Bachelor of Arts in Theology

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End date: 1999Subject: search.filters.subject.Evangelization

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    The Mission Renews the Church
    (Tangaza University College, 1999-02) Francesco, Pierli
    When I realise especially through prayer and a deepened reflection that we are the Church of Christ, the Church which is a gift, grace, and chance. We will easy realise also that we have to take care for the Church in order to make her more and more the community living for Christ and for others. The expression given above enlightens us that to be the Church of Christ is also a task which must be fulfilled. A logic consequence of its acceptance will be a reflection over the mystery of the Church missions. Our task is to take care of the Church we belong to and make it a community of joy. We must discover the Christian enthusiasm in our spiritual life, enthusiasm in giving witness. Our task is the co-operation with the grace of the Holy Spirit who leads the Church and makes her always new and holy. Our task is to do that the Bride Christ that is our Church be always beautiful and Christ could find her constant delight. We live in a time when the Pastor of the Universal Church, John Paul II, points out for us the tasks of a new evangelization. He calls us to the renewal of the Spirit, what will allow us to show again to the world the unchangeable truth of the Gospel as the only truth about God and people. The renewal which is always needed in the Church has one of its sources in its mission calls and task. Our openness for those who are not aware of the greatness of the gift given to the human race, which is the Church, is finally turned towards ourselves, makes new our Christianity and strengthens us in faith which opens our hearts for sisters and brothers. And it is why I chose this topic. I was born and grew up in Poland, I know the reality of Polish Church, but now I'm in Africa and I see many challenges, not only for myself but for the whole Universal Church. In this paper I would like to present the brief history of Polish missionary activity, participation of Poles in the evanngelization. Polish Church is a part of the Global Church, a part of the mission which is the continuation of the mission of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. I will try to support this with the teaching of the Church and suggest some ideas that our mission would be effective, and may renew the Church.
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    Spiritan Methods of Evangelization In Moshi Diocese-Tanzania Comparatively With Their Counterpart Lutherans
    (Tangaza University College, 1999-02) Tarimo, Justi
    The Spiritans arrived in Moshi in 1890. They worked in the then Vicariate of Kilimanjaro, which was later divided into six dioceses namely Dodoma, Mbulu, Tanga, Moshi, Arusha, and Same. My concern in this paper is about what the Spiritans did in the present diocese of Moshi, which was erected as a diocese in 1953. Spiritans as a religious missionary congregation arrived in Zanzibar in 1860s, with the aim of re-habilitating the freed slaves. When this task was over, they decided to move into the interior. With a vision to make the kingdom of God present in the situation of the Chagga people of Moshi, they had to adapt a particular methodology. Therefore, my concern in this paper is about the methodology the Spiritan Missionaries adopted, and how effective this methodology was in meeting the intended objective, that is, to bring the gospel message to the daily life of the Chagga people. On the other hand, there was the Leipzig Mission Society of the Lutheran Church. They arrived in Moshi on September 30th 1893. They worked under the then called the Lutheran Church of East Africa, which later on came to be divided into four dioceses, namely, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Meru and Pare. My concern in this paper is what they did and how they did what they did in the present diocese of Kilimanjaro which covers the same area as the Catholic diocese of Moshi. This humble beginning was pioneered by four devoted young men: Paster, Muller, Althaus and Zalunann. There are some methods which were used by both societies in the process of evangelization, while others were unique to a particular society. Methods like bush schools, formal education, health services, training of the laity as Catechists or evangelists, and training of the local clergy were used by both societies. The use of vernacular and the early attempt at evangelising the cultures, like the approached used by Bruno Gutmann, were unique to the Leipzig Mission Society. This paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the historical background of both the Spiritans and the Leipzig Mission Society, with the historical and religious background of the Chagga people. The second chapter deals with the historical development of the Christian mission as an attempt in gradual inculturation. In this chapter, I try to show that the origin of mission is God's love to humanity, hence mission is Missio Del. This chapter also explores the development of Christian mission from Jerusalem to the "gentile" world, up to the time of the second Vatican council II. All this is seen as a gradual attempt at the evangelization of cultures. The third chapter deals with the Spiritan missionary activities in Moshi, covering the period from 1890 till early 1960s. It is here that I analyse how the Spiritans employed different methods in order to contextualize the gospel message in the life of the people. The fourth chapter is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the missionary activities of the Leipzig Mission Society. In this part, I do not repeat the same methods which are common to the two societies, but I focus mainly on the two unique methods used by Leipzig Society namely, Gutmann's approach and the use of vernacular. In the second part, I deal with the theological criteria for analysing the effectiveness of the methods used In the conclusion, I show that in spite of the much success which has been achieved, it is not a reason to sit back and rejoice, for the future poses a lot of challenges. Hence, it is the time to reflect on the past; and to see the present with a critical eye as a background to plan for the future.
