Missiology: An International Review

This article takes as its starting point the presence and evolving role of U.S. Catholic missioners in Latin America. The occasion of the 500 Years Commemoration provides an opportunity to reconsider this contemporary movement and its contribution to forging a church from the perspective of the poor in Latin America. It examines those internal and external factors that have shaped a new way of doing mission based on a recognition of “otherness” and develops some of the motivations that are unique to the North American experience. Awareness of these contributions together with challenges that arise out of the present moment form the backdrop for what is envisioned as an ongoing attempt to articulate the U.S. Catholic missionary movement both in Latin America and the United States.

By way of an evangelical reponse to Stephen Judd, Escobar insists on the need to recover the memory of what has been the shape and outcome of North American missionary action in Latin America. Catholics and evangelicals need to compare notes in order to understand better their respective stories and to formulate a valid and relevant missionary strategy for the future. The deteriorated social conditions as well as the collapse of real socialism after the fall of the Berlin Wall demand new paradigms for understanding mission and shaping missionary action. Popular churches are part of the emergence of the poor in Latin America, and missionary action can take place only in authentic partnership with them.

What were the mission models that Carey and his company at Serampore worked from, worked with, worked at, and then bequeathed to the so-called modern missionary movement? In what senses was their mission in Bengal, 200 years ago, part of a unique period of transition between contrasting eras of Protestant mission history? Inquiry into such questions leads one to distinguish between model-making and myth-making in mission promotion and mission history. This sheds entirely new light on the missiological significance of a venerable Baptist trinity: William Carey, William Ward, and Joshua Marshman.

The response to Christopher Smith's paper focuses on the Serampore Trio from the standpoint of a team and a time. The team of Carey, Marshman, and Ward cannot be described as Carey plus two. The synergism of the team produced a force begging for a form large enough to channel the productivity of the team. The time, or era, provided the precedents and the context in which such a phenomenon could occur: a “kairos” moment at a “chronos” intersection. If models are but the shadows cast by the means, it is increasingly important to understand consequences for the future from any means adopted.

As an outsider in a community, a missionary's own conceptual framework of the world is typically very different from that of his or her hosts—insiders. Nothing much gets done until this conceptual space is closed, and closing that space rests primarily on the initiative of the outsider. Learning to close this space, an exercise in de-alienation, should become a central organizing principle in entry (on-field) orientation. A model for a 36-month program is presented and developed. However, volunteers vary widely in their potential for gap closing and their readiness to undergo the de-alienation process. Furthermore, some situations pose gaps that are wide and difficult to close. Sometimes volunteers are well-matched to situations and sometimes not. A model for matching volunteers and situations is presented and discussed.