<b>“Strange/Familiar/Strange.”/<b>

I got this metaphor from my friend Richard Payne, professor and Dean of the Institute for Buddhist Studies out in Berkeley, California.  This is the way he has described the process of coming to understand a different culture and/or religion, and I have been thinking about it a lot since I read it.  As you might imagine, the point of this language is to indicate that often, when we are introduced to another religious tradition, it is “strange” to us. Typically, the belief system is very different, with different starting presuppositions than what are found in Christianity, and even different core commitments and values.  In addition, of course, many practices are “strange”—devotional practices, rites of passage, rituals and holy days, etc…