ASPAC MER
type: channel
description: ASPAC Mission through Education and Research One of the SVD Directions concerns its mission through education and research. It calls on the provinces, regions, and missions that choose this as one of their priorities ad extra to evaluate their education policies, institutions and programs with a special concern for the Catholic character of the institution, social justice and interculturality. Accordingly, the Divine Word Missionaries in Asia and Pacific zone has initiated an organization of missiologists called ASPAC MER (Asia Pacific Mission, Education and Research), which commenced as a network of SVD scholars who organised meetings in the zone in 1991 by Frs Mike Siegel and Bob Kisala in Nanzan University, Nagoya (Japan). Then, in 1994, another meeting took place at Tegal Jaya, Denpasar/Bali (Indonesia) with the presence of Frs Mike Siegel, Leny Mercado, Hubertus Muda and many others. In 1997 another meeting took place in Hong Kong with the participation of some confreres such as Larry Nehmer, Jim Knight, Agustine Kanjamala, Jacob Kavunkal, John Prior, and so on. These meetings were conducted in a plenum called ASPAMIR (Asia and Pacific Missionar Research) every four years to discuss about Missiology and related fields of service to the missionary endevour. Then, a conference on Urbanization and Mission was held successively in 2001 in Mumbai, India. In 2005, the 4th conference turned to Madang, Papua New Guinea, at the Divine Word University from 3 – 7 October, hosted by Pat Gesch, Philip Gibbs to discuss the theme of Mission and Violence, which then resulted in the publication of a volume entitled Mission and Violence: Healing the Lasting Damage (2009). The 5th conference was held in 2010, from 27 Sept to 2 October in Ledug, Malang (Indonesia) hosted by Raymundus Sudhiarsa with the theme “Cross-Cultural Mission: Problems and Prospect”. Then, turned to Tagatay (DWIMS), Manila, Philippines in 2017, where a theme about Sorcery, Witchcraft and Mission was discusse…
publisher: Unwira Press
language: en
publication name: ASPAC MER
items: Mission Work in Post-Nietzschean and Post-Schmidtian Society
items: Post-truth and its Challenges to Christian Mission Work in Asia
items: A Theological Interpretation of Second Burial (Makawera) Traditions in Sumba
items: Remaining Poor on Rich Soil: Social Exclusion in Agricultural Development: A Case Study of Three Villages in South Amanuban – Timor, Indonesia
items: Valedictory Address Prospects of Mission in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society
items: The Influence of Mass Media Information on People of Silawan Village in the Republic of Indonesia and Timor Leste Border
items: Cutting Through Perplexity Among the Youth: Tough Task for the Missions of Today – an Indian Perspective
items: Oral Traditions and The Christian Mission in East and West Timor: Tracing the post-modern Life
items: The Changing Dynamics of Christian Communication in a Postmodern and Post-truth Multireligious Society
items: Religion, Human Fellowship, and Our Wounded World: The Relevance of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration in Our Post-truth Society
items: Care for the Earth as Our Mission: Interpreting Eco-narratives
items: Postmodern Faith Response to Sorcery Accusations in Papua New Guinea
items: Dialogue Between Practitioners of Catholicism and Biboki Traditional Religion (Atoni Pah Meto) Society Through Acculturation
items: Vatican II Council as An Open Gate for The Church's Mission in Postmodern Society with some Case Studies from Flores-Indonesia
items: Missiological Reflection of the SVD Mission in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society with a Special Reference to Tribal Mission in INM Province
items: Making Sense of Postmodern Conditions for Christian Living

