Missionary content of the new testament in catholic context

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

catholic theology missionary activity

Article

Missionary content of the new testament in catholic context

Kolisnyk Maksym Ivanovych, Postgraduate student of the Department of Philosophy and Religious studies, Bohdan Khmelnitsky National University of Cherkasy

Abstract

The article deals with the ideas of the New Testament that can be basic for a formation of the catholic missionary paradigm. The purpose of our work is to revise different scientific theories about missionary ideas of the New Testament and understand the ones that could be used by Catholic theology in the planning of missionary activity. To get a needed scientific result, we use methods of logical, comparative, stylistic analysis, hermeneutical, phenomenological and synthetic ones. On the basis of these methods, scientific theories, and our own researches, we want to get a balanced understanding of biblical ideas that could be fundamental for Catholic missionary work and about those ones that couldn't. Besides ideas that were written in Scripture and were clearly missionary ones, for example The Great Commission, we want to examine the aspects that were unobvious but very important in the context of understanding of Catholic missionary paradigm and its differences from the Orthodox one. Conclusion. After revision of the New Testament in a confessional context we can claim that there were certain ideas that became the basis for Catholic missionary work, and that confessional peculiarities of missionary work could appear because of different ways of understanding of the biblical texts as well as because of cultural, political, philosophical and mental differences between East and West.

Key words: The Bible, New Testament, Gospel, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, church, missionary work, missionary, paradigm.

Formulation of the problem

There were a lot of researches connected with the missionary ideas of the New Testament. First attempts to examine the content of the Bible burgeoned at the time of St. Augustine or even earlier. At that time, a big discussion started about the status of God Father, God Son, and the Holy Spirit and the type of relations between them. Later Scripture was under examination of Medieval theologians, for example, Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas. After them, there were a lot of researches and discussions, especially about those parts of the Bible which could be the basis for the creation of Catholic confession and, consequently, its missionary paradigm. A Clear understanding of the differences between Eastern and Western Churches based on the understanding of biblical texts could be a uniting point between two confessions stimulating the dialog.

Analysis of the recent researches and publications. There were some studies about New Testament in Ukraine, for example, dissertation “Ukrainian Catholicism: genesis and problems of identity” (Kyyak S. R.), Formation of the socio-political doctrine of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic church (Pasichnyi R.Y.) but anyone touches the problem of the confessional dimension of its missionary ideas. There were more works devoted to the interpretation of the Bible in confessional context on the West. David Bosch in his fundamental work: “Transforming mission” had dealt with certain parts of Scripture attempting to link one parts of it with Orthodox confession and the others - with the Catholic one. James Stamoolis in “Orthodox mission theology today” wanted to explain main peculiarities of Orthodox confession (its rituals and approach to missionary work). Gerald H. Anderson researched Christian missionary work in: “The theology of the Christian Mission”.

Working at this article we considered New Testament to be the main source for our research and consulted with the official documents of the Catholic church (“Ad Gentes”) to be sure about the credibility of this work.

Purpose. The main goal of our research is to give an objective and credible view on the missionary ideas of the New Testament and prove that some of them had given birth to the principles of Catholic missionary theology and missionary work

Presenting the main material. Of course, we can't link New Testament with certain Christian confession precisely. Its inherent missionary potential that revealed in the personality of

Jesus Christ as a human who suffers for the salvation of mankind and as a God as well. For the first time, the sacred text proposes for people not only scenes of God's punishments but the example of His self-sacrificial love to humanity. It is worth to stress on personal talks with strangers and disciples. They are very emotional and more friendly than the ones of that kind in the Old Testament. That's why they make people believe that Christ is the human embodiment of God.

Apart from general Christian missionary content, we can consider the ideas of certain biblical texts as the basis for the appearance of Catholic confession and missionary work. There were two groups of apostles in early Christianity. The first group headed by Peter left in Jerusalem because they considered the salvation of Israel to be their main mission. The second group with Paul on its top went to Antioch where the disciples of Jesus Christ were called Christians for the first time: “And they were conversing there in the Church for an entire year. And they taught such a great multitude, that it was at Antioch that the disciples were first known by the name of Christian” (Acts, 11:26). The new missionary oriented group of Christians found support among Hellenists who thought that Torah lost its power after the appearance on New Testament. But they didn't start missionary campaign: “Paul became its accelerator. He himself gave a theological basis for selfconsciousness of pagan Christianity releasing it from the authority of Torah” [2, p. 53].

