Volumxe 6, Issue 1 | Fall 2017
Peripateo
the Swarthmore College Journal of Christian Discourse
The Reformation by Daniel Swanson
Also in this issue: The Red Faith
by Adam Schauer
Fraud or Daughter
by Juhyae Kim
A Letter from the Editor Dear Reader,
Now that I am in my third year at Swarthmore, I must admit that it is difficult to avoid becoming a “jaded Swattie”–a student who has grown weary of academics and indifferent about the goals they once had. When I first got accepted to Swarthmore, I was thrilled at the prospect of meeting people with different backgrounds and worldviews. As someone who grew up with in a largely homogenous Christian community, I wanted my views, particularly those relating to my faith, to be challenged and sharpened while at Swarthmore. The reality that I faced when I got to campus was not exactly what I was expecting.The intense workload and numerous activities I partook in left me with very little time to rest, let alone to think critically about or even just reflect on my faith. However, I knew I had to carve out time to do this. As I interacted with various members of the Swarthmore community, questions continued to rise in my mind about why I believed in Christianity, what made my beliefs different from other beliefs, how my faith changed my personal life and could impact this world at large, and more. I believe many individuals at Swarthmore ask similar questions about their own beliefs. Each person comes to Swarthmore with passions, goals, and questions. And while some of these questions can be discussed in a classroom setting, many of them can and should be addressed from other avenues.The founders of this journal believed that having an space dedicated specifically to considering questions about God and faith was necessary on our campus.Thus, Peripateo was created. “Peripateo” means “to walk around in” in Greek, and the journal was given this name to invite all readers to walk through each piece and to consider various questions with the contributors.The pieces we include range from contemplating the nature of God to analyzing political phenomena from a Biblical perspective to reflecting on how one’s faith has impacted their life. We, the staff of Peripateo, believe that whether one is dealing with personal struggles or is concerned about what is happening on the other side of the globe, they can find truth in Christianity. We believe Christianity offers a hope and truth that cannot be found elsewhere in the world.That said, none of us have or ever will have all the answers to our questions, so we are committed to pressing into our faith to find truth and gain insight and direction for all that is happening in our lives.The contributors of each piece desire to share what they have been learning so that those who read along might search for truth as well. In this issue, we invite you to delve into Adam Schauer’s piece, “The Red Faith,” which discusses the place of religion and Christianity in Vietnam, and into Daniel Swanson’s explication of the differences between Catholic and Protestant theology in “The Reformation.” We further encourage you to listen to Rebecca Sanders share what she learned from the Apostle Thomas in “Let Us also Go to Die with Him,” and to reflect on Tobias Philip's poetry inspired by Mysticism: “The Journal of a Soul into Itself.” We hope that by walking through these pieces, you can consider important questions about the role of faith in your own life. Our pieces may prompt you with new questions, or they may touch on something you had already been pondering over. If you, like me, have been struggling to find something exciting in the everyday life refreshing to mull over before you jump back into your daily work. Juhyae Kim Editor-in-Chief
i | Letter from the Editor
Photo by Claire Yang
of Swarthmore, we hope that a piece in this journal–an article, a poem, a piece of art–will give you something
IN THIS ISSUE The Reformation: 2 Some Information
Essays & Ar ticles
The Red Faith: 12 The Relationship Between Christianity and Communism in Vietnam
Jasmine Betancourt ’20
Reflections
by Rebecca Sanders
Fraud or Daughter : 16 A Biblical Perspective on Battling Imposter Syndrome
Under His Wings 10 by Juhyae Kim
Sawyer Lake ’20 Matthew Olivencia ’18 Tobias Philip ’20 Adam Schauer ’20 Rebecca Sanders ’21
Editor-in-Chief Executive Editor Business Manager Design Manager Editor Design Editor Design Editor Design Editor Editor Editor Editor
Contributors
by Juhyae Kim
by Tobias Philip
Editorial Staff
Emily Audet ’18 Irene Tang ’19
by Adam Schauer
The Journey of a Soul Into Itself 8
the Swarthmore College Journal of Christian Discourse
Juhyae Kim ’19 Michael Broughton ’19
by Daniel Swanson
Let Us also Go to Die with Him: 6 Drawing Lessons from Thomas the Apostle
Peripateo
Ar t and Poetry
Claire Yang ’18 Timothy Greco ’19 Juhyae Kim ’19 Tobias Philip ’20 Adam Schauer ’20 Rebecca Sanders ’21 Daniel Swanson ’21
Who We Are Peripateo seeks to reconcile faith and academia by engaging religious issues through an intellectual
lens. Coming from a variety of Christian traditions, we seek to represent a diversity of perspectives. We
believe that the message of Jesus Christ has power-
ful implications for our daily lives and the world at large. Our goal is to fuse creativity and intellectualism in this journal to invite readers into a thought-
ful discourse: what role does God play in our lives? What are the ways that a Christian perspective both
complements and complicates an academic one?