Mission Work in Post-Nietzschean and Post-Schmidtian Society
type: item
description: The reality of change amidst globalization is increasingly preceded and guided by science, namely the intellectual study of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. In today’s increasingly science-oriented world, cognitive paradigm shifts will inevitably give birth to significant changes in all domains, including mission work. Such changes will demand new ways of conducting missionary activities. Postmodern mission work allows more openness to mission service and missiological theories transcending the boundaries of logic and reason. With changes in life patterns among people at the center of the church’s mission, the Church and missionaries need to re-reflect on the models of ecclesiastical missions. The old patterns successful in the past might not be relevant today. The Church needs to reorganize its mission strategy to answer the needs of the new generation in the contemporary era. In the 6 ASPAC MER International Seminar (2022), we discussed various issues and provided practical suggestions for the Divine Word Society and missionaries in general. More specifically, we suggest that local and Universal Churches reposition their mission and pastoral ministry. In this paper, “Culture: Specific Thinking and Acting” in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society, I attempt to draw the attention of our readers to Post-Nietzschean Anthropology with its focus on multiple objective worlds and PostSchmidtian Anthropology with its idea of Urmonotheismus.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Post-Nietzschean
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-Schmidtian
  topic: keywords
creator: Philipus Tule
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Philipus Tule
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 4
ending page: 10

Post-truth and its Challenges to Christian Mission Work in Asia
type: item
description: Every year, the Oxford Dictionary chooses a “Word of the Year”. At the end of 2016 they announced, “After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2016 was ‘post-truth,’ an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. The definition expounded: “The concept of post-truth has been in existence for the past decade, but Oxford dictionaries have seen a spike in frequency this year in the context of the Brexit EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States. It has also come to be associated with a particular noun, in the phrase ‘post-truth politics.” “Post-Truth” implies manufactured truth, in which no one truth can be trusted. The concept of post-truth acknowledges that non-elite humans of society have always been manipulated by powerful, aristocratic, and influential figures. People who hold power use their positions to make lay people believe that their particular “truths” are correct; in reality, “truth” is a matter of power and persuasion, not objectivity. In academic circles, post-truth means a “systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion. Individuals create their own ‘subjective social reality’ from their perception of the input”. Post-truth, in short, does not refer to deliberate lies. It is a phenomenon beyond mere statements we happen to disagree with. Post-truth means deliberately ignoring reason, rationale, facts, science, knowledge and statistics to follow an emotionallydriven agenda. It means shutting down and silencing truth-speakers in case the facts cause offence. In short, it means unfettered liberalism. Extreme liberalism is responsible for creating the post-truth society. In other words, it is Liberalism that normalized the idea t…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Asia
  topic: keywords
subject: Christian Mission
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-truth
  topic: keywords
creator: Sebastian M. Michael
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Sebastian M. Michael
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 11
ending page: 21

A Theological Interpretation of Second Burial (Makawera) Traditions in Sumba
type: item
description: This paper is the result of research on the tradition of makawera (exhuming and reburying bones of the dead) in Southwest Sumba, especially among those who have converted to Christianity. Some argue that this phenomenon is a symptom of a dualism of belief, or syncretism. However, other theological approaches might help us approach this practice positively. The purpose of this study is to observe the Sumbanese (Marapu) practice of exhuming the dead from a theological point of view. Data for this research was collected through literature reviews, in-depth interviews with a number of respondents, and observations of the Marapu practice of makawera using descriptive qualitative methods. The authors conclude that the purpose of Christians practicing makawera is not to ensure the salvation of the human soul, and so Sumbanese beliefs should not be seen as contradictory to Christian teaching. Christians in Southwest Sumba recognize that salvation is entirely granted by God through the redemptive work of his Son Jesus Christ. Marapu Christians also hold that this ceremony is critical for respecting the human body, the abode of God’s spirit. Even if the bones remain after Jesus causes the soul to depart, these bones are still worthy of respect.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Bones
  topic: keywords
subject: Makawera tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: Marapu belief
  topic: keywords
subject: Soul
  topic: keywords
subject: Theological review
  topic: keywords
creator: Herman Punda Panda
creator: Mikhael Valens Boy
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Herman Punda Panda, Mikhael Valens Boy
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 58
ending page: 70

