WHAT COULD CHRISTIANITY CONTRIBUTE TO THE
Document Sample
WHAT COULD CHRISTIANITY CONTRIBUTE TO THE
PLURALISTIC SOCIETIES OF ASIA?
Felix Wilfred
University of Madras
(A public lecture delivered in Hong Kong, 20 June, 2006)
“The rose is a great deal more than the blushing apology for its thorns”
Rabindranath Tagore
Introduction : Hong Kong – The Conscience-keeper of China
- Hong Kong has an important role to play in turning Christianity into a
transformative force for the whole of Asia, especially for China.
- In earlier times the connection between imperialism and Christianity created a
mood of suspicion: Emperor Yongzheng said, ”Missionaries want to convert my
people to Christianity; so they will shift allegiance to foreign kings. Then
thousands of your ships will invade us and China will fall”
- The newly acquired self-confidence of China in the economic and political field
today is such that it can cast off the shadows of the colonial times in connection
with Christianity, and redefine its relationship with it. It is at this new historical
juncture we ask about the role Christianity could play in China, and Asia at large.
. I am convinced that Hong Kong is placed in a unique position to facilitate a new
role of Christianity for the whole of China.
- We shall reflect on the role of Christianity in Asia in the light of the global
developments.
- We could envisage five major areas in which the Contribution of Christianity
could take place.
I. Opening Up Asian Nations to Inter-cultural and Inter-religious
Understanding and Praxis
- The unity of human family is truly a humanistic and spiritual task that cannot be
really achieved by the process of globalization driven by the force of competition,
market, profit and self-seeking.
- The meeting of peoples and nations require today a different – the spirit of true
tolerance and harmony. This is beyond the powers of globalisation.
- The need to unleash spiritual forces so that there be true inter-cultural and inter-
religious understanding.
- In the past, Buddhism was a great force that brought together different peoples
and cultures of Asia. For example, India and China considered each one to be
themselves the center of the world, and viewed other peoples as
“untouchables”(Melecchas) and as “barbarians”. Buddhism broke this self-
centeredness of these two great civilizations, made realtivize themselves and led
to learn from each other. For example, during the Tang Dynasty in the seventh
century, Xuan Zang, a renowned Buddhist monk of China journeyed to India and
after studying a decade the Buddhist scriptures, he brought with him to China
thirteen hundred and thirty-five scrolls. On this basis, during the Ming Dynasty
Wu Chengen created a popular story of great imagination under the name “The
Pilgrimage to the West”. Buddhism was a means which facilitated more secular
pursuits like the exchange in science, technology, art, literature, etc. between
India and China. In short religion facilitated the relationship among peoples and
cultures and broke the self-isolation of nations.
- In the new circumstances of today, Christianity could provide the spiritual
foundations to bring people and nations together in mutual understanding and in
the spirit of true catholicity. It can function as a force to create the whole of
humanity into one single family. The Christian vision as we find in the Scriptures
is precisely one of the unity of the whole of human race as children of God.
- This Christian vision challenges the traditional understanding of identity and the
mode of identity-construction. It sees identity in relationship and not in self-
isolation. Today, there is the widespread neglect to see people in their plural
identities and the general temptation to view them from one single identity – often
the religious one.
- the significance of pluralism – cultural and religious. Pluralism comes from God
- In this connection, the danger of the thesis of “clash of civilization” (Samuel
Huntington). It assumes that cultural and civilizational identities are cut-off from
each other, and it ignores the variations within the same civilization. Further, “the
clash of civilization thesis” assumes that people have one single identity. All the
three assumptions are wrong.
- Christianity presents a meeting of civilizations and cultures and not a clashing.
The same is true also about understanding among peoples of different religious
traditions. The growing religious fundamentalism and Christian response of
dialogue.
- The fact that the Christian Scriptures were translated into the language of different
peoples (Bible translation) is itself an act of catholicity or universality.
II. Christianity and Modernity
- It is a curious fact, but seems to be true that, whereas in the West, Christianity has
been viewed as a force against modernity, in many parts of Asia, Christianity is
viewed as an allay of modernity. This is especially true of China and Japan. In
China, for example, under the Qing dynasty, the missionaries were asked to leave
the country, except those who were astronomers and scientists. Matteo Ricci not
only preached the Gospel but taught geometry, astronomy, music, painting,
irrigation, etc.
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- Today, in China and Japan Christianity has been welcomed as a gateway to
modernity, which also explains the increasing interest and study of Christianity .
For example, “cultural Christians” of China.
- The importance the Christian doctrine of creation and human creativity offers for
the understanding and interpretation of modernity, especially in terms of science
and technology.
- Adopting technology and science would be only partial modernity. A fully
modern nation or people need to bring about also in the way society is organized
and governed.
- Participation of people in what affects them and democracy are integral part of
modernity without which modernity will remain only partial and selective.
