Declaration as Embodied Practice: Integrating Perception,Confession and Action in Following Jesus Christ

Abstract

The underlying argument here is informed by a closer reading of events leading up to Peter's declaration of Jesus as ‘the Son of the Living God’ in Matthew 16, juxtaposed with the notion of ‘Embodied Witness’ in Ivan Satyavarta's paper on ‘Critical Issues’. Jesus did not see the reality of being the Son for demonstrating his divine power but, for servanthood; for achieving the purpose of God through action in the world. Likewise, for the disciples, the declaration of Jesus exceeds mere perception of divinity or his oral confession but for Christ-like action or embodied practice in the world.

Keywords

Declaration embodied practice perception confession action

Introduction

Ivan Satyavarta's approach to examining ‘Critical Issues’ is grounded in the scriptures (see his crucial reference to 1 Chronicles 12.32). He writes as clearly as he thinks and, is himself one of many in our generation who ‘discern the signs of the times and know how God's people should respond to the challenges of disruption in each era’. His acknowledgement of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) as the place where one finds discerning Christian scholarship is both a reason to celebrate and a warning against drift. It also highlights for those in OCMS and its global networks the key priorities for prophetic research by men and women with an ‘understanding of the times’.

As an evidence of his reading of the times, Ivan highlights eight critical issues for scholarship whose purpose is to build the church of God: racial & ethnic reconciliation; patriarchy, gender and sexuality; encounter with the world's living religions; socio-economic inequality and injustice; climate change and creation care; digital revolution, meta-verse and the rise of AI; meta-modernism, transhumanism and post-humanism; and embodied apologetic witness. Such a crystallisation of emphases for scholarship is embedded in his perceptive awareness of the reality of the ‘world in motion’ and ‘church in crisis’.

The least I can do in my response is to underline these as worthy topics for further interrogations. They are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather pointers towards where God is calling his people to search for divinely informed and academically rigorous answers for the church's faithful witness. The aim here was not to attempt to add to the already substantive list or to offer a critique (as I usually do to papers in academic settings) of Ivan's reading of the world or the state of the church or of his list of ‘critical issues’ and the order of their presentation. My aim is to modestly juxtapose his notion of ‘Embodied Apologetic Witness’ with that part of the Gospel narrative where Jesus is declared as the Son (Matthew 16.13–20). I see this as a simple way of encompassing the seemingly disparate ‘critical issues’ Ivan highlights. At the risk of sounding simplistic, the proposal will be to bring the disciple's declaration of Jesus (which I see as encompassing the revelatory perception of Jesus’ divinity, it verbal confession and action)¹ in society under the single rubric of what Ivan call, ‘embodied apologetic witness’ and I phrase it plainly as ‘embodied practice’.

Informed by a closer reading of Matthew 16, the underlying argument will be that just as Jesus’ Lordship was neither about demonstrating his divinity not the power as we understand it but for achieving the purpose of God through action in the world; for the disciples then and now likewise, the declaration of Jesus exceeds mere perception of his divinity or its oral admission; it is about Christ like action. This, to me, is embodied practice.

Declaration as Embodied Practice

Embodiment

I found it helpful to start with a simple search for the meanings of the word embodiment in dictionaries before delving a bit into the more complex theory. Cambridge Dictionary, for instance, suggests it to mean, ‘to have and show particular qualities or ideas’, Merriam Webster suggests, ‘to give a body to (a spirit): incarnate’, and, Collins dictionary: ‘to be a symbol or expression of that idea or quality’.

Starting with the 17th century thinker, Rene Descartes, the fundamental problem in our thinking has been in not knowing what to do with the seemingly normative binaries of nature-culture and mind-body. Among others two principal theorists who grappled with such dualities were, Pierre Bourdieu and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Merleau-Ponty's theory been characterised as the Perception Theory whereas, Bourdieu's work has been considered as the Practice Theory of embodiment. These seemingly dissimilar ideas existed in their silos until, Thomas Csordas unified them to enhance their import for an integrative understanding of embodiment: Merleau-Ponty ‘elaborates embodiment in the problematic of perception,’ and Bourdieu ‘situates embodiment in an anthropological discourse of practice’. Csordas brings Perception and Practice together significantly through his research on Christian healing rituals and speaking in tongues (glossolalia) seen as experience and action in ‘a ritual system of a movement’ (Csordas, 1990: 7).

