Eclesiología y misionología en el siglo XVIII

Abstract

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The author examines the place granted to the missionology in the manuals of ecclesiology in the 18th Century. So as to proceed to this inspection, it is necessary to analyse the structure and approach of these manuals.

The context of the ecclesiological exposure of this epoch are conditioned by the evolution of the vera religione and de locis treties, which, born starting from the 15th and 16th Centuries, converge, at the beginning of the 18th Century and thanks to the influence of the German Jesuit, V. Pichler, into one unique treaty: the one that would later be called General or Fundamental Theology. In fact the manuals of Dogmatic Theology written along the 18Th Century were, as regards, the localization of the «de Ecclesia», be distributed in four groups: a) Some, following the tradition of the post-tridentine theology, include the study of the Church inside that of de finde; b) others, only a few, develope ecclesiology continuing form the de Verbo Incarnato; c) a third group, included in the interior of a de locis with which the manual is titled; d) a high number begin the manual with a de vera religione which is prolonged with a de vera Ecclesia Christi and a de munere infallibili Ecclesiae in proponenda doctrina revelata. This fourth form was gradually imposed.

The apologetic approach, in a setting furrowed by anti-lutheran, anti-deist and anti-anglican concerns, conditions the contents of these treaties. The author moves on to analyse in a more direct manner, the three chapters in which it could be hoped that a greater presence of the missionological theme in these treaties would be apparent: the comparison of Christianity to other religions, the assertion of the Catholic Church as the true church, as opposed to the separated communities, the consideration of the possibility of salvation for those who do not belong to the Church. This inspection leads to a clear conclusion: the apologetic concern dominates the missionological one; the authors of the 18th Century, preoccupied by the danger of the indifference, do not pay attention to the problem of the mission.

This verification situates before a paradox: in the epoch in which the mission do not form a part of the most outstanding happenings in the life of the Church, the manuals of Theology are ignorant about this fact. The reason for this absence cannot be blamed on the fact that the author of these manuals were insensitive to the problems then, but more likely on an exclusive attention to the above mentioned apologetic concerns. There is also another decisive factor: the conceptualization from which the theologists of the 18th Century approach the reality of the Church. Following the Bellarminian tradition, it is particularly conceived as society, and the concept of society appropriate to bring together the idea of mission. The development of ecclesiology operated along the 19th Century, will be necessary so that missiology can appear and find its own way.