This week (February 1-7, 2026) marks World Interfaith Harmony Week. As such, I wanted to briefly explore my own interfaith journey and why I think tai chi is an excellent vehicle for such explorations.
Overview of Faith and Tai Chi
I began practicing tai chi when I was 12 years old. While I have changed the style of tai chi I practice during that time, the practice of tai chi has been a constant over nearly 22 years. During that same time I have gone from having a childish version of Christian faith to agnosticism, to Wicca, and finally to a more mature understanding of Christianity.
Today, I am Christian, an active member of my local church with a Master’s of Theological Studies. I practice intentional syncretism, integrating beliefs and practices from Wicca and Taoism that I find compelling and complement my Christian faith praxis.
Historical Contexts: Christianity, Tai Chi, and Me
Syncretism has a bad reputation in many Christian theological circles. I am, however, wary of this. The works of Ally Katuesz, Christine Schenk, and Wes Howard-Brook do an excellent job of revealing the diversity within the first millennium of Christianity, and how the institutional leadership often differs from the lived faith of the laity. On the level of laity and local congregations there was far more fusion of Christian faith beliefs and practices with other cultural and religious-spiritual influences.
The reality in twenty-first century Christianity is also highly syncretic. One needs merely attend worship at a denomination they were not raised in to see significant cultural differences that signify the interchange between faith praxis and socio-cultural influences. Indeed, even within the same denomination, the culture of one congregation can differ significantly from another.
I do not see this as a problem in and of itself. What concerns me is when syncretism is portrayed as problematic or dangerous. This portrayal of syncretism can lead to cultural blind-spots and claims to a “pure” faith. These blind-spots and appeals to purity have tragically led to abuses of power and privilege in the past, and continue to do so in the present. Being aware of the reality of syncretism is thus an important step to developing healthy communities of faith.
In the Chinese context from which taijiquan developed, the dynamic of syncretism is more readily apparent. The three religious/spiritual systems of Daosim, Confucianism, and Buddhism have influenced Chinese culture and belief for millennia. At different times, various regimes have favoured each of these traditions and condemned others; at the level of lived faith praxis, all three have been honoured and integrated simultaneously. Indeed, Buddhism in China developed into Chan/Zen Buddhism out of the interchange with the indigenous Daoist beliefs and practices. The visibility of integration may be in part because, lacking the exclusive nature of monotheism, the three are more free to be integrated-but denying the integration that does likewise take place in monotheistic faiths is a mistake.
I have friends and family ranging from anti-religious to evangelical fundamentalists Christians. My own entrance to Christianity was heavily influenced by the campus ministry’s context as part of the Multi-Faith Resource Team. Personally, I began participating in the life of campus ministry as a Wiccan, only later being led to Christianity by the Divine. It was and is important to me to be open to what Krister Stendal termed “holy envy”-being able to learn from, and appreciate diverse traditions both from within Christianity and from other faith beliefs and practices.
The Case for Intentional Syncretism
The work of Grace Ji-Sun Kim on the similarities between chi and Holy Spirit have been immensely helpful in developing a theological framework for the intentional syncretism. Kim’s collaboration with Susan M. Shaw on intersectional theology has served as both inspiration and guide in this process as well.
When I hear objections to syncretism in Christian theological circles, I find the objections often assume an unintentional, unexamined syncretism where faith beliefs and practices are thrown together from various sources on a whim. I share this concern, albeit perhaps not as strongly. Especially within Christian mysticism, there can be a form of syncretism that overemphasizes similarities and ignores differences with the result lacking substance at best, and being actively dangerous at worst.
By contrast, intentional syncretism remains rooted in one’s own faith tradition while incorporating beliefs and practices which one finds compelling and which are both compatible and complementary to own’s existing faith praxis. This does require a good understanding of the context of the beliefs and practices one is incorporating. It also requires the cultivation of self-awareness and discernment to ensure the incorporated beliefs and practices are of benefit to one’s life and actions, rather than leading to an increase of harm to oneself and others.
