Antioch Biblical Seminary and College

MASTER OF Divinity
Professor: Eslish Bhuyan (M.Th, (Ph.D)….)
Course outline
I. Introduction
a. What Is Indian Christian Theology
b. Nature of Indian Christian theology
c. Purpose and Necessity of Indian Christian Theology
II. Methodological Issue in Christian Theologies in India
III. Indian Renascent Engagement with the Gospel of Christ
Raja Rammohan Roy, Kehub C. Sen, Vivekananda,
IV. Theological and Praxiological Expressions of Hindu Converts
Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, Nehemiah Goreh,
V. Missionary Constructions of Indian Christian Theology
Robert De Nobili, J.N. Farquar,
VI. Christian Life as Bhakti Marga and Contemplation
Sadhu Sunder Singh, A.J. Apasamy
VII. Christian Response to Freedom Movement and Nation Building
P.D. Devanandan, P. Chenchiah, V. Chakkarai and M.M Thomas
VIII. Intra And Inter-Faith Dialogue: Towards A Community of
Communities
Abhishiktananda
 INTRODUCTION
A. What Is Indian Christian Theology
 It is from Indian perspective and philosophy
 It is from Indian context or philosophers and Thinkers
 It has developed within Indian culture wherein a concern for the
inwardness of one's own spiritual life and a concern for the
outward development of the nation were both living issues.
Indian Christian theology has developed in a number of different
directions (two direction or concern)
 inwardness and spirituality
 for the outward world and its future
 Both these concerns have been mirrored in modern Hinduism.
 to transmit to modern India the deep spirituality of classical Indian
religion
 to reinterpret Hindu doctrines in the light of the context of modern
India.
 To contextualize the Gospel in India,.
 To bring new humanity.
 B. NATURE OF INDIAN CHRISTIAN
THEOLOGY
• The attempt to reformulate biblical theology in Indian categories
of though.
• Western theology has dominated the Indian theological scene,
and Christianity has come under criticism from Hindu thinkers in
this regard.
• Criticism came that Christianity is a foreign and dangerous
denationalizing force.
• Indian theology were not Christians but enlightened Hindus who
came under the strong influence of Western thought and
Christianity.
• It represents a search for and an expression of self-identity in India
• it stands for the concern of Indian theologians to communicate
the gospel in thought patterns familiar to the Indian mind
• to present "the water of life in an Indian cup.― example: steel
glass/copper glass
 C. PURPOSE AND NECESSITY OF
INDIAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
• evolving theology among Indian religions.
• It has founded from the West and reassembles
Christianity in the Cultural context of India.
• It has focused on the realization of God with Indian
background.
• 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.
• To discover God through the suffering and working
for their liberation in our context.
MORE REASON FOR INDIAN CHRISTIAN
THEOLOGY
1) to harmonize Christianity: Raja ram Mohan Roy (1772 -
1833), Keshab Chandra Sen.
• They interpreted Jesus in Indian traditions. Jesus is
portrayed (revealed) as an Asiatic from (monastic
background.) His ethical precepts, independent of his
person, provide the way to happiness and peace.
(2) There is concern for dialogue:
• To share uniqueness of Christ in other religion.
• God speaks equally through other religions also. P D
Devanandan and Raymond Panikkar's theologies
emerge in this context of religio-cultural pluralism.
• They advocate letting Christ reform Hinduism from within
and so unveil the Christ who is already present there,
though hidden and unacknowledged.
(3) There is frequently a polemic (bold) emphasis:
• God's special revelation is essential for knowing the
truth, and Jesus is the divine special revelation.
• To share that God‘s revelation is everywhere.
(4) There is an apologetic emphasis:
• To depend Christian faith in Indian context and relating
them.
• Christianity is treated as one of the earlier stages in the
evolution of religion.
• Brahmabandab Upadhyaya's: He reformulated the
doctrine of Trinity in which he portrayed Christ as
"nothing but the highest." He was a Hindu Catholic, i.e.,
and at heart of Christian, yet culturally a Hindu.
• Christ is made one among those who experienced the
advaitic (monistic) experience.
(5) There is concern for evangelism.
• Jesus Christ is not a monopoly of the West
• He is equally for India too. There he is to be
presented not in Western robes and image, but in
terms and thought - forms intelligible to the Indian
mind.
• Sadhu Sunder Singh's Christocentric theology is a
conscious attempt toward this.
(6) One finds emphasis on relevancy:
• Indian theologians want to erase (remove) the
ghetto (racism) mentality of the minority Christians.
• to help Christians see themselves as an integral
(basic) part of the larger community in India and
participate in the common life and experience.
• The struggles for socioeconomic development and
humanization are seen as "Christ at work today."
(M. M Thomas )
 II. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUE IN
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIES IN INDIA
• 1960s marked a methodological shift in theology, specially India context.
• It is a shift from Theology from above to Theology from below.
• In this theological approach the basis of theological reflection is not the
abstract realities used by scholastic theology but rather the realities of
human life.
• Migliore, in his theology define as a ―Faith seeking understanding‖ but not
like Anselm (above oriented). His define from ―below.‖ with the ―historical
Jesus‖ and his ministry in first century Palestine that how Jesus was with
people and for people.
• He proclaimed the near advent of God‘s kingdom of Justice and freedom,
who blessed the poor, forgave sinners, had table fellowship with the
outcaste, befriended with women. So from this aspect we can understand
God that who is he/what is he…
• the God revealed and made present by Jesus enters in to solidarity with the
poor.‖
• this theological paradigm is the insistence and stress of involvement in the
world and in human affairs.
