Summary And Evaluation Final Draft

CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

CTC503: Mission and Dialogue

Assessment Task 2: A summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation. υµεις προσκυνειτε ο ουκ οιδατε (Jn 4:22)

Words have primary meanings that are determined by common usage. Adjustments in meaning presuppose primary meanings as do the stipulative definitions of academic or technical discussions. Tensions that exist between concepts at one semantic level can carry over to another, even when definitions try to mitigate this. Common usage defines dialogue as a conversation between people with different views who are intent on learning from one another. It leads to new understanding with the distance between viewpoints decreasing as common ground is mutually discovered and affirmed. In contrast, proclamation is a one-sided assertion that something is the case. Acceptance is invited; discussion is inappropriate. Given this inherent tension between the concepts, it is germane to consider Church’s understanding of the relationship between the Christ-given mandate to proclaim the Gospel to the nations and the post-Vatican II requirement to enter into ‘dialogue and collaboration’1 with world religions. Does the Church attempt to hold the terms together by situating them in a broader definition of its missionary task? Are the relevant philosophical and theological implications of proclamation made explicit in such a way as to make the two concepts complementary rather than oppositional? Or does the Church simply give priority to proclamation and propose an understanding of dialogue shorn of certain features associated with that concept? In what follows I will present a summary (printed in italics) of Dialogue and Proclamation: Reflections and 1

Declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, (28th October 1965) Vatican II, Nostra Aetate, 2,

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

Orientations on Interreligious Dialogue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,2 one of the most important documents issued by the post-Vatican II magisterium. In the commentary the issue of the coherence (or otherwise) of DP will be considered. Does the document provide a plausible integration of the ‘component elements’ or is the overall vision vitiated in some way? Two further questions will be raised. Given the progression of certain key ideas the fundamental unity of humankind, the Word as the single source of Revelation, the progressive self-communication of God to all humankind culminating in the Christ-event, the reality of the logos spermatikos – is it possible to discern in this document the contours of an emerging theology of religions? Finally what are the implications of the so-called ‘regnocentric’ perspective both for the apparent tensions between proclamation and dialogue and for the broader question of interreligious dialogue? The document Dialogue and Proclamation: Reflections and Orientations on Interreligious Dialogue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was published in 1991, twenty five years after Vatican II’s Declaration Nostra Aetate, a document that broke new ground by encouraging dialogue and collaboration with Judaism and other world religions in order to promote common spiritual and moral values. There have been a number of significant antecedents to DP, including Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Ecclesiam Suam (1964) and his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975) and Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals Redemptor Hominis (1979) and Dominum et Vivificantem, each anticipating or developing aspects of what would become a more coherent dialogical approach and attitude. These and other documents, and the discourses of Pope John Paul II in particular, cumulatively established the foundations of interreligious dialogue. What remained was for Church to gather the fragments of these insights into an explicit statement that would harmonise the need for dialogue with the primordial duty to announce Jesus Christ to the world. To this end, the first draft of what was to become Dialogue and 2

Hereafter DP, dated May 1991 and jointly signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

Proclamation was presented to the Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Non-Christians in April 1987. Document summary DP consists of three parts sandwiched between an Introduction and a Conclusion: Interreligious Dialogue (14-54); Proclaiming Jesus Christ (55-76); and Interreligious Dialogue and Proclamation (77-86). The Introduction (1-13) states the general aim of the document: to give further consideration to the two ‘component elements’ (2) of the one evangelising mission of the Church and to study their mutual relationship. The principal grounds for the study of the relationship are the reality of religious pluralism and an imperfect grasp of the significance of dialogue by the Christian faithful. Further encouragement for study have been provided by Pope John Paul II who emphasised the complementarity of proclamation and dialogue and by the extraordinary Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986 when the pope met and prayed with leaders of several world faiths. Finally key terms used in the document are clarified. The Church’s total mission is evangelization and this is accomplished through a variety of activities including proclamation (the communication of the Gospel message) and dialogue (witness and exploration of respective religious convictions). Interreligious Dialogue (14-54) unpacks the remark made in 53 that ‘the Church’s commitment to dialogue … flows from God’s initiative in entering into dialogue with humankind …’ God dialogues (in the broadest sense) with creation; the Church – who shares the ultimate addressee’s (namely Jesus Christ’s) self-awareness of the One who dialogues,– is bound to continue that same dialogue. Vatican II provided a positive assessment of religious traditions, employing patristic language to indicate that other traditions (and not just individual members of traditions) share in the ‘riches that a generous God has 3

CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

distributed’ (16). God makes a covenant with characters who represent the whole human race. There is but one, continuous story of God’s involvement with humankind, one history of salvation for all peoples. Among the nations Israel is gifted with a special awareness of salvation including an eventual realisation that salvation is for all. Jesus embodies this realisation by ‘displaying an open attitude towards men and women who do not belong to the chosen people of Israel’ (21) and by proclaiming a Kingdom that is not confined to the people of Israel. A positive and generous approach to other traditions is instanced by St Paul’s Areopagus speech and, in the postApostolic period, in the work of Justin, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria who develop a theology of history that is able to construe all history as salvation history. Because all (human) awareness is oriented to radical selfawareness, that is, awareness of man’s rootedness in God, then Christ as the embodiment of that is both the culmination of history and the latent presence in human awareness since the beginning of time. ‘Christianity already existed “at the beginning of the human race”’ (25). This patristic vision helped to inspire the Council to recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit in other religions. However discernment is needed to recognise the work of the Spirit in other traditions and Christians will need to challenge people in a peaceful spirit with regard to their beliefs. The Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated in his earthly mission is represented to the world by the Church. When the members of other religious traditions live in accordance with their consciences they are oriented to the Church. Indeed the Church is called to discern the reality of the Kingdom in the lives of other believers insofar as they are open to the Spirit. While the Church is the sign of what the fullness of life and truth means for all human beings, her individual members are not perfect. In order that her sacramental nature may be experienced as such by others, she must seek reformation and renewal. She engages in dialogue with other traditions and with humankind generally because God relates Godself to people dialogically. The forms of interreligious dialogue are varied and include open sharing with others, working for human liberation, theological discussion and shared religious experience. Certain

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

dispositions, including openness to truth, are required of those who engage in interreligious dialogue. Proclaiming Jesus Christ (55-76). The mandate to proclaim the Gospel was given by Jesus to the Church. It is Jesus as the embodiment and realisation of the Kingdom who is proclaimed. The Church is the ‘seed and the beginning ’ (59) of the Kingdom. (Proclaiming) the word following the prompting of the Holy Spirit is essential to the Church’s witness to the Kingdom and it is Christ crucified and risen that forms the principal content of this witness. The Church’s task is not exercised in a void since believers from other religions through the sincere practice of their own traditions have already responded positively to God’s offer of salvation through Christ. There is a pedagogy of proclamation and the Church must respect the varying capacities of people to hear the word. Proclamation must be (amongst other qualities) dialogical and there must be progress from the ‘seeds of the word’ (70). Interreligious Dialogue and Proclamation (77-86) are not ‘on the same level’ but they are both ‘authentic elements’ (77) of evangelization. Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed dialogically – in the Gospel spirit of dialogue with due sensitivity to the circumstances. While interreligious dialogue promotes ‘truth and life’ (80) proclamation guides people to an explicit knowledge of what God has achieved in Christ. Dialogue must be oriented towards proclamation and Christians must be ready to give an account of ‘the hope that is within them’ (82: I Pt 3:15) when this is called for. Commentary In his analysis of DP Dupuis refers to the risk of a ‘juxtaposition of the two parts [ie dealing with dialogue and proclamation] without a perfect integration of both’.3 Does DP actually suffer from imperfect integration? If there is imperfection, how is this to be accounted for? Are the apparent tensions generated by the conjoining of work by two distinct dicasteries or is there 3

