Hinduism & Christianity
It's clear from the state of my own blog that I'm back at school. Greek is taking most of my time, so my posts are mostly pointing readers to stuff other people have said. Ah well, for everything there is a season...
My other course is John Stackhouse's World Religions, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. My reasons for taking the course are many, but they include something Dr. Stackhouse himself outlined during our first lecture: Some of these folks are doing God's will, and we have much to learn from them. Fascinating.
We're starting off with Hinduism, and I've already been struck by something very, very significant from my way of thinking. It seems from my reading that Hindus don't differentiate between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, between belief and practice. My Eastman text puts it this way:
"Every Indian system seeks the truth, not as academic "knowledge for its own sake," but to learn the truth which shall make men free. This is not, as it has been called, the modern pragmatic attitude. It is much larger and much deeper than that. It is not the view that truth is measured in terms of the practical, but rather that the truth is the only sound guide for practice, that truth alone has efficacy as a guide for man in his search for salvation....
In India, philosophy is for life; it is to be lived. It is not enough to know the truth; the truth must be lived. The goal of the Indian is not to know the ultimate truth but to realize it, to become one with it."
(Eastman, ed. p. 17)
With this as context, Gandhi's quote makes even more sense to me:
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Mahatma Gandhi
So this morning at about 4:30 am (damned insomnia) I was up doing a little surfing. Checking my blog stats I saw a hit from someone who googled a statement from Bill Maher that I posted almost two years ago:
"I mean, the teachings of Jesus are a great moral guide. Jesus is one of the greatest role models I can think of. It's a shame that Christianity has gone so far from the teachings of Jesus. I don't know anyone less Jesus-like than most Christians."
Bill Maher
And finally, well, get this: As I sat on the bus this morning the guy sitting next to me pulls out a copy of David Watson's I Believe in The Church. I glanced over his shoulder and read this:
"A Hindu poet, Rabindranath Tagore, said to a Christian leader in India, 'On that day when we see Jesus Christ living out his life in you, on that day we Hindus will flock to your Christ even as doves flock to their feeding ground.'"
(p. 305)
I think Someone is trying to tell me something.
You know, the video "If We Are His Body" has been making the rounds this week. (I think I saw it first over at the Mission.) Somedays the cynic in me wants to say, "If we are his body... somebody better call 911."
posted by Mike Todd @ 9:27 PM
Comments: 1
