Is syncretism really harmful to Christianity?

Abstract

What culture or society is pure? Which religion has not been influenced by another or other religions? Yet, why is the fusion of some elements of one religion into other religions met with distrust and disapproval? Why is there little or no theological support for the union and assimilation of qualities from one religion into another? Why does it seem that Christianity in particular is exceptionally anti-syncretistic? This work reconsiders under what situations syncretism is adverse or positive. Is it bad when it results in a more fulfilling and satisfactory relationship with Christ? Is it bad when it reinvigorates or retains the forms of worship that have been suitable for the people in their relationship with God before Christianity? Is it bad when it enculturates people towards accepting Christ and believing in his message, but in their own categories?

Keywords

Catholic contextualization inculturation Igbos mutual enrichment progressivism religions syncretism

What is syncretism?

Moreau gives different related definitions to syncretism and religious syncretism.

Syncretism: inappropriate blending of non-Christian religious ideas or practices with Christian faith. Religious syncretism: the replacement or dilution of the essential truths of the gospel through the incorporation of non-Christian elements.¹

Since syncretism has been red-flagged in many, if not all religions and religious institutions,² Moreau’s definition seems to suggest that syncretism is ‘inappropriate’ only if and when it ‘dilutes the essential truths’. In other words, when syncretism rekindles and effectuates these truths, it could be upheld. Rose argues that syncretism is merely ‘the condition out of which new religious identities emerge and by which they are eventually absorbed’.³ Rose’s argument implies that as long as religions have emerged from previous religions, shared the same social and cultural heritage of previous religions, and identified themselves in separation from previous religions, syncretism has always occurred.

For example, Hinduism and Buddhism have been considered by several authors as ‘two sides of the same coin’.⁴ Their mutual influence, in Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and even into the New Age spiritualities, extends from religious terminologies (karma, dharma, etc.) to religious symbols (mudra, dharma chakra, rudraksha, swastika or sauwastika, tilak, etc.) and even to the style of religious prayer (mantra chanting). Judaism, Christianity and Islam, even in their unique exclusivities, share more than just historicity. Their concepts of God, styles of worship, symbols, festive seasons, etc. only support the syncretistic heritage that connects them. From time immemorial, new religions have emerged from the amalgamations of various religio-cultural elements. We have the Sumerian and Semitic elements in the Assyro-Babylonian religion. The concatenation of Etruscan beliefs and practices, the influence of Greek religion and the involvement of Hellenistic Oriental religious elements are what was identified as the ancient Roman religion.⁵ Therefore, as Burman would argue, while many religions consider syncretism unacceptable, not many would argue for independent success in religious and human development.⁶

The syncretistic influence does not always occur in a direct form. There is, for example, a current theological clamour in Christianity to expunge that which is foreign, especially Western, transmitted under the cover of Christianity to other cultures, and to retrieve the indigenous constructs as equally valuable soil on which the seed of Christ’s message can be sown.⁷ This development is partly because of the uncertainties surrounding the fate of Christianity in the Western world where its decline is disturbing, but the political and historical influence of the religion is still enormous. It is also partly supported by indirect syncretism. This means that exposure and contact with the other does not always lead to the assimilation of the foreign religion. Such exposure and contact could lead instead to insistence on one’s identity and passionate efforts to cherish it. Udeani explains thus:

Especially for Westerners, it is difficult to understand, that the sacred, for the Africans, can manifest itself in such objects as stones, trees, rivers, seas, mountains, animals etc. The Africans do not worship the stone of the tree as such; the sacred stones, tree, rivers, seas, mountains and animals etc. are not worshipped as such but revered because they manifest something else, namely, the sacred or wholly other.⁸

So, indirect syncretism here retains the traditional medium of divine–mundane relationship, or rather Christianizes it.

Causes of syncretism

There are many factors that could lead to syncretism.

Sociocultural similarity

If a new religion springs up from the same sociocultural stance as an older religion, like Christianity from the sociocultural background of Judaism, then the thought-structure, mentality and orientations, even styles and systems of worship remain the same or at least are similar.

