What is Syncretism? Examples of Christian syncretism

What is syncretism?

I walked into a Buddhist Temple one day in the humid surroundings of the Sri Lankan hills, and I found myself uncomfortable. Was I compromising my beliefs? Should I have stood at the entrance and shouted the words of the gospel of Jesus? Was it ok to be silent and be in awe of the architecture? What was Jesus expecting of me? Was he expecting anything of me at all?

Especially in times of cross-cultural ministry, Christians are faced with difficult questions related to syncretism. Harold Turner says, 'Syncretism arises in the course of presenting Jesus Christ as the sole Lord and Saviour to men of other religions [dare I say women too - my note] living in cultures not moulded by the biblical revelation. By translating the gospel into local languages, and adapting or accommodating to local ideas and customs, these are absorbed into the life of the church. Many such elements have, however, been intimately related to another religion, and it is often difficult to incorporate them without also absorbing their previous religious associations and meanings' (Cited in International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Oct 2009).

To continue the discussion go to "Disciples in Training" Facebook Page.

Lets put it in context. You enter a party full of goths, dressed in their black clothing, tattoos, consuming drugs, ear piercings, etc, etc. What extent would you go to reach these people with the life transforming message of Jesus. Now, take away the fact that personally I'm a bald headed geek who shouldn't be seen anywhere remotely close to a place where I'll just embarrass myself... What extent could I go to to interact with this community? Tattoos? Maybe - Christians are divided on this one. Black clothing? Why not? Some conservatives might argue that Jesus is light and therefore we should wear a light purple sweater... What about consuming drugs? Hmm... have we just become syncretistic? I think so.

What about reaching our Islamic friends in an Islamic country? Could I wear the burqa? Is this syncretistic? Does wearing a burqa symbolise that I hold the Islamic faith and therefore undermine my Christian beliefs, or not? Difficult questions. Let me say, wearing a Ned Flanders sweater to Church doesn't make me a Christian. Can I attend a mosque, with the hope 'that I might win some' (as the Apostle Paul puts it), and when everyone bows, I simply pray to Jesus and let them pray to Allah? Is this syncretistic or a radical incarnational model of ministry in order to reach a Muslim brother with the gospel? I'm not intending to prescribe answers here, I just want to get people thinking about their beliefs and how far they would/would not go for Jesus' sake.

Syncretism - A concept the cross-cultural missionary is faced with on a day to day basis.

Follow me on Twitter - Go to...
www.twitter.com/petebrookshaw  

How far is too far? Reaching the subcultures

How far would you go to reach the subcultures in our communities with the gospel of Jesus? Interesting question.

How far can you 'incarnate' the gospel, before you compromise it? At what point does syncretism set in? That is, the gospel message is compromised.

Looking at the provocative picture to the left, we are left wondering, how we would even begin to consider reaching into some cultures; but we need to.

Take for example, a Goth becomes a believer in Jesus. Do we now compel the new Christian to lose the black clothing, and lose the ear pearcings, in order to fit into our established Christian communities? What about the concept that God is light and no darkness is found in him, will we use that as a way to compel the new believer to join our circles and fit in our ranks?

The debate really is about, how far can we incarnate the gospel of Jesus into particular subcultures. My thought would be that we start with our belief/understanding of Jesus (Christology) and with that foundational teaching we are involved in the Mission of God (Missiology) and then our expression of Church will derive itself from that (Ecclesiology).

So if we're trying to reach the goth culture for Jesus, we would understand that Jesus is calling people to follow after him, to be a disciple, to leave the life of sin and go into the world and make other disciples. We would understand that Jesus says very little about what clothes to wear. We may even dress like a goth and connect with the goths in this way (knowing that our belief in Jesus is not compromised simply because we are wearing a different set of clothes). Goths start to follow Jesus and then a Church is established in this subculture, in which Goths can continue to be Goths, but be passionate for Jesus, passionate about holiness and passionate about the great commission.

Interesting thoughts. Am I pushing it too far? Let us know your thoughts.

Nonetheless, we must ask the difficult questions of how to ensure the gospel message is relevant today to each generation and subculture.