Contextualization and syncretism

When we talk about contextualization issues, I often find myself or others setting up the conversation at some point with something along the lines of, “How far can we go?”  Its true that it is a discernment process of what is good and redeeming and redeemable with a culture or a religious tradition that we can use directly or give new meaning to give glory to God and encourage people to remain within their culture and family while being followers of Jesus.  And of course, this process is primarily that of the indigenous believers interacting with the Holy Spirit.  Outsiders and missionaries like myself can never be the most effective at spearheading this process.  Though I find we often have to jumpstart it here to overcome centuries of mission work and Christianity in Thailand that set up stereotypes and ways of doing mission, evangelism , and church that are disinclined to contextualization.

Missionaries pre-field, however, like Perspectives students, often are taught about contextualization as a spectrum or a scale (like the C-1 through C-6 scale for example) where the implicit or explicit message is, “Go far enough to win people, but don’t go too far to where you’re entering into syncretism.”  I think this way of putting syncretism at the far end of the contextualization scale is a misunderstanding of what syncretism is.  Syncretism and contextualization are two different issues entirely, on two different planes.  Or rather, the phenomena of syncretism is the lack of effective contextualization in animistic contexts.  I think rather that we must ask, “How far must we go in contextualizing to ensure against syncretism?”  In fact, the process of contextualization is one in which we take captive every thought and make it obedient to the Messiah, just as Paul instructed.

The process of contextualization is not one in which we edge up to the cliff of syncretism.  Contextualization is dealing with culture.  Syncretism is dealing with animism and idolatry.  If we look at the history of syncretism across Catholic and Protestant mission history (and perhaps we can look at Muslim “mission history” and the history of Israel as well), I think we find that syncretism is one thing and one thing only, idolatry and animism that goes on in the face of some monotheistic forms.   The only question we need to ask to discern the danger of syncretism is this, “Are people worshipping more than one God?”  The problem with syncretism isn’t whether people are using Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, or Evangelical cultural forms and reading the Bible and understanding theology through those lenses.  The problem is that people are putting trust in other gods and looking to other “saviors” than Jesus.  Its only a problem with animism not with culture.  And the great way to deal with animism is to do extreme contextualization, just like Elijah did in 1 Kings 18.  Approach it head on, affirm the reality of the spirit world, and show that God is not only real, but bigger and more powerful than any other God you may put before him.

Contextualization is often very necessary in setting up these sort of showdowns.  If we let anything other than the cross of Jesus and the message of the Kingdom of God be obstacles hindering people from coming and experiencing the power of God, we allow the lesser gods to continue to hold sway over people and places.  But when we can remove every obstacle and be all things to all people in order to explain to them the power of God and the very at-hand-ness of his love and his Kingdom, people can be set free of the oppression of evil spirits.

Call yourself a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, whatever.  But if you call on the name of Jesus as the name above all names and have seen the promise of the new creation coming through the Kingdom of God…well, you’ve come into a new family.  Contextualization doesn’t lead to syncretism or open the way for syncretism or anything like that.  On the contrary, when people haven’t been shown what the relevancy of the Gospel is in their own culture, they will continue to serve their former gods.

Its been well-documented by others, but in these ways we can understand that American Evangelicalism is one of the most syncretistic faiths on earth.

Lord, may your glory fall, as it did at Mount Carmel, may it fall in Thailand, may it fall in America, may it fall in Egypt, may it fall in India, may it fall in Mexico, may it fall in the deserts of North Africa, may it fall in the Philippines.  Lord, show that you are greater and more powerful and more satisfying and more healing, and more loving, more hope-inspiring than any other ‘god’ or gods that Satan would try to place on thrones in our lives.  May you be worshiped as the One, the Only, the Alpha, the Omega, the Messiah, the One With Us, the Truth, the Way, the Life.