Read our previous issues at https://issuu.com/swarthmoreperipateo
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The Reformation Some Information by Daniel Swanson
So now it's now been 500 years
since a frustrated monk named Martin Luther challenged some other monks to a debate. He called for a debate because the Dominicans (the aforementioned other monks) were selling indulgences. This raises some questions. What is an indulgence? Why do we care about an academic debate that never happened concerning a slightly obscure theological point, which it seems, hardly anyone understood either then or now? I'll answer the first question in a moment, but as to the latter, this debate sparked a few other debates, which led to arguments, excommunications, revolts, wars, and the splintering of the western Church. In this article I will try to explain both sides of the primary issues at stake then and now. I've already mentioned indulgences, so we might as well start there. An indulgence is pretty much just a technical term for doing a thing to grow closer to God. They're roughly equivalent to spiritual disciplines, though "indulgence" frequently refers to a single action whereas "spiritual disciplines" are nearly
2 | The Reformation
always intended to be prolonged or habitual. Indulgences are also closely associated with the idea of Purgatory. If you are saved, then when you die you will desire God to some degree. However, since you are still imperfect you will almost certainly still desire the World as well. Upon entering Heaven you will be perfect and your desires will be completely directed towards God. Somewhere between death and entry into Heaven, a transformation must take place. Protestants generally conclude that this transformation will be instantaneous, and call it "Glorification." Catholics, on the other hand, expect that we will experience as painful and likely prolonged and call it "Purgatory." Indulgences are closely tied to this since growing closer to God naturally means that there will be less of you that needs purifying in Purgatory and you will thus get out of it faster. And now we can explain why it was a problem for the Dominicans to sell indulgences. While it is true that giving your resources to God out of a desire to please him does tend to draw you closer to him,
handing over some coins to a street preacher and receiving a piece of paper which says "get out of Purgatory free" almost certainly doesn't. So while one cannot actually sell an indulgence, one can easily make it sound like you can and make a great deal of money in the process. Hence the initial debate. So how did this question of indulgences engender the Reformation? Luther's objections were almost entirely in line with the Catholic Church's official teaching, but there were a few points where he went too far in the eyes of his superiors (though, to be fair, some of said superiors opposed his theses because they were the ones making money from this whole affair). Over the course of the next few years a bunch of misunderstandings and some miscommunication, coupled with Luther's increasingly radical positions on a variety of issues, led to his excommunication and the founding of the Lutheran Church. Now I will try to explain those other issues. The biggest division is over the role of the Magisterium or Tradition (note the capital T). All Christians agree that God
gave us his words in the Old Testament and through Jesus and that both of these sources are completely true in what they reveal to us about God. In the same way, Christians also agree about the New Testament. Beyond this point, however, things diverge. Protestants believe that what I just listed contains everything we need to know. Catholics, on the other hand, believe that some important things never made it into the Bible and were instead handed on from generation to generation through practice. They also believe that when Jesus gave His authority to the Apostles and said to Peter "on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it," this meant that the Apostles generally and Peter specifically1 would never teach something contrary to the message that Jesus had given them. The Catholic Church further concludes that when the Apostles appointed bishops to lead the Church when they were gone, the authority and the promise that their teaching would remain faithful was also passed on, and so the bishops of the world, as a group, are believed to
have the ability to clarify disputed theological points with the assurance that the Holy Spirit will not let them teach heresy. They also believe that just as Peter was the leader of the Apostles, so his successor, the bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, is the leader of the Church as a whole and has the ability to make the same infallible pronouncements as the bishops together, except that he can do it alone.2 Remember how I said all Christians agree on the Bible? There should really be an asterisk on that statement. Catholics derive their version of the Old Testament from a Greek translation called the Septuagint, which is evidently the one Jesus and the Apostles were working from. Protestants, on the other hand, normally use the Masoretic, which is in Hebrew, on the grounds that it's closer to the original. If one is just a translation of the other, then what's at stake, you might reasonably ask? Several things, actually. First, there's the fact that the Psalms are numbered differently and the Greek version of Esther mentions God rather more often. The Greek version
of Daniel is 3 chapters longer, and finally the Greek table of contents is 7 books longer than the Hebrew, with Sirach, Baruch, Wisdom, Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. Not that much theology hangs on these books, though 2 Maccabees does have somewhat more direct support for the existence of Purgatory than is available elsewhere in the Bible. The two biggest differences between Protestantism and Catholicism are Tradition and the Sacraments. I think we've pretty much covered Tradition, so let's see if I can explain the Sacraments. We know from Scripture that God created two worlds, the material world that we see around us, and the spiritual world that contains our souls and the angels. We also know that these two worlds can interact, and in fact they do it on a regular basis. The greatest such interaction was, of course, the Incarnation, when God, a pure spirit3 became human. Smaller interactions also happen when we pray. The fundamental idea of a Sacrament is that God has promised that in certain places the material
