Now, our plane takes off the land and we shall begin our
journey in the sky of Hinduism. Here, as I’ve brought up some major points
before the episode 1 ever began, I’d like to deal with both understanding of
Hinduism along with how we shall interact with them. Our language, thought,
manner and connectivity impose great impact on them as well as our own image.
I have already mentioned that we shall necessarily know their history, worldview, philosophy and major beliefs. We should be then careful on how we approach them. Otherwise, a minor slippage can lead to great consequences later. Be sure on point no. 8 at https://apologeticsimpact.blogspot.com/2020/12/gospel-to-hindu-world-series.html and point no. 9.
No matter how broad the worldviews and beliefs are, every
Hindu believes in two major things: Karma and Reincarnation. Our
straightforward gospel of someone’s death on the cross cannot play any
significant role in a Hindu world except the acceptance as ‘one of the ways’.
Hinduism has become an umbrella today that tries to accommodate every system of
philosophy and faith within itself. We cannot even think of any particular
approach. It is like shapeless and formless, like a water, just as a philosophy
of Bruce Lee. This might seem really interesting at a glance but when you begin
digging deeper and deeper, you will happen to almost forget your absolute
destination and goal. You will begin feeling puzzled and struggle to get away from
the maze!
Next is the language. Here, I am not talking about
communication languages of caste and tribes. I am talking about terminologies
that are defined within a belief system. There are two aspects:
contextualization and synchronization. The latter one is highly misleading
framework and we will definitely deal with it. Contextualization is a way by
which we use a proper catchy context so that our audience can easily grab our
intended message. Synchronization is a fallacy in which we try to bring harmony
between different systems of environment by borrowing or using the ideas from
the foreign environment.
Contextualization involves an attempt to present the Gospel
in a culturally relevant way.[i] The process of
contextualization takes these facts about culture into account. It involves
“presenting the unchanging truths of the gospel within the unique and changing
contexts of cultures and worldviews.”[ii] There is an understanding of
contextualization since Christianity can be translated both linguistically and
culturally in any social framework so that the people can understand the
message in their own context. Simply to put, both Jesus and Paul did
contextualization during their mission. Paul used pagan philosophers to
contextualize and help people to understand gospel. Sadhu Sundar Singh has said
to offer water of life in Indian cup.[iii] On the other hand, Religious
syncretism exhibits blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new
system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from
unrelated traditions.[iv] It is the fusion of
diverse religious beliefs and practices.[v]
I have often heard believers using terms such as ‘Avatar’,
‘Maya’, ‘Moksha’, ‘Punarjanma’ and so on when they explain the gospel to any
Hindu audience. However, these terms, as if they might be thinking of doing
contextualization, can lead the path to misunderstanding and synchronism. The
Biblical worldview is totally diverse from the Hindu worldview. It is correct
that they may not understand our languages and hence we need to present the
gospel in their languages. But there is a caution, a red light for us, not to
let them understand totally from their worldview. Just for an instance, for them
the word ‘God’ may not be the same thing as we understand Biblically. For them,
‘moksha’ may be a different understanding than the way we know what
‘redemption’ is. When you share the gospel with friend using ‘avatar’ word and
later he or she begins believing Jesus as one of the avatars of Vishnu then it
brings a serious barrier. You used the word with an aim to contextualize the
gospel but they may again understand by synchronizing the meaning and the usage.
Hence, we have to be careful on terms we use considering whether or not to use
them by knowing what they mean for a Hindu environment. There will be separate
episodes on this subject in upcoming days.
Another inevitable part of using the languages is not to
offend their belief. Abhisek Joshi, a Christian critique and Hindutwa adherent,
has seriously raised one important issue that those who change their religion
from Sanatana dharma to Christian faith, they abuse Hindu deities as demons.
Many believers do not understand that using these violent languages can
emotionally affect our Hindu friends. I have had suffered many such issues from
my friends (See episode 1). In his book, The Origin of Religions, Thomas Hwang
has also stated a statement that truly all forms of worshipped deities are
Lucifer and his follower angels [pg. 30]. He has done a massive assessment [192
bibliography] of how all forms of worshipping different deities began in the
Babylon from Nimrod. Apart from his analysis, it is typically an established
trend of describing all forms of deities as armies of Lucifer [1/3 fallen
angels]. Whatever the history behind curtain of all forms of deities be, we are
ought to present Christ to our Hindu friends without hurting them by abusing
their beloved gods and goddesses as demons. This is very absurd. We shall
present them hope in Jesus and let them take an opportunity to make decision of
their own. Never should we attempt to explain anything that we do not know.
Here, I briefly mentioned about the languages we must be
careful. Regarding the history, philosophy and other details, I shall bring
them in adequate content in upcoming episodes. To this journey, I do hope you
have been benefitted. I shall try my best to bring relevant contents that we
really need and rarely taught.
Acknowledgements: Sabin Panta, Abhisek Vical, Parv Pravakar,
Nitish Singh, Deepak Nepali and Sangam Shrestha
[iii]
Singh, Sunil. Smoothing the Paths to Missions: Paul’s “To an Unknown God” a
Model for Evangelization in the Context of Nepal. Asia Pacific Theological
Seminary. Baguio City, Philippines. March 21, 2014.
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