Critically Analise Faith As The Positive Manifestation Of True Conversion

CRITICALLY

ANALISE

FAITH

AS

THE

POSITIVE

MANIFESTATION OF TRUE CONVERSION RELATING IT TO PRESENT DAY CHRISTIANITY.

Introduction: The world, today, experience continually a secession of one’s lifestyles from one’s religious convictions. Gone are the days when people’s religious inclinations are easily discernible from their characters and behaviours. This has excalated exponentially to a quite alarming extent; now, it is too dangerous for one to remain unconcerned. The most painful aspect of this phenomenon is that it is exponentially increasing from day to day. The tremendous illconsequences of this ugly scenario are too numerous to mention. It has resulted in the unwarranted loss of confidence in church ministers; it has amounted to a mere commodification of the hitherto-strong doctrines of the christian faith. At this time, there is a wide proliferation of churches, and the sympathetic aspect of this case is that the ministers of this new Christian denomination now appropriates the churches as their lucrative businesses. These rogues speak of “my ministry” when they are referring to the service they should be rendering to the people of God. Maurice Izunwa has critically observed that “what is obvious in this language construct is that ministry has been hijacked from Christ and the Church, and absolutely appropriated for personal use.”1 What is more, it has finally made people’s faith to be very shallow; to be wholly external but not internal and integral. Christians nowadays sacrifice real Christian virtues and examplary lives at the altar of the external showcasing of religious dandism. This has gone all the way to prove 1

Maurice Izunwa, “A Theological Proposal for Collaboration in the Pastoral Ministry of Healing Today.” Collaborative Ministry in the Context of Inculturation. Ed. Ignatius M.C. Obinwa.(Enugu: Snaap, 2006) 231

St. James’ caveat that faith without good works is dead.2 This case becomes urgent as one examines the status of Christian life in Nigeria, in juxtaposition with the numerous Christian denominations that dot different parts of the country. This research write-up is aimed at a detailed explication of the main aetiology of this ugly phenomenon and the possible ways to resolve it. Before the foregoing is done, there is the crucial need for a conceptual framework of the basic terms in this work, i.e., faith and conversion. This will, as a matter of fact, be followed by an expositorydemonstration of faith as a positive manifestation of true conversion. Then, efforts will be made to compare the above conceptual framework of faith as a positive manifestation of true conversion to the prevailing status quo of the present day Christianity.

Clarification of Basic Terminologies: This section attempts to clearly understand the two basic terminologies that are central to our concern. It will feature the brief explication of faith and conversion, which will evacuate some of their underlying assumptions over the years. It will finally determine what is going to be our general understanding of them in this write-up.

Faith: This is a word that has, over the century, enjoyed varied hue of meanings.

John

Macquarrie

understands

it

as

“an attitude of the entire self, including both will and intellect, directed toward a person, an idea, or—as in the case of religious

2

Cf. I James 2: 27

faith—a divine being.”3 Modern theologians agree in emphasizing this total existential character of faith, thus distinguishing it from the popular conception of faith that identifies it with belief as opposed to knowledge. Faith indeed includes belief but goes far beyond it, and in the history of theology the distinction has more often been drawn between faith and works than between faith and knowledge.

Conversion: This is a term that reserves the priviledge of conveying various meanings to different circumstances. Perhaps, this is partly because of the fact that it is at one time treated as a noun on its own, and at another, as the noun form of the verb, ‘to convert’. From the Encarta Dictionaries,

the term

enjoys 8

meaning:

(a)

alteration;

(b)

something altered; (c) a change in the measuring system; (d) changing of somebody’s belief; (e) (in football) converting following touchdown; (f) (logic) reversing terms in categorical sentence; (g) (criminal

law)

unlawful

holding

of

another’s

property;

(h)

(commercial law) changing of property classification. From the foregoing definitions of faith, it is already obvious that our attention hovers mainly around the fourth one, i.e., a change in one’s religious belief. In 1973 Norman F. Douty wrote, “Conversion is a turning . . . a turning from sin (all sins, not merely some), and a turning to Christ (to Himself, not merely to his teachings).”4 Further, George Whitefield explains conversion in detail: What is conversion then? . . . Man must be a new creature, and converted from his own righteousness to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; conviction will always precede spiritual conversion; and therefore the Protestant 3

Macquarrie, John. "Faith." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.

