HISTORY AT THE SERVICE OF MISSION — On the Mission of the Study of History in Mission Education and Missionary Activity
ABSTRACT: Like every other field of human endeavour, religious missionary activities and in particular the process of missionary education and the formation of religious missionary agents, requires the animation of the fruits of historical studies of the worldview, culture and particular history of mission territories. This brief submission calls for the application of the benefits of historical studies to better the work of missions of every kind.
HISTORY AND MISSION: One major edge of the study of history is that it offers humanity the benefit of hindsight. History is a systematic art by which the present beams light on the past, for the purpose of understanding the facts of events to the depths of their causes and effects, and of learning therefrom in dealing with the exigencies of the present and the future. Thus, history is a process by which the past becomes a lesson for the edification of the present and for guidance in plotting the path of the future. History fashions the past into a part of the present. In this sense, history does not belong to the past. Similarly, history is not an anthology of events ‘gone and forgotten’. On the contrary, history has a pivotal place in the making of the present and in the ongoing attempt to unveil the complexity of reality.
History has been called the ‘study of change’; and change has been called the ‘constant’ of reality. It belongs to history to give account of this ‘change’. It is the responsibility of the study of history to examine and explain the proceedings of the interaction of reality and reaction and the ‘change’ which results from this interaction. Thus, history is key to understanding change. In the light of the foregoing, it is vital to underline the crucial role that history — particularly, mission history and the specific history of mission lands — ought to play in both mission education and in mission work. If the fruits of missionary action would become ‘inculturated’, it would first become attentive to history; it ought to take into account the cultural and historical uniqueness of every given mission land.
Just as in other disciplines and endeavours, the study of history has an important mission and role in the Church’s missionary calling. This mission, among other things, is to fore-arm mission functionaries with those expedient tools, necessary to deal with the complexities of today’s mission, drawing from relevant historical treasure. Both for the Church on mission and for the land of mission, mission work can attain more abundant heights of success today, if the deserved attention is given to the lessons that history provides. In fact, this has become an essentiality given the need to avert the missionary misdeed of imposing foreign categories or methodological stereotypes and of judging mission lands by the historical context of missionaries or the dominant context of the west.
Missionary zeal ought always to be guided by right knowledge and right disposition. This knowledge and disposition ought necessarily to include relevant historical appreciation; that is, a grounding in mission history, in missionary methods as well as in the history and socio-cultural context of mission territories. While it cannot be claimed that all missionaries in the past lacked the ingredient of a disposition informed by right knowledge, it cannot also be denied that many of them had no access to or regard for the hindsight which a proper historical knowledge provides. In a world of diversity and plurality, a basic knowledge and appreciation of the history and culture of mission lands and of the trends in mission history, ought to form an imperative part of the animation of mission agents; more so, in our own age of ideological multiformity and multiplicity.
The fruits of the study of history ought to be consciously deployed at the service of mission work. Historical data are key to a practical understanding of peoples and cultures in mission lands; and this is crucial for forging unique and pragmatic approaches to mission activity in every give mission territory. The identity of peoples, which mission endeavours seek to ‘Christianise’, are expressed not only in their culture but also in their history. History is the unfolding of culture and thus, the doorway to grasping people’s identity. It would be judicious for mission animators and mission educators to utilize this vital link. And it is in this sense that we believe that history has also a mission among the missions.
RESUME AND RECOMMENDATION: In a simple resume and at the cost of being repetitive,, let me say, at this point, that the purpose of this short reflection is to strongly recommend that missionaries and all other church workers, who are involved in any form of evangelization, at whatever level, in whatever form, and even, in whichever Christian doctrinal denomination, should pay adequate attention to understanding the history of the people or community being taught or being evangelized; they should pay adequate attention understanding the worldview and cultural peculiarities of their mission-community; and they should also pay adequate attention to study and to review the history and success of the contents and methods of their evangelization or mission work.
Respect for cultural plurality and the individuality of the history of every given people demands this! No culture is a model for other cultures. No people is photocopy of other people! Every people and every culture is unique in it own right. The uniqueness or individuality of people’s given history and culture should not be ignored or destroyed in the guise of evangelisation; they should rather be permeated and transformed, not destroyed. Just like the human body, culture and history need to be studied and understood, in order to acquire the right skills and procedures to penetrate them and permeate them. This is crucial to avert the continuation of the missionary blunder of those missionaries who came with the mentality of importing and imposing their own culture or the cultures they presume to have become Christian and so should be imported, imposed or paragonised as parameters of judging the cultures of mission territories.
Michael Richmond Duru
Altopascio, June 17, 2021
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