Paper on A Critical Evaluation on Robert

De Nobili Contextual Method

1. Introduction
Many foreign missionaries came to India to share and proclaim the word of God. Among those
missionaries, De Nobili was one among them to minister the people of India. Even though
many missionaries tried to minister Indian, Nobili was the first foreign missionary to India who
sacrificed himself for the Indians. Therefore, paper will be dealing about Nobilis methods of
contextualizing by exploring more which would give us vivid picture of Nobilis works and
help us to understanding better.

2. The Coming of De Nobili in India

Robert de Nobili was a Jesuit missionary in Madurai, India.1 He was famous in missionary
groups and theological study circles in India, but most of them may never hear another name
Tattua Podagar Swami. This name is well known for Tamil people at that time. Nobili
transformed his name as a teacher of truth.2 Nobili was also known as the founder of the
missions of the inner of South India.3 Robert de Nobili was born at Rome in September 1577,
of a noble family from Montepulciano.4 He joined the Society of Jesus at Naples in 1604 and
boarded at Lisbon towards India. Through society, he reached Goa, India in 1605. In 1606, he
reached Cochin,5 and after spending six months there, he left to Madurai on November 15,
1606. Madurai is called as a temple city because it has 2,359 temples.6

In those eras South India has developed forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, such as the
Saiva Siddantha and the hymns of the Alvars. When Nobili arrived at Madurai people were
fully devoted, and a society of spiritually and philosophically enriched from ages. And by that
time there was already missionaries in Madurai under Portuguese Jesuit, Father Fernandez.
Nobili was imprisoned twice in 1640 and 1641. In that period he was sent to back to Jaffina

1
M. K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity in India: Source Materials, (Bangalore: United Theological
College, 1977), 50.
2
Julius Richter, A History of Mission in India, (New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1908),
59.
3
http://www.bibliotecauniversitaria.ge.it/export/sites/bug/documenti/UetP/UxP_testi.pdf.assessed on
10th Sep.2017.
4
Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, Whos Who in Christianity, (London, New York, 1998), 70.
5
Cochin is the capital of Kerala, which is at the tail end of south India. It was one of the major trading
with Rome and Greece from around fourth century BCE.
6
Biblioteca Universitaria di genova percorsi tematici universalitas & pervasivitas il costituirsi e
diffondersi della s.j. E suoi echi (1540 - 1773) di a. Pisani
because of his health problem, he was recovered and came back to Mylapure and died on
January 16 in 1656.7

3. Nobilis Approach to the Hindu

During the era of 17th century foreign missionaries (Portuguese) who came to India had a
negative attitude and concept of Indian culture and religions. They all felt superior in ever acts
than Hindus. In the time of Portuguese, their mission was not progressive even though they
were before Nobili arrived at India. Interestingly Nobili played very important role to reach the
Hindus with the word of God.8 Nobili took a survey in a first step, and he found out one of the
basic reasons for the failure of foreign missionaries in India i.e. instead of adapting themselves
to Indian culture, they encouraged to adopt foreign culture, lifestyle. So to his surprised while
Nobili took the survey two things impressed him the most i.e. the unattractive power of caste
system, and the need for wise and patient strategy, if the fortress of Hinduism was to be capture
for Christ.9

Therefore, Nobili applied new lifestyle and adopted Hindus tradition as a mean to road to reach
them with the word of God. He used sandalwood, threading ceremony, and many of social,
traditional, but he was strictly avoided certain religious practices. He changed his manner of
living, eating practices and communication style to win them.10 Nobili started to preach the
word of God and Nobilis first convert was the high caste.11 Years later, Nobili also wrote a
book in rejecting the Hindus philosophy attuma Nirnayam and doctrine of the Hindu rebirth.12

i. The Life of Brahmin Sannyasi

Western missionaries like Fr. Goncalo Ferandez were already working in Madurai when Nobili
arrived at Madurai. But even a single soul or Hindu were not converted because of western
thought and lifestyle.13 Moreover, on the other hand the Portuguese were called Parangis. But
Nobili disassociates himself from Portuguese by saying