4

Norman F. Douty, Union with Christ (Swengal, Pa., Reiner, 1973, p. 131).

divines make this distinction, you may be convinced and not converted, but you cannot be converted without being convinced; and if we are truly converted, we shall not only be turned and converted from sinful self, but we shall be converted from righteous self; that is the devil of devils: for righteous self can run and hide itself in its own doings, which is the reason self-righteous people are so angry with gospel preachers . . . In vain we may talk of being converted till we are brought out of ourselves to come as poor, lost, undone sinners, to the Lord Jesus Christ; to be washed in his blood . . .5 Specifically, here, conversion implies a metanoia – an inward change of one’s life to God. In this sense, it is of two-fold, ‘a turning from’ and ‘a turning to’; a turning from one’s sinful past and then, a turning of one’s life to a loving God. At this junction, faith will be demonstrated as a positive manifestation of true conversion.

Faith as a Positive Manifestation of True Conversion: As already shown above, faith is a total attitude that claims all of man’s faculties; it is man’s answer to God’s redemptive action in history. Now, if faith is concerned with one’s total self, then, it should not be extricated from one’s decisions of conduct and behaviour. Thus, faith should, and is, inextricably connected with morality, especially in the Christian ambience. Christian morality is the dynamism and the vital truth of faith. For B. N. Nmanu, “salvation comes from faith but not from a faith that is simply an intellectual adhesion to Dogmatic truths, but a ‘fides operosa’ – a dynamic faith, faith that is operative, a faith that is lived out.”6 Since, Christian life is rooted on a lively existential faith, conversion then, which can be 5

George Whitefield, What is Conversion?, reprinted in The Banner of Truth, 79 (April 1970, pp. 29-31). 6

B. N. Nmanu, Lecture Synopsis, “Allegiance to One’s Faith Expression” 2008, pp. 13-4.

understood as a total change of one’s life to God, is surely an effect of faith. In this sense, therefore, faith is understood as a positive manifestation of conversion. One cannot truly boast of one’s conversion when there is practically no change in one’s modus vivendi; without the requisite fruit of conversion. Again, if conversion implies a turning from and a turning to, one cannot talk of the possibility of conversion without a strong faith in the Being to which one will turn to. Thus, every conversion implies already faith; and even the slighted trace of faith is expected to bring forth lively fruits from the new convert. This point calls to mind again the caveat of St. James that faith without good works is dead. Hence, it is an absurdity and an aberration to talk of conversion when there is no improvement in the morality of the converts in question. Any conversion that worths its salt must radically affect and effect the lifestyle and worldviews of the converts. Another important aspect of faith as a positive manifestation of conversion is the issue of response. Although, conversion, just like faith, is a gift from God, it demands an active response from the convert. This is why St. Augustine admonished his contemporary Christian that ‘the God who created you without your co-operation cannot help you without your co-operation.

Juxtaposing Faith As The Positive Manifestation Of True Conversion To The Present Day Christianity: A Case In Need. Having proven why and how faith is the positive manifestation of true conversion, let us now examine how it obtains in the contemporary Christianity, especially as it is in Nigeria. In fact, it seems to be a caricature to label the type of religious faith practiced nowadays by many Nigerian Christians as a positive manifestation of

true conversion. Rather, I choose to label it a positive manifestation of religious madness; a manifestation of insatiable desire gone astray;

