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More on Methodology
In the Introduction, I provided a brief account of the methodological approach adopted in this book. This was described as both theological-historical and mission-historical. In Part 2, I also adopted an approach which I there labeled socio-religious profiling, in order to describe the women missionaries’ understanding of the divine call. Methodology, at the best of times, is fraught with difficulties, and these increase when the approach to research is multi-disciplinary in character, but also multi-layered as I shall indicate. The more I engaged in my research, the more this became evident. For this reason, I would like to reflect on what I have done, and expand more on the methodology / methodologies that were operative.
Any research needs to be thoroughly grounded in a particular discipline—even when it is multi-disciplinary in character. The dominant approach adopted in this book is theological—and it is theological method that has determined the way in which I have proceeded. However, that in itself begs several questions, for theological methodology is also varied in character. My approach has been to examine the way in which certain key Anabaptist-Mennonite theological distinctives have developed and have been understood within their original historical contexts—and how these distinctives have mutated over time.
The three theological background chapters therefore deal with Anabaptist / Mennonite theology in its historical context. Firstly, they investigate the concepts of the call to discipleship, the call to be in the world but not of it, and the call for women to follow during the early pneumatic phase in Anabaptism. Secondly, they describe some important historical mutations of the concepts, in the form of a significant calcification, which took place during the consolidation period from the end of the 16th century to approximately the middle of latter half of the 19th century. The third major shift in the meaning of the concepts is documented in the second part of the book by the testimonies of the missionaries themselves. They include, for a majority, the incorporation into their theology of fundamentalist-revivalist North American theology. The same chapters further trace, through the witness of the missionaries, the response in some Mennonite circles to these foreign theological influences by attempting a ‘Recovery of the Anabaptist Vision.’
The major focus of the book is, however, on Mennonite missions, and especially the notion of being divinely called to do mission work. For this reason, the theological distinctives chosen for examinations have been those that are missiologically appropriate, or else distinctives that have been approached from that perspective. By way of example, Anabaptist Christology was approached not just as a subject in its own right, but as one that informs the women missionaries’ interpretation of their call to mission. But I have done this also within an historical framework, giving special consideration to alien theological and missiological influences. This mission-historical approach is therefore integrated into the theological-historical methodological framework, but is controlled by the latter.
The third methodological step follows closely on these two previous approaches, and is informed by them. This I have called socio-religious profiling. Amongst recent studies that deal with this phenomenon is Anthony Gittins’ work entitled Ministry at the Margins: Strategy and Spirituality for Mission.1 Gittins’ main objective in developing his strategy is to enable missionaries to successfully understand their vocation, rather than to provide a methodology for a research project such as I have undertaken. Nonetheless, his approach is worth noting, not least because it corresponds to what I discerned in the course of my research, even though not all of his categories are of equal relevance.
In dealing with the missionary call, Gittins points out that the theological understanding of the call is often amalgamated with cultural baggage—which I, from my perspective as a researcher, refer to as the sociological aspects of the sense of call. ‘What is it that informs mission behavior and engagement?’ is the underlying question Gittins is asking—and similarly, this question informs my own enquiry. Of particular interest is his reference to a romantic interpretation of the call, a phenomenon which was raised repeatedly by the interviewees, as indicated in the empirical section (Part Two) of this book. Another form of cultural baggage that Gittins discusses is a pessimistic interpretation of the call, which causes the recipient to jump to the conclusion that nothing will work out for the best. As a result, the individual distrusts the cultural environment, and therefore cuts herself off from any deeper engagement in the mission context.
As an alternative approach to a missionary’s understanding of the call, Gittins proposes participant/observation. In many respects, this is what my research both bears out and in fact encouraged the women interviewed to engage in. Although Gittins has in mind that this approach should be adopted by the missionaries from the time of their first sense of call and throughout their period as missionaries, and also speaks of its value on their return ‘home,’ my use of this approach has primarily been retrospective. That is, through the interviews, I have encouraged the women missionaries as participants in mission work to reflect back on their experience. This has then informed my analysis. As is evident in Part Two, such reflection can be painful, and intellectually demanding—even in retrospect and perhaps more so in retrospect, but it also has a cathartic function which enables those involved to better understand and come to terms with their experience in a way that leads to a more wholesome closure.
My approach was, however, not just in terms of cultural baggage, but also of religious baggage which either functioned as a burden, or was potentially a burden. But not all religious commitments functioned in this way. They could also act as a means of grace and blessing, and therefore as a support factor. The truth is, it is very difficult to separate religious commitments and understanding from their cultural heritage and sociological embeddedness.
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1GITTINS, Anthony J.: Ministry at the Margins: Strategy and Spirituality for Mission, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2003.
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