Author Archives: ver@uoregon.edu

Team 4, Question 1, 5/25

Posted on by under global christianity

Jacobsen identifies four different religious regions of Asia: Islamic West Asia, Hindu South Asia, Religiously Mixed Southeast Asia, and Buddhist/Secular East Asia. Christians make up about 4% of the population in both West and South Asia, but they live vastly different experiences in these places. The Christians in West Asia are generally poor, immigrants, and looked down upon. Conversely, South Asian Christians live either in tight-knit communities and hold a much higher status in general society, or they are a part of the castless population at the bottom of the totem pole. Southeast Asian Christians are generally a part of minority groups, so much that is now common for members of secular minorities to convert to Christianity to better align with their marginalized identities. East Asia has the fastest growing Christian population throughout Asia, but different states react differently to Christian identities there. Most notably, South Korea has a huge, respected Christian population, while North Korea persecutes their Christian population.

The “triple dialogue” of Asian Christianity refers to the joining of nationalism, religious tolerance, and care for the poor. Throughout the entire Asian continent a strong sense of national pride is assumed amongst citizens. This ties into the strong sense of community and group identity that exists in a lot of cultures outside of the west. This expected nationalism makes way for what is often a much more tolerant Christianity than that of the west. When it is assumed that everyone strives for the greater good of their neighbors and their country, the various religions of those neighbors tend to seem less important. The survival of such a wide variety of cultures and religions throughout Asia is testament to the power of religious tolerance. In a continent with such high population levels and close-knit communities it makes sense that Asian Christians would take on the duty of helping the poor even more readily than many western Christians.

The most obvious lesson to take away from Asian Christianity is the theme of religious tolerance. Throughout the entire west Christians are uncomfortable and even violent in their reaction to interfaith discussion and interaction. This is a huge barrier to progress that we must work to move past, and many parts of Asia set an example that we could stand to learn from. Aside from this I find that Asian Christianity seems also to be more dedicated to implementing the ideals of Christ, which is something that many western Christian sects have wrongly moved away from. For Christianity to be relevant I believe it’s population needs to practice what it preaches.

Group 4, Question 2

Posted on by under modernism

The scientific advancements of the 19th century led to a lot of skepticism about Christian ideals and Biblical stories. This created a split that divided people according to their reaction to these scientific advancements; modernists believed the science and shifted in to more conception and open interpretation of the Bible that allowed for scientific advancement in the new world. The fundamentalists were a group created out of the backlash to this idea, that said that the Bible was fact and in order to be a true Christian you must believe in the five fundamentals of the faith. Both sides felt their way was the only way for Christianity to continue, and this created conflict.

Fosdick describes the fundamentalists much in the same way Luther described the Catholic church; they believed in the miracles of Christianity and prescribed to a type of worship that maintained those ideals, creating their five fundamentals in order to maintain them. In contrast, and the reason for the fundamentalists’ formation, were the modernists. They focused more on the ideas and teachings of Christianity and rejected to miracles that the bible used to teach them. Their focus was how to bring new and scientific knowledge into their faith.

Fundamentalists believed the Bible to be the absolute word of God, and they viewed everything in it as scientifically and historically accurate. Modernists viewed the Bible less statically, thinking that Christ was a representation of how God wanted us to live. Again, this meant that the modernists were able to reconcile their religion with the new information of the modern world. Fosdick was a modernist himself and therefore believed that trusting in science was the right path to take; he believed this was the only way for Christianity to survive in the new modern world that we are living in.

I have actually watched and read media that attempts to explain the miracles of the Bible using modern knowledge of science, and it creates a very interesting dynamic where practicing Christians seem to be contradicting themselves by searching out and explaining completely natural causes for seemingly supernatural happenings from the Bible. Ultimately I do see how the Bible’s authority can easily be diminished by these processes, because once a miracle is explained it is no longer wondrous. I think the best way for a Christian to rationalize this would be by taking a somewhat naturalist or enlightenment view on religion; the science that explains these miracles must be a work of God as well.

Group 4, Question 2 (4/14 )

Posted on by under reformation

The Canons on the Sacraments in General discusses the importance of the 7 Catholic Sacraments in direct response to the circulating Protestant ideas about the invalidity of the sacraments. The council claims it’s authority on the matter essentially by listing all the names of the men who are supporting the document; such names including the Pope, cardinals, and several other important figures in the Catholic church at the time, and then by claiming that they have power through the Holy Spirit. The council considers the sacraments the “path of all true justice” and claims that they are essential to achieving salvation.

The council claims that all 7 Catholic Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ, and that God imparts grace through the sacraments upon any individual who takes them correctly. They also clarify that only ministers who have power imparted by God can confer sacraments, in direct conflict to the Protestant belief that one could achieve salvation solely through their own faith. Nearly all of the listed canons seem to be in almost direct conflict with the new Protestant teachings; the claim that sacraments are necessary for salvation (4), that grace is achieved through works (8), that not any Christian can administer sacraments (10), and that priests who marry cannot confer sacraments (12). These are only the more blatant refutals of Protestant ideals, but virtually every canon listed attacks and discredits Protestant ideas in some way.

In the Index of Prohibited Books the church essentially claims that any book which challenges or goes against the doctrines of the Catholic church is an inauthentic book. Books are classified by local bishops, inquisitors, and theologians approved by the local bishop. On a larger scale and in Rome books are classified by certain appointed church officials that are called out in the document. Books such as biblical translations and manuals can be used as supplemental material to the Vulgate so long as they are approved by the church. The Index of Prohibited Books was released at a time when printing presses were still relatively new and therefor knowledge could be spread much easier and faster than ever before. By having virtually every book published be either approved or banned by the church they had very tight control over what ideas could circulate in Christian society, even ideas that were not directly religious in nature. The level of detail of the document is to be expected in such an unsteady time as the church struggles to gain control over the spread of ideas in Christian society.

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