Christian Barriers to Jesus (Revised Edition)

J. Paul Pennington

Description

A Call to Follow Jesus When He Challenges Our Traditions

There are many challenges to adequately representing Jesus to the majority world, and often Western Christian traditions create unnecessary hindrances to people accepting His truth. This book grew out of many interviews with Indian Jesus-followers—both Christians and Yesu bhaktas—who identified painful stumbling blocks to receiving and sharing the gospel.

While Hindus often have a high view of Jesus, they struggle with the conventions, practices, and labels around "church." Christian Barriers to Jesus uniquely challenges readers to examine nine barrier-producing Christian traditions, exploring: 

• The assumptions Christians may hold about the value, origin, or necessity of their customs
• The concerns Hindus commonly raise about traditions that confuse, offend, or alienate them
• Teachings from Jesus in Scripture that often question the same ideas or practices

Pennington suggests that by not asking deep enough questions about what is essential for following Jesus and what is a non-essential human invention, the church is unnecessarily alienating millions of people from Him. As a body, it is time to honestly address these concerns, developing new patterns of discipleship that reveal Jesus’s heart for breaking down barriers instead of creating them. The analysis presented in this book will empower readers to critically examine their personally cherished traditions and the purity of the gospel they present, with insights that are relevant in all contexts.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Ministry
• hindu
• Philosophie et théologie
• Evangelism

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645083832
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

While Christian Barriers to Jesus is clearly rooted in the Hindu context of India, it speaks of principles with much broader applicability. The ideas presented in the book deeply resonated with me based on my decades of living and working in China, engaged both with mainstream secular culture and Muslim ethnic minority communities. Now living back in the US, I see how similar issues are at play in diverse settings here. The beauty of the book is actually more than just an articulation of principles though; its greatest strength is in expanding the range of questions we are willing to ask as we try to follow Jesus and better experience together his offer of abundant life.
C HARLY P INE Inspired Leadership Initiative Fellow, University of Notre Dame
The prayashchitta (atoning, reconciling offering) done by Paul Pennington will put the healing balm on the wounds of every Hindu Yesu bhakta and will encourage them to press forward, without minding what others say or think about them, to live with their birthright, to be a Hindu and a bhakta of the Nara-Hari Bhagavan Muktinath (the Man-God, the Blessed One, Jesus).
D AYANAND B HARATI Yesu bhakta in India
Dr. Paul Pennington has done the global Christian community a great service by writing Christian Barriers to Jesus . Dr. Pennington points out an essential and clarifying truth, and he does so beginning with the title. Christians have erected barriers between the peoples of the earth and Jesus. Dr. Pennington has situated his book in the Hindu context. His experiences interviewing Indian people led him to further explore the reasons why Hindus and Christians know that traditional Christian assumptions stifle the growth of the gospel within Hindu communities in India and around the world. Throughout the book, Dr. Pennington points them out and then explains why they have become barriers. The greatest strength of the book is the grace and humility with which he deals with the problems and the solutions.
T IMOTHY S HULTZ Teacher and Author, Making Disciples among Hindus
The religious world of the Hindu and its labyrinth of unreached peoples has long presented the Christian movement with inscrutable barriers. But any radical incarnational witness to reduce these barriers will be sure to threaten the more conventional church life in India. Paul Pennington has chosen to journey alongside these churches and dialogue with them on their Christian responsibility for these barriers. The biblically reasoned curricula that has emerged, so long overdue, promises to free the log jam of misunderstanding surrounding incarnational witness among Hindus today.
B RAD G ILL Editor, International Journal of Frontier Missiology (IJFM)
Christian Barriers to Jesus is a path-breaking work which examines systematically the obvious, and the more subtle, factors that keep most Indian people from becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. It is an honest inventory of the legacy that Christendom has bequeathed on the Hindu people, and it carefully documents why they reject the claims of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. At a time when many Christians and mission agencies in India are being forced to discover (and re-discover) their true raison d etre, Paul Pennington invites scholars and practitioners to get back to the original fact of Jesus. Making this shift will not be painless, but it is essential if Hindus are to hear-and see-the Good News, without the elaborate (and unnecessary) socio-religio-cultural stumbling blocks that have been unwittingly erected by Christians down the ages. Thank you, Paul Pennington, for calling us to return to our eternal, original foundations.
P ETER I GNATIUS President, Lakeview Bible College Seminary, Chennai, India
This is a paradigm-altering study. Standard paradigms of Christianity and church are part of the core problems addressed in this analysis of Christian barriers to Jesus. It hurts to break from long-accepted patterns of thought and practice, but this is part of the pruning that produces more fruit (John 15:1-10) and of the discipline that is painful for a season (Heb 12:11). Pennington is always a faithful physician seeking to heal and restore, even when he deals with painful realities.
H. L. R ICHARD Researcher and Author, Following Jesus in the Hindu Context and Hinduism

