Re-thinking Missions, a Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry
Author:
Hocking
Reflection by John Lee
Hocking’s notion
is that mere hypothesis is not enough for an effective religious life, hence he
claims that unless religion becomes specific, historical and even institutional
it cannot be real because it cannot do the work of religion in the world. In
Re-thinking Missions, a Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry, Hocking, as a
chairman of the Commission of Appraisal, points out that important changes had
taken place; hence suggests that the missionary enterprise need to reconsider
its motives, methods, message and aims. These changes were: an altered
theological outlook, the emergence of a basic world culture, and the rise of
nationalism.
Hocking suggests
six permanent functions of missions based on foreign service, ambassadorship as
contrasted with temporary functions and church planting: 1) Maintaining a
relatively few highly equipped persons who are acceptable to or invited by the
foreign land; 2) Standing at the service of the local church as well as of
other leaders of religion; 3) Studying sympathetically the problems of the
changing local culture; 4) Carrying on pioneer and experimental work in
education, medicine, rural development and other social application of the
foreign land; 5) Maintaining institutions for the study and interpretation of
Christian civilization, of philosophy, theology, comparative religion, both for
the higher training of qualified Christians and scholars of the Orient; 6)
Seeking a deeper grasp of the meaning of Christianity; promoting world unity
through the spread of the universal elements of religion; enlivening the
churches at home and abroad through rapport with each other.
Hocking claims
that a profound transformation of the church in the mission field of the Orient
is needed. The churches need to be away form sectarianism towards unity and
cooperation; and away from focusing on the church’s doctrine towards focusing
the vital issues of life for the individual and for the social environment. The
church needs thoroughgoing coordination of activities on the mission field and
putting end to sectarianism and denominational rivalry; and eliminate the
complexities and irrelevancies which
have crept into it through the controversies of the past, and move
toward complete cooperation in the interpretation of its message and in all
moral and spiritual tasks. To achieve this, Hocking recommends that the
reduction of the number of theological seminaries so as to emphasize upon the
preparation for the practical tasks; the establishment of independent and
self-supporting basis for preparation of an indigenous church; and sending of
the persons of the highest quality, fitness and tested ability.
It is Hocking’s
conviction that the substance of the Christian faith is given through
perception available to any man in his
own context and time but that the faith bears within itself a quality of
universality not restricted to any particular time or place. Christianity takes
its place among the great religious traditions of the world. Hocking claims
that the uniqueness of Christianity does not consist solely in its
interpretation of religious truth, but also its symbolism, observances,
historical fellowship and the highest expression the personal figure of the
religious life. Religion has to speak to the emotions and the will not to the
intellect alone.
The motive of all
religious mission, according to Hocking, is an ardent desire to communicate a
spiritual value regard as unique and of supreme importance. It is an integral
part of the passion for saving men and peoples, and implies a peculiar sense of
the tragedy and danger of the unsaved. Therefore the mission is a matter not of
choice but of obligation. Hocking claims that the aim of mission should be “to
seek with people of other lands a true knowledge and love of God, expressing in
life and word what we have learned through Jesus Christ”; that the “Christian
will regard himself as a co-worker with the forces which are making for
righteousness within every religious system; that the relation between
religions must take increasingly hereafter the form of a common search for
truth; and that the missionary will look forward not to the destruction of
non-Christian religions, but to their continued co-existence with Christianity,
each stimulating the other in growth toward the ultimate goal, unity in the
complete religious truth.
Hocking’s
claimants are radical departure from the traditional concept of missions, the
role of ministry, and the relation of Christianity to other religions. His
argument on motives and method of the world mission and the recommendations
have been helpful for a radically revised approach to missions. However, for an
effective religious life actualized in the mission, these can never be complete
without dealing with substantial factors in the missionary enterprise such as
socio-economic structure and an economic basis of the church. Nevertheless,
Hocking speaks of quite a number of crucial points which are, although some
vocabularies are out-moded, still effective, necessary and beneficiary for the foreign missionary
enterprise for its future direction.
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