• It is a same theology (from below) that has led to such theological
movements like liberation theology and concepts like solidarity with the
suffering and preferential option for the poor.
• ‗theology from below‘ is also Latin American liberation theology.
• Gustavo Gutierez, Jon Sobrino, Leonardo Boff, J.M. Bonino, and Juan Luis
Segundo. According to these theologians, Christology cannot be done in a
vacuum. He cannot be removed because he reveal himself among human
being.
• Therefore, methodology issue is sifting of methodology from western to Indian
context.
• It is issue because theologian have struggle to set theology in Indian mind.
Theology or Christian thought was like western thought and ideology. It was
like alien ideology.
• Ultimately theologian took in the form of indianess and image. So
methodology was developed from Indian context, ideology and philosophy
Methodology of Indian Christian theology
• to create a relevant Indian Christian theology which is praxis oriented, and
which can transform India to make us genuine Indians and authentic
Christians.
• There are eight stages in the methodology: pramanas, Anubhava, Immersion,
Suspicion, Evolution, Action, Collaboration and Transformation.
1. Pramanas: it is a Indian philosophy, in western philosophy known as a
epistemology. It means 'knowledge', or concerned with knowledge.
• It is a study the nature of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of
belief, and various related issues. Going into the knowledge deeply and getting
understand. Deeply going into one object…
• Epistemology is called pramāṇa. It is a Hindu philosophy. Pramana, right
knowledge, knowledge which cannot be falsified.
• it has been a key, much debated field of study in Hinduism since ancient times.
Pramāṇa is a hindu theory of knowledge and discusses the valid means by which
human beings can gain accurate knowledge.
• The focus of pramāṇa is how correct knowledge can be acquired, how one
knows, how one doesn't, and to what extent knowledge pertinent/relevant
about someone or something can be acquired.
• Each school of Hindu thought accepted a set of pramanas as the true
foundation for right knowledge. They are six schools/ thought/ in Indian
philosophy so they accepted pramana as a true knowledge.
• The rest of the schools, namely Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimansa
and Vedanta schools.
1. Pratyakṣa:- Direct perception, which comes through sense experience.
2. Anumāṇa:- Inference or indirect perception (logic, also called yukti)
3. Upamāṇa:- Comparison and analogy
4. Arthāpatti:- Postulation, derivation from circumstances. (implication other than
logical)
5. Anupalabdi:- Non-perception, absence of proof
6. Shabda:- Word, testimony of past or present reliable expert
• Vedas were accepted as the true and infallible pramana.
• A.J. Appasamy (whose thought we will study later) who first called attention to the
primary task of theology: to establish its pramanas, as Hindu thought does. Hindu
thought usually develops in three steps:
1) What do the Vedas say on the point at issue
2) Can it be logically demonstrated
3) Does it tally (note) with human experience
• It is most heartening to see that the Indian Christian theologians, all but three, give
to the Bible the first place as authority.
• Chenchiah, gives first place to anubhava (experience).
• Sadhu Sunder Singh gives great importance of his mystical experiences ―a
revelation which I have received in ecstasy is worth more to me than all the
traditional Church teaching‖. it is safe to say that he still places all his experiences
under the authority of the Bible, though above the Church tradition.
• Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya and Raymondo Panikkar, both of whom give first
place to the teaching of the Church. But both of them are Roman Catholics, so
their approach is quite understandable.
2. Anubhava: In the Hindu philosophical traditions, anubhava (experience) plays a
significant part in epistemology.
• significance of experience, Indian theologians have argued for ‗the primacy of
experience based on the story of Jesus Christ and the Indian realities as a source
for theology.
• Friedrich Schleiermacher, father of modern Protestant theology, introduced
experience as the basis of theology, while recognizing Scripture, the witness to
originating Christian consciousness, as its source. A form of God‐consciousness
that mediated to Christian community.
• P. Chenchiah, insists on one‘s direct experience of Christ as gaining priority
over the Scriptures or tradition.
• . For him, ―the central fact of the Christianity thus consists in the believer
coming into a direct experiential touch with Christ; we must have anubhava
of the living Christ.‖
• There can be no Christianity without this fundamental experience.
• Abhishiktananda, Raymond Panikkar and other Roman Catholic
theologians of India, one can discover the same emphasis on experience
based on the Christian story and the realities.
• More recently, the idea of experience, in developing a theology for India, is
related more closely with the experience of the poverty, oppression (Dalits),
multi‐religious and multicultural contexts than with the Christian story of Jesus
and the Gospel.
3. Immersion: the first step in the methodology of developing a theology for
India. It means to live among people in their daily life situation in order to have
a first-hand knowledge of their different aspects of life: social, political,
economic and religious.
• The Asian bishops have discovered the reality of Asian context that the
majority, (80%) live in poverty, in religiously pluralistic societies and in plurality
of cultures.
• J. Russell Chandran rightly indicates the Indian reality marked by three
factors: cultures, poverty and religious pluralism, and no Indian theology
could afford to ignore any of them.
4. Suspicions: the act or an instance of suspecting something wrong without proof.
It is always suspect about the society, analyze, proof and able bring wrong/write
• Why we should/ Suspicion can also be aroused in response to objects that
negatively differ from an expected idea. Or asking into the context and
explaining the situation. Example water appear to be colorless, pure water has a
slight blue color that becomes a deeper blue as the thickness of the observed
sample increases.
• a suspicion about the theology of the West and a suspicion about the Indian
Cultures and traditions. (Anumāṇa:- Inference)
• This methodology will include a search for information and theological
foundation.
