Testament, the foundations for mission are present. In Genesis, the covenant God made with Abraham was to provide a blessing for all the nations. (O'Brien, 1992).

In the Gospel texts, Jesus' mission to the Gentiles was limited and focused primarily on Israel. However, by the time that the Gospels were written, the Christian community viewed itself as missionary and the texts reflect that ...