Ernie: Yeah, that squares with my experience also. What I do wonder is what, of eastern tradition could be incorporated --even if it isn't currently. Not the way the modernists do things, but within Evangelical culture. Some forms of art, maybe, and possibly --via discussion of missionary endeavors-- such things as " insights from Christians in China from their relationships with Confucians," viz, stress on family, or " how our own Christmas observances might be enriched by how the Japanese celebrate the holiday." Along those lines. Personally, as you might guess, I would hope things could go further, maybe such things as Sunday School lessons in which the Gospels are compared and contrasted with some Buddhist sutras, so just maybe there might be a move in this direction, too. But at the moment we aren't there yet. I was charmed, if that's the right word, when first learning about St Jehosaphat. The Vatican, back in the 1970s if I recall, finally got around to eliminating his sainthood, but it had stood for approximately a millennium. Who is ( was ) St Jehosaphat ? He very likely started out as Buddha. The Persianized version of bodhisattva is Budhasaf, which became Yudasaf in Greek and Josaphat in Latin. There are all kinds of problems with the story, not least reconciling its several versions, one of them Ethiopian, and some important missing Buddhist themes you's expect to be there, but there really are some strong parallels which don't have logical Christian explanations. Like the story of how Josaphat was kept isolated from suffering, old age, and death by his royal father but eventually was able to see these things and then set out on a course of spiritual quest which led him to truth. Point being that maybe by seeing connections, even if now "demoted," for example, ( 1 ) Christians might be better able to approach Buddhists with far more understanding, and ( 2 ) Buddhists might become better able to appreciate the Christian message. Same thing especially for Zoroastrianism., but also for some kinds of Hinduism --even if neither Christians not Hindus presently want to see the relationships. Well, my take, which you'd expect from a comparative religionist. Billy In a message dated 1/26/2010 11:40:02 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Billy, On Jan 26, 2010, at 9:51 AM, [email protected] wrote: > Exceptions are toward the "Left" side of the religious spectrum, among Unitarians, > United Church of Christ, and maybe Evangelical Lutherans, but I wonder about > community churches or more traditional denominations. Those, it seems to me, > are where the action is if you want to discuss the overwhelming majority > of Christian believers. And if there are innovations involving eastern religions > and Evangelical Christianity, then the religious future could well > feature some major changes. Yeah, I'm not seeing that eastern religious practices among evangelical churches (unless you count martial arts :-). I *am* seeing a move towards incorporating eastern and southern *cultural* practices: Spanish-style worship, Korean-style prayer meetings, etc. -- Ernie P. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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