Published in 1979, Kosuke Koyama’s ‘The Mile an Hour God’ is an absorbing read. Koyama was a Japanese Christian who rejected an either/or dualism that would have set him against his South-East Asian cultural roots. He has a little piece in that book entitled ‘Grey Hairs and the People of Other Faiths’ (pp.68-74). The Indian people, says Koyama, ‘do not call their religion Hinduism’ (p.69). Rather, they call it the Hindu way of life (p.69). He then goes on to assert that the notion of religious traditions as ‘isms’ was a 19th Century invention. There isn’t space in a blog post to test it out but Koyama cites W.C. Smith in tracing the origins of these ‘isms’:
Boudism (1801 Hindooism (1829) Taouism (1839) Zoroastrianism (1854) Confucianism (1862) Shintoism (1894). With Islam the history is slightly more complicated; Mahumetisme (1597), Mahumetanism (1612), Islamism (1747) Musulamanisme (1818) (p.69)
Koyama is engaged in a wider argument about interfaith engagement in his piece. I wish to make a more modest point about labels. An 'ism' is a label. It is a way of simplifying complex reality. Labels would not exist if they were not useful. Accepted, but useful to whom and why? The overwhelming majority of labels are the province of outsiders 'looking in', rather than insiders talking about themselves. In some cases the label becomes so ubiquitous that insiders reluctantly adopt it. The label is then, for good or ill, absorbed into self-understanding. 'Anabaptism' originated as a term of abuse. 'Christian' is another example. Before then the Disciples were 'the Way', though even that description probably originated as a hostile piece of labelling.
As Koyama points out, people aren't reducible to their ism's, labels or religions. Putting 35,000,000 Thai Buddhists in a box which reduces them to a category does those people a disservice. Moreover, our world is even more complex than Koyama's. The Buddhists live next door as well as in Thailand. Even more fundamentally 'labels' say something significant about language. Language - all language - both describes and distorts. I am an 'outreach worker' and a 'husband,' but I am more than either of these things.
If anything, labels as applied to God are even more troublesome and potentially idolatrous. In the Old Testament the nearest we get to God's self-description is 'I am who I am'. Against patriarchal curiosity and Jaciob's wrestling techniques God, is remarkably resistant. To Jacob's credit, he was willing (literally) to risk life and limb rather than reach for a handy label. God sees prisons as a challenge to open doors and expand our horizons (Gen 39-41; Acts 12:1-19; 16:16-40).
Bibliography
Kosuke Koyama, 'Three Mile an Hour God', 1979. SCM Press
4 comments:
'I am a follower of Christ' certainly makes a more personal statement than 'Christian'. And weren't we first followers of the Way?
I have always like 'the Way'. There's something refreshing about a movement that identifies with a journey rather than a destination.
Indeed 'Way' is one of those words - way of life, on the way, the way to do it, way to go, my way, have it your way, no way, in the way, far a-way, show me the way, is this the way? I am the Way. Something that implies a journey that is physical, emotional and spiritual and somewhat undefinable.
As Thomas Merton says - we have no idea where we are going - that's on trust - the journey is all we have.
I'm on my way to preach now. It's Genesis. It's mindboggling to Think how little they knew. Abraham had no bible. He had never heard of Israel, the law, Jesus or Paul. What a journey!
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