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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 172 172 New Contexts for Mission counterarguments for textbook listings of the doctrines of those religions. What people actually believe and the ways they practice their faith will differ from what textbooks say about their religion. For example, it is often said that the majority of those categorized as Muslims and Hindus and perhaps 20 percent of those who are nominally Christian are actually animistic. Many Buddhists are animistic as well, as is evidenced by the little spirit houses outside homes and businesses throughout Southeast Asia. The traditional short definition of animism is “the belief in spirits.” However, to get a proper understanding of that term, one must go back a hundred years to anthropologist James George Fraser. In his monumental 13-volume The Golden Bough, Fraser noted that people in every culture are involved in a quest for the supernatural. Through the years anthropologists have continued to affirm what Fraser said about the universality of religion, putting it on their lists of cultural universals. Even where leaders have claimed their followers were atheistic, this has never been true for the whole of a culture. Witness the survival of religion in Albania during the Communist years even though the attempts to erase all vestiges of religion included sandblasting crosses off of tombstones. That all groups of people seek the supernatural should not be surprising in the light of the prevenient aspect of God’s grace in which divine grace is understood to precede or go before the arrival of the missionary. Though Don Richardson does not use the term prevenient grace, that was the foundation for his words in Eternity in Their Hearts when he wrote, “God has indeed prepared the Gentile world to receive the Gospel.” 11 John Ellenberger, professor of <strong>missions</strong> at Alliance Theological Seminary, has also pointed to several examples of the Holy Spirit’s preparatory activity in cultures prior to any contact with the gospel message. 12 As Fraser examined cultures throughout the world, he saw two ways that people approached the supernatural, ways he called the religious and the magical (see fig. 12.1). Either approach can be used by believers of all religions. They are not mutually exclusive and are often mixed in practice. The religious approach to the supernatural, anthropologists say, is characterized by submission. One example of that is the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane just prior to His arrest. His submissiveness in that prayer is exemplified by the words, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Submission is also a key attitude in the religion of Islam; indeed, the word Islam means “submission” in Arabic. For many, Buddhism is also a religion of submission to the point of being fatalistic. The magical approach to the supernatural is characterized by manipulation. People using this approach want supernatural forces to do something for them. The supernatural quest by animists often uses such a magical approach.
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 173 New Contexts for Mission 173 173 Through a séance, a visit to a shaman, or some other means the supplicant seeks to control or influence supernatural powers. If the attempt involves an enemy, the shaman may be asked to work a spell, mix up a potion, or create a representative doll to try to bring harm to someone. The shaman, medium, or practitioner usually receives a fee for his or her efforts and there is often a fear that one’s enemy may go to a shaman who can more effectively manipulate the supernatural than the person to whom he or she has just paid a fee. Such fear is dysfunctional, both for the person and the culture. QUEST FOR THE SUPERNATURAL SUBMISSION WORSHIP PEACE FUNCTIONAL RELIGIOUS Fig. 12.1. Quest for the supernatural MAGICAL MANIPULATION CONTROL FEAR DYSFUNCTIONAL What Would You Do If . . . ? Several different approaches have been used by Christians in efforts to understand those of other religious faiths. Bringing up classically stated doctrines of another world religion or even those of Christianity may do little more than spark long and even heated discussions. A far better technique is to pose a simple question, “If you had a great need—perhaps your child was dying—what would you do?” The answer will be very revealing about a person’s core religious beliefs. Many self-professed Muslims or Hindus will say, “Oh, I would go down the street to that lady who reads the tea leaves or who will work a spell.” Finding someone to work a spell is not, of course, true Islam or Hinduism. It is animism. For such people, Christians can offer a better way, a way of submission and worship. Sadly, Christians may not always be prepared to do that. Some time ago Paul Hiebert wrote an article about the “flaw of the excluded middle” in which he said Western missionaries were often unprepared to minister in cultures in which there was widespread animism. 13 Hiebert noted that believers in the West had well-developed theological understandings about God and about
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