Five great missionary experiments and cultural issues in Asia / Miguel A. Bernad, S.J.

There have been many missionary experiments since apostolic times, some of which deserve to be called great. An outstanding example were the Reductions among the Guarani "Indians" in what was then known as Paraguay, a territory now shared by the three republics of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. Equally outstanding, and with far greater greater and more permanent results, was the work of the monastic orders which contributed so much to the Christianization of Europe. A group of monks went into the wilderness, or to a mountain-top, or to a pleasant valley beside a river. They cut the timber, sowed the fields, built their monasteries, sang the liturgy and copied the manuscripts, and gradually a Christian community grew up around them and the entire locality eventually became Christian. --From the Introduction