Encountering World Religions

A Christian Introduction

Irving Hexham

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780310588610
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Vergleichende Religion

The diversity of the world's religions has come to the West, but believers are often ill-equipped for any kind of serious engagement with non-Christians. In Encountering World Religions, professor and author Irving Hexham introduces all the world's major religious traditions in a brief and understandable way.

Hexham outlines key beliefs and practices in each religion, while also providing guidance on how to think critically about them from the standpoint of Christian theology. African, yogic, and Abrahamic traditions are all covered. Accessible and clear, Encountering World Religions will provide formal and lay students alike with a useful Christian introduction to the major faiths of our world.

chapter one

Welcome Back to the First Century

Introduction

After almost fifteen hundred years of Christian civilization in the West, we now live in a world where many people are deliberately turning their backs on the Christian tradition. At the same time, believers of other major world religions are establishing themselves in what were formerly “Christian” countries.

Not all who lived in so-called Christian countries in the past were devoted Christians, but Christianity shaped people’s lives and provided the framework for society as a whole in terms of ethics and shared beliefs. Today this framework is shattered, and we face a situation that Western Christians have not encountered for at least a thousand years. In fact, in many ways, our society is returning to a situation remarkably similar to the beginning of the Christian era when the gospel was first proclaimed throughout what was then the Roman world.

Therefore, it is worth spending time thinking about how early Christian missionaries, and those who later converted northern and eastern Europe to Christianity, presented their faith and what it tells us about our own time.

Paul in Athens

The story of the apostle Paul preaching in Athens about “an unknown God” is well known to most Christians, but it can be easy to overlook its significance for the present time (Acts 17:16–34). Let us consider for a moment ancient Athens in the first century AD. The great British biblical commentator William Barkley reminds us that “Athens had long since left behind her great days of action but she was still the greatest university town in the world, to which men seeking learning came from all over. She was a city of many gods. It was said that there were more statues of the gods in Athens than in all the rest of Greece put together and that in Athens it was easier to meet a god than a man.”¹

Among the educated classes that encountered Paul, there were two main groups. There were the Epicureans, who believed that everything was a matter of chance, life ended at death, and the gods were not interested in humans. The only thing to do was enjoy life. The other group were the Stoics, who held to a form of pantheism, believing that God’s spirit penetrated everything and gave humans life. As a result, people lived as long as they did because a spark of God animated their bodies. In this view everything was determined by God and must be accepted as the hand of fate. Consequently, all life was part of an eternal cycle that flourished and then crashed in a great cataclysm only to begin again in an endless cycle of creation and destruction.

What is important is that when St. Paul encountered the intellectuals of Athens, he adapted his preaching to allow himself to speak into their world of thought and action. Because he was so successful in doing this, many liberal biblical critics have questioned whether the speech recorded in Acts could possibly be authentic to Paul.

Commenting on these doubts, New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce, a classical scholar before he turned to study of the Bible, pointed out that, generally speaking, only theologians have a problem with Paul’s speech at Athens. The majority of classical scholars who specialize in the study of ancient Greece have no problem accepting the speech as authentic and argue that it has all the marks of authenticity. In support of his argument, Bruce compared Paul’s speeches in Antioch and Lystra, noting that Paul often adapted his message to his audience.²

It is not surprising that when Paul was in Athens, he did not quote the Hebrew Bible, which would have been unfamiliar to most of his hearers. Rather, he cited Greek poets. Nor did he engage in a philosophical argument with appeals to biblical revelation. Instead, he started his argument by noting that the Athenians were remarkably religious. Then he demonstrated that he was a careful observer of his surroundings and Athenian society by mentioning that he had seen an altar dedicated “to an unknown God” (Acts 17:23).

After making this observation, he proclaimed the true nature of God, concluding his declaration with a quotation from a poem attributed to the Cretan philosopher Epimenides (sixth century BC). He followed this with a quotation from the Greek Phainomena by Cilician writer Aratus (315–240 BC). By using these verses, Paul demonstrated to his hearers that he was an educated man well versed in Greek literature and thought. Only then did he go on to proclaim the gospel in no uncertain terms. As a result, some people made fun of him, others said they would like to know more, and a few spent time with him and became believers.