Western and Eastern philosophical tradition interpreted Bible and evangelical texts differently considering ones to be less valuable and the others - more valuable. It can be explained by some cultural, outlook, philosophical and even political reasons. Accumulation of these differences between Western and Eastern traditions led to Great Schism in 1054. After it, it was possible to talk about certain fragments of the New Testament that became sources of Catholic missionary work and those which became sources of Orthodox one. It's impossible to examine one paradigm separately from another because of their parallel development. An integrated examination of both sides of formerly united Christian theology allows us to understand the phenomenon of Catholic missionary practice and influence of New Testament on it better.

In the first instance, we have to pay attention that not all apostles went beyond the limits of Hebrew world to preach for pagans. Also, there were those who built Israel church rationalizing that salvation of Jews was urgent. The others led by Paul went to other countries. Namely, the fact of the difference in views established a beginning of two Christian traditions and principles of its spreading that, on our opinion, determined the Great Schism.

It is worth to look at Greek philosophical tradition where Hellenism was basic, and orientation of Greeks onto visual perception: “Most of all, it deals with church service on what unbelievers are invited to visit and which considers being the main form of witnessing and missionary” [2, p. 211]. However, orientation onto the visual perception is also characteristic for Catholic confession, maybe even more. We also can see not only wall painting and icons in Catholic churches but also sculptures. The difference is only in the understanding of mission. Liturgy is the main mean of mission and “its beauty tells” [3, p. 59] about its realness. So, visual perception and enthusiasm at the face of the performance of the divine service are a good reason to keep to God's Way for Orthodox believers and attract new adherents whereas in Catholicism verbal element (logical reasoning) matters too.

Another important moment of Orthodox confession is its corporal organization: “The communal aspect is evident in its soteriology” [3, p. 60]. Mainly the appealing of liturgy not to personality but to the collective is one of the key differences between Orthodox and Catholic confession which determines the difference in their missionary strategies. If we remember evangelical texts in this context, we can recall that Jesus' talks and wonders were either among crowds of people or individual. Of course, all of them either individual or collective had a goal to tell about coming of Messiah to all Israelites. On our opinion, the difference of missionary principles between two confessions appeared because of the alternative understanding of Jesus' acts what were described in Scripture. Orthodox theology doesn't tease out individuals in liturgy consciously: “When anyone of us falls, he falls alone no one is saved alone. He who is saved is saved in the Church as a member of her...” [4, p. 299]. There is not the reference to personality but there is a addressing to God. Its goal is salvation of all humanity. Conversion of the other people is just secondary element of church mission.

On the contrary, in Catholicism sacraments are secondary whereas group and personal reference, help to the other people is a source for finding salvation for mankind.

Some researchers, especially one of the most prominent missiologists, David Bosch, tried to find shoots of Orthodox and Catholic paradigms in Gospels of the New Testament. On our opinion, it is difficult to talk about the genetic descent of Orthodox ideas from certain evangelical texts. We can retrospectively examine ideas which are consonant with future paradigms of Eastern and Western Christianity.

It is critical to emphasize that in spite of disagreement there are lots of Biblical texts (which have missionary character) that are equally recognized in both confessions. Namely, these common elements can become essential for the analysis of different ones.

Thus, foundations of Catholic and Orthodox missionary activity are the same and are recognized by both religion traditions. Differences start to appear on the stage of their implementation.

In Catholic document “Ad Gentes”, it is difficult to ignore orientation of Catholic missionary at the individual role in establishing of God's Kingdom: As members of the living Christ, incorporated into Him and made like unto Him through baptism and through confirmation and the Eucharist, all the faithful are duty - bound to cooperate in the expansion and spreading out of His Body, to bring it to fullness as soon as may be [5, p. 11] On the basis of Biblical texts in this document the system of missionary ideas is designed for involving certain believers into the mission and their gathering into groups to bring the word of God to other people. There is a certain accent on the role of Christ as a human and not only on his God essence. Great attention is driven to his treatments of people within Israel and beyond, namely, they are emphasized as a pattern of church activity. So, we see orientation on both confessions on united generally recognized biblical principles but they put various accents. In the case of Orthodox confession - it is the orientation on collectivism and unification with God essence of Christ because of the greatness of liturgy. In the case of Catholicism - orientation on human nature of Christ and path of His mission on Earth and, consequently, giving a more important role to the personal serving of believer.

