D
dzheremi
Guest
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately while reading Thomas C. Oden’s “How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind” and contemplating various things. I suppose I could relate it to the “Why do people have a problem with Jesus” thread, though I think it deserves its own discussion. I hope I’ve placed it in the right section, as it reaches beyond a Christian/Catholic-only topic.
One of the common objections I have heard from non-Christians and ex-Christians is that Christianity is essentially a western religion, that Jesus has been remade by white people in their image (this claim is usually backed up with reference to European artwork that portrays Jesus Christ as some sort of Scandinavian hippie), and that its values essentially reinforce the primacy of western culture and its values, to the exclusion of the peoples of the rest of the world, who are seen as backwards, heathens, etc. Some famous books have been written enumerating all the reasons why Christianity is the “white man’s religion” and how the world’s non-white population is better represented by other, truly Eastern faiths.
My own experience with Catholicism has been at variance with at least some of these stereotypes (my first time in a Catholic church for anything other than funeral was in Mexico), yet I cannot completely dismiss them with regard to Christianity in general as it is practiced in the West. As it is true that Origen was an Egyptian and Augustine a Numidian, it is also true that their identities as indigenous Africans are somewhat downplayed (at least in many writings I have read) by an emphasis on their membership in the “Hellenized” world, as though the brilliance of their works is ultimately a credit more to Greece than to Africa (or, for that matter, to Christianity itself).
Similarly, among the Ethiopians I have known (and I spent 6 years studying alongside a small but vibrant group of Ethiopians in northern California when I used to live there), I have found many dedicated, wonderful Christians, as well as a minority of equally kind Muslims. These people really live their faith! And so, I was perplexed when an Ethiopian friend reacted with shock that I knew anything of her country’s Christian history. Why? According to her, most westerners she had met were absolutely boggled by the idea that there would be indigenous Christians in Africa, let alone any so long-established. A similar response came some years later from an Armenian friend (“You know about Armenia’s Christianity?!”…“Well, I’m a Christian…I figure I should know at least something about the rest of the Christian world!”)
It seems to me there is some disconnect between the nominally Christian West and the rest of the Christian world, though I’m not sure how to generalize it. I think it would be too easy to blame the differences in doctrine between the Roman Catholics and the various eastern forms of Christianity, not only due to the presence of Eastern Rite churches that are in communion with Rome (which is not to say that they as communities are therefore “Western”, of course), but also because the growth of Christianity in places like Africa attested to in books like Lamin Sanneh’s “Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity” often comes in the form of booming Pentecostal or other charismatic churches, not necessarily growth in indigenous forms of Christianity.
So I guess my question is this: How do we combat the image that Christianity is a purely “Western” religion? Should we even attempt to do so? Is this really a problem, and if so whose problem is it? Is it possible to embrace the world-wide nature of Christianity while adhering to a specific rite or sect?
The last of these questions is especially interesting to me on a personal level, as I am a convert to Roman Catholicism, so it was not transparently obvious to me at the start of my involvement why Roman Catholicism should be prefered over any other type of Catholicism, or Orthodoxy for that matter (I had already ruled out going back to a different sect of Protestantism). I ended up sticking with Roman Catholicism mainly due to pre-existing cultural influences.
Sorry if this is just a bunch of rambling. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks about such things, because I’d really like the (name removed by moderator)ut of other Christians, as well as any non-Christians who might have anything to say about the intersection of religion, culture, ethnicity, etc.
One of the common objections I have heard from non-Christians and ex-Christians is that Christianity is essentially a western religion, that Jesus has been remade by white people in their image (this claim is usually backed up with reference to European artwork that portrays Jesus Christ as some sort of Scandinavian hippie), and that its values essentially reinforce the primacy of western culture and its values, to the exclusion of the peoples of the rest of the world, who are seen as backwards, heathens, etc. Some famous books have been written enumerating all the reasons why Christianity is the “white man’s religion” and how the world’s non-white population is better represented by other, truly Eastern faiths.
My own experience with Catholicism has been at variance with at least some of these stereotypes (my first time in a Catholic church for anything other than funeral was in Mexico), yet I cannot completely dismiss them with regard to Christianity in general as it is practiced in the West. As it is true that Origen was an Egyptian and Augustine a Numidian, it is also true that their identities as indigenous Africans are somewhat downplayed (at least in many writings I have read) by an emphasis on their membership in the “Hellenized” world, as though the brilliance of their works is ultimately a credit more to Greece than to Africa (or, for that matter, to Christianity itself).
Similarly, among the Ethiopians I have known (and I spent 6 years studying alongside a small but vibrant group of Ethiopians in northern California when I used to live there), I have found many dedicated, wonderful Christians, as well as a minority of equally kind Muslims. These people really live their faith! And so, I was perplexed when an Ethiopian friend reacted with shock that I knew anything of her country’s Christian history. Why? According to her, most westerners she had met were absolutely boggled by the idea that there would be indigenous Christians in Africa, let alone any so long-established. A similar response came some years later from an Armenian friend (“You know about Armenia’s Christianity?!”…“Well, I’m a Christian…I figure I should know at least something about the rest of the Christian world!”)
It seems to me there is some disconnect between the nominally Christian West and the rest of the Christian world, though I’m not sure how to generalize it. I think it would be too easy to blame the differences in doctrine between the Roman Catholics and the various eastern forms of Christianity, not only due to the presence of Eastern Rite churches that are in communion with Rome (which is not to say that they as communities are therefore “Western”, of course), but also because the growth of Christianity in places like Africa attested to in books like Lamin Sanneh’s “Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity” often comes in the form of booming Pentecostal or other charismatic churches, not necessarily growth in indigenous forms of Christianity.
So I guess my question is this: How do we combat the image that Christianity is a purely “Western” religion? Should we even attempt to do so? Is this really a problem, and if so whose problem is it? Is it possible to embrace the world-wide nature of Christianity while adhering to a specific rite or sect?
The last of these questions is especially interesting to me on a personal level, as I am a convert to Roman Catholicism, so it was not transparently obvious to me at the start of my involvement why Roman Catholicism should be prefered over any other type of Catholicism, or Orthodoxy for that matter (I had already ruled out going back to a different sect of Protestantism). I ended up sticking with Roman Catholicism mainly due to pre-existing cultural influences.
Sorry if this is just a bunch of rambling. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks about such things, because I’d really like the (name removed by moderator)ut of other Christians, as well as any non-Christians who might have anything to say about the intersection of religion, culture, ethnicity, etc.
Lebanon is the cradle of the Maronite church before Muhammad was even born and we lost too many martyrs because of Muhammad…Jesus walked in Lebanon, His first miracle was in Lebanon, Peter and Paul were in here and churches in the south bear witness to this history yet some people do not even know there are Christians in Lebanon.