Chapter 6: Insider Imaginary and Other Scriptures
In arguing that insider [Already I shared my reservation for calling us as ‘insiders’. This label is given by an ‘outsider’ or ‘alongsider’ not by us. When they (outsider and alongside) call me as an ‘insider’ then I feel as if I am appointed by them within my family or community or society as their agents. While the ‘outsiders’ watch from a distance, the ‘alongsider’ walks along with me to see whether we are doing their job as per their expectation and step in to correct when we do mistake or support when we need it’. Such labeling might help them to explain ‘THEIR’ role but it amuses me when I am labeled like this by others.—db]Christ-followers have alternative missiological imaginaries from which Christians can learn I have sought in previous chapters to make two main points. First, the faith of all Christ-followers, particularly insiders, emerges through a process of hybrid [I cannot talk for the so called ‘insiders’. As a Hindu bhakta of the Lord, I never created any hybrid religion. I integrated my bhakti in the Lord as a Hindu which need not be compromised at the core. At the same time when we allow the gospel to incarnate in our culture and religious tradition, that might look a ‘hybrid religiosity’ to outsiders. But unlike the Indian Christianity which became a hybrid Christianity I never try to create some kind of ‘hybrid religiosity’. It will take several pages for me to explain which I have already explained in various places.—db] religiosity – an interaction with various cultural and religious influences. Second, though this process can and does sometimes lead to unhelpful, and even evil, distortions of the gospel [Though I understand your statement still this ‘evil’ and ‘distortions’ remains one’s subjective view about other’s understanding about the gospel. What is the authentic gospel? As the gospel is interpreted in various ways, one person’s interpretation might look ‘evil’ or ‘distortions’ to another. Better avoid such words.—db] , it can also reflect the work of the Spirit in and through communities, including religious communities and traditions. In the last two chapters we have illustrated some of the ways in which the Spirit has led various insider Christ-followers to serve and reflect Christ within their religious communities. Their stories have touched on aspects of their missiological imaginaries, or the diverse ways in which they make sense of God’s mission in and to their context. Each imaginary is unique, as would make sense given the diverse religious traditions our examples represent. But each also has the common theme of prioritizing and following Christ from within the framework of their own community and tradition and reshaping the hope and the telos provided by those traditions.
In this and the following chapters we will more closely examine some of the particular components of these imaginaries. For insiders, what does it mean to read the scriptures of their traditions and hybridize these with their reading of the biblical scriptures? [We need not cannot ‘hybridize’ the Scripture of one faith with another. For me each Scripture is unique and one needs to approach it for its own worth not attempting to ‘hybridize’ it with another Scripture. Though in the name of ‘contextualization’ several evangelicals try to do that I am not in favour of it—db] How do they shape and reshape their ideas of God, gods, ancestors, and evil spirits? What is the function and importance of community, religious community, and Christ-following community? What is “good news” and salvation in their contexts, and in what ways does Christ offer this? Each of these form pieces of the new missiological imaginaries that insider Christ-followers are developing through their lived practices.
As we continue in these discussions it is once again imperative to recognize that insider Christ-followers are not often analyzing and articulating answers to these topics in systematic and written ways, at least not in the ways to which Christians are accustomed [Systemization is the first impediment in forming original theology that is relevant in every context. Even the so called ‘systemization’ in Christian writings has variations. I don’t see any kind of ‘systemization’ in Muktiveda, particularly in the writings of Sevanand [Paul]. He addressed a particular issue in a mandali [church]. Later though a ‘systematic theology’ was developed, still there is no such ‘systemization’ in Muktiveda. It is like pluralistic exclusivism. Writing is essential to articulate one’s thought but no one can put any limit to that in writing.–db]. @@@Recall Charles Taylor’s description from chapter one that imaginaries are “the deeper normative notions and images,”[1] or unarticulated knowledge about the way people think the world does and should work. We thus do well to remember that the records we have of insider’s reflections and practices are very much second-order, [This is the universal problem. Keeping one’s own category as the normative if we began to compare other’s views, thoughts, writings etc., everything will look only ‘second-order’ and our particular views, thoughts and writings remain first forever. Others views, thoughts and writings should be approached, analyzed and apprised for its own worth and not comparing with others, particularly where their ‘worldview’ completely different.—db] flowing from the “normative notions and images.”[2]
With this in mind we turn in this chapter to the first of our particular enquiries: the question of religious scriptures, including oral and written works. To what degree do insider Christ-followers value their religious community’s scriptures? What does it mean that they give “authority” to biblical scriptures, and how does this relate to their community’s scriptures? We will begin with two brief examples of insiders and their approach to non-biblical scriptures and consider the ways in which religionists, including insiders, often affirm a “canon” of scripture, but also interact with it in dynamic ways. We will then consider the various strategies and methods that Christ-followers use when engaging non-biblical scriptures and how insiders evaluate these and conclude by considering some implications for an alternative missiological imaginary of scriptural revelation.
Christ-Followers (Re)Encountering non-Christian Scripture
Growing up Dayanand Bharati occasionally recited Hindu scriptures and heard them recited as part of his Hindu community’s rituals. And, as was common for most Hindus, he focused primarily on the sounds and immediate devotional meanings of the words rather than analyzing or interpreting them. However, when he began following Christ as a young man he was introduced to a different approach to scripture. With the help and example of Christian friends he began to eagerly read biblical scripture on a daily basis and use commentaries and other guides for scriptural study.[3]
Unsurprisingly, the enthusiasm that Bharati’s Christians friends had for Bible study did not extend to Hindu scriptures. The only exception to this was when they sought to answer the question, “What does Hinduism lack?” As a new Christian [sorry for this word. I am not a Christian. Never became a Christian as understood by others—both Christians and Hindus–db] Bharati felt this was certainly a legitimate question, but he was surprised at the shallow understanding his friends had of Hindu scripture and their offensive attempts to discredit Hinduism.
Though he had not previously studied Hindu scriptures in any great depth, he now felt compelled to read and study them on their own terms, even using Hindu commentaries. Initially his studies helped him find ways to share the gospel with other Hindus in convincing but sensitive ways. His studies also helped to reinforce his conviction that something crucial was missing from Hindu traditions and scriptures which only Christ and the biblical scriptures provided; the promise of relationship with God. [No. I don’t think that I said like this. The promise of relationship with God was not missing in Hindu scriptures but Muktiveda gave a complete different perspective to it.—db]
Eventually, however, Bharati felt that God was using these studies and other experiences for something more – to reconnect with his Hindu identity. Through a number of circumstances and what he felt was God’s calling he gave up his Christian identity [from the beginning I was not comfortable with this Christian identity which was imposed on me by Christians. But within me, from the beginning I never felt that I ever became a Christian which after some time I gave up. Of course I discarded other’s imposition on me like changing my name to a Christian name which I never accepted in the first place—db] and re-embraced his Hindu identity and community, even taking the vow to become a swami (Hindu monk) [I decided to become a sannyasi even before I became a bhakta of the Lord influenced by the teaching of Swammi Vivekananda. Later I continued that option. So it was not a new vow but a continuation of my old conviction and choice.—db] devoted to Christ. Through this process he has found that his studies of biblical and Hindu scriptures have focused less and less on identifying what is missing in Hinduism. Instead, he says, it has become more about “how my faith in the Lord helps me to integrate the valuable things in Hinduism both for my private spiritual life and apply it in my relationship with others. The best of Hinduism enriches my new faith in the Lord.”