Csordas’ approach runs counter to Descartes’ dualism. His approach to ‘embodiment begins from the methodological postulate that the body is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the subject of culture, or in other words as the existential ground of culture’ (Csordas, 1990: 5). Each person within a cultural system or community becomes therefore the point where one analyses culture and the perceptions/actions of individuals within this system. Here, Csordas views human perceptions and actions as being grounded in the integrated human person (since one gives up the mind-body dualism). Such a ‘collapse [of dualities] allows us to investigate how cultural objects (including selves) are constituted or objectified, not in the processes of ontogenesis and child socialization, but in the ongoing indeterminacy and flux of adult cultural life’ (Csordas, 1990: 39–40).

Perhaps I have said enough to lead to my question: how might such embodiment where perception and action are tightly held together be connected with the declaration of Jesus as Lord (reductively represented as confession) in Matthew 16?

Declaration

Non-native speakers often struggle with words in English that have similar meanings. A case in point is the word, ‘confession’ used in the heading of some translations of Matthew 16.13–20. The NIV uses the word ‘declare, as in the heading, ‘Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah’. I think, the word declaration is closer to the intended meaning of Peter's understanding and admission than confession.

What Peter did was more than a voluntary verbal confession of who he perceived Jesus was; it was a declaration in that it pointed to a fact/reality independent of his confession but also, there was no gap between his perception and the reality. His was an embodied perception which is why it transformed his practice of discipleship – one that embraced Christ-like suffering and death in witnessing to him. As Noë notes: ‘Perception is not a representational process’ but, it is ‘concerned with actions upon the world’ (Noë, 2002). Jesus himself confirmed that Peter's utterance was revelatory and not reasoned. This fusion of horizons involving perception, confession and practice is what, I think, Ivan describes as ‘Embodied Apologetic Witness’ and I describe it as the Declaration. Declaration is to me Embodied Practice. The perception part of the declaration in Matthew 16.130–20 was brought about, as Jesus attested, ‘not by flesh and blood, by my Father in heaven’ (Matthew 16.17).

I suppose all declarations belong to such an integrative class of perception-action and can easily be illustrated through a simple example. We have all been in weddings. One of the most interesting part of Christian weddings is when the couple offer a series of declarations in a planned setting of a sacred ritual: ‘do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife’? One does not expect the couple to say no or wait, let us think again; one expects them to declare their agreement having already thought about it. One expects their oral confession to not be merely representational – not merely representing the reality of marriage but, actually embracing it for a lifetime of sacrificial action of being wed. The declaration is the moment when perception, confession and the action of being married begins. Duality collapses and the union is effected for life irrespective of the circumstances or feelings that change: ‘I, ___, take you, ___, for my lawful wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I will love and honour you all the days of my life’.

Besides Merleau-Ponty and Bourdieu's theoretical insights into embodied perception and action, referred to above, in Speech-act theory, words spoken/written in planned settings are not just about detached representations of something or an abstract information but the action or the thing itself. Words we use in formal settings of sacred rituals are not just a means of advancing information, but are previews of real actions and effects (see more Grewendorf and Meggle, 2012).

In Matthew 16, both of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees and the episode involving the question – ‘who is Jesus’, fall in such a class of declarations. So, someone seen as a mere teacher or a prophet IS the Son of the living God – he is not just perceived or confessed as one, he is the Lord. From this reality of Jesus we declare emanates the exercise of power for service and sacrifice, just as Jesus practiced it in his life and death.

