Christianity, more than any other
major religion, has been able to infiltrate many radically different cultures. While
there is, a core of teachings (e.g. the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the
Ten Commandments) to which all forms of Christianity are faithful, there is a
great deal of freedom in how these absolutes are expressed and take form within
a particular culture. For example, the
Bible directs Christians to unite in acts of musical praise, but it doesn’t
prescribe meter, rhythm, level of emotional expressiveness, or instrumentation—all
this is left to be culturally expressed in a variety of ways. [With Catholicism
this is even more so than with other Christian faiths but more on that in a
future post]
Other religions are generally constrained
by cultural context linked to geography.
The center and majority of Islam’s population is still in the place of
its origin—the Middle East. Buddhism, at best, has only regional impact with
only a few followers in the West as adherents are primarily found in Southern
and Eastern Asia. It never established itself even in India, the land of its
founding. And in South Korea, Christians now outnumber Buddhists. Similarly, the
original lands that have been the demographic centers of Hinduism, and
Confucianism have remained so.
By contrast, Christianity is a force on every continent and
in every major region of the world, with the sole exception of the heartland of
Islam, the Middle East.
Next time: A pause to reflect on The Joy of the Gospel. In Christ…
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