Christian Barriers to Jesus (Revised Edition): Conversations and Questions from the Indian Context
Copyright 2017, 2022 by J. Paul Pennington
No parts of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher, except in brief quotes used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers. For permission, email [e-mail] . For corrections, email [e-mail] .
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Version. Public Domain.
Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible . Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Published by William Carey Publishing (formerly William Carey Library)
10 W Dry Creek Cir
Littleton, CO 80120 | www.missionbooks.org
William Carey Publishing is a ministry of Frontier Ventures
Pasadena, CA | www.frontierventures.org
Melissa Hughes, editor
Joelle Bridges, copyeditor
Joanne Liang, interior design; Mike Riester, cover design and interior
Digital Ebook Release 2022
ISBNs: 978-1-64508-381-8 (paperback), 978-1-64508-383-2 (epub)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022931195
CONTENTS
Figures and Tables
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations
1 | The Barrier of Cultural Separatism
2 | The Barrier of Christian
3 | The Barrier of Church
Interlude: Three Foundational Barriers
4 | The Barriers of Evangelism, Gospel, and Preaching
5 | The Barrier of Conversion
6 | The Barrier of Baptism
7 | The Barrier of Worship
8 | The Barrier of Financial Dependency
9 | The Barrier of Benevolence
10 | Final Observations
Appendix
Glossary
Bibliography
FIGURES AND TABLES
F IGURE 1 | Christians, Believers, and Others in India
T ABLE 1 | Six Contrasts between New Testament and Modern Use of Christian
T ABLE 2 | Usage of Common Terms for Believers in Acts
T ABLE 3 | Oxford and Merriam-Webster Definitions of Church
T ABLE 4 | Comparing Ekkl sia and Church Assumptions
T ABLE 5 | Convert and Conversion
T ABLE 6 | Essential Elements of Unity
FOREWORD
The explosion of Christianity as a truly world religion over the course of the twentieth century has brought new challenges to the mission endeavor of the twenty-first century. There are so many varieties of Christianity that many of us are getting familiar with the initially uncomfortable term “Christianities.”
The many Christianities of the world still face a massive challenge in adequately representing Jesus Christ to the majority of the world which lives without a vital relationship with him. This book is focused on that challenge, and particularly that challenge in India among Hindus.
Author Dr. J. Paul Pennington is on an interesting pilgrimage. He has been a missionary in Africa, a teacher of missions in the USA, and in recent years has become familiar with the Indian scene. In all places, he has observed how Christians and churches are often their own worst enemy when it comes to representing Christ before others.
This book grows out of deep interaction with many Indian Christians. The problems it presents (the many Christian barriers to Jesus) have been identified and affirmed by Indian Christians, and the penetrating analysis presented here will stimulate readers in all contexts, not just Hindu contexts.
How Indian Christians can shed the baggage introduced to them by Western Christianity is a great challenge. Many of the voiceless Christians whose contributions are present in these pages would perhaps not have been able to face the radical ramifications of this situation without the biblical and existential probing of Dr. J. Paul Pennington.
Pennington has also kept his ears open to voices outside Christianity. He quotes with remarkable respect and humility some of the bitterest critics of Christ-church-gospel in India. This is commendable, as modern media makes even the most fringe voices altogether accessible to masses of people, and few can discern what is slanted and what is factual. And listening to and learning from even harsh and unfair critics is commanded by our Lord (“make peace quickly with your adversary on the way to court,” Matt 5:25).
Yet there are also many voices beyond Christianity who hold Jesus in the highest esteem; people who are well-wishers towards the ideals of Christianity even if at times critics of Christianity in current practice. Pennington has particularly been heedful of these voices, and has found Indian Christians who are sufficiently humble and concerned with the glory of Christ to acknowledge the sometimes painful truths pointed out by these friends.
The end product, with historical and particularly biblical analysis, is this insightful study of Christian barriers to Jesus. Surely there is not a single sincere Christian who does not lament that at some point (for most of us, many points) their own person an