31 30 © Acta Missiologica | No. 2 | Vol. 14 | 2020 | Expert articles MISSION INTER GENTES AS A CONSEQUENCE OF MISSION AD GENTES? REFLECTIONS 55 YEARS AFTER THE DECREE ON MISSIONARY ACTIVITY OF VATICAN II AND LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIOLOGY | Franti šek Štěch MISSION INTER GENTES AS A CONSEQUENCE OF MISSION AD GENTES? REFLEC- TIONS 55 YEARS AFTER THE DECREE ON MISSIONARY ACTIVITY OF VATICAN II AND LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIOLOGY* 50 František Štěch ✉ 51 Charles University, Protestant Theological Faculty, Theology & Contemporary Culture research group (CZ) Submitted: 25 May 2020 Accepted for publication: 17 October 2020 First published: 31 October © Acta Missiologica |No. 2|Vol. 14|2020| Abstract Background: This article aims at refection on the Ad Gentes Decree on Missionary Activity of Vatican II with the beneft of more than half a century’s hindsight. First of all, it briefy reminds us about the document itself, the history of its creation, contents, and theological highlights. The second part of the article identifes some of the most signifcant changes and develop- ments that happened during the decades following the Council. The most recent project of “mission inter gentes”, as suggested by Jonatan Y. Tan, is introduced in the third section. And, fnally, the concluding section attempts to answer the question of whether (or to what extent) the concept of mission among nations (inter gentes) is a consequence and creative continua- tion of how Vatican II understood mission to the nations (ad gentes). Conclusion: The conclusion suggests that mission among nations (inter gentes) is closely linked to mission ad gentes because it represents a concrete way in which Christians can fulfl their missionary task. Ad Gentes remains an authoritative missionary document in the Roman Catholic Church but the need to go beyond this document is suggested based on explication of the inter-gentes missiological concept of Jonatan Y. Tan. Further detailed research of his work can be benefcial for both theoreticians and practitioners of Christian mission. One of the central outcomes of this article is that refection on the missionary activity of the Church and its different concepts or projects may be relevant for researchers beyond the area of theology too, because they can study how it supports human freedom and social engagement, showing the strong potential of the Church to support functioning democratic society. Introduction In his outstanding refection on missiology, published at the beginning of the fnal decade of the 20th Century, David Bosh splendidly described the emergence of Christendom in Europe and its implications Church mission: “Emperor Theodosius’s decrees of 380 (which demanded that all citizens of the Roman Empire be Christians) and 391 (which proscribed all non-Christian cults) inexorably paved the way for Pope Boniface’s bull, Unam Sanctam (1302), which proclaimed that the Catho- * This work has been supported by Charles University Research Centre program No. 204052. ✉ Contact on author: Mgr. František Štěch, Th.D. – e-mail: stechf@etf.cuni.cz lic Church was the only institution guaranteeing salvation; for the Council of Florence (1442), which assigned to the everlasting fre of Hell everyone not attached to the Catholic Church. 52 ” In line with such development of the Church’s self-understanding, 53 mission was seen as the task of the Church to conquer souls for Christ and to establish His Church wherever it was pos- sible. Thus, Bosh rightly observed two major problems for the Church to deal with when en- tering the era of modernity. These were 54 : 1. The Church’s relationship with “world views which offer this-worldly salvation”, and 2. The Church’s relationship to “other faiths”. Even though a lot was done in this feld during the last two centuries (in terms of theological refection as well as praxis), these problems still call for the attention of theologians and practitioners of the mission of the Roman Catholic Church today as well as other Christian churches. However, in recent times we have been able to see and refect just how far from the un- shakable certitudes of the past the Roman Catholic Church has progressed, when it put its own missionary task under scrutiny during Vatican II (1962-1965) once again. While some spoke about Vatican II being a council about the Church (ad intra as well as ad extra) 55 , others em- phasized its pastoral concern 56 , and some declare that “mission or evangelization was really at the heart of everything that the Council was about 57 .” All three perspectives are certainly valid and mutually related but, for the purpose of this article, we will turn our focus on mission. This option, however, leaves space open for further research, which would bring under scrutiny all three aspects experts on Vatican II claim as being central for the Council (Church, Pastorality, Mission). The Council’s Decree on Missionary Activity of the Church (Ad Gentes – further abbreviated as AG) left behind most of the exclusivist positions, but clearly stated that mission and evange- lization remain an essential part of the Church’s own identity. Its intention was to set up a new direction for the future understanding of the mission of the Church. As John Mansford Prior rightly observed, AG “introduced a clear rupture with much of the Western mission theology and practice of colonial times 58 ”, but, at the same time, the theological vision of the AG 52 David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991). 474. 53 “Christianity was understood to be unique, exclusive, superior, definite, normative and absolute, the only reli- gion which had the divine right to exist and extend itself.” (Bosch, “Transforming Mission,” 475). 54 Bosch, “Transforming Mission,” 476-477. 55 It was Cardinal Léon-Josef Suenens, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, who introduced these two famous plans for the Council (Michael Barnes, Theology and the Dialogue of Religions (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2002). 33) 56 The pastoral concern of Vatican II was declared by Pope John XXIII himself, but that does not mean the Coun- cil was not doctrinal at all. (Thomas Hoebel, Laity and Participation: A Theology of Being the Church (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006).70.) 57 Bevans, “Mission,” 7. 58 John Mansford Prior, “New Daybreak in Mission: From Ad Gentes to Inter Gentes,” in Revisiting Vatican II: 50 Years of Renewal (Vol. I), ed. Shaji George Kochuthara, 396. (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2014).