But this does not mean that biblical and Hindu scriptures easily harmonize, or that everything about Hindu scriptures enriches his faith. Bharati continues to acknowledge and grapple with the differences between Hindu and biblical texts. He does not want to ignore a Hindu scripture if it seems to contradict his faith, but neither does he want to reinterpret it in ways that his Hindu community would not recognize and therefore reject. Rather his hope is to model for other Hindu Christ-followers a willingness to “remain faithful” to the meaning of both biblical and Hindu scriptures “without compromising one with the other” – to perhaps allow for some tension, even as they prioritize the biblical scripture’s witness to Christ.
In a similar way to Bharati, though in a very different context, novelist Mazhar Mallouhi had a gradual transformation in his understanding of the scripture of his Muslim tradition, the Qur’an. As a 24-year-old in the Syrian military he became a Christian through his friendship with a fellow soldier and his own readings in the New Testament.[4] Sometime later he left for Lebanon, attended a Bible college, and worked for a Christian publisher. At first he turned against most everything about Islam and its scripture and condemned any Christian that sought to read the Qur’an or even use it in evangelism. “There is a lot of honey in the Qur’an,” he would say, “but there is also a lot of poison.”[5]
But over the following years Mallouhi underwent a gradual change of perspective. He found himself less and less comfortable with the harsh approaches and proclamations made by himself and other Christians against Muslims and the Qur’an, and he became more sensitive to the pain and distance such approaches created in his relationships with Muslims. He began to learn from persons with more “generous” approaches and started viewing Muhammad and the Qur’an as “potential signposts point toward Christ.”[6] He eventually shifted in his self-understanding and his approach to be a Muslim follower of Christ. He now says
Islam is the blanket with which my mother wrapped me when she nursed me and sang to me and prayed over me… I inherited Islam from my parents, and it was the cradle which held me until I found Christ. Islam is my mother. You don’t engage a man by telling him his mother is ugly… I have an emotional attachment to my culture which I imbibed along with my mother’s milk.[7]
Notice how, for Mallouhi, Islam has a nurturing quality that, though superseded by Christ, still holds a special place in his heart and journey. In a similar way the Qur’an, when he now hears it read, has a beauty in its language that brings “chills” down his spine.[8] But also notice that Islam and the Qur’an are superseded, not by another religious system or another set of scriptures, but by a person. This is an important point for Mallouhi. For though the Qur’an and other aspects of Islam are of value, they are transvalued only by someone else, by Christ. He explains this through an illustration. “When one feels like they are drowning, do you reach for a book on how to swim, or a hand? The prophets it seems to me gave me a book, whether it is the Qur’an or the Christian Scriptures, but Jesus gave me a hand.”[9]
For Mallouhi this helps address the centuries-old posture of Christianity and Islam as religious competitors. He wants, as much as possible, to not pit religions and scriptures against each other, but to make Christ the supreme authority over all and interpretive key for all.
The Bible and Other Scriptures
It is evident that Bharati and Mallouhi implicitly sense that God is not absent from their respective traditions and scriptures. Recall our discussion of Robert Johnston in chapter 1 – the Spirit has been at work throughout all of creation, including in religious traditions and their written and oral scriptures, stories, prayers, songs, and other expressions. These are indications of God’s “footprints” – evidence that the Spirit moved in and through those spaces. But the revelatory work of the Spirit is always and everywhere an event that happens in the present. So, if and when we discern the past presence or “footprints” of the Spirit in those traditions, it is only because the Spirit in and through us now is helping us see and understand it as such. Though they do not state it in these terms, Bharati and Mallouhi are seeking the Spirit’s understanding of how the Spirit was and is at work in the scriptural traditions of their communities.
But what does this mean for the biblical scriptures? How do insiders regard the Bible in relation to other scriptures? And what might this suggest about the revelation of the Spirit and if/how other scriptures are a part of God’s mission? First, various studies and interviews suggest that a majority of insiders regard biblical scripture as authoritative for their faith and lives. In his study of 26 leaders of Muslim Christ-follower groups from around the world, Jan Hendrik Prenger found that, when asked “How would you describe the status of the (biblical) Scriptures?”, most responded by describing it as “the Word of God” and a “guide for right living on a right path.”[10] Three described the Scripture using the phrase “breathed out by God.” As one respondent put it, “The holy book, or books, is a book of which its content is revealed and breathed out by God.”[11] Of course, the language of “breathed out by God” likely refers to the description of scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16 (“All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching…). However, these Muslim Christ-followers are also using creation language, echoing both the Qur’an (Surah 15:28-29) and the Bible (Gen. 2:7) to evoke an image of God breathing life into humanity. Note also that this revealing is not past-tense, but somehow present-tense. It is as if, for this Christ-follower at least, the biblical scripture is an object that has been crafted by God and has much value, much like Adam’s body was crafted from the dirt and could be valued because of this handiwork alone. But Scripture, just like humanity, is then also animated by God’s breath and Spirit, certainly at an initial point, but also continually.
Second, though for insiders this animation or revelation of the Spirit occurs first and foremost through biblical scriptures, this does not negate the value of others scriptures or the revelation that the Spirit can provide through them. Perhaps it is most accurate to say that most insiders prioritize biblical scripture about other scriptures, but also value the ways in which God by his Spirit may bless people or convey truth or goodness through other scriptures, prayers, stories, etc. Recall how Mallouhi came to the conviction that the Qur’an could provide a “signpost” towards Christ. In a similar way, in Prenger’s study of Muslim insider leaders, most of the leaders value parts of the Qur’an for the “pointers” it provides towards Christ.[12] Some go further than this, indicating that the Qur’an provides the “amen” to the biblical scriptures that came before and that, when “properly interpreted,” it can affirm the biblical truths about Jesus Christ and “help people better understand the grace and mercy of God.”[13] In this way most leaders either believe the Qur’an “records part of an ongoing conversation between God and (humans)” or that it at least contains “many truths.”[14]
For Native Americans, sacred “texts” do not take the form of written canons of scripture, but rather often that of story that narrate the creation of the world and tribe, the past intrigues of various animals, and the experiences of important ancestors. The tribes regard these stories as sacred and carefully curate them accordingly. As Richard Twiss explains, because of their sacredness some stories “are not meant to be told to others, and some not fully explained.”[15] In addition, some stories should not be told to outsiders, and some should only be told at certain times of the year lest the inappropriate telling of them diminishes their power.
