Mission and Reconciliation

Mission and reconciliation are intrinsically connected because of the inherent vocational objectives of the two in human life. Both are meant to lead to some tangible transformation in the human ecosystem that fosters collegiality and fraternity between and among humans regardless of humanly set boundaries of race, culture, religion, and social classification. Both doubtless come with the massive task of making the objectives experienced by people. Neither are one-off assignments, but require lifetime engagement because of human frailty and susceptibility to do harm whether consciously or unconsciously, particularly the dimension of mission that focuses on reconciliation. Bringing about reconciliation is cumbersome in nature because it involves multilayered analysis and multidimensional approaches. These enable the processes to be deep and broad to avoid a situation where the healing being gained relapses and the building blocks of wholeness collapse. Achieving reconciliation between the victim and the perpetrator or the oppressed and the oppressor is often the most difficult task. Reconciliation is not as easy as it is expressed in biblical narratives. Jesus Christ's mission was to reconcile the world and humanity with the Godhead, and this was accomplished on the cross. That sounds more like a one-off task for Christ, but it was brought about by the ultimate sacrifice. His dying on the cross reminds everyone involved in the mission of reconciliation that it comes with enormous sacrifice, which may lead to the supreme price in some cases. This article engages with different themes, including African concepts of building and sustaining reconciliation and the reconciled as life-giving mission.     

Yes to Mission Spirituality

This contribution explores mission spirituality in Evangelii Gaudium, Together towards Life, and the Cape Town Commitment. The joining together of mission and spirituality is found to be an energizing and hopeful move especially in its refusal to be reduced to the private sphere and fueling of a life that participates in creation's healing. Passion is suggested as a way of reflecting theologically on a spirituality of self‐giving love that stops spirituality turning inward. The unifying vision of the new creation and the contemplative posture toward culture are both welcomed wholeheartedly but have implications and call for a radical imagination about the practice of mission spirituality.     

“I Saw a Peach Tree in Full Bloom”: Transformative Spirituality and Mission in an Interreligious Context

The crisis in Sri Lanka, which is rooted in the politics of ethnicity and reached a new stage in May 2009 when the government forces militarily defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, forms the backdrop to this article. Transformative spirituality in this context is demonstrated in the strong bond of friendship between the author, a Sri Lankan Sinhalese, and a colleague who is a Sri Lankan Tamil. The article draws upon four principles of transformative spirituality in the interreligious context articulated by Sri Lankan Jesuit priest Aloysius Pieris. First, it must take the context seriously, which, in the Sri Lankan context means its grinding poverty and its rich religious diversity, to which must now be added the devastating war that has just concluded. Second, robust interreligious dialogue requires that Christians look beyond typologies such as exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism, and engage other religious traditions on their own terms. Third, unless religions engage with the other core‐to‐core, rather than engage the kernel of Christianity with the husk of Buddhism, there cannot be genuine transformative spirituality. Fourth, transformative spirituality is only possible when the core of Christianity meets the core of Buddhism in the praxis of liberation. Acknowledging that dialogue never engages only the participants' religious identity, but engages the other as a whole person with multiple identities, the article applies Pieris' interreligious dialogue principles to conflictual ethnic relations seeking to provide dialogue as a model for other types of reconciliation.     

‘A Garland in Place of Ashes’:1Transformative Spirituality and Mission in the Post‐Modern and Secular Contexts

In this paper I aim to explore not what is the so‐called ‘post‐modern and secular context’ but how the church responds to it, which is predominantly to blame it for ‘decline’. Yet it may not be decline, it may be something else altogether. I am reflecting on a western/UK context, but within this are theological assumptions that characterize the wider church. So, having made some remarks on how to approach decline I will then explore some transformations of spirituality and mission that are responses to the post‐modern and secular context. Underlying this is an attitude to ‘spirituality’ which is not about how we worship or our experience of the ‘ethereal’ but is about our ‘capacity for life’. But, I want to maintain that nothing new or transformative can emerge until the church stops resenting and despairing of the context and change we are experiencing. Further, I am not convinced the church in the UK or the West is able to adapt to the strangeness of this new context and will seek always to bring it back under church control. But, I will then offer a post‐modern image for transformative spirituality and mission that could leave its mark on the church.     

Spirituality and the Process of Healing: A Narrative Study

Hutch's proposal to use Henry Murray's wholes or total-person approach for understanding the psychology of religion, although reasonable on the surface for at least one outlook, is rather simplistic, jargon laden, and convoluted. Hutch goes far beyond mere accommodation to the wholes argument to an exclusionary, reductionistic, and even indoctrinating application of Murray's methods. Failing to adequately warn of variations in interpretation, precision, awareness of motivation, environment, and awareness of one's own vulnerabilities and mortality and of subjective selection of biographies in studying lives as religious transformation, Hutch nonetheless makes a valuable point in questioning the absence of mortality and body in texts and indices on the psychology of religion.     

Transformative Spirituality for a Transformed World: Contributions from the Indigenous Perspective

A Transformative Spirituality from the perspective of indigenous peoples should be rooted in the life experience, cultural values and spirituality of the indigenous peoples. From the identity and history of the indigenous relationship with Christianity, the article presents some experiences and voices of indigenous peoples and concludes with some suggestions to think about the theme. In this perspective Transformative Spirituality is a proposal of an alternative way of life to the current one which is marked by financial crisis and hopelessness in the face of the future. Pachamama as the Mother Earth, origin and end of life, is the main symbol of this spirituality.     

Genocide and Mass Killing: Origins, Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation

This article focuses on intense collective violence, especially mass killing and genocide. It briefly presents a conception of their origins, with new elements in the conception and comparisons with other approaches. Various aspects of genocide and mass killing are considered, including their starting points (such as difficult life conditions and group conflict), cultural characteristics, psychological and social processes (such as destructive ideologies), the evolution of increasing violence and its effect on perpetrators and bystanders, and the roles of leaders and of internal and external bystanders. Actions that might be taken by the community of nations and other actors to halt or prevent violence are described. In considering prevention there is a focus on processes of healing within previously victimized groups and reconciliation between hostile groups. A project on healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation in Rwanda is briefly described.     

Grace and Reconciliation as Gift

Through examples of grace and gift of reconciliation the meaning of grace is interpreted in relation to social and political transformation. Grace is understood as the unexpected kairotic moment of change, where the future opens up for new possibilities of reconciliation in situations of conflict. It is a moment you cannot plan for, but hope for to happen. Trusting in the possibility of a gracious moment can influence your work in the present. Hoping and waiting for the gracious moment of reconciliation is linked to a praxis of active nonviolence as seen in the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.