by Kirsteen Kim
To hear an Archbishop and a Regius Professor both on the same day and on such a stimulating topic has been a rare treat. So before anything else, I would like to express my personal thanks to both our speakers - John and David (if I may) - for the quality of their input, the richness of their biblical reflection and their readiness to engage with us on the topic of "Gospel in Context".
I was gratified at lunchtime when the other contributors agreed that in summing up I have the most difficult job - but let us try.
Evangelicals on cultures and on religions
We have reflected today on the plurality and diversity of the world in which we live and in which we are called to proclaim and live out the one gospel of Jesus Christ - particularly on the richness and complexity of cultures and religions. John's comments on our culture have illustrated especially the value of this cross-contextual exchange.
Before coming today, I was thinking that in the Evangelical movement we have generally found it much easier to discuss John's topic - gospel and cultures - than David's topic - gospel and religions. Back in 1974 the Lausanne Covenant affirmed that "The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness". Furthermore, we find it reasonable to accept the ambiguity of culture - as the Covenant goes on to say, "Because men and women are God's creatures, some of their culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic." The 1978 Willowbank Report on gospel and culture encouraged evangelicals to contextualise the gospel. And I think we have generally accepted other cultures positively as vehicles of the gospel message and tried to be "biblical, personal, flexible and relevant" (as John said) with respect to other cultures.
But the question of religions is a much more sensitive one for us. The same Lausanne Covenant could not find anything positive to say about other religions. We have been much more reluctant to acknowledge in other religions what is "rich in beauty and goodness". We have tended to set the gospel in opposition to Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and others. We have been overly suspicious of inter faith dialogue. There are good reasons for questions about dialogue, as David pointed out in relation to John Hick, but witness without dialogue is not heard. We have worried about syncretism and idolatry with regard to religions at the same time as we have encouraged contextualisation of the gospel in secular culture and, as John pointed out, when 72% of the population actually say they are Christians but few know what that means. The reasons for the dichotomy between our approaches to cultures and to religions are complex but they have a lot to do with the legacy of Christendom and imperial policy, the emphasis on conversion as "out of" rather than "into", doctrines of salvation that depend more on belief systems than on relationship with God, and missing the biblical message that God is more concerned with the heart than outward observance.
Putting approaches to cultures and religions together
I think that dealing with the two topics of cultures and religions together in one day has been helpful in a number of ways:
- It has helped us see the close relationship between culture and religion, which are falsely divided in the secular culture of the West. For many Christians, particularly in Asia, where I have spent 9 years of my working life, "other faiths exist inside as well as outside" (Jong Chun Park). Not only are Asian Christians living among other faiths but their history and society were formed by other religious traditions - they are part of their identity. So their cultural and religious contexts are difficult if not impossible to separate. The same point was made by John about the close relationship between Christianity and European culture. If this is the case, we need to reconsider our separate responses to cultures and religions and integrate them.
- Putting cultures and religions together, we have discovered some similar principles that apply in both cases. In all contexts, the first act of mission is to discern what is going on, according to what has been revealed to us, and then to affirm what is "rich in beauty and goodness". Only then can we begin to discover what makes the Christian gospel distinctive in this setting, what we can contribute as Christians, and what we must challenge and oppose.
Our experience of cultures and religions in Britain has raised questions about the philosophy of multi-culturalism, and today in our conference caused us to rethink some of the Evangelical statements of a generation ago. We are perhaps more conscious today that in contextualising or inculturating the gospel we can go too far so that the gospel no longer challenges but only confirms what we think and do. Or so far that we no longer find it possible to relate to other Christians of other traditions. We forget what John called "the limit of concession". We can also discover that, as people of faith, we have much in common with others - whatever their creed - who worship and give thanks together, who pursue righteousness and justice, who are sustained by more than bread alone. And, as we hear other perspectives, we realise that Christianity has been a mixed blessing for humanity - to say the least - and that it is not Christianity but Jesus Christ who saves. Both speakers drew attention to the relativism of everything else before the cross.
Conclusion
Our dilemma as Evangelicals is how to maintain that strong conviction and clear message with sensitivity in a plural and fragile society. We are challenged to demonstrate that a confident Christian faith is not necessarily disrespectful of, or antagonistic toward, other religions. David spoke about "wise and prophetic love" in our dealings and, in his inauguration sermon in York, John called for "faith and love in equal measure". In other words, how we believe, how we bear witness is as important as the belief or witness itself. To me this implies a development of our theology of the Holy Spirit, which both our speakers suggested, involving recognition of God's "continuous creation" (John) and "modesty about what we claim to know" (David).
May God grant us the wisdom of Holy Spirit to help us discern what is right and wrong beyond the human labels, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to affirm beauty and goodness wherever it is found, as we seek to live the gospel among many cultures and religions.
Dr Kirsteen Kim is the Chair of the British and Irish Association for Mission Studies and a Lecturer at the United College of the Ascension, Birmingham