Native American Christians have often taught that the traditional stories of their tribes, along with accompanying rituals, are not of God and thus dangerous.[16] However, Native American insider Christ-followers, such as those we met in chapter 5, have come to relate to their tribes’ traditions and sacred stories differently. Rather than not listening to or telling them, insiders instead listen for the parallels that they have with the stories, songs, and truths found in the biblical scriptures. They find that their own stories and teachings often parallel biblical stories such as those about creation and the flood, or teachings such as those by Jesus. These parallels indicate to them that God was at work revealing himself to them through their culture “before we even know about Christ.”[17] In fact, indigenous stories sometimes even highlight and sharpen the prophetic edge of certain biblical teachings. For instance, Cheryl Bear, a Native American Christ-follower from the Dakelh people, tells how an elder from her tribe once shared their creation story and indicated from it that “Creator is going to come back and look at how we have taken care of the land that was loaned to us.” Bear concludes that her tribe’s story, similar to the biblical narrative, indicates that “there is always a reckoning” in relation to our actions.[18]
The Spirit in Canon and Charisma
The above indicates that insiders often prioritize the Bible, regarding it as having unique revelatory status, but also see evidence of God’s presence and work in their tradition’s scriptures, oral and written. God has spoken and continues to speak through the Bible in a unique way, they would affirm, but God is not and has never been confined to biblical scripture. His “footprints” can be found in the scriptures and prayers of others, and his Spirit continues to reveal himself to Christ-followers through these. The missiological imaginary of many insiders thus seems to be comfortable with a dynamism, perhaps we could say a fluidity, to the work of the Spirit across scriptures. It is this sense of fluidity that makes some Christians anxious, and central to this anxiety is the concept and function of the biblical canon. Though insiders would deny that they are adding their community’s scriptures and stories to the canon of biblical scripture, are they not doing this in practice? [No. First of all this question on ‘canon’ is fluid one for me. Though Protestants recognized certain books alone part of canon, Catholics added more. Even among the Protestants Luther literarily discarded certain books from the New Testament. Then interpretation took a lead over the authority of the Scripture pushing the Word of God as mere written document. So when there are so many controversies like this regarding canon, why should we or I have to add more problem by adding our native Scriptures part of the so called ‘biblical canon’. Above all if I added our Hindu Scriptures as part of Biblical canon, then as I am not going to give the same kind of authority to them as I give to Muktiveda, how they be part of biblical canon? By doing this I will also subordinate Hindu Scriptures to the authority of Muktiveda which is not acceptable to Hindus and also to me. I give respect to our Hindu Scriptures as part of my heritage. But the way I get benefit from them is part of my sadhana {spiritual discipline} doesn’t mean that my practical life is decided by their teaching. My English might not convey what I have in my mind. But I never attempt to bring Hindu Scriptures as part of Biblical canon. Read my recent posting ‘Similar not Same in my blog’.—db]
In one sense insider Christ-followers are not alone, and not the first, to dynamically interact with canons of scripture. What do I mean by this? Heinrich Von Stietencron has shown how, in many religious traditions, there are often two dynamics working at the same time – canon and charisma. Scriptural canons, like that of the Qur’an, Bible, or Vedas, are the result of “a deliberate attempt to collect, arrange and preserve the original message of a religious community, and to protect it against all corruption.” In the midst of an ever-changing world, a canon of scripture becomes “a device to arrest time, or rather to pick out and separate from the change-inducing flow of time a selected set of elements that are considered essential and eternally value (and that)… provide lasting orientation to the community.”[19] [very good summary on canon–db]
Charisma on the other hand seeks to ensure that a canon is vital, that the fixedness of a canon does not render it obsolete. It is a power that operates in the present moment. As Stietencron describes, “It is not the rule, but the exception: a spark of divine presence flashing into ordinary life and legitimizing leadership and change. It is divine agency operating through (humanity), a power temporarily conferred on (them) which creates extraordinary authority.”[20] The dynamic work of charisma can lead to various outcomes; sometimes it gives birth to new religious movements and at other times it brings reinterpretation and renewal to meaning and authority in an existing tradition. [Yes. This helps me to understand the importance of interpretation.—db]
Thus, while canon provides permanence and stability, charisma provides innovation. These two work as opposing but also interacting principles. When scriptural canon and its interpretation, historically and contextually oriented as they are, become too disconnected from a new era or context, an influx of charisma can revitalize the canon’s relevance. Without it, canon can stagnate and lose some of its power and importance. [True.—db]
Insider Christ-followers, as we saw from some of the earlier examples, affirm the notion of canon and the need to prioritize the biblical canon over others. However, while doing so they also seek to resist two implications made by Christians, and sometimes their co-religionists.
One is the implication that the biblical canon is the scripture of Christians. Indeed, as Stientencron indicates, canons not only are repositories of established teachings and narratives but are also “one of the strongest possible forms of defining and securing a special religious identity.”[21] Canons provides a source for self-awareness and self-definition, and also become an identity boundary marker – Christians are people who revere the Bible, not the Qur’an. If and when persons prioritize the teaching of another scripture over that of their community, such a shift is often accompanied by a conversion of religion and religious community. [Not necessarily. Though this is true in few sampradayas {sects} in Hinduism like Sri Vaishnavism and Veerasaivas {Lingayats and other stanch Shivites} as pluralism and relativism is part of Hindu worldview, one can still remain as a Hindu though she might give priority to the Scripture of another faith or Sampradaya. There are millions of Hindus who give priority to all Scriptures while continue to remain within their sampradaya like Smarta not converting to another one. For most Hindus no particular Scripture holds the final authority on her faith but mostly family tradition. She will choose any particular Scripture that will serve her purpose in a given time or need.—db]But this is something that insiders seek to resist. While they acknowledge that biblical scripture has been central to the development of Christian cultures and identity they deny that this makes biblical scripture the property of Christians, nor that they as Hindus, Buddhist, Muslims, etc. cannot incorporate, and even prioritize, the biblical scripture. Instead, they seek to embrace the biblical canon while retaining their religious community’s identity.
How can insiders embrace the biblical scriptures while not allowing it to define them as a set-apart group? Insiders have addressed this in various ways. One is to rename the biblical scriptures. For instance, while Christians in India use the English word “Bible” to describe biblical scriptures, Bharati and his group refer to the biblical scriptures as muktiveda (freedom/salvation scriptures). This title is at once unique while also evoking the idea of Hindu scriptures. [My intention is not to make Muktiveda to evoke any idea of Hindu Scripture. As the word Bible is not in the Bible and used by Christians, as an Indian I preferred an Indian term which looks familiar to me in which I feel comfortable. Above all I try to undo several Christian terms for me to use as I am not comfortable with those terms which give a wrong identity for me. While coining these kinds of Indian terms (not all Indian terms are Hindu but used by other faiths like Jainims and Buddhism, like dharma etc.) I am aware of the complication as most of such (religious) terms have their own particular theological context which we cannot ignore. But as an Indian I have my right to use those terms at the same time not hurting the religious sentiments of our own people.—db] In the Muslim context, Christians commonly refer to the biblical scriptures as al-Kitāb al-Muqaddas (the Holy Book). Muslim followers of Christ, however, retain the Muslim titles for the biblical scriptures; the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms) and the Injil (Gospel).