Our analysis of common missionary principles in Orthodox and Catholic confessions shows that despite unified basis of the understanding of mission they see its implementation differently. It means that we can concentrate on certain elements of Scripture from what we can output generation of Catholic missionary paradigm.

David Bosch was convinced that Orthodox missionary got inspiration from the verse: “all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

And Catholic one - in verse: “Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel them to enter, so that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).

Truly, the fragment from (John 3:16) is consonant with principles of Orthodox Church, with its concentration on beauty and greatness of liturgy which is the source of missionary potential, but at the same time - doesn't require the movement of Church towards people, on the contrary, it demand unbelievers to be interested in Christianity: “Of course, liturgy will become a Testimonium for the unbeliever after he asks Christian about the source of Christian divinity” [4, p. 273].

There are two central figures in Catholic missiological tradition, Luke and Paul, the apostle to gentiles. Notably, that St. Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury claimed about the dualism of corporal and spiritual because they recognized Paul's idea about salvation with faith and were interested in the question: “Why did God become a human?” St. Augustine's ideas were developed by Angelic Doctor (Thomas Aquinas) whose philosophy become a basis for Catholic theology.

(Luke 14:23) also influenced Catholic missionary practice. It revealed in the relation of St. Augustine to donatists who insisted that unrighteous people must not be in church. He defended the opposite opinion telling that church just cannot deal with righteous only. If humanity is like a see then the church is like a drag net with either good or bad fish. Unrighteous cannot be forbidden to seek for salvation, moreover, they worth to be helped. Discussions around the verse (Luke 14:23) are still up to date nowadays.

Luke's text can be considered to be the source of Catholic missionary work what presupposes addressing to gentiles and only then their conversion to the Church which is not the goal of missionary work but just a detector of people who can be saved. The more people belong to the church, the more of them will find salvation but people have to come there because of their own steadfast faith. In the other words, according to Orthodox tradition, Church is a shelter from the unrighteous world and accepts everybody who wants to be saved whereas in Catholic one - it is only the lighthouse which points people that they go righteous way.

There is a threat of understanding apostles as founders of certain Christian confessions (which is certainly wrong) looking for connections between evangelical texts and confessional paradigms. We can discuss only the possibility that some Gospels correlate more with either one paradigm or another. So, we proved that there are ideas of the New Testament that could influence formation of Catholic missionary paradigm. It is proved by scientists as well as by the implementation of Catholic missionary work.

“Paul has been regarded by scholars as a masterful mission practitioner...” [6, p. 1], but, on our opinion, Paul's missionary work should be understood not as the practical aspect of church theology. Theology and missionary work were inseparable for him. He was the best example of so- called apostle missionary. This was a difference of his service from the Orthodox one which had already been examined in our research. His service is the continuing of his conversion to Christianity. He wanted to tell the others about the experience that changed his life as quick as possible despite their nationality or beliefs. It is astonishing when we remember that he belonged to one of the most conservative pharisaical community: “Noble brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees!” (Acts, 23:6). He didn't want to establish Church as a strong political instrument. He didn't have a goal to establish the political superiority of Christianity throughout the world. His only destination was the salvation of mankind.

However, we can't reduce Paul's missionary work only to its practical side. His numerous sending ups give a strong paradigmatic basis for Catholic missionary ideas.

On the David Bosch's opinion, the fact that Paul was a foster of Beth Hillel's school influenced his missionary work among the gentiles: “Hillel's teacher, Gamaliel, was the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, so Saul was already familiar with missionary ideas before becoming a Christian” [7, p. 2].

His personality is controversial because Paul frequently opposed against the other apostles defending his right to carry the Good News for the other people considering himself to be the thirteenth apostle by the fact of seeing a raised Christ.

All the features of Paul's missionary work that were mentioned above let us see his missionary strategy. There were three kinds preachers described in Bible from the time of the birth of Christianity. The first were so-called errant preachers who travelled within Judaea messaging about approaching of God's Kingdom then Greek-speaking Judaic Christians who went to gentiles from Jerusalem and Antioch. The third group consisted of Jew Christians who travelled to Christian communities that already existed, trying to reform the understanding of Gospels there.

Paul wasn't an ordinary errant preacher because he stayed in some places more than for a year. For another thing, we can see some patterns in his journeys. He stayed only in the cities that were centers of metropolitan countries providing an intensive spreading of Christianity. Paul didn't orient on certain nationalities, he focused on political regions. It was connected with the sociopolitical situation at that time. This fact stressed that he didn't understand Christ as a God for certain nation but for all the people.

