Posted under Christianity
Christianity does not exist in a vacuum. It absorbs and adopts indigenous traditions wherever it spreads. In Europe, during the latter part of the Roman Empire, a distinctly European form of Christianity took hold. Melding European paganism and Christianity, Europe gave birth to syncretized holidays like Christmas and Easter. Yet, there is no reason why Christianity should or must be European. Christianity, growing in non-Western areas, will adopt and absorb other, non-Western, traditions. As Philip Jenkins has pointed out, as Christianity spreads throughout the Third World, Christianity soon will not only be non-Western, but probably anti-Western.
The following excerpt is from a documentary on Christianity in Latin America and the rise of “Mestizo Christianity” in Mexico. Discarding unnecessary European baggage, Mexico, borrowing from its Amerindian traditions, gives birth to a new, non-Western variety of Christianity. As the narrator in part I of the documentary states, “the white way is not the only way to salvation.” Here he gives us Christianity “Mexican style.” He comments:
What’s going on now is not a pagan survival, but Christianity Mexican style. It’s much like when Pope Gregory wrote to St. Augustine in the 6th century during the English conversion to Christianity. He wrote, “Don’t destroy their religious traditions; simply adapt them to Christianity.” And it worked. What happened then founded Western Christendom. What’s happening now is part of a New Christendom. The fact is, Christianity has never been just the white man’s religion.
A Mexican man interviewed in the video continues:
In Mexican religious history, the Virgin of Guadalupe is half Indian, half white — or rather indigenous. And therefore her face, and the way the friars wanted to represent her — they wanted to show a virgin close to the Mexican people — a dark version just like them, not a blond European one, but a dark one. That’s the main idea. The virgin appeared here and she loves her people, her dark people.
Matt Weber on 30 Aug 2010 at 8:50 pm #
Denotation difficulties aside, it’s tough to see how sincere Christians will be able to remain pro or neutral towards Western countries as we become more aggressively anti-Christian. If we were content to not bother anyone, it would be one thing, but we like to export our ways.
Kirt Higdon on 31 Aug 2010 at 12:01 am #
And the problem with all this is . . .? I believe it was Chesterton who stated that the Church did not just baptize pagans, but baptized paganism. St. Paul got all this started with his principle of “test everything; keep what’s good.” Of course there are dangers on both sides. On the one hand you can end up with a synchretism which associates bad pagan elements with Christianity. On the other, you can end up banning local customs which are harmless or even beneficial. The testing process is continuous. In the 16th century, the Dominicans and Jesuits had a great clash over whether Chinese reverence for ancestors could be incorporated into Christianity. The anti-ancestor Dominicans won to the detriment of both the Church and the Chinese. The conversion of China to Christianity was delayed by four centuries, but now it is well under way.
roho on 31 Aug 2010 at 3:47 pm #
Meanwhile, back at the farm, Judeochristian Zionists still can’t decide on judism or christianity.
JA VAN DE MORTEL on 02 Jan 2012 at 5:12 pm #
CORRECTIO: St Augustine died in 430 AD / CE. You have him down for correspondence with the English in the 6th Century.
St Augustine recommended ‘aspectus mentis’, a clear seeing with with the mind, as the confirmation of belief. For Augustine, a thoughtless believer is as incomplete as a faithless thinker. (Enjoy reviewing “The Essential Augustine”, by Vernon J. Bourke).
St. Augustine would approve simple faith and still recommend the path of knowledge as evidence of its growth. Check out Augustine, if theology is your interest. . . . . . And, have a great 2012, in spite of Nostradamus!
J.A. van de Mortel / Philosophy Department / Cerritos College