who is my neighbor?
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Who is my Neighbor?. A study of world religions. Nov. 14, 2012. First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh. Week 2: What is a Cult? OCT. 10 - Megan Scholarly vs. Popular Definition Common Traits Examples Week 3: Hinduism Brief History OCT. 17 – Megan (Kittie will contribute TM materials) - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Who is my Neighbor?
A study of world religions
Nov. 14, 2012
First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh
Week 2: What is a Cult? OCT. 10 - Megan• Scholarly vs. Popular Definition • Common Traits • Examples
Week 3: Hinduism Brief History OCT. 17 – Megan (Kittie will contribute TM materials)• Vedas• Shaivas, Vaishnavas, Goddess followers• Beliefs & Practice
Week 4: Buddhism OCT 24 – Megan• Brief History • Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana • 4 Truths, Eight-fold Path • Mahayana Sects (Zen/Chan, Pure Land, etc.) • Beliefs & Practice
Week 5: "Minor" Religions OCT. 31 - Megan• Zoroastrianism • Sikhism • Jainism• Taoism• Shinto
Week 6: Judaism NOV. 7 – Kittie• Brief history• Ancient vs. Modern• Orthodox vs. Reformed• Beliefs and Practices
Week 7: Christianity NOV. 14 - Kittie • Brief History • Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Other • Beliefs & Practice NOV 21 – NO CLASS, BREAK FOR THANKSGIVING Week 8: Islam NOV. 28 - Kittie• Brief History• Four pillars• Shiite vs. Sunni• Sufism
Week 9: New Religions (post 1800) DEC. 5 - Kittie• Mormonism • Jehovah's Witnesses • Scientology • Neo-Paganism/Wicca • Various New Asian Religions
Week 10: Overview/Summary: What Does All This Mean for Christians?
Continuing….Behind all faiths…..
Christianity
• Demographics:– Today about 2.5 billion in
the world are Christian
– 1/3 of world population
– About 38,000 different denominations
– en.wikipedia.org
Christianity• Demographics:
– Declining in the West (North America and Europe) with the exception of evangelical fundamentalism (megachurches)
– rantingnewyorker.com
– Sharply growing in the southern hemisphere (Central and South America, Africa, Asia); growth seen in charismatic sects particularly
Christianity
• Basic beliefs:– Jesus of Nazareth was the
Messiah (anointed one) that God had promised the Israelites in the Old Testament, and whom the Israelites hoped would come save them from their (political) problems with Rome
– kat.ph
– Scriptural basis for claims from Old Testament
Christianity
• Basic beliefs: – Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the
Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
– Isaiah 37:31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
• Isaiah 11:10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
• (Plus hundreds of others Christians take as OT prophecy about Jesus)
Christianity
• Basic beliefs:– Jesus is the Son of God,
or God incarnate– Although there is belief in
one God (monotheism), the belief is that God is three interpenetrating “persons” (Trinity) • Father (Creator)• Son (Redeemer)• Holy Spirit (Sanctifier)
http://stchristophermv.org/Homilies/2008/trinity.jpg
Christianity
• Basic beliefs:– Jesus of Nazareth was a
Jewish carpenter and religious teacher in the 1st century C.E.
