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One Person's Contextualisation is Another Person's Syncretism

I was in an interesting discussion full of anthropologists the other day. They were discussing syncretism. Most of them were of the view that outsiders cannot decide which practices are syncretistic and which are not. It has to be a decision made by local believers. This is because only local people can create indigenous theologies, that is, interpret Scripture according to the local worldview(s). 

Not only that, some practices need to be tolerated in the short term, as we trust that new believers will gradually mature, and realise that those practices need to be weaned out of their lives. This can take time, perhaps years.

Outsiders can, however, help local believers through the process of deciding for themselves which practices need to be rejected, which can be accepted, and which need to be modified according to (local formed) principles from Scripture.


For example, ancestor practices, which my PhD thesis was on, are often continued by people after they have come to faith. They feel they cannot simply abandon their deceased relatives to some unknown fate without an alternative in place. And that brings me to my main point...

It is no good telling people that they have to stop their ancestor practices (or whatever the unscriptural practice is), we need to make sure they have replaced those practices with something that can be relied on that is from God the Father and mediated by God the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not only that, they need the support of fellow believers, who need to replace the comradery lost as they move into new koinonia fellowship, that is, the fellowship of believers.

We saw this worked out in Central Asia when people came to faith. At first they were afraid to lose the support of their family. But then they realised they would have all the support they needed from their new family - the family of God, that is, the gathering of local believers. 

Not only that, God himself is emet, reliable, trustworthy, dependable. The great statements of faith in the First Testament or Hebrew Bible remind us of that. 

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Exod 34:6-7

Praise the LORD (יהוה), what a Saviour! 

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