Today we live in a rapidly changing world. Today's global changes
affect the church's leadership and the understanding of the world mission. The
western church supported the mission work in the world for many centuries with
their dollar values. The western church is not in physical need but they are
very much in need of spiritual things. Remember the internal or external
structural beauty is only skin deep. Non-Western Christians were seen as rice
Christians once upon a time and missionaries thought to be as outdated
dinosaurs, but this trend is changing. Indigenous missionaries, Bible women,
evangelists, catechists, preachers and prophets, social reformers were the most
effective interpreters of the faith to their own people and unreached people
groups. The strength of world Christianity lies in its interweaving of the
warp of a world religion with the woof of local contexts. The shifting southward
Christianity phenomenon has many great aspects to teach the western Christians. Please look into the following aspects that came
to my mind when I think about what the western churches can learn from the
eastern churches.
1. American Dream Vs. Eternity Based Dream
Living a life in the light of eternity is a challenge to any
Christians not particularly for the western Christians but it has more relevant
to the western Christian world. When we grow up in the eastern world our
prayers are please God provides us with food, cloth, and shelter. Asian
perspectives and western perspectives are different in lifestyle. The question
of how Christ called you to live and make difference in the world of hatred,
suffering, starvation, and spiritual needs. Millions of Christians in the
western world have reached gratification. Many of the Christians in the western
world is pursuing fake happiness and reach for immediate gratification. In a
spiritual sense, the American dream is immediate gratification.
"For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord because they have called you an outcast." -Jeremiah 30:17. Many of the exegetical texts have no relevance to the western world or lifestyle. A healthy American dream needs to be understood based on living in the light of eternity.Christians in the west is pursuing fake happiness and reaching immediate gratification, American dream needs an eternity perspective.— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
2. Avoid Being an Undercover Christian
Christians in the eastern world don't have the privilege to lead a life as undercover Christians. Christianity set boundaries of life in
Christ and life in the world, creating distinctive marks. When we live so long
as undercover Christians we think that is normalcy.
The undercover boss is a very attractive and popular TV show in the US. The catchy aspect of the show is how the perspective of the employee by an undercover boss views the everyday issues of the employee. In the spiritual world, western Christians have the privilege to live life as undercover Christians. Within the family, church, workplace, school, and even in the social and family context. Christians in the western world live a life that is politically correct, which is a silent slow spiritual suicide. Living a Christian life in the eastern world is not possible through living undercover or the boundaries are not narrow-minded lines. The concept of conversation is a visible spiritual exercise, especially from other religious traditions.The Western Christians has the privilege to live life as undercover Christians in the family, church, work, school and in the social context— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
3. Avoid Trumpism and narrow-minded Isolation
Many people view Trumpism as a backlash to Christian social
progress in the western world. Trumpism is just getting started in the world. A
lot of people created a comparative analysis between eastern orthodoxy,
religious fanaticism, and Trumpism. It emerges from fascism and a belief system
that encourages pretentious narcissistic behavior to achieve money, power,
prestige, and fame. It creates isolation and alienation among many different
isolated communities. It exaggerates masculinity as a cultural identity.
The root problem of narrow-minded isolation comes from economic insecurities, the threat of terrorism, fear of the other or different, distrust of institutions
like religion, media, and political system, and rapid confused alienated cultural
changes, etc. Christian faith always embraced the outsider, the other, isolated
and become the voice for the voiceless. There is no better country in the
world than to be in the US and once you reach that place and reach your American
dream you define your mission in the light of how Jesus' moment turns to be a
liberating moment for the WHOLE WORLD. We can’t journey back to the anti-intellectual cave mentality. The progress of the western world was
achieved not through isolation or narrow-mindedness but by embracing the
difference. A balanced perspective is only possible through knowing a wider
perspective.
Trumpism has more connection with eastern orthodoxy, religious fanaticism, fascism and narcissistic behavior to achieve money,power and fame— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
4. Apophatic theology: Know the Strategies of the Devil
A positive centered or negative centered is limited. One of the
most neglected subjects in the western church is the perspective of the
negative side or demonology. The devil’s primary work is deception and thus the
words like wiles, tactics, schemes, and strategies are all appropriate words to
describe. D.L Moody once said there are only two reasons why he believed in the devil as a real being because Jesus said so and many people do business with
him. According to the Bible, the devil is a created, personal, spirit being, and
just because we cannot see him does not mean that he is not real. This negation
of apophatic theology by the western church put us into trouble to deal with
the issue of human suffering. When we try to understand God from the framework
of cataphatic theology we are limited and it creates cotton candy Christianity.
Unfortunately, Christianity is known not by life but by rituals, by forms and
procedures but not by power. In the western world, God was understood not as
apophatic theology. In other words what God is not? This is opposite to
cataphatic theology or kataphatic theology refers to what the divine is believed
to be or in contrast to the negative terminology. The divine is not dealt with in the western context. I personally think in order to understand God; we
need both theologies (cataphatic and apophatic) in a balanced perspective. When we deal with the laws in the Judaistic framework (Torah) we
know there are 613 commandments. Out of 613 commandments 365 coincides
with the number of days in the solar year which is negative and 248
commandments are positive a number ascribed to the number of bones and main
organs in the human body.
For a healthy theology we need to know cataphatic and apophatic theology. To know what God is? some time we need to know what God is not?— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
5. Journey from Individualism to collective consciousness:
Messianic Hope
Christianity in the world struggling from western influences and theologies and liberation is need from prosperity,materialism,individualism— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
Today we live in a world, which is individualistic in nature especially
the western work culture. They are reflected in our workplace, interpersonal
life, the social psyche of the western world. The biblical times or the eastern thinking
are not personalistic in nature and they can be called collective
consciousness. It is a set of shared beliefs, ideas, moral attitudes, which
operate as a unifying force within a society. The aspects of forgiveness,
victory, success, education, formulation of new ideas, and the way religion are
practiced not from an individualistic framework. The eastern world doesn't see the
piece of the puzzle to reach conclusions but they are seen from a holistic
framework. When it comes to Christian life the individualist framework is lived
out in the western world, but it was not the idea of the Eastern Church,
philosophy, and way of life. The messianic hope is often viewed in the western
world as self-gratification and self-actualization, but in the original
context, it was the fulfillment of collective conciseness, liberation for the
community, a messianic hope. Liberation was also not personalistic liberation
but the liberation of the people group or national liberation from the Egyptian,
Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Greek, Hellenistic mindset. Today the rest of the
world Christianity is fighting against the western influence of Christianity and seeking liberation especially from theologies such as prosperity and a materialistic mindset.
Journey from Individualism to collective consciousness is only possible by studying the Messianic Hope in its original context.— Binu Peniel (@Binupeniel) December 15, 2016
These are some of my personal feedback/thoughts please give me your input
and let’s engage in a healthy dialogue.
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