Op. cit. p. 123

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

something inherent to the two ideas that makes that makes satisfactory integration impossible? Interestingly Dupuis thinks that ‘to a great extent’ DP has fulfilled its task. Taken by itself, Interreligious Dialogue seems to establish a mutuality between dialogue and proclamation. While earlier drafts of the document implied that the two were essential elements of the Church’s evangelizing mission,4 the compromise formula in the final draft continues to describe dialogue as ‘integral’ (9). Proclamation, while being the ‘foundation, centre and summit’ can also be a ‘conversation’ that can lead to a deepening of faith (10). The nuanced approach of Interreligious Dialogue to the two ‘component elements’ (2) is to a large extent a corollary of its development of insights from Nostra aetate and Lumen gentium (16) that variously affirm the presence of the Word in other religious traditions. A different kind of background permeates Proclaiming Jesus Christ with its emphasis on the efficacy of proclaiming Jesus Christ ‘confidently and perseveringly’ (67) when the occasion presents itself. While both interreligious dialogue and proclamation remain ‘authentic elements’ they are not considered to be ‘on the same level’ (77). In spite of this, however, even Proclaiming Jesus Christ concedes that the exemplar of proclamation, Jesus himself, ‘does not proclaim by word alone, but with … actions, attitudes and options, indeed by means of his whole life … (56). Dupuis feels that DP has demonstrated that dialogue and proclamation are both distinct and necessary.5 It seems to me, however, that Interreligious Dialogue paints with such a broad brush that any distinctive contours of proclamation are not easily discernible. On the other hand Proclaiming Jesus Christ stresses the centrality of proclamation to such an extent that the sense in which dialogue is necessary is unclear. To some extent, it could be said that, like Dialogue and Mission6, DP provides a theological basis on which the practice of dialogue and proclamation could be grounded. The development of ideas in Interreligious Dialogue – God dialogues with hearers of the Word (ie all humankind) and the Church, inspired by the mind the ‘dialoguee’ par excellence (Christ), maintains this 4

See Dupuis, Op. cit. p. 155

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Op. cit. p. 154 Dialogue and Mission, The Secretariat for Non-Christians (1984).

6

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

dialogue so that all may experience salvation – seems to me to suggest a theological position that could open up a vein of ideas and insights for interreligious dialogue. God is present and active in all creation through the Word (17). What distinguishes Israel and ultimately Christianity is the quality of its awareness, its ‘deep awareness,’ (20) of the covenantal relationship that exists between God and humankind. Deep awareness – or radical selfawareness – represents a decisive moment in the journey into Wordawareness (from the Christian perspective, Jesus enjoys this uniquely). In the story of the Samaritan woman, referred to in DM (21), Jesus tellingly says to the woman ‘You worship what you do not know; we [ie the Jews] worship what we do know.’ (Jn 4:22). What is required is not so much conversion to the Jewish God as a full realisation of what is happening in (Samaritan) worship. Michael Barnes remarks that the ‘new horizon’ (21) that Jesus opens up is not just related to his Resurrection but to ‘the possibility of a ‘theology of history’ […] to be precise, a vision of God’s progressive self-communication to all humankind.’7 For this to occur all participants in a dialogue of religions would need to give an ‘account of the hope that is within’ as a necessary condition for movement towards deeper awareness. An Islamic commentary on DP states that ‘… Christians should enter into dialogue with people of other faiths by proclaiming their own faith to them. In our opinion, if it was accepted that others might do the same, there would be no objection to it.’8 With reference to the question about the possible ‘imperfect integration’9 of dialogue and proclamation in DP, it has been suggested10 that the tension between the two reflects the two states of the Church with reference to the Kingdom of God. Insofar as the Church is the pilgrim Church moving towards the Kingdom, she dialogues with others. Insofar as she is the sacrament of the Kingdom already present, she proclaims Jesus Christ in whom the Kingdom 7

Michael Barnes SJ, Discerning the ‘Catholic Instinct’ in Dialogue and Proclamation ten years on. 8

See Dialogue and Proclamation on www.crvp.org/books/Series02/IIA-13/chapter_two

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p. 5 supra

10

See Dupuis, op.cit., pp 155ff

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

has been established. The implication of DP (34-35) is that members of other religious traditions (can) share in the Kingdom. Such a ‘regnocentric’ perspective enables us to see proclamation, not as a by-product of ‘ecclesiocentrism according to which mission would be intended for increasing Church membership’11 but as a way of bringing into the open, or making more explicit, truths to which people are already oriented. In the words of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference ‘ … the Church’s proclamation meets the deepest longings and aspirations of the human heart for liberation and wholeness of life.’12 It is questionable, however, whether, from the perspective of the other traditions, the sharing of what meets the ‘deepest longings’ can be distinguished from proclamation as assertion. In such a context the perception of a relaxation of tension between proclamation and dialogue may be more unilateral than general. (2429 words)

Further references Pilgrimage Re-envisioned: Mission and Culture in the last five General Congregations: www.puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/dialogue/documents/articles/starclof_pilgrimage

Christ, the One Saviour of the World: Reflections on our emerging Christological question (1997): www.eapi.admu.edu.ph/eapr97/huang

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Op. cit. p. 157

12

From Some Theological Reflections on the Asian Context of Evangelisation, in Sedos Bulletin (15th February 1992), pp. 50-55

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CTC 503: Assessment Task 2: Summary and evaluation of Dialogue and Proclamation - Candidate number: V42326

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