Encountering Roman Catholicism on the Mission Field
By definition, missionaries who are not sent to an unreached people group will encounter some level of prior knowledge of the gospel. In some cases, good seed was sown on good soil, and the missionary’s work will be to nurture a healthy church to maturity. However, in many places, the seed is stranded on rocky ground, withering in the sun (Matthew 13:1–23). Perhaps there is a cultural Christianity, or a syncretic religion at work. Whatever the current state of the Church in that place, understanding its context is critical for a missionary who strives, as Paul did, to tailor their evangelism and defense of the faith to the hearer’s need.
In much of the world, this context will be rooted in Roman Catholicism. Approximately half of the global population who identify as Christian are Roman Catholic. There are two major areas where missionaries need biblical apologetics in their dealings with Roman Catholicism. One has to do with the big picture of the reality of Roman Catholicism; the other touches on encounters with individual Catholics.
Roman and Catholic
As we approach Roman Catholicism, it is important to come to terms with its Roman and Catholic elements. Roman Catholicism is both Roman and Catholic at the same time.
The church of Rome, the see of Rome, the Roman authorities, the Roman catechism… all these references make it clear that the Catholic church absorbed a Roman element that became so intertwined with it that it gave rise to Roman Catholicism. According to Jaroslav Pelikan, “the name ‘Roman Catholic’ conjoined the universality of the Church over the entire world, which has long been the content of the term ‘Catholic’, with the specificity of only one single see”, that of Rome.
Roman Catholicism is a long-established synthesis of catholic universality and Roman particularity, catholic plurality and Roman unity, catholic comprehensiveness and Roman distinctiveness, the catholic totus (whole) and the Roman locus (place), catholic fullness and Roman partiality, catholic breadth and Roman narrowness, catholic elasticity and Roman rigidity, the catholic universe and the Roman center, catholic organism and Roman organization, the catholic faith and the Roman structure.
Rome wants to tie its romanitas (made of imperial structure, political power, hierarchical organization, extra-biblical traditions) to its status as the only church of Jesus Christ where the fullness of grace can be found. This approach was epitomized at the Council of Trent (1545–1562). The Protestant Reformation was the attempt to recover the apostolic catholicity away from Rome’s imperial/sacramental/hierarchical tenets and submit it to the formal principle of the authority of Scripture and the material principle of justification by faith alone.
After Vatican II (1962–1965) Rome changed strategy, re-launching its catholicity by adopting an inclusive method of “updating” itself. This meant adjustment without structural reform, incorporation without loss or cost, expansion of the system without purification, development without renunciation of tradition. In other words, continuous addition without any subtraction. It embraced a welcoming posture, a new pastoral style, and ecumenical, inter-faith positive language: a 360-degree expansionary catholicity. Yet beneath this veneer, Rome maintains the sacramental, hierarchical, devotional and imperial structures (certainly made more discreet but definitely still present), all of which revolve around an abnormal and dilated ecclesiology, pillared by traditional Roman Catholic doctrine.
The catholicity of Rome does not mean that anything goes. Rome’s view of catholicity is always and organically related to the Roman center of the system. The former is at the service of the ever-expanding, universal scope of the catholic vision; the latter maintains the whole process connected to the sacramental, institutional, and political hardware of the Church.
Without this big picture, a missionary’s apologetic is at risk of being “atomistic,” i.e. focusing on the particulars without grasping the whole. The problem of Roman Catholicism is not in one aspect only, but in its system as a whole that is committed to neither Scripture alone nor Christ alone.
Five Magnetic Points
Roman Catholicism is a system, but it is also composed of different kinds of people. In my conversations with Catholic friends, I have found it useful to reference the five “magnetic points” expounded by British theologian Daniel Strange. Drawing on Dutch missiologist Johan Herman Bavinck (1895-1964), whose many years of missionary experience in Indonesia have been a source of missiological insights, Strange proposes five fundamentals that all human beings look for and to which they are magnetically drawn. Each religion responds in various ways to these five questions:
1. The search for totality: a way to connect to reality
2. The need for a norm: a way to live
3. The yearning for deliverance: a way out of oppression
4. The sense of destiny: a way to control
5. The reality of a higher power: a way to measure up to the supernatural
According to Strange, “these magnetic points act as a kind of ‘religious anatomy’ of fallen human beings.” Other religions suppress God’s truth and seek to substitute it with an alternative, resulting in a messy combination of beliefs and practices. According to Strange, every religious conversation touches on one or more magnetic points. It is up to us, to our missionaries, to convey the message of the Gospel by showing how the Good News is the right answer for relating to the world, living according to God’s will, being set free from sin, relying on divine benevolent providence, and living in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Only the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring light. This is the complete and living power for people, the power long suppressed and rejected. Every religion, Roman Catholicism included, provides improbable and insufficient answers to the magnetic points. Dan Strange comments: “[T]he gospel of Jesus Christ does not bypass the magnetic points, but is the subversive fulfillment of the magnetic points.” In other words, the gospel does not replace the points but presents a person, Jesus Christ, who fulfills them in this way:
1. Totality. Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much” (John 15:5). He connects us to Himself, freeing us from our isolation.