7
Frank K. Flinn, Encyclopedia of Catholicism, (New York: Facts on File Publishing, 2007), 225.
8
Ciril J. Kuttiyanikkal, Khrist Bhakta Movement: A Model for an Indian Church? (N.P: Tilburg
University,2014), 78.
9
Swami Dayanand Bharati, Living Water and India Bowl: AN Analysis of Christian Failings in in
Communicating Christ to Hindus With Suggestions Toward Improvements, (Pasadena, California: William Carey
Library, 1004), 19
10
http://clydeserver.com/bairdtrust/pdfs/1915/chapter06opt.pdf.assessed on 15th Sep 2017.
11
Julius Richter, A History of Mission in India, (New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company,
1908), 61-63.
12
Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India; From the Middle of Sixteenth to the End of the
Seventeenth Century (1542-1700), (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1982), 252.
13
https://www.academia.edu/23743699/A_History_of_Contextualizing_efforts_of_Robert_de_Nobili.
Assessed 15th Sep 207.
 I am not a Parangi, I was not born in the land of the Parangis, nor was even connected with
their race. God is my witness that I speak the truth and if the contrary is proved against me I am
prepared to suffer not only the punishment of hell as a traitor to God, but also to submit to any
penalty which may be inflicted upon me by the powers of the earth.14

Because Portuguese were mixed freely with the low cast, ate beef, drank wine and took Indian
wives, not bothering about cast, untouchability or other social regulations. 15 In that situation,
Nobili realized and understood that being Brahmin Sannyasi/Guru could able to teach,
influence, and motivate anyone in the society.16 Nobili was visited by high caste Hindus and he
told them that he is from royal Italian heritage as Roman raja, a member of a ruling caste that
Indians could understand. When his Hindu friends heard that he was actually a raja, they spread
the news and he was accepted.17 So Nobili constructed easy road to share the word of God.18
He learned Sanskrit and Tamil at this time and became like a native speaker. He spoke Tamil
and Sanskrit fluently and that draw the attention of local people.19

Nobili was the first European missionary to obtained knowledge of Sanskrit and read the Vedas
and the Vedanata in Hindus originals script.20 He discussed religious subject with Brahmans
attempting to explain Christian doctrines in terms of Upanishadic thought. He introduced the
Lord s Prayer as a kind of sacred formula and referred to Jesus as a true spiritual teacher
(sarguru) who opened up the way to liberation (moksha). He also started writing Christian
psalms and prayers in Tamil patterned on the Indian songs and prayers. He wore a three-
stringed thread across the chest just like Brahmins. He claimed the three-stringed yarn
represented the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, many foreign
missionaries disagreed with his approach to Hinduism.21

14
M. K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity in India: Source Materials, (Bangalore: United Theological
College, 1977), 48.
15
Augustine Kanjamala The Future of Christian Mission in India: Toward a New Paradigm for the Third
Millennium, (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Pulication, 2008), 188.
16
Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India; From the Middle of Sixteenth to the End of the
Seventeenth Century (1542-1700), (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1982), 212.
17
Todd M. Johnson, Contextualization: A New-Old Idea Illustrations from the Life of an Italian Jesuit in
17th-Century India, in International Journal of Frontier Missions. vol. 4, 12.
18
Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India; From the Middle of Sixteenth to the End of the
Seventeenth Century (1542-1700), (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1982), 212.
19
https://www.academia.edu/23743699/A_History_of_Contextualizing_efforts_of_Robert_de_Nobili.
Assessed 15th Sep 207.
20
Ciril J. Kuttiyanikkal, Khrist Bhakta Movement, 79.
21
Jan A. B. Jongeneel, Jesus Christ in World History: His Presence and Representation in Cyclical and
Linear Settings, (Peter Land: International Verlag Den Wissenschaften, 2009), 147
 ii. Adaptation of Caste System
Caste system is one of the most difficult practices in South India and that make big distinguish
between people. Especially the Bramin finds so difficult to adjust or to mingle with other
castes. Therefore to show equality to everyone Nobili accepted the caste system became a
Brahmin and used it for the conversion of people.22 For accepting Hindu practices, other
missionaries criticized Nobili, but nothing changed Nobilis passion for reaching Brahmins.
After couple of years, Nobili was able to see some converts from among Hindus. Now the
challenge before Nobili is to reaching them all, then he found a solution from Vedas itself.23