• The suspicions have enabled us to develop a new method of doing theology in
India different from that of the West.
• It observes the existing social (Caste system), political (corruption), economic
(inequality) and religious conditions (religious pluralism) in Indian.
• India is a sub‐continent where the great majority of people are condemned to
the life of poverty, oppression due to the Caste‐system and destitution.
• In such a sub‐continent the Word of God to the suffering masses cannot be
anything but liberation and salvation.
• Unjust social, exploitative economic, dehumanizing political and oppressive
religious contexts are the existing situations that invite Indian theologians to fulfill
a more meaningful and responsible mission of constructing a theology of
liberation and salvation for India.
5. Evolution: Evolution that the Indian theological reflections revolve around two
points:
• First, the universality of our Christian faith.
• The second is the different cultural, religious expression of the faith, and social
setting.
6. Action: it is praxis into the context for liberation. Dalit theology, tribal
theology, Adivasi theology etc…or contextual theology.
7. Collaboration: Indian Christian theologians in generally see that there is a
growing desire among other faiths themselves ―to break down the traditional
barriers of division and hostility, and to reach out the neighbors of other faiths in
a spirit of love, friendship, harmony and used collaboration method.
• Pieris says that the world religions can meet at two levels. First is the level of
personal salvation in terms of a Trans phenomenal Beyond (Yahweh, Allah,
Brahman, Nirvana, etc.) The second is preaching one‘s faith through ―a
horizontal relationship (charity, love of neighbor, brotherhood, ahimsa,
metta, etc.)
• Paul Knitter emphasizes the second level without denying the importance of
the first level since the second level is much neglected today. He further
proposes ‗a global responsibility in saving people‘ as the basis for all the
religions: The religions in India collaborate not only with the people of India
and of Asia but also with all men and women of good will in the world.
8. Transformation: Transformation is the goal in developing a theology for India.
• They see both the mystery of creation and incarnation as God‘s dialogue.
• To interact with this God of dialogue, they insist the need of openness and
Kenosis ―demand a kenosis modeled after that of Jesus.‖
 III. INDIAN RENASCENT ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GOSPEL OF
CHRIST
RAJA RAMMOHAN ROY
• efforts of missionary activities influenced Indians in an
enormous manner. Among the many things which
Christian missionaries brought to India, education was the
most significant one. The impact of west
awakened a new nationalism.
•

• Roy was born on May 22, 1772, in a Brahmin family in the village of Radhanagar near
Krishnanagar in Hooghly district (Bengal Presidency).
• He did formal education from his village 'Pathshala', where he learned Bengali, Sanskrit and
Persian. He also mastered in-depth knowledge of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.
During his studies, he was influenced by western culture and education system.
Religious reform: Born in a Hindu family and being a Hindu by faith, he mastered Vedas and
Upanishads. With the influence of foreign religions like Islam and Christianity, he defined religion
with reason and opposed idol-worship and ritualism that existed in Hinduism.
• He believed that every religion has truth in it. At the same time, he criticized the ritualism of
Christianity and rejected Christ as the incarnation of God.
Social reforms: Roy established the Brahmo Samaj on August 20, 1828, which acted against the
evil practices that existed in the Hindu society, especially, the practice of ‗Sati‘, wherein a
woman jumps into the funeral pyre of her husband. Roy's sister was a victim of 'Sati'. His Samaj
raised its voice against polygamy, child marriage, caste system, untouchability, superstitions
and use of intoxicants. Meanwhile, Roy encouraged inter-caste marriages, women's education
and widow re-marriages.
• Educational reforms: Roy started many learned societies and educational
institutions in Bengal. He studied English language and the western education
system. He also helped Lord Macaulay in starting schools and colleges in India.
The Hindu College and the Vedanta College in Calcutta were a result of this.
• Economic reforms: Even though he hailed from a Zamindar background, he
fought for the liberation of the poor tenants exploited by Zamindars.
• Political reforms: Roy lived in the era of freedom fighters and revolutionaries.
Publicly, he never demanded independence for India, but still, he fought for the
civil rights of the Indians and opposed the racial superiority of Europeans. Roy
and his 'Brahmo Samaj' had a vital role in renewing the Hindu society and it
always focused on Bengal.
Theology
Two Pillars of Human Life: With his personal studies of major religions and
involvement in the social and religious turmoil of his time, he came to the
conclusion that the foundation of a noble human life rests on two pillars: love of
God and love of one's fellow humankind.
• He found his religion not lacking in the first but devoid of the other.
• He found the second abounding in the teachings of Christ and acknowledged,
as noted above, that fact.
• The denominational Christianity, history and dogmatic questions, he found, were
the stumbling block in seeing the simplicity and beauty of the teachings of
Christ, and he side tracked them to glean.
• He selected some of the moral teachings of Christ from the New Testament and
published them as a separate booklet entitled, 'The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide
to Peace and Happiness'.
The person of Christ: His attitude to Christ is one of reverence as due to a great
teacher and messenger of God, but he could not accept the title 'Son of God'
if it implies an attribute to divinity.
• He quotes many scriptural passages to prove the 'natural inferiority of the Son
to the Father' and holds that Jesus is merely delegated with power from God;
he did not possess this power intrinsically.
• but he would not like the idea to associate it with the personality of the Holy
Spirit. He did not deny the miracles of Jesus, including resurrection.
• The dependent Son:
 He quotes I Corinthians 15: 24-28 to indicate the dependency of the son to
the Father. Jesus is the Messiah yes; he is anointed Son of God- yes, he is God
himself-no.