Imitation of Jesus has been a strong parallel tradition in both Christian ethics and spirituality. My father introduced me to Sadhu Sundar Singh who abandoned Sikhism to imitate Jesus as a peripatetic witness to him. His whole life was one of declaring Jesus. It is no surprise, people saw Jesus in him (see more in Appaswamy, 1958). Devotio Moderna was one of many devotional reform movements in church history – it was revolutionary in its ‘call for apostolic renewal through humility, obedience, simplicity of life, and integration into the community’. It was a great early movement inviting Christians to choose genuine Christ-like simplicity and innate humility – not mere performance of it. The German-Dutch Canon Regular (priest living in a religious community), Thomas à Kempis was a member of Devotio Moderna centred on Christ. His Imitation of Christ is possibly the most read book among Christians after the Bible. Both Kempis and the movement he belonged to, fall short of the sort of integration I am arguing for. They emphasised the inner devotional life but their practice was confined to the private walls of their own community – embodied witness or declaration imposes not such boundaries for action or sacrificial service (see more in Creasy, 2015; Füllenbach, 2013).

Place and Purpose of Declaration

In reviewing Matthew 16.13–20, two main factors are worth emphasising. First is ‘the place where the declaration took place’, and, second is the reason or rather its true purpose.

Place

In Matthew 16.13, there is a fleeting reference to ‘the region of Caesarea Philippi’. The name of the place prefaces Peter's declaration, which is intriguing. Why did the author choose this level of specificity without giving any details? A plausible answer is because the significance of this place would have been evident to the disciples or the readers of the time, though, not as evident to me today. There does not seem to be any evidence of Jesus entering the town, at least not on this occasion. Peter's declaration happened ‘when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi’ (v.13). There is some debate among scholars over whether the Transfiguration also took place near it. Matthew 17.1 uses the phrase ‘a high mountain’, which could refer to Mount Tabor or Hermon. Hermon is more likely the candidate, given it is substantially higher than Tabor and this is where the declaration of Peter is reported in the previous chapter of Matthew.

So, why was this location worth noting in the narrative? The answer is not hard to reconstruct.

Caesarea Philippi was located about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee at the fertile base of Mount Hermon and so, always an attractive location for settlements over time and, with these, religious worship. There is established archaeological evidence of numerous temples from different periods of history. This is hardly surprising when compared with other civilisations and religions arising in regions known for fertility such as the Euphrates, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Nile etc. The religious significance of Caesarea Philippi is easy to see also in the different names given to it in biblical history: Baal Hermon, Baal Gad and later Pania after the Greek god Pan (Banias in Arabic as it does not have the p sound)! We also have evidence of a cave from the 3rd century AD, which was used as a place of sacrifices with entrails cast into the cave as offering to Pan (half man half goat). Would there have been an intended comparison with Jesus here? Perhaps so – Jesus is not a partial or deficient incarnation his incarnation is perfect and complete. Similar ideas of avatars (lit. descent – material presence of divinity) abound in Indian religions that flourished around the Indus and now thrive along the Ganges! (Coleman, 2011). In Jesus’ own time, Roman Emperors claimed godly attributes. Emperor Augustus (63BC–14AD) gave the city of Caesarea Philippi to Herod the Great (73BC–4BC) who commissioned a temple here for him, which would have been part of the wider imperial cult (Weber, 2011).

In the shadow of such a history of religion, Peter's declaration would have had a powerful comparative ring to it – Not Baal or Pan; not even Augustus but, Jesus is ‘the Son of the Living God’! The disciples would have (at least in the moment), perceived the significance of Jesus the Messiah – that he is not a mere local God, or a prophet, or a godlike political figure but, the incarnate God dwelling among them. Verses 21–28 would also have set another contrast: the declaration was meant for the disciples as a private sign of Jesus’ divine authority, something Jesus chose not to exercise as those with power. Instead, Jesus embraced the path of suffering and death as a witness to his divine authority. The purpose of his power was to save and give life. Jesus as the Son was unlike Pan or Baal who demanded sacrifices as compensation. In Jesus, God suffers to serve his creatures and, through this, shows a radical new way of life and action in the world.

