The Challenge of Teaching Mission in an Increasingly Mobile and Complex World

Abstract

In a time when old groupings are breaking up, when people are on the move or fleeing conflict and settling elsewhere, when many people are multilingual and are competent in several cultural settings, doing mission has become an ever greater challenge than simple cross-cultural communication. How does one engage in mission on the run? How does one conduct missiological research in ephemeral community that is here today and gone tomorrow? How does one train new missionaries for work in a field that will certainly morph into something else before they get there? Changing times call for new perspectives on mission. This article is based on the twentieth Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Lecture on Mission and Culture, given at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. October 7, 2019 (available online at https://learn.ctu.edu/2019-luzbetak-lecture/).