Theological and Philosophical Attacks on Christianity

Here is part 6 of Augurlion's article piblished in Mission Dei, a Journal of Mission and Evangelism of Myanmar Institute of Theology. The information presented here may not be fresh, nevertheless, I feel that what he points out are critical to the western missionary enterprise. Because of these criticisms, Asian missionaries can do missions in places that otherwise is impossible for the western missionaries to do. Read this article:

Most Christians, especially the conservatives, claim that Christian truth is unique and universal. But in the eyes of the non-Christians it is unreasonable and limited. From the Hindu perspective, Commitment to Christ represents only a particular way of devotion to the Reality. Hinduism is not an institution that bases on a specific dogma, but it is a polytheistic religion that allows various ways of approach to the Reality. The Hindus believe that "God has looks like tritheism." Islam also criticizes Christianity for not having a set of moral or Divine Law like Shari'a. Seyyed Hossein Nasr asserts: "Christianity is seen by the Muslims as a religion devoid of exotericism which then substitutes a message of an essentially esoteric, there by creating disequilibrium in human society."

Colonialism and Christian missionary attitudes have influenced the non-Christian views or assessment of Christianity. Both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant missionary movements were viewed as identical or related to Colonialism. Along with their colonial expansion, Spain and Portugal were given the responsibility to extend the Roman Catholic domain. Though the Protestant missionary movements that arose by the end of the eighteenth century could not be grouped together with colonialism, it resembled colonialism in one way or another. Along with Christianization, the Protestant missions introduced modernism and imposed Western culture that threatened the non-Western people of loosing their cultural and national identities. According to Andrew F. Walls, the mission awakening in the nineteenth century in Britain based on the belief of British people that they were the "chosen people." They believed that modernism and social progress in Britain were God's blessings. Therefore, they felt that they were responsible to evangelize the heathens and impose modernism and Christianity, which is their imperial religion.

The mission movement during the colonial era was basea on the concept of the expansion of the Christendom. Thus, Christianity was reviled and rejected by the non-Christians in Asia, whose adhered to Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Confucianism, and whose countries were subject to the colonial rule. Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933), a Sinhalese Buddhist reformer, argues:

Semitic religions have neither psychology nor a scientific background. Judaism was an exclusive religion intended only for the Hebrews. It is a materialistic monotheism with Jehovah as the architect of a limited world. Christianity is a political camouflage. Its three aspects are politics, trade, and imperial expansion. Its weapons are the Bible, barrels of whisky, and bullets.

Christianity, therefore, was seen as the European tool for the expansion of Western hegemony over the colonized countries. Some Hindu critique showed their reverence to Jesus but strongly criticized the Christians and the missionaries for perverting Christianity and the teaching of Jesus. Keshub Chunder Sen, a famous Hindu leader, delivered a lecture in Calcutta in 1866 and stated:

I regard every European settler in India as a missionary of Christ, and I have a right to demand that he should always remember and act up to his high responsibility. But, alas! owing to the reckless conduct of a number of pseudo-Christians, Christianity has failed to produce any wholesome moral influence on my countrymen. Yea, their muscular Christianity has led many a native to identify the religion of Jesus with the power and privilege of inflicting blows and kicks with impunity... I must therefore protest against denationalization which is so general among native converts to Christianity. With the religion of their heathens forefathers, they generally abandon the manners and customs of their country, and with Christianity they embrace the usages of Europeans; even in dress and diet they assume as affected air of outlandishness, which estranges them from their own countrymen.

There were also Islamic antagonism to Christianity which was influenced by the stigma of the Muslims' experience of Western colonialism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rise of Islam fundamentalism in 1950s was an attempt to re-assert Islamic identity against Western hegemony and Christianity. This anti-Christian movement based on the prejudice that Christianity has influenced the Western culture which "is self-evidently politically and militarily expansionist, morally corrupted, and religiously decadent." All these reactions certify that the Christian missionary movement or Christianization in history was seen only an expansion the Christendom and Western hegemony by the non-Christians in Asia. Christianization and modernization were only the factors that perverted the local cultures in the colonial countries. The rise of nationalism was a protest against Western hegemony that came along with Modernism and Christianity.

Apologetic Mission in Asian Context (3)

This is a continuation of a paper written bay Augurlion taken from Missio Dei, a journal of missions and evangelism of Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT).

