I really liked this anecdote about a foreign visitor being upset by the totem poles set up in a public park in the pacific northwest.
Also illustrating the cultural gulf that separates Northern and Southern churches is Moses Tay, formerly the Anglican archbishop of Southeast Asia, whose see was based in Singapore. Visiting the Canadian city of Vancouver, Archbishop Tay found himself in Stanley Park, where he encountered the totem poles that represent and important symbol of the city. He was deeply troubles. The archbishop concluded that as artifacts of an alien religion, these were idols possessed by evil spirits, and they required handling by prayer and exorcism. This behavior horrified the local Anglican church, which was committed to building good relationships with local native communities, and which regarded exorcism as absurd superstition. (Moreover, totem poles themselves should more properly be seen as symbols of status and power, rather than specifically religious objects.) Considering his own standards, though, it is difficult not to feel some sympathy with the archbishop. Considering the long span of Christian writings on exorcism and possession, he could summon many literary witnesses to support his position, far more than the Canadian church could produce in favor of tolerant multiculturalism.
-Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, p.151
I’m pretty familiar with this sort of thing. There was one about a half hour from my house. I barely notice them, but seriously, we can’t blame him if he does. We’ve swallowed a lot of nonsense here in the west. Why should we assume it’s the foreigners who don’t get it?
If Northerners worry that Southern churches have compromised with traditional paganism, then Southerners accuse Americans and Europeans of selling out Christianity to neo-paganism, in the form of humanistic secular liberalism.
-p.235
Indeed. They’re probably both right. I’ve had so much modernism/postmodernism pumped into me, it’s still hard to sort out. Every day.
Switching gears…
The secular western powers REALLY don’t get religion. They try to categorize it and such, but they might as well be on another planet. Relations with evangelicals in the U.S. and with Muslims abroad provides mounds of examples. Long term, this is really bad for global relations. Hmmmm.
Modern Western media generally do an awful job of reporting on religious realities, even within their own societies. Despite its immense popularity in North America, evangelical and fundamentalist religion often tends to be dismissed as merely a kind of reactionary ignorance. It would be singularly dangerous if such uncomprehending attitudes were applied on a global scale and aggravated by racial stereotyping. As Christianity comes to be sees as, in effect, jungle religion, the faith of one-third of the human race would increasingly be seen as alien and dangerous, even a pressing social problem. The North, in turn, would define itself against this unfortunate presence: the North would be secular, rational, and tolerant, the South primitive and fundamentalist. The North would define itself against Christianity.
-p.187
After explaining how huge parts of the world will be largely Christian or Muslim:
It is conceivable that within a few decades, the two faiths will have agreed on amicable terms of coexistence, but looking at matters as they stand today, that happy consummation seems unlikely. Issues of theocracy and religious law, toleration and minority rights, conversion and apostasy, should be among the most divisive in domestic and international politics for decades to come. it is quite possible to imagine a future Christendom not too different from the old, defined less by any ideological harmony than by its unity against a common outside threat. We must hope that the new Res Publica Christiana does not confront an equally militant Muslim world, Dar al-Islam, or else we really will have gone full circle back to the worst features of the thirteenth century.
-p.222
Jenkin’s book is very positive and does a good job of avoiding politics. He does very little preaching of doom and gloom. Nevertheless, he does mix in a little bit of it, as seen above. It’s hard not too. I wish I knew more Muslims. I only knew a couple in college and they were very quiet about it. While in Ethiopia, I talked several times to the cook at our guest house. She was a convert to Christianity from Islam. Her parents lived in the north of the country. She was very happy to make the change. She was also in demand as the only one in the house who could understand the Arabic soap operas on TV.
On immigration from the south:
We used to have a Belgian Congo, but what about a Congolese Belgium?
Again, a good question to ask if you are trying to expand your view of history. A good exercise!
Back in 1920, Hilaire Belloc not only proclaimed that “Europe is the Faith” but made his boast specifically Catholic: “The Church is Europe; and Europe is The Church.” If this was ever true, it has not been so for a good many years. Euro-American Catholics ceased to enjoy majority status a generation ago, and a bulk of the world’s Catholics now live in the global South.
-p.226
Belloc was an interesting guy, but every time I see that quote from him I have to shake my head. My catholic friends defend him saying “that’s not what he really meant”. Whatever. I’ll just let it stand. I’m OK with him being smart and clever and yet still myopic in his European-ness. We all are about something.
37% of all Catholic baptisms in Africa today are of adults. These are people making a deliberate decision to convert from some other faith. What could be more unheard of in the north/west?!
(Paraphrase from p.227)
That’s pretty cool. And different.
Finally, I really liked this passing comment on the book of Revelation and why it is popular in Africa and Latin America, especially among rural dwellers:
Making the biblical text sound even more relevant to modern Third World Christians, the evils described in Revelation are distinctively urban. Then as now, evil sets up its throne in cities. Brazilian scholar Gilberto da Silva Gorgulho remarks that “The Books of Revelation is the favorite book of our popular communities. Here they find the encouragement they need in their struggle and a criterion for the interpretation of official persecution in our society…The meaning of the church in history is rooted in the witness of the gospel before the state imperialism that destroys the people’s life, looming as an idol and caricature of the Holy Trinity.” To a Christian living in a Third World dictatorship, the image of the government as Antichrist is not a bizarre religious fantasy but a convincing piece of political analysis.
-p.259