SWEDISH MISSIOLOGICAL THEMES SVENSK MISSIONSTIDSKRIFT

506 Aasulv Lande
in the so-called Christian world today – not at least in the post-Soviet
countries – and in the so-called “Third World” that is also called “the Two-
Thirds-World.”
For obvious reasons – among them the closeness in time to our days – it is
especially common to refer to the worldwide evangelisation that took place
during the colonial era mission. Part of that is Catholic mission following
Spanish and Portuguese colonial enterprises. Part of it is Protestant missions
after the eighteenth century Enlightenment and the emerging Protestant
colonial powers in northern Europe (England, Germany, Holland, and
Scandinavia). Often this process has defined the understanding of mission.
In other words it is not the original meaning of mission as sending and its
content (the Gospel) that defines mission but a modern, contextual historical
process, which we in a certain sense have left behind us. To a certain extent,
but only to a certain extent, this process coincides with what the Christian
sources calls mission.
Universal mission concepts and Buddhism and Islam
Here it is interesting to note two other world religions “mission” – the
Islamic dawa and the Buddhist dhammaduta. What are those two words
about? The Arabic word dawa means call, i.e. the call to Gods way and
thus in a sense it has a reverse meaning compared to mission. 2 This is
because missio is to go out, but dawa is to summon, to call in. Interestingly
enough, it practically means the same thing in the historical context.
Christian mission has also meant to summon, to call in to God. And in
Islam, God sends out the prophets. But there is an etymological difference
between the two concepts of mission. And what about Buddhism? Also
dhammaduta (a Pali word for sending) conveys the same content as is carried
by the Christian missionary: “Now go out for the well being and happiness
of the many, go out in compassion with the world, for the good of Gods and
humans, to toy and happiness”. 3 Buddhism is by all means the most
homocentric of these three religions – but it also has a sending perspective,
a universal idea of mission.
2 An interesting Swedish study on dawa is Janson 2002, cf. also his thesis Janson 2003.
3 Cf. an Article in SMT by the Buddhist Gunnar Gällmo on dhammaduta, Gällmo 1982.