Another strategy important to insiders is to translate biblical scripture, as they are able, into their own languages using terminology that is both faithful to the biblical meaning and that resonates with their community.[22] As is well-known, missionary Bible translators regularly deliberated on the best way to translate biblical words such as “God,” “baptism,” “Son of God,” etc. Should they use a community’s own words, create new words that drew from the community’s lexicon, or introduce foreign loan-words? In order to help a community feel that the Bible was “theirs” translators sought to use existing terms as much as possible. If, however, they determined that Of particular concern was whether or not the biblical meaning of a word Because existing words adequately convey the biblical meaning
A second implication, often made by Christians, that insiders seek to avoid is that God only reveals himself through the Bible, and the Christian tradition. It is here that the idea of the charisma of God’s Spirit is particularly helpful. If God’s Spirit provides revelation through non-biblical scriptures, as some insider’s statements and practices indicate, this suggests a charisma that resists, not the fixedness of the biblical canon, but the implications that God’s revelation is solely concentrated in the Christian tradition that stems from it. Thus the charisma of the Spirit brings innovation, not by undermining the biblical canon, but by instead revitalizing it with insights from other religious traditions.
But notice the dynamic interaction of canon and charisma; the Spirit uses the canon of biblical scripture to help reveal truth in other scriptures. That is, as insider Christ-followers read their scriptures, the Spirit now uses their understanding of biblical scripture as a hermeneutical key through which to gain new insights. Native American insiders such as Richard Twiss see, by the Spirit’s work in them, how some Native American stories and teachings parallel and resonate with the biblical stories and teachings. As Muslim followers of Christ read the Qur’an via their understanding of biblical scripture and Christ, the Spirit uses this interpretive framework to reveal God’s past work and testimony in the Qur’an. To echo the insights of Gadamer, biblical scripture becomes a new way, a new location by which to frame the “horizon” of their community’s scripture.[23]
Thus, the missiological imaginary of insiders suggests a faith in the Spirit’s ability to re-orient believers to the canonical witness of biblical scripture, and to use this as a means to bring revitalized meaning from their own scriptures. As one Muslim insider leader states, “We never ask (Muslim Christ-followers) not to read the Qur’an, but we know that the (biblical) Scriptures have more power and will shift the people’s attention away from the Qur’an to the Scriptures.” The Spirit, he is asserting, will draw people to prioritize the biblical canon of scripture. But at the same time he can affirm, “The Qur’an has some passages here and there that are the Word of God, (though) a whole it does not have the same status as the other books.”[24]
[Fortunately or unfortunately reading Scripture is not part of spiritual discipline (sadhana) in several Hindu’s life. Most of the common Hindus read their slokas and other kinds of songs and bhajans as part of their ritual than with any aim to understand and interpret their teaching to guide their everyday life. Few Hindus read some important Scriptures like Gita to understand its teaching. So according to knowledge most of the Hindu bhaktas of the Lord never read any Hindu Scriptures as part of their sadhana or ritual. But few began to read some major scriptures like Gita to understand its teaching. Our Indian or Hindu context is completely different from Muslim world. I never read any Hindu Scripture as part of my sadhana but I read Muktiveda everyday as part of my sadhana.—db]
Strategies of Scriptural Engagement
We have thus far explored how, for insiders, biblical scripture becomes an interpretive key by which to understand their own community’s scripture and tradition. As they do so the charisma of the Spirit uses these insights to close cultural and historical gaps between the biblical canon and their own religious tradition and location. But how do Christ-followers actually do this, particularly when scriptural traditions make very different claims and create very different accounts of reality? Religious scriptures, as we know, seek to create their own worlds of meaning which in turn inspire the creation of interpretive traditions and liturgical rituals. When Christ-followers engage a non-biblical text they encounter a wide range of interpretive meanings and traditions. How then do they engage with the worlds of meaning a text seeks to create, along with its interpretive traditions? If, for example, a Hindu Christ-follower senses that a Vedic teaching hints at or speaks of Christ in some way, to what degree does she engage the wider literary context of that passage and/or the Hindu traditions that interpret it in a way very different from her biblically shaped interpretation? Might the Spirit not just be speaking through a specific sentence of scripture, but through its interpretive context and tradition? And, if so, how?
Our questions here are the ones often raised in the literary study of intertextuality, or the “imbedding of fragments of an earlier text within a later one.”[25] (briefly footnote history of term from literary/communication studies). This is actually a much more common practice than we might realize; all of us commonly use past text and speech when constructing our own, and we do so in a variety of ways. However when we do so – and this is a key aspect of intertextuality, we are not simply using the words themselves. Rather, we choose and use past texts to convey various meanings and associations, and perhaps even to convey something about ourselves. What then are the various methods and strategies that people use when using and/or engaging a past text? And, specific to our purposes, what are the various ways in which Christ-followers, and particularly insiders, use non-biblical texts and engage the meanings and interpretive traditions of that text?
In 1982 Renaissance poetry scholar Thomas Greene introduced an intertextual framework, later adapted into biblical literature studies by Richard Hays and Steve Moyise and into religious studies by Mark Swanson. This framework I believe can, with certain modifications, provide a helpful way by which to analyze the ways Christ-followers engage non-biblical texts. For the remainder of this chapter I will outline and adapt Greene’s framework, and conclude with some observations of how this helps us understand the scriptural imaginary of insider Christ-followers. The four intertextual strategies Greene outlines are: [26]
- Eclectic (or what I will call “extraction”), in which someone uses a text (a prior text) as a repository of language and symbols and with no commitment to its tradition or context.
- Reproduction, in which the text is highly valued and used without alteration.
- Heuristic, in which persons value a text and its context but also acknowledge certain gaps and tensions between it and their own context and worldview and address this by updating and rewriting the text.
- Dialectical, in which persons allow the text to speak to, and even interpret, their own context/worldview such that two are in dialogue with each other. The result, as Richard Hays summarizes, “sustains the tension between worlds rather than resolving it.”[27]
Once again note that Greene is not primarily focused on how closely a person quotes or copies a text. That is not the issue. Rather, the more interesting question, as Hays summarizes it, is the person’s posture “toward the past expressed in the symbolic world of the text.”[28] In other words, to what degree, and in what ways, does a person seek to draw on and engage the meanings and feelings that a text conveys to its recipients? For example, does a person selectively pick and choose from small parts of the text’s symbolic world, or accept larger parts of that world without question? Does she value but also seek to update the text’s world, or let it speak to and converse with the present context with a level of freedom?[29]
Before discussing and adapting Greene’s framework we must note a couple of caveats and modifications. First, as implied above, though intertextuality normally deals with written works, or texts-within-texts, the same categories can just as easily apply to the oral aspects of religious traditions, such as prayers, stories. Second, as Mark Swanson highlights, we need to recognize that the texts that the Renaissance poets (Greene) and New Testament writers (Hays, Moyise) engaged were, for them, authoritative. This is of course particularly the case for the New Testament writers and the special revelatory status they gave to the Hebrew scriptures. Christ-followers (including insiders) have also too have and continue to ascribe to the Hebrew Scriptures divine authority, a status that they (including insiders) generally do not make about non-biblical scriptures. In fact, as we will see, many Christians view non-biblical scriptures as the very opposite of authoritative! We will thus keep in mind the varying levels of revelation that Christ-followers say may or may not exist within the non-biblical texts they engage.
Extraction
Let us consider each of the above intertextual strategies in turn. The first is extraction. In this a text is used with little reference or commitment to its literary context and tradition of interpretation. Verses and phrases are fragmented, extracted from their literary and theological contexts, and essentially de-historicized. But such extractive intertextuality can take two forms, depending on the Christ-follower’s posture towards the texts tradition: evocative, where the person uses a text, and often just a phrase or special word or title, without commitment to its original context but allowing its general idea or attitude to reinforce a biblical truth or point;[30] and exploitative, where the text, including its general idea, is not allowed to be felt but is rather significantly reinterpreted, sometimes to say something very different (and even opposite!) of what that text’s tradition has often understood it to say.
