This is an excerpt about Christianity from Yann Martel's Man-Booker Prize winning novel, "Life of Pi":
"Christianity is religion in a rush. Look at the world created in seven days. Even on a symbolic level, that's creation in a frenzy. To one born in a religion where the battle for a single soul can be a relay race run over many centuries, with innumerable generations passing along the baton, the quick resolution of Christianity has a dizzying effect. If Hinduism flows placidly like the Ganges, then Christianity bustles like Toronto at rush hour."
May I simply say, Christianity, as we many evangelicals know it in the America, truly seems to have birthed from the West.
In this quote, I'm reminded of how my ideology of salvation has changed from my early twenties to my later-early twenties. My traditional views of salvation were rooted in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus whereby he instructed him to be born again. It seems as if protestant evangelicals in America latched onto that verse,for one reason or another, to explain the magic like prayer that needs to occur in order for one to be saved from hell in an instant; the sinners prayer, that Pi inferences, seems to have metamorphed from this portion of John.
Since emerging from the salvific romans road formula of salvation, the word has lost its expedientness. I now see salvation as very foggy and progressive, a constant evolution of the soul. Beyond that, I don't know how to unpack my ideas regarding salvation. In the New Testament, it seems like Christ has a different answer for everyone regarding the issue. To the rich young ruler he says, "sell whatever you own and give it to the poor." To Nicodemus he says, "You must be born again." And to the woman at the well he explains, "If you knew who I am, you would be asking me and I would give you fresh, living water." All these anecdotes I've grown up associating with the sinners prayer salvation formula. Now I am wondering if instead of references to salvation from hell, they maybe references to the kingdom of God that Brian McClaren expounds on in his book The Secret Message of Jesus.