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    The Evangelization Process Among The Borana by the Spiritans
    (Tangaza University College, 1998-02) Mulyanga, Peter
    Evangelization has been carried out as a process since the beginning of the Christian era. For two millenniums it has been characterised by enormous effects, challenges and drawbacks. In the early stages of Christianity, the most common drawback upheld was a misinterpretation of a statement by Origen: 'extra ecclesiam nulla whist (outside the Church there is no salvation). In essence, evangelization means the preaching of the Kingdom of God as Good news. By it our humanity is thus liberated from those hindrances that bars it from seeking and attaining its ultimate goal of true happiness. That is why, through his Universal Salvific Will, God wants all people to be saved and reach the full knowledge of the truth: Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:4-5). When the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council was convoked, the negative form of understanding evangelization was finally done away with. Evangelization assumed a new approach, with much emphasis put on its two indispensable aspects namely interreligious dialogue and inculturation. None of them has been fully realised due to some areas and especially those in Africa and the Third World having been either scarcely or never at all evangelised. At the time, many missionaries were still handicapped in terms of having adequate formation in that field, that could enable them to facilitate the new approach of evangelization efficiently enough, according to the 'Signs of Times'. In a later development, the Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops in Rome (1994) made some deliberations on the evangelization process in Africa. It pledged the Catholic Church to undertake a closer dialogue with Africa's realities, for Christianity to come more effectively to terms with her social, cultural and economic ambiguities. The African Bishops perceive evangelization not as a theory but life, since it aims to bringing about an overwhelming and exhilarating experience of Jesus Christ, on which Africa's transformation would primarily depend. It is however in this last decade of the second millinnium of Christianity that this new trend of evangelising is beginning to be realised gradually. Which then brings me to the reason of writing this long essay. It was after I had undergone a one year Pastoral Experience Program (an essential requirement of our Spiritan initial formation) among the Borana of Southern Ethiopia, that a thought crossed to my mind. I thus developed a keen interest in finding out how effective enough and to what extent the Spiritans have evangelised them, in their own situation. Chapter one studies about the Borana as people and their culture atilt Chapter two aims to show how they are attached to their cattle. It also responds to some of their human and cultural elements derived from that attachment to cattle, that have been inculturated by the Spiritans in some of their Christian liturgical celebrations. Chapter three studies the Spiritans' history in terms of evangelising them primarily, the Spiritans' pre-evangelization and their appreciation of the Borana religious and meaningful values. Chapter four studies the whole spectrum in which the Borana responded to Christianity in terms of inter-religious dialogue, the methodology used by the Spiritans so as to evangelise them, and acknowledging the prospects the Spiritans had for them in terms ofpraris.