• Unity of Will, not identity of Being:
 There is no problem for Roy to accept the unity of God and Jesus, but he
interprets this unity as the unity of will and design, and not an identity of
being.
 concludes the unity of God and Jesus is of the same character as Jesus and
his disciples and offers three choices.
 the Supreme Being, the Son and the Apostles were to be absorbed mutually.
 But there is distinction of person, between the Father, the Son and the
Apostles.
 expressing that unity which is said to exist wherever there are found perfect
concord, harmony, love and obedience such as the Son evinced towards
the Father, and taught the disciples in display towards the Divine will.
• First Born of Creation: means that He is preeminent over creation not that He
is a created being. Roy, however, has no difficulty in accepting the pre-
existence of Jesus with God and being the first born of creatures, and
supreme above all creatures including the angels. But He is not willing to
accept eternal generation, coexistence with the father.
The Work of Christ: base on salvation:
• Christ accomplished his saving act through his teaching and his death was
simply the supreme illustration of those precepts whose communication was
the sole object of his mission.
• Roy rejected the ideas of vicarious suffering and sacrificial death; God is
impassable (closed) and is untouched by the misery and suffering, and if
Jesus suffered in his divine nature this would be highly inconsistent with the
nature of God.
• The plan of salvation for Roy is very simple: ‗‖this do and thou shalt live' said
Jesus, and following his precepts is the 'best and only means of obtaining the
forgiveness of our sins, the favor of God, and strength to overcome our
passions and to keep his commandments'. If we repent, we receive
forgiveness and there is no need for an atoning death.
• The God-head
• Jesus cannot be placed within Godhead, so also the Holy Spirit as a Person
within the Trinitarian formulation. he regarded Jesus as a Mediator, in a
certain limited sense, the messenger who communicates the will of God.
Through this he said that Christian faith is monotheistic faith.
KESHUB C. SEN
• Keshub Chandra Sen also spelled Keshab Chunder Sen; 19 November 1838 – 8
January 1884) was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted
to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought. Born
a Hindu in the Bengal Presidency of British India, he became a member of
the Brahmo Samaj in 1856.
• Later in his life he came under the influence of Ramakrishna and Christ
founded a syncretic ―Church New Dispensation―(contributed/new
system/arrangement) inspired by Christianity, and Vaishnav bhakti, and Hindu
practices, sacraments, ritual, baptism, communion, (water/rice)
• who flourished as leader of the Brahma Samaj in the latter half of the 19th
century.
• He emphasized teaching on Christ and the Trinity. 'That Marvellous Mystery-
the Trinity', first delivered in 1882.
• R. C. Zaehner (1962) point out that Sen as becoming 'an increasingly
fervent/eager admirer of Christ, even accepting his divinity and the doctrine
of the Holy Spirit'.
• David L. Gosling has remarked that Sen 'believed in the Trinity, which he
related ingeniously to the Upanishadic definition of Brahman as
Saccidananda'. "existence, consciousness, and bliss" or "truth, consciousness,
bliss―
• Robin Boyd who asserts that 'his thought moves steadily in the direction of full
acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity'. So, K.C. Sen finds a place for Christ
within the Godhead.
• P. J. Sant ram notices that Sen speaks of Christ 'as the Second Person of ... the
Trinity', but carefully adds that 'he has his own interpretation of the Trinity'.
Doctrine of God
• Brahmo/God, Sen was naturally concerned with the doctrines of the Trinity to start with. It is
to say that Sen used indian term, Saccidananda (Sat + cit + ananda = truth + intelligence +
bliss) for the Trinity.
• Nicene Formula of one substance and three persons, which is still in Greek philosophical
categories.
• The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost; the Creator, the Exemplar, the Sanctifier; I am, I love, I
save; the still God, the journeying God, the returning God; Force, Wisdom, Holiness; the True,
the Good, the Beautiful; Sat, Cit, Ananda; Truth, Intelligence, Joy.
• Here, Sen is reconciling the Christian Trinity with Hindu Saccidananda and Greek
philosophical virtues.
• It is modalism (of God revealing himself in three modes or times). he describes the three
persons as the Above, the Below, and the Within.
• Nicene formula of one substance in three persons.
Christ
• Sen roundly denies that Christ is God, if only he is human, because he was from human.
• Christ is a creature for Sen because he treats the 'Son' which his creature man is called, a
relationship Jesus of Nazareth so perfectly exemplified.
• Sen applies the term 'Son of God' in any full-blooded personal sense.
• As an incarnation of God the Father that he usually militates.
• 'Never say Christ is the very God of the universe, the Father of all humankind',
• But God‘s manifestation on Christ became divinity.
• Christ shows us 'how God can become man and how man can become God'.
• Homage to Christ is 'not the worship of Divinity but the worship of humanity'. 'we worship the
Father' while 'we honor the Son'.
• Now Christ is Divine because he is the incarnation (not of deity but of 'Sonship‗). He is the
incarnation of that perfect relationship of love and obedience to God to which every man is
called, and which God is powerful to give according to the measure of man's openness to him.
 • “In him (Jesus Christ) we see human nature perfected by true affiliation with
the Divine nature (sc. God). And in this affiliation, we see the fullest
realization of the purpose of Christ's life and ministry. He shows us ... how we
can exalt our humanity by making it more Divine, how while retaining our
humanity we may still partake more and more of the divine character. It was
for this purpose that Christ came into this world.”
• Dwells in Him, sleeps in Him, manifested in Him and union with father, deep
communion with father.
