| Posted November 24, 2020 | By Rosalia Meza, VDMF | Categorized under Missiology and Theory |

The global pandemic has shaken our standardized methods and practices of transmitting the faith of our Christian traditions, leading us to revalue the essence of the gospel. Christian mission today is searching for new directions to approach the postmodern, postcolonial, and ecumenical paradigms. My new book, Towards a New Praxis-Oriented Missiology (Pickwick, 2020), argues that mission is not just a transmission of knowledge that keeps an established structure and culture alive (often justified and glorified by a specific ecclesiological model). Rather, mission seeks to embody the content and praxis of the gospel. Mission can be understood as an invitation to initiate a transformative process of faith, which leads to personal and social transformation.

This work brings into dialogue Stephan Bevans's notion of mission as prophetic dialogue and Paulo Freire's concept of conscientização. The aim is not to use Freire's conscientização as a method to do mission but to rescue the process that leads to a transformation in both concepts, allowing one to encounter the other where they are, while respecting the uniqueness of every person, culture, church, and society. Prophetic dialogue enriched by Freire's thought, and vice versa, can open new perspectives within missiology and provide a new approach to mission praxis. The concept of conscientização is shown to support the conscious dedication, preparation, dialogue, and commitment to incarnate the gospel in every culture. It sets up the interior attitude to read and interpret, as well as to intervene in specific realities. Besides revealing the riches that prophetic dialogue offers to mission praxis, my book explores questions and challenges in missiological discourse today, such as how to promote the gospel in a more experiential way.

My mission praxis is then analyzed through the experiential and transformative elements of the Verbum Dei charism applied to my ministry with the Latino immigrant population in California. Bevans's and Freire's work is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of prophetic dialogue and conscientização in the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity mission praxis.

"Towards a New Praxis-Oriented Missiology" will awaken in missiology scholars, ministers, and in people dedicating their lives to serve others, the desire to rescue and transmit the humble power and beauty of the Gospel taught by Jesus. It will provide tools to initiate a transformative process of faith, leading to a personal and social transformation; tools to help people relate the content of faith to the concrete reality (personal, familiar, social); and tools to make the content of faith relevant to the reality of the present era.