Human tendency towards novelty

If another religion provides a more current answer to or new perspectives on a question present in a particular religion, then syncretism is warranted. In the recent past, novelty and empowerment have become the answers which have cut across different religions. Although Howard and Packer argue that ‘Christianity is the true humanism’ and that it hatched the ideologies of ‘personalism’,⁹ it would appear that Westerners, at least, yearn for greater religious empowerment from Christianity. As a result, various forms of New Age spiritualities have emerged in the recent past and found a welcoming milieu, empowering people to create, form and believe their own constructs of (G)gods.

Problems of presentation and communication

Different times have different modes of communication. Most people live and communicate within the parlance of their milieus. A philosophical homily, for example, might be more fancied in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, than today. When there is a problem of communication or expression in one particular religion, people invoke the assistance of other forms from other religions to express themselves better. For example, there is a flute known as an Oja, which was traditionally used in worship or on great occasions in Igboland. This flute is now sometimes used during eucharistic adorations or at those points in the eucharistic prayer of the Mass when bells are rung.

Ideological, economic, social and political changes

Each of these factors is a big topic on its own. They decide what questions and answers are relevant in a particular milieu. Changes in them entail changes in the questions relevant to the milieu, which imply the need for new answers and warrant syncretism. So people tend towards a satisfactory new answer, incorporating them into their religions.

Forms of syncretism

Extrinsic syncretism

This is the syncretism that occurs outside already existing religions, but it is not necessarily a new religion. Extrinsic syncretism does not share the identity of a former religion, but draws elements from different religions. Gnosticism would be an older example.¹⁰ It imbibed so much from Christianity and Judaism that most of what we know about it comes from the early church fathers like Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen. Yet, it provided new perspectives on the questions of the time. A more recent example of extrinsic syncretism are the New Age spiritualities.¹¹ Flourishing in many parts of the world, they cannot be identified with a particular institution of theological structure. Another recent example would be ‘Chrislam’,¹² which started in Nigeria in the 1980s but is spreading vigorously throughout the world. Basically, it tries to syncretize Christianity and Islam. Its adherents believe in the harmony that can exist in these two religions, and with Nigeria’s history of peculiar acrimony between the two religions, ‘Chrislam’ is providing new solutions to a controversial issue.

Intrinsic syncretism

This is the syncretism that occurs inside a religion when some aspects of other religions are assimilated by another religion. When religions come into contact with each other, and the less sophisticated religion submits to the more sophisticated religion, intrinsic syncretism occurs. Within intrinsic syncretism is also ideological syncretism. This happens when the tenets or teachings of a particular religion are noticeably influenced by ideologies that might not even be religious, but are nonetheless attractive and popular. Ideological syncretism bends towards popularism, although popular ideologies can be uncritical. For example, Lindenfeld and Richardson comment on ideological syncretism in Brazil that ‘beneath the surface was the assumption that such amalgamation was actually a process of “whitening”. In other words, syncretism was fine as long as it did not become too African.’¹³ So, the assimilation of such uncritical ideologies, merely because they are popular, could transmit racial prejudice into religious structures and institutions. Most times, the incorporation of these ideologies is intended to make the religion more accessible to non-believers or not appear obsolete to outsiders, or to make adherents of the religion more acceptable to the popular culture. It is on this point, Elizondo and Boff argue, that many claim that ‘Western Christianity’ has always been highly syncretistic. Not in its assimilation of other religious ways, but in its volatility towards ideologies that are popular and attractive to the people even when they contradict Christian teachings.

The great Western expansion was characterized by the unquestioned syncretistic mixture of the gods of Mammon and the Christian God of eternal life. Since the Constantinian inversion, this syncretism had been developing in Western Christianity.¹⁴

Christianity and the Igbos

The Igbos are the major habitants of the south-eastern part of Nigeria, close to the Atlantic coast. Like the inhabitants of many other parts of the continent, the Igbos experienced Christian missionary activities. However, despite the contrast of its initial missionary challenges, Christianity was successful because of the progressive tendencies of the Igbos.

