MISSIONOLOGIA. —
I. DEFINITION
Missionary studies began in the last century, first through the work of Protestants and then of Catholics, in Germany. Various terms were used to designate them in the different languages, until in 1915 Fr. van Rijchevorsel introduced the neologisms « m. » and « missionologist ». The new term was soon accepted everywhere, but whereas in Rome and Italy the form « m. » is preferred, in other nations they prefer to say « missiology », because it is easier to pronounce and shorter. Some Protestant authors proposed unusual terms, but without success.It is evident that the definition of the missions necessarily leads to that of m. The definitions given by J. Schmidlin and G. B. Tragella were the most comprehensive and opened the way to the present definition, according to which m., objectively, is the body of knowledge concerning the work of planting the Catholic Church in its doctrinal principles, its practical norms, and its historical development.
The study, therefore, of m. has a doctrinal part, which refers back to theology, and another practical part, which concerns methodology and history and therefore has rather the character of a specialization.
II. DIVISION
The definition of m. provides the criteria for dividing it into its parts, which are fundamentally two: the doctrinal and the descriptive or historical. This division, proposed by Streit, was taken up and expanded by Schmidlin and followed, with slight modifications, by Tragella, Charles, Pio de Mondreganes, Perbal, Krol, Carminati, Rommerskirchen, and Pageau.In general, authors agree on these two fundamental divisions, but their criteria differ in determining the subdivisions and defining their subject matter. Almost all, however, divide doctrinal m. into fundamental or general and practical or normative. The former deals with the general principles of all m., determining first of all the definition and purpose of the missions; it sets forth the Church’s teaching concerning the work of propagating the faith and presents the history of Catholic and Protestant missionary literature. The normative part is twofold: juridical and methodological. The juridical part is of particular importance, because the apostolate is an activity regulated by multiple canonical provisions; it deals first with the general principles of missionary law and then discusses the central and peripheral organization, that is, the missionary hierarchy. Methodology deserves particular development, because it establishes the practical norms for carrying out an effective apostolic work among the various peoples to be converted. First it discusses the intellectual and moral formation of missionaries and then treats the principles of adaptation and the spiritual and natural means of the apostolate. The latter generally include preaching, the catechumenate, schools, the indigenous clergy, as well as art and music and charitable and social works.
Methodology then deals with the principal religions and peoples, but only in order to establish the practical norms of the apostolate among them, so as to derive the greatest possible benefit from all those elements closest to the Catholic religion. Nor should one forget the methodology to be followed in bringing Protestants and heterodox Christians back into the fold.
The exposition of works of missionary collaboration also belongs to the methodological part and, according to some, the treatment of the missionary duty of the Church and of the faithful as well, although others believe that this should be placed in the fundamental part.
Last comes the descriptive part, which is divided into the history of the missions and missiography, with the subdivisions of missionary geography and statistics. It is clear that in a general exposition of all m. this part must be limited to fundamental principles and general directives, leaving the development of the entire vast subject matter to specialized publications.
Some introduce notions of ethnology and the science of religions into the general division of m., but in the opinion of many, although the study of these auxiliary sciences is very useful and often indispensable, it can be dealt with only in an appendix.