Institutional obedience within missionary orders structurally ruled out open dissent for Tempels
Evidence
As a missionary, there was very little that Tempels could do in the circumstances. Those who understand how the Catholic church functions in general and how missionary congregations, like the Franciscan Order, function in particular, would be more nuanced in their judgement of the contradictions that Tempels displays. Given the Franciscan discipline, the vows of obedience and poverty that members take, and the kind of life they dedicate themselves to, it would have been impossible for Tempels to single-handedly take on the congregation, the diocesan authority, and ultimately the Catholic church regarding the question of the approach to the evangelization of Africa. If he had tried to act in opposition to the evangelization norms, he would have been considered a traitor, a betrayer of the cause, a rebel and a hypocrite. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 146
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Paralleles Max Weber’s analysis of bureaucratic/subordinate constraint and the sociology of vocation; also echoes how dissidents within churches and orders have historically chosen internal reformation over rupture.