INTRODUCTION
“Just as in the first millennium the cross was planted on the soil of Europe and in the second on the that of America and Africa, we can pray that in the third Christian millennium a great harvest of faith [my italics] will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [Asia].”[1] This sentence of the pope has stirred some controversy and critique. Many interpreted the “great harvest of faith” as meaning conversion and proselytism in a continent where Christians are accused of coercing conversions from other religions. However, we may understand the pope as urging for an effective evangelization in the pluralistic society of Asia. This “great harvest of faith” points also to a new understanding of the evangelizing mission of the church, which includes not only the proclamation of the Gospel, but also the commitment for the kingdom of God through human promotion, liberation and dialogue. Dialogue seems to sum what evangelization is about. Indeed, dialogue the spirit of evangelization. Dialogue is at the core of evangelization, because the whole history of salvation of is an endless dialogue of salvation between God and creation[2]. The Lineamenta notes it even more clearly:
God’s offer of salvation to humankind is always a question of dialogue…The entire mission of Jesus was constant dialogue with humanity… The whole mission of the church is, therefore, one of dialogue.[3]
Thus, evangelization has to be a dialogue of life, namely a holistic, inclusive, and soteriological dialogue that engages in the quest for fullness of life and dignity of all creatures.
This is particularly the aim of the Church in Asia: “that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[4] For the FABC, evangelization is not a dialogue with concrete human beings shaped by their cultural heritage, their religious traditions, and their socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus in Asia, evangelization is a “Triple Dialogue” of life with these three dimensions of human life[5]. Accordingly, by examining the three components of this Triple Dialogue, this paper aims to show how evangelization in today’s Asia has to be a dialogue of life. Each component, i.e. religions, cultures, and people will be preceded by a view of the realities and challenges in its regards. This paper is based on some documents from and on the Asian Synod of 1998 and other readings from the FABC and various Asian theologians.
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE.
Since Nostra Aetate, the Church has recognized that other world’s religions have elements of truth or semina verbi that have to be respected, collected and used in building the Kingdom of God. This has been a reality in Asia where the church is blessed and challenged to grow in such a religious pluralism.
Asia is the birthplace of great world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Sikhism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, traditional religions, and indeed Christianity. It is in this pluralism that Asia tries to maintain harmony and balance. It is in this religious richness that Asia is looking to quench its thirst for fullness of life. The sacredness of the human being, social justice, the essential unity of humanity, and hope in a world where love and justice reign are among the values that these religions foster. They all believe in self-sacrifice, solidarity and forgiveness as sources of peace. They all believe also in a compassionate God who incarnated in Buddha, Siva, Krishna, Jesus, or in the sayings of Muhammad has shown that God cares for the weak[6].
Therefore, interreligious dialogue in Asia has to be a life-giving process, a liberative action, as stated by the pope: “Built in the hearts of people, it is a church that faithfully and lovingly witnesses to the risen Lord Jesus and reaches out to people of other faiths and persuasions in a dialogue of life toward the integral liberation of all”.[7] Evangelization as dialogue carries better the mission of Christ of gathering all peoples in communion, within the Trinity. Interreligious dialogue should take prophetic stances against social sins that alienate the weak; religious anthropocentrism that justifies the tyranny of humans over the nature; and all dehumanizing practices or beliefs. Asian Interreligious dialogue should address religious differences that bring about violence and develop communitarian ethics in which everyone watches over his/her brother and /or sister. This dialogue includes also the sharing of religious experiences as shown in people like Anthony de Mello, Henri Le Saux, and others. Interreligious dialogue as mission is a spiritual experience, because only a mystical approach can let God be God, the Holy One over all religions. A theological-philosophical approach has to support this liberative action and contemplative act, as it has been done by Raimon Panikkar and others who have developed a theology of religions.
Consequently, interreligious dialogue calls the church to liberation, a deep metanoia. The church itself must be a place of dialogue and communion. The new evangelizers should be people who know very well their faith, imbued by the simplicity and humility of Christ, liberated from the western conquistadors mentality; and respectful of and opened to other faiths. Interreligious dialogue challenges the Church’s Christology and practice of conversion and proselytism. How to proclaim Jesus as only savior and life giver without betraying the other partners in dialogue? Despite these doctrinal challenges in the Asian church, interreligious dialogue is essential to evangelization in Asia, and bring new and holistic energy to this liberative mission. It is a dialogue of life that, in addressing religious concerns, it aims to penetrate, improve and learn from cultural contexts that bear those religions. Dialogue with cultures is the next step.
