How Adoniram Dealt With Cultural Challenges And Method Used To Lead In Their Contexts?

Introduction

Adoniram Judson was an American Congregationalist who later became a Baptist Missionary and served in Burma for close to forty years. Courtney Anderson in his book; "To the Golden Shore - The Life of Adoniram Judson" that was published in the year 1987 talks about the life and the missionary works of Adoniram Judson as a missionary to Burma. The book an example of true inspiration and dedication for all Christians especially those on a missionary calling. This article will describe the contents of this book and then provide an analysis of the book specifically discussing on the various strategies that Adoniram Judson employed to lead as well as deal with cultural challenges that he faced while undertaking his missionary work in Burma. The cultural challenges that Judson faced included; language barrier, lack of a worship structure that would be acceptable to the local people, different customs, beliefs and practices, lack of support and torture by the authorities such as the British East India Company, lack of a Bible in the local language, diseases and family problems. To overcome these cultural challenges, Adoniram employed various methods such as learning the local language and coming up with the English Burmese dictionary that enabled him to translate the Bible into the local language, adapting to some cultural and customary practices such as dressing code and building of Zahat where he welcomed people to discuss religion. He also prayed to God for perseverance during trying times such as during illnesses that led to the death of many of his family members and during political hardships. Anderson, (1987) also acknowledges that Judson campaigned and advocated for the change of oppressive cultural and customary laws through petitions.

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Summary Of The Book

Anderson, (1987) starts by indicating the transition that Adoniram Judson underwent on February 12, 1812, when he sailed together with his wife, Ann boarding the brig Caravan to become the first missionaries to go on a mission from North America to other parts of the world. This journey had a great impact on the future of the Christian missions all over the world as it influences many men and women who follow in their footsteps. The couple had a short stay in India before travelling to the golden shore of Burma to spread the Good News of Christ. Courtney Anderson is able to use letters and church records to do a painting of a poignant portrait belonging to Adoniram Judson's early life in which he had a conflict between his desire for worldly material success and the personal inner calling to serve God and his missionary work in Burma where he encountered numerous challenges but was able to persevere (Anderson, 1987).

For Adoniram Judson and his family, the golden shores of Burma brought bitter hardship due to cultural differences that led to numerous challenges, many tropical diseases, torture, dictatorial government, imprisonment as well as family tragedy. Judson had prophesied these hardships in the letter that he had written to John Hasseltine asking permission to marry his daughter, Nancy, who he took with him on the various missionaries overseas after her father had given his consent. His words were prophetic as he faced all the problems he had written about. Adoniram Judson was not shaken by these encounters but developed mechanisms to cope with them so that he could fulfil his commitment to win as many people as possible to faith in Christ and also translate the Holy Bible into the Burmese language. Adoniram Judson also published a Burmese English dictionary to help him and his converts are able to read the bible and understand the world of God in both languages. "To the Golden Shore - The Life of Adoniram Judson" indicates that the most significant struggle that Adoniram faced was his attempts to overcome and prevail over the spread of Buddhism in the region since for years he was only able to have a handful of sunshine converts and it had taken him six years to see the first native convert (Anderson, 1987). The missionary work of Adoniram was interrupted by the constant conflicts between the Burma people and the British who were running the territory through the British East India Company hence leading to the Anglo-Burmese war of 1824 whereby Adoniram was imprisoned. However, he persevered with cultural challenges and kept on spreading the gospel until his death in the year 1850.

Translation Of The Bible In Burmese

Adoniram Judson's missionary work in Burma is historic as he spent his entire life trying to spread the Gospel in a land that was completely untouched by the Gospel before his ministry there. Therefore, due to the fact that no other missionaries had penetrated the shores of Burma, there was the challenge of not having a bible that the converts would read to strengthen their faith (Judson, 2005). To help him be able to spread the gospel and give the Burmese converts a companion, Adoniram embarked on translating the English Bible into the native tongue so that people could read for themselves and understand the word of God in their own language (Anderson, 1987). He also knew that in the native language, the people would identify with the Bible more as it was written in their tongue hence encouraging them to read it more and believe in it instead of the English Bible which was seen as a Whiteman's tool to rob them of their religion and cultural practices. The bible would also serve as a guide and a rock in which the new converts would lean on and depend on it for answers and guidance so that they could not backslide into their initial faith. Judson laboured for over thirty years on translating the English Bible into the local language and died immediately after he had begun to revise it. However, as he had hoped, the translated Bible became useful to the converts even after his death (Bradshaw, 1992).

