Mission and civilisation

This is a third-hand reference to a blog that summarises a paper read by missiologist Father Michael Oleksa on the differences between Eastern and Western missionaries in their approach to "civilisation".

Briefly, it is that Eastern mission arose in a part of the world where imperial conquests were by Alexander the Great, and were of cultures that were equal to, or greater than the one from which he had come. So there was an element of respect.

In the West, however, the Latin empire conquered "barbarians", and so tried to impose their idea of the "civis", and thought they were taking "civilisation" to those they conquered.

That's enough of my distorted third-hand summary of a summary. Read the rest on Glory to God for all things