“Just as in the first millennium the cross was planted on the soil of Europe and in the second on the that of America and Africa, we can pray that in the third Christian millennium a great harvest of faith [my italics] will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [Asia].”[1] This sentence of the pope has stirred some controversy and critique. Many interpreted the “great harvest of faith” as meaning conversion and proselytism in a continent where Christians are accused of coercing conversions from other religions. However, we may understand the pope as urging for an effective evangelization in the pluralistic society of Asia. This “great harvest of faith” points also to a new understanding of the evangelizing mission of the church, which includes not only the proclamation of the Gospel, but also the commitment for the kingdom of God through human promotion, liberation and dialogue. Dialogue seems to sum what evangelization is about. Indeed, dialogue the spirit of evangelization. Dialogue is at the core of evangelization, because the whole history of salvation of is an endless dialogue of salvation between God and creation[2]. The Lineamenta notes it even more clearly:
God’s offer of salvation to humankind is always a question of dialogue…The entire mission of Jesus was constant dialogue with humanity… The whole mission of the church is, therefore, one of dialogue.[3]
Thus, evangelization has to be a dialogue of life, namely a holistic, inclusive, and soteriological dialogue that engages in the quest for fullness of life and dignity of all creatures.
This is particularly the aim of the Church in Asia: “that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[4] For the FABC, evangelization is not a dialogue with concrete human beings shaped by their cultural heritage, their religious traditions, and their socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus in Asia, evangelization is a “Triple Dialogue” of life with these three dimensions of human life[5]. Accordingly, by examining the three components of this Triple Dialogue, this paper aims to show how evangelization in today’s Asia has to be a dialogue of life. Each component, i.e. religions, cultures, and people will be preceded by a view of the realities and challenges in its regards. This paper is based on some documents from and on the Asian Synod of 1998 and other readings from the FABC and various Asian theologians.
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE.
Since Nostra Aetate, the Church has recognized that other world’s religions have elements of truth or semina verbi that have to be respected, collected and used in building the Kingdom of God. This has been a reality in Asia where the church is blessed and challenged to grow in such a religious pluralism.
Asia is the birthplace of great world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Sikhism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, traditional religions, and indeed Christianity. It is in this pluralism that Asia tries to maintain harmony and balance. It is in this religious richness that Asia is looking to quench its thirst for fullness of life. The sacredness of the human being, social justice, the essential unity of humanity, and hope in a world where love and justice reign are among the values that these religions foster. They all believe in self-sacrifice, solidarity and forgiveness as sources of peace. They all believe also in a compassionate God who incarnated in Buddha, Siva, Krishna, Jesus, or in the sayings of Muhammad has shown that God cares for the weak[6].
Therefore, interreligious dialogue in Asia has to be a life-giving process, a liberative action, as stated by the pope: “Built in the hearts of people, it is a church that faithfully and lovingly witnesses to the risen Lord Jesus and reaches out to people of other faiths and persuasions in a dialogue of life toward the integral liberation of all”.[7] Evangelization as dialogue carries better the mission of Christ of gathering all peoples in communion, within the Trinity. Interreligious dialogue should take prophetic stances against social sins that alienate the weak; religious anthropocentrism that justifies the tyranny of humans over the nature; and all dehumanizing practices or beliefs. Asian Interreligious dialogue should address religious differences that bring about violence and develop communitarian ethics in which everyone watches over his/her brother and /or sister. This dialogue includes also the sharing of religious experiences as shown in people like Anthony de Mello, Henri Le Saux, and others. Interreligious dialogue as mission is a spiritual experience, because only a mystical approach can let God be God, the Holy One over all religions. A theological-philosophical approach has to support this liberative action and contemplative act, as it has been done by Raimon Panikkar and others who have developed a theology of religions.
