CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN GUYANA: USING INDIAN MUSIC AS AN EXPRESSION OF HINDU CULTURE IN MISSION by DEVANAND BHAGWAN B.A.A. Ryerson University, 1979 MTS, Tyndale Seminary, 1997 Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry Acadia Divinity College Acadia University Fall Graduation 2018 © DEVANAND BHAGWAN, 2018 This thesis by Devanand Bhagwan was defended successfully in an oral examination on 6 July 2018. The examining committee for the thesis was: Dr. Stuart Blythe, Chair Dr. Matthew Friedman, External Examiner Dr. H. Daniel Zacharias, Internal Examiner Dr. Stephen McMullin, Supervisor This thesis is accepted in its present form by Acadia Divinity College, the Faculty of Theology of Acadia University, as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry. ii I, Devanand Bhagwan, hereby grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to provide copies of my thesis, upon request, on a non-profit basis. Devanand Bhagwan Author Dr. Stephen McMullin Supervisor 6 July 2018 Date iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .................................................................................................................. v Abstract .......................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... vii Dedication ....................................................................................................................viii Preface ........................................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE GOOD NEWS ............................................................................................................... 13 2. THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF MUSIC .............................................................................................................. 71 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 124 4. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY .......................................................................... 135 5. PRACTICAL PROJECT FOR MINISTRY ...................................................... 153 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 160 Appendix 1: Genesis Flood Account in View of Ancient Near East Literature ............. 172 Appendix 2: The “Unknown God” In Acts 17:23 ......................................................... 174 Appendix 3: Letter Of Invitation To Persons Of The Hindu Faith ................................ 176 Appendix 4: Letter Of Invitation To Persons Of The Christian Faith ........................... 177 Appendix 5: Informed Consent Form .......................................................................... 178 Appendix 6: Questions Asked Of Hindus Before And After Seeing Videos ................. 179 Appendix 7: Questions Asked Of Pastors Before And After Seeing Videos ................. 180 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 181 iv TABLES Table 1: Pastors’ Attitudes Before and After Seeing Hindustani Christian Videos ....... 151 v ABSTRACT Contextualization of the Christian Faith in Guyana: Using Indian Music as an expression of Hindu Culture in Mission Devanand Bhagwan The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which Hindustani (Indian) music might serve as a bridge between Hindus and Christians to spread the gospel among the Hindustani people in Guyana and enrich their worship experience. Hindus have a strong emotional and cultural connection with Indian music. The music in the church in Guyana, however, is a combination of Western and Caribbean-style (Creole) music. The researcher felt that a good understanding of the Hindus’ appreciation of music could help pastors and missionaries in their quest to evangelize Hindus and to enrich the worship experience of the Hindustani people. Using a qualitative approach, 12 Hindus and 12 pastors were surveyed to determine their perceptions of music in the church and how important they felt music could be for attracting Hindus to the gospel. The data from the interviews were utilized to categorize themes and identify the findings of the study. A clear majority of Hindu participants indicated that they would be willing to attend a Christian gathering or place of worship if they knew the church would play Indian instruments or have other expressions of Indian music. Although most of the pastors at first felt that Hindustani music would adulterate the present ‘Christian culture’ of the church and thus lead to syncretism, many of the pastors who had disapproved of any form of Indian music in the church changed their negative attitudes after seeing videos with Indian music containing Christian lyrics. This study concludes that when pastors understand Hindus’ appreciation of Indian music and see evidence of Christian Indian music, through videos, for example, they are more inclined to play Indian music in the church. This in turn, could draw Hindus to the Christian faith and enrich the Hindustani Christian worship experience. Key words: Hindustani; Hindus; Indian; music; Caribbean; creole; mission; qualitative; research; contextualization; interviews; worship; culture; race vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my advisor Rev. Dr. Stephen McMullin for his guidance, patience, knowledge and encouragement. I have learned a lot about research and writing from his tutelage for which I am grateful. I thank the numerous authors who have written on the topic on contextualization. I moved by their insight, passion, knowledge, diligence, vision and their care and love for God and people as they wrote on various subjects relating to biblical and theological foundations for contextualization. Lesslie Newbigin especially stands out in the ways he expressed contextualization in word and deed. I thank John Bowen, former Professor of Evangelism at Wycliffe College, for his example and encouragement which he has been to me since my undergraduate university days. His insight, humility and passion about sharing the Good News sensitively to people have been an inspiration in my life. I am grateful to the librarian Jean Kelly at Acadia University for going the extra mile to help me with books and other resource material. I am especially indebted to a small group of friends who rendered tremendous prayerful and moral support to me while completing the thesis. They were my ‘Aaron’ holding up my hands when I was tired and weary. I am grateful for their critical support. Last but not the least, I thank my beloved wife, Rani, for her love, constant support and faithful prayers; with her at my side, I was able to reach the goal! vii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my late aunt, Dee, with whom I lived for a few years as a boy, whose priority was education for me even though she was illiterate, and who perceived me as the apple of her eye viii PREFACE I was a Hindu and was raised in the Hindustani (Indian) culture which I relished. When I became a follower of Jesus Christ at age 13, virtually all vestiges of that culture were stripped away since the church in Guyana embraced only Western/Creole culture. However, a watershed moment happened in Bangladesh when I was a tourist in that country in 1983 - I witnessed people worshipping Jesus Christ in Hindustani (Indian) culture! I was overjoyed to see people worshipping the Saviour in the culture I have treasured. Observing Christians sitting on the floor, wearing saris and kurtas, and worshipping Christ with the dholak and harmonium cajoled me to want to tell the world that one could worship Christ in one’s local culture. This study stemmed from that thrilling experience in 1983 in Bangladesh. ix INTRODUCTION Introduction This contextualization study seeks to explore the extent which Indian music might serve as a bridge between Hindus and Christians for the church in Guyana to spread the gospel among the Hindustani people and enrich their worship experience. I explored this phenomenon of music by interviewing a sample1 consisting of 12 Hindu individuals and 12 pastors in Guyana. I undertook this study to garner information from the Hindu Guyanese individuals concerning their nexus with Indian music and also to gather facts from pastors regarding their perception of the music in relation to the Christian faith and to their own ministries. It was anticipated that a better understanding of the contextualization principles, especially as they relate to the phenomenon of music, would help church leaders such as pastors and missionaries to appropriate the role of music as they work with the Hindustani people of the country. It is my hypothesis that an appropriate Hindustani musical/cultural expression could aid in the evangelism mandate of the Guyanese church for sharing the gospel as well as for enriching the worship experience of the Hindustani people who have already become followers of Jesus Christ. In this chapter2 I shall refer to the following standpoints: the context and background of the study, the problem statement, the statement