Remaining Poor on Rich Soil: Social Exclusion in Agricultural Development: A Case Study of Three Villages in South Amanuban – Timor, Indonesia
type: item
description: This paper examines major factors causing poverty among poor communities in three villages in the region South Amanuban, Timor despite significant developments in the agricultural infrastructure. Based on the theoretical concept of social exclusion, three aspects have been analyzed: changes in livelihood patterns, changes in cosmic balance, and policy failures. This research determines firstly that the change from traditionally dry land agriculture to irrigated rice field cultivation has resulted in profound changes in the social life of peasants, and some of them lead to impaired social networks. Secondly, a change in cosmic balance has occurred, where the traditional triangular balance between the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Earth, and Social Harmony has been changed into the Christian Lord replacing the Lord of Heaven; Technology replacing the Lord of the Earth; Human Resources as Tools of Production replacing Social Harmony. Lastly, public policy in agricultural development tends to provide little room for poor peasants to access enough land, let alone finance (credit) and market their production. This paper suggests that community development programs and agricultural public policies be based on small peasants and small scale agriculture, and more sustainable cultivation technology.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Cosmic balance
  topic: keywords
subject: Livelihood pattern
  topic: keywords
subject: Peasant community
  topic: keywords
subject: Social changes
  topic: keywords
subject: Social exclusion
  topic: keywords
subject: Sustainable agriculture
  topic: keywords
creator: Yulius Yasinto
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Yulius Yasinto
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 125
ending page: 137

Valedictory Address Prospects of Mission in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society
type: item
description: On behalf of the SVD Generalate, I would like to thank all the persons responsible for organizing this symposium on “Mission in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society.” ASPAC-MER has been organizing this seminar or symposium since 1997 in various places, mainly among the SVDs though some SSpS had joined at times. Over the years, we went on thinking that this association should organize the symposiums in one of our SVD administered Universities, so that the research papers, reflection and discussion would be enlarged to other collaborators and lay people. Widya Mandira Catholic University, Kupang took the initiative to organize it along with other staff and a number of students, and they have organized this symposium meticulously. My special thanks to Philipus Tule, SVD and Yasinto Yulius, SVD, for making wonderful arrangements to host this program in Kupang, and also to the lay collaborators who gave special attention to the details of this program. My gratitude to Jose Kuzhikkattuthazhe, SVD, the Area Coordinator for Mission Animation, who spearheaded the planning and motivating many participants to join this symposium. Understanding postmodern society and how it permeates the ordinary life of a person is not easy. The world is ever changing, the cyber world brings with it the Copernican revolution. Changes occur constantly. Thus, to understand the present is a challenge. In this situation, the post-truth society operates with ever-greater speed; fake news, fake videos, spin doctors in the media, political spokespersons and corporate marketers operate to gain advantage for themselves, leaving grassroots societies in lurch. Postmodern society has positive elements as well as negative elements. To advance the Christian mission in this age of postmodern and post-truth, which is rampant with skepticism, narrow fundamentalism, individualism and exploitation, remains a huge task. eople are swept away by the baseless claims of false narratives and truth that has been manip…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Postmodern
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-Truth society
  topic: keywords
subject: Prospects of Mission
  topic: keywords
creator: Lazar Thanuzraj Stanislaus
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Lazar Thanuzraj Stanislaus
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 188
ending page: 198

The Influence of Mass Media Information on People of Silawan Village in the Republic of Indonesia and Timor Leste Border
type: item
description: This paper addresses the extent information from television has an impact on communities living at the Indonesia-Timor Leste borders and what kind of additional information they need. In conducting this research, I chose the residents of Silawan Village as a locus for my research inquiry. I selected Silawan Village as a representative sample because the local people demonstrate characteristics and conditions common among border communities. In order to answer research questions regarding televised media, I facilitated content analysis of media messages commonly aired on television in Silawan Village and juxtaposed these messages with the location-specific aspirations of local subjects. For the second part of my analysis, I used descriptive qualitative methods. Research results demonstrate that the types of information produced by both state-owned and private televisions as well as by newspapers have both positive and negative effects on my research subjects. Positive impacts are indicated by some worldly knowledge and skills among locals who commonly watch television. On the other hand, information distributed via television also generates problems, particularly behavioral ones, as the villagers become increasingly oriented towards consumptive impulses induced by advertisements. Additionally, television makes children more fearful from watching soap operas containing horror scenes, youths tend to get involved in street fights to imitate martial arts visualized on TV, and the general population fosters its inclination toward dangdut songs rather than traditional music conserving local solidarity. Private media supported by huge capital is proven to be more profit-oriented rather than considerate of the benefits of the users. The media being broadcasted or circulated hardly incorporate local content, and so hardly work for their benefit. Problematically, people at the borders expect the information publicized by local television, radio and newspaper to respond to loca…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Information
  topic: keywords
subject: Media effect
  topic: keywords
subject: People in the borders
  topic: keywords
subject: Television
  topic: keywords
subject: Village
  topic: keywords
creator: Eduardus Dosi
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Eduardus Dosi
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 180
ending page: 187

