Humility as an Approach to Other Religions

As we discuss engaging with people from different religious paths and backgrounds, we are getting at this spiritual task of humility. Humility says, “while I have something to offer, I also have something to learn.” Openness and curiosity to others leads us, rather than superiority and judgment. But, why is it so challenging for us to have a faith that cultivates humility? 

In our Christian tradition, we sometimes like to cling to binary thinking. One of the dualistic frameworks we have clung to is the good-versus-bad narrative: “we are bad and need saving” or “they are bad and we are the good ones with the truth”. We split ourselves and people into polarizing buckets. In many of our Christian faiths, we begin with the “I am bad. I am so unworthy and in need of saving” narrative. Once we are “saved” we then sometimes swap in “ I am good. I have the truth. They are bad in need of saving.” Do you see how when we use good-bad dualism we miss so much happening in the inbetween?

What might help us shift from this binary thinking and towards something that is both grounding and more open? For me, it starts with the imago dei. In the very beginning of the Bible, the author writes about God creating earth and humans. God created humans in the image dei or the “image of God” (Genesis 1:27).  When discussing people of different spiritual paths, the imago dei is my starting point as it brings me to the foundation—we are all created in the image of God. God is in all of us. We all have beauty and we all have limitations. 

Today would you reflect on what the imago dei means to you? How does this impact the way you see yourself and others? How can the imago dei point us to a deeper faith that is rooted in humility and openness? 

- Dottie Oleson