Globalization and Mission Activity Prof. Louis Aldrich - Taipei I.

Introduction: Meaning of Globalization

The topic of my talk is Globalization and Mission Activity. In a broad sense, the Church's mission activity includes everything for bringing about the Kingdom of God-- liturgy, sacraments, education, witness of life, social apostolate, pastoral activities, evangelism, etc. Here we will focus on the narrow sense of mission activity as evangelism ad gentes. To answer how this mission activity is affected by globalization we need to indicate what is meant by globalization. According to Michel Schooyans, professor emeritus at Louvain University, on a very general level, the term indicates that, on the world level, rapidly increasing rates of exchange, whether of information, products, money, political ideas, etc., is the key driving force of globalization. This is clearly seen in the areas of science, economy, technology and culture. "This expansion of exchange has been made possible thanks to systems of communication that are more and more effective and often instantaneous." This accelerating exchange results in an ever greater interdependence of nations. For example, "an economic crisis in the U.S., the decisions of OPEC about the price of petroleum, the tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians have repercussions of worldwide import." Further, we begin to feel responsible for crisis and catastrophe anywhere in the world . John Paul II has pointed out that globalization, while offering real opportunities for improving the human situation, is also fraught with dangers: while "increases in economic efficiency and production can offer better services to all . . . the consequences of globalization will be negative if it is organized just to suit the interests of the powerful." (VATICAN CITY, NOV. 8, 2001 Zenit.org). In this talk, therefore, we will try to examine globalization from the points of view of both the opportunities and obstacles it presents for the Church's mission of evangelization. Finally, we will attempt to show how these positive and negative aspects of globalization affect the evangelical work in Taiwan and how a better understanding of globalization might benefit Taiwan's evangelical work. But first let us review the some facts about successful works of global evangelization which the Catholic Church and other Churches have already accomplished. II. Already Successful Globalized Evangelization: Some Facts In order to get a sense of how globalization can be an aid to evangelization, the following facts, taken from a presentation by Mark Noll are very striking. "Consider what went on last Sunday. More Roman Catholics attended church in the Philippines than in any single country of Europe. In China, where in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches at all, more believers probably gathered for worship than in all of so-called 'Christian Europe.' Last Sunday, more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the U.S. combined. In Korea, where a century ago there existed only a bare handful of Christian believers, more people attended the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul than all of the churches in (entire) American denominations like the Christian Reformed Church. In the United States, Roman Catholic Mass was said in more languages than ever in American history. As a final indication of global trends, as of 1999 the largest chapter of the Jesuits was in India, and not as in the United States as had been the case for many decades before." ("Faith and Conflict: The Global Rise of Christianity", Mark Noll, at Council of Foreign Relations, March 2005) In fact, during the last century, Christian evangelism has succeeded in entering new cultures at an accelerating rate. "The great vehicle of that acceleration has been translation, primarily translations of the Bible into local languages, but also translations of liturgies, hymns, theology, and devotion from the vast archives of the Christian West into the emerging discourses of the world." For example, in the last one hundred years over 1,600 new languages have received at least part of the Bible. "Evangelical Protestants have been in the forefront of this translation effort, but Roman Catholics have not been far behind." One worrying aspect of this accelerating growth is that today about one-fourth of today's Christians belong to independent or "non-denominational" Churches. Finally, local, lay evangelists have had critically important contributions in the growth of Christianity ("Faith and Conflict: The Global Rise of Christianity", Mark Noll, at Council of Foreign Relations, March 2005). It is worth reflecting upon about why these new Churches have been so successful. But before this reflection let us discuss the dangers globalization presents for evangelism. III. Globalization's Dangers to Missionary Activity From the above it is clear that globalization in itself has not inhibited missionary activity and has in many places been a positive force by opening up non-Catholic cultures to new ideas. At the same time, however, many powerful, well organized global organizations are actively seeking to limit or repress both the faith and morals of the Catholic Church. Basically a new global religion is being proposed in which the globe/earth as whole has a value which transcends man. This new religion, promoted by the United Nations, ultimately will prohibit all other religions from proselytizing. "In brief, according to the UN, globalization must not be concerned merely with the spheres of politics, economics, law; it must be concerned with the global soul." ((VATICAN CITY, NOV. 8, 2001 Zenit.org) A further evil use of globalization is the attempt to impose, through the United Nations, European