21 Jul Is it possible to learn from people who are not Christians?

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Assignment 4a: Devotional

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Acts 17:22-28 (Links to an external site.)

If we are being honest with one another, we would admit that some of the things that Timothy Tennent presents in our textbook Theology in the Context of World Christianity are not often discussed in evangelical circles, and in fact, some of them might be controversial. Today, I’d challenge you to think about some questions that appear in line with the kind of thinking that Tennent presents.

Is it possible to learn from people who are not Christians?

Most Christians would answer this question in the affirmative; so for example, you can learn math or science from people who are not Christians, you can learn about the history of a region, or how to find a local landmark or countless other things from people who do not believe as we do.

How far can we go in learning from others? Is it possible to learn from other religions?

In recent months, some state governments in the United States have created laws that prevent schools from teaching certain things about Yoga, for example, forbidding the use of the word “Namaste.” But is it possible to learn things from other religions? Did Confucius, for example, have anything wise to say that we can learn from?

The Apostle Paul was not afraid to engage with the marketplace of ideas. I’d encourage you to read all of Acts 17, but in particular, consider verses 22 – 28:

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”

Does it not seem to be the case that Paul was able to consider the ideas of others, to listen carefully, and to filter these ideas – from whatever source they might have come from – and use these ideas even to preach the gospel? Is there something we can learn from this?

You can just reflect on this in about 200 words or so.