– He taught and attracted many followers
– He performed many miracles– He angered the Jewish
authorities by challenging some Jewish practices (laws; e.g., healing on the Sabbath, or day of rest)
• He was executed (crucified) by the Romans, died, and on the third day arose from the dead
• He was then seen by his disciples• He ascended into heaven after 40
days, and promised the Spirit would come to his followers
• The Spirit came to the followers in Jerusalem, causing them to speak in “tongues”
• The followers then gradually formed the Christian church
Christianity
• Basic beliefs:– Jesus’ life influences us
through his teachings and examples
– Jesus saves us from our sins (different theories)
• Theories:• Legal: Pay-back for human sin
• Spiritual: Christ took on our brokenness, so we could share in his (God’s) righteousness (union with Christ; spiritual explanation)
• Moral: Christ is moral example
Christianity
• Christian Scripture:– Hebrew (Old) Testament
– New Testament (Gospels, Letters, and Revelation)
– Without the Old Testament, you don’t have the New Testament
– atheistconnect.org
Christianity
• History:– Christians were
persecuted by the Romans for the first 300 years
– Then the Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity based on a war vision, and made the whole Empire Christian
– http://www.sspeter-paul.net/edge/pictures/Constantines%20Conversion.jpg
Christianity
• History:– The Catholic church was
the first to systematically develop
– The (Eastern) Orthodox church split off ca. 1054 C.E., over several questions including “filioque”
– http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HQkXDs4Ey8w/T1KRxHg3AiI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/bMUS6EqdcK8/s400/Interior+of+St.+Peter%2527s+Basilica+by+Giovanni+Paoli+Pannini.jpg
Christianity
• History:– The Protestants split
with the Catholics in the 1500s, over questions of authority (Pope?) and other issues
– http://moses.creighton.edu/harmless/bibliographies_for_theology/Images/CranachLutherJunkerJorg.jpg
ChristianityTraditions:Christmaslostseed.com
Easterhttp://www.jesuspictures.co/jesus-resurrection-92.jpg
Christianity
• Traditions:• Otherwise many different
traditions, depending on type and location of Christianity (recall: 38,000 denominations!)
• http://www.calledtocommunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Denominations_As_Branches1.jpg
More about history of Christianity:Seen through lens of mission history
(derived from Sunquist, Suffering and Glory, 2013unless otherwise noted)
Early Christian mission: Monasticism, 4th-15th centuries
• Position of weakness.
• Order minimal, community vital, and zeal boundless.
• Mission kept alive from the margins.
• Inspired by ascetics’ devotion, but concerned about self-satisfaction and isolation.
Early Christian mission: Monasticism, 4th-15th centuries
• Major shift with royal support, e.g., Constantine.
• With his guidance, monasticism began to be transformed from spiritual renewal and personal holiness to missional community for holiness and service.
• Monk was role model (e.g. Athanasius’ Life of Anthony).
Mission and monks in middle ages• More wealth.
• Cluny (10th-11th centuries) was call for return to simplicity.
• However, overall, there was unholy alliance of prince and prior.
• Missionary expressions limited to worship in Europe or Crusades in western Asia.
• Monks began to support crusades.
Reform in monastic missional identity (early 1200’s)
• Dominic: Prepare missionary friars to preach orthodoxy where heterodoxy threatened the church.
• Francis: Evangelical poverty while preaching repentance and caring for the needy. Preach to all.
• In general: Recovery of early monastic missionary identity. (Also Waldo, Protestant precursor.)
Aquinas and Scholasticism• Earliest missiology with
systematic theoretical foundation: 13th century: Aquinas.
• Need to explain Christian thought to non-Christians.
• Scholastic, apologetic driven by a missiological heart and mind.
Scholasticism(wikipedia)
• Method of critical thought that dominated teaching by the academics (scholastics) of medieval European universities from about 1100–1500.
• Method in articulating and defending dogma in an increasingly pluralistic context.
• Originated as outgrowth of, and a departure from Christian monastic schools.
Scholasticism
• Dialectical reasoning, inference, and resolution of contradictions big.
• Form is often disputation.
Scholasticism• As a program, began as attempt to
harmonize medieval Christian thinkers, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy, especially that of Aristotle but also of Neoplatonism.
• Main historical figures are Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.
• Aquinas's masterwork, the Summa Theologica, is often seen as the highest fruit of Scholasticism.
Mission and early European overseas movements (1492-1848)
• Two major shifts: – Spread of Christianity to
Africa, the Americas, and Asia.
– Division of Christianity into RC, Reformers, and Spiritual family.
Mission and early European overseas movements (1492-1848)
• Earliest missionaries outside the Mediterranean world were monks, etc.
• Went with the Spanish to the Americas and with the Portuguese to Africa and Brazil.
• (Protestants not very active in the early part of this period.)
Mission and early European overseas movements (1492-1848)
• Jesuits and the first modern missionaries: – Jesuit spirituality was centered in
Loyola’s spiritual exercises. – Jesuits were activists, not
contemplatives. – Founded colleges. Education
central. – They studied non-European
cultures as part of God’s creation.
– They studied local culture.• Francis Xavier: first to be sent to
Asia (1542).
More specificsColonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant
(to 1848)
• 1492-1848: Christianity became global faith.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• RC mission in Africa: – Portuguese went to northwest coast of
Africa. – Set up port cities, trades in slaves,
carried out Pope’s orders to establish church.
– Approach was to reach rulers (as in Medieval Europe).
– Brought promising African leaders (usually royal) to Europe (African Christianity should look like European Christianity).
– Mixture of indigenous religions with Christianity.
– Generally the Portuguese destroyed indigenous fetishes and architecture. I.e. cultural domination. Lack of long-term priest or catecetichal training.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Latin America: Mission, conquest and resistance:– RC approach similar here.
Differences: – Spanish soldiers (not sailors);
conquered large land areas. – Both Iberian conquerors
were racist. – Spanish established
encomiendas (rulers were encomienderos, friars, rich.
– Some monks protested.)
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Latin American, con’d:– Missionary resistance to
empire, De Las Casas (b. 1484).
– Argued for reforms.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Latin America, cont’d:– RC mission influenced by
Trent. – Catholicism transported
like blanket across the seas.
– Jesuit villages established with new crops, diet, books – basically transported European culture.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Asia and mission to religious nations: – In Asia there were other
well-developed religions. – In Indian there was the
issue of “caste and Christ.” – Europeans viewed as lower
caste (smelled, ate meat, wore leather).
– There was also identity of nationality and religion, which complicated matters.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• East Asia and mission conflicts: Massacres and expulsions of Christians in Japan, early 1600s.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Adaptation and culture: Conflicts over how to adapt the Gospel: – Jesuits: adaptionist
approach, expensive gifts. Relations with local rulers (mission from the top).
– Franciscans: worked with the poor (mission from the bottom).
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• From royal missions to church missions:– Originally, missions funded
by kings, per Pope’s orders.
– In the 17th century, kings weren’t as rich.
– Gregory XV brought missions under central Catholic church.
– Transition took a long time.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Unintended results: Renewing Asian religions: E.g., monotheistic Hinduism.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Persecutions: Not so much in Latin America; more in Asia.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Middle east: Re-centering the Orthodox: – RC goal was to bring the
Coptic, Maronite, St. Thomas or Orthodox church under the Pope.
– Work together to bring Muslims and other non-Christians to the faith.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• North America:– Christianity here mostly
spread by migration, not mission.
– However, there was evangelizing of slaves (mostly evangelical Baptist, AME, etc.).
– Evangelical churches were less hierarchical and more democratic. Suffering slaves “got it.”
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Protestant pioneers in India:– Frederick IV of Denmark, realized
Portuguese were spreading religion to India.
– He did the same, but based on the Pietist renewal movement (as in Caribbean, Greenland, North America and South Africa).
– The earlier German pioneers here made language study and translations essential.
– They brought the best of secular education, not just literacy and Bible study.
– Goal was not schools or literature, but churches led by Indians.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Protestant characteristics in mission: – William Carey (English
Baptist) to India, 1793: similar patterns of missionary work as the Germans.
– Role of revivals, awakenings in Germany and North America important.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Excursus on the Enlightenment and mission: – Enlightenment focused on
what is observable. – Optimistic and progressive
(mission success measured by secular progress).
– Rousseau: liberte’ (picture). Voltaire: crush superstitions.
Colonial Mission: Roman Catholic to Early Protestant (to 1848)
• Roman Catholic Mission substantially collapses with the Enlightenment.
• Also note that along the way, mission budgets became major financial issues for churches in Europe and North America.
Zenith of western missions: Christianization, civilization and commerce (1842-1948); founding of WCC
• Growth of modern mission movement: – Carey, earlier, and Judson –
founded societies to raise funds, organize churches, provide support, decide who would be sent and where.
– Newer orders and societies for missionary work inspired by awakenings back home -- -e.g., YMCA.
Zenith of western missions: (1842-1948)
• Awakenings inspired the idea of bringing good news to slaves.
• E.g., Sierra Leone foundation, 1787 (“Committee for Relieving the Black Poor,” providing land, etc.). First effort a disaster – 1/3 died.
• New attempt a few years later, with newly organized company (Sierra Leone or Lion Mountain Company) – Africans from Nova Scotia sailed to “Freetown” with missionary purpose.
