Knowing the world in which we minister . . .

A recent article in The Baptist Standard says that protestant ministers don't know all that much about other religions. Apparently, they aren't bad at Catholicism or Judaism, but they just don't have much knowledge on other religions, particularly eastern ones. If this news comes as a surprise to you; just how large was that rock under which you have been hiding?

This is a sad situation for the church. How can we hope to be effective witnesses in the community when we do not know our neighbors? I think that we could learn a lesson from Paul in his witness in Athens:

So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op'agus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' ²⁹ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead."
Acts 17 RSV

Paul was able to use his knowledge of Athenian worship to present the Gospel in a way that was meaningful and accessible. As the world gets smaller and access to world religions becomes easier and easier, it becomes more and more important for ministers in the 21st century to be fluent in world religion.