• It was spiritual oneness, because spirit of the Lord filled him.
• So humanity of Christ, he called son of carpenter, he was above ordinary
humanity, with superhuman wisdom and energy. He was qualified by the
divine of God.
• He applied kenotic theory (the renunciation of the divine nature).
The Trinity
He has explain from Upanishad that trinity of God is ―saccidanannda‖
Father Son Holy spirit
Sat Cit Ananda
Truth Intelligence Joy
Force Wisdom Holiness
True Good Beautiful
Above Below Within
• He has explained based on God character and three many
manifestation.
• Yet there is one God, one substance and three phenomena. Not
three Gods but one God.
• Therefore, tri-angle is the very God Jehovah, the Supreme Brahma of
the Vedas. Alone in his own eternal glory, he dwells. From him comes
down the Son in a direct line, an emanation from Divinity.
• Whether he manifested on son or Holy spirit same God with one
identical deity.
• Divinity coming down to humanity is the Son; Divinity carrying
humanity up to heaven is the Holy Ghost.
Doctrine of the Church
• He called the church as New dispensation. Special order/command
• Sen saw himself as divinely appointed and commissioned to be ―the
leader of the New Dispensation.‖
• Sen claimed that Moses‘ was the first dispensation, Jesus‘ and Paul‘s
the second, and his the third and the final one,
• Indian Christian seemed to him to be denationalized and isolated not
only from the Hindu religion but from Indian culture.
• all religions are harmonized and in which all men are summoned to
enter as their spiritual home.
• He claimed special divine inspiration (Adesha), equal to that of
Moses and Jesus.
• He used the symbols of the cross, the Hindu trishul (three-pronged spear) and
the Islamic half-moon and star as the emblem of his new indigenous Church.
he also used the scriptures from these religions on par with the Bible. The goal
of this move was the unification of all mankind in himself.
• Keshub Chunder Sen, a servant of God, called to be an apostle of the
Church of the New Dispensation, which is in the Holy city of Calcutta.
Swami Vivekananda
• Swami Vivekananda 12 January 1863– 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta
(Bengali: was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian
mystic Ramakrishna.
• He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies
of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world.
• bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th
century.
• He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and contributed to the
concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna
Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna
Mission have 214 centers all over the world :
• 163 in India,
• 15 in Bangladesh,
• 14 in USA,
• 2 in Russia, and South Africa
• He later travelled to the United States, representing India at the 1893 Parliament of
the World's Religions.
• He is perhaps best known for his speech which began with the words – ―Sisters and
brothers of America ...,‖ in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the
World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
• Vivekananda was inclined towards spirituality. He was influenced by his guru,
Ramakrishna, from whom he learnt that all living beings were an embodiment of
the divine self;
• Vivekananda conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes,
disseminating tenets of Hindu philosophy in the United States, England and
Europe.
• In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint (spiritual master)
Philosophy
• He expressed Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta philosophy.
• "Advaita" (a = not, dvaita = two, means no-two or non-dual). The way he said this
to people‘s "Atman is Brahman.“
• the individual soul (called Atman) is not different from Ultimate Reality (called
Brahman). It is non-different from the infinite. It is, to an Advaitin, (advaita
philosopher) the unchanging, enduring, eternal absolute.
• He also taught that there is only one essential principle called Brahman and
everything else is a kind of expression of that one Brahman.
• It asserts that there is "spirit, soul, self" (Atman) within each living entity, which are
same as each other and identical to the universal eternal Brahman. Example: milk
and water…..
• He said that we are ignorant of our real self being Ultimate because we see
through a kind of filter—like looking through a dirty piece of glass—and he called
this filter we look through, maya, which means "illusion.―
• difference in human is only an illusion, and at the highest level of reality they are
really identical.
• The word ―Vedanta‖ means ―the concluding portion of the Vedas,‖ and also ―the
supreme spiritual knowledge.‖ The portions of the Vedas that comprise Vedanta
are known as the Upanishads, which consist of the accumulated knowledge of
God, soul, and the world, as derived from the spiritual experiences and
discoveries of generations of India‘s sages.
• Vivekananda believed that the Absolute is both immanent (internal) and
transcendent.
• Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by
controlling nature, external and internal. Get express/Do this either by work, or
worship, or mental discipline.
• Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, said "Vivekananda saved Hinduism, saved India".
• According to Subhas Chandra Bose, Vivekananda was "the maker of modern
India―.
• He believed that a country's future depends on its people, and his teachings
focused on human development.
• Rabindranath Tagore told, if you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him
everything is positive and nothing negative".
• Nationalism was a prominent theme in Vivekananda's thought.
• Vivekananda drew attention to the extent of poverty in the country, and
maintained that addressing such poverty was a prerequisite for national
awakening. His nationalistic ideas influenced many Indian thinkers and leaders.
Vivekananda and Vedanta
• For Vivekananda, Vedanta is the true and universal religion, and mother of all
religions. knowledge of God, soul, and the world , no-dualism, and we are gather
already in Braham, in soul.
• I believe it is the religion of the future enlightened humanity.
• To help us achieve this goal, Vedanta teaches various methods suited to each
individual‘s needs and capacities, by which this divine perfection of the Self can
be actually experienced.
• To response Christianity, for example, is that while Christianity rests upon a person
as its basis, Vedanta‘s foundation is purely principle:
“It is in vain we try to gather all peoples of the world around a single personality. It is
difficult to make them gather together even round external and universal principles.
If it ever becomes possible to bring the largest portion of humanity to one way of
thinking in regard to religion, mark you, it must be always through principles and
never through persons.”