Cutting Through Perplexity Among the Youth: Tough Task for the Missions of Today – an Indian Perspective
type: item
description: In an age when truth is relative, and when appeals to emotion shape the truth, we are left to wonder what is there that the youth of today are seeking in life! Are they seeking truth, love, beauty, meaning, wealth, name and fame and happiness? The speed of life thrills everybody. Expertise and perfection in every department have multiplied. Material resources have grown manifold. Natural resources have been plundered at will, and the world is devastated brutally. Mountains are flattened, plains are scooped, rivers are ruined. Still the search for more material wealth is rising unceasingly. Does one look for an answer to the questions that are arising everyday? When questions themselves are so realistic, artistic, and beautiful, why must one go for an answer after all? It looks as if dwelling in the ambiguity of questions itself is the satisfaction that people are looking for. Getting something that is more humane or beneficial for everybody is out of the question. There are a number of questions that pop up to disturb minds: “Is the other person and the other community essentially a part of humanity?” “Are the material world and Nature allies for the happiness of humanity?” “Are the poor and the marginalized integral parts of this glittering world?” “Are religion, community, family, and social systems of any significance in the present world?” The subject matter that I have chosen for this paper is a result of reality based on studies of India East Province of the SVD, and therefore it has involved more field-study than academic research. Here, I have tried to present my findings of interaction with the youth of five Parishes where the SVD missionaries are working. Out of these five parishes, three are rurally based, whereas the other two are a combination of rural and urban. For the collection of data, two methods were used. The first was analysis based on my collection of written responses from the youth who completed the questionnaire that was circulated. Over th…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Indian perspective
  topic: keywords
subject: Public Mission
  topic: keywords
subject: Teenager
  topic: keywords
creator: Ignatius Soreng
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Ignatius Soreng
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 167
ending page: 179

Oral Traditions and The Christian Mission in East and West Timor: Tracing the post-modern Life
type: item
description: This article discusses the current objectives and observations of the Christian Mission working among the people of East and West Timor, Indonesia, and particularly missionary efforts to learn oral traditions which today inform locals how to navigate postmodern life and a post-truth society. It must be conceded that many people tend to disregard oral tradition. The most practical reason for this attitude is that oral tradition relies on mouth-to-mouth communication (without writing), as well as the absence of any legislation supporting the authority of this system of communication. This causes people to deem oral history testimonies as less “official” than written accounts. Although oral tradition is not often considered a reliable source for scholarship, one can use it to document local worldviews. Oral history can also be useful in drawing back the curtain to view an area’s history. This paper discusses the worldview of the Timorese people- both West and East - in the context of oral tradition in order not only to emphasize the unity of the people in West and East Timor, but also to highlight the bias of oral tradition: reframing it as a useful tool for understanding our postmodern and post-truth society. In this regard, the aim of the paper is to further discuss the significant role of oral tradition in the Timorese worldview and its usefulness for conservation and missionary attention. I will frequently refer to the term “origins” to provide comparisons between the past and the current condition of postmodern and post-truth society. Better understanding of postmodernism and post-truth can help Timorese establish Christianity more centrally in local people’s daily affairs. In this way, I would like to discuss the subject of postmodern and post-truth society within the context of Timorese life and how biases on certain truths can be complicated by oral traditions. This paper is based on my research among the Biboki people of West Timor. The Biboki very often use o…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Christian mission
  topic: keywords
subject: Dialogue
  topic: keywords
subject: Humanity approach
  topic: keywords
subject: Local belief
  topic: keywords
subject: Oral tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-modern
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-truth society
  topic: keywords
creator: Gregor Neonbasu
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Gregor Neonbasu
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 149
ending page: 166

