SWEDISH MISSIOLOGICAL THEMES SVENSK MISSIONSTIDSKRIFT

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488 Tormod Engelsviken mission today, is the “power encounter”, which primarily is about spiritual power where miracles or other challenges of the spiritual forces of the pre- Christian religion led many to lose faith in the old religion and turn to Christ. There was also another Catholic mission during the Middle Ages which was directed towards heretics, Jews and Muslims. 16 This mission was also carried out mainly by monks or priests. Islam surrounded Christian Europe both in the east and southwest and represented both a political and military threat. The crusades cannot be seen as missionary initiatives, and the crusaders were not missionaries. Even after the crusades the Christian Europe had to defend itself against the Muslim onslaught in Spain and on the Balkans. The spiritual defence and the missionary initiatives of the medieval church in Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth century were mainly the result of the work of the new orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans. It is worth noticing that this mission came out of a spiritual renewal which also was accompanied by a missional spirituality and a consciousness of community. The missionary method was not the use force but was spiritual and intellectual: a literal understanding of the words of the gospel about the apostolic life led to a life in poverty where preaching and teaching stood in the forefront. The “preaching brothers” who followed Dominicus, were not tied to monasteries, but emphasised studies not least in connection with the newly established universities. Already in the year 1228, eight years after the first general chapter which is seen as the founding of the order, there were 60 houses established all over Europe and especially at the borders of Christendom. The Dominicans wished to win Jews, Muslims and Mongols through a preaching and a theology that were philosophically and spiritually superior. The most well known Dominican is of course Thomas Aquinas whose theology has a clear missionary purpose when he with arguments of reason seeks to convince the Gentiles of the truth of Christianity. One of his two major works, Summa contra Gentiles, was a textbook for missionaries filled with arguments to be used in dialogue with non-Christians, especially Muslims. Although Thomas himself did not go out as a missionary, he has nevertheless exercised a great influence as a mission theologian on Catholic mission both in terms of theory and practice. 16 Skarsaune 1994:105-109
The Missionary Task of the Church 489 The most outstanding missionary to the Muslims during the Middle Ages was, however, not a Dominican but a layman by the name Ramon Llull, who only towards the end of his life was admitted into the Franciscan order. With a base in a mission seminar on the North coast of Mallorca he worked tirelessly among Muslims in North Africa. He also believed in the possibility of convincing Muslims with arguments of reason of the superiority of the Christian faith. During the thirteenth and fourteenth century the Franciscan and Dominican missionaries reached to the ends of the then known world, even to China. By doing this they transcended national borders as well as the horizons of the old Roman Empire. The missionaries of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation It was especially the Jesuit order (Societas Jesu) which at the time of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation was the major Catholic force in mission. Ignatius Loyola founded the order which was approved by the Pope in 1540. The Jesuits were mobile, adaptable and flexible, and their large number of zealous missionaries eventually found themselves in most strategic places in Latin America, Africa and Asia. They served directly under the Pope and had a certain freedom in relation to the political authorities. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI had decided that the Spanish throne had exclusive right to do commerce in countries that were discovered or would be discovered west of the Atlantic on the condition that the king should bring to Christian faith the peoples who inhabit these islands and the mainland … and to send to the said islands and to the mainland wise, upright, godfearing, and virtuous men who will be capable of instructing the indigenous peoples in good morals and in the Catholic faith. 17 To avoid enmity between Spain and Portugal, a line was drawn from north to south where Portugal was granted what was east of the line and Spain what was west of the line. Nobody could at that time foresee the huge consequences of this so-called Padroado-agreement, and its validity was naturally later challenged by other European colonial powers, both Catholic and Protestant. 17 Neill 1973:141-142
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Returning to Sweden Stories of a Wo
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Missiology Today 625 of Jesus Chris
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SWEDISH MISSIOLOGICAL THEMES SVENSK MISSIONSTIDSKRIFT

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