Advaita and Christianity
• With this basis of Vedanta as the universal religion, he interprets Christ and
Christianity in Hindu terms.
• According to Vedanta, Truth is one, and the different religions of the world
are so many paths leading to the same goal. Vedanta reveals the eternal
and universal spiritual truths underlying all religions and helps all men and
women in their spiritual unfoldment, regardless of their religious affiliation and
beliefs. Thus, Vedanta stands for universal religious harmony. It does not seek
to convert, but to support aspirants in their own spiritual paths.
• Christ is a Vedantin for Vivekananda.
• Buddha is the greatest character the world has ever seen, and Christ is next
only to him but both are representations of the principle of Christhood and
Buddhahood.
• Jesus had our nature; he became Christ; so, we can and so must we. Jesus
and Gautama were the persons to manifest it.
• Jesus is unimportant, except as an instrument for the manifestation of the
Christhood. But the significance of Jesus as an incarnation of God is to be
seen in three aspects:
• 1) he was a yogi who has realized jivanmukta. This Jesus achieved by
complete self-renunciation. In renunciation, the man within dies and only
God remains.
• 2) Christ was God from non-dualism aspects.
• 3) Jesus realized his identity with Brahman and taught this at three different levels. ―I am in
my Father and he in me, and I in you...‖ But his final and most advanced teaching was
Advaitic ―I and my father are one‖.
• ―Christ was God incarnate; they could not kill him. That which was crucified was only a
semblance, a mirage/maya.‖ We are ―saved‖ by imitating Jesus.
Theology
God and Avatar
• Vivekananda gives a completely different view on God and Avatar. Christ Avatar is not for
salvation but demonstration of God, character, spirit of God. That ways his life is always
unique.
• He does not have any problem in accepting the incarnation of Christ, but he rejected the
unique claim of Christ as the only Avatar.
Example, 1. ―The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost‖ (Luke 19:10).
2. ―The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many‖ (Matthew 20:28).
3. ―For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but have eternal life‖ (John 3:16).
4. ―I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies‖ (John
11:25).
• understanding on God and Avatar which serve as the background for constructing his
Christological assertions.
• It must be noted that Jesus is considered alongside others and regarded as one among the
many.
• According to him, it is the word of God, not completely God Himself that manifested itself in
Jesus Christ but through the power of God.
• according to to Vivekananda, showed the way to become perfect, by showing us our true
nature which in its essence is divine.
• He said that to attain Moksha or mukti or release or salvation is to become perfect, to
become divine, to reach God and see God, and becoming perfect, even as the father in
heaven is perfect.
• He went on to say that ‗God became Christ to show man his true nature, that
we are too are as a God.
• We are human covering over the divine, but as the divine man, Christ and we
are one. The teaching that every human being is capable of attaining the
divine status is accepted by Vivekananda.
Samaj for his religious Christ
• It is from this contact that his warm appreciation of Christ is to be
traced. It is significant that Swami Vivekananda inaugurated the
Ramakrishna Mission.
• Vivekananda's interpretation of Christ.
• He approach to Christ was not God, that of a seeker but that of one
who found satisfaction in philosophical-mystical Hinduism. He
experienced it. Hiddenness of God was there in him, or he practiced
Vedanta.
• he viewed everything at all times from the angle of Advaita Vedanta.
He said, 'the Vedanta, and Vedanta alone that can become the
universal religion of human no other is fitted for that role.
• He felt that 'Christianity with all its boasted civilization/society
/developed.
• Our s is the religion of which Buddhism, with all its greatness.
Interpretation of Christ
• Vivekananda was truth seekers who studied Christianity and delivered a lecture
Christ the messenger‘ in los Angles in California in 1990.
• Vivekananda is also the one who followed the Advaitic tradition. His idea of Christ
is mostly derived from his lectures in California on the title ―Christ the messenger.‖
• His interpretation of Christ is mostly derived from this lecture.
• Before going in depth into his interpretation of Christ, it is imperative to know on
Christ what basis he builds his knowledge about Christ.
• He used Vedantic principles to interpret Christ.
• Vivekananda selected certain texts such as I and my father are one‘ (Jon 10:30)
the Kingdom of God is within you (Luk 17:21) and Him we live and move and have
our being (Acts 17:28) and from these he tries to drive the Vedantic principle of
the mystical identification of the individual soul and the ultimate Brahman.
• His assumption is that Christ experienced absorption in the Absolute. Brahman and
similarly the same absorption can be obtained by all human being.
• He maintained that the highest teaching of Jesus Christ is on the essential unity of
the soul with God.
• True religion is the realization of the inner divinity of man through the disciple of
renunciation.
• Through ‗our father in heaven‘ lay the way to ‗I and my father One‘. Jesus Christ is
regarded as the great Advaitin not only because he actually realized this unity.
This saying I and My father are one‘ is relatedly interpreted in the sense of non-
dualistic identity.
IV. Theological and Praxiological Expressions of Hindu
Converts
Brahmabandhav Upadyaya
• He was born in Khanyan, a small village in the district of Hooghly in southern
Bengal on 11 February 1861.
• He received his education in institutions such as Scottish Mission School,
Hooghly Collegiate School, and he became interested in Jesus Christ .
• His uncle Rev. Kali Charan Banerji also inspired him towards Christianity. In
1887 he joined the Church of New Dispensation.
• In the General Assembly's Institution, his classmate was Narendranath Dutta,
the future Swami Vivekananda.
• Upadhyaya became inclined towards the Indian nationalist movement for
freedom, and during his college education, he plunged into the freedom
movement.