Effect of the Apologetic Mission

The defense of the church against the internal threats such as Gnosticism,Docetism, Marcionism, Montanism and other heretical teachings resulted in the formulation of Creed, the canonization of the Bible, and the emergence of the church's hierarchical order. These things were the causes for Christian unity that surpassed the pagan religions and sects in the Roman Empire. Through the works of the apologists the church became a hierarchical system that ruled with the Creed as its faith and the Scripture as the source for morality, and so it became the imperial tool for unity under the rule of Constantine. For some reasons, the adoption of the Church as the imperial religion cannot be regarded as the gain of Christianity. As the church became the political tool, there came corruption and worldliness in the church. However, the approval of the Emperor and the growing number of converts certified that the Church became influential and beneficial for the well being of the society both institutionally and theologically.

Through out the Medieval ages Christianity, though filled with corruption and worldliness, was central both in the West and in the East for the wellbeing of the society. The church was the saving factor among the destruction and casualty during the barbarian invasion in the West. Even after the collapse of the central power Latin Church became the leading figure in the governance of the society in the West. The monasteries played an important role in education and spiritual training. Priests and bishops were important leaders along with the kings. Evangelical preaching was a major cause of individual conversion into Christianity. However, some conversions were communal and it took place not by personal experience of Christ but by the following after the regional rulers who accepted Christianity as a useful teaching and ruling system. Such a communal conversion took place both in the Western and Eastern Mission fields. The conversion of Clovis (Prankish king) and his subjects, and the conversion of Russians are the examples of the communal conversions.

The use of the church for the political ploy was ridiculous or unpleasant to many (Donatists, non-Chalcedonian churches, Spiritual groups), but from a different perspective it is the success
of the church because through it Christianity became influential and beneficial for the society. In other words, the success of the church was not because it became the imperial church but because its teaching and hierarchical system became beneficial for the society and the social order of that time. All these successes owe to the apologists who, through their defense of Christianity, worked for the development of the Creed, the Bible, and the hierarchical order that built up Christianity as a significant religion or institution for the society.

Apologetic Mission in Asian Context

The Mission Training School started this Monday, and it is keeping me busy for a while. I am also working on the our library which in my opinion has good books in it courteousy of our Chin Pastor who studied at Myanmar Institute of Christian Theology. I would say his collection maybe small, but there are impressive titles in it. I also added some of the books given to me by a friend who moved out from here 4 years ago mostly books on pastoral care and counseling and very old, may I add.

As I was trying to record the books and catalog them, I noticed the initial issue of journal on missions and evangelism with a title Missio Dei published by Myanmar Institute of Theology. There are lots of good articles on it, and I may post some of it here.

One of the papers is written by Augurlion. He is a lecturer of Church History at Myanmar Institute of Theology. With the coming of many missionary agencies trying to win people to Christianity here in the Mekong Region, and I would say up to this point the missionary movements have not been very successful, his article makes us think to go back to the old method of evangelism and that is what he called Apologetic Mission.

I will post his paper here little by little, because people have a tendency to skip long post. So in the next days, I will be posting from this journal hoping to get some reactions and conversations. Here is the first part:

A number of mission strategies and mission models have developed in the course of Christian history as Christianity encounters the changing contexts of the world. However, no matter whatever strategy is used the objective is to win converts or to Christianize. This objective comes from the understanding that evangelism is to make converts for Christianity. Evangelism or Christianization was successful in the West, especially, before the rise of secularism. However, its success was and is very limited in . Moreover, Christianity has faced with the counter-acts of the non-Christians in . There are theological and moral attacks on Christianity from other religions. Therefore, in such a pluralistic , Christianity should think of its mission in defensive terms rather than aggressive terms.

One of the traditional aspects of Christian mission is "proclamation" or "to make known". In fact, it was an important task of the Church in pre-modern period because in that period the names, "Jesus" and "Christianity," were foreign to many parts of the world. But they are no longer foreign to the world in post­modern period. Also in post-modern , Christianity and Jesus are no longer the new names to be proclaimed. Most Asian people have become familiar with what Christianity is. The problem for Christianity in Asia today is not "it is the unknown," but "it is misconceived or attacked." Therefore, there are more for the Asian churches to defend than to claim or conquer. To response to this challenge Apologetic mission may be a suitable model of the churches in Asia.

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[1] ' The word "Evangelism" is misleading. It was and is often identified as the verbal proclamation of the gospej. But it is also defined as consisting of both preaching and social action. See John R. W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (Illinois, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1975), 15-28, for the definition of "Evangelism" and its relationship to social action.