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and the spiritual will overlap in predictable ways and through God's grace your physical actions can and will reshape your soul.4 And now we come to the dispute. How many Sacraments are there and what do they do? The Baptists say there are none, the Lutherans two, the Catholics seven, and most other groups agree with one of those three about what they are, though not always about what they do, or what to call them. Some people call them Sacraments, while others call them Ordinances or don't refer to them collectively. Ordinances are sometimes the same as what I am choosing to call "Sacraments" but they often indicate that the thing in question is more a representation of the spiritual than a makingpresent of the spiritual. The full list of all the things that are ever called Sacraments are Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Communion, Marriage, Ordination, and Anointing of the Sick. Three of these seven (Marriage, Confirmation, and Anointing of the Sick) are essentially uncontroversial and merely aren't included on the list of Sacraments by a lot of people because the Gospels don't record Jesus saying anything that makes their status as such obvious.5 Thus their status boils down to a manifestation of the Tradition mention above. Let's begin with Confession. Jesus said to the Apostles, "whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you retain, they are retained" ( John 20:23). From this, the Catholic Church concludes that the point of overlap at which God's forgiveness of sins enters the material world is in a priest, to whom you confess your sins. The Protestant view tends to be that this overlap point is actually in prayer and thus confessing your sins to another human, though healthy, is by no means required. You may have noted that I specified that people confessed their sins to a priest, implying something special about priests. This is where the Sacrament of Ordination comes in. Humans do not have the power
4 | The Reformation
to create overlaps between the worlds unless God gives it to them and Ordination is when priests are given the power to create these five specific kinds of overlaps and act as God's agent of grace in this world (Baptism and Marriage don't technically require a priest according to Catholic doctrine, though a priest is normally involved). Baptism invokes two separate but overlapping questions: Does Baptism save you and can infants be baptized? Baptism is generally viewed as either as the means by which one enters God's family or as a declaration of intent to remain in said family, with the entrance, like Confession, transfered to prayer. If Baptism is a Sacrament, then perhaps it makes sense to baptize infants, knowing that when they can choose, they may walk away from the Faith. If Baptism is more like a declaration then it probably doesn't make sense to baptize infants since they haven't yet developed the ability to intend things. The other two possibilities (Sacrament without infants and declaration with infants) do occur, but I think they're a bit rarer and are essentially combinations of the two I described. And finally, Communion. From some perspectives the consecration of the bread and the wine are the most important thing the Church ever does on Earth, and this has resulted in rather more differences than most of the other issues. The question is, what did Jesus mean when he said "this is my body?" Those who reject the idea of Sacraments as I have defined them (many Baptists, for instance) tend to view this as eating a meal to remind ourselves and others of what Jesus did on the Cross. The Catholic Church (and a few others) believe that the bread ceases to actually be bread and becomes Jesus' body instead, though it still appears to be bread.6 Thus while receiving Communion you have Christ within you in every possible manner.7 The other positions that I'm aware of stem from the views of the three leaders of the Reformation: Luther, Zwingli, and
Calvin. Luther's view was that Christ's body becomes present in the bread. The bread ceasing to be bread (as in the Catholic view) was possible but not necessary. Zwingli thought that Jesus was present in spirit, but not bodily since it is contrary to the nature of bodies to be in multiple places and Jesus is in Heaven. Calvin described Communion as a sort of mystical experience during which your soul is taken up to Heaven and so it's something like eating a meal with God. There are a few more topics that need to be covered, and one of them is prayer. An interesting question is whether all prayers must be directed towards God or if he will let you pass notes to those already in Heaven and ask them to pray to God with you. If so, here we find half the source of veneration of the Saints, the other half being that focusing your attention on someone very much like you but holier gives you a clearer target to aim at than "be perfect." And finally, the debate that inevitably comes up in any discussion of these topics: Salvation by Faith vs. Salvation by Works. The former is generally interpreted to mean that Faith in Jesus saves us and out of that Salvation flows cooperation with God in the form of good works and increasing holiness. The latter, typically presented as something closer to Faith, produces cooperation with God in the form of good works and increasing holiness, all together producing Salvation. However, if you understand Faith along the lines of "trusting enough to act" then you may find that every saved person goes through the same observable process in the same order so you could argue that this is really more an issue of language and emphasis than actual disagreement. And that, friends, is my best effort to explain every meaningful division between the Protestant Churches and the Catholic Church in something resembling a reasonable amount of space. Perhaps one day we believers will all be unified again in one vis-
ible Church truly serving the Lord as one body. If that is ever going to happen it will take enormous amounts of Faith, Hope, and Love as well as an outpouring of God's grace. I can't provide any of those things, but perhaps I have brought a bit of clarity, and maybe it will be helpful to someone. r Endnotes 1. Since Jesus had just named Peter "Peter," meaning "rock," they take "this rock" to refer to Peter himself. 2. The belief that the Pope can act independently of the bishops in this manner is essentially the only theological division between the Catholic Church and the two branches of Christianity that I'm not dealing with: The Oriental Churches and Eastern Orthodoxy. 3. God is the source and foundation of existence, meaning that the source of all being became human. I suspect this bears a great deal more thought, but unfortunately we don't have time to explore it right now. 4. If you start tallying up all the ways God's grace is present in everyday day life, it's not unreasonable to conclude that the two worlds overlap literally everywhere and thus Sacraments (if they exist) are less special exceptions than they are places where the details of the overlap have been explained. 5. Personally I think some of the things Jesus said about Marriage should be enough to include it as a Sacrament. Unbreakable bonds are hard to come by naturally. 6. Interestingly, there have been a handful of historical reports of the bread also taking on the appearance of flesh. 7. This is sometimes referred to as a sacrifice, leading some to conclude that Jesus is being sacrificed again because the cross wasn't enough. In fact the actual teaching is that the bread becomes Jesus' body during the crucifixion, and thus rather than being a new sacrifice, it's actually the same sacrifice simultaneously present at multiple points in time.
