Blog

What happens when you mix flour, sugar, eggs, butter, chocolate chips, (and some other ingredients) together and bake them? You get chocolate chip cookies! When you’re eating your fresh-baked cookies, you can pick out some of the ingredients, like the chocolate chips. But most of the other ingredients are indistinguishable - can you tell what part of the egg you ate? Or how much flour was in that particular bite? I sure can’t tell those things, and I think the cookies are better because of it!

Syncretism is applying that chocolate chip cookie example to the church. Simply put, syncretism is a blending together various aspects of multiple religions into one, or simply adapting ideas of other religions into your own. The word itself is made up of two parts in the Greek. “Syn” means together or with, and “krasis” means blending or mixing.

In chocolate chip cookies, all of the ingredients blend together well to make a delicious finished product. In syncretism, however, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes the views that are blending together are contradictory. For example, as Roman Catholicism spread into Africa, many of the tribes’ indigenous practices were assimilated into the religious practices.

A modern day, and more local, example of syncretism is when churches embrace elements of the culture to become more relevant to the people they are trying to reach. One way some churches do this is by bringing in the technology of the culture. There are churches that encourage the people to tweet on Twitter during the worship service; this is an example of syncretism, because it is combining an element of the culture with practices that are traditionally religious.

A more serious example of syncretism is when idol worship, in the form of idolizing money, or famous people, or anything of that sort, is brought into the church. We know from Exodus 20:3 and Matthew 6:24 that God must be our only God; we cannot serve both God and money. Unfortunately, this emphasis on money (or other idols) is all too common in our churches today. Sometimes, like the eggs and flour in a chocolate chip cookie, the elements that have been borrowed from the culture are so well mixed in that we don’t even notice them anymore.

Syncretism itself is not inherently good or bad; its goodness (or lack thereof) is determined by the effect that the new element has on the religious body and whether or not it draws away from the Truth of the Bible. A person posting on Twitter during a worship service does not go against the Truth as making money the main point of the church does. While it is important that the church not stay locked in ancient traditions that will push people away from hearing the Gospel message, we must be careful to not embrace the sinful aspects of the culture. The idea of syncretism can serve as a warning for the church and all who follow Jesus - be sure that what you are doing lines up with the Truth of the Bible.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.