He became a guru and started recruiting his disciples into two groups and made a way for all
cast people to listen the Gospel message. One disciple group follows and shares the Gospel
with the high cast people and another group reaches low cast people. He believes that the
gospel can change their mind set and up to some extent people were changed through the word
of God as Nobili thought.24

4. Nobilis Pattern of Indian Christianity

Nobili became Sannyansi by adopting Hindu tradition but one of the major tasks in Nobilis
mind was to present Christianity in such a way that it must fit into the Indian Context.25 Nobili
was so clever to catch the Hindus, so even after converting the Hindus to Christian Nobili
allowed Indian Christian to continue with their customs and way of dressing. For example, the
bunch of hair and the sacred cotton thread which he considered culture rather than religious. In
allowing the Christian in continuing their customs is because he saw the concept of Hindus
towards western missionaries. In a meanwhile, Nobili also accepted caste system with its
discrimination and strict separation.26

As to the separation of the converts based on their castes, it was said that the pope understood
that the customs connected with the distinction of castes, are deep rooted in the ideas and habits
of Hindus. A sudden suppression, even among the Christians would hamper the growth of
Christianity. In other words, the Church found it prudent to distance itself from the caste
issue.27 The divided Christian into two groups according to their standard high cast and low

22
https://www.academia.edu/23743699/A_History_of_Contextualizing_efforts_of_Robert_de_Nobili.
Assessed 15th Sep 207.
23
www.academia.edu/4363932/Research_Paper_Robert_De_Nobili
24
https://www.academia.edu/23743699/A_History_of_Contextualizing_efforts_of_Robert_de_Nobili.
Assessed 15th Sep 207.
25
Antonysamy Sagayaraj, Christian in India: A Focus on Inculturation, (Np:
26
Stephen B. Bevans, Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Contexts: A Theology of Mission for Today,
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books Published, 2004), 189.
27
https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/roberto-de-nobili/ Assessed on 16th Sep 2107.
cast. Nobili also opened a school of catechism and slowly started introducing Christian
theology. He then built a church and presbytery on a site granted to him by a cousin of the king
of Madurai.28 According to one of his follower Balthasar Da Costa records that throughout his
fifty years of work he was able to convert 30, 000 thousand people. And among them, there
were few Brahmins and other high cast and rest of them were from the low caste.29

5. Critical Analytical
Nobili did amazing job in sharing the gospel to Hindus. Nobili saw the need of India and he
tried his best. Nobili applied an indigenous method of contextualizing the word of God of with
the people. His main concern was to evangelize the people and let them believe in Jesus as
savior, however on the other he really wanted people to stay back in their own culture even
after accepting Christ. Nobili was the greatest foreign missionary to India in his century. Nobili
had a passion to transformed India with the word of God. Nobili applied new methods of
accommodating Hindu traditions which was much more powerful mean to reach out the high
caste and other castes too. It made an impact to people mind to accept Jesus Christ. And since
Nobili didnt stop to continue their genuine tradition or customs they never felt Christianity as a
western religion which imposes European lifestyle. Thought many of the missionaries find
difficult to do mission work among the Hindus, for Nobili, he could easily mingle with the
Hindus and proclaimed the good news. I felt good enough to his notion, because missionaries
or ministers of God should give impact in the life of the local people.

As a minster, we need to find out the better way for the people to present the gospel to the
people whom we are working. Nobili, found out the needs of the local people and that make
easy path to moved forward to share about Christ with them. Nobili sacrificed all his foreign
attitude or mindset and took the privilege to learn new environment to reaching the Hindus with
the word of God. He even learned Sanskrit and Hindus Vedas and that helped him to reach
even the Hindu high caste. He became Sannyassi, and lived and dressed like a purely
Sannyassi. Up to here I agree with Nobili methods that he applied in spreading.

The negative aspect of Nobilis contextualized approach is he himself failed to recognize some
of the evil social practices.