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    Inculturation from a Scriptural Perspective
    (Tangaza University College, 1998-02) Nampota, Paul
    This essay is a reflection on the issue of inculturation. It is good to keep in mind that inculturation has always been in the heart of the church, right from the beginning. Of the many examples available to show how seriously the Church has taken this issue of inculturation, I have picked two: (I) the Church of the Apostles whose story we read in Luke-Acts; and (2) the Church of Africa. Also, there is considerable weight given the issue of inculturation at Tangaza College, where I am presenting this essay as a partial fulfillment of the degree Bachelor of Arts and Religious Studies awarded by the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). This stimulated my interest in the subject, and I began reading more on this topic. While reading, I came to realize that there is a development of theology called "Theology of Inculturation.' This theology attempts to reflect inculturation in the areas of Liturgy, Christ°logy, Christian Anthropology, only to mention a few. So far I have not seen any literature which reflects on inculturation as seen from a Biblical perspective. All the same, I learned much from Fr. Nicholas Foggliaco.' Fr. Lacomara2 also reflects in his classes how inculturation has been used in the development of Israel's faith in the One God. From them I learned that there are many other ways we can use Scripture to reflect on the issue of inculturation. Encouraged by what they taught me, I thought it wise to reflect on my own about a topic of inculturation to see what other themes I could uncover in Scripture. Since Scripture is a wide field, I limited myself to the New Testament, and even more specifically, to the Book of Luke-Acts. Hence this essay reflects "Inculturation in the light of Luke-Acts." In the first chapter, I define inculturation. Also, I tried to see how we can talk about inculturation today, when things change so fast and cultures are changing. And if we can rightly speak of inculturation at all, who are to be involved in these efforts in our Church of Africa today. The second chapter has three parts, following the divisions of Luke's Gospel: The Infancy Narrative, The Ministry, and The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Through this process, I have come to reflect about the 'Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation.' The second chapter shows further that inculturation is "letting our daily lives be transformed by the Gospel and giving of a new expression to the Gospel in our daily lives.'3 In this attempt, Luke the Evangelist has been my resource theologian. I reflected on the theme of inculturation in the story of Jesus that Luke presents in the Gospel and the birth and development of the Church in the Book of Acts. Hence the outline of the second chapter is as follows: * Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation. This is the main theme of the chapter. * Theology of inculturation in the Book of Luke-Acts. Focusing on Luke as a theologian of inculturation in addition to being a historian and apologist of the Christian faith. * And through the stages mentioned above: infancy, ministry, and passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the essay reaches its goal in exemplifying Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation. The third chapter concentrates on how the Church has carried out the divine plan to save all humankind by adopting inculturation as a vessel for communicating this salvation to the people of the nations. Outstanding in this work of saving humanity is the Holy Spirit who is the key agent of inculturation. Through the human instruments of Peter, Paul, Bamabas, and other disciples, the Spirit communicated the saving message of God to the Gentiles and enabled them to accept this message as their Good News. This has all been possible by the use of inculturation. In the conclusion I have tried to draw together and show how the Church of Africa continues the same story of Jesus and the Church of the Apostles in the furthering of salvation to the people of Africa through inculturation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Hence this essay's title, "Inculturation from a Scriptural Perspective." The Bible translation used for quotations in this essay is: The Catholic Study Bible, edited by Donald Senior, printed by the Oxford Press, New York, 1990.
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    Inculturation in the Missionary Activity of Ss. Cyril and Methodius And it’s Significance For Evangelization in Contemporary Africa
    (Tangaza University College, 1997-02) Wroblewski, Wieslaw
    In this paper I will not try to answer to all the problems of the evangelising work in Africa, rather on the example of Ss. Cyril and Methodius - so called Apostles of Slays, - I would like to present what we can learn from those two Saints in order to make our evangelising work more effective. Their experience can help the Church incarnate the Gospel, so that those who accept Christianity may remain be rooted out in their own cultures. Cyril and Methodius could help us to understand that all cultures have many positive values which can enrich the Universal Church making her truly Catholic. First of all I would like to present the figures of both Saints and the value of their missionary work among the Slays who had totally different cultural roots from the Greek culture from which Cyril and Methodius had come. I would like to further reflect on what could be meaningful for those who work in the vineyard of Lord in the African context today.