You may remember earlier posts here about conversion. I’ve long found it unsettling how the wider OC/IC community does not often encourage, or talk about converting from X to and OC/IC identity. What is interesting is that in a number of the interviews I’ve conducted for the Indie Voices Archive this topic has been raised directly or indirectly in the conversation – this by way of pointing out that others are thinking about similar issues.
I’m about half way through an interesting little book I picked up a week ago: Conversion: Old Worlds and New (ISBN 1580461239); a collection of essays exploring cultural/historical/theological issues involved in historic conversion and missionary settings.
One essay talks about resisting conversion within the Christian tradition – that is resisting outside pressures to convert either to Protestantism or Roman Catholicism in in the late medieval period. This particular essay was interesting in our OC/IC setting because – for me at least – it raised the question of why, at least in some quarters, there is a resistence within our community to full conversion? What are the issues and questions involved that are hindering that full transition from one “tradition” within the faith to another?
Another essay was even more interesting as it explored the effect of missionary effort on language, and how missionaries struggled, even altered the language of the audience to convey not only the message of the Gospel – but the message in a particular way so as to also carry political and imperial ideologies. The working example in the essay was Tamil and the Portugese padroado system – very interesting because this too has a historic link with our IC heritage through Vilatte and the Goa Schism.
What it got me to thinking about however, was how it is that today, in our collective effort to present the OC/IC tradition we effectively (and not so effectively) manipulate our choice of language – re-define “standard” or “familiar” thoelogical and linguistic terms thereby challenging ideas we believe are mis-guided even harmful to the faith. What arises from the example of Tamil Christians is that eventually the converted, take over the program, forcing the “imperial” ideology out – and reshaping the langugage and imagery yet again to best suit the local need. I wonder – have we yet come to the point within our context of having our own independent usage of language and imagery – one that expresses our ideas and theology rather than being inherited or borrowed from other traditions? If so what are these?
Finally, the essay I just finished is interesting because it explores the experience of Andean tribes during the Spanish conquest – how their understanding of conversion differed from the expectations of the Spanish. The Andeans did not set the imagined boundary of the new religion in the same place as the Spanish whose borders were perhaps more constricted. Thus, practices deemed idolatrous and pagan to the Spanish spilled over into the life of the Andean Roman Catholic convert community.
What I find interesting here is a reflection on the process of give and take – and the eventual re-setting of the boundaries. If we look now at the shape of Roman Catholicism in South America we see the “final” outcome is quite different from what the 17th century Spanish would have liked. This is a new mission field – looking at a much older one – from my own ethnicity I can see that many of the customs and practices we Central & Eastern Europeans have are holdover’s re-interpreted from our pagan past. This process of negotiating the boundaries has made the shape of Roman Catholicism, and indeed liturgical Christianity wonderfully diverse. I wonder in our setting how this conversation is working? How, for example are the so called continuing Anglican, ISM, and Gnostic groups contributing to our re-negotiation of the boundaries of OC/IC Christianity?
Given that we are “insiders” it is difficult to step outside and see the results of these things at work now within our community; but I think that it is an interesting and worthwhile exercise to sit in our context and consider some of these questions.
