Jesus as catalyst for Liberation: In search of relevant Christology for the Myanmar context

Abstract

The question of who Jesus Christ is involves historical, biblical and theological engagement. In Myanmar, however, we have traditionally understood Jesus Christ as our savior who died for our sin without considering the historical and theological aspects. And John 3:16, "for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" is seen as the heart of Christianity. Children as well as the adult, this text is recited as the golden text. In our understanding, Jesus Christ is the only savior and no one comes to the Father but through Jesus Christ alone (John 14:6). It seems to me that the traditional Christology emphasized on those texts at the expense of the other texts. When the author came to the seminary, he learned that there are different interpretations of Jesus Christ based on different methods of interpretation. And he came to realize that traditional understanding is the heritage of the evangelical tradition which sought to convert the whole nation to Christianity. Myanmar Christians were taught that Christianity is the only true religion because God was fully revealed through Jesus Christ in their religion. Further they were taught that the Buddhism is false and Buddhists will go to hell. This has led those who have been grown up in that tradition to assume that they are superior and better in comparison with their neighbors.