Consequently, interreligious dialogue calls the church to liberation, a deep metanoia. The church itself must be a place of dialogue and communion. The new evangelizers should be people who know very well their faith, imbued by the simplicity and humility of Christ, liberated from the western conquistadors mentality; and respectful of and opened to other faiths. Interreligious dialogue challenges the Church’s Christology and practice of conversion and proselytism. How to proclaim Jesus as only savior and life giver without betraying the other partners in dialogue? Despite these doctrinal challenges in the Asian church, interreligious dialogue is essential to evangelization in Asia, and bring new and holistic energy to this liberative mission. It is a dialogue of life that, in addressing religious concerns, it aims to penetrate, improve and learn from cultural contexts that bear those religions. Dialogue with cultures is the next step.
B. INCULTURATION AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE
Asia is a continent of diverse cultures and ethnic groups intrinsically influenced by their religious beliefs and practices. Each ethnic group has its own local languages that carry their worldview and thought pattern. Asian people are very religious and firm believers in transcendental realities. Their worldview is organic, holistic, dynamic and pluralistic, contrary to western architectonic and mechanistic worldview. The Yin-Yang and Tao Te Ching express that balanced, and harmonious Asian mindset. Also, Asian cultures carry a sense of togetherness, unity, community and solidarity. They emphasize family life over individualism, and oneness of the whole cosmos over divisions; despite on going ethnic conflicts in some regions.
Therefore, the evangelizing mission of the church in Asia for the Kingdom needs to penetrate and be penetrated by these cultural realities in order to fully express the Asian face of Jesus. Evangelization in Asia has to be a dialogue of life between Christian faith and Asian cultures. In other words, evangelization has to be humble incarnation or inculturation of Christianity into the Asian context. The Christian faith, though it transcends any culture, is always carried by and lived in a particular cultural context. Inculturation supposes attending to the context and developing culturally contextual or local theologies. To evangelize does not mean to import western theology and cultures, but rather the dialogue of life within the local community between people’s experience and cultures and the Gospel, in order to build up a meaningful faith for the local people.
Moreover, inculturation is not only a liturgical priority or a method of evangelization. Inculturation needs to be spirituality. It is about the whole human life, namely theology, philosophy, psychology, thought pattern, etc. As dialogue of life, inculturation is intrinsically directed toward action, toward social transformation. By inculturating Jesus liberator, inculturation becomes a liberating process itself. Christianity borrows mythologies, stories, values, proverbs, celebrations –like the ancestors’ cults and the lunar year- etc from Asian cultures. Meanwhile, it denounces all dehumanizing cultural oppressions. Through inculturation, women, and the outcastes –Dalit in India and Burakumin in Japan- recover their human dignity; the question of ethnic conflicts like the Tribals in Sri Lanka is tackled. Inculturation needs to address contemporary phenomena such as globalization, individualism, secularism, materialism, consumerism and sex tourism, which are poisoning Asian cultures that promote solidarity and love.
Thus considered, evangelization as inculturation and contextualization calls for autonomy of local churches from western paternalism. Inculturation needs to penetrate theological settings and seminaries, formation of missionaries, and religious life. Local churches should, however, address the question of syncretism and the “purity of faith”. Instead of worrying about how far should inculturation be carried, evangelizers should ask themselves whether Asian people have believed in Jesus as “the Teacher of Wisdom, the Healer, the Liberator, the Spiritual Guide, the Enlightened One, the Compassionate Friend of the Poor, the Good Samaritan, the Good Shepherd, the Obedient One…the Incarnate Wisdom of God”.[8] Only Jesus thus presented can bring hope to Asian people crushed under poverty and suffering, and longing for full and liberated humanity.
C. HUMAN PROMOTION AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE
Asia has a long history of oppression and suffering through western colonization, martial law, militarism, dictatorships, communism and capitalism. As a third world continent, Asia is going through socioeconomic problems, such as the increasing demography, foreign debt, prostitution and sex tourism due to poverty, migration, corruption and injustices, etc. What Asia needs today is an evangelization that brings hope and social change. Evangelization has to be a liberating praxis for human promotion, a prophetic proclamation of the Kingdom and its values of justice and peace for all. Indeed, Jesus came to save the whole human being, with a preferential option for the weak, the marginalized, the sick, the oppressed, and the poor.