This leads me to my next point around Peter's declaration.

Purpose

As I review the context of Peter's declaration, I notice that it happened in the background of the testing of Jesus. Jesus was pushed hard for a sign from heaven. In another case, the demand was to prove who he was through the exercise of visible power/authority. In Matthew 16.1–4, the Pharisees/Sadducees tested Jesus with a demand for a supernatural sign. This would have been in keeping with their eschatology beginning with the ‘King Messiah’ from David's line, anointed like kings in Jewish sacred history to rule and lead the elect into the world thereafter (Telushkin, 1991). In Matthew 4.1–11 where Satan is the tempter, the issue at stake is somewhat different: can Jesus show evidence of his divinity? The aim is to manipulate Jesus into considering a supposedly minor deviation in the divine plan of the Father. It would only mean a ‘passing’ alignment of the Father's way with the prevailing Jewish eschatological expectations. Testing did not to a detour in Jesus’ action for the world even though the divine power was his to exercise. In Jesus, the Messiah was the King but not of the kind the Jews expected. Suffering and death were incomprehensible parts of the Father's plan which Jesus chose not to deviate from.

As I write, I am reminded of Paul's words for Christ, which were possibly a pre-Pauline revelatory song which Paul likely refined or simply brought back into churches thought and practice (see Ehrman, 2014).

Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5–8)

It is tough to be God and not use power ‘to his advantage’ – to have real power and to exercise it as inexplicably as Jesus did through ‘taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…’. Jesus was and is the very embodiment of the Good News that God is among and with us and he is one of us; there can be no better example of declaration of Good News – no better embodied witness. God in Christ Jesus is not just about ontology or incomprehensible theological utterances, it is about actions even ‘becoming obedient to death’. This is what distinguishes Jesus from other gods and religious leaders.

A special volume of a journal I edited, focussed on the comparative ideas of Meekness/servanthood and Majesty/polity in Christianity and Islam. It is worth quoting a part of the abstract:

Christianity has had and continues to have elements of physical this worldly majesty, and one can find ample examples of the collusion of the state with faith but, it is not a polity for power. It is a way that invites people to follow Christ in his redemptive suffering for others. Islam too, has the Meccan phase of powerless witness. Its phase as a polity began in Medina. Muhammad in Mecca was an embodiment of prophetic service, accompanied by suffering. He would have seen himself as a prophet like Moses (and others). This changed with the ensuing battles for the faith and his emergence as a powerful statesman in Medina and beyond. (Singh, 2022)

According to a report in Sahih Bukhari (a trustworthy source of Muslim traditions), Abu Ishaq reports the following:

Once, while I was sitting beside Zaid bin Al-Arqam, he was asked, ‘How many Ghazwat [expeditions] did the Prophet undertake?’ Zaid replied, ‘Nineteen’. They said, ‘In how many Ghazwat did you join him?’ He replied, ‘Seventeen’. I asked, ‘Which of these was the first?’ He replied, ‘Al-’Ashira or Al-’Ashiru’. (Bukhari 5 (59) 285)

Jones's work focusses on the chronology of his raids which illustrates my contrasting point about Islam being a ‘polity’ (1957).

The Greek word, ekénōsen, used in Philippians 2.7 is normally translated as ‘emptying’ and actually means, he ‘made himself nothing’. The NIV retains this sense as in ‘[Jesus] made himself nothing’ (NIV), whereas, the NRSV takes its meaning from the verb ‘to empty’: ‘[he] emptied himself’ (NRSV). I have no time or space to dwell on ‘kenotic Christology’ or its history in Christian traditions, except to highlight what we, as his followers (like Peter), perceive through his Father's revelation – Jesus the Son became a servant in obedience to his Father through his tangible and enduring incarnation. The same incarnate Servant was then exalted by his Father. In the words of Paul in Philippians 2.9–11: ‘Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus [emphasis mine] every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ [emphasis mine] is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’. Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of the Living God. This Jesus was exalted because of his embodied practice of servanthood.