The Changing Dynamics of Christian Communication in a Postmodern and Post-truth Multireligious Society
type: item
description: I am glad to be part of this ASPAC MER seminar at the Catholic University at Kupang in Indonesia and the opportunity to share with you all some thoughts of mine on this very important topic, “Christian mission in the postmodern and post truth society.” While focussing on the challenges we face in a post-modern and post-truth society, I thought it might also be relevant to add the sitz-in -laben in most of the Asian countries, namely the religious pluralism. This is significant in so far as it is the lived experience of many of us living and working in Asian countries where religious pluralism has created some of the finest aspects of human civilizations, but at the same time it has also generated serious social and political upheaval and polarization. Unfortunately some of these trends are propelled by political machinations aimed at gaining and consolidating political power. Have the post-modern and post-truth trends abetted such socio-political churning or they are still to catch up with most of the Asian countries? The answer to this question cannot come in neat binaries for the simple reason that it is a complex situation: while on one hand one can certainly find some influence of the post-modern and post-truth trends in shaping and forming the contemporary social and political discourses in this part of the world, one can also trace the deep rooted beliefs and practices to the pre-modern mind set. As Meera Nanda rightly says, “Modern India has embraced the end products of the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment in the west – namely modern technology and a liberal-secular framework of law encoded in the Constitution. But it has done so without challenging the cultural authority of the supernatural and mystical world view derived from the idealistic strands of Hinduism (Nanda, 2006; 191). Contemporary Indian ethos is therefore a curious mixture of religious and mythical flavours that align with the fruits of modern scientific and technological development…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Chaning dynamics
  topic: keywords
subject: Christian communication
  topic: keywords
subject: Postmodern
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-truth
  topic: keywords
creator: Babu Joseph Karakombil
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Babu Joseph Karakombil
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 138
ending page: 148

Religion, Human Fellowship, and Our Wounded World: The Relevance of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration in Our Post-truth Society
type: item
description: This paper discusses the role of religion in reducing the trend of rising radicalism in Indonesia’s educational institutions. Educational experts in the country, such as Ahmad Syafi’i Ma’arif, Bagong Suyanto, Sidharta Susila, and many others, find that educational institutions in this country ‘have been turned into arenas for the ideological movement of radicalism’ and have produced intolerant individuals. “Radicalism and intolerance in educational institutions not only creates complexity and obscures the focus of education, but also threatens the existence of this country,” claims Sidharta Susila, illustrating his concern in one of the nation’s most well-regarded newspapers (Kompas, 17-06-2022). Negative prejudices against ‘others’ have increasingly intensified in the last few decades, and hate speech has become daily consumption. This phenomenon is especially true among religiously homogeneous schools, Bagong Suyanto asserts (0906-2022). How should we respond to this rise of intolerance? The Abu Dhabi Declaration on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahman Al-Tayyeb (2019) seems to offer relevant reflections. This paper argues that Indonesia must devise purposeful multicultural religious education for young people who must learn to dismantle the exclusive mindsets of those who misuse their powers.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Abu Dhabi declaration
  topic: keywords
subject: Human fellowship
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-truth society
  topic: keywords
subject: Religion
  topic: keywords
creator: Raymundus I Made Sudhiarsa
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Raymundus I Made Sudhiarsa
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 108
ending page: 124

