Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Indian Christian theology started in 19th century and called as the Thommistic Christians.
From there the Christianity has started, though there are many religions and culture in India.
Indian Christian Theology is on the process of evolving among these religions. This
developing theology has made significant contributions to Indian Christian Theology. It has
foundation from the West and reassembles Christianity in the Cultural context of India. It has
focused on the realization of God with Indian background. Christian theology is to address to
the life-contexts of the people and socio-political situations existing in our country. It has
made effort to be contextual in attending to the problems in our society. In this way
discovering God through the suffering and working for their liberation in our context.
Our early Christian community converted from Hindu tradition to the Christian culture.
Though people converted to Christianity people brought the caste into Christianity because of
that it was not developed. There is disciple and guru system in Indian for educational system.
The liturgy played vital role to form the Christianity in the early days. From there foreign
missionaries developed the Christian community by adopting Indian situation to culture and
language by promoting Indian Christian theology.
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Fr.P.Johanns and the Calcutta School
The protagonists group was pioneering venture to study Hinduism in depth so as to
meaningfully relate it to Christianity. They tried to effect a rapprochement between Hinduism
and Christianity, at doctrinal level, which took the concrete form of monthly publication
called “The Light of the East.” The goal of this publication was to help India to know and
understand Jesus. Not to put out the existing lights. Rather we shall try to show that the best
thought of the East is a bud that fully expanded blossom into Christian thought. Fr.Johann’s
through his writings he contributed regularly to the Light of East under the general theme: To
Christ through the Vedanta. He attempted to show a parallel between Thomastic ideas and the
views found in the Vedantic systems. He carries the credit of developing deep into the
Vedanta and fro reinforcing the idea that it contains truths and that it can lead us to Christ.
Christ and Christianity were shown by him as fulfillment of Vedanta.
Bede argues that the Saccidananda experience is parallel to the mystery of the Trinity.
According to Bede, the Hindu Advaitic experience ends with the realization of the one and
with identity with the One (I am Brahman). Whereas, the Christian experience of the Trinity
does not stop with the experience of identity and unity, rather it goes beyond. It breaks
through the identity, oneness and comes out as relation/communion and as love in a unity that
is differentiated. Cosmic revelation or covenant is the experience of the primordial presence
of the Divine in the world and within one’s inner self. To this primordial manifestation of the
Divine belong, in the Hebrew tradition, figures like Adam, Noah, and Melchizedek. In
Hinduism, this cosmic revelation in its exterior aspect is expressed in Vedic tradition, and in
its interior aspect in the Upanishads. This divine presence is a continuous and never ending
presence like the dance of Shiva. Each tradition is unique in its own way be it Christian,
Hinduism or Buddhism.
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Theology in a New Socio-Political Context
Theology has taken shape in the Indian socio-political context today; the motivation of
missionaries to save souls from domination by administering baptism and make them
members of the church. Hindus thought that Christians were aliens in India because the rule
of British. Christians responded to this nation building as developmental work for the society.
In the base of contextual theology we could see everything in the light of faith and
experience. The representatives of these two trends of Indian theology are known as
“Ashramites” and “Liberationists”. The future shape of Indian Theology will depend very
much on the way the religio-cultural and socio-political strands of thought.
RAIMUNDO PANIKKAR
Inter-Religious Relationships
Panikkar has set exercises a lot of influence on today’s Indian theological reflection in the
areas of Christology, inter-religious dialogue, hermeneutics etc. According to Panikkar, each
religion is a universe of myth (mythos), and is an organic whole by itself. Like a language, it
has its own structure, dynamism, and growth. Religions exist side by side with their own
autonomy. The diversity of religions is the manifestation of the great depth of reality. He sees
the relationship among the religions as relationship among myths. He calls this wider dialogue
as “ecumenical ecumenism” in contrast to “ecumenism” spoken in the Christian Churches.
The dialogue among the followers of various faiths should be a “dialogical dialogue” to enter
into the level of the mythos of the other. This dialogue will take the form of testimony rather
than discussion. The inter-religious dialogue which takes the form of testimony is bound to
lead to a truly “intra-religious-dialogue”. Influence, transformation and dialogue are
generated in a particular religious tradition when the presence of another religious tradition is
recognized and seriously taken into account.
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The mystery of Christ
It is against this background of the unity of all reality pluralism and dialogue among
religions, that Panikkar understands and interprets the mystery of Trinity and Christ. Panikkar
sees in the mystery of the trinity the paradigm of the very texture of reality which is radical
relativity.Panikkar understands Christ as the symbol of the Cosmotheandric reality.
Christophany: Christ, then, is the symbol of totality of reality. If such is the case that in
Christ the totality of reality manifests itself, then, what we have is nothing but a Christophany.
By a deep experience of reality, we then also experience Christ. This Christ transcends all
barriers of religions, history, temporality, etc. In this way Panikkar wants to open a space for a
meaningful dialogue and encounter with other religious traditions.
