Interrogating the Language of “Self” and “Other” in the History of Modern Christian Mission. Man-Hei Yip

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СКАЧАТЬ if the mission enterprise must deliver value to all stakeholders in its undertakings. A more direct and effective way of upholding the dignity of other is to see otherness as gift. This affirmation does not aim to essentialize the other, but represents an incredible game-changer in the entire enterprise. Examples of encountering the poor and the Hindu will demonstrate the intelligibility of other forms of religious language and practice. The discourse of otherness as gift means that these people do not passively receive information from their senses; rather they actively construct ideas and generate meaning from what they hear and interpret inputs on the basis of existing ideas and previous experience. The voice of others means more than a symbolic token, but a living wisdom that turns the table of missiological agenda, discussion, and practice. The discourse of otherness as gift can further subvert the narrative world of missioner, and consequently, the imbalance of power in the Christian missionary movement. This subversive discourse unmasks the ideology of hegemony that aims to dominate decision-making process and eventually erase otherness.

      The concluding chapter calls for a new language that can guard against aggressive use of language to objectify and subjugate others in the name of Christian mission. If language is related to the construction of otherness, language should be able to help us cross the boundaries that shut people out. Any shift in language should be motivated, undergirded, and sustained by God’s reconciling work. Missiological language can thus facilitate mutuality and build up an ongoing dialogue with the other. Finally, the new language will enable us to expand our language of God through diverse and divergent expressions of witnesses. Knowledge is not a closed system. When we envision God exclusively through analogies and imaginaries within a specific culture or group of people, we end up limiting God to certain imageries. Learning to relate to different groups of people and be empathetic to their struggles and aspirations further guide us to God’s wondrous work done among people across cultures and languages.

      This book extends an invitation for churches and Christians to make space for the other. Together we can develop a new language that aims to build trust and foster relationship in missionary encounter. In radicalizing otherness, this book hopes to open new avenues to witnessing to God’s unfailing love to all people, regardless of difference. Because of that love, we can love others as ourselves.

      1. R. S. Sugirtharajah argues that early missionaries might not be involved in colonial administration, but they helped promote and reinforce “perceptions of colonialism” through biblical interpretation and teaching. Sugirtharajah, Bible and the Third World, 62.

      2. Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations?,” 22.

      3. Lefever, Amsterdam to Nairobi, 7. The term “Third World” in its original French usage, tiers monde, refers to an alternative world that distinguishes itself from the capitalist world (first world) and the socialist world (second world). It is not necessarily associated with a hierarchical order in which first is the most superior and third is the least significant. Scott and Cavanaugh, Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, 257.

      4. Lefever, Amsterdam to Nairobi, 8.

      5. Lefever, Amsterdam to Nairobi, 8.

      6. Said, Orientalism, 2–3.

      7. Bosch believed Christians of the twentieth century found themselves in the midst of the most important moments in the history of Christian mission. It was a time when Christians expanded their consciousness to the impacts of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment’s overemphasis on reason and rationality distorted the basis and nature of Christian mission. Therefore Bosch asserted that the foundation of mission is not built on human thoughts, but the self-definition of Jesus whose teaching consistently challenges the attitudes of his disciples and their acts of building walls and drawing boundaries between one another. See Bosch, Transforming Mission.

      8. Bosch, Transforming Mission, 190.

      9. I am not saying Bosch completely ignored churches in the South with which he actually was much concerned. Bosch might even advocate the diversity of voices in the field of mission studies; however, ideas and theologies of Christian leaders and theologians in the South were not meaningfully engaged in his reconstructed missionary paradigms.

      10. Grau, Rethinking Mission in the Postcolony, 34.

      11. Rieger quoted in Grau, Rethinking Mission in the Postcolony, 34.

      12. Jenkins, Lost History of Christianity, 77.

      13. Gonzalez, Changing Shape of Church History, 7–8.

      14. See Cardoza-Orlandi and Gonzalez, To All Nations from All Nations.

      15. Cf. John 3:8. One of the recent trends of mission studies is to examine missionary work in a pneumatological framework. As the work of the Holy Spirit sustains life of every form, it becomes a critical point in the history of God’s creation and redemption. There is no longer a division between old churches and young churches, Christians and non-Christians; people including those of other faiths are all recipients of God’s grace. The mission of the Spirit puts into question the practice of subjugating unchurched and adherents of other religions, marking a significant change in dealing with religious pluralism. See Yong and Clarke, Global Renewal, Religious Pluralism.

      16. Engaging Christian mission can indeed be done through a variety of views; and as varied perspectives intertwine, it is not unorthodox to utilize an idea which is secular. It will instead turn out an unfinished business if omitting an idea which happens to be secular.

      17. Said, Orientalism, 5–6.

      18. Said, Orientalism, 2.

      19. Buber, I and Thou, 19–20.

      20. Buber, I and Thou, 23–24.

      21. Buber, I and Thou, 88–89.

      22. Buber, I and Thou, 23.

      23. Cleall, Missionary Discourses of Difference, 3.

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