Anthropology in Missionary Training

Abstract

The need for anthropology in the training of prospective missionaries has been recognized by the Holy See in several Encyclical Letters.' It has been realized by many missionaries themselves and has come to be regarded as the basis of a serious obligation by superiors of missionary and mission sending societies, religious and lay, and by all who bear responsibility for the training of those who are destined to witness to the gospel in those human societies and milieux in which the Church is not yet established in the very fabric of the society itself. Today, with our growing knowledge of the social sciences has come a growing responsibility. It has always been known and appreciated that in order to witness the gospel to a people it is required not only to know and live that gospel but also to know and live in a communion of experience with that people. This was no secret from Paul of Tarsus, Martin of Tours, Ramon Lull, Matteo Ricci, Robert de Nobili and a host of others. The responsibility that is uniquely ours springs from the fact that we need no longer rely solely on what we can learn for ourselves from personal observation and experience in the field. Contemporary scholarship in the social sciences and in cultural anthropology in particular makes available a vast fund of knowledge of social and cultural dynamics, of the laws of custom and tabu, of channels of innovation and patterns of reaction for conservative forces, of the principles of integration and coherence of cultural patterns and of the way that different peoples understand and see the world and the meaning of life. It is widely recognized that we must profit from this scholarship in the training of over-seas personnel for the Church as do secular agencies in training personnel for over-seas technical, commercial and political activity. The chief problem is the very practical one of selection and adaptation of the products of contemporary scholarship. The bewildering com-