Church means a lot to Paul's missionary work. It is not just accidentally gathered community but an alliance created by God. That's why he didn't just establish new churches but helped to support and develop them too. For the first time, the church became international brotherhood that was absolutely new in the ancient world where all God's were strongly linked with certain regions: “Do you not have houses, in which to eat and drink? Or do you have such contempt for the Church of God that you would confound those who do not have such contempt? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I am not praising you in this.” (1 Cor. 11:22). It is Christ's flesh on Earth. He claimed that church communities were those workers who have to tell the message about Christ for those who hadn't get it yet.

Despite the importance of church it just provides the transition to God's Kingdom, properly speaking, it should be understood not as a goal of Christianity but as a mean to reach harmony throughout the world. It has to start missionary work which turns the world into God's Kingdom.

Paul's ideas and his strategy can form unique paradigm. His intensive activity proves that this paradigm is the most important for the understanding of New Testament missionary work. It consists of ideas that were mentioned in his preaches throughout Roman Empire.

Church is understood as a new brotherhood that doesn't care about oppositions between Greeks and barbarians, Jews and gentiles, rich and poor etc. It unites people in spite of their social status, previous religious beliefs and nationality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

One of the points of Paul's missionary work, namely, its attitude towards missionary work among Jews arouse discussions among researchers. One group insisted that Jews were a united community for what the missionary work was unnecessary and reasoned their opinion with (Rom 11:25-26): “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery (lest you seem wise only to yourselves) that a certain blindness has occurred in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has arrived. And in this way, all of Israel may be saved, just as it was written: “From Zion shall arrive, he who delivers, and he shall turn impiety away from Jacob.” The others insisted on its possibility on the basis of “Therefore, know that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7) and: “For if those who are of the law are the heirs, then faith becomes empty and the Promise is abolished” (Rom. 4:14, 16), “Because of this, it is from faith according to grace that the Promise is ensured for all posterity, not only for those who are of the law, but also for those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all before God...”, and also on the basis of understanding of the huge amount of violence, oppressions that were in the history of relations between Jews and Christians and choosing of missionary approach which won't provoke new tragedies and misunderstandings.

Mission undoubtedly should be developed in the context of future God's triumph because it is the mean that approaches it. Realization of inevitable Christ's victory gives an endless potential for continuing missionary work even if its results are invisible within the life of one generation. Here we deal with a concentration on the absolute result, in other words, establishing of God's Kingdom on Earth and this result can't be reached within the range of human's life. So, the way to it can be very long.

Paul also cared about ethical aspect. He refused from full denial from the “old” world that was common position among early Christians. Also, he refused from critics of social conditions of the Roman Empire. Such position was connected not only with his own ethical convictions but with conditions of Christianity that weren't prosperous religion at that time. He convinced that people should think about salvation of the others and not about own privileges: “Be without offense toward the Jews, and toward the Gentiles, and toward the Church of God, just as I also, in all things, please everyone, not seeking what is best for myself, but what is best for many others, so that they may be saved.” (1 Cor. 10:32-33).

Despite unsteady relation to Roman social system Paul claimed that inevitability of God's triumph can make people be active in social life: “Let love be without falseness: hating evil, clinging to what is good, loving one another with fraternal charity, surpassing one another in honor in solicitude, not lazy; in spirit, fervent; serving the Lord” (Rom 12:9-11).

Passive position contradicts the very essence of Christianity. At the same time, he avoided speaking about active participation of the church in civil life because he understood that there were dangerous times for church to interrupt into it.

Suffering plays an important role in Paul's missionary paradigm. He didn't tell about the mission as a privilege but stressed that suffering was the only possible fate of evangelical preacher. Moreover, oppressions and suffering give forces to serve for Christ. This absurd contradiction reflected in Tertullian's statement: “It is certain because it is impossible” [8, p. 166]. Sufferings of the one who carries the good news to people replicate the victimhood of Christ for the salvation of mankind. Paul prepared a mental program for future missionaries because he realized that their way would be full difficulties and perils.

