Short Notes

#1 – Christian Relativism

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9, NRSV)

Many Western Protestant Christians lack epistemological humility. They are convinced, that is, that they know The Truth, and altogether too frequently they consign to a fiery fate those who disagree with their version of The Truth. In the past, this attitude regarding Christian knowledge fit in very well with the way their world generally acted and thought; being aggressively self-confident in one's beliefs and values was contextually "appropriate" since everyone else was convinced of the Absolute Truth of their beliefs. The West, however, is undergoing something of an epistemological revolution. It is learning that knowledge is a relative thing. What we know depends on perspective, circumstances, contexts, attitudes, and other factors that shade meanings in a grand variety of ways. Knowledge is not what the Enlightenment tried to make it, a static treasury of facts to be accumulated and defended. It is a shifting rainbow of colors that meld into each other and cannot be owned. The best we can do is "borrow" what we know until it transforms, mutates, goes through a phase-shift, a paradigmatic shift, or otherwise changes. Yesterday's fact is today's myth.

Many Western Protestants, especially the really Protestant ones, don't very much like this world. They see it as an enemy to faith and to theology. How, they ask, can one talk about God or have faith apart from Absolute Knowledge?

That was a good question in the old age; the new age has made it irrelevant. If we are going to live in the world, share Good News with the world, and not wall ourselves off from the world, we are going to have rediscover, reinvent, and restate our faith in ways that make sense to the world. We're going to have to learn to see our knowledge of God in contextual, relative, and non-static terms. Isaiah 55:9 is one good starting place on that epistemological journey of faith in a relativistic world. It teaches us to have a less high opinion of our theologies, a more humble attitude towards our opinions. Enlightenment Christians, indeed, became so absolutely sure of the rightness of their beliefs about God and their (unsaved) neighbors that those beliefs became ideological idols. They did not really live by faith at all, being as ideologically sure of themselves as they were. One of the things we'll have to learn in this Age of Relativism is to live by faith in God, whose ways truly are Higher.

#2 – Theses Topics at McGilvary

The Office of History has recently compiled a list of all of the student theses produced at the Thailand Theological Seminary and McGilvary Faculty of Theology currently held by the Faculty of Theology library. The list extends to 93 theses dating back to 1965. The following is a break down of the topics covered by these theses:

That is to say, over the last 35 years the students at TTS/MFT have devoted the bulk of their attention to two fields: biblical studies (Old and New Testament), 32 theses, and nurturing ministries within the church (Pastoral Care, Christian Education, and Worship & Liturgy), 30 theses. Theological issues (Theology and Contextualization) total some 14 theses, while outreach ministries (Evangelism and Social Witness) account for 10 theses.

This is an admittedly rough break down and not entirely accurate—and potentially misleading if taken too seriously. Some of the biblical theses, for example, discuss contextualization of the Gospel in Thailand in light of Scripture. Still, this analysis does reveal some insights regarding what these CCT theological students are concerned about and interested in:

First, it is particularly evident that their attention is largely focused on the internal life of the church and its faith. Only about one thesis in ten is devoted to outreach ministries.

Second, these students reflect a clear commitment to the Bible. They see the Bible as an important source for Christian understanding. It will surprise no one who knows the Thai church that they are generally more focused on the New Testament (26 theses) rather than the Old (6 theses).

Third, it is painfully clear that these students are not interested in the Thai church's past. There were only four church history theses (one person wrote two of them), and of these four two were written by tribal students (one Karen, one Lahu).

Finally, it is interesting that issues of contextualization have received relatively little attention. Where contextualization is the dominant issue for most of the foreigners working with the Thai church, it would seem that the seminarians have not been particularly concerned about the issue—not, at least, to a great extent. These students, by and large, seem far more concerned to understand the Bible and strengthen the inner life of the church. In light of this observation, it is somewhat surprising (and troubling) that only one thesis was devoted to the topic of worship and liturgy, which implies that the students do not see strengthening worship as an avenue for strengthening the church.

#3 – Globalization Defined

Drawing on discussions at the conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) held in the USA last October, Philip Hughes offers the following definition of "globalization." "It," he writes, "refers to the extent to which wars, trade, culture, and many other aspects of life, are becoming globally interrelated. 'Globalization' also refers to a change in consciousness. People in business, culture, sport, and many other activities are thinking and acting in a global world. Within that process, the significance of territoriality is decreasing. The core of globalization is increasing interdependence. What happens in one part of the world affects what happens elsewhere." Philip argues that globalization is not simply an expansion of Western influence and power over the rest of the world; at the same time, however, many cultures deplore the spread of certain Western values, such as personal choice, to the detriment of traditional and family values. In some ways, then, globalization is as much "deconstructing" our world as it is creating a new world

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order, and there are those who feel that it is more correct to say that globalization is creating a new world disorder.

From Pointers: Bulletin of the Christian Research Association, December 2001

#4 – Paul & Daniel

"My rough guess is that Paul in Athens had an easier assignment than McGilvary in Chiengmai. The Nineteenth century American McGilvary speaking in the northern Thai dialect to Thai peasants encountered more difficulties than the Mediterranean Paul speaking in Greek to the Mediterranean audience."

Kosuke Koyama, Waterbuffalo Theology, 1970

#5 – Theology from Below

Dr. Kosuke Koyama taught theology at the Thailand Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1968. As an instructor, he frequently visited rural churches with teams of students, and it was there that he discovered a new attitude about theology. He writes,

"I decided to subordinate great theological thoughts, like those of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth, to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers. I decided that the greatness of theological works is to be judged by the extent and quality of the service they can render to the farmers to whom I am sent. I also decided that I have not really understood Summa Theologiae and Church Dogmatics until I am able to use them for the benefit of the farmers. My theology in northern Thailand must begin with the need of the farmers and not with the great thoughts developed in Summa Theologiae and Church Dogmatics."

Kosuke Koyama, Waterbuffalo Theology, 1970

#6 - The 8th International Conference & Religion

The 8th International Conference on Thai Studies was held in Nakon Panom under the sponsorship of Ramkhamhaeng University on January 9-12, 2002. Although I didn't attend personally, a member of the Office of History staff did, and he brought back with him the CD containing the papers from the conference. A survey of those papers reveals that of the 120 papers contained on the CD, only 8 (6.67%) are on topics related to religious subjects. Looking back six years to the 6th Conference, held in Chiang Mai in 1996, 28 of a total of 366 papers (7.65%) were on identifiably religious topics. In 1996, there were four papers on Christianity in Thailand; at this last conference, there were none.

HeRD #288 (27 October 1996) wrestles with the possible implications of the relatively small number of papers dealing with religious themes. It doesn't reach any conclusions, but on further reflection it would seem that the apparent lack of interest in religion shown by this conference has more to say about the importance of religion to the international academic culture than it does about the role and significance of religion in Thai cultures. Without particularly lamenting the matter, it does appear that scholars of religion work largely on the fringes of academia where their voices are seldom heard and their work carries little weight. It may well be, also, that scholars of religion assist in this ghetto-ization of religious studies by choosing to display their work in other venues. One wonders, finally, if the drop in the number of

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