Though both evocative and exploitative extraction both have little to no engagement with the specific context of the text they differ in how they regard the text’s wider tradition and the overall feeling or idea that a text evokes in its community. In evocative extraction, the interpreter generally appreciates the text’s tradition and the general feeling or idea evoked by a phrase, and seeks to evoke the same as he uses it in his own writing or speech. For a biblical example, in the NT Matthew tells us that the journey of Jesus’ family to Egypt is a fulfillment of the words “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matt 2:15). Of course, it only takes a quick look at this verse’s original context in Hosea 11:1-2 to see that the “son” God is talking about is not a person, much less the Christ, but rather the wayward nation of Israel.[31] In one sense Matthew uses the verse quite out of context and with little regard for its original meaning. And yet, as Steve Moyise has shown, for Matthew the words draw on a rich and important set of associations from Exodus onwards. As Moyise explains
The words are highly charged. They speak of deliverance, calling, and adoption and hence set a context for the reader to interpret the life of Christ. The point is not argued didactically but when we go on to read of Herod’s decree to kill the young (2:16), Jesus going up the mountain (5:1), his transfigured face (17:2) and the words ‘This is my beloved son’ (17:5), the ‘voices’ are becoming a veritable chorus. By quotation and allusion, Matthew makes his point with (what Thomas Greene calls) a ‘keyboard of richer harmonies.’[32]
In a similar way, Christ-followers may draw on a phrase from non-biblical scripture with appreciation for its tradition and the associations and feelings it evokes in its community, but with little reference to its specific context of origin. For example, some Christ-followers use the phrase inshallah (if Allah/God wills it) in their conversation with Muslim friends to evoke a reverence for God, while not necessarily intending to endorse the full qur’anic context of the phrase (such as Surah Al-Kahf 18). In a similar way some Hindu Christ-followers say the Sanskrit word tathastu (so be it) as a way to conclude their prayers to the triune God. They, along with most Hindus, are not usually familiar with the word’s specific origins in Hindu traditions. However, for them the word feels more authentic and appropriate in their prayers to God than the foreign loan-word “amen”. In each of these cases the word or phrase are like a musical phrase of the Muslim or Hindu tradition that brings added harmonies to the Christ-follower’s faith expressions.
But what happens when a text is extracted and used without regard for its context nor its tradition and feel? This brings us back to exploitative extraction, in which the Christ-follower does not allow a text’s context or tradition and feel to have a voice.[33] Perhaps one of the most well-known uses of this strategy are polemic tracts and speeches in which an author/speaker may use a verse from another scripture, with little regard for its context and interpretive tradition, in order to add quick support to their case against that religious tradition and in favor of their own.[34] Though the use may provide the desired effect in some instances (such as helping to convince someone of the truth of Christianity), other religionists are also often offended by what they (rightfully) see as a manipulation of the text’s meaning and a blatant disregard of its context.
Reproduction
The second intertextual strategy available to Christ-followers as they engage non-biblical scripture is reproduction. This strategy in some ways falls on the opposite end of the spectrum from extraction. For, whereas in extraction a text is fragmented and decontextualized, in reproduction it is treated, and even celebrated, for its whole context. Part of this involves recounting the text with “slavish precision,” either in the form of a lengthy quote or a paraphrase with a minimal amount of embellishment or deviation.[35] In such cases the person finds that the text and its historical and interpretive/theological tradition highly resonates with and contributes to their own framework as a Christ-follower.[36]
For example, Bharati and other insider Christ-followers often sing or pray what some Hindus call the Pavamana mantra. This well-known prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad translated says,
Lead me from untruth to the truth
Lead me from darkness to light
Lead me from death to immortality
Though the prayer in its original context may have been part of a sacrificial ritual to the deity Soma, Hindus now utilize it as a prayer of blessing that can be appropriately directed to any one of their preferred deities. For their part, Hindu Christ-followers pray this in their gatherings with each other in reference to the biblical God. In this sense their use of it is similar to that of other Hindus who do not know or give attention to the text’s context in the Vedas, but recognize it as a sacred text and prayer that has a universal application. They thus reproduce it as it is used in popular Hindu tradition and bring it into the universe of their faith in Christ.
Heuristic
Intertextuality, as we have discussed, describes the ways people embed one text (non-biblical scripture) into their own (biblically-shaped interpretive framework), but with particular attention to the symbolic worlds those texts inhabit and elicit. We are particularly interested in the ways in which Christ-followers handle the discontinuities or tensions that exist between texts and scriptural traditions. In this regard the two strategies we have thus far discussed, though on either side of a spectrum in terms of their posture towards the text’s context, are actually quite similar in their response to discontinuity; each seeks to minimize it. Extraction does this by allowing the Christ-follower’s semiotic world (shaped by Christ, biblical scripture) to completely reshape the text in its image. Reproduction, on the other hand, does this by allowing the text to speak without much challenge.
But in between these are two strategies that seek to grapple with the tensions more substantively. Our third is the heuristic approach. In this Christ-followers value aspects of a non-biblical scriptural text and the way it has been interpreted by its community and find it to be in continuity with their biblical faith. However, it also sits across a theological gulf from, or in some tension with, biblical scripture. To deal with this gulf or tension the Christ-follower reinterprets the text according to her biblical framework, but with respect for where it comes from and what it conveys in its original context. In this way, as Thomas Greene explains, the Christ-follower and her new speech or work thus “distinguishes itself from the [non-biblical scripture], finds its own public accent, but it does so, can only do so, after sensitively apprehending that other accent in something like its particular timbre and personal force.”[37]
There are various ways in which Christ-followers have utilized the heuristic approach in their engagement with non-biblical scriptures. One thinks of the “redemptive analogy” popularized among Evangelicals in the 1970s and 80s by Don Richardson. In his book Peace Child Richardson describes how he and his wife, as missionaries to the Sawi tribe in western New Guinea (modern Irian Jaya) in the 1960s, observed a peace ritual between two fighting villages. The ritual involved each village offering one of its own infants to the other as a “peace child” and as long as the children lived the villages would observe peace. Richardson interpreted this ritual as a “redemptive analogy” that could lead the Sawi to Christ. He began to preach about Christ as God’s “peace child,” meant to establish peace between him and humanity, and many villagers were subsequently persuaded to become Christian.[38] Richardson’s “discovery” of such hidden, pre-existing rituals and knowledge, and his subsequent writings and teachings were highly influential among western Evangelicals. In the decades to come (and to the present) missionaries to unreached by the gospel were inspired seek out the groups’ latent analogies and knowledge, fill them in with the revelation of Christ, and thus lead them to become Christ-followers.[39]
Some Christ-followers have developed more sophisticated heuristic approaches to non-biblical scriptures and stories. One such approach is the well-known “fulfillment theology” developed by numerous scholars and missionaries in India in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[40] Influenced by evolutionary theories of religion, progressive revelation, and motivated by a desire to counter the antagonistic opinions of many missionaries towards Hindu traditions and their scriptures, these thinkers believed that the Hindu culture and scriptures contained “fragments” of revelation that could be fulfilled in Christ.[41] Just as Jesus sought to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17) so also, they suggested, might Christ fulfill the revelation embedded in their own traditions. Keshub Chundar Sen, one of the earliest Indians to critically engage Christ from a Hindu framework, says, “Will (Christ) not fulfil the Indian scripture? I am reminded of the passage in the Gospel in which he says, ‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’ The Mosaic dispensation only? Perhaps the Hindu dispensation also. In India he will fulfil the Hindu dispensation.”[42]
One of Sen’s contemporaries, Krishna Mohan Banerjea, sought to develop a heuristic-type approach in his engagement with the Vedas, producing one of the earliest examples of fulfillment theology in India.[43] A Christian convert from Hinduism, Banerjea sought to prove that the Vedic deity Prajapati was a prophetic story about Christ. In the Vedas Prajapati is often depicted as the creator of the world and, in one instance, as doing so by offering himself as a sacrifice.[44] For Banerjea this story, along with the Vedic emphasis on ritual sacrifice, demonstrated the shrouded remnants of an ancient revelation given by God to Moses. And, though obscured by time, this revelation can be rationally shown to depict the importance of dealing with sin through sacrifice, something ultimately satisfied and fulfilled by Jesus Christ.[45]
Notice again how, for Banerjea and other fulfillment-oriented theologians, the non-biblical text contains important truths that have been obscured in various ways. In addition, the traditions that stem from these texts (such as the various Hindu traditions) have been developed on the basis of this obscured knowledge, and their commentaries and interpretations are therefore deficient. However, for Banerjea and others the biblical witness, and particularly its witness of Christ, can clarify these scriptures once they are brought into the biblical universe at its witness to Christ. It is thus ultimately Christ that bridges the gaps of deficient knowledge.
