Friday, April 20, 2012

Is Our "Good News" as Big as God?


About a year ago, I enjoyed an email correspondence about religious diversity with one of my theological mentors and former professors, Glenn Hinson, who now teaches at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. Glenn said, The God of a universe of 150+ billion galaxies surely does not have such little candlepower that God can illumine only those in the Abrahamic tradition. He went on to say that, The future of humankind depends on a very different attitude toward other faiths than we have shown in the past.

We've missed the point of John 14:6 if it becomes a truth-claim to be defended rather than a cruciform call to live/follow Jesus' path. The Johannine claim that Jesus is the “way, the truth, and the life” isn’t a rational truth-claim to be defended, it is a way of life to be lived. It’s not a truth over against other truth claims. It is simply true that living the way of love, self-sacrifice, service, and reconciliation (i.e. the way of Jesus) is the way to God. Or, better yet, it is the way to awaken to the reality that God is already here. Once we start defending this statement as “a truth” we have, ipso-facto, denied the very truth claim that we want to defend. Our defensive posture contradicts the way of the cross, that is the way of love, self-sacrifice, service, and reconciliation.  One of the most grievous sins of the Christian faith is that we have made “truth” into sets of propositions to be defended rather than the Jesus-way-of-life-truth to be followed. Jesus reveals living truth and we Christians tend to reduce him to propositional truth. Holding fast to propositional truth while failing to live out Jesus-lifestyle-truth is a primary way in which Christianity becomes a force for evil rather than for good in the world. Too many Christians are more concerned with what happens to their precious truth claims than what happens to their precious neighbor, with what happens to their dogmas than with loving neighbors and enemies.

 Evangelism is living and sharing God's good news. Sometimes this means that someone will be converted. Sometimes it means that people of different faith traditions can work in solidarity to create a better world while remaining faithful within each tradition. Sometimes God's good news happens when we learn from someone of another faith tradition. Sometimes it happens when they learn from us. Always, living God's good news is cruciform, living in the form of the cross. This is to say, living sacrificial love while trusting the power of resurrection; losing life and--good news--finding life. 

Glenn emphasized, The future of humankind depends on a very different attitude toward other faiths than we have shown in the past. What if God's good news mandates taking on this different attitude? What if all of our exclusive defending of Christian belief has created bad news in the name of God who seeks to bring good news to all? What if we are more faithful to our beloved "evangelism" by working in solidarity with faithful people of other traditions rather than trying to convert them? The God of a universe of 150+ billion galaxies surely does not have such little candlepower that God can illumine only those in the Abrahamic tradition.




7 comments:

  1. What does ipso facto mean? I read this and think about my future vocation. My career. Perhaps i can teach religion in public high schools and pastor a church with these ideas.
    At the beginning of this year while reading "Interreligious hermeneutics" for your class. While reading it wrote (somewhere in my notes) "I dedicate my self to the theological and religious community and our efforts to bring healing to the world." or something like that. I was reminded of my statement of committment when i read "What if we are more faithful to our beloved "evangelism" by working in solidarity with faithful people of other traditions rather than trying to convert them?" The religious community, all who are religious (regardless of specific affiliation), I think have important tools to offer in playing a role in the redemption happening in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ipso facto is "by that very fact." I see you already living-out, Matt, the kind of evangelism I'm advocating. Your calling is emerging in your heart and in your actions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think this is a fascinating concept and point of discussion. So often I have heard Christians rabidly defend their religion and the "rightness" of it in contrast to the "wrongness" of other faiths by using John 14:6 . And upon witnessing these disputes I have always felt that they were fundamentally wrong. How could God create, forgive, and love us all and yet offer eternity to only a select few? It seems to be in direct opposition to the life and death of Jesus. Why couldn't there be, why wouldn't there be, more than one path to the Lord? Using that metaphor, it seems that instead of seeing the road to heaven as a tollway available only to those who can afford it, I see the way to heave as a mix of surface streets, farm to market roads, and dirt paths. And all these have twists, turns, and potholes but converge in the same, lovely, final destination.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love your metaphor of the different kinds of roads, Tracey. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

      Delete
  4. Beautiful, Mark. Without love, sacrifice, and service, all the "enlightenment, "salvation," and "redemption" in the world will
    get you no where. We are all one with Jesus, one with God, and one
    with each other, regardless of our religion or lack of it. Seeing this, accepting it, and living accordingly rather than being judgemental and condemning is following "the truth, the path, and
    the way." When you realize this, then you realize that Christianity is not the only religion that teaches it. Adults, like children, learn more from what you do than what you say.

    ReplyDelete