Commenting on this passage in the eighth century AD, the early English Christian writer known as “the father of English history,” the Venerable Bede (672–735), wrote, “The apostle’s argument deserves careful examination.”³ He then showed his readers how Paul carefully crafted his message to his hearers and did not appeal to biblical writers they did not know. Rather, he addressed them on the basis of “the testimony of their own authors.”⁴ Bede concluded, “Surely it is the mark of great knowledge to . . . take into account the particular individuals who are one’s listeners.”⁵

Bede observed that the writer of Acts noted that one of the converts was Dionysius, a prominent citizen who, according to tradition, went on to become the Bishop of Corinth and, in some accounts, the Bishop of Athens itself. F. F. Bruce pointed out that the mention of women listening to Paul’s preaching means they must have been educated. What this account of Paul’s preaching does is lay down a pattern for evangelism and mission in societies where there is little or no knowledge of the Bible.⁶

Paul’s Advice about Living in a Non-Christian World

Paul, in his letters, frequently addressed real problems facing Christian communities scattered across the Roman world. Among these problems was the question of how Christians should treat food in societies where, before it was sold and during preparation, it was often presented to various gods and laid out before idols to gain a spiritual blessing.

Paul’s responses to such questions were always based on Scripture and the realities of the situation people were facing. In the case of “food offered to idols,” he begins by pointing out that idols are images made by humans, and the gods they represent have no real existence. The food is perfectly edible. The problem is not the food or the fact that someone performed a religious act intended to add spiritual power to it. The problem was that some new converts, weak in faith, might misunderstand and think they were participating in a pagan rite. In 1 Corinthians 8:1–13, Paul tells his readers that for the sake of the weaker Christian, one should not give the impression that one had participated in such a ritual.

He advises Christians to avoid pagan feasts and public displays of devotion to pagan gods. But if a non-Christian friend invites a Christian to dinner, the Christian can decide what to do and does not need to ask if the food was sacrificed to idols before eating it. The key issue for Paul, as he makes clear in 1 Corinthians 10, is one of conscience and not endangering the faith of a younger Christian. As he writes in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “ ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.”

This principle means that Christians are to make an informed judgment and act in a way that honors God by presenting a clear witness to others. Paul concludes his discussion of food sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 10:31–33 by saying, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”

These verses are well known to most Christians and used frequently as a guideline for behavior, particularly regarding how one interacts with non-believers. What is often overlooked is that for at least the last fifteen hundred years, the “non-believer” in Western societies was someone just like oneself who simply did not believe in God or live in a Christian manner. Now the situation has changed, and we in the West are once more living in a society that is far closer to Paul’s time than any society since at least the early Middle Ages. Today many people we meet are no longer non-believers who reject their Christian heritage; they are true believers in other religions. When we seek to apply passages from 1 Corinthians, we must realize our social context has changed.

Take a close look at these passages and similar ones in the New Testament. Notice that it is taken for granted that Christians live alongside members of other religions described as “pagan.” What is particularly interesting is that it is assumed Christians would be on good terms with these people and might be invited to their homes for a meal.

This raises a question: “How many non-Christians do you or I know with whom we are on close enough terms to visit their homes and eat meals with them?” Perhaps not many. Yet Paul assumes friendship is the basis of at least one form of evangelism, and he roots this belief firmly in his biblical understanding of God as the creator of all people, as he points out in 1 Corinthians 8:4–6.

