The article is a set of reflections on the uses of oral history in a communicative endeavour that succeeds very often in effacing the role of the interviewer even as the demands of self-reflexivity insist on centring that role. The author consider cases where there is neither a clearly defined interviewer nor interviewee, nor is there an attempt to write down experiences as history. Following this, it asks what can be told in or by oral histories when the communication that produces them seeks to recover otherwise inaccessible histories and memories, but must use languages of legitimation that often cannot speak clearly about those inaccessible histories and memories.
KEY WORDS: legitimation, writing, history, reification, collective memory

The article is a set of reflections on the uses of oral history in a communicative endeavour that succeeds very often in effacing the role of the interviewer even as the demands of self-reflexivity insist on centring that role. The author consider cases where there is neither a clearly defined interviewer nor interviewee, nor is there an attempt to write down experiences as history. Following this, it asks what can be told in or by oral histories when the communication that produces them seeks to recover otherwise inaccessible histories and memories, but must use languages of legitimation that often cannot speak clearly about those inaccessible histories and memories.
KEY WORDS: legitimation, writing, history, reification, collective memory

This paper is a panoramic survey of a millennia-long tradition of asceticism and monasticism in the Indian subcontinent. The main ascetic traditions of India are overviewed, with a particular focus given to female renouncers. Their doctrinal premises and religious practices are discussed within a historical framework, and major emerging themes are identified. Since this paper forms part of a research project investigating the lives of Catholic female missionaries in India in the twentieth century, it concludes with the identification of significant overlaps between female renunciation in the Indic and Christian traditions, and engages in some reflections on the encounter between the two discourses.
KEY WORDS: Indian asceticism, female renouncers in India, nuns in Indian religions

This paper is a panoramic survey of a millennia-long tradition of asceticism and monasticism in the Indian subcontinent. The main ascetic traditions of India are overviewed, with a particular focus given to female renouncers. Their doctrinal premises and religious practices are discussed within a historical framework, and major emerging themes are identified. Since this paper forms part of a research project investigating the lives of Catholic female missionaries in India in the twentieth century, it concludes with the identification of significant overlaps between female renunciation in the Indic and Christian traditions, and engages in some reflections on the encounter between the two discourses.
KEY WORDS: Indian asceticism, female renouncers in India, nuns in Indian religions

Contrary to the normative apostolic letter Maximum illud, which demanded that missionaries cut their ties with national(ist) and colonial agendas, the missionary project of the Yugoslav interwar missionaries in Bengal was deeply suffused with patriotism, with the newspapers and missionary publications alike portraying the Yugoslav Bengali mission as a symbolic victory of the newly-established Yugoslav state. The present paper aims to interpret this controversy by exploring how men and women missionaries negotiated the conflicting relationship between the transnational missionary project and the nationalist agendas, while also struggling with the controversial decisions of which national agenda to pursue. 
KEY WORDS: missionaries, Bengal, Yugoslavia, patriotism, nation

Contrary to the normative apostolic letter Maximum illud, which demanded that missionaries cut their ties with national(ist) and colonial agendas, the missionary project of the Yugoslav interwar missionaries in Bengal was deeply suffused with patriotism, with the newspapers and missionary publications alike portraying the Yugoslav Bengali mission as a symbolic victory of the newly-established Yugoslav state. The present paper aims to interpret this controversy by exploring how men and women missionaries negotiated the conflicting relationship between the transnational missionary project and the nationalist agendas, while also struggling with the controversial decisions of which national agenda to pursue. 
KEY WORDS: missionaries, Bengal, Yugoslavia, patriotism, nation

The article provides a brief overview of the milestones that have encouraged new approaches to the missionary activities of the Church throughout history. The main purpose is to determine how the Second Vatican Council responded to the process of globalization after the Second World War, what its understanding of inculturation was, and what new pathways for evangelization were sought in the missionary activities of the Church. The methodological principle is the comparative analysis of documents on the foundations, goals and means of pursuing the mission in a spirit of dialogue, enabling the recognition of good contributions from non-Christian religions. The article also includes more recent theological discourse on new challenges in attitudes to the mission.
KEY WORDS: the mission of the Church, milestones of the missions throughout history, renewal in relation to tradition, common core of all religions, dialogue

The article provides a brief overview of the milestones that have encouraged new approaches to the missionary activities of the Church throughout history. The main purpose is to determine how the Second Vatican Council responded to the process of globalization after the Second World War, what its understanding of inculturation was, and what new pathways for evangelization were sought in the missionary activities of the Church. The methodological principle is the comparative analysis of documents on the foundations, goals and means of pursuing the mission in a spirit of dialogue, enabling the recognition of good contributions from non-Christian religions. The article also includes more recent theological discourse on new challenges in attitudes to the mission.
KEY WORDS: the mission of the Church, milestones of the missions throughout history, renewal in relation to tradition, common core of all religions, dialogue