28
Sridhar Anne, A History of Contextualizing efforts of Robert De Nobili, March 6,
2016/https://www.academia.edu/23743699. Assessed on 15th Sep 2017.
29
https://www.academia.edu/4363932/Research_Paper_Robert_De_Nobili. Assessed on 15th Sep 2017.
He also claimed the three-stringed yarn represented the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit. But, in my limited knowledge I find hard to accept of his notion because the
reason is we cant compare or give the Holy Trinity to anything we wish.

Nobili accepted caste system and allowed it to entertain inside the Church. As a result,
discrimination remains throughout the centuries; and even today there is discrimination inside
the church. Caste system is the most evil practices in Indian society, and Nobili has given a
very negative understanding and an example by accepting caste system during his time. In
Pauls letter to Galatian we read even one is one in Christ neither Jews nor Gentiles (Gal 3:28).
But Nobili failed that. In the result of that even todays Christian continuing the same evil
practice. I should say because of this concept many lately Christians (from low caste) are
struggling for discrimination.

Another disadvantage is Nobili failed to recognize the significance of Holistic Mission. We

could see a great example from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ according to gospel Luke
4:16-30. Missionary is not all about propagating the good news, but also giving enough care to
the people. And we have seen from Jesus whenever He sees or encounter people He moved
with the compassion. It is very crystal that gospel includes holistic mission. What Nobili
thought was that the major task of missionary is to convert people to Christ. Therefore he gave
emphasis only on converting people and he has given wrong concept. But he was wrong in that.
I think there no greater example than our Lord Jesus himself who kept holistic understanding
wherever he encountered people. Missionaries/Christian should too have feeling for the people
as like Jesus did. We should be transformed the people and be social reformer through the word
of God.

Apart from the negative areas, I could strongly say, Nobilis contextualization method is very
much relevant even present scenario to reach out the unreached.

6. Conclusion
As we have seen the above discussion very vividly that Nobilis strategies in reaching is
unquiet. Robert de Nobili was a great missionary in the era, who kept himself in a shoe of
Indian and looked through Indian view. Nobili, became like Guru/Saanyassi and studied and
had a thorough understanding of Hinduism to won and to present Christ in Indian style. Nobili
accommodated Indian culture, practices, beliefs, religions which causes him to win others trust
and make friendship. He had contributed many good things towards Indian Christian, and set an
example to the missionaries by adopting Indian tradition. In a meanwhile we have also seen
disadvantages of his contextualization where he accepted the caste system by dividing the
believers according to their caste. He neglected of giving enough care towards the people.
Proclaiming the gospel is not all about converting people to Christ but also showing
compassion or empathy to them as Christ did.

Bibliography

Bevans, Stephen B. Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Contexts: A Theology of Mission for

Today. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books Published, 2004.

Bharati, Swami Dayanand, Living Water and India Bowl: AN Analysis of Christian Failings
in in Communicating Christ to Hindus With Suggestions Toward Improvements.
Pasadena, California: William Carey Library, 1004.

Flinn, Frank K. Encyclopedia of Catholicism. New York: Facts on File Publishing, 2007.

Johnson, Todd M. Contextualization: A New-Old Idea Illustrations from the Life of an Italian
Jesuit in 17th-Century India, in International Journal of Frontier Missions. vol. 4, 12.

Jongeneel, Jan A. B., Jesus Christ in World History: His Presence and Representation in
Cyclical and Linear Settings. Peter Land: International Verlag Den Wissenschaften,
2009.

Kanjamala, Augustine. The Future of Christian Mission in India: Toward a New Paradigm
for the Third Millennium. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Pulication, 2008.

Kuriakose, M. K. History of Christianity in India: Source Materials. Bangalore: United

Theological College, 1977.

Kuttiyanikkal, Ciril J. Khrist Bhakta Movement: A Model for an Indian Church? N.P: Tilburg
University,2014.

Richter, Julius. A History of Mission in India. New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1908.
Sherbok, Lavinia Cohn, Whos Who in Christianity. London, New York, 1998.

Richter, Julius, A History of Mission in India. New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1908.

Thekkedath, Joseph. History of Christianity in India; From the Middle of Sixteenth to the End
of the Seventeenth Century (1542-1700). Bangalore: Theological Publications in India,
1982.

Sagayaraj, Antonysamy. Christian in India: A Focus on Inculturation. Np:

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