Though most Christ-followers, including insiders, no longer subscribe to the theoretical assumptions behind some of these fulfillment theories (a pure, common, primitive revelation, or the evolutionary development of religions), many still utilize a heuristic approach. Some Buddhist followers of Christ, particularly in their evangelism, call Christ Phra Sri Ariya Mettrai who is known by Thais as the future Buddha.[46] Phra Sri Ariya is a well-know and popular Buddha-figure through southeast Asia, and Thai Buddhists are familiar with him through the many images, statues, and oral and written stories told of him.[47] In linking Christ to Phra Sri Ariya Buddhist Christ-followers tap into the idea of a being who will one day come to bring blessing and salvation. This, however, is a “bridge” that they use to help persons become open to hearing more about Christ from the biblical witness. Eventually the believers stop using the term Phra Sri Ariya and adopt the Thai name ___.[48] Though they only reference Christ in this way temporarily, they still utilize a heuristic approach, drawing on teachings and stories about a scriptural figure and addressing the tensions between the two by “updating” and “correcting” the Phra Sri Ariya’s personage and story.
As another example, many Muslim Christ-followers also use a heuristic approach though, unlike older religious traditions, they have to account for the ways in which the Qur’an chronologically comes after Christ and the biblical scriptures. They thus do not “update” the Qur’an, but look for the ways in which it affirms the biblical witness. As one Muslim Christ-follower stated it, “…the Qur’an is really a retelling or summarizing of things and stories that came from the Jewish prophets… The Qur’an gives an ‘amen’ to what already exists. It is not that it corrects or replaces it, but it gives an ‘amen’ to the former books.”[49]
Dialectical
A heuristic approach, as we have seen, allows the non-biblical scripture to have a voice but, when faced with discontinuities, deals with this by reinterpreting those scriptures via a biblical framework. Often, however, this reinterpretation can disregard the prevalent critical and interpretive traditions of the text, a disregard that makes many Christ-followers uneasy. For, though they may affirm the Spirit’s ability to speak through non-biblical scriptures, they are mindful of the ways in which faulty frameworks (such as belief in a primitive revelation) have distorted some of these interpretations. Recall Bharati’s current approach to the Hindu scriptures. Not comfortable with the way “fulfillment” approaches have interpreted Hindu scriptures, he refrains from them in ways that his Hindu community would not recognize and therefore reject. Rather his preference is to follow a different path where, ideally, biblical and Hindu scriptures are read “without compromising one with the other.” He seeks to allow the Hindu scriptures and traditions to have their voice and, if not challenge biblical scriptures outright, at least contribute new insights that the biblical scriptures lack.
This leads us to our final intertextual strategy, the dialectical approach. In this the Christ-follower lets the non-biblical text have, and retain, its voice. Whereas in the heuristic approach the voice of the text was allowed insofar as it affirmed the biblical witness, in a dialectical approach “neither is able to absorb or master the other.”[50] This creates a space for mutual critique and a “dynamic source of artistic power.”[51]
Bharati provides us an excellent example in his reflections on and practice of the Hindu bhakti,[52] a rich concept that is discussed and expressed in various traditions and their scriptures, poems, and songs.Though often translated into English as “devotion,” for Bharati and other Hindus this term also includes biblical ideas of faith and “knowing God,” and ultimately emphasizing the idea of a personal relationship with God. Though examples of these can be found in various places in the biblical scriptures, Bharati finds no single term or concept that can express the range of emotions or depth of relationship conveyed by bhakti. Rather, and acknowledging that this could be because of the influence of Christian interpretive traditions, he finds in biblical scripture a stronger emphasis on the rationalization of faith. Because of this he says, “Bhakti as a personal relationship with god, with or without any understanding of all the doctrinal aspects of it, can help a bhakta (Christ-follower) to go even beyond the (biblical) scripture to trust her God. Though nothing can separate us from the love of god (as said by Sevanand [Paul]), (this verse) emphasizes what God has done for us rather than what a bhakta can do by bhakti.”[53] The relational commitment of bhakti is certainly emotional, but also propels a person to do something – in this case, to give total surrender to the devoted (God). Because of this he can say, “Thus bhakti as it is in the Hindu religious tradition helps one to understand the muktivedic (biblical) revelation about the love ‘of’ God in a new perspective.”
But while the concept of bhakti instructs the biblical scripture on its points, Bharati also finds that the biblical scripture speaks back to bhakti. “In the Hindu tradition, bhakti begins as a relationship and most of the time remains the same without ever worrying much about learning more about God to grow in faith.” However, the biblical scripture helps a Christ-follower to “know the mind, will, and purpose of God” in a way that Hindu tradition does not emphasize, or claim is possible. In addition, though the Hindu traditions allow for bhakti to be expressed to a variety of deities, none exemplify a bhakti, or deep commitment,to God in Christ as does the biblical scripture.[I am not sure I said that no Hindu bhakti literature exemplify a bhakti to their God. Several Hindu bhakti saints bhakti is total and deep commitment to their deity. For me this word ‘bhakti’ helps me to have similar commitment to make to God which can even go beyond theological understanding and doctrinal statements.—db] In this way the biblical scripture speaks back to Hindu scriptures and traditions of bhakti, adding its voice of insight about Christ and the ability to know God.[54]
The Intertextual Charisma of the Spirit
As some of our examples from above indicate, insiders are not the first Christ-followers to believe that, while biblical scripture is authoritative, the charisma of the Spirit is also at work outside of these scriptures and the Christian tradition and can provide revelation through non-biblical scriptures. As well, most insiders, like other Christ-followers, seek to listen to and honor the voice of those scriptures while dealing in various ways with the discontinuity between those and the biblical scripture. However, whereas most Christ-followers did this as Christians, from outside of the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. communities, insiders are uniquely doing this from within their religious communities. Because of this they more regularly, and in very practical ways, deal with the questions of how to read their own community’s scripture, but from the vantage point of a Christ-follower.
