<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Missions and colonialism
<i>Teurer Segen - Christliche Mission und Kolonialismus</i> by Gert von Paczensky - translation of the book summary and book review at KirchenKritik:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Costly blessing - Christian mission and colonialism</i>
What has been committed in the name of Christ
Gert von Paczensky
Devout, good, gifting blessings, social work - such is the traditional image of Christian missionaries in the coloured world. But the appearance deceives. Missions were in league with colonialism, often even gruesomely so. They helped to destroy old cultures, to uproot people, to divide families and entire populations. They supported and approved of a system that let countless of millions in three continents be reduced to poverty, bringing them hunger and sickness. In the misdevelopment of Latin America, Africa and Asia - the major problem in the present - missionaries and Churches of all persuasions and confessions (denominations) were complicit. Gert von Paczensky exposes what has been done in the name of Christ, but also how many of his messengers had to pay for it with life and limb.
<i>Review by www.kirchenkritik.de</i>
What brilliant work! If the name of Paczensky did not shine on the front cover, one would immediately be tempted to attribute this monumental work to Karlheinz Deschner. This work lacks neither facts, nor references nor information handed down from the time of mission-work and colonialism.
Appalled, the reader will follow the interconnections and the interplay of both movements [missionary and colonial], whereby often the two cannot be seperated from each other. It is established that the Church has to answer for the main share of the guilt of the impoverishment of the present 3rd world. Yes, one can even go so far and assert that without the Church everything would have turned out differently!
In light of this book, the numerous speeches of Pope John Paul II in impoverished countries appear hypocritical and cynical.
Moving historical literature at it's best. Parts of it are not for weak nerves.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Kirchenkritik means Church criticism.
<i>Teurer Segen - Christliche Mission und Kolonialismus</i> by Gert von Paczensky - translation of the book summary and book review at KirchenKritik:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>Costly blessing - Christian mission and colonialism</i>
What has been committed in the name of Christ
Gert von Paczensky
Devout, good, gifting blessings, social work - such is the traditional image of Christian missionaries in the coloured world. But the appearance deceives. Missions were in league with colonialism, often even gruesomely so. They helped to destroy old cultures, to uproot people, to divide families and entire populations. They supported and approved of a system that let countless of millions in three continents be reduced to poverty, bringing them hunger and sickness. In the misdevelopment of Latin America, Africa and Asia - the major problem in the present - missionaries and Churches of all persuasions and confessions (denominations) were complicit. Gert von Paczensky exposes what has been done in the name of Christ, but also how many of his messengers had to pay for it with life and limb.
<i>Review by www.kirchenkritik.de</i>
What brilliant work! If the name of Paczensky did not shine on the front cover, one would immediately be tempted to attribute this monumental work to Karlheinz Deschner. This work lacks neither facts, nor references nor information handed down from the time of mission-work and colonialism.
Appalled, the reader will follow the interconnections and the interplay of both movements [missionary and colonial], whereby often the two cannot be seperated from each other. It is established that the Church has to answer for the main share of the guilt of the impoverishment of the present 3rd world. Yes, one can even go so far and assert that without the Church everything would have turned out differently!
In light of this book, the numerous speeches of Pope John Paul II in impoverished countries appear hypocritical and cynical.
Moving historical literature at it's best. Parts of it are not for weak nerves.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Kirchenkritik means Church criticism.