Union and other international organization the culture of death and of sexual liberation on the whole globe. For example, enshrining abortion, homosexual marriage and euthanasia as human rights, such that it is a criminal offense even to denounce such things as immoral. Obviously, this kind of globalization, which is powerfully operating in the world today, has and will greatly limit the Church's ordinary evangelical mission: the only response to it is accepting the Cross of various degrees of persecution and, ultimately, martyrdom. Despite these evil uses of globalization, the Catholic Church has continue to grow; yet it may be worthwhile examining how the fastest growing Protestant denomination, the Pentecostals, has faced globalization. IV. Pentecostal Success in the Global Situation What are the characteristics of the Pentecostal/charismatic movement. According to Dr. Allan Anderson in "Towards a Pentecostal Missiology," from the beginning the Pentecostal/charismatic movement has been relying on the power of the Holy Spirit: "the experience of the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 becomes a normative paradigm for every Christian to preach the gospel; (further), Luke’s primary and pervasive interest is the work of the Holy Spirit in initiating, empowering and directing the church in its eschatological worldwide mission." The reasons for the rapid growth of Pentecostal churches have been identified as the following: "(1) mobilization of the laity; (2) aggressive evangelism; (3) total participation of the church in worship and ministry; (4) prayer for the sick; and (5) encounters with demonic spirits." Yet, though these five are certainly important contributing factors, more critical is the "Pentecostal experience in Acts 2:4 as a primary cause in the growth of modern Pentecostal churches . . . (hence) . . . the Spirit Himself is the superintendent and administrator of missions"; the rapid growth of Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity during the recent period of globalization is, then, proof of the Spirit's power ("Towards a Pentecostal Missology", Dr. Allan H. Anderson). V. Some concluding applications to the Taiwan situation We can conclude our talk with some applications of the above facts and theories to one concrete case of mission activity: Taiwan. Between 1950 and 1970 Taiwan underwent a remarkable, some say miraculous, period of evangelical activity ad gentes: going from a Church of 10,000 to over 300,000. But since that time there has been no increase and, in fact, a probable decrease in the number believers. While some have suggested the cause of this statis or decline is Taiwan's transformation from a relatively poor agriculture economy into a prosperous industrial one, in fact over the last 25 years both Buddhist and Pentecostal churches have greatly increased their number of believers. In the early period of increase, the Catholic Church seemed to be following many of the strategies used by today's Pentecostal and Buddhists: it was a period of aggressive evangelization; it was global or international in the sense of receiving financial and personnel support from all of the world; it quickly translated the central documents of the Catholic faith into Chinese and aboriginal languages; finally, much of this evangelism was done by local, lay evangelists. In this context, at least three factors have contributed to the current period of stasis: declining international financial and manpower support, what might be called a decline in globalization; a decline in aggressive evangelization as the foreign clergy have aged and the number of local lay evangelists has decreased from over 1300 in 1964 to 296 in 2004 (most of whom are not now doing direct evangelistic work); slowing or even stopping of "translation" or "inculturation" of Catholic faith into the culture of local Minan, Hakka, and Aboriginal ethnic groups, whom together make up 85-90% of the Taiwan population. In terms of the above discussion of globalization and mission what should the Taiwan Church do, especially in its role as bridge Church to China? First, the work of translation and inculturation of the faith needs to be intensified, this includes the most basic work of top level translations of the work of the Church Fathers, great spiritual writers and theologians of every age, the documents of the contemporary Magisterium, outstanding orthodox contemporary Catholic apologists, etc. Second, the work of lay evangelists and catechists needs to be revived and funds to support their work need to be found. Third, in order to accomplish one and two, the local Church needs to convince the global Church, that as a missionary Church, where only one percent of the population is Catholic, even if Taiwan as a whole is relatively rich, the Church is poor and is in need of substantial financial and personnel aid. In addition, the whole Church needs to mobilized to zealously take up the work of evangelization. This zeal needs to be matched to inculturated methods that can call forth an openness to hearing the gospel from a population that is on the one hand both a beneficiary and victim of the global economy and culture and which, at the same time, is highly localized in the desire of each of its ethnic groups to preserve its own identity. If the local Church is also able to preach the crucified Savior with a zeal similar to that of the evangelical Protestants and the power of the Holy Spirit with a zeal similar to that of the Pentecostals while integrating this zeal with the fullness of revelation and means of salvation and spiritual depth offered by the Catholic faith, we have hope that the local Church will find great opportunities for evangelization in the ever more globalized situation in Taiwan and China.