Knowing the Unknown God

May 20, 2023

One of the things I have struggled with ever since leaving more fundamentalist and conservative forms of Christianity behind is the idea of evangelism. That term leaves a horrible taste in my mouth for numerous reasons: one is the horrific violence that has occurred in the name of evangelism.

Colonialism and imperialism were often justified by the language of evangelism: whether or not the colonialists and those who sent them actually believed the words they spewed, they still argued that God called them to spread the gospel and to “civilize” the indigenous populations. The fact that doing so just so happened to allow them to gain various forms of land and riches, was, you know, allegedly of “secondary importance.”

Slaveholders even justified chattel slavery by arguing that they were able to “spread” the gospel to the enslaved who otherwise would not have heard it. Forget the fact that many slaveholders actively worked to ensure that those under their power couldn’t read the Bible beyond the handful of passages that they wanted them to hear. (Ie the Exodus story and Jesus’ call for liberation, is incompatible with slavery and oppression).

And in my personal experience with evangelism-both being the one evangelizing and the one on the receiving end of such attempts-too many forms of evangelism are based on Christian arrogance and the need to prove that a specific form of Christianity is the only correct one, and people of other faith traditions, no faith tradition, or even other Christians were wrong and were possibly going to spend an eternity in hell.

And in that framework, many Christians interpret this passage as just another example of the importance of telling people why they are wrong. And to be fair, Paul really does want to convince the Athenians and others to give up what he called idols. And again, to be fair, many of the gods believed in during that time period often did endorse various forms of oppression and often blessed the reign of the emperor.

But in 2023, how do we make sense of this passage? Especially when the tables, at least in the Western world have turned? In 2023, Christianity is no longer a small, persecuted sect, but we are often the ones doing the persecuting. And also in 2023, we have been exposed to the beautiful traditions and rituals of different religious groups. I, for one, have learned so much about faith from my Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Bahi peers, among others.

I humbly propose two ways of looking at this passage. First, one is to focus less on the “other religious faith traditions are wrong” interpretation often endorsed, and more on exploring what idols do we as an individual and as a society hold onto. If we are honest with ourselves, we would recognize that often the idols we hold onto have nothing to do with religious faith, but have to do with exploitation, greed and selfishness.

Americans in the 21^st century, including Christians, too often endorse systems that idolize money and guns as the end-all-be-all. These are the false idols we need to be concerned about and speak out against.

When we as Christians talk about idols, instead of assuming anyone who has a different religious belief is the one guilty of idolatry, we should look within ourselves at the ways in which Christians historically and into the present day have supported harmful institutions and hold ourselves accountable by rejecting said idols.

Another way to make sense of this passage in today’s plurastic society is to be intentional about looking for the ways in which God works in the faith traditions of other people. In this Acts passage, the Athenians had a marker for the “unknown God,” and Paul believed that he could tell them about this God.

But what if, we as Christians, consider the idea that we don’t know everything about God and how God acts in this world? What if we recognize that God is so much bigger than we can imagine and what if we left open the possibility that God is found also in other faith traditions?

Now of course, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about our faith. But talking about our faith doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game where we have to be right and everyone else is wrong. Instead, we can share our faith, listen, and be open to the ways in which God works in the world, including through other faith traditions.

When I was in middle school and high school, I believed my job was to convert people. I remember giving one of my Jewish classmates a letter I had written. I cringe now, but my thought process was, “I don’t want any of my classmates to go to hell so I need to tell them why my faith is correct.” This classmate was super kind and patient. She wrote me back a very beautiful letter in which she explained her Jewish faith and how God worked in her life.

Now at 33 years old, I recognize that my classmate was well within her rights to tell me off, considering Christianity’s long history of violence and antisemitism. But instead, she took time to share her faith with me. And decades later that still sits with me. God was most definitely working within her to help me expand my mind and recognize the other ways in which God is at work in the world.

As Christians in a pluralistic world, we don’t need to give up Jesus, we don’t need to stop talking about our faith, and we don’t need to agree with everything people of other faith traditions or no faith traditions adhere to. But we do ourselves and others a disservice when we think we have all the answers and when we confuse God with certainty. Instead when we interact with others with curiosity and a desire to hear their stories, we open ourselves to God working in our lives in ways that we could never imagine.

Image: Blue background and blue flowers on the corners. Text: As Christians in a pluralistic world, we don’t need to give up Jesus, we don’t need to stop talking about our faith... But we do ourselves and others a disservice when we think we have all the answers and when we confuse God with certainty.