Christianity may be global, but let’s not pretend it travels light.
It arrived in Asia wearing European shoes, quoting Latin creeds, and asking sages to trade ancestral wisdom for imported guilt. No wonder it flopped in some places and shape-shifted in others.
But Asia doesn’t reject the sacred. It just resists colonial packaging. The Christianities that flourish here are the ones that listen more than preach, bow before they baptize, and can chant with the monks before quoting Paul.
In the Asian Century, the future Church isn’t about domination. It’s about adaptation. Not conversion, but conversation.
Blessed be the faiths that evolve without erasing, and the prophets who know when to shut up and sit zazen.
I can think of a few Japanese Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who would thoroughly agree with you. They wanted western missionaries to basically just give them the gospel and then go home...!
Christianity may be global, but let’s not pretend it travels light.
It arrived in Asia wearing European shoes, quoting Latin creeds, and asking sages to trade ancestral wisdom for imported guilt. No wonder it flopped in some places and shape-shifted in others.
But Asia doesn’t reject the sacred. It just resists colonial packaging. The Christianities that flourish here are the ones that listen more than preach, bow before they baptize, and can chant with the monks before quoting Paul.
In the Asian Century, the future Church isn’t about domination. It’s about adaptation. Not conversion, but conversation.
Blessed be the faiths that evolve without erasing, and the prophets who know when to shut up and sit zazen.
I can think of a few Japanese Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who would thoroughly agree with you. They wanted western missionaries to basically just give them the gospel and then go home...!