|
This article is found at
http://www.logoscrc.ca/christianityandallthatjazz
Return to Christian Resource Corner
This article can be copied and distributed freely provided its content has not
been changed. This resource cannot be sold or distributed for financial gain. It
must be free. And it must be unedited. Otherwise, the author reserves all rights
to the resource.
Christianity and All That Jazz
By Shiao Chong, Christian Reformed Campus Minister
Serving at York University, Toronto
www.logoscrc.ca |
chaplain@logoscrc.ca
Modernism and post-modernism are labels that are
currently bandied about all over the place. But what do they mean and how do
they impact our Christian faith? I am going to briefly reflect on our North
American culture’s transition from modernism to post-modernism and how that
affects Christianity. To simplify our understanding of modernism and
post-modernism, I will use the metaphor of musical bands.
Modern March vs. Post-Modern Jazz
Imagine the changes in our culture as two different kinds of music bands. Think
of the age of modernity as a marching band. And the keywords for the marching
band age are: order, rules, control, uniformity, marching to the beat of the
same drum, everybody following the same leader – the drum major. In modernity,
the drum major was most likely human rationality. So, where human reason leads
us, we will follow, in unison.
In a marching band, improvisation is an obvious
sin. You do not improvise, you do not break ranks, or march out of step, but you
need to conform to the rest of the band. There’s some small room for
differences, namely the fact that band members play different musical
instruments. So there is some variety but everybody’s playing from the same
musical script.
Now, think of the post-modern age today as a jazz band. And jazz, by definition,
requires the freedom of improvisation. According to my Oxford dictionary, jazz
is defined as “a type of music of African-American origin, characterized by
improvisation, syncopated phrasing, and a regular or forceful rhythm”. The
keywords now are freedom, creativity, improvisation, imagination, no pre-written
scripts, individual expression, variety and diversity.
This is not a perfect analogy but an apt one, I think. The problem with North
American Christianity today, as I see it, is that the Christian community is
like a marching band stuck on a jazz stage in front of a jazz-loving audience.
The world is changing or has changed, in some cases, all around us. People are
playing a different tune these days. Unfortunately, Christians, by and large,
are still marching to the beat of a drum from a previous era. What used to work
for the church, our well drilled marching routines and rousing rhythms, which
used to wow the crowds, are now totally out of sync on a jazz stage too small
for marching and before a jazz crowd looking for tunes with more nuance and
style. For example, our theological formulations, our rationalistic apologetics,
our evangelistic methods, all honed and sharpened in dialogue with modernity are
now rendered impotent or irrelevant before post-modernism. At least, they seem
useless and irrelevant to the post-modern audience.
For example, I have found that while the majority of Christians on campus are
still arguing about creation vs. evolution, most non-Christians I have met are
more interested in the question of world religions and global issues. Where
scientific proof was the big question in modernity, religious and cultural
pluralism has now taken its place in post-modernity. But Christians are, by and
large, still fighting the old modernist battles with modernist weapons, yet, the
post-modern generation has moved on to other battlegrounds. And we find
ourselves increasingly fighting ghosts, or straw men, or worse, each other. No
wonder Christianity is increasingly seen as irrelevant and ludicrous.
So, what should we do? Simply put, we need to become a jazz band and learn to
translate that old, old gospel song – which we previously turned into a marching
band routine – into a jazz rhythm. Now, before I go on, some of you might think
that it is good that the church is not in tune or in sync with the rest of the
world. The church should be counter-cultural, you say. Well, if by
counter-cultural you mean like being a fish out of water, then you are not going
to survive very long. But if being counter-cultural means swimming in the same
water but in a different direction, then yes. (And I would not call swimming in
a different pond counter-cultural but creating a ghetto culture.) Similarly, the
church should not be playing the same song as the rest of the world, but we are
playing on the same jazz stage to the same jazz audience nevertheless. And if we
insist on staying as a marching band stuck on a jazz stage, you will probably
soon find that we are playing to an empty house.
Jazzing Up Christian Witness
What does all this have to do with us Christians? Well, allow me to suggest a
few (you can probably come up with more) probing questions and issues that I
believe that we Christians need to ask ourselves.
1. How much have our version of Christianity (our theology, our lingo, our
styles) bought into the marching band routine of modernism? Is our Christian
theology shaped with modernist assumptions and values? Even if shaped in
contradistinction from modernism, how much has that, therefore, shaped the tune
we play? How much of our Christian values are really only Christianized versions
of modernist values/standards?
2. Is our current Christian witness (evangelism methods, evangelism language,
etc.) geared more for a modernist audience or a post-modern audience? Are we
still overly focused on scientific proofs, on logical reasoning, on winning
arguments? Should we not also start looking into issues of social justice,
charity work, globalization, and religious pluralism in ways that is meaningful
to post-moderns?
3. How much are we integrating issues of diversity and variety in our Christian
witness? Not only in terms of ethnic and gender diversity among Christians, but
also in terms of evangelism content and methods. Do we employ or encourage a
variety of ways to witness? Do we seriously take into account our increasingly
multicultural and global world in bearing witness to our gospel? For instance, I
once came across a book by a Chinese theologian who wrote, “God is Rice”
translating Jesus’ words of “I am the Bread of Life” into “I am the Rice of
Life” because rice is more apt a metaphor for Asians. Will Western Christians
allow these different metaphors to be used for Christian beliefs or will we call
them heresies?
5. On that note, have we North American Christians confused ‘Christian’ with
‘Western’? Or worse, ‘Christian’ with ‘North American’? Are we discerning enough
to distinguish how some of our Christian formulations are culturally influenced?
And are we wise enough to pass that discernment on to the next generation of
Christians?
6. Finally, this leads to the question: How well do we know and identify our own
Christian roots? How firmly rooted and well versed are we in our Christian
worldview in distinction from the cultural influences?
In a world characterized by plurality, diversity, freedom and innovation, the
issue of one’s own identity and rooted-ness are even more important than ever.
Going back to the jazz metaphor, you actually need to be a better musician in
order to play jazz than to play in a marching band. You actually need to master
the fundamentals even more in order to be able to improvise and innovate
creatively. Any master artist or musician can tell you that their great skills
at creative improvisation can only happen on the backs of enormous hard work in
mastering the basics of their art.
Thus, ironically, dealing with the post-modern world also requires that we are
more deeply rooted in our worldviews and in our faith traditions – not in a
slavish, conforming, Xerox reproducing way, but in such a way that we can draw
from them to help us create new possibilities, to innovate as we face new
challenges.
In sum, we need to immerse ourselves into our Christian worldviews and into our
own Christian traditions in the way the basics of playing music and of playing a
particular instrument is almost second nature to first-class jazz musicians that
they can improvise without a script because the script is in their hearts and
minds. And the traditions or worldview is not a script to slavishly follow as in
a marching band, but is more like a powerful foundational jazz rhythm from which
we can improvise and build on in creative ways, playing off the rhythms of other
players. This kind of “Jazzy Christians” is what the post-modern world needs
more of in order to hear the notes of God’s amazing grace.
Copyright © Shiao C. Chong 2007
This article can be copied and distributed freely provided its content has not
been changed. This resource cannot be sold or distributed for financial gain. It
must be free. And it must be unedited. Otherwise, the author reserves all rights
to the resource.
This article is adapted from a previously published work, “Christian Education
and All That Jazz” , Christian Educators Journal , Vol. 45. No. 2, December 2005
(pp 3-5).
This resource was also published in The Epistle (October 2005).
Return to
Christian Resource Corner |
