MISSION ISSUES IN THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT OF MULTIFAITH SITUATIONS

Abstract

As the third millenium dawns, the major challenge for the mission of the Christian churches is not only atheism and indifference, but what amounts to a explosion and the proliferation of beliefs of all kinds. As we survey the supermarket, it is important to make the necessary distinctions between sects in the strict sense of the term, the New Age, with its nebulous esoteric and mystical currents, and the increased vitality of the great non-Christian religions. The religious come-back is a typical symptom of our post-modem age. It coincides with the death of the ideologies, and is a reaction to the failure of modernity to keep its promises in the face of secularization and the anxiety caused by meaninglessness. It is part of the great movement of the re-enchantment of the world, of humanity, and even of God. With regard to the urgency for mission, the most formidable challenge for the Christian faith is the historical experience of a plurality of faiths. This ordeal may lead to scepticism and a certain relativism that tempts us to think that in the last analysis all religions are of equal value. In the nineteenth century, at a time when the success of Christian mission coincided with western colonial expansion, it was possible to imagine that Christianity was going to win over the entire planet. That has not happened, and frequently the great religions are showing signs of new vitality. This seemingly insuperable pluralism of faiths questions our traditional conception of the uniqueness of Christianity, and biblical revelation does not provide an immediate answer. Rather than trying to discredit this rise of the sects, this swarm of often syncretistic groups, this attraction for the wisdoms of the east, we should strive to detect the confused quest for God and inner salvation to which these new movements testify. They question the way in which Christianity has often appeared: they challenge not only our way of thinking about the created universe and the human subject but also our picture of God. Nostalgia for a cosmos that has kept its original unity and lost nothing of its sacredness is a reminder to us that a certain theology of creation has too easily espoused modern ideologies of secularization and the human domestication of nature. The new movements and the great eastern religions invite us to rediscover an ecological vision of the world in which earth are as important as human rights. Likewise, the quest for human wholeness, which underlies many of the New Age therapies, can help us to get beyond a disastrous dichotomy between soul and body, between theory and practice. A better knowledge of the traditions of the east can teach an excessively activist and overly pragmatic Christianity to rediscover the value of gratuitousness, of silence, of not being in command, of moderation in using the earth's resources. Finally, inspire of many confusions, the new religiosities witness in their own way to an immediate experience of the divine dimension of all reality and to a God who is more divine than the too-rational God of our theologies. In the very name of Christian identity, we however must remain vigilant in face of this multiplicity of beliefs, which are often esoteric and syncretistic. The wish to give first place to immediate experience, feeling and togetherness has opened the door to the most diverse and irrational beliefs. The authentically confers a surplus of meaning, and one of the surest criteria of what is credible is respect for the authentically human. A belief is hardly acceptable when it contradicts the most legitimate aspirations of the human consciousness, or when it violates the personal rights of others, or when it ignores the most certain conclusions of human knowledge. …