• Women’s missionary societies to reach out to women.
Zenith of western missions: (1842-1948)
• Sticky problem of mission, colonialism and power: – 1848 end of first Opium War. – Treaty ports opened to foreign
trade, residence, missionaries. – Many missionaries attempted
to distance themselves from fellow Europeans (e.g. Portuguese sailors).
– Africa systematically carved up into 50 nations by Europeans (by 1914). Occupation and subjugation of Africa drained it.
Mission theories and practice: (1840s-1910)
• From sympathy to racist; • Confrontation with religions (e.g., Muslims in
Africa, slave trade); • Three self-principles and indigenous
leadership (self-government, self-support, self-propagation);
• Modernity and mission: planting churches and developing institutions – modern medicine, education, etc. – expensive;
• Role of women reaching out to women; • Missionary motivation and purpose: e.g.,
Darby (b. 1800) - Pre-millenial – purpose of mission to save souls (end was coming) – social engagement not the issue. Warneck: planting of churches but also strong pietist element; cultures are fallen and missions have responsibility to raise them up;
• Mission and unity (next page).
Mission theories and practice: (1840s-1910)
• Mission and unity: – End of 1800s, Carey called for
meeting of all missionaries in South Africa.
– 1888 London Centenary Conference on the Protestant Missions of the World, concept of unity.
– As a result, World Missionary Committee formed.
– However, unity most fostered at beginning of 20th century to WWII by student movements (SVM and WSCFR).
Ecumenical Movement: • Edinburgh’s World Missionary
Conference and the Ecumenical Movement (1910). – Progressivism, optimism, colonial
arrogance. – Big business meets big church. – Mission, not clergy conference. – Evangelical zeal. – White male leadership in church. – Marks beginning of modern
ecumenical movement that would include Orthodox churches. Specifically affirmed there should be ecumenical gathering to extend cooperation from mission to church issues of faith and order.
Ecumenical Movement
• Between 1910-1928 (second ecumenical conference), major world changes: – Pentecostal movement; – Atheistic communism
and collapse of Russian Orthodox church
– WWI, Christians killing Christians.
Ecumenical Movement• Themes in early ecumenical
movement to the founding of the WCC (1948): – Missionary activity as center
of church; – Unity in faith and order –
and then life and work (social responsibility);
– Question of western control of non-western churches (releasing to national control).
Mission theology traversing global Angst (1928-1948):
• New approach to mission (A Layman’s Inquiry after 100 Year, funded by Rockefeller, edited by Harvard prof Hocking, 1932): Be willing to give largely without preaching, cooperate whole-heartedly with non-Christian agencies for social improvement.
Major Themes in 20th Century Christianity
• Three major themes:– Pentecostalism and
spiritual forms of Christian movement;
– Ecumenical movement;
– Sudden reversal of Christianity to non-western forms.
“Spiritual” Forms of Christianity
• Indigenous movements starting in 1880s in Africa: – Ethiopian (OT); – Zionist (faith healing,
tongues; – Prophet of Spirit
Churches (sacred spaces, prophet with dreams and visions);
– Revival.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• World and mission in 1950s: – Mission responsibility of
West = churches, hospitals, schools.
– 1950s: Largest remapping ever of the world (colonialism dramatically reduced).
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Triune God, church, and world (International Missionary Council meeting 1952, Hoedendijk) – Church is illegitimate center of
missions; church is instrument, not center.
– More Trinitarian foundation for mission (recovery of theology of Ancient church and Holy Spirit).
– Also, identification with world, listen to world.
– Out of this would come secular aspect to mission. Themes persisted at Second Assembly of WCC in 1954.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Mission seen as integral to church. – Hoedenijk’s language
would become language of the 1960s: dereligionize Christianity.
