Abstract
Christ Followers in Other Religions is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the Insider Movements, written by Darren Duerksen, assistant professor of intercultural studies at Fresno Pacific University. His earlier title, Essential Identities in a Multi-Faith Context based on a study of Hindus and Sikhs dealt with the identity of Christ followers; in this volume, he advances his perspective on Christ followers to challenge “Western and other dominant Christians’ assumed role as caretakers of mission” (15) in dealing with insider movements.
Duerksen conceptualizes the beliefs and practices of Christ followers as alternative missiological imaginaries. For defining missiological imaginaries, he relies on Charles Taylor's “social imaginary,” which means, “unarticulated knowledge informing people's practices, identities, and beliefs” (86). For the author, alternative missiological imaginaries means the ways of Christ followers making sense of the lived realities through the lens of their faith in Christ. The alternative missiological imaginaries are not “simply strategies for evangelism or peacekeeping” but, they are “hybrid religiosities—point to new ways of following Christ in non-Christian contexts and enriching those contexts from within” (165).
The author finds the existing models of “people group” and “contextualization” are inadequate to explain Christ followers’ lived realities. Based on the lived realities of case studies he shows how Christ followers are finding new ways of following Christ within their communities as well as the ways of reshaping their religious traditions based on their faith in Christ. He calls this a hybrid religiosity, which is a “genuine desire on their behalf to follow Christ and his teachings while not rejecting, and perhaps instead moving with, the Spirit deeper into their own religious traditions” (44).
The strength of the study lies with the selection of the cases. They are drawn from historical and contemporary contexts and from various religious communities including, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, and native-American. The author reminds the readers that Christ followers are not theorizing their practices and theologizing is not their aim. But they focus on practicing their faith in Christ within their communities. The case narratives are described to show how they have negotiated their newfound faith while preserving the relationship with their communities. The variety of cases indicates that the trend of following Christ as an insider is not confined to one particular religious community or region, but this practice cuts across religions. The historical cases show that this is not a new phenomenon, but this practice has been existing for a long period.
The author discusses Christ followers’ missiological imaginaries on selected themes of revelation and scripture, salvation, religious conversion, and community relationships. The author points out Christ followers prioritize the Bible while reading their religious scriptures, “but also value the ways in which God by his Spirit may provide blessing, truth, and goodness through other scriptures, prayers, stories, etc.” (89). The author theorizes this attitude by differentiating canon and charisma, where canon establishes identity, stability, and charisma, by the Spirit, creates innovation, new meanings, and motivations. He furthers his argument by using intertextuality as a key for Christ followers interpreting the Bible and their scriptures in new ways. For Christ followers, religious conversion is a process and is not individualistic. In this process, Christ followers negotiate their relationships, practices, morals, and rituals with a hope of the future. Contrary to the Western understanding of individualistic salvation, Christ followers see salvation of families. Therefore, they live with their families as transforming agents.
In conclusion, the author presents three kinds of missiology: mending, patient, and marginal by integrating the missiological imageries. A mending missiology will preserve relationships and bring healing to the community, instead of breaking relationships. A patient missiology allows Christ followers to be patient and wait for a longer period before the family or community members start following Christ. The author claims that the insider Christ followers’ missiology is marginal against the Western and dominant model of non-Western missiology. In contrast to the mending and patient missiology, which are grounded in the lived realities of Christ followers, the marginal missiology appears to be the author's critique of Western and colonial models of missiology per se. It is not clear how marginal missiology is grounded in the lived realities of the cases.
Since this is field-based study, an introduction to the volume stating the methodology with a detailed description of sampling, data collection, and data analysis would have disclosed the scientific rigor of the study. Missing index in such a scholarly book is a loss to researchers.
The original contribution of the study lies with theorizing the beliefs and practices of insider Christ followers. The author skilfully engaged the relevant theories and concepts from the literature such as social imaginary, hybrid religiosity, canon, charisma, and so on. The case studies of Christ followers substantiated the claims made by the author and the imaginaries are duly grounded on the lived realities of the cases.
This book adds new material from the perspectives of insider Christ followers for the debate on the insider movement among missiologists. Although this title primarily challenges Western Christians’ understanding of mission, it equally applies to non-Western Christians who hold on to the Western paradigm of mission.
Missiologists, religious studies scholars who are interested in hybrid religiosity, students of mission studies, and anyone who is interested in insider movement will find this volume valuable and for some it could be an untrodden territory.
