Tempels conceded that missionary catechesis fatally opened by silencing the African learner.

Evidence

Cardijn made clear in an intense clarity the tragic error and the misdeeds of this intellectualist teaching and this conceptualist catechesis. … It may be that here in the Congo we missionaries have made the same mistake and begin our teaching with the introduction: “silence, it is I who speak.” — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 717

Categorization

• QUESTION: The phrase ‘silence, it is I who speak’ is striking — worth chasing where it originates and how it became a figure for monologic catechesis.