Care for the Earth as Our Mission: Interpreting Eco-narratives
type: item
description: As a religious missionary society, the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) helps the Catholic Church fulfill its missionary task in various ways, responding to the signs of the times and the needs of each place the mission is stationed. However, until recently, we have not sufficiently committed to environmental protection in our missionary endeavors. We must slowly prioritize care for the earth as an essential dimension of our mission today. In the postmodern world, (mini) narratives play a central role. Hence interpreting the eco-narratives of various religious traditions becomes crucial for the ‘care for the earth’ mission. Today, many consider environmental protection an interreligious project because no one religious tradition has a privileged ecological perspective. Eco-narratives of different religious and spiritual traditions need to interact and engage dialogue to make lasting contributions to environmental protection. We must find appropriate tools to interpret the eco-narratives. This paper suggests that the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur can be one of the best tools to do so.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Eco-narratives
  topic: keywords
subject: Environmental protection
  topic: keywords
subject: Hermeneutic arc
  topic: keywords
subject: Hermeneutic Phenomenology
  topic: keywords
subject: Interpretation
  topic: keywords
creator: Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 97
ending page: 107

Postmodern Faith Response to Sorcery Accusations in Papua New Guinea
type: item
description: In this paper I discuss how a plurality of mini-narratives, logics, worldviews, and interpretive frameworks, typical of a postmodern understanding of the world contributes to the complexity of dealing with the issue of sorcery and witchcraft accusations and violence in contemporary Papua New Guinea. The standard response of missionaries has been to appeal to people’s intellect, inferring that those believing in witchcraft accusations are ignorant and they should be educated based on the findings of modern science. However, such a scientific approach has had limited success. Religious faith as an interpretive framework can provide an alternative or helpful accompaniment to views based on scientific logic and causality. A pre-scientific “magical” view is one possibility, but there are more appropriate alternatives, taking post-modern developments into account, if the Church can inspire and motivate people to pursue alternative causal thinking leading to peaceful solutions to life’s misfortunes. I propose that a faith response can be relevant, not as a master-narrative from a position of dominance, but in encountering truth by responding respectfully to the “multiple belonging” of narratives, logics, worldviews and interpretive frameworks typical of a post-modern approach to reality. I suggest four possible ways forward: further reflection on a theology of death, relevant Biblical studies focusing on Jesus’ ministry, consideration of the magical mindset compared with the Christian mind-set in assigning cause to an event, and a realistic liberative Christian response to currentday social concerns.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Faith
  topic: keywords
subject: Postmodern
  topic: keywords
subject: Sorcery
  topic: keywords
subject: Witchcraft
  topic: keywords
creator: Philip Jeferson Gibbs
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Philip Jeferson Gibbs
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 82
ending page: 96

Dialogue Between Practitioners of Catholicism and Biboki Traditional Religion (Atoni Pah Meto) Society Through Acculturation
type: item
description: This research addresses the unique quality of Christ’s presence among the Biboki people of West Timor. In this society, the traditional house (rumah adat) is the center of local groups’ religious celebrations. By analyzing the traditional house, we can find symbols that are valuable in the indigenous religious ceremonies, which can ultimately be related to the placement of the cross of Christ and the statue of the Virgin Mary. This helps the Bibokinese recognize Christ as “the way, the truth and the life”. I use four approaches to this research, namely: 1) dialogue and interviews with some Biboki’s customary figures: 2) direct observation of religious practices that occur in the traditional house, as well as daily life practices in Biboki societies, 3) interviews with the local community, and 4) promoting the possibility of the presence of Christ in the traditional house, transforming and purifying local offerings.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Acculturation
  topic: keywords
subject: Biboki
  topic: keywords
subject: Dialogue
  topic: keywords
subject: Traditional house
  topic: keywords
subject: Uis Neno
  topic: keywords
creator: David Amfotis
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 David Amfotis
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 71
ending page: 81

