Retail Christianity? Since when? Don’t get me wrong. No one is attempting to put Christianity in a retail shop. Retail Christianity, as intended here, has nothing to do with the mix of religion and the market economy as excellently lived out by the pastorpreneur par excellence, Robert Schuller. It is rather taken as an off-shoot of Retail Religion: The Future of Faith, which is the title of an interesting programme by the media mogul, Chude Jideonwo (#WithChude), involving a series of Instagram conversations with different individuals on the topic of religion and Christian faith. The variety of guests include Catholic and Pentecostal clerics, a Muslim scholar, an atheist, and a life coach. The programme, which was later aired on many TV stations in Nigeria and across Africa, grappled with the subject matter of faith and life conversations that came up during the COVID-19 lockdown. For Chude, the over-riding interest is to explore “religion and spirituality from the inside out — what we believe, how we express it and, the difference it makes in our lives.”  And thus, in the context of the COVID-19 experience, the conversations on Retail Religion’s The Future of Faith were aimed at exploring “what faith means for people in times like this, and how it could change the future of many religious communities and their practices.” Yet, he does not fail to pay attention to the idea of ‘Retail Christianity’ that functions, in a way, as a sub-topic to the general ‘Retail Religion’. In his ‘Retail Christianity’ blog hosted on medium.com, Chude provides a scriptural background to ‘Retail Christianity’ by referencing Romans 14: 1-13. He summarizes his idea of ‘Retail Christianity’ in a rather colloquial way: “do your own, and let another do his or hers.” He further adds, “All of you, with different styles, approaches, traditions, outreaches, beliefs, symbols, practices, revelations … whatever makes you feel good about your faith. But God? God is focused only on the heart.” I do not intend to discuss the outcome of the rich conversations in order not to subtract from their originality, but the fundamental idea of tolerance in the practice of faith that underlies Chude’s programme is quite important. It is this tolerance that lies at the heart of the religious maturity of mystics and contemplatives of the different world religions.

I think that Chude’s Retail Christianity speaks much more than a series of Instagram conversations on religion, Christian faith and life. On a critical note, Retail Christianity sounds a bit more like the popular ‘Cafeteria Christianity/Catholicism’ which in most scholarly circles is construed as a consequence of secularization with its effect of fragmentation and privatization of religion. What this means is that with the breakdown of what would have been some sort of universal values (otherwise called ‘meta-narratives’), people can now make the choices of what they want. Within Catholicism or any other Christian church, it implies that they can choose one doctrine and not the other. They can believe in the resurrection and reject the Immaculate Conception of Mary. They can accept the teaching of the church on euthanasia but reject the teaching on abortion. You know how it works when you enter the cafeteria!

In Retail Christianity, if it is to function as a cafeteria-like Christianity, then it is a matter of choosing one or two elements of Christianity over others. It may even come as the choice of combining denominations – some sort of con-denominationality. Perhaps, we are seeing the rise of multi-denominational Christians. A solemn Eucharist may be celebrated in the Catholic Church and a better preaching in a nearby Pentecostal church, while the feel-good Gospel music vibes could be accessed in another Christian Ministry down the road. Is this the right thing to do? I do not think so. But is this scenario an increasing reality? I think so. What could be the cause? I have no clear answer, but the probable explanation could be found in Robert Wuthnow’s analysis in his After Heaven where he argues that “the character of spirituality appears to be changing”, particularly among the millennials. According to Wuthnow, there is an increasing shift from the “traditional spirituality of inhabiting sacred places” (dwellers) to “a new spirituality of seeking” (seekers). One does not advocate for the idea of ‘habitation’ against ‘negotiation’ or vice versa, since both are equally important. What is perhaps a better idea is to hold both expressions of spiritual quest in a fruitful tension, whereby religious communities transform themselves into spaces for both habitation and negotiation, that is, places where one experiences the spiritual security that is provided by a believing community and a constantly renewed faith in the beauty of its different expressions.

Back to Chude’s Retail Christianity. I think that Chude’s focus on the validity of multiple faith expressions, provided it does not approve of heresies and abuses, helps us to a) better understand our faith, and b) deploy our Christian faith and spirituality for the common good. The idea is not to promote any form of syncretism but to respect the differences in the way we live out faith. If God ‘focuses only on the heart’, the questions remain: How good, pure, loving and forgiving is my heart becoming as I live out my faith? How accommodating has my heart grown ever since I received Christ? Is my heart increasingly becoming as compassionate as that of the Good Samaritan or indifferent as that of the passers-by? If we can come to the point where each, in his or her own way, is filled with the spirit of God’s love for-, joy at-, and glorification of one another, then we would find it easier to share in one another’s spiritual journey, fruits and traditions (true inter-denominationality); we might begin to have genuine spiritual communion (communicatio in sacris), gradually, up till the ultimate common Eucharistic communion. This, I strongly believe, is the will of God for us in Christ (cf. Jn.17:21).