For Paul and others who possibly recited Philippians 2 or sang it as a celebratory reminder of who Jesus is, this Jesus, was not a matter of doctrinal precision or philosophical debate. It was intended to be a model for the disciples to follow in their own selfless declarations/embodied practice of the kind Paul, Peter and many in church history embraced, suffering and death notwithstanding. In our readings of Philippians 2, verse 5 is often glossed over because we see this chapter essentially as a source of erudite Christological discussions. Verse 5 makes it evidently clear that Chapter 2 of Philippians is an exhortation to the disciples to be Christ-like or act like Christ and not an encouragement to engage in Christological debates. For this reason, I am quoting it separately as a fresh reminder: ‘In your relationships [emphasis mine] with one another, have the same mind-set as Christ Jesus’. Clearly, the purpose of the song was to encourage imitation of Christ's incarnational example – his servanthood and his becoming nothing. This is what I understand embodied practice means as it enables the disciples to declare one whom they perceive as the Son – not just through verbal confession but, through Chris-like action for his creatures/creation.

Such embodied practice is not rare, in fact its evidence is widespread across the world where Christians declare Jesus as the Son.

Discipleship

In a book I am editing for Fortress Press my own thinking began with a simple ‘two-sided approach’ – one that examined Christians in contexts where they would be a disfavoured minority or where they would be a dominant or favoured faith with other minority Christian denominations around them. The idea was that whilst it is true that many Christians suffer because of Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Secular polities, the book investigates if one reviewed their experience and response as a whole, could Christians both be victims and victimisers? This work, with contributions from 17 authors and cases from around the world will, I hope add to our understanding of both faithful and less faithful embodied witness (Singh, forthcoming1).

I focus below however, on just a few cases which to me illustrate Christ-like action following Philippians 2.5 I highlighted above.

Wonsuk Ma invited me to a conference on Spirit Empowered Evangelism in Amsterdam early in 2023. My brief was to highlight a ‘small-man history’ involving my own father, an unsung Pentecostal evangelist who demonstrated in his life and ministry on the Gangetic planes of India, a coalescing of perception, confession and action I have been arguing for in this paper. His imitation of Christ involved investment in a large number of disciples (not institutions) who continue to expand his impact in one of the most difficult grounds for mission today for Christianity.

As part of writing the paper for the conference (Singh, Forthcoming2), I interviewed a large number of my father's disciples working on the frontlines of mission. All of them emphasised the practical and vernacular aspects of their preparation for action besides leadership by example. They felt called to declare Jesus in rural India because they hailed from where most Indians live. One of them, AA (a convert) said:

Those with a true heart for ministry lose nothing even if they miss the intellectual aspects of training – this can be covered through independent readings and experience on the field. What one learns from role models stays; it leaves a permanent impression on you. One learns from their spiritual gurus – now 20 years since graduation – what they showed us about evangelism and service helps us even today.

AA was barely 17 when he came from Punjab to the vernacular seminary my father taught in. Like so many converts from his sect, he saw visions, one of which was about setting up a base in a small town in district Bhatinda, Punjab: ‘I saw big crowds and I was told that these were my people and that I should preach to them’. He started work with just 2–3 families gradually expanding to villages around the town. His rural church now has its presence in 5 additional locations. It is moving in the direction of reaching 50 villages in the next years. AA is from the batch of 2003–2006 with 16 in his class all of whom are now working like him in rural congregations across the north of India. AA is one of many ‘Pastors of Punjab’ who are finding ‘a fertile ground among Punjab's most oppressed castes to spread their faith and expand their flock’. A recent India Today article features the impact of the ‘charismatic Christian preachers’, which is drawing people in large numbers to Christianity. So significant is this movement across this state that it is making both Hindus and Sikhs ‘apprehensive’ (Mahajan and Menon, 2022). Many of my father's students are working in the devbhumi (the land of the gods). One of them, GG (another convert) has, besides his mother church in the highland town of Pauri, several house churches purely populated with converts. This promises to be another Punjab.

