Christianity Rediscovered

I just finished a wonderful book called Rediscovering Christianity by Vincent J. Donovan. Donovan is a Roman Catholic priest and missionary who spent 17 years evangelizing the Masai of Tanzania. Upon his arrival in East Africa in 1966 Fr. Donovan wrote a letter to his Bishop stating that he planned to go and speak to the Masai about Christ and Christ alone. He would offer no gifts, build no churches or schools, offer no sweets for the children, tobacco for the men, beads for the women, or medicine for the sick. He would go to them for the sole purpose of talking about God. He decided to go to each section of his territory once a week to speak with the people, knowing it would take a year or more to effectively cover what he needed to cover. After that it was up to the Masai to reject this message or to accept it.

In doing what Donovan came to call "First Evangelization" he realized the first thing he had to do was discover what the essential message of Christianity really is. He began to realize that many things we in the West consider "essential," such as church buildings, certain sacraments and rituals, even the priesthood, are actually cultural accretions; baggage we've added to the gospel. In the midst of his pondering and praying about this he asks, "I wonder if you ever reach that point in your life or in your work where you are certain you will never have to start all over again?"

What emerges as Donovan "rediscovers Christianity" is encouraging to anyone who has ever wished to evangelize, or even wondered about faith itself. It is also very incriminating to anyone who has never questioned their methods or motives. He writes:

It is only in the imparting of an outward-turned Christianity that we have any hope of achieving Christianity. An inward turned Christianity is a dangerous counterfeit, an alluring masquerade. it is no Christianity at all. The salvation of one's soul, or self-sanctification, or self-perfection, or self-fulfillment may well be the goal of Buddhism or Greek philosophy or modern psychology. But it is not the goal of Christianity. For someone to embrace Christianity for the purpose of self-fulfillment or self-salvation is, I think, to betray or to misunderstand Christianity at its deepest level. Christianity must be a force that moves outward, and a Christian community that is basically in existence "for others." That is the whole meaning of Christian community. A Christian community which spends all its resources on a building campaign for its own needs has long ago left Christianity high and dry on the banks. Or all its resources on an education program or youth program for that matter. (Pg. 104)

Later, discussing community, Donovan offers this:

The strange, changing, mobile, temporary, disappearing communities of America can leave one without any experience of what community is. The different groupings there are in America do have one common denominator - competition within the group. An individual's worth within any group is pretty much determined by his or her achievements, talents, skill, or beauty. And even if one is talented it can sometimes be very difficult to be recognized because of the fierceness of competition present. The endowments and talents that are present are often envisaged not as contributions to a community but as additions to one's personal stature. Such are the bitter-sweet fruits of intense individualism. (Pg. 141-142)

In the latter quote, Donovan goes on to say that the indigenous system of community he found in Masai communities did not prohibit striving for excellence, but did preclude competitive striving for individual aggrandizement at the expense of the community. This discussion comes in the midst of the author's denouncement of two obsessions in the Western Church: Individualism and organization, which he feels leaves little room for the Spirit to do His work.

Rediscovering Christianity made me want to get out there on the playing field again with a whole new objective and focus. I am grateful for Fr. Donovan's book. It is filled with great stories, African proverbs, and lessons about authentic Christianity and biblical missiology. I was sorry to put the book down when I was finished reading it.