Movement 113

feature: introduci ng christianity
means quite centrally addressing a society in
the thrall of materialism, of Mammon. ln Jesus'
he argues, the irreconcilable antinomy between
God and Mammon and the irrevocable covenant
between God and the poor are made flesh. True
evangelism is to live this out in fellowship with
the authentic spirituality and liberative
dimensions of other reli$ons. Note, evangelism
does not mean in the first instance displacing
True evangelism is to live in fellowship
with the authentic spirituality and
liberative dimensions of other religions
. Tim GorrinEle has wotked
in parishos' taught
theology in south lndia'
worked a3 a college
chaplain ln Oxfold' and
lectuled at St Andrewg
and Exeter, where he is
now St Luke's Plofeseor
of Thoological Studies. He
was chaptain to SCM ln
the 1970s.
other reli$ons. On the contrary, Pieris argues
that each of the great reli$ons has its own
version of the Sermon on the Mount, the Truth
that sets us free from being tied to things that
cannot $ve us freedom. The Asian churches (but
why just the Asian churches?) have to experience
solidarity with non-Christians by witnessing
to the spirituality common to all reli$ons (by
practising the Beatitudes); and reveal their
Christian uniqueness in proclaimingJesus as the
new covenant by joinin$ the poor against
Mammon's principalities and powers that create
poverty and oppression. ln a $obalised world, I
would argue, that is as true in London,
Birmingham or Glasgow as in Colombo'
The attempt to serve Mammon, whether or
not in the name of God, is the decisive marker
of what is not of God's Spirit. Whatever frees
us from Mammon is of the Spirit. We experience
solidarity with such anti-Mammon forces
and we proclaim Jesus as the new covenant in
solidarity with the Poor.
lf this is a true account of evangelism it
follows that mission campai$ns which rely on
huSe quantities of money, or on the strength
of imperial orders, are confiadictions in
terms. What it actually means to make
disciples of nations is to baptise them into a
spirituality of nonacquisitiveness and
nonaccumulativeness which guarantees a
healthy, ecologically balanced sharing of our
resources. The cross is not, as it is for much
Protestant preaching, 'the price for sinners
paid' but the price fixed by the rich who refuse
to be evangelised by the poor. 'lf one day we
truly take up this cross as a body and go
underground and pay that price for the sake
of our intimidated masses, that day the world
will see the miracle it is yearning to see' a
church which has been evangelised by the
poor, and therefore, a church that has
become Good News to the poor, as Jesus
was'. As each religion discovers that in the
other which liberates from acquisitiveness it
discovers and renames itself precisely in and
through encounter.
Pieris warns that the liberating spirituality of
the religions is gradually being extinguished
by the wave of capitalistic techniculture that
has begun to shake the relisious foundation
of all cultures. 'The market economy (which
thrives on the quest for profit) and
consumerism (which plays to our accumulative
instinct) have enthroned Mammon where,
once, the human Person and the human
community as well as the earth on which we
live, were the sole beneficiary'. This is, I
believe, the key perspective in any contemporary
theoloSl of evangelism. Gospel is good
news, and this has to be addressed to the
situation of the day, in our case one where
the possibility of the continuance of life as we
know it is threatened by the rapacity of
present economic practices, as '2,000
concerned scientists' warned in 1996.
Reviewing my ATheologr of the Built Environ'
rnent, which examines these claims, John
Macquarrie dismissed it as the work of 'an old
fashioned Christian Socialist'. The question
we are left with, though, is what the gospel
can be today, other than a warning and a call
to repentance in the name of the God of life?
Evangelism in our context is, as it was for the
prophets, a sombre business, and it is
certainly not primarily about getting more
bums on pews. lt is, as it has always been, a
callto repentance, but not one which is made
in competition with other religions. On the
contrary, its primary concern is obedience to
the God of life, and engagement with all that
makes for death. I
Tim Gorrin$e
see also,,,
M Barnes, Theolo$y and the Dialo$ue of
Retigions, Cambrid$e: Cambrid$e
University Press, 2002
Pieris, Fire and Water, Maryknoll: Orbis'
1996
'Evangelism is a call to repentanGe, hut not one
which is made in competition with other religions'
16 lmovement