Outside of the Box...Behind the Curtain

Two of the things that I am thankful for this year are the interactions that I have had with the men and women in my doctoral cohort and the assigned reading I have been laboring to complete. I haven’t always agreed with them, but I have grown either by enlarging my understanding to include new ways of thinking about culture, ethnicity, and ambassadorship or by understanding my position more clearly.

But this process got me thinking about how often we read books and articles that are written from outside our own cultural/religious/political comfort zone. We generally don’t like to read or listen to those that disagree with us or can see through our façade.

Behind the Curtain

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

Recently I was reading a book by Vinoth Ramachandra a nuclear scientist and Christian theologian from Sri Lanka, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World. His book reminded me of Dorothy’s little dog Toto in the Wizard of Oz when he pulls back the curtain to reveal the “Wizard” pulling levers in a frantic effort to intimidate Dorothy her and friends. I loved looking at what Ramachandra calls the “Global Myths” (i.e., Terrorism, Religious Violence, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, Science, and Post-colonialism) from an articulate voice outside Western culture. Despite the difficult language used, the point was powerfully delivered. As we say in my family, “That will leave a bruise!” 

While I don’t agree with some of the theological and political positions taken in this book, I have enjoyed the wake-up call. Books like this one have gone a long way toward pulling back the curtain of my own cultural blindness. Christianity is not equivalent to Western/American evangelical culture and our faith can only be strengthened and purified as we read the works of Christians from around the world. So what do I do when I find that the man behind the curtain is me (the dominant culture I am a part of)?

Outside the Box

Creative Commons, Public Domain

Another way of making sure our contemporary faith is balanced is by studying historical theology. It sounds silly, but I was pleasantly surprised by the writings of church fathers like Irenaeus (d. 202), Athanasius (d. 373), and Latin fathers like Augustine (d. 430), as well as believers from the Medieval and Reformation periods. 

There is something confirming in the realization that our faith is not new but has its roots stretching back to the early church. Their words, written in a different era can be very beneficial to us today. Some time ago, I stumbled across these insightful words, written by C.S. Lewis, in an introduction to an English translation of St. Athanasius’ book, On the Incarnation (available for free on Kindle), urging us to read books from outside our contemporary context.

“A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light…

Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it…

Where [modern books] are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us…

     To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately, we cannot get at them…”[1]

While reading voices that speak from outside my own chrono-cultural context is not a new idea to me, this program has made it a new practice. They have both worked to help me see behind the curtain of my Western dominant culture biases, and get me out of my contemporary box. For that I am thankful. Though honestly, I am even more thankful that I am almost done with this year’s assigned reading!

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[1] Athanasius, St. (2010-03-01). On The Incarnation (Kindle Location 56-80).  . Kindle Edition.