„ It drew my attention to many things, among others, that I should try to accept the other in the best possible way and perceive him/her not as an enemy but as one, who needs salvation, as my brother/sister in Christ.”, stated one of the students after having participated in a course organized by the Central and Eastern European Institute for Mission Studies of the Károli Gáspár Reformed University in Budapest.
To some such utterance might seem trivial, or even somewhat worrying: is it only at university level that young people come to conclusions as obvious as this one? Isn’t it a bit late? If we take into consideration the fact, that the above opinion was voiced by one, who like many Hungarian theological students, was probably brought up in a fairly conservative religious community and largely mono-cultural society, we have no choice but to admit that it isn’t. On the contrary, it should be perceived as the beginning of an important learning process. A process described by numerous students as „broadening of their horizons” or „reshaping of perspectives” in the field of both missiology and applied theology. Such and similar statements appear all but twenty times in the evaluation forms in reference to various missiology courses.
The second group of key expressions repeated over and over again includes the problem of cultural differences, (cultural) context and the role of inculturation in mission. „The course helped us to see beyond the Hungarian reformed context.”, „I developed an openness to other cultures” – such were the most typical manifestations of the students’ interest in cultural diversity. Again, one could dismiss them as concepts too vague to be taken seriously. After all, aren’t similar clichés about tolerance repeated worldwide time and again?
What is remarkable about such and similar assertions is how course participants managed to adjust the indeed somewhat foggy term „openness to others” to their own, Hungarian church context. While preparing for class and during class discussions many realized, that the term „other” does not necessarily have to refer only to African Muslims living in London and that they themselves are surrounded by „otherness”.
One of the students decided to share his apprehension: „It’s crucial to take cultural differences into consideration, even within our country there are huge differences [between people, communities].” Let us see, what „others” were identified by the participants? One of them argues, that all „newly arrived” members of a given local community should be treated in a special way and surrounded with care. Some expressed an interest in the non-Hungarian churches and missionaries active in their country and vice versa: Hungarian missionary activity abroad. Finally, many emphasized the importance of Roma mission and signaled their willingness to take part in courses related to the topic. The latter evolution of attitude is of great importance given the size of the Roma community in Hungary and the scale of ethnic conflict between its members and other Hungarian citizens.
Surprisingly enough, a considerable amount of students acknowledged, that they had learnt a lot about other denominations during the course. Clearly, this was not the main objective, nevertheless it can be treated as a positive „side effect” of class discussions.
The above examples might create the false impression that course participants have shown interest exclusively in matters somehow related to their own country. It is not so. The majority of students was excited to have gained insight into the situation of Christians from other continents, captivated by the lectures of an African visiting professor and a Hungarian missionary couple. Apparently, some of them ceased to perceive Christians from remote countries as completely different and their situation as irrelevant to their own experiences. They discovered how surprisingly analogical certain processes happening in Africa might be to the ones they witness in Central Europe. If a very traditional and conservative reformed church in Ghana has experienced a great awakening, why couldn’t something similar occur in Hungary?
Last but not least, it is impossible not to mention the purely „technical” side of the courses organized by the Institute, which constitutes, to my mind, their extremely important added value.
In contrast to the old school teaching methods of the university’s Faculty of Theology, missiology courses are structured according to the generally accepted „Western” model of instruction: reading > discussion > lecture/presentation > discussion. Students were encouraged to critically reflect on the topics, engage in class discussions, prepare presentations and express their opinions in term papers . To many participants this came as positive shock: they loved the atmosphere of the classes, enjoyed being treated like „partners” and were somewhat surprised that someone was at all interested in what they had to say. For some it was the very first opportunity to prepare a power point presentation, others were happy to discover that issues related to spirituality were also part of the curriculum.
To a small yet conspicuous minority this „new” teaching paradigm proved quite a challenge: they protested against having to prepare for class (readings) and were reluctant to read articles in English.
One cannot help but smile.
„What I gained from the course is a great amount of questions that emerge each time we try to define the basics of mission studies. […]”, one of the students wrote. We can only hope and pray that more and more young Hungarian theologians have the temerity to pose questions, even the most difficult ones, ones the answers to which are yet to be found.