MICHAEL AMALADOSS
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Kappen states that the Divine can be encountered either as a gift in the true experience of
love, truth, fellowship, etc., or as a challenge or a call mediated through the historical situation
in which we find ourselves. The manifestation of the Divine is mediated through history and
the human response to it takes place continuously, and that is what he calls theandric praxis.
For him theology is a reflection on this praxis.
George M. Sores-Prabhu
Soares-Prabhu was the most influential Biblical scholar in India. His reading and
interpretation of the Bible starting from the Indian situation, characterized by massive poverty
and oppression, distinguished him from others. His interpretation of the Bible was very
scholarly, very relevant and at the same time faithful to its message. A religious reading will
apply the traditional method of Indian exegesis to the biblical text and transpose its Greek and
Hebrew symbols into Indian ones without destroying the social concern which is an essential
part of the Bible’s message. A social reading will read the Bible in the light of a liberating
praxis among the socially without succumbing to the sociological reductionism of the strictly
Marxist approach.
For him reflection for Jesus and his message have clear Indian dent which from his
rootedness in Indian history, culture, and tradition. He brings insights from the Indian religio-
cultural tradition and dealt with Indian approach to history. For him, history is to be able to
understand both the biblical and Indian approach to history. Why he is concerned about
history is because he is convinced that history is about the human. For him history is to be
described in terms of the value and should make man as human. But it is not as the way of
domination, conquest or violence, exploitation. Church–Imitates Christ: For him ecclesiology
is the outcome of basic faith in the human person, and interpretation of Jesus and reading of
history. For him the task of the church is the same as that of Jesus: to be solidarity with
marginalized, to champion a new social order and to participate in the struggles for liberation
so that bread, freedom, justice and equality may be accessible to all children. In order to do
that, the church, like Him, must be truly enfleshed; it must become the flesh of India’s flesh.
He also gives much importance to witnessing through praxis that can make the church
credible as a herald of good news in India.
Conclusion
There are multi religion and culture in Indian. The Christianity is considered as the
foreign religion because Christianity has the unique way of worship God which is not
appropriate Indian soil. That is why any effort to build up a new humanity of freedom,
fellowship and justice in India has to take into account the fact of religious pluralism and
seriously examine whether it can be only an obstacle to be overcome. The author proposes
the interculturation where the dialogue between religions to understand better and respect,
know each other. This provokes new insights in the ongoing reflection on faith-experience.
The relationship between religion and society tends to slip into an enquiry into the
relationship between the church (institutional religion) and the state (institutional society).
This is the attempt to understand the role of religion in society ant its relationship to other
realities like culture, ideology, society and politics. The experience of pluralism and especially
the impact of it in the society are considered as a process of transformation toward great
justice. The myths seek to explain all phenomena interms of symbols and spirits. The whole
cosmos is seen as a unity. The growth of science has progressively replaced the simpler
explanations offered by cosmic myths.
The process of secularization has further strengthened this distinction between culture
and religion. Secularization has led to a greater differentiation between the various elements
that constitute society. The people are distancing themselves from institutional religion or
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choosing to live at superficial levels is no indications that they ignore this ultimate ground as
the basis of values.
Religion must also keep its transcendence in order to remain inspirational, prophetic and
eschatological. Religion needs to be inculturated in order to be relevant and effective. The
phenomenon of secularization has deprived religion of its claim to be a universal meaning
system. Vatican Council II also acknowledges this concept. In spite of forming various
fundamental movements, the religions must aim at becoming more personal, conscious project
and because it has to do with the ultimate meaning of life, it should have public impact.
Amaladoss says that religion must serve the interests of society. One cannot exist
without the other. Moreover, a secular state cannot really survive effectively unless the society
also becomes secular, with an awareness of itself as a multi-religious society. Society that is
committed to liberation the role of religion is one of providing inspiration, prophecy,
challenge, and hope in terms of the ultimate. In a multi-religious society the various religions
play this role together, that is, believers must not be satisfied in rooting themselves and in
being challenged by their own religion. They must seek in dialogue to provide a common
religious grounding that would inspire collectively the community committed to liberation.
It would be easy to understand that other religions too belong in some way to the
realization of God’s kingdom in this world. In seeking to establish this kingdom on earth, we
are called to collaborate with other believers and all people of goodwill. All of us are called to
conversion. All of us are called to confess our sins. All of us are called to be open to
enrichment by others. All of us are called to a common commitment. We are not here talking
of interreligious dialogue leading to the enrichment of each other’s faith, but we are asking for
a common action in the pursuit of justice and fullness for all human beings. We are called to
do this without in any way being disloyal to our faith.
Hence, interreligious dialogue does not only confine to the religious sphere but also must
embrace all dimensions of life: economic, sociopolitical, cultural and religious. In this way,
we can discover the complementarity, the urgency and the relevance of dialogue among the
common people in daily life as among scholars and people with deep religious experience. .
Thus each religious tradition may stand as unique agent of transformation.