Evangelism in a Post-Christian Society: A Personal Approach

In July 2011, Mark Howell, pastor of communities at Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, wrote in his blog: “Honestly, if you would’ve told me 25 years ago that I’d need a resource that would help me understand world religions, I’d probably rolled my eyes and said, ‘I have no plans to be a missionary.’ . . . In 2011 we live in a very different culture, post-Christian America, and developing an understanding of other religions is essential.” He then went on to recommend my earlier book Understanding World Religions ⁷ as a way “to get up to speed on the beliefs and, more importantly, on the worldview of representatives of the other major religions.”⁸

Since then I’ve come to realize that Mark had two advantages that many may lack. First, he was theologically educated and able to apply what he read in the book. Second, he admits that growing up in Southern California, he knew Buddhists and Muslims as friends and was prepared for living in a religiously plural society.

Unfortunately, many of us are not as fortunate as Mark in knowing how to approach members of other religious traditions. This book was written to introduce Christians to other religious traditions and to help us relate our beliefs to people who embrace religions very different from our own. But before we begin talking about specific world religions, it is important for Christians to reflect on the Bible and how they can live their faith in a rapidly changing multi-religious society.

The Biblical Framework

The Bible begins by proclaiming the great truth that God created the heavens and the earth. It continues by telling the story of the creation of humankind and states very clearly that all people are made in the image of God. Not surprisingly, given the fact that God is the creator of all things, we are told in Genesis 1 that he surveyed his creation and saw that it was good.

Today many people laugh at the biblical story and see it as a relic from a pre-scientific age. “Don’t Christians realize,” they say, “that we now know life was created by a process of evolution. Bible stories are fables without any relevance to the modern world.” Although this is a popular view, it is wrong. It overlooks the uniqueness of the biblical account of creation and what it really teaches about the world and our place in it.

What most secular people, and even some Christians, do not realize is just how revolutionary the story of Genesis is. To begin with, it tells us that the world God created was and is good. This may not seem very profound, but it is. It contradicts many views in popular philosophies and religions. For example, ancient traditions found in Greek and Roman philosophy saw the world as essentially bad. Buddhism and the Hindu tradition both see the world as an illusion that we need to escape. In one way or another, these and other religions teach that the earth and the material things we see around us are essentially bad and something humans need to overcome and escape from.

Plato (428–347 BC) understood the true essence of the human being in terms of an immortal soul trapped in a material body. This the Bible clearly denies. The Bible is world affirming and teaches that material things are good, not bad, and are there to be enjoyed by humans.

The Bible teaches that God created the human race, which means everyone you know and have ever met, in his own image. Thus, all human beings share the ability to establish a relationship with God and with each other. The Bible teaches us that however different people look, or seem, they share a common humanity. Once again, this teaching stands in sharp contrast with many views that are popular today.

What makes people who they are at the most fundamental level is not their ancestors or a specific culture, but the fact that they are created by God and share his image. Of course, we must not be naive and think that our background, parents, culture, and ancestry have no impact on us. Each of our personal histories is important and shapes our outlook and our lives. But whatever our histories, they can never diminish God’s image in us and in everyone we meet.

A corollary of the belief that God created humans in his image is rejection of the idea that the human races evolved from different ancestors and are therefore essentially different. Christians stood firmly against what in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was known as “scientific racism”⁹ and should continue that stand today. In the biblical perspective, there are no human races; there is only one human race that developed from common ancestors. The story of Adam and Eve, quaint as it may sound to modern ears, commits Christians to reject racism and everything derived from it.

What does all of this have to do with world religions and the increasingly religiously plural society most of us live in today? The first chapters of Genesis not only lay the foundation for all that follows in the Bible but also provide a context for our understanding of world religions. They portray a world in which humanity began in relationship with God and has an understanding of him. In Romans 1:19–23, Paul writes that humans continue to have a sense of God, and creation itself witnesses to his existence.

The Bible leads us to expect that humans would seek God and, as a result of the fall, that such seeking would lead to false religious traditions alongside worship of the true God. While the Bible clearly condemns misplaced worship, it doesn’t disparage humans’ need for God or their innate, if sometimes suppressed, knowledge of him.¹⁰

This inner longing of all people for God was well expressed by the great Christian leader St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) in his Confessions. He wrestled with people’s attempt to worship God without knowing him, or at least without havi...