From my Christian theological context, I draw inspiration and guidance from the Holy Spirit aspect of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is especially fitting for interfaith collaborations and learnings, and for the practice of intentional syncretism, as the Spirit provides ongoing guidance and support. The Spirit also has the most precedent for breaking down boundaries and rules, and drawing the circle of God’s love and inspiration wider. The Spirit also lends itself particularly well to panentheistic experiences of the Divine. Spirit shares etymological roots with breath so in a certain sense God’s breath can be understood be in and between everything and everyone. This understanding can help one to be open to Divine wisdom wherever and in whomever one may encounter it.
Case Study: Taijiquan And Interfaith Harmony
My own intentional syncretism has led me to place where I am a Christian who intentionally integrates the practice of witchcraft (understood as influencing the life force through the intentional exercise of will) from Wicca and taijiquan from (primarily) Daoism. Both practices have contributed to my Christian faith development and have manifested much good fruit in my life and lives of others.
I will focus on taijiquan for our purposes here, because it is more standardized than the practice of witchcraft, it has more traceable theological roots, and it has less pre-existing conceptions attached.
Taijiquan has strong influences from Daoism and Confucianism. The Daoist contributions include the presumed existence of qi, and specific practices to cultivate the accumulation of qi in the body, and the flow of qi throughout one’s body. The term taiji itself refers to the dynamic interchange yin and yang energies upon which the entire combat system of taijiquan rests. Taijiquan strategically and intentionally uses alterations between hard and soft, substantial and insubstantial to retain one’s own balance while capitalizing on the imbalance of one’s opponent. The taijiquan practitioner thus embodies principles articulated in the Daodejing such as the soft overcomes the hard, water’s ability to overcome stone, and the primacy of spontaenous action. The Confucianist contribution includes an emphasis on the development of wude (martial virtue), which includes principles and norms between taijiquan practitioners and between students and their teachers. It also encompasses standards of behaviour and ethics of practice such as those outlined in the Chen Family Law, expected to be observed by Chen style taijiquan practitioners.
While taijiquan is influenced by these religious/spiritual beliefs and practices, one is not required to be Daoist, Confucianist or any other religious/spiritual practitioner to practice taijiquan. As such, it is a practice that is open to people of all faith backgrounds and therein lies its utility for interfaith harmony.
Practicing taijiquan as a white Canadian of European descent, required me to develop and cultivate a comfort with concepts like qi, and yin and yang that defy binary/duality thinking and ways of knowing built on deductive logic. My ability to learn from diverse theological and cultural perspectives was thus cultivated and increased. I found this helpful in navigating Christian communities when they were new to me. I continue to find this helpful in collaborating with interfaith and ecumenical partners. I also found the concepts in taijiquan far closer to the beliefs and practices of the ancient Israelites and early Christian communities than my current Western twenty-first century context which helped immensely in my Bible studies courses during my Master’s of Theological Studies education.
Even those from within cultures where a concept of chi is commonplace would benefit from taijiquan as the concept of qi in taijiquan differs in subtle ways from the concept of qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine practice. I suspect this means that whether one refers to it as chi, qi, or ki, there can be subtle differences in how it is understood and applied depending on the culture or location therein.
My taijiquan practice has enriched my Christian beliefs and improved my Christian faith praxis. It has increased my physical literacy as well as my religious/spiritual literacy, and has equipped me for interfaith and ecumenical endeavours.
If you are interested, I highly recommend trying taijiquan to see whether it likewise helps you.
Further Resources
If you want to explore some of the concepts mentioned herein, and interfaith harmony more generally, here are a few resources I’d recommend:
Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity by Christine Schenk
Empire Baptized: How the Church Embraced What Jesus Rejected, 2nd-5th Centuries by Wes Howard-Brook
Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor
Intersectional Theology: An Introductory Guide by Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw
Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership by Ally Kateusz
The Holy Spirit, Chi, and Other: A Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology by Grace Ji-Sun Kim
The Dreamers' Corner 