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Let Us Also Go to Die with Him
Drawing Lessons from Thomas the Apostle by Rebecca Sanders Thomas the Apostle was the
youngest of the twelve disciples, but despite his youth, he offered many great insights into developing as a follower of Christ. He understood that following Jesus was no easy task, suffering is usually an inherent part of being a disciple of Christ, but despite the hardships, following Christ leads to salvation. Thomas also understood that confusion is part of being a Christian. Like all human beings, Thomas was not perfect—he had his weaknesses, and he doubts that Jesus has risen from the dead. But when I look at Thomas the Apostle’s life, I see how relevant he is to my own. After fleeing from Jerusalem, Jesus and the disciples hear word that Lazarus has died. Jesus wants to go back to Jerusalem, but the disciples remark that the Jews have just driven them away. Jesus still wants to return, and Thomas says, “Let us also go to die with him.”1 You can interpret Thomas’ attitude in two ways. One, in which Thomas heroically commits to following Jesus even to his own death, and he entusiastically announces, “Yes, let us go and die because we are true followers of Christ.” Or two, in which Thomas acknowledges that following Christ does not mean he will not suffer, and despite his fear, he decides to follow Christ to the ends of the earth because Jesus is the Messiah. Either way, Thomas would show himself to be a true disciple. He has nothing and nowhere to go. And what’s he
6 | Let Us Also Go to Die with Him
going to do, leave Jesus? All Thomas has now is Christ, and no matter what happens he will follow him, even if he does not understand what Jesus is saying or where they are going, or why for that matter. The disciples definitely do not want to go back to Jerusalem, but Thomas trusts Jesus has a plan and knows what he is doing. I like to interpret his words the second way. Thomas has seen Jesus perform miracle after miracle, and he believes Jesus is the real deal. Thomas will follow Christ even if his plans do not make sense at first. At the moment, I am not sure what God wants me to do with my life. I’m pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore, and I have some idea of what I want to do after I graduate, but sometimes I still find myself lost and trying to find my purpose in life. I don’t think the disciples ever completely understand what Jesus says or does, and most of the time they don’t ask him. In John 14, Jesus tells his disciples at the Last Supper, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.”2 Wait, what? I can imagine mixed feelings of confusion and fear taking hold of the disciples right about now. What does he mean we know where he’s going? I
can imagine them asking themselves, but they do not vocalize their confession, except Thomas who asks, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”3 Thomas does not seem to have the kind of inhibition that the other disciples have. He is definitely not afraid to ask Jesus what he means. You could compare him to a child who in his innocence can ask the questions everyone is too afraid to ask. I admire the courage Thomas has and strive to ask the questions that need to be asked. Amid his strengths, Thomas definitely does have his weaknesses. He is called “Doubting Thomas.” After the Resurrection, Thomas does not believe the other disciples when they tell him they have seen Jesus risen from the dead. He says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”4 And a week later, when Thomas does see Jesus, he exclaims, ”My Lord and my God!” Thomas believes because he has proof, evidence, but Jesus calls those blessed “who have not seen and have believed.”5 How many times have I doubted God because I wanted proof that I could touch and see? Too many times. I have lost faith in my path and my purpose. I have doubted people, and I have doubted God, just like Thomas. For the longest time I called myself an atheist despite being raised in a
Catholic household because I wanted to believe in something with empirical and scientific evidence. I had gone down a path that so many people seem to follow. I wanted God to make everything better, and when he didn’t, I lost my faith. I thought I was being intelligent and rational, but I didn’t realize that there were things you could not justify or experience with your five senses. I was not happy until I understood this. I could not deal with the stresses and trials of my life if I did not have faith that God has a plan and everything will work out. This is the trust Thomas puts in Christ when he declares he will follow him back to Jerusalem for Lazarus. He does not know what will happen or how things will turn out, but he trusts Jesus. Christ will not abandon him, and I know he will not abandon me. Now, I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going, and I’m pretty sure that’s how most people feel, students and faculty alike. As a Christian, and like Thomas, I do have one thing I can hold on to, Christ, and the faith that no matter what happens, I have someone to rely on. r
Endnotes 1. John 11:16. 2. John 14:2-4. 3. John 14:5. 4. John 20:25. 5. John 20:29.
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The Journey of a Soul into Itself by Tobias Philip
Good ground grows grass, which wears the freshest green. Each day renewed, bedewed - even the dew... Shines, signs, enshrines, and shimmers His own sheen. Inspect the spec’s own speculum, into. But dew cannot but do what Doer does: Each droplet droops down heavy from the blade To roots that shoot it up, the roots its Cause, As Cause wrought naught but search for self remade. Soul’s ground gifts God by grace, and wears hope’s green. In heart apart from self is self found true Noetic niche and nook, core crevice - keen To find and bear there th’eternal Son anew. In man - like grass his days, like grass his earth In dirt of sin sown God-begotten birth.