2. A Norm. Jesus says, “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). He provides a moral norm for life and death, based on His own character, without degrading into moralism.
3. Deliverance. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He alone brings a finished deliverance; we cannot perform it ourselves and are liberated from guilt and shame.
4. Destiny. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). For those who trust Him, their destination is not enslavement but wholeness in resurrected bodies.
5. A Higher Power. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). He is the Highest Power who became a human being we can know and love personally.
It is up to the church and the missionaries she sends to be a magnetic people, living out the Gospel in a way that testifies to God’s authority, God’s control, and God’s presence in and over everything. In our conversations with friends, Strange suggests four moves to employ the magnetic points: entering our neighbor’s world, exploring his belief system, exposing its weaknesses and faults, and evangelizing by presenting Jesus, always communicating the Gospel “holistically and humanely.”
A Magnetic Mission
These magnetic points have some specific applications for missions to language groups influenced by Roman Catholicism. A few examples can be briefly mentioned, especially as far as the points related to totality, norm, and higher power.
Totality. Roman Catholicism provides a sense of belonging to a bigger story and community. Catholics feel a part of something historical, global, cultural, and institutional. Unfortunately, the totality Roman Catholicism offers is not grounded in the biblical Gospel and has multiple cracks in it. Over time, Catholics become disillusioned with the institution, grow skeptical, and look for totality either in family traditions that are embedded in religion or secular options. Christ alone grants a far better and deeper identity. He gives us a place in His historical and global family. In biblical terms, we become a branch among many grafted into the vineyard (John 15:5), living stones within the spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), ears of wheat in God’s field (1 Corinthians 3:9), sheep within an innumerable flock (John 10:16), members never disconnected from the whole body (1 Corinthians 12:27). Without neglecting the particular identity of each person, the biblical vision is strictly collective. In short, submitting to Jesus’s leadership as our head involves becoming members of His body (1 Corinthians 12:12). As a community of believers, the Church, as imperfect as it is, is nonetheless our spiritual home where fellowship and support can be found.
Norm. Over the centuries, Rome has developed a detailed moral code for the faithful (praying the rosary for example). There are norms for all aspects and moments of life, often presented in moralistic terms. To be a good Christian, you must perform these norms as your duty. In our contemporary world, many Catholics want to be disentangled from the moral framework of the church. They experience it as cumbersome, if not oppressive, an imposed and impersonal code. The opportunity is there for us to present Christ as the One who fulfilled God’s requirements and gives the good life we long for but cannot find apart from Him (John 10:10). Christ’s truth liberates us and gives us the desire to follow Him and His ways.
Higher power. Many Roman Catholics relate to the supernatural formally through Jesus Christ but practically through the mediation of Mary and the saints and in the context of ritual acts or ceremonies such as the “sacramentals” that may include blessed water or holy oil. Access to the supernatural, including miracles, visions, and the afterlife, is mediated by channels other than Christ alone and is often intertwined with superstitious practices. The Gospel invites us to fear God alone, who is the Lord of all, and presents Jesus Christ as the only one who died, rose again, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. Jesus has conquered death (1 Corinthians 15:55-57) and has given us a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and sound judgment (2 Timothy 1:7).
Conclusion
Each missionary encounter in a Roman Catholic context will be different. Flexibility, adaptability and patience must be practiced again and again, but these points offer a biblical compass for guiding the lost to Christ. Moreover, every conversion to Christ is a miracle. As we communicate the gospel to our Roman Catholic friends, we must pray that God will move in their hearts to see the truth of the gospel and to respond to its message in repentance, obedience, and faith.