Thus, as we conclude, what does this indicate about insiders’ alternative missiological imaginary as it regards scripture?
First, the engagement of scripture is deeply relational. I mean this in at least two ways. First, the involvement of the Spirit in the process of revelation indicates that discernment and interpretation is not simply a rationale question or exercise. Rather, though interpretation involves our intellect, we also are dependent on God relating to us, and us to God, to discern the Spirit’s presence in scriptural traditions. Second, language and particularly the act of intertextuality itself is relational. We regularly relate to other texts, and relate them to our own situations and context. Third, insiders alert us to the importance of scriptural engagement in relationship with community. Though many Christian scholars and missionaries have developed interpretations of various scriptures, insiders are particularly mindful of the way in which their co-religionists will respond to their Chris-oriented interpretations of these. Of course, they know that not everyone will accept or be convinced by their interpretation, they nonetheless indicate that the Spirit is at work in providing an interpretation that is faithful to the gospel and speaks to their community.
Second, insiders alert us to the question of if and how the Spirit is not simply “using” a non-biblical scripture, but was and is somehow involved in its wider tradition. We think of Bharati’s insight regarding bhakti and the way it speaks to the biblical witness. Though he may not phrase it in this way, his interpretation suggests that something of the Spirit’s work is evident in the bhakti interpretive tradition itself, as well as the specific scriptures, songs, etc. that it produced.
Bear, Cheryl. “The Smudge Ceremony: Inspiring Faith in Indigenous North Americans.” In Traditional Ritual as Christian Worship: Dangerous Yncretism or Necessary Hybrid?, edited by R. Daniel Shaw and William R. Burrows, 190-204. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018.
The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism. Edited by Gavin Flood and Charles Martin. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
Bharati, Dayanand. Canon. 2020. Unpublished paper.
Chandler, Paul-Gordon. Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path between Two Faiths. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. 2nd ed. New York: Continuum, 2002.
Greene, Thomas M. The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Hays, Richard B. Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Hedges, Paul. Preparation and Fulfilment: A History and Study of Fulfilment Theology in Modern British Thought in the Indian Context. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
Kasempholkoon, Aphilak. “Phra Sri an (Maitreya) as a Hero: Structural Analysis of Phra Sri an Myths in Thail Society.” Manusya: Journal of Humanities Special Issue No. 19 (2011): 21-32.
Mallouhi, Mazhar. “Comments on the Insider Movement.” In Understanding Insider Movements: Disciples of Jesus within Diverse Religous Communities, edited by Harley Talman and John Jay Travis, 109-15. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2015.
Moreau, A. Scott. Contextualizing the Faith: A Holistic Approach. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018.
Moyise, Steve. “Does the Nt Quote the Ot out of Context?”. Anvil 11, no. 2 (1994): 133-43.
Nehrbass, Ken, “In Memory: Don Richardson’s Impact on My Own Life, and on Global Missions,” Gospel and Culture Blog, August 7, 2018, http://www.nehrbass.info/blog/don-richardsons-impact-on-missions.
Padmanji, Rev. Baba. “A Comparison of Hinduism and Christianity.” In English Translations of Select Tracts Published in India, edited by J. Murdoch, 46-106. Madras: Christian Knowledge Society’s Press, 1870.
Prenger, Jan Hendrik. Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2017.
Reinke, Tony, “Nepal’s Most Unlikely Church Planter,” desiringGod, August 7, 2014, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/nepals-most-unlikely-church-planter.
Richardson, Don. Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery in the 20th Century. Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1974.
Satyavrata, Ivan M. God Has Not Let Himself without Witness. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2011.
Sen, Keshub Chunder. Keshub Chunder Sen’s Lectures in India. Calcutta: The Brahmo Tract Society, 1886.
Stietencron, Heinrich Von. “Charisma and Canon: The Dynamics of Legitimization and Innovation in Indian Religions.” In Charisma and Canon: Essays on the Religious History of the Indian Subcontinent, edited by Vasudha Dalmia, Angelika Malinar and Martin Christof, 14-38. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Swanson, Mark N. “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies.” The Muslim World 88, no. 3-4 (1998): 297-319.
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Twiss, Richard. Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015.
[1] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2007), 171.
[2] It is also true that the very questions I pose and the frameworks I use to analyze these topics are often not their questions and frameworks but are rather etic ones brought from outside their context. Meta-analyses such as this study often require this, and I am aware that such approaches run the risk of colonizing the theology and experiences of those we analyze. In our case, however, such this hopefully overcome, or at least minimized, by giving priority to insiders’ stories and frameworks. [I accept this explanation as a honest confession—db]
[3] This and the following paragraphs are from Bharati’s unpublished manuscript called “Faith and Hindu Scriptures.” I use it with his permission and am grateful for the conversations we have had around these topics.
[4] Paul-Gordon Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007), 21-23.
[5] Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths, 77.
[6] Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths, 78.
[7] Mazhar Mallouhi, “Comments on the Insider Movement,” in Understanding Insider Movements: Disciples of Jesus within Diverse Religous Communities, ed. Harley Talman and John Jay Travis (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2015), 111.
[8] Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths, 82.
[9] Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths, 170.
[10] Jan Hendrik Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2017), 71.
[11] Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 72.
[12] Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 74-76.
[13] Muslim insider as quoted in Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 76.
[14] Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 223. It should be noted that not all insider leaders agree on this point. About 5 of the 26 of Prenger’s respondents place little value in the Qur’an aside from being a means by which to “reach” fellow Muslims. Even these opinions, however, were more positive – or less negative – than those of many Christians. Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 77, 223.
[15] Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 94.
[16] Cheryl Bear, “The Smudge Ceremony: Inspiring Faith in Indigenous North Americans,” in Traditional Ritual as Christian Worship: Dangerous Yncretism or Necessary Hybrid?, ed. R. Daniel Shaw and William R. Burrows (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 194.
[17] Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way, 117.
[18] Bear, “The Smudge Ceremony: Inspiring Faith in Indigenous North Americans,” 201.
[19] Heinrich Von Stietencron, “Charisma and Canon: The Dynamics of Legitimization and Innovation in Indian Religions,” in Charisma and Canon: Essays on the Religious History of the Indian Subcontinent, ed. Vasudha Dalmia, Angelika Malinar, and Martin Christof (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), 14-15.
[20] Stietencron, “Charisma and Canon: The Dynamics of Legitimization and Innovation in Indian Religions,” 15.
[21] Stietencron, “Charisma and Canon: The Dynamics of Legitimization and Innovation in Indian Religions,” 14.
[22] This reflects the sense of many insiders that the existing translations often use loan words or Christianized words that reinforce the perception of the biblical scriptures as the Christian scriptures. Should I briefly reference the debates on this, particularly in the Muslim context?