Social progressiveness

The Igbos are now mainly Christians. Statistics say some 97 per cent are Christians. It is hard to understand such extensive ‘conversion’, especially since Christianity is not even close to 200 years old among the Igbos. It is even more difficult to understand it when one realizes that the Christianization of the Igbos met with serious resistance.

Christian missionary attempts to convert the Igbos to Christianity began in 1857. But until the turn of the century, the number of Christian converts was not impressive … Believing that their traditional religion was better for them than this ‘new religion’, most of the Igbo people listened to missionary propaganda but remained outside the Christian Church … Most Igbos treated missionary propaganda with ‘respectful indifference’.¹⁵

Then the Igbos started converting en masse. A missionary testifies: ‘The heathens are looking on, bewildered, and powerless to stem the torrent of enthusiasm that is flowing like a river towards the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ.’¹⁶ What has not been often revealed, however, was that it was not just the irresistibility of Christian teachings that changed the indifference of the Igbos to faith in Christianity. It was rather, more the political structure of British imperialism and the social advantages of belonging to the ‘superior’ religious group. In fact, colonial exploitation afforded an undue but attractive advantage to some people over the others, especially some men, over their fellow men and women. They were protected by the British and became ‘untouchables’. They had more financial capacities than the others. Even their mere knowledge of a Pidgin English gave them an advantage over the others. So, ‘in Igboland, to be sure, it became fashionable to be called Christian’.¹⁷ These syncretistic factors of novelty and empowerment attracted the Igbo to Christianity. He was humanly empowered in his society, but more, the mere fancy in the identity of Christianity was, for his progressive nature, irresistible.

For the Igbo, his society, his community is part of his religion. His social life is seriously implicated in his religious life. A religious title has social implications. It is indeed his society that lives, and his individuality only participates in the life of the society. Even in death, he is restless until he rests among his kinsmen in the underworld. So, social progress has religious implications. He transposes this social-religious concept into his Christianity, and there the first syncretism occurs. He merges the Christian ‘personal salvation’ with salvaging himself in his society and among his kinsmen.

Religious progressiveness

After the phase of novelty–empowerment, when Christianity no longer meant empowerment to the people, there was a need for another factor to sustain the new religion. The structure of the accepted Christianity was not just foreign to the Igbo, it was discordant with the structure of his traditional religion. He used to approach the shrines of the deities with rhythmical gaits, in valour and exaltations, subjecting himself to the frenzy of spiritual incantations. But in Christianity, he has to come to church quietly and sit down. He used to express his joys or sorrows through spontaneous vocality, dancing, clapping and swinging. In Christianity, he has to learn to glue his palms together before his chest and only respond at the appropriate time. Ritualistic offering was important to him. He pacified the gods, thanked them, cleansed himself with offerings and invoked their wrath for onslaught or revenge. In Christianity, vengeance is the Lord’s. So, he loses the spiritual feelings and, as such, the satisfaction of his religious life.

In order to regain them and sustain this Christianity, which has dissipated into various denominations, the Igbo started invoking his traditional spirituality, gradually. He brings his traditional instruments to church, clapping, singing and dancing. He joyfully dances with his offerings to the altar. He even remodels the content of his prayer to traditional ways, praying for the wrath of God against his enemies and using his material possessions for the priests and churches, as pacifying means to attract God’s friendship. Through the syncretistic application of traditional religious elements, he regains some level of spiritual satisfaction in his Christianity. In this sense, syncretism is inculturation.

So religious progressiveness is the second phase of syncretism in the Igbo–Christianity relationship.

The tension of syncretism in Christianity

Historical tension

Christianity as a religion did not just happen, it was created through a historical process involving time, space and people. Within this time, space and people, other religions and ideologies existed. This means that the process of institutionalizing Christianity was a process of conflict and confrontation. To establish its uniqueness and identity, Christianity had to counteract, even fight, the others. This phenomenon gave birth to the sensitivity of Christianity when syncretism is boldly applied.