a

manifestation

of

ignorance

and

extreme

religious

dandyism. Conversion, being a gift from God, ought to be treated with respect and honour. Regrettably, Nigerian Christians treat conversion and its attendant colloraries as commodities to be traded with profit in mind. They seem to be playing a hide-and-seek game with God. They are in their respective churches because they were born into that particular denomination; immediately they grow up and are challenged by the vicissitudes of life, easily they forget the religion of their father in search of another religious ‘greener pasture.’ This results in what I have come to term ‘a Christian religion harlotry.’ Furthermore, Nigerian Christians have and do live double lives: one in the church and another outside the church. It is as a result of this that Nigeria experiences an exponential upsurge of prayer houses, and at the same time, an exponential upsurge of corruption, bribery and moral decadence. What an interesting contradiction. What a Paradox! All these indicate that Christian faith is not deeply rooted in the daily lives of our contemporary Christians. They point to a lack of serious religious conviction and commitment in most Nigerian Christians. As this junction, consequently, one is prompted to pause and ponder about the possible causes and origin of this ugly phenomenon.

An Axiological Diagnosis of This Polarisation: This ugly phenomenon cannot but have a cause and the possibility of its resolution lies largely in discovering its cause or causes, because a problem known is already half-solved. From a critically x-ray of this phenomenon, many causes come immediately to the fore. Nevertheless, they all gravitate around a centre – the

mis-transplantation of the Christian faith in Africa as a whole, and precisely in Nigeria. When the early missionaries brought the Christian Religion, they mistakenly tagged all the indigenous traditional religious practices and beliefs of their new converts in Africa as demonic, which entail the total rejection of those traditional religious practices and beliefs. Thus, the new African converts were emasculated from their long-standing religion and were ‘forced’ into a totally strange religion. This, of course, did not last long, for tradition dies hard. In no distant time, whenever the new African converts faces some life challenging and threatening situations, like serious illness, or childlessness, or unexpected and unexplainable illlucks, they easily have recourse to the religion of their fathers. However, nowadays, there is increasing difficulty associated with the traditional religion. In the least, it has come to be unaccepted and devilish, even demeaning, in the contemporary social worldview. So, a new plan was immediately hatched : the prevailing Christian religious is distorted and customised to serve the same needs of the old one. Thus, what obtains now becomes even worse than the case in the past. This is because there is yet a yawning gap between the worldview of the one and that of the other. There is yet to be an assimilation and a proper inculturation. The populace are yet to discover that though religion is distinct from culture, it is inextricably intertwined with the cultural ideologies from which it emerged. Thus, the polarisation experienced by the African Christian converts is a clash of ideologies and worldview, one from the Christian side, and the other from the respective indigenous African traditions. Here, it is necessary to call to mind the full import of conversion. It entails much more than changing from one’s religious milieu to another. It encompasses

one’s

‘modus

vivendi’,

one’s

conception

and

understanding of events, one’s conception of God, life, after-life, morality, destiny, and more.

Judging from the foregoings, there seems to be no light forthcoming at the end of the tunnel. This is not actually the case. There is still a way remaining. One cannot and should not propose to oust the Christian religion, in order to go back to the traditional religions of our forefathers, whose assumption and pressupositions continally impinge on us. There is a headway. This solution lies in our ability to reconcile the traditional ‘Weltanschaung’ we inherited from our father’s religion with the prevailing Christian religion. This is in consonance with the criterion of conversion already given above by G. Whitefield when he stated that one may be convinced and not converted, but one cannot be converted without being convinced. Unless this is meaningfully done, we shall not be convinced of our current religion and shall wallow in abysmal self-deceit.

Conclusion : In this brief research write-up, we have toured around our topic in an illustrative and expository manner. We started by posing the prevailing puzzle about the polarization experienced in the present day Christians’ beliefs and life’s styles. In order to render a clinical treatment to our topic, we delved in apposite conceptual frameworks of our basic terms : faith and conversion. This led us, according to our plan, into showcasing faith as a positive manifestation of true conversion. As this was achieved, a juxtaposition of the aforementioned conceptual frameworks with the prevailing lifestyles of the present day Christians were made. Then, we went headlong into a critical diagnosis of the unwarranted polarisation and any possible headway. Finally, we were optimistic of the possibility of a resolution, though we were never conclusive. The dialogue continues, nay, commences, from thence !