I think I've said before that I am fascinated by the sociology of religion. What I mean by that is, how much we are influenced in our views about God by our social and ethnic surroundings? A person raised in Banglore will have a far different theology than one raised in Tokyo, than one raised in the jungles of Brazil, than one raised in the western United States. The question that haunts me is - is one more "right" than the others? I know... not a very good Christian thing to wonder, is it? Christians are taught that there is one way to know God and that is through Jesus Christ (Christian theologians call that "special revelation" - as opposed to "general revelation" which are those things that everyone can know about God through creation, etc.). I'm going to set aside that particular Christian affirmation for a little bit, just to see what happens. However, please don't get upset if you think I'm saying I don't believe that Jesus is the key - I do believe that. But I want to explore what happens when you open up to seeing God through a different lens.
I was talking to my brother yesterday - he's a lot of fun to talk to because he's a really smart guy and we have a lot of overlap in our areas of interest. He's a medieval history professor at a small Catholic college, so I started prodding him for information on some recent decrees the Pope made that seemed outrageous to me. He was able to put it into Catholic perspective for me... and the conversation drifted into how even Catholics and Protestants have such huge differences in the way we understand religion. His Catholic students can't wrap their minds around the idea that a single church can have full autonomy (a cornerstone of what it means to be Baptist - it means each individual congregation gets to choose everything about themselves and don't report to any greater authority other than God). It made me think how even our understanding of a "minor" detail of religious polity is so deeply based in our social context. Those Catholic students couldn't see the church as a democracy (basically, that is how Baptist churches function - and the lore goes that the United States' democratic republic system was taken from a Baptist polity book - so think checks and balances and you're on the right track to understanding how that works in a church). Whereas I have a really hard time understanding how so many people can follow a single, fallible, human being without questioning what he says or does. Especially when he says really stupid things (like calling the "attempted ordination" of women a grave crime against the church - grrr, although my brother sufficiently explained the thought process in that particular decree).
So take that another step further... let's just say that I'm born and raised in India and my family and culture teaches me that the Trimurta (the Hindu godhead - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) are actively engaged with humanity and working out their own purposes here on earth through their various avatars and demigods. How is it even possible to see the world differently, if that is all you know? So it's logical that you begin to worship whichever avatar of whichever god is considered your local deity - we'll say Krishna, since he's a popular character; an avatar of Vishnu. Krishna is playful and a bit mean at times - so you definitely want to keep him on your good side. You learn that the gods aren't really interested in you personally, but will use you and take advantage of whatever situation will bring about their own interests. God becomes a fearful prospect; unknowable and unreliable. But the ways in which Hindu spirituality has come to deal with their imperious gods are stunning. The deeply religious use a variety of different meditation, worship, and service techniques from which our western Christian culture could learn a great deal about devotion.
I think there is something really beautiful and truthful in Hindu religion, just as I see beauty and truth in Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox). I can learn so much about God if I keep my mind open to seeking out those kernels of truth from another expression of faith. How can I find God through another cultural perspective? What do I see in another religion that rings of truth? I hope that I have my eyes open enough to allow God to use any religious expression to teach me more about the character of God.
I think that's the purpose of religion anyway, right? It is a framework upon which we contruct our understanding of who God is and how God works. It was never intended to be a full-constructed box into which God would go sit quietly and wait to be let out.
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