by Dr. Laurie Oksanen
An introductory note from Monique:
If you’ve followed the Center for Biblical Unity over the last few years, you may have noticed my personal shift away from celebrating Black History Month within the context of the church. You can read more about that here and here. While I firmly believe that culture should not be celebrated or placed above our identity in Christ, I do believe that God, in His divine providence, places each of us within a specific cultural context. This is why we reprinted a blog post last February by our friend Lisa Robinson Spencer, a theologian who has also done a lot of work on issues related to culture.
In light of this journey, my desire is to shift the ministry toward a more panoramic approach of celebrating the good, true, and beautiful of all cultures, not limiting ourselves to a special month for a specific culture (which, in reality, is only a celebration of skin color, as blacks across America have different cultures). We have decided to run a series of periodic articles featuring interviews with Christians from diverse cultural backgrounds and the impact of the Gospel on that culture. My hope is that you will discover something new about a specific culture, appreciate its unique beauty, and celebrate how God has worked among His people from all cultures.
Our first cultural interview is with one of our Academic Advisory Council members, Dr. Jacob Daniel. Enjoy!
–Monique
The nation of India recently surpassed China with the largest population in the world with 1.44 billion people. This large population represents many different cultures, religions, traditions, languages, and foods.
When people think of India, they picture many things: its troubling history of superstition, polytheism, colonialism, and poverty, and its vibrant cultural elements, religious festivals, martial arts, and medicine.
India’s contributions to the world have been significant: in academics alone, India has been a world leader: the University of Manchester recently published a paper that shows that the Kerala School identified the “infinite series,” one of the basic components of calculus, about 1350–hundreds of years before Einstein identified it. Additionally, the state of Kerala, with 100% literacy, is a UN model for education and literacy for other nations around the world.
With so much diversity, and with so many cultural elements competing for dominance, how has the gospel been influential?
Looking Back: Church History
The southern region of India became a haven for Jews and Christians around the time of Christ. After the first temple destruction, many Jews came to southern India to escape persecution. According to tradition, the Apostle Thomas escaped to the region on the Malabar coast and established one of the earliest known Christian churches in the region.
Christianity’s influence throughout the region spread, both through the work of missionaries and through the desire to escape persecution. The representation of south India at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) confirms that Christianity was significant in the region.
Tradition also indicates that the Jewish philosopher Pantaenes from Alexandria, a Christian convert, brought the Gospel to the Brahmins in India. The historical record also shows that Persian Christians in the fourth century came to India to escape persecution.
As a result of this growth, the Christian church has significantly influenced Indian life, culture, and government for hundreds of years. When India gained its independence in 1947, it formed a republic with a Constitution modeled after the US Constitution. This allowed for a balance of rights and duties, equal dignity of all citizens, and allowed people to practice and share their religion.
Influencing the Culture: Jacob Daniel, founder of the Heritage Counsel
Dr. Jacob Daniel (part of CFBU’s Academic Advisory Council) grew up in India among people of different ethnicities, cultures, languages, and religions. His parents, part of the Mar Thoma denomination, are from Kerala in the South, and he was born and raised in Bhopal, a city in central India. He came to the United States as a missionary and established the Heritage Counsel, an organization for “equipping a cross-cultural and international team of biblically-minded and servant-hearted leaders to promote an articulate and intelligent voice in bringing the truth of Christian faith to bear on the big questions of life, with a strategic emphasis on removing the gap between the sacred and the secular and maintaining a healthy balance between faith and reason”.
Examining the Present: Influence of the Gospel
According to Jacob, “India stands as a nation because of the Bible.” This Scriptural influence has prepared India for its new position as an economic powerhouse in the modern world.
He sees three significant ways that a Biblical worldview has helped modern India develop.
1) Democratic values: Scripture teaches that each individual has intrinsic dignity. This brought about common law and gave status to everyone, including women.
2) Education: Because everyone needs to be able to learn God’s word, education became universal rather than being reserved for just a privileged few. Faithful missionaries, dedicated to translating the Scripture so that everyone could read it in their local language, brought about a linguistic transformation by codifying the languages and translating the Bible into those languages. William Carey, a missionary from England, developed the first modern university (Serampore) in India. Even today, many major educational institutions in India have religious names, indicating credibility and quality education.
3) Medicine: Medical missions contributed to the health and well-being of individuals.
Looking Ahead: Continuing Opportunities
Jacob recognizes the continuing opportunities that the Gospel can have on both India’s churches and India’s nation.
First, the church “needs to see how they can have a faithful impact on the nation as a whole.” The Christian church is a minority in India “so it has tended to isolate itself to preserve its members and to avoid diluting its message.” Rather than preservation, the church should look for ways “to influence the nation as a whole in its flourishing.”
As a result of the church’s influence, the nation should “emphasize truth based on historical facts and evidence rather than the subjectivity of mythology.” By “meeting the need that each person has for intrinsic dignity” and by “showing individuals that each person is made in the image of God,” people will be less inclined to “dominate each other or establish unwarranted hierarchies.” Emphasizing “the idea of intrinsic value will help India face any challenge that they have today.”
Sources:
Daniel, Jacob. Interview. February 21, 2024.
www.https://heritagecounsel.org/sagree with.