DM, another graduate from the 1996 batch, had 20 in his class who are all active pastors predominantly in the Chhattisgarh state. He spoke of a number of Nepali students who are all ministering in Nepal. He has a base church in the ancient Hindu city of Varanasi from where they are expanding work in 5 rural districts. In his interview with me, he spoke of people responding to the Spirit following healing, exorcism and the preaching of the word. He spoke of the BJP led opposition and persecution of pastors working with him, some of whom are still in prison. Recent religious studies research by Kerry Chirico highlights a massive movement in the outskirts of Varanasi among the ‘backward classes’ and ‘scheduled castes’ turning to Christ as part of a charismatic revival and liberation from backwardness. While they declare Jesus, they remain unbaptised which appears to be a possible trajectory for the future of conversion in this BJP state and others though this raises questions about the nature of church and Christian identity (Chirico, 2022).

Another graduate from the 2002–2005 batch, PY, has been a pastor at a small town called Korba in Chhattisgarh. He has about 300 converts as members in his church. They are in the process of planting churches at four other locations. He is not alone; his church members are assisting him in this mission. Peter had 12 in his batch and as he is in touch with them over WhatsApp he knows they are similarly growing in other northern states. Bauman's work explored Christianity and Dalit (oppressed) religion in Chhattisgarh until 1947. It showed how missionary interactions with a group called the Satnamis² lead to a Satnami–Christian identity. These conversions like most are not purely religious as there were other socio-political processes involved. What is clear from evidence is that these conversions were not coerced (as is often the charge); there was evidence of material self-interest but so also, a search for an ideal, which led to a Christian identity that is indigenous or that manifests hybridity (Bauman, 2008).

There is much suffering among those that declare Jesus among the poorest and the most marginalised in the region. None of the pastors I spoke to wanted anything else except to remain embedded in their own incarnate service to the masses around them.

The cost of imitating Christ or just being Christian is high in Pakistan. In August of 2023, we all saw the breakout of violence allegedly sparked by accusations that two Christian men had torn pages from the Qur’an. Some claimed having found torn pages with sacrilegious scrawls on them. This led to much violence and arson of Christian homes and houses of worship. An eyewitness reported, ‘They broke the windows, doors and took out fridges, sofas, chairs and other household items to pile them up in front of the Church to be burnt’, ‘They burnt everything. They destroyed our homes, this house of god’ (MCD, 2023). Another report showed pictures of destruction of properties, burning or desecration of bibles. As people fled for their life, the government agencies reportedly did little to stop the ruthless crowds from rampaging. Such violence has grown ‘since the country made blasphemy punishable by death’ (Davies, 2023).

It is far from being easy for Christians in the West. As an Indian living in the UK, I sense a widespread bias against Christianity and Christians, and, although it cuts across party-lines, it is often the powerful left-liberals and left-wing politicians who lead the pack. Gillies reports for example, how a Liberal Democrat leader, Tom Farron, ‘was hounded out of his office due to his orthodox Christian beliefs about of marriage and sexuality’.

Another Christian politician, David Campanale reported, he was ‘branded a “Christian nutter”’ and in an interview to Gillies he said:

Whilst I was there [in the party], people were mocking me saying, “I suppose you think you’re being persecuted, like Jesus was?” One person said “you’re a liar”, because I didn’t disclose my Christian beliefs … This group of people have said, “we do not accept your right to a conscience” – they told me that to my face. One even said, “You’ve pulled the wool over our eyes. If I’d known about your Christian beliefs, I would never have agreed for you to be shortlisted” (Gillies, 2022).

Such treatment is especially reserved for Christians: ‘It's hard to imagine a Muslim, Jewish or Sikh believer who ascribes to exactly the same beliefs about these things being treated in this way, exposing an almighty and sinister double standard’ (Gillies, 2022). We have all read reports of Muslim and Sikh extremists operating freely in the West. The Sikh Khalistanis who were responsible for the bombing of Air India flight in 1985 that killed over 329 people, including 268 Canadian citizens (see Hrishikesh, 2023) are also represented in Trudeau's government! Sikh extremists have real political power in Canada (see Hrishikesh, 2023).