Vatican II Council as An Open Gate for The Church's Mission in Postmodern Society with some Case Studies from Flores-Indonesia
type: item
description: Drawing on case studies from Flores-Indonesia, this article aims to show how the Vatican II Council in the 1960s opened a gate for the Catholic Church to a new style of mission in the postmodern world. Keeping this aim in mind, the author will start by defining what postmodern society is all about, then relate it to some basic reforms carried out by the Catholic Church at the Vatican II Council. The author will then link these definitions to a number of matters relating to the Church’s pastoral mission in Indonesia, especially in Flores. The method used in this study is literature studies and direct observation on the overall development of missionary activity in Flores-Indonesia. One of the findings of this study is that the Catholic Church warmly welcomed postmodernism in a broad sense at the Vatican II Council by abandoning a number of grand narratives. The church embraced postmodernism before the council, challenging the previously long-standing adage extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation), which prioritized Church truth over all others. The church bravely opened itself up to the sparks of truth, wisdom, and morals cherished for ages by the world’s diverse religions and cultures. This openness will undoubtedly bring abundant fruits for the Church’s missionary work. Christian mission work is about giving the light of salvation to all people, as the author observed and experienced in Flores-Indonesia.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Alternative healings
  topic: keywords
subject: Ancestor veneration
  topic: keywords
subject: Black magic
  topic: keywords
subject: Enlightenment
  topic: keywords
subject: Modernism
  topic: keywords
subject: Non-medical cause of illness
  topic: keywords
subject: Postmodernism
  topic: keywords
creator: Alexander Jebadu
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Alexander Jebadu
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 48
ending page: 57

Missiological Reflection of the SVD Mission in the Postmodern and Post-Truth Society with a Special Reference to Tribal Mission in INM Province
type: item
description: God reaches out to His creations because the very nature of God is love. Therefore, the very identity of God is mission. So, the Church’s identity can be defined by the Divine reaching out through mission work. The Church on earth is missionary by her very nature. It is well said that the Church exists by its mission just as a fire exists by burning. Perhaps one of the most important initiatives by the SVDs in the past nearly 150 years since it came into existence has been its empowerment of the most vulnerable sections of the society. This keeps burning the fire of the SVD mission passionately. True to its vision and mission, the Society of the Divine Word in India and elsewhere has spent a great deal of resources both in terms of finance and of personnel. In doing so the Society has established preferential options for the poor and subaltern groups. In today’s parlance as Pope Francis would call it ‘going to the peripheries’: going to the peripheries for mission work doesn’t mean only going to remote, rural villages, but rather going to existential peripheries, ‘smelling the sheep’. In a postmodern scenario, the clarion call of Pope Francis is quite revealing and challenging. He states “I am a Mission; You Are a Mission”. He doesn’t intend to say that ‘I have a Mission’, but rather emphasizes “I am a mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world”. By emphasizing functionality and action, Pope Francis puts the spotlight on ontology (being). Mission infuses our genes; it’s our self-defining DNA. Incidentally, the SVDs’18 th General Chapter documents says ‘Our Name is our Mission’. Why does the mission give preference to the poor? What type of new mission methodologies need to be adopted upon studying the transformations of the time? This paper is an attempt to glimpse the salient features of post-modernity and post truth, as well as note the influences of postmodernity and mission of the Church. I explore a way forward in the backdrop of post…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: INM Province
  topic: keywords
subject: Missiological reflection
  topic: keywords
subject: Postmodern
  topic: keywords
subject: Post-truth
  topic: keywords
subject: SVD Mission
  topic: keywords
subject: Tribal Mission
  topic: keywords
creator: Richard Quadros
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Richard Quadros
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 32
ending page: 47

Making Sense of Postmodern Conditions for Christian Living
type: item
description: One of the longstanding epistemological questions of the philosophers is: what is truth and how do we know it? Postmodernists are suspicious of the traditional philosophical answers that base reliable knowledge of the world on foundationalist principles or self-evident concepts. Post-truth society is anti-foundationalist at the core. Truth in postmodern times is more of a dominant political and social construction for practical purposes than a concrete objective lying hidden to be discovered by a scientific methodology. The Nietzschean aphorism, “there are no facts, only interpretations,” captures the mood of a postmodern/post-truth society (Nietzsche, 1967: 481). The first part of this essay is aimed at providing the theoretical position of a postmodern/post-truth society in contrast to modernism. The second half of the essay reflects on the conditions the postmodern/post-truth society imposes on Christian theology and the life of the Church.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Christian living
  topic: keywords
subject: Postmodern
  topic: keywords
subject: Sense
  topic: keywords
creator: Antony Honyla Puthussery
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Antony Honyla Puthussery
date: 2023-08-31
publication date: 2023-08-31
starting page: 22
ending page: 31