[23] Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2nd ed. (New York: Continuum, 2002). Of course, this process is a dialectic in that their scriptures also provide a particular framework for the horizon of biblical scripture. We will explore this in the coming chapters as it pertains to insider’s understanding of Christ, salvation, etc.
[24] Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 259, 165.
[25] Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 14.
[26] Thomas M. Greene, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul; Steve Moyise, “Does the NT Quote the OT Out of Context?,” Anvil 11, no. 2 (1994); Mark N. Swanson, “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies,” The Muslim World 88, no. 3-4 (1998).
[27] Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 174.
[28] Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 174.
[29] Swanson, “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies,” 315.
[30] This is similar to Hays’ description of “echoes.” This technique he says “may involve the inclusion of only a word or phrase that evokes, for the alert reader, a reminiscence of an earlier text. Readers who hear the echo will discern some semantic nuance that carries a surplus of significance beyond the literal sense of the text in which the echo occurs”
[31] The passage reads “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.”
[32] Moyise, “Does the NT Quote the OT Out of Context?,” 139. Quoting Greene, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry, 39.
[33] Here again it is important to note that evocative extraction as I have described stretches Greene, Hays, and Moyise’s category of “exploitative imitation” on which it is based. For them, even when the Renaissance poets (Greene) or the New Testament writers (Hays, Moyise) used exploitative imitation they still had a reverence for the text. See also Swanson’s similar point, Swanson, “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies,” 317.
[34] Examples abound, but one can suffice. In the Bhagavad Gita 4:7-8 Krishna says, “Indeed, whenever righteousness decays, O Son of Bharata, and unrighteousness increases, then do I manifest myself. In order to protect the good and to destroy evildoers and to establish righteousness, age after age I come to be.” The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism, ed. Gavin Flood and Charles Martin (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015), 24. This passage is part of a wider explanation of the struggle of humanity between dharma (righteousness) and adharma (unrighteousness), and how Krishna as the Supreme One, or God, intervenes to help humanity move more strongly towards dharma. Without engaging this wider context, some Christian apologists have focused on and re-translated vs 8 (I have come to destroy sinners) and contrasted this with 1 Timothy 1:15 (Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners). As one 19th century tract summarizes, “(Since) we are sinful, guilty, and condemned, Krishna will surely destroy us… (but) Jesus Christ came into the world to accomplish a work of mercy, benevolence, love, and salvation.” Rev. Baba Padmanji, “A Comparison of Hinduism and Christianity,” in English Translations of Select Tracts Published in India, ed. J. Murdoch (Madras: Christian Knowledge Society’s Press, 1870), 54. For a contemporary example of this use of Gita 7:8 see the testimony of Hindu in Nepal. Tony Reinke, “Nepal’s Most Unlikely Church Planter,” desiringGod, August 7, 2014, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/nepals-most-unlikely-church-planter.
[35] Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 173.
[36] For a historical example, Mark Swanson surveys the ways in which a number of eighth-century Christian apologetic works from Muslim contexts draw on Qur’anic language and prayers in reproductive ways. These writers, it seems, “found within the Qur’an a world of prayer and praise which they could happily visit, even if they would not settle there permanently.”Swanson, “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies,” 315. As a specific example, Swanson shows how the opening prayer of the eighth-century apology Fi tathlith Allah al-wahid draws substantially from the Qur’an. However the apologist brings this Quranic text and language into a new theological and literary context, as when the he goes on in the next chapter to argue for God’s triunity. Swanson, “Beyond Prooftexting: Approaches to the Qur’an in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies,” 305-08.
[37] Greene, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry, 42.
[38] Don Richardson, Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery in the 20th Century (Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1974).
[39] Richardson was deeply influenced by the early 20th century “diffusionary anthropology” of Wilhelm Schmidt and others who posited that many key elements of culture, including certain religious beliefs, all came from a common original proto-civilization following the time of Noah. Concepts such as a high God, prevalent in many indigenous cultures, were a vestige of this civilization. See: Ken Nehrbass, “In Memory: Don Richardson’s impact on my own life, and on global missions,” Gospel and Culture Blog, August 7, 2018, http://www.nehrbass.info/blog/don-richardsons-impact-on-missions; A. Scott Moreau, Contextualizing the Faith: A Holistic Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), 147-48.
[40] For an overview of these see Paul Hedges, Preparation and Fulfilment: A History and Study of Fulfilment Theology in Modern British Thought in the Indian Context (New York: Peter Lang, 2001); Ivan M. Satyavrata, God Has Not Let Himself Without Witness (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2011).
[41] Satyavrata, God Has Not Let Himself Without Witness, 21-26.
[42] Keshub Chunder Sen, Keshub Chunder Sen’s Lectures in India (Calcutta: The Brahmo Tract Society, 1886), 300.
[43] Satyavrata, God Has Not Let Himself Without Witness, 92-95.
[44] Rig Veda 10.90.
[45] For a description and analysis of the development of Banerjea’s fulfillment theology see Satyavrata, God Has Not Let Himself Without Witness, 91-137.
[46] Mettrai or Maitreya literally means “the future Buddha.” In various Buddhist scriptures, such as the Lotus Sutra, he is portrayed as a Bodhisattva, or one who is close to buddha consciousness, and is described as the one who would come in the future and will lead countless beings to the path of the Buddha and Nirvana.
[47] Aphilak Kasempholkoon, “Phra Sri An (Maitreya) as a Hero: Structural Analysis of Phra Sri An Myths in Thail Society,” Manusya: Journal of Humanities Special Issue No. 19 (2011): 21.
[48] Personal correspondence, Banpote Watchegama, July 1, 2019. Banpote relates the story of a Buddhist woman who, prior to following Christ, was reticent to hear about him. However, a member of Banpote’s church asked her if she would like to hear the story of Phra Sri Ariya (Jesus). She agreed and, after hearing his account of Jesus, “opened her mind” and decided to join him in further Bible study. After 7-8 months she declared she was a follower of Christ.
[49] Prenger, Muslim Insider Christ Followers: The Theological and Missional Frames, 74.
[50] Moyise, “Does the NT Quote the OT Out of Context?,” 140.
[51] Greene, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry, 46. For Richard Hays, much of the New Testament writer’s engagement with the Hebrew scriptures reflects a dialectical approach. For example, Paul lets the scriptures speak “in ways that cannot be fully controlled or manipulated.” Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 168. In Romans Paul “needs the blessing of Scripture, and Scripture’s witness to God’s election of Israel stands in judgment of all formulations of the gospel. On the other hand, Scripture’s witness gains its eschatological coherence only in light of the gospel, and the gospel stands in judgment of Israel’s unbelief. The voices contend in counterpoint… Scripture refuses to be assimilated to a one-sidedly Christocentric reading.” Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 177.
[52] Dayanand Bharati, Canon, 2020, Unpublished paper.
[53] Bharati, Canon.
[54] We could categorize as dialectical the wide range of Christian theologians who have engaged with non-biblical scriptures to create a theological synthesis between those and the Christian tradition. For sake of space I will not discuss scholars since few, that I am aware of, have been embraced by or created grass-roots groups or movements, the focus of my enquiry here.
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