• In 1888 as a Brahmo teacher, he went to Hyderabad in Sindh and developed
• friendship with two CMS missionaries, Redman and Heaton and got
conviction regarding resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• He was baptized in 1891, affirming at the same time that he did not want to
join the Church of England.
• He also became Roman catholic and chose name theophilus and translated
as Brahmabandhav which means friend of Brahama. Because he was as a
Christian Sanyasi (Monk).
• Upadhyay was an additional name means teacher, which
• he took at the time of becoming a monk. He began to maintain that he was
fully a Hindu, at the same time a Christian.
• He called himself culturally a Hindu whereas by faith a Christian.
Theological Method
• Before going on to study in detail Brahmabandhav‘s theology it is necessary to
analyze two aspects of his methodology.
a) his whole theological thinking was motivated by his very genuine concern for
indigenous expression of Christian faith and life. Russell Chandran says there are
four aspects in which this indigenization comes to the fore:
(1) Integration of the social structure of India into Christian way of life;
(2) The establishment of an Indian Christian monastic order;
(3) The employment of Vedanta for the expression of Christian theology; and
(4) The recognition of the Vedas as the Indian Old Testament. Scholars are divided
as to whether Brahmabandhav took to the Vedas or the Vedantic philosophy.
b) Brahmabandhav also had a very concrete method as how this indigenization of
Christian message in India should take place. He says it is a three-fold task:
First to eradicate from the minds of the Indian people the erroneous and
mischievous doctrines (pantheism and transmigration); Secondly, to lay
the basis of Theism by the help of the Vedas; and Thirdly, to build
Christianity on that foundation
• To enter into a positive dialogue with the indigenous theological and
philosophical tradition of Hinduism. He tried to express theology the concept
and categories of Advaita Vedanta. (the goal of knowledge, knowledge of
God, divine nature, Self-knowledge as well as the search for God,
transcendent reality is Brahman, the divine ground of being)
• Thus, the discussion concerning ‗pre-understanding‘ and ‗indigenization‘
which are now occupying the efforts of the theologians seem to be
anticipated by Brahmabandhav by several decades. And obviously these
two aspects of his approach also show us what kind of content his theology
has.
Theology
Christianity And Other Religions
• though he builds all his theological thought on this Roman Catholic basis, yet
he rejects it in order to replace it by the Vedantic type of thinking.
• So he had Vedantic type of thinking from Hinduism.
• Protestant missionaries thought that their approaches Hinduism primarily to
find fault with the Hindu thinking, hoping that by this demolition of Hinduism
and Hindus will be converted to Christian.
• But He felt this was too negative an attitude towards Hinduism.
• the theology of revelation can be built. This was definitely a more positive
attitude towards to Hinduism, and appealed to the nationalistic spirit of the
time.
• Hence, he describes the basis of the relationship between Hinduism and
Christianity.
• The light which lighted every man who cometh into the world is brightest in
the thought of the Vedas. Thus, it is the pure Hinduism of the Vedas which is
the nearest to the gospels.
• but the later Hinduism has been polluted by two developments, the doctrine
of reincarnation and transmigration.
• we consider these two doctrines the two greatest enemies of humankind.
• Brahmabandhav says that Christianity should not come as the destroyer of
Hinduism, but as it is fulfillment. ―The primitive (Hinduism) and the new
(Christianity) are linked together as root trunk base and structure, as outline
and filling.‖
• Brahmabandhav strives to make Hinduism the foundation on which the
superstructure of Christianity can be built. This is what he calls Vedic Christian
theology.
• Brahmabandhav dwelt on the parallels between the Old Testament and the
Vedas. But since the Vedas contain the Old Testament understanding of God
and nature.
• So here his ideas and thought completely Hidus ideology. In his own words:
By birth we are Hindus and shall remain Hindus till death, but as dwija
(twice born), by virtue of our sacramental rebirth, we are Catholics, we
are members of the indefectible communion embracing all ages and
climes.
• That means: in customs, manners and social relationships we are Hindus, in
our faith we are not Hindus but universal or catholic.
• To quote him once again: Our dharma has two branches samaj dharma
(society duty) and sadhana dharma. Our Hinduism is preserved by the
strength of samaj dharma while the sadhana dharma (doing spiritual
practice) is of the individual. Its object is sadhana and mukti (salvation).
• Boyd penetratingly observes here that Brahmabandhav is advocating that
Christians accept cultural Hinduism without accepting it as a religion. Or in
other words, just as earlier Christianity was married to Greek culture, the Indian
Christianity must be married to Hindu culture.
• That is what is meant by Christian Hindu. This is the reason why
Brahmabandhav is called the Indian Clement, since he understands Hinduism
as a tutor to Christ as Clement of Alexandria understood Greek philosophy as
a tutor to Christ. This brings us to his Christology.
God and Christ
• Brahmabandhav understands Maya to mean dependent existence or
second reality, he says that the God whom Christians worship to be beyond
this level of Maya.
• for him God is not Ishwara but the very highest Brahman or Para Brahman not
Saguna Brahman as some have tried to understand.
• Brahmabandhav is keen to understand god as Nirguna Brahman. Here Boyd‘s
apt phrase that Brahmabandhav ―gives nothing but the highest honour.‖
• But if Christians should understand God as Nirguna Brahman, i.e. attribute less,
relation less and impersonal, then should they also call God neti neti (not this
not that, i.e., agnostic and ensuring).
• Does not then God become, as in the case of Shankara‘s Vedanta,
unknowable.
