Learning from other religions?

 

Historically, the Christian Church has taken two major approaches when it comes to other religions. Just to be clear, when we’re talking about religions, we’re talking about Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Wicca, Christianity, etc. We’re not talking about Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and Lutherans and so on. These groups are all members of the same religion (Christianity), albeit different denominations of that same religion. Hopefully, it is clear to most Christians today that we immensely benefit in learning from one another how to follow Jesus more faithfully.

The question about learning from other religions is more complicated. As mentioned, the Church has tended to take two major approaches to other religions throughout history. The first (and older) is to take what is good in that religion, what is compatible with Christianity, (and much in other religions is not!) and incorporate it into the faith (e.g. Celtic Christianity). The second (and newer view) is to reject wholesale anything associated with another religion.  

These twin approaches are rooted in specific theologies of revelation and truth. Behind the first view is an understanding that while the full truth and power of God are found only in Christ, this does not mean that there is not some truth about God and some truth about human living to be found in the other great religions of the world. The second view is that there is no truth – whatsoever- to be found in all these other religions; they are nothing more than idol worship.

If you hold the second view, the only learning you can glean from other religions is how not to do things, how to rebel against God and so on. If you hold the first view, it is quite possible to learn from other religions. However, learning from other religions can be dangerous, because on some fundamental points they disagree with what God has revealed in Jesus Christ. This could potentially lead one away from God as He truly is (which is by the way a definition of heresy). However, a mature Christian, who is well connected to the Christian community, could certainly learn from other religions.  Some things to keep in mind while doing this:

1)      Does what you’re reading/listening to/doing lead you away from God in Christ? If so, this is a red flag and something you likely need to stop. Learning from other religions shouldn’t involve non-Christian forms of worship or prayer (in which you are not worshipping the Triune God but something else), because as Christians we worship one God through Christ (Matthew 22:36-40, John 14:6).

2)      Does what you’re reading/listening to/doing encourage you to center your spiritual life in anyone or anything but Jesus? If so, this is a red flag and something you likely need to stop.  

3)      When you find something interesting in another religion you should search the rich treasures of Christian history and spirituality to see if there is a Christian counter-part. For example, part of my own spiritual journey included experimentation with various forms of Eastern mysticism. My choice to become a committed Christian and to distance myself from these other religions was the discovery of the Christian mystics, who anchored their experiences in the person of Jesus.  

A whole lot more could be said about this, but in short, with careful discernment, and careful guarding of our hearts and minds, I think it is possible for Christians to learn from other religions.

What am I missing here? What have you found helpful or dangerous?

Becoming Fully Alive

     

        

The goal of Christian living might aptly be thought of as the process of becoming more fully alive, more fully human. So often we think of holy people or saints as being super-human or rather un-human in their pursuit of God. However, Biblically speaking, and throughout the centuries of the Church, Christians have understood the opposite to be true. It is the human being fully connected to God that is most fully alive, most fully human, and capable of seeing, feeling, and experiencing things that most of us are not.  This concept is not a new one. Saint Irenaeus, a third century church father, is often quoted for his memorable statement, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  

  

Instead of thinking of Christian growth (read “sanctification” if your more Protestant minded or “holiness” if your more Catholic minded) as the pursuit of a set of strange behaviors and an even stranger set of mental beliefs, think of Christian growth as the process of you becoming more fully you. Christianity has always said if you want to see what it means to be truly human look at Jesus Christ for “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Since we we’re created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), we look at Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) to see what that image should look like in a flesh and blood human being.  

 

This doesn’t mean that we’re all supposed to grow long beards and wear sandals. Becoming more fully alive, more human, is not about becoming Christ Himself (impossible, sorry would-be-Messiahs!), but about becoming a unique reflection of the Triune God. You do that by taking all the elements of who you are and by grace developing them into their God given best. Fully alive persons (often referred to as saints in Church history) come in all sorts of packages, with differing personalities, are women and men, lay and ordained, single and married. In other words, when we run from sainthood, holiness, Christian growth, discipleship (whatever you want to call it), we are actually running away from our true selves. We are actually heading in a direction that will make us less human and less alive – sounds like a dead end to me?

Faith and Relationships

Valentine's Day ( it's Thursday) brings a mixture of sentiments: obligation (“if I don’t do something she’ll get mad.”), hope (“Maybe this year he’ll do something romantic”), and pain (“Are things always going to be like this?” or “I miss him/her so much”).

The day itself, while perhaps more fun and flirty than substantial, is an occasion for us to reflect on the meaning of relationships and Christian faith. I fear we don’t spend enough (any?) time pondering what it means to be a Christian and dating, divorced, widowed, married, celibate, or whatever. We simply take our cues about relationships from those around us and the wider society at large.

I invite you to spend some time reflecting on how your faith does (or does not) give direction to your relational life. From a discipleship perspective, our faith should saturate and color all that we do. Lent, which just begin yesterday (I’ll resist making joke about a Valentine’s Day being a penitential observance), is a good time to ponder how all your relationships relate to God.

To help you begin this process I’ve included some resources below.

Feel free to share your own thoughts and resources in the comment section.

A Prayer for Married Couples

A Dating Prayer  
A Prayer for Broken Hearts
A Prayer for Those Who Live Alone
Sex: Creation and Fall
Sex and Marriage
Sex and Singleness
Chastity is for Everybody
More on Chastity (masturbation, co-habitation, fantasy, etc.)
Homosexuality
Combining Faith and Love
Sexual Ethics
Healing from BrokenRelationships
Faith and Friendship
Faith and Marriage
Faith and Dating 

Self-Denial? Really?

Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Within the Episcopal Ash Wednesday liturgy the congregation is addressed with the following words, “I invite you…to the observance of a Holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word” (emphasis added, Book of Common Prayer, 265). Self-denial’s importance is found not only in the historic observance of Lent, but throughout the history of Christianity itself. If this wasn’t enough to convince the self-denial skeptic we only need to quote the words of Jesus, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

It has become fashionable in recent years for people to say, “Oh, I don’t take something away during Lent. I add something.” As if self-denial was a repressive practice with no meaning or purpose; a hold-over from a darker time, when kill-joys ruled the Church delighting in removing all pleasure from human existence. Self-denial – as is made clear by Jesus’ words – is an integral part of the Christian life. Lent is a season where we are invited to work our spiritual muscles more intensely.

A foundational part of this spiritual work-out is self-denial. The purpose of self-denial is to train the human will to cooperate with the will of God. If I can learn, with God’s grace, to deny myself chocolate during Lent, for example, then hopefully I will also be able with God’s grace to deny myself those things which are harmful to my life. If I can say no to meat on Fridays during Lent, then  hopefully I've strengthened my ability to say no to the temptation, whether to gossip about a co-worker or to say no to the desire for revenge and so on.

Self-denial trains us to say yes to God; yes to all that is good, and no to those forces which oppose God. Self-denial helps say no to our sinful tendency to make life all about us and our wants. So this Lent make sure to practice self-denial. It’s perfectly ok to also add a spiritual practice. I recommend you do that, but don’t forget self-denial. You might deny yourself meat, or Face Book, or texting, or any number of things which have taken control of your life. Lent starts next Wednesday, how are you going to practice self-denial?