About a year ago, I interviewed a colleague who focuses on ministering to Buddhists in Southeast Asia. The interview went well and ran the gambit of questions and concerns around contextualization and discipling folks from other religious backgrounds. However, the interviewee later asked that I not publish the interview due to some comments that had been made around becoming more Buddhist to reach folks with the news of Christ.
It’s quite understandable that that language is complicated and may lead to all sorts of assumptions and conclusions. However, in this case, the interviewee was reflecting on how they might journey alongside others, better grasp their world, and communicate the good news in a way that a person from a Buddhist background might understand and resonate with it.
In order to get there, the interviewee was convinced that there was a certain amount of work that they had to do. Some of this work was academic or intellectual: understanding Buddhist ways of thinking and viewing the world, reading Buddhist intellectuals, and other academic writing related to Buddhism. Some of it was embodied: visiting temples, engaging in rituals, sharing meals, and being among these people, so that learning does not just happen via book reading. Some of it was emotional or spiritual, which is why this interviewee mentioned that they prayed to Jesus to become more Buddhist.
Although that phrasing is shocking, it depends on how we understand the term Buddhist. Do we mean embracing certain beliefs? Do we mean participating in certain rituals? Or do we mean holding certain communal and social relationships? Oftentimes, Westerners think of religious faith through the lens of core beliefs; however, that form of thinking is not typically helpful for thinking about the beliefs and practices of Hindus and Buddhists. Let alone other Christians and Muslims who may have a religious experience that is more deeply rooted in other places than core beliefs.
In Hindu Contexts, I have heard this passage referenced:
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 NIV “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
There appears to be a certain elasticity into which Paul lived out his faith, so that he could cross various boundaries. One of these boundaries appears to be that of religion or at least that is what we call it in our time, and it is often one of the more restrictive boundaries to Gospel flow.
Can we explain our faith in the terms that people from another religious background might understand? Can we practice it in a way that may resonate with them? If not, does it quickly just become a “foreign religion”?
How do we learn how to share faith or good news with them if we are not willing to walk among them, to learn what they consider sacred, and to perhaps reframe some of our own thinking about the world?
This quickly leans into challenging territory, as we do not know where the journey leads. Will it lead into another faith system or away from Christ, or will it lead towards a movement of folks from another religious background coming to worship Christ?
Unfortunately, like most things relationally, we do not quite know where the journey will lead. However, if we find ourselves among people not following Christ, how else may they come to find Christ then by tredding a new path? A path that is not already worked out for them, and a path that may be even more challenging especially if they attempt to maintain connection to their heritage, background, and past relationships. For them, the journey is even more dangerous than for us who cross over from a different religious community, for we can always go back home to our traditions and practices. They may have no such luxury. At the very least, they will have to change what their home looks like, which is no easy task. They will have to ask, engage with, and journey alongside family members, elders, and friends in this task, and each of those persons may be in a different space in their relationship to Christ and community. However, working on this task of forming one’s life in Christ together with others is essential. It is the path of Paul and the Apostles who were joined together in a complex community of traditions, loyalties, and religious heritages. However, they steadily found a way forward. The journey towards Christ takes time both as an individual and even moreso as a community.
Without courageous attempts to take a risk in faith and journey into deep relationship with someone from another religious heritage, we may simply remain in our comfort zone, our heritage, and miss out on exploring the depths of ways that Christ may be revealed in different cultures, heritages, and perhaps even religious backgrounds.