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I was moved to write this sonnet by reading the German sermons of the 13th
century mystic, Meister Eckhart. The speculative mysticism of the Meister is centered on the Gottesgeburt, or God’s birth of himself which is the eternal generation of the Son who, together with the Father, generated the Holy Spirit. This endless activity is the Word which God speaks in the deepest recesses of each human soul, so that by participation in him we too might bear and become the Son of God. In this sublime assimilation of divinity, man recedes into himself and creation merges with Creator, and so I hoped to express that transformation in dialectical language and an assonant acoustic mimesis of affinity becoming unity. Following Saint Bonaventure’s mystical method of procession from the lowest external to the highest internal truths explained in his Journey of the Soul to God, I hoped to sketch the process of mystical unity beginning with nature in its analogues and reflections of divinity, and ending with direct contemplation of God himself. r
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"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you Psalm 10 | Under His Wings
will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." 91:4 Swarthmore Peripateo | 11
The Red Faith: The Relationship Between Christianity and Communism in Vietnam By Adam Schauer During the summer of my junior year in high
school, I was blessed with the incredible opportunity to undertake a research project in Vietnam through my school’s K.S. Wu Fellowship. After writing an extensive proposal and receiving the funds necessary to travel, my friend and I embarked by ourselves on the journey of a lifetime. Over the course of the seventeen-day excursion to both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, we hoped to gain a better understanding of the communist political atmosphere, religious culture, and the relationship between the two entities. However, the trip turned out to be so much more: a truly life-changing experience that forced us both to think more deeply about our own religious convictions and the future of evangelism in our changing world. From Vietnam’s bloody torn history to its current status as a key player in the global dialogue, such a rich culture has seen both immense pain and reconciliation through religion. I hope to offer a glimpse at the religion, culture, and politics of such a vibrant nation. With some historical background, my observations, research, and anthropological inference, it will soon be evident why Christianity in any form has failed to vibrantly take root there. It is safe to say that few countries have undergone as much political change and imperialist influence as Vietnam. From French colonialism to American-backed democracy, the nation has served as the testing ground for numerous ideologies and philosophies. Religion is no exception. Initially, Vietnam stood as the centerpiece of the Siam Peninsula, connecting the Chinese dynasties to the North with India to the West. This key position not only brought extensive trade and wealth to the area, but also a mix of cultures and beliefs. Although Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism became the predominant religions through word of mouth, the Vietnamese also began combining these very different cultures in their own way.
12 | The Red Faith
Later on, as a colony of the French empire, Vietnam became exposed to more traditionally Western religions as well, mainly when the French brought their Catholic roots into the already diverse social landscape. Initially, the French brutalized and marginalized the Vietnamese people, taking advantage of their cheap labor to harvest massive amounts of rubber for economic profits. In the process, the French also sought to “civilize” the Vietnamese, and assimilated many of their customs into Vietnamese traditions. Still to this day, Vietnamese iced coffee and baguette-like breads are world renowned, and much of the architecture retains heavy French influence. Particularly considering the oppression of the French regime, the hope and fortitude found in the prospect of salvation made Catholicism highly appealing. On top of this, the fashionability of the upper class French influence, at least in the colonial era, appealed to the progressive, urban citizens in particular, popularizing Catholicism with it. However, with another influential religion in the mix, the Vietnamese became highly divided, some even resorting to creating a new religion, Hoahoanism, that combined major figures, influences, and ideologies across multiple religions, including Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad, Joan of Arc, and even Shakespeare, among others. Soon enough, the Vietnamese began turning against their French oppressors, seeking the help of the US, who were eager to spread democracy during the Cold War. After the Vietnamese succeeded, the conflict simply shifted to the country’s precarious political future between communist influence from China and democratic influence from the US. It was this very conflict that heightened throughout the mid-1900’s, ultimately splitting the country in the Vietnam War. Even so, few remember that religious tensions and violence were very much present and relevant in the early stages of the Vietnam War. Supported heavily by the US, politician Ngo Dinh Diem became South Vietnam’s first presi-
dent in 1955. Diem was a member of Vietnam’s Catholic minority, and pushed many religiously-influenced programs, which infuriated the country’s Buddhist majority. Tensions culminated in 1963 when nine Buddhist activists were killed by government troops in the centrally located city of Hue. Later that year, the monk Thich Quang Duc lit himself on fire on a street in Saigon, bringing the plight of the South’s Buddhists to the international stage as the protest was documented internationally. That very incident brought about the famous picture used by political protesters worldwide, not only winning recognition as the World Press Photo of the Year in 1963, but also the John F. Kennedy quotation, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." These events convey a history between religions in Vietnam that has been anything but peaceful. When communism finally fully enveloped the country in 1975, the mere existence of religion within Vietnam was put into question. The elimination of religion from the state is a fundamental principle of communist doctrine, a belief typified by the Bolsheviks in early communist Russia. Indeed, during the early 1960’s many Catholics fled Northern Vietnam to seek refuge in the South. However, surprisingly, the newly entrenched Communist government never officially outlawed religious practice. Rather they “discouraged” it and set about systematically banning religious meetings such as Buddhist sangha and limiting the power of the Catholic Church within the nation. This opposition to organized religion demonstrated the government’s willingness to accept its cultural but non-political role in Vietnamese life. With all of this information as background for our trip, we soon began to see for ourselves just how dominant communism had become. At this point, the government upheld a policy of allowing free religion, as long as all clergy were appointed and approved by the state. However, what we saw was totally different. Although
the communist state had certainly accepted religions, and religious practices themselves were not that dramatically altered, the state had essentially forced themselves as a deity over the people, much like the Romans during Jesus’ time. Between the blatant anti-West bias and the constant onslaught of communist propaganda, the communist state had ensured that the citizens remembered who was in charge. Nevertheless, the acceptance of these blatant religious standins by the general populus was ever more surprising. For example, when visiting the great communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, the religious undertones were everywhere. Not only was the mausoleum modeled after the Parthenon and other Greco-Roman religious sites, but patrons frequently wept at the sight of the preserved body of their late leader. Similarly, all of Minh’s belongings and quarters remained hallowedly untouched since his death, and from our interviews, we learned that Minh had a “God-like reverence” in Vietnamese culture. Although a significant amount of folklore surrounds his complicated past, Minh was widely revered for his generosity and humility, all while leading the Vietnamese so courageously and compassionately. While much of this reverence certainly came from Minh’s impressive political resume, the government influence, bias, and censorship was evident as well. It was almost as if the Vietnamese had to resort to deifying Minh in some effort to replace a spiritual void in their lives from the whitewashed, anti-religious bias of the government. While several religious tolerance laws were passed in the mid 1980’s, we also observed that any type of religious groups or gatherings are closely monitored by the government. For instance, the government remains heavily involved in the nomination of Catholic bishops, snuffing out any pro-democracy candidates. In 2007, Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest, was convicted of “anti-government activities” and sentenced to eight years in prison,
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St. Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam integrates Western Gothic architecture into Vietnamese religious practices.
