Preparing for Syncretism

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my upcoming class in eSwatini (Swaziland still rolls off the tongue more easily!). As I have been thinking about how to highlight the relevance of the New Testament for cultures and churches that are in many ways different from my own, one question that came to mind is “how much religious syncretism do they deal with?” And fairly immediately, the answer that occurred to me was, “probably about as much as we do.”

When we think of syncretism, it's easy to picture an indigenous religious practitioner lumping Jesus in with the gods of his tribe, or people who treat prayer like a spell that goads God into doing what we want. But the Oxford dictionary is nowhere near so narrow. It defines syncretism as, “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.” A definition like this leaves us with the convicting reality that when we import our strongly held cultural values into our gospel, we become guilty of syncretism.

I just read an article that made reference to “the problem of individualism.” Something about that phrase stopped me in my tracks, and I realized that it was because I have never heard individualism talked about that way. Now, the Bible is not communist, as some have tried to argue. My understanding is that it interweaves a strong community orientation with individual responsibility. But almost no one (at least in the Canadian circles I know) talks about individualism as “a problem.” Individualism in North America is so celebrated that we have brought it into the church with nary a thought. It is a hard thing to look past our cultural biases, and let our values be reprioritized and reshaped by scripture. I think that this is one of the reasons why missions – a missions that is from everywhere to everywhere – needs to continue. We can see the blind spots of other cultures, and they can see the blind spots of ours.

The point of this post is not to rag on individualism. If it needs doing, there are others who can do that as well or better than I. The point is that religious syncretism isn't something “out there” that we have to stop. The problem with syncretism is in our hearts. We're all guilty of it. It is in fact the first lie, the first sin, the one that said, “You can have God and everything else.”

So am I prepared for syncretism in eSwatini? Who knows. But the better question is, “Am I prepared for the syncretism that rears its ugly head in my own life?” That is the greater challenge.