– 1961 is important date, as the IMC was integrated into the WCC, and the first Pentecostal churches joined the WCC.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Mission in world turned upside down. – Berlin Wall. – Apartheid ended. – China adopted free
market while communist. – 1961 WCC (3rd) in New
Delhi. – Most felt church is natural
home for missiology.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• 1960-1961 pivotal for mission and Christian unity. Six major themes between 1960-2000:– Secular decade of the 1960s, lost much
of spiritual language and worship of earlier mission; collapse of mission to social justice and missional reductionism driving many from the WCC;
– Dialogue; – Vatican II; – Nationalizing missions; – Evangelical work separate from the
WCC and the ecumenical movement; – Sudden rise of non-Western
Christianity and spiritual forms of Christianity.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Race and reconciliation: 1968 Uppsala WCC:– “The world sets the
agenda for mission.” – E.g., civil rights and
Apartheid. – Donated $10k to Angela
Davis defense.
Waning and reconception of Chrsistian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Reconciliation to revolution to liberation: – Mission theology –
ideological reductionism (social justice).
– Liberation theology
centered on person of Jesus and was “from below.”
Waning and reconception of Christian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Mission and religions; dialogue and witness:– WCC encouraged
dialogue.
– Guidelines – vulnerability.
Waning and reconception of Christian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Vatican II: – Unite all Christians; – Mission of God is in Jesus
Christ; – HS and charisms; – Role of laity; – Encounters with other
cultures; – Dialogue with world
including Orthodox and Protestant.
Waning and reconception of Christian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Nationalizing missions and decline of the west: (Obvious)
Waning and reconception of Christian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Evangelical emergence: 1968 Uppsala: – McGavran from Fuller
Theological Seminary – on the betrayal of evangelicals by the WCC.
Waning and reconception of Christian mission: post-colonial missiologies, 1948-present
• Lausanne Covenant 1974: New ecumenical and evangelical mission movement.
• Contributions of evangelical missiology: Idea of training pastors etc. in their own location. This is extreme where Christianity looks very local.
• Evangelical diversity and cooperation:
• Pentecostal and indigenous resurgence:
• Mission and missiology from the new center:
20th Century Christianity
• Marked by 3 global movements: – Ecumenical movement; – Movement of the
Christian epicenter from the North Atlantic to the global South;
– Modern movement of the Holy Spirit (the first two are outgrowths of the third).
20th Century Christianity
• “Pentecostal, Charismatic and indigenous Christian movements have taken center stage in the historical movement of Christianity” (Sunquist, p. 346).
Holy Spirit• The Holy Spirit in Acts and the
Ancient Church• The HS is mentioned in Acts 50 times.• The HS directs and empowers for
mission. “The most common way the HS is active in mission in Acts and early Christian writings, is through words. One of the most common themes regarding the HS in Acts and the ancient church concerns foretelling. The HS foresaw and told about Jesus through the Prophets (e.g., Isaiah 28:25. There are also examples in Irenaeus and Clement. “Verbal inspiration was one of the most important works of the HS in earliest Christianity.”
Holy Spirit• The HS works with words,
“but with words and ideas which bring about conversion, understanding, and an ability to dwell with the very mind of Christ.”
• For ancients as well as Paul, “this spiritual knowledge is of a different order, but not completely divorced from the rational knowledge we learn by rote.”
Holy Spirit
• “The HS also gives people visions of Heaven (Acts 2:17), e.g., Stephen as he is being martyred.
Holy Spirit• In other places in Acts the HS moves
people to worship (Acts 2, 10, 19 – “people speak in tongues and praise God when the HS comes upon them).
• “Worship is the natural (or better yet, the ‘spiritual’) outcome of Gospel proclamation.
• The HS works through human speech and at times the HS overwhelms human speech.
• The HS works through normal vision, and at times the HS overwhelms normal human vision to give the ability to see heavenly things.”
Holy Spirit
• The HS also brings power – for transformation.
• “When Jesus speaks, the HS is the voice.” (Passages are John 14, Matt. 28:19; Luke 4:1)
Holy Spirit
• The HS is involved in the work of sanctification (Rom 15:16).
Holy Spirit
• What does all this mean for our thinking about Christian mission and worship today?
• (Save for last class.)
History of Missiology• Early modern mission from the
time of Xavier (b. 1506) to the middle of the 19th century, when Protestant missions are just catching up to RC missions. After that, a lot of RC mission collapses due to defections with the French Revolution.
• Zenith of modern missionary movement: 1842-1948. Mission budgets were major financial issues for churches in Europe and North America.