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Book: Re-Visioning Mission Author: Richard G. Cote, O.M.I.: associate professor of mission studies, St. Paul U. Ottawa Paulist Press, 1996, pp.191 Excerpt from Chapter One: With the numerous publications that have appeared on the subject of mission, particularly within the past decade, one may wonder why there is need for yet a new utterance about mission. In the first two chapters I wish to consider some of the major reasons why the question of mission, which in the past has always been very close to the heart and raison d’etre of the church, must be re-visioned anew. In this first chapter, I will draw attention to several fundamental reasons why the notion of mission must be re-visioned again today and why Vatican II’s dynamic statement that the church is missionary in its very nature has virtually fallen on deaf ears at the grass-roots level of the church, that crucial level where any renewed sense of mission must begin. In the next chapter, I will deal more specifically with the Catholic Church in the United States and why it is still unsure of itself and its mission, and why it lags behind some of the younger local churches in the third world in its missionary resolve and spirit. This will serve as an immediate introduction to the central focus of our study, namely, inculturating faith in the North American context. Table of Contents: Part One Unresolved Issues 1. Why a New Utterance About Mission? Confusion About “Mission” New Developments in Hermeneutics Crisis in Religious Symbolism Crossing the Postmodern Divide 2. An Uneasy Dialogue in the American Catholic Church American Catholics and the Vatican The Place and Role of Women in the Church Being Catholic: A New Way of Belonging Still an Immigrant Church? Part Two Inculturation: A New Challenge 3. Re-Visioning Inculturation Questionable Approaches and Assumptions A New Metaphorical Approach 4. Mapping the Process of Inculturation 1. The Phase of Courtship and Acceptability 2. The Phase of Ratification 3. The Phase of Establishment 4. Theological Foundations Incarnation as Redemption Incarnation as Ongoing Reality Part Three Culture Revisited: A New Approach 6. Culture Revisited: Some Misconceptions What is Culture? Structure and Interaction Technology and Culture Ideology and Culture The Church and Ideology 7. A Model for Analysis of Culture A Visual Inscape of Culture A Culture’s “Dynamic Myths” The Power and Function of Dynamic Myths The Dynamic Myths of American Culture 8. A Model for Analysis of Culture Fundamental Cultural Values Some Criteria for Discerning “Core” Values Some Basic American Values Part Four New Paths and Spirituality of Mission 9. New Postmodern Paths in Mission New Mission Paths and Priorities 10. A Spirituality for Crossing the Postmodern Divide Belated Acceptance of Ambiguity in Western Culture The God of Biblical Revelation Jesus Creates and Endures Ambiguity The Ambiguous Truth About Faith Notes An excerpt for the book’s content: Karl Rahner state that “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.” If this is true or even falls somewhere within the “ballpark”of God’s truth, then a most appropriate priority and focus for church leaders and those who take mission seriously would be a renewed emphasis on the character of faith as mystery. This means a shift in emphasis from magisterium to mystagogy, from pedagogy to midwifery, from problem solvers to mystery dwellers. A problem, as the etymology of he Greek word pro-ballein suggests, is something that is thrown out in front of us to be solved, an obstacle that can be aggressively cracked open like a nut and “solved.” For every problem, theoretically speaking, there is a solution or answer. Mystery on the other hand calls for no such imperious resolution. What is called for, instead, is much more akin to the “active surrender” of a mystic or holy person in the presence of an unfolding mystery. In Gabriel Marcel’s phrase, mystery is something “that encroaches on the intrinsic conditions of its own possibility.” . . . . Leonardo Boff put it well: “Mysticism is not the privilege of the fortunate few. It is rather a dimension of human life to which all of us have access when we become conscious of a deeper level of self, when we try to study the other side of things, when we become aware of the complexity, and harmony of the universe. All of us, at a certain level, are mystics. |