Findings in the Ambulatory...

Yesterday was an amazing day. I went on a trip with Drury's Asian Culture Society to visit the Nelson-Adkins art museum in Kansas City, where we had lunch at Bo-Ling's Dim Sum restaurant, observed centuries of masterful artwork, and enjoyed the downtown life. It was incredible. Part of the fun was spending six hours in the car with a good friend and a German international student, from whom I gained lots of different perspective from (in a very good way), but part of the fun was looking at all of the religious exhibits in the museum and having lots of time to reflect on it all.

I learned something interesting while circling around the ambulatory in the medieval Christianity exhibit. Very fitting, I know. I was walking around looking at all the different Jesus paintings, portraits, sculptures, etc, and I noticed something: None of them are alike. Every artist puts his own unique touch to Jesus, be it his skin tone, hair line, or even just his facial expressions. No two Jesus portrayals are the same. Every generation paints Jesus through their own cultural lenses. To some, Jesus is black, others thickly Jewish, others completely caucasian. That led me to another point in my mind.

Every culture not only creates their own rendition of Jesus aesthetically, but also theologically. Every single person seems to encounter Jesus differently. Again, no two Jesus relationships are the same. There is no "correct" way to interpret Jesus. Granted, there are probably some wrong ways to go about it, but in the same way that no two friendships are the same, there is no orthodox encounter of Jesus. That gave me a special sense of relief. I can stop thinking about necessary and sufficient conditions for personal belief in Jesus, because it is about the particularities that I bring to the table, not about some generalization of humanity that matters most in faith. Very cool.

One thing that never seems to change is the message of love, of dedication to something beyond ourselves, of personal growth. I wish more people would start with the idea that everyone deserves to be loved unconditionally. From there, particular conceptions of Jesus get incredibly interesting and we can discuss them in an "envelope of friendship," as the new Emergent Christianity movement says. Life is good.

Works or Grace?

I've been meaning to post on this subject for a while but the time has just gotten away from me. The topic I wish to discuss stems from Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Living Buddha Living Christ, in which he discusses the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity and how we can better learn to love each other. A very interesting book for those that are up for a light, intriguing read.

Thich Nhat Hanh's theory works from a Buddhist perspective, but I'm not sure about how well pluralism works from a Western perspective, which is what I'd like to figure out. Perhaps there are some beliefs of Buddhism that work well with Christianity (mindfulness, interconnectedness, the detachment from worldly outcomes), but I tend to think that Christianity is more about right belief than right action, which I think is a shame. If it were just about right action, the world religions would all get along for the most part without much worry, but they fight over beliefs most of the time.

In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the father accept through me." Most Christians rely on this verse to prove that ONLY a belief in Christ will get them to the afterlife, but I think the way it is worded could lend itself to orthodoxy or orthopraxy. The word "through" could mean either belief or action. Saying "the way, the truth, and the life" could emphasize action more than belief. Either way, I think that the verse is insufficient evidence to back up the notion that belief is what is most important in Christianity.

What is a very compelling argument for orthodoxy over orthopraxy is more theoretical. For Buddhists, action and the way we encounter the world is more important because you get an eternity to get it right. No matter what you believe, you've got another shot at it in the next life. Christianity is not the same though. The fact that a Christian life is linear makes belief and grace the only way to go. Not everyone has the same circumstances in life, so it wouldn't be just to judge everyone by their actions due to the fact that not everyone has the same upbringing. In a linear lifetime, the only thing that makes sense is grace and a belief system of forgiveness.

This is just prima facie thoughts on the matter. I'm not sure what I believe or if I'm on the right track at all, but it's an interesting subject. What's more important: right action or right belief? Orthodoxy or orthopraxy? Works or grace? We may never know this side of eternity.