‘Go, set the world on fire!’ These are the words with which, in 1540, Ignatius of Loyola is said to have launched the epic missionary journey of his friend Francis Xavier. Over the following decade Francis would travel to India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, before his death looking over the Chinese mainland. It was a time when new worlds were opening up, not just for merchants and conquistadors, but for the Church, as it strove to bring the word of God to these previously unknown peoples and nations. The excitement of that striving is palpable in Ignatius’ words. Yet the influence was not all to be one way. As these early missionaries laboured to make Christian teaching and practice comprehensible to people with wholly different cultures and outlooks, many of them were led to reconsider their understanding of their own beliefs. Nearly five centuries after Xavier blazed a path, the experience of Christians in Asia, Africa and South America continues to challenge European assumptions about how discipleship is to be lived out. This issue of The Way gathers a number of articles that consider how experiences of Christian faith in the countries of the South can and do enrich the faith of those who live in the North.
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