The wider culture is no different – here is what Gillies reported:

Wider culture also attests to rising anti-Christian sentiment. A number of high-profile court cases in recent years have involved Christian people being wrongly arrested, dragged to court for refusing to endorse political slogans or fired for not complying with woke diktats. This month, Glasgow City Council was ordered to pay £100k to the son of late evangelist Billy Graham for cancelling his booking at a big venue in the city. In court, it emerged that a Green MSP had urged the cancellation (Gillies, 2022).

Levitsky and Ziblatt's How Democracies Die (2018) is a fine work of political analysis showing how elected leaders undermine democratic principles in a bid to enhance their power. Where they happen to be left-wing liberals, they can undermine or supress Christians in all sorts of ways. One of the ways this can happen is through the promotion and privileging of ‘minorities’. One can see this in examples of the minorities misusing the system of liberal polity to dominate, tyrannise, or terrorise the majority. To declare Christ in such a context also involves suffering, even if Christians are in decent numbers.

Having had some experience of the ‘authoritarian turn’ employing majority religious tropes in Indian politics, I am inclined to agree with Levitsky and Ziblatt's critique of the Right Wing shift in the American politics under Trump (2023). Whilst such polities damage Christian call to embodied practice, one can surmise that perhaps the American case involving Trump was partly a reaction against the Left-Wing politics which also allowed the tyranny of the minority to flourish under it. Douglas Hall's work on how early Christianity declared Christ as Lord in practice and suffered for is a good reminder to Christian in North America (Hall, 1996). Christian life in early Christianity (as today in many places around the world) was about embodied practice and not a polity. I have developed this theme especially in ‘Christianity and Islam: Meekness-Servanthood and Faith as Polity-Majesty’ and the reader might wish to turn to that for more (Singh, 2022). I see the same idea substantially developed as Hall's in what he calls the ‘end of Christendom and the future of Christianity’ (Hall, 2002). The suffering Jesus (a symbol of obedience, service and sacrifice) was recast into ‘an icon for Christendom’. What Christians in the West need is to hold fast to the ‘original vision of the movement and of immense service to our beleaguered world’ (Hall, 2002, Abst.). The future of Christian witness for Hall lies in the action of Christ-like servanthood and not in the exercise of authority. Declaring Jesus as Lord has ethical consequences. This is impossible when Christian align themselves with ‘Constantinople’ instead of ‘Jerusalem’.

Conclusion

Jesus as Lord is not the sort of king or leader I see around me and, those who declare him as the Son of the Living God demonstrate this in thought, words and deeds (perception, confession and action). The servant–king also suffers and, in so doing, gives the disciples the right moral compass and a model of uprightness and upright actions in the world. Such an approach requires our identification with those who suffer (as Ivan outlines in his paper) on account of their witness or practice in contexts of racial and ethnic conflicts; patriarchy, gender and sexual violence; relations with the world's Living religions; socio-economic inequality and injustice; climate change; etc. In this response, whilst I affirmed Ivan's ‘Critical Issues’, I have attempted also to encourage readers to see them as shifting contexts for the disciples’ embodied action which starts with the revelatory perception of Jesus as the Son and his confession but, mainly through Christ-like servanthood.

Footnotes

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

ORCID iD

David Emmanuel Singh

Notes

Author biography

David Emmanuel Singh is senior research tutor and PhD stage leader at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. He is author of over sixty research papers, seven edited books and several encyclopaedia entries and book chapters. His two research mongraphs are: Sainthood and Revelatory Discourse: An Examination of the Basis for the Authority of Bayan in Mahdawi Islam (Oxford: regnum and ISPCK, 2003) and Islamization in Modern South Asia: Deobandi Reform and the Gujjar Response (Berlin: walter de Gruyter, 2012).

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