Learning from the Orthodox tradition

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Led by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

On the week of October 13th in the class on Global Christianity, Father Luke Veronis from Holy Cross Seminary gave a guest lecture on the Orthodox Church history and the impact on Orthodox missions, especially in the past century.

If we paint the history of Christianity in terms of broad strokes, one of the dominant colors would be the demographic shift of Christianity to the ‘global South’ in the last 100 years, a shift that has brought Christian growth in areas of the world where the gospel had no foothold a century ago. But the story of the Orthodox churches would be a counter stroke of a different color. Historically, the Orthodox churches are the oldest Christian traditions. They have a rich spiritual history that shaped early Christianity and the monastic traditions, and as far as missions go, they also have had many missionary champions. However, persecution, repression, and immigration have threatened many Orthodox traditions. This past century has witnessed the multiplying of such treats, through communist oppression in the former Soviet Union and other communist states, the repression and immigration across the Middle East, and the genocide committed against the Armenian people. But it is also a story of survival and resurgence, and hope for the future in other places that have opened up to newfound religious freedoms.

This counter story is all the more disheartening given the widespread lack of knowledge about Orthodoxy among many Christians. Indeed, several participants in our discussion group had not known of the Orthodox churches until this course. The learning experience has been a pleasant surprise. Some of the students expressed an appreciation for the mystical tradition of theosis and the profound encounter with God as mystery within the Orthodox traditions. In our discussion, Teasoeb contrasts this sense aptly: “I think the Orthodox have different, even alluringly mysterious liturgical styles, and although they seem to accept anyone who comes, they definitely do not expose their interior liturgical life like Western bodies do.”

Many in our discussion group were also intrigued by the Orthodox approaches to missions. Father Luke’s lecture stressed that at their best Orthodox models for missions were very respectful of local culture; the pace of missions was slow as to adapt to local culture and language, as well as built a strong base for local leadership … all this in a missionary tradition that flourished long before fervent Catholic and Protestant missions began. It seems that one of the Orthodox models for spreading the gospel was one of patience. Persecution, repression and the minority status of many churches (we can see this at the fall of the Byzantine empire, and more recently of communism), did cause many churches to retreat into a kind of survival mode. Father Luke proposed this may be a reason why many Orthodox churches lost touch with their missionary traditions.

One student, Myung Eun, remarked on their very different style of evangelism: “the Orthodox tend to evangelize people in a different way than Westerners. They do not go forward to evangelize people in the same strong or forceful manner. In Korea many Christian churches have grown in the last hundred years, but there is only one Orthodox church. The Orthodox churches don't use any “marketing” as other churches do to bring people in."

Some in our group were more cautious than others about the Orthodox version of history with regards to missions. Bruce and Jeff pointed out that the Orthodox may see themselves as the ‘underdogs’ of history compared to the Western churches. From this perspective they can differentiate themselves from the more extreme forms of Christian imperialism and cultural insensitivity.

Nevertheless, we could agree that Protestants and Catholics alike can learn much from the patience, the strong sense of continuity with ancient Christian tradition, the rich mystical theology, and the perseverance of the Orthodox churches.

Eva Pascal, discussion moderator

Theological implications of the shift of Christianity

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Lead by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

On Wednesday, September 22nd, our small group gathered to reflect on the shifting center of gravity for Christianity. The discussion, in particular, focused on the theological implications of the shift of Christianity to the South and to the East.

The initial observation was that Christian theology is undergoing cross-fertilization. People are seeking to do theology in a specific context, but they are cognizant of a larger, global dimension to their theology.

Another member added that the changing face of Christianity has meant a change in power. The student admitted there is no direct evidence of that assertion (yet), but felt the change was in part masked by the fact that theological power in the South and East is not connected to political or economic power. Thus, it is hard to recognize the theological power of Christianity in the Global South when we are fixated on money and might.

One student challenged the idea that theological power is shifting with the numerical growth of Christians in the South and East. Why, it was asked, do many Christians from the Global South continue to receive their training in the Global North, or from people trained in the Global North? Perhaps the “theological center” of Christianity has is still firmly fixed in the North.

In response, it was observed that “theology was developed in the West and North part of the world,” and thus explains why many people from the Global South traveled to study in the North. However, the student continued, even that trend is changing. In Korea, for instance, many students from South East Asia choose to pursue advanced theological degree there, rather in than in the Global North (although it was acknowledged many Koreans still receive their advanced training in the United States and Europe).

The conversation moved back toward the intersection of different theologies. One student shared from personal experience: When I was in Korea my understanding of the Trinity was based on love, obedience, and union. In America, we focus on the unique quality of each person and interconnectedness of the three persons. At first this relationship was really confusing and even produced cultural shock. Sometimes it seems Americans don’t stress the qualities I was taught enough, however I think the church of Christ must work together across cultural lines. I can say that considering different perspectives has led me to a broader understanding of the Trinity.

With one minute left for our allotted time, the question was asked, “Will the emergence of theologies in the Global South further divide, or unite Christians around the world?” Perhaps the division in our responses provided the real answer: two believed Christians would be more united through the cross-fertilization of theological perspectives; three felt the exacerbation of local differences would further divide the Christian community.

Daryl Ireland, discussion moderator

Demographic shift of Christianity

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Lead by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

This week’s lecture was about the demographic shift of Christianity from 1910 to 2010 and its implication to Christian theology. To calculate the central point of Christian gravity each year and to look at the ramification of the accumulated points is not merely a meaningless thing. The trajectory consisted of the Christian center implies what happened in Christianity as a world religion throughout the history. In a nutshell, the center of gravity has moved from the global north referring to the white European dominance to the global south such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America that used to be recognized just mission fields. Accordingly, global Christianity has moved to the demographic makeup of the time of Christ. As a result, the urgent task the contemporary Christianity faces is to recapitulate the Christian theology from non-western perspectives, i.e. the globalization of Christian theology through the vernacularization. With acknowledgements from the lecture and the required reading, our group discussed over these questions.

1. What insights did you gain from the lecture?

• I could better realize the implications of global Christianity. Changes are either good or potentially good. The Western mind is not the be-all and end-all. (Amy)

• Religious education from different cultural perspective penetrates the traditional concept of Christianity. (Edward)

• Missionaries from the West are still constructing theology. The benefit of this is the abundant of theological resource, but the bad thing is the western imperialism and paternalism. For example, Christology is to see Christ as a healer rather than to have the western view propagating theological landscape. (Sam)

• To calculate Christian gains and losses by the number of immigrants is problematic. It is much of over generalization to think the immigrant is gain and emigrant is loss because in Asian context, there are many immigrants of other religions. (Earl)

2. What do you think about the theological implications of the demographic shift between the north and south?

• Theology affected by the change caused by intersection between Christianity and other faiths. The vitality is at the boundaries. Theologically three things go together: conservatism, communal outlook and supernaturalism. (Sam)

• Christian theology is so far the monopoly of the western white men. The demographic change pushes us to adopt other views on Christianity. The integral view by having diverse scopes is the very implication. (Gun)

• I can see that huge variety of preachers had already changed Christian communities very much. (Edward)

• There is a tendency to see old views as bad and newer views as good. Theologically it isn’t necessarily so. (Sam)

• Methodist issues the same argument. (Amy)

• The theological implication of the demographic shift refers to what incarnation of the Christ means. It is vernacularization or indigenization of Christian theology. Just as the painter draws a picture with diverse colors on the canvas, Christian theology as a world religion must reflect all colors from all people. (Gun)

Gun Cheol Kim, discussion moderator