- The seeds of human rights, democracy and peoples’ participation were in
Christianity, and they are today offered by modernity in secular forms and
expressions. These are not simply Western values(as claimed by those who argue
in the name of “Asian values”) or Christian values, but universal values which
have their roots in our different Asian cultures and traditions. To cite one
example, the Buddhist councils of ancient times provided a space for deliberation,
a meeting-point of different ideas and opinions, and a mechanism to settle
disputes.
- Emperor Suiko of Japan in a Constitution promulgated as early as A.D. 604 said:
“Decisions on important matters should not be made by one person alone. They
should be discussed with many”. As one commentator notes, this democratic ideal
was written six hundred years before the first Western democratic document of
Magna Carta! And yet to claim that democracy is a western ideal would be a total
misrepresentation of history.
- Christianity could help enliven this universal tradition of people’s participation
and their agency.
- Christianity could contribute to make Asian nations fully modern by inculcating
the spirit and values that sustain democracy and practice of human rights.
III. A Vibrant Civil Society – The Need of the Hour
- A critical view of the way the Churches in Asia functions in the public sphere. It
is characterized less by a spirit of co-operation than the spirit of acting on parallel
lines; isolation from the larger society and confinement to educational,
development and medical works; minority complex.
- The need of the hour: Christianity becomes a catalyst in the public sphere, without
unwarranted interference and with respect to autonomy of temporal realities
(Vatican II document: Gaudium et Spes).
- Three types of civil society: a) entrepreneurial and market-directed
b) state-sponsored
c) independent
- we are referring here to independent civil society.
- The importance of public deliberation and reasoning, and the flow of free
informations.
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- Public reasoning and deliberation could help a lot in formulating public policies in
various areas of life.
- The crucial role of creative dissidence . Let me illustrate it with the example of an
audacious public criticism by an Indian Jain monk from the time of Alexander
who invaded northwest India:
“King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the earth’s surface as
this we are standing on. You are but human like the rest of us, save that you are
always busy and up to no good, traveling so many miles from your home, a
nuisance to yourself and to others!…You will soon be dead, and then you will
own just as much of the earth as will suffice to bury you”.
- Diffusion of information and freedom of communication very essential for the
growth of persons and communities. Hence, society with diffusion of information
could have disastrous consequences. Illustration from the famine of 1958-1959.
IV. Christianity and Social Justice
- The present situation in Asian countries: the growing gap between the rich and the
poor (especially in China and India); the alarming conditions of the workers. The
struggle of the workers for their rights waged during one hundred and fifty years
is being thrown to the winds; the question of Asian migrants and refugees. The
oppresssive condition of women and marginalized groups, etc.
- Christianity could be a great force to infuse social justice into our Asian societies;
the need to infuse our societies with the spirit of equality and equity, and provide
opportunities for the weaker ones; privileging the rural over the urban where the
modern development has concentrated all its attention.
- The dominant model of development – creator of injustice
- Increasing violation of human rights in the Asian societies – a very serious
concern
- Responding to the situation with the Christian principles and Church’s social
teachings.
V. Contribution to Peace, Harmony and Reconciliation
- One of the accusations against Christians in the Roman Empire was that they
advocated peace and concord whereas the Empire relied on wars for its strength
and expansion. Christian pacifism created many martyrs.
- Asians value peace and harmony.
- Peace and harmony to be based on the foundation of justice - pax opus iutititae
(peace is the work of justice); peace cannot be equated with the quietness that
results from conformism to the existing order of things – political, economic,
social, etc.
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- Education for Peace: “Since wars are made in the minds of men, defences of
peace must be constructed in the minds of men”.
- The importance of the encyclical of Pope John (Pacem in Terris) for the cause of
peace.
- The example of Christian peace-making in South Africa, East Timor, etc.
Conclusion
1. Asian Churches today stand in a tension between being rooted (inculturation,
adapting to the demands of the state, etc.) and the obligation to be prophetic.
- Asian Christianity has to live with this tension. It cannot be easily resolved. In
fact, it is a healthy and productive tension.
- However we must avoid a wrong rootedness and a misleading prophetism or
martyrdom complex. Both are dangerous.
- Christianity needs to think of the wider society and the contributions it could
make in ever new contexts and circumstances. This could help us to relativize the
internal Church problems and see these in the light of the larger issues and
questions of our present day society and the response of the Churches to them.
2. A distinction can be made with Peter Beyer (Religion and Globalisation) between two
roles of religion: function and performance. Functional role of Christianity would be
all those things we do to reproduce Christianity. Performance role is what
Christianity could mean in the public sphere for the larger society.
3. Christianity cannot make any effective contribution to the Asian societies unless it
does it along with many others who labour with high ideals and motivation. In a
special way we need to highlight the collaboration with grassroots groups and
movements which dream of an alternative society and world, and believe that
“another world is possible”.
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