Conclusion. Summing up the results of our research about Catholic content of the NT missionary ideas we have to claim that it is wrong to consider one apostles to be closer to Orthodox and the others to a Catholic church. All we could do was a retrospective research of their ideas and thoughts which later were accepted by either Eastern or Western church. We realized that confessional context of the Bible and reasons for those differences which resulted in the Great Schism cannot be understood without paying attention to cultural, political, social, economical and philosophical differences between East and West. This fact told us that for the realization of our research purpose we have to analyze stylistics and emotional content of the Scripture as well as literal one.

Taking into consideration these preconditions we could achieve needed result and proved that ideas from some Gospels (Luke) and biblical texts (Letters of Paul) were closer to Catholic missionary paradigm and the other (John) - to the Orthodox one. Because of the orientation of the first ones on personal missionary activity. Also, we made a conclusion that personal speeches of Christ with people became a ground for the way of Catholic missionary work and his public speeches influenced the way of Orthodox missionary activity. In other words, Catholic Church focused attention on the human nature of Christ rather than his God essence. This difference reflected at the main goals of missionary work of two confessions. Orthodox confession claims that the main goal of missionary work is establishing of the church and the main mean of missionary work is liturgy whereas Catholic confession understands church as the result of missionary work.

References

1. The Holy Bible Catholic public domain version, original edition. Translated, edited, and published by Ronald L. Conte Jr. - 2010. - 730 p.

2. Бош Дэвид, Преобразования миссионерства. Сдвиги парадигмы в богословии миссионерской деятельности / Дэвид Бош. - СПб.: Христианское общество «Библия для всех», 1997. - 640 с.

3. Stamoolis J. Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology / James Stamoolis // International Bulletin of Missionary Research. - New Haven, Connecticut, 1984. - P. 59-69.

4. Стамулис Иаков. Православное богословие миссии сегодня. - М.: Православный Свято-Тихоновский Богословский институт, 2003. - 448 с.

5. Decree of the Second Vatican Council “Ad Gentes” [Electronic resource].

6. Campbell S. Mission in the New Testament [Electronic resource] / Susan Campbell.

7. Fanning D. The New Testament and Missions / Don Fanning // Themes of theology that Impacts Missions. - Lynchburg: Liberty university, 2009. - 18 р.

8. Тертуллиан Квинт Септимий Флорент. Избранные сочинения. - М.: Прогресс, 1994. - 439 с.

9. Новая Женевская учебная Библия: Синодальный перевод. Под ред. Р. К. Спраула. - Hanssler-Verlag, «Свет на Востоке», 1998. - 2052 с.

10. Толковая Библия Лопухина [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа: http://bible.by/lopuhin-bible/

11. The Holy Bible Catholic public domain version (2010)

12. Bosch, D. (1997). Transforming mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Saint Petersburg: Bible across- the-board (in Russ.)

13. Stamoolis, J. (1984). Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology. International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 59-69. New Haven, Virginia

14. Stamoolis, J. (2003). Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today. Mosw: The convent of the Holy Tykhon theology institute (in Russ.)

15. Decree of the Second Vatican Council “Ad Gentes”.

16. Campbell, S. (2009). Mission in the New Testament.

17. Fanning, D. (2009). The New Testament and Missions. Lynchburg, Virginia: Liberty university

18. Tertullian, Quintus Septimius Florent (1994). Selected works. Moscow: Progress (in Russ.)

19. Lopukhin Clever Bible. Retrieved from http://bible.by/lopuhin-bible/ (in Russ.)

20. New Geneva Educational Bible (1998): Synodical translation. In. R. C. Spraul (Ed.). - Hanssler-Verlag, "Svet na Vostoke" (Light on the East) (in Russ.)

Анотація

Місіонерський зміст нового заповіту у католицькому контексті

Колісник Максим Іванович, аспірант кафедри філософії та релігієзнавства Черкаського національного університету імені Богдана Хмельницького,

У статті розглядаються тексти Нового Заповіту, які науковці вважають настановними для християнського місіонерства, а також здійснюється змістовий, контекстуальний та стильовий аналіз цих текстів. Огляд основних принципів місіонерської діяльності православної та католицької церков дозволяє нам виокремити ті ідеї Біблії, які мали вплив на католицьку місіонерську практику. На завершення здійснено огляд діяльності двох апостолів ідеї та діяльність яких визнаються основоположними для формування католицької парадигми місіонерства.

Ключові слова: Біблія, Новий Заповіт, Євангеліє, євангельський католицький, православний, церква, місіонерство, місіонер, парадигма.

Размещено на Allbest.ru