Rediscovering Christianity

The previous week in my theology course "Catholic Imagination" we read the book Rediscovering Christianity by Father Donovan. In this book, Father Donovan delves into the problematic process of evangelizing and converting a pagan culture to Christianity. In this book, I saw many resemblances to my own cultural background: the indigenous communities of the Americas. By Americas I mean, the countries from the Mexico-US border down south to the Southern Cone. I began to realize the difficulties in absorbing the other culture that one is not familiar with. To begin with it is difficult to understand an unknown culture, even more so if you are the person trying to convince them to leave their "pagan" ways and convert to Christianity. It also made me realize how the Gospel is not just simply a written text to be understood as a written work, but rather as an ever changing, evolving and fluid part of our oral traditions. The fact that the Gospel can be molded to every culture in our world is an amazing feat. God truly did create the Gospels to be for everyone.

I am not saying that missionaries who set off to evangelize peoples of pagan traditions is correct, although I believe its a beneficial mission for the  missionaries themselves. It truly allows for them to understand and "realize" what the Gospel truly means and how it will be disseminated. Evangelization has been a very polemic topic across the ages for many. Especially during the every colonization periods where the conquistadores from Europe forcefully converted the indigenous peoples of the Americas. However, as time has gone by the message of the Gospels has permeated more to the missionaries themselves than the converts themselves. It is also important to remember that evangelization is only effective when it occurs as a community, because the indigenous communities of the world act communally and not individually the way the Western world does. Everyone in the community is individual and unique yet at the same time they all serve a function, a purpose in their community. For example, our laptops work in great sync with its hardware and software. Take away the keyboard and your laptop ceases to function correctly and it becomes harder to use it fully and its extent. 

This is what, Father Donovan learned, well one of the many things he learned through his missionary work with the Masai Tribe in Tanzania. Community is essential to the evangelization process and it works when everyone works together. This is where the missionaries in the late 1700s in the Americas failed. They believed that by evangelizing a single person they were doing great things, however they were failing rather than succeeding. A single person cannot practice the Gospel effectively because a congregation is needed to incorporate all aspects of the Gospel. 

The two key things to the Gospel I believe after reading the book are: importance of community and the adaptability and elasticity that the Gospels have make them ever lasting and truly God's word.