Abstract
The Second Vatican Council was convoked in 1962 as an aggiornamento (updating) of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather than seeing itself as a “perfect society” or a bastion in opposition to everything outside of it, the Catholic Church shifted its perspective in order to engage the world—including all cultures and other Christian churches/denominations and world religions. This watershed moment impacted every aspect of the church as it opened its doors for new developments. This included both dramatic changes and cautious reconsiderations as the worldwide church strove to find the most appropriate ways of encountering the world and its multiple contexts, while also remaining faithful to the Gospel and mission.
Within this framework, Mission Beyond Ad Gentes: A Symposium provides reflections by 13 Roman Catholic scholars on what has happened since the publication of the ground-breaking Vatican II Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes [AG]). These chapters were originally presentations at an international symposium held at Yarra Theological Union of the University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia, in October 2015, on the fiftieth anniversary of the decree’s promulgation.
In their treatment of particular themes with utmost relevance for mission today, the authors not only describe the developments over the past five decades, but also very importantly highlight the current challenges. The opening chapter by Stephen Bevans is an intriguing description of the radical nature of the foundational missio Dei theology of AG in terms of theosis, whereby the church does not only obey Christ’s command, “it participates in God’s mission in a particularly intimate way—by sharing in God’s ‘life and glory’” (p. 18). Later chapters focus on themes such as the parish and missionary disciples, women and mission, incarnation of the gospel, mission spirituality, social communication, reconciliation, multi-religious contexts, migration, ecology, and missiological education. All the writers are members of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) or the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit (SSpS), and together they reflect the perspectives of five continents. They combine their scholarship and life-long commitment to mission.
This excellent collection of essays by an international body of scholars in mission studies provides fifty-year summaries and future projections for the most relevant aspects of mission today for the Catholic Church. All Christians committed to mission can benefit from this volume.