14 | The Red Faith
simply because of his personal political opinions. Ly is but one example of how the Communists still wield vast control over religion in the country. In speaking with our host family, we learned that one of their sons had previously written satirical articles about religion, politics, and the state of affairs in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the government did not appreciate his humor all the time, and he was banned from using the Internet and had to renounce his right to publish among other significant legal implications. Similarly, the censorship also played a key role in the anti-Protestantism and antiWestern sentiment. A visit to the “Hanoi Hilton,” the prison that held American POWs, including John McCain, under horrific conditions and torture, revealed that the entirety of the museum was dedicated to the plight of the Vietnamese resistance against the French, as the prison was initially created for that capacity. In the final room of the exhibition, the pictures showed the American POWs playing basketball, celebrating Christmas, and enjoying their time, while ignoring the actual atrocities that had occurred inside those hallowed walls. The final placard blatantly portrayed the bias as it justified all the torture and murder with the statement: “Any neglect of American POWs came as a result of economic hardships of war.” The neglect of their blatant violation of human rights was a truly humbling experience. However, the communist government and cultural differences did not actually have that great of an effect on the actual practice of religion by the individual. In our interviews with Buddhist monks and Catholic parishioners, we were not only met with incredible hospitality, but also came to understand that the people celebrated their faith in relative peace. After sitting in on a Catholic mass and Buddhist prayer service as well, the similarities in attendance and traditional ceremony were
uncanny to our experiences with Western religious practices. Not only were the massive cathedrals and multiple pagodas that we visited packed out of the door, but the participants seemed to genuinely enjoy and passionately celebrate their beliefs. Unfortunately, this high attendance only resulted from the relative lack of churches in Vietnam, as well as the generally more populated, progressive urban setting. Since the trendy French influence of urban settings appealed to the more progressive populace, Christianity proved to be far more prevalent in urban settings than in the more traditional and conservative rural regions. Furthermore, the atrocities of the Vietnam War certainly did have a massive effect on the lack of religious culture in Vietnam. After returning from Vietnam, my partner and I began to ask serious questions about why Christianity had not taken root nearly as successfully as in other Asian nations, like the current revitalization of Christianity in similarly communist China. Currently, Buddhism is still the most popular religion in Vietnam, with roughly 10% of the population identifying as such. While this number is nowhere near as high as it was prior to the Vietnam War, it is significant nonetheless. However, roughly 76% of the nation still identifies as nonreligious, atheist, or agnostic, not only symbolizing a potential call for evangelism, but also indicating the residual effects of the Vietnam War. Having seen the atrocities of the war, including torture and brutal fighting conditions, combined with the longlasting effects of unexploded ordnance and the genetic mutations of Agent Orange, it is understandable why so many people felt such despair and turned from religion. The effects of the war were felt in America too, as the desperation and atrocities revitalized a postmodern movement against religious institutions. Even seeing the images and artifacts, shooting the guns, and exploring the defenses 50 years after the fact was a
moving experience. Furthermore, although the general citizenry does not hold strong anti-West sentiment, the government suppression of Western influence and religious freedom has also negatively affected the spread of Christianity in Vietnam. Coming from the perspective of a believer in subtle and prudent evangelism, there is definitely a need for a strong evangelical movement to come to Vietnam, much like what has happened in China recently. However, given the understandable general political and social aversion to Western ideology after the oppressive French and American regimes, the likelihood of this phenomenon working to the same effect is slim. Similarly, any evangelical efforts must toe a thin line between salvation and Western condescension, which would worsen the current state of religion. Whatever the solution may be, it is at the very least imperative that we also keep the struggle of other Christian brothers and sisters around the world in our thoughts and prayers. Nevertheless, my experience in Vietnam was a positive one overall. Everywhere I went, I was met with hospitality and respect, and the opportunity to fully immerse myself into another culture at such a young age was truly life-changing. Vietnam holds such a vast amount of beauty from its bustling cities to its mountainous bays to its incredible street food to its amazing people. It is a shame that such a rich culture had to face the atrocities, hardships, and influences that it did. However, it is imperative that their history not affect the lives, freedoms, and salvation of individual Vietnamese citizens now. r Endnotes I would like to thank Ethan Ehrenhaft, my travel partner, for his help in our project and article, as well as the K.S. Wu Fellowship for the opportunity to learn so much about such a vibrant culture.