• Shankara, in spite of belonging to natural theology, found it necessary to
understand Nirguna Brahman as saccidananda.
• Therefore, Brahmabandhav‘s concept of God is basically Trinitarian. He
knows that this is a mystery, which can be known only through the revelation
in Christ.
• One is the understanding of Christ as cit, or the revelation of God‘s inner
being. As cit Christ‘s uniqueness lay in ―his unfolding the mystery of God‘s
inner life‖. This is also Christ‘s claim to His divinity.
• Another concept is that of Maya. For Brahmabandhav Maya is not a quality
of being dependent, it is also a divine overflow of energy which results in the
existence of creatures.
 Maya is a mysterious divine operation. It is neither real nor unreal. We
cannot explain how the phenomenal multiplicity results from the
immutable unity, how being is communicated to the finite . . . Maya is
neither real nor necessary nor unreal but contingent. By it non-being
(asat) is made being (sat) . . . by it that which is nothingness by itself
filled with the riches of being.
The Church and Indigenization
• Brahmabandhav was disappointed by the church structures.
• But he was quite strong in condemning the Europeanness of the Indian
Church. He was right in saying that the Hindu brethren cannot see the
subtlety/quality and sanctity of Christian religion because of the cloak of
Europeanism, of trousers and hat, spoon and fork, meat and wine.
• He have abandoned the church. he died suddenly, he was cremated by the
Hindus and not by the church. To some this means that he died as a Hindu.
• So, he says an Indian can be both Hindu and Christian at the same time. This
understanding led Brahmabandhav also to found what he called a Hindu
Catholic Sanyas Ashram. Of course, such attempt was preceded by De
Nobili and followed by Sunder Singh.
NEHEMIAH GOREH
• Goreh (1825-1895) was a traditionally educated Chitpavan Brahmin, (pure of
mind)
• Goreh was a Brahmin pundit of the Hindu Sastras at Benares before he was
converted to Christianity,
• Goreh was of Chitpavan Konkanasth Brahman descent, a very aggressive,
fanatically orthodox Hindu background. He was born in Kasipura (near Jhansi),
but went in his early childhood to Benares studying Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy.
• he naturally learnt to despise Christianity, because for Chitpavans Christianity was
the religion of the Mlechchhas (pagans). He read extensively works written against
Christianity, and engaged in heated arguments with missionaries.
• His first contact with Christianity came through the street preaching of a CMS
Missionary, william Smith.
• He got hold of the Bible and began to read it. As he came to the Sermon on the
Mount, he exclaimed, who is this teacher who speaks in this manner? No mere
man, however holy, can preach this sort of sermon. Surely the author must be
divine!
• he finally took baptism in 1848 with the name Nehemiah Goreh instead of
Nilakanth Sastri.
• He was commonly known as father Goreh, after his ordination into the Anglican
ministry. His first wife of childhood marriage had already died, so he married a
second time.
• Both his family and he had to suffer persecution on account of Christian faith the
wife being drugged and kidnapped.
• Eventually she died after receiving baptism by her husband. He visited England
twice (1854 & 76), as the pundit for Maharaja Dulip Singh, and met queen Victoria
II and max Muller. He hard to understand why Hindu pandit want to become
Christian.
• In 1855 he returned to India.
• This Indian apologist of the Christian faith was very welcome there and on his return from the
first trip he was ordained as a priest and worked in Indore, Panchoudh, Mhow, Chanda,
Bombay and Pandarapur.
• Later he settled down in Pune, a stronghold of aggressive Hindus, in order to witness to them
about Christ.
Religion, new trends and theology
CHURCH: as Church-in-witness-and-defense theology and dialogue. His primary mission was to
give an apologetic against reformed Hinduism such as Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana Samaj,
though not the militant Arya Samaj.
He had explained them about nature of God and bible is revelation of God.
he too was wholly indigenous in his approach and in content. He rejected western lifestyle in all
its varieties. ―The western trappings/symbols of the church repelled him‖. He felt himself wholly
Indian, and believed that in a hidden manner God is preparing them through Hinduism to
respond positively to Christ.
GOD: He understood God from creation aspect, God has created something out of nothing but
Hindus deny idea of creation from nothing, why because they believe that creation has come
from Brahman or source of God. He understands Brahman or God as omnipotent; only the
biblical account of creation out of noting makes God totally sovereign.
• There is Hindu system is a dilemma: Braham is real and creation is product of illusion or
maya., if only Brahman is real, then how to make the world of false and illusion and whereas
the world is Brahman is a logical inconsistency whereas It is from Brahman. Because of our
ignorance. It is limited kind of existence and false, not eternity and permanent.
• Therefore, it must be rejected by thinking persons. Goreh‘s rigorous logic is also applied to the
concept of Brahman: the Nirguna-Brahman, as he/it is quality less, it is in fact Zero! (Saguna
Brahman, being a part of world of maya,).
• Goreh‘s logical method is best illustrated in his dealing with the vedantic assertion that Atman
is Brahman.
Anthropology: Goreh‘s own answer to Hindu anthropology is a biblical one:
Man (sic) is only a part of God but also of maya. Because soul man is eternal or
it is identical with (paramatman) which from Brahman. More than any other
thinker he emphasized the Fall and the fact of sin with utmost seriousness.
Brahma samaj regarded the sin is natural evil, like disease, which can be
healed by remedial treatment. But he said that it is moral wrong and
unconscious did and only Christ can heal.
• He approves that ―the frightful/terrible nature of sin deserves a punishment.‖
But such punishments are not just for good but primarily to satisfy the justice of
God.
Salvation