Thus as human promotion, evangelization will rise from the Asian people’s experience; as dialogue of life, it will address Asian people’s pain and suffering and generate a genuinely Asian liberation. This liberation is a hic et nunc salvation, since the glory of God is that the human being lives fully and humanly (Ireneous). This liberation is for the young people without future, for women –especially young girls- illiterate and abused, for the many indigenous in search of self-determination, for the minjung in search of justice and human rights. In other words, liberation breaks down margins and all structures of sin that keep Asia poor, and builds up a community founded on reconciliation, peace and justice.
Evangelization in Asia has to develop a new form of compassion, solidarity and charity. Instead of a paternalistic charity, Asia needs an empowering charity that challenges the powerful. Therefore, the evangelizing church must become the refuge of the weak and powerless[9]. Only a disciple church, one that follows Jesus up to the Calvary, can proclaim Jesus the way to the Kingdom. Only prophetic church can foretell about the coming of the Kingdom.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper was to show how evangelization in today’s Asia has to be a dialogue of life. Evangelization has to be a dialogue because the whole history of redemption is a dialogue between God and the universe. This dialogue reached its summit in Jesus, the incarnate word of God, fully human and fully divine. It is a dialogue of life, because the totality of life is what Christ offers to the world. Particularly in Asia, evangelization deals with human beings wrestling with concrete religious, cultural and socioeconomic issues. Thus, evangelizing mission in Asia is a Triple Dialogue.
First, evangelizing Asia is engaging in interreligious dialogue as dialogue of life with Asian pluralistic religions. This interreligious dialogue is a forum where all religions share their liberating potentials and spirituality in order to protect human dignity. It creates a communion typical of the kingdom of God. Second, evangelizing Asia is inculturation the Christian faith into Asian cultural heritage. By borrowing symbols, theologies, philosophies, mythologies, worldviews and languages from Asian cultures, the Christian community will let a genuine Asian face of Christ shine and liberate Asian cultures from their dehumanizing structures, beliefs, and practices, by bringing in the values of the Kingdom. Finally, evangelizing Asia is to bring life to all those who are denied human dignity and who live at the margins. Evangelization is a liberating force against political, economic and social structures that, in oppressing Asian minjung they keep Asia under poverty. Evangelization brings hope in Asian women and young people so often neglected. Thus, whether with religions, cultures or poverty, evangelization is a dialogue of life, a holistic liberation for the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is founded on the belief that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
[1] John Paul II, “Ecclesia in Asia”. In Origins, vol.29, No.23, p.359
[2] Jacques Dupuis, “A Theological Commentary: Dialogue and Proclamation”. In Redemption and Dialogue ed., William R. Burrows, New York, Orbis Books, 1993, p.125
[3] Kroeger H. J., MM, “Milestones in Interreligious Dialogue”, in Review for religious, vol.56, May-June 1997 p.274
[4]New American Bible, John 10:10
[5] Veliath D. SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.336
[6]Therukattil G., MCBS, “The Liberative Potential of Asian Religions”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.350
[7] Veliath D., SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.335
[8]D’Sa, F. X., S.J., “Inculturation in Asia.” In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.315
[9] Bishop Julio X. Labayen, OCD., “Mission in Asia Today: Some Paradigm Shifts”. In Religious life in Asia. Re-imaging Religious Life in Asian Societies, vol.1, No.1 (August 1998), p. 82-83
[2] Jacques Dupuis, “A Theological Commentary: Dialogue and Proclamation”. In Redemption and Dialogue ed., William R. Burrows, New York, Orbis Books, 1993, p.125
[3] Kroeger H. J., MM, “Milestones in Interreligious Dialogue”, in Review for religious, vol.56, May-June 1997 p.274
[4]New American Bible, John 10:10
[5] Veliath D. SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.336
[6]Therukattil G., MCBS, “The Liberative Potential of Asian Religions”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.350
[7] Veliath D., SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.335
[8]D’Sa, F. X., S.J., “Inculturation in Asia.” In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.315
[9] Bishop Julio X. Labayen, OCD., “Mission in Asia Today: Some Paradigm Shifts”. In Religious life in Asia. Re-imaging Religious Life in Asian Societies, vol.1, No.1 (August 1998), p. 82-83
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