May 5, 2004

Christianity vs. Other Religions

Last night I read the following in the book An Intrusive Gospel? by C. Norman Kraus:

There may be human and religious values in cultures outside the historical biblical tradition that excel those of our own Western expressions. For example, we appreciate the Inuit spiritual sensitivity to nature, the Coptic respect for dignity and form in worship, the Islamic reverence for divine covenant law, the Buddhist regard for the wholeness of the cosmic order of which the individual is simply a part, and the traditional African respect for family continuity through the generations.

Now, the point he is trying to make is that our Western culture does not have a corner on the Gospel. In fact, at one point he cites the following incident:

As recent as the 1980s a missionary scholar in Japan insisted that Christianity's initial movement westward instead of eastward was a special leading of the Spirit that worked to preserved eh purity of the biblical message. He virtually equated conservative Protestantism of the nineteenth century with the biblical norm.

While I can see the validity of making sure we remove our Western prejudices from the preaching of the Gospel, do we need to go so far as to "appreciate" things we find in false religions?

This sounds like a discussion for the forum.

Posted by Andrew on May 5, 2004 4:00 PM.