In our second episode with Bishop Mark Edwards OMI, we explore the role of a missionary within a culture.

Matteo Ricci SJ provides the example of taking Christianity into China, where he offers us three key guides for this kind of mission: i) befriend the people, ii) disentangle faith from your own culture so that you can inculturate into the new culture, and iii) seek to be authentic to your faith and to the culture you are living in.

Plenty of thought-provoking questions in this one.

Reflection:

-How do I feel about living in the culture and times that I do?

-What do I understand the missionary task to be in today's world?

References:

-'A Catholic Modernity', Charles Taylor (https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=uscc_marianist_award)

-'A Catholic Modernity: 25 Years On', Charles Taylor (https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/NTT2021.3/4.009.TAYL)

-'Matteo Ricci, Missionary of Inculturation', Jesuits Communication Office (https://www.jesuits.global/2022/12/19/matteo-ricci-missionary-of-inculturation/) -'Matteo Ricci: Shaped by the Chinese', Nicolas Standaert (https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20100521_1.htm)

In this very special episode of Contemplating Culture, Bishop Mark Edwards from Wagga Wagga Diocese in regional New South Wales joins us as we review Part I: The Work of Reform.

We look at key learnings, themes that stick out to us, and try and hold together the overarching story of the road travelled with Charles Taylor to date.

Reflection:

-Why did I begin listening to this podcast?

-What episodes have stuck out to me so far? Why?

-email us at: contemplatingculture@gmail.com

References:

-A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (1-218)

In the conclusion of Part I: The Work of Reform, we spend some time reflecting on what the driving force behind history is. Is it ideas that provide the power for change (Idealism), or do the external factors and motivations lead the way and wait for the ideas to take shape around them (Materialism)?

Taylor concludes in The Spectre of Idealism that it is both.

As missionaries, it is not just the movements of society through history, but the history of individual lives that we are concerned with. In this episode we explore how these principles apply for the big personal shift through history of conversion.

References:

-Pages of A Secular Age, Charles Taylor: (212-218)

Website:

https://sites.google.com/contemplatingculture