Christianity subsume other traditions8/14/2023 ![]() Manchester Wesley Research Centre and Online. Evelyn Hibbert are organizing an online conference. Online Conference on Women’s Intercultural Leadershipĭr. Daryl Ireland's lecture on "Spreading the Gospel: Christian Posters in Early. ![]() “Christian Posters in Early 20th Century China” on YouTubeĭr. San Chirico, who intersected with the Center for Global. On March 24, half a dozen students and faculty from the CGCM. PhD Candidate, Graduate Division of Religious Studies It will also, hopefully, provide a space and a platform for discussing our differences and finding a common ground. As Christians become increasingly aware of their cultural differences, the study of World Christianity will provide tools for navigating the diversity. It seeks to understand the cause of division and conflict both within the Christian community and also with the wider world. Thus, the study of world Christianity asks what it is that makes Christians unique as individual groups and coherent as a whole. Generations of Christians throughout the whole world have been consumed by the question, “who is Jesus?” And also “what does his life mean for us?” Christians across cultural lines also share various rituals-baptism, the Lord’s Supper, gathering for worship, and the reading of and reflection on scripture. The example, influence, and reality of Jesus have provided a touch point for all Christian traditions. It is the story of the relationship between God and the world, as told through the lens of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, at the center of World Christianity is a story. Yet this is not to say that Christianity lacks a core and is completely determined by surrounding culture. In today’s world, the questions of gender and sexuality fuel debates among Christians across cultural lines. Western missionaries in Africa were more often than not solidly opposed to polygamy, while indigenous Church leaders were occasionally more willing to entertain the possibility. Thus, the Jesuits saw no harm in Chinese converts honoring their ancestor, while the Domincans and Franciscans called it idolatry. Debates over ethics and practice are intrinsic to the multicultural nature of the Christian religion. Some Christians might reject a certain practice while others gladly accept it. Naturally, the fact that Christianity is polyvocal and multicultural leads to many different answers vis-à-vis culture. Thus, Christians throughout time have taken stands against alcohol, polygamy, divorce, abortion, and a myriad of other issues. Nevertheless, reaction against culture can be as powerful for identity formation as would be accepting culture. As Christianity continues to find a home in new cultural settings, Christians continue to borrow new languages and cultures to tell the story of Jesus.įor those Christians who take a more guarded approach to surrounding cultures, their message will be one of caution. Jesus did not speak Greek, Latin, or English, yet each of those languages has been used to tell his story and teach his message. Yet even at a more basic level, Christians borrow pre-Christian languages and use them for Christian ends. There are classic examples of this: Christians inherited Roman vestments and German Christmas trees. Christians have a history of taking that which is not Christian, and then filling it with Christian meaning. ![]() Those Christians who embrace surrounding cultures use indigenous language, music, art forms, and rituals as potent resources for their own ends. It is in Christians of many and various responses that Christianity gains its unique multi-cultural and polyvocal texture as a world religion. Regardless of a positive or negative attitude toward their surrounding culture, all Christians must respond to their surrounding context. Throughout history, all Christians have lived in specific cultural contexts, which they have, to varying degrees, embraced and rejected. The study of world Christianity begins with the basic premise that Christianity is, and from its very inception has been, a cross cultural and diverse religion with no single dominant expression. Christianity and the World of Cultures Used with permission from Laura James:
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