Biblical tension

The Bible, both Old and New Testament, is full of exclusive interpretations of God, who does not want his people to be corrupted (Deut. 6.5; Matt. 22.37; John 14.6; 20.31–32; Acts 4.12). There are two major concerns over the biblical points regarding syncretism. Most times, Christians take exclusive Bible passages to mean the exclusivity of Christianity. It appears that for most people, the monotheistic inclination of Christianity implies anti-syncretism. When God demands worship ‘of him and him alone’ in the Bible (Exod. 20.1–3; 34.14; Phil. 2.11) must it be interpreted to mean exclusivism to a particular religion and only in their religious elements? The second concern is related to the first. Both the Old and New Testaments, involving Judaism and Christianity, portray pictures of competence. Would the competence of these religions be thwarted by a syncretistic incorporation? Along these concerns are the biblical tensions on syncretism.

Theological tension

The teachings of Christianity from baptism to salvation have always given the impression of self-sufficiency. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ and the grace of God is translated into the sufficiency of Christianity as a religion. Hence, syncretism would imply insufficiency in Christ, a deficiency in his godly and salvific provisions and an incompetence in his religion. So, the theological implications of syncretism would include an endangerment of religious exclusivism or even absolutism.

Conclusion

Leopold and Jensen expressed a concern: ‘We may find “anti-syncretism” in every type of human society. However, only in Christianity do we find officially worked-out manifestos against syncretism.’¹⁸ But Christianity is not without syncretism. It has been there from its inception, in symbols, structures and sacraments. It has been syncretistic in its evangelical confrontations. It is still there in its adaptive processes to every new milieu. So, syncretism might not be as bad as it has been conceived. Otherwise, how would a missionary/evangelical religion like Christianity be effectively practised and sustained? Those theological/religious approaches that seem accepted in our present milieu – ecumenism, inter/intra-religious commitments, inculturation, etc. – are they not syncretistic? ‘People have practiced syncretism even when they were unaware of it or sought to deny it – as they not infrequently did.’¹⁹

The problem is how to diffuse the tensions; how to find the balance between syncretism and faithfulness to one’s religious convictions. A few solutions may be suggested.

Clarity of religiousness

This implies a knowledge of what one believes and why one believes it. For example, there were different forms of baptismal or cleansing rituals in other religions, before Christianity.

Jewish women, and sometimes men, ritually immerse themselves in a ritual bath or mikvah for purification purposes. In Buddhist funerals water is poured out of a bowl symbolizing the return of the soul to its original source. And the Ganges River, Mother Ganges, is a sacred river that purifies all followers of God, and makes possible the attainment of enlightenment, in the practice of Hinduism.²⁰

So, it was not a new Christian idea. Clarity of religiousness informs one on what is different in Christian baptism. This clarity of religiousness equally implies a denunciation of religious elements that are not compatible with one’s religiousness.

Contact with one’s religiosity

Constant contact with one’s religion and religiosities abhors the lacuna of uncertainty and indifferentism. The balance between syncretism and devotion to one’s religion is not found in religious isolation. Otherwise, one becomes indifferent to whatever religiosity one meets and susceptible to incompatible elements.

Contextualization

The religious context of Christianity is ‘immanentism’. God becomes man to invigorate humanity, not discard it. Christianity maintains the equilibrium between God and man. This context is accommodating of syncretism, since humanity varies.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.²¹

In accordance with this ‘sincere reverence’, those compatible elements can be inter-religiously applied for a better relationship with God.

Model of mutual enrichment

This is an interreligious dialogue model which aims at the unity from religious concatenation. Religious concatenation enriches humanity. While religious differences are respected, religious elements can be appreciated and ‘borrowed’. Syncretism shows us that God is beyond the details of our human constructs of worship and religious structures. This model advocates mutual respect and understanding among religions, and as such, an enriching syncretism.

If we take Jesus as the way, we must see him as a way that has express-road, cyclist-road and pedestrian lanes. He would be a way that people of different possibilities can follow to the Father, moving at different rates.

Footnotes

Notes

Author Biography

K. Chinedu Nweke holds a doctorate in interreligious dialogue and missiology from the University of Würzburg, Germany.