Recognize God's footprints

Missionaries must appreciate Jesus is Asian and a Jew

By RENATO GANDIA
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

"When you talk about the universality of Jesus as a saviour, you have to remember his particular religious, socio-political and cultural backgrounds," Dr. Peter Phan said at the Anthony Jordan Lecture Series.

Phan, a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., spoke on Christianity amidst Other Religions: A Missionary Perspective, March 1-2, to 220 people at the lecture series sponsored by Newman Theological College and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, St. Mary's Province.

"You have to remember that Jesus is a Jewish rabbi who allowed himself to be touched by a woman and who associated himself with the outcasts in the society, to really highlight the shocking effects of his life."

Jesus embodies God's grace and presence in a super excellent way because in him "God manifested himself in an unsurpassed and unsurpassable way," Phan said.

This means Jesus is the universal saviour, but to present that to the Asian world, we always have to remember the "first human truth about him, that Jesus is Asian and that he is a Jew," said Phan.

Phan, the president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, noted that often missionaries from the West forget this truth when they go on mission in Asian countries where Christianity is a minority.

When missionaries try to be attentive to particular details about who Jesus is, it facilitates inclusivism which is the best way to present Christianity amidst other world religions, Phan said.

"Yes Jesus Christ is the only saviour and mediator of humanity to God, but it does not necessarily exclude other mediations."

Other mediations however, have to be dependent and not parallel to the mediation of Jesus, Phan explained.

As a Catholic missionary, Phan ruled out the exclusivist and pluralist positions.

"When I go to China as a missionary, I am not walking on pagan land." - Prof. Peter Phan

Vatican II expunged the view that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. But it is also not a Catholic position that other religions are on equal footing, Phan said.

Jesus said it himself - that he is the truth, the way and the life. But at the same time "Jesus recognized the truth and grace outside where he was doing ministry," he said.

Jesus provided ministry to people who were not part of God's covenant to Israel, for example, the Syro-Phoenician woman, the Roman centurion and the Samaritan woman.

Christians have to be guided by three principles - God's will to save all, the supernatural existential, which means that God has given himself totally to the world, and the judgment of the nations stated in Matthew 25:31-46.

"When I go to mission, I recognize that God has been there before I come," stated Phan. "For example, when I go to China as a missionary, I am not walking on pagan land.

"We have to see and recognize the footprints of God and then follow them and when people recognize the same footprints, that's the time to name them."

One must assume the attitude of a guest, coming to somebody else's home. As a missionary who came with some presents, it is crucial to recognize that the host has also a lot to offer, said Phan.

"Before you preach the Gospel, find first the message of the Gospel that is already present there."

For missions to be truly successful in Asia, missionaries have to enter into four dialogues - dialogue of life, of action, of religious experience and of theological exchange.

"In Asia, we don't trust words, we trust relationship: that's why dialogue of life is very important and there is no more powerful dialogue than to worship together."

Christianity does not have a foothold in Asia because Jesus was presented as a Western God, "a colonial Christ," who dominates and conquers. "So the hope for conversion became dim. Unfortunately, division among Christians is the worst obstacle of missions," Phan said.

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