Walking the Razor’s Edge: Illich Conversation #2 with David Cayley and Sam Ewell

The Ferment

Christian mission has gotten a bad name in our time, for good reason. Illich talked about the razor's edge walked by the missionary, between violating the world into which one has been sent (he used the word raping, actually) and betraying one's spiritual inheritance. Some have read Illich as anti-mission. In this conversation, both David Cayley and Sam Ewell argue that Illich is decidedly not anti-mission, any more than he is anti-technology, but that he makes us sensitive to the imperialism of either one when they tilt us out of the convivial relationship of friends and the action of citizens into the docility of clients who believe that only armies, machines and experts can save them.