Swarthmore Peripateo | 15
Fraud or Daughter:
A Biblical Perspective on Battling Imposter Syndorome by Juhyae Kim
As I sat in my professor's office, I cau-
tiously shared with her how I felt as a student in her class. “I feel like I don’t understand the concepts very well, but everyone else in class knows what they’re doing. It’s kind of overwhelming and I sometimes don’t feel like I should be in this class.” My professor responded to my uneasiness with a simple question: “Have you heard of Imposter Syndrome?” If only she had known that this syndrome had been on my mind all semester. I nodded quickly, getting a sense of where she was headed. She encouraged me by suggesting that I was experiencing it because from what she had seen, my work and performance in class were completely fine. She reassured me by saying I did not appear to be lagging behind my classmates in any way, and overall, the conversation was uplifting. But before getting into more of what was said in that conversation, I must explain what I mean by Imposter Syndrome. Generally speaking, the phenomenon is when one is unable to internalize their achievements and thus fears that they will be exposed as a fraud—an “imposter”—to others at any moment. It’s the feeling that no matter what you’ve accomplished or where you’ve arrived, you don’t ac-
16 | Fraud or Daughter
tually deserve it. You got lucky or somehow faked it till (others thought) you made it. One thing my professor said during that office visit stood out to me. While bringing up Imposter Syndrome, she prefaced the topic by saying there was good and bad news: the good news was that having it means that most other people see my achievements and abilities as legitimate. But the bad news was that Imposter Syndrome never goes away. This was what caught my attention. Does Imposter Syndrome really never go away? What’s the root cause for it, and why is it such a suffocating problem for people? And most importantly for me, what is a biblical understanding of it? After mulling over this all semester, I found that understanding the nature of being created by God helped me understand why I was experiencing this syndrome and how I could appropriately battle it. The why has to do with the fact that I was created to be in full union with God, and how to deal with it has to do with understanding what it means to be made beautifully in God’s image. Interestingly, the more I’ve opened up about this feeling with Swatties, the more I’ve recognized that I’m not alone in experiencing it. It is a real struggle for some. I felt it as I sat through classes surrounded by intelligent peers, updated my seemingly empty
resume, got rejected from various internships and opportunities, or even just heard about what other Swarthmore students were accomplishing. While Swat isn’t a “cutthroat” place, per se, I was internally comparing myself to my peers at all times. In particular, I felt inadequate in classes within my major—linguistics. Being a little slow at understanding concepts in non-linguistics classes such as Education or Computer Science didn’t bother me, but when it came to my major, where I felt the need to display superior abilities, my confidence toppled. As I took upper level courses in my major, I began to feel ashamed to say I was a linguistics major when I was not nearly as quick with understanding concepts and analyzing data as my fellow ling majors were. I was terrified of lambda expressions as semantic representations, could not comfortably use the International Phonetic Alphabet, and often forgot how to draw Syntax trees for relatively complex sentences. By the end of my sophomore year, I was convinced that I wasn’t good at learning, and that I was an admissions mistake. Imposter Syndrome had settled in for good. Of course, I didn’t recognize or name my selfdoubt as “Imposter Syndrome” right off the bat. I only connected it to my experiences after stumbling across the word online, specifically in articles talking about college students experiencing it. Those experi-
ences involved being inundated with the feeling of inadequacy and thinking that no matter what I did, I wasn’t good enough. In the past, I felt fulfilled if I received recognition from my peers or teachers. But eventually, even their affirmation wasn’t enough. I became convinced that people were giving empty compliments that didn’t actually reflect my performance. For instance, I would submit a paper that I put immense effort into, receive a good grade, but still believe that my work was mediocre and that my professor was just an easy grader. Nothing was enough to reassure my self-worth. Now I return to my point about why I was experiencing Imposter Syndrome. All humans were made to be in perfect union with God, and only when that union exists can they be fully satisfied. This union existed until sin entered the world, resulting in what many Christian thinkers consider the “God-shaped hole” in our hearts. I find Pascal’s explanation of it to be quite helpful: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end...And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young,
Swarthmore Peripateo | 17
strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions....What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”1 (emphasis added) This at first seems like a broad concept that has little to do with Imposter Syndrome. However, it was my inability to fill that gap with my achievements that resulted in experiencing the syndrome. Others may try to fill the hole with things such as economic security, relationships, or physical beauty. And in those cases, the inability to fill the hole may not necessarily manifest as Imposter Syndrome—perhaps workaholism, codependency, or insecurity may be the manifestation. But for me, the manifestation was feeling like a fraud. I expected my good performance in life to give me happiness, but found that it never did. Since I still lacked satisfaction, I told myself that I wasn’t achieving high enough even if everyone around me said otherwise. These clashing messages forced me to make a choice between believing what others said, or buying into my self-made idea that I was a fake. Clearly, I chose the latter. Now contrast this with Jesus’ attitude towards himself in