Learning The Local Language And Publishing of Burmese English Dictionary

Hulse, (1996) states that language barrier was one of the cultural challenges that faced Adoniram Judson in his quest to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Shores of Burma. Therefore, to overcome this challenge, Adoniram Judson was able to diligently absorb the native Burmese language so that he could learn the vocabulary to develop the Burmese English dictionary which would later enable him to translate the Holy Bible into the local dialect.

Learning And Practicing The Burmese Culture

According to Anderson, (1987), Judson was not able to hold a semi-public service for more than four years as the Christian faith was against the Buddhist religion as well as most of the cultural practices and customs of the people of Burma as he had experienced violence and rejection of his crusade. To overcome these cultural obstacles, at first, Adoniram tried to adapt to the customs of the people of Burma by wearing a yellow robe which would make people identify him as a teacher of religion (Judson, 2005). However, he soon changed to a white robe in an effort to show the people that he was not a Buddhist. Finally, he abandoned the whole attempt as he realized that no matter what he wore, the Burmese people would still identify him as a foreigner and he realized that he was hiding in the shadows of a religion and culture he was against.

However, Helen, (2009) indicates that Judson accommodated some of the Burmese customs that were favourable to Christianity such as housing. For instance, in his attempt to integrate some of the customs of the Burmese culture so that the local people could see him as one of them and listen to his crusades, Adoniram Judson built a Zayat. According to the Burmese culture, an elder had to have a Zayat which was a customary bamboo-thatched house that served as a reception room and also a meeting place for the local Burmese elders.

Perseverance Of Cultural Challenges

Both the local and the British authorities were against American evangelizing the Hindu in the region. The local authorities were against the influence the Christian faith had on the culture and the customs of the local people while the British wanted to preserve its colony from the influence of Christianity which enlightened people of their rights and freedoms, especially the American missionaries (Anderson, 1987). For instance, the first attempt that Judson made to interest the local people of Rangoon with the Gospel of Christ was met with total indifference due to his teachings that were against the cultural practices of the local people (Bradshaw, 1992), however, he did not lose hope as he continued to make more and more attempts until he succeeded.

Most of the Buddhist traditions, as well as the Burmese worldview during those times, led a majority of the people to disregard the teachings and pleadings of Adoniram and his wife to believe in the existence of one powerful God. To add to their frustrations, many of their family members died during the topical illnesses (Piper, 2012). The authorities constantly imprisoned and tortured Adoniram as they believed that his crusade was having a negative of the culture and customs of the Burma people. Judson was also imprisoned during the Anglo-Burmese war of 1824 since the English-Speaking persons from America were confused with the enemy and were suspected of being spies. Despite all these cultural challenges, Adoniram turned to God who gave him perseverance hence he was able to conduct his missionary work to become one of the most successful American missionaries.

Confronting The Terror of Tyrannical Rule

The cultural structure in Burma influenced the political formation whereby it allowed for the formation of a government that was anarchic and tyrannical. The king was supreme and had total power over the people such that he tortured and executed those who did not observe cultural traditions and Buddhism (Hulse, 1996). The people were not allowed to deviate from Buddhism as there was a directive of King Bagyidaw who placed a death sentence to any Burmese who changed religion as the king believed the culture of the white man would destroy the traditions of the local people. Adoniram tried to overcome this challenge through various petitions which led to a little relaxation of the tough laws but significant enough for him to convert a few Burmese people to Christianity. Adoniram was also able to get the approval of the Emperor to preach (Anderson, 1987).

Conclusion

During his missionary work in Burma, Adoniram Judson experienced various cultural challenges such as language barrier, rejection of his mission, lack of a structure that could attract people to his teaching, political challenges, lack of a Bible in the local language, dressing code, among others (Anderson, 1987). To overcome these challenges, he employed various brilliant methods to lead in their contexts. To eradicate the language barrier, Judson learnt the local language and came up with the English Burmese dictionary that enabled him to translate the Holy Bible into the local language for his converts to read. Judson persevered political imprisonment and torture and petitioned for the change of unfavourable traditional and customary laws that restricted the people from converting from Buddhism to Christianity. He also constantly asked God for strength to overcome various challenges that he faced such as the topical illnesses that led to him losing many members of his family (Piper, J. (2012). To eliminate the problem of a worship structure, Judson built a Zahat which was common among the local people, in which he would invite passers-by to rest and therefore have the opportunity to discuss with them the gospel. Adoniram also adopted some of the favourable cultural and customary practices such...