Scripture. He is constantly questioned about his identity as God and accused of being an preposterous liar, yet he holds firm to what God said. Granted, Jesus is God himself, perfect and sinless, so it would be unrealistic to expect me to respond just like he does. But a key difference in his response is that he acknowledges that everything he has comes from God. For example, when people accuse him of lying about being God, he explains, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”2 Not only do his words refute the accusations of the people, but they also display the utmost submission—seeking not to please himself, but God. He was sure of his identity as the Son of God, as well as his God-given purpose on earth. This gets to my point about how to appropriately battle Imposter Syndrome. Jesus isn’t the only one who can be sure of his identity in God. All humans can. We are created in God’s image and are invited to be part of his family if we believe Jesus is the son of God. As someone who believes this, I am also a daughter of God and know that I’ve been created with a purpose and with talents. In the same way that Jesus did, I must hold fast to who God designed me to be rather than seek to please humans. Crucially, “humans” includes myself. God is pleased when I fill the “God-shaped hole” with him because that’s what he created me to do. When I try anything else, it’s only an attempt to please myself. So what exactly does it look like to fill the hole in my heart with God? I believe it starts with reminding myself of the things God has said, because his words are part of who he is. When my own
18 | Fraud or Daughter
thoughts are telling me that I have no talents and am faking my way through life, I need to redirect them back to what the Bible says about how God created me to glorify himself: I am fearfully and wonderfully made.3 He chose me to be his child before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.4 He crowned me with glory and honor to display his majesty.5 I do recognize that there may be other factors at play when a person experiences Imposter Syndrome. For instance, there are societal messages sent to people about what they can or can’t accomplish, unrealistic expectations set by authority figures, lies other people tell about their own achievements, etc. But I found that for me, the solution to escaping Imposter Syndrome does not lie in blaming those factors, nor in trying to change them. Rather, it lies in recognizing that I was wired to only find fulfillment in God, and that I must remind myself of the beauty and talent he has given all humans, including myself. It’s often still difficult for me to acknowledge the talents God has given me—it feels like I’m overestimating my abilities or being obnoxiously proud. Eventually, I hope to wholeheartedly embrace my strengths as a linguist, the qualities in me that got me to a school like Swarthmore, the blessing of recognizing my calling to missions, and more. While I still have many weaknesses that I am working on improving, I’ve been able to shift from seeing everything about myself as a deficit to acknowledging the strengths I have. At a retreat I attended towards the beginning of my junior year, we had a moment to pray with each other about the things causing fear, worry, and anxiety in our lives. I shared this struggle with Imposter Syndrome to a friend, and her prayer was simple and powerful. She prayed, “Lord, help Juhyae see that she’s not an imposter. She’s your daughter.” That was just what I needed to hear. I am not an imposter; I am a daughter of God. Fully living out this truth will take me some time, but Scripture is clear on the fact that God created me with skills and experiences that I will use to glorify him. Imposter Syndrome is not permanent, contrary to what many may believe. While I do not have a one-time cure for it, I know that it is not something that will eat away at me for my entire life. God is leading me through a continuous growth process of recognizing my worth in him and ultimately, getting to a point where I will not be held captive by Imposter Syndrome. It can go away, and for me, escaping from its grasp comes down to depending on my Father in heaven. r Endnotes 1. Pascal, B., & Trotter, W. F. (1931). Pascal's Pensées. London: J.M. Dent & Sons. 2. John 5:30. Here, the “him who sent me” is a reference to God the Father. 3. Psalm 139:14. 4. Ephesians 1:4. 5. Psalm 8:5
Swarthmore Peripateo | 19
PERIPATEO CONTRIBUTORS AND STAFF Emily Audet ’18
Claire Yang ’18
Emily is a History major from Massachusetts. Michael is wrong: double fudge brownie is the best ice cream flavor ever.
Claire is from Seongnam, Korea and is a Biology major. She goes by kflair.
Michael Broughton ’19
Tim Greco ’19
Michael is a junior from Detroit, Michigan with academic interests in Linguistics and Arabic. He firmly believes that chocolate chip ice cream is the best ice cream.
Tim is an engineering major from Lexington, Massachusetts. He takes pictures.
Juhyae Kim ’19
Irene Tang ’19
Juhyae is from St. Louis, Missouri and is studying Linguistics and Education. She misses her dog and spends too much time watching puppy videos online.
Irene is a junior from sunny California. She enjoys wandering around Sharples and dreams about living in the great outdoors. Irene likes to wear capes.
Jasmine Betancourt ’20
Sawyer Lake ’20
"Jasmine, you need to submit your bio now." "Ahhh, I don't know just put down whatever."
Texan. Loves Frank Sinatra.
Tobias Philip ’20
Adam Schauer ’20
He’s sometimes Socratic On rare days Sophistic Mostly unproblematic If a tad too Thomistic
Adam is an Engineering and Economics double major from THE nation's capital. When he's not reading about baseball, Adam's probably listening to baseball, and when he's not listening to baseball, he's probably watching baseball, and when he's not watching baseball, he's playing baseball.
Rebecca Sanders ’21
Daniel Swanson ’21
Rebecca is from Phoenix, Arizona, the land of cacti and rattlesnakes. She is a prospective Greek and Latin major and loves dogs.
Daniel is from Minnesota and plans to major in Math and Linguistics. He probably has more neckties than you.
20 | Peripateo Contributors and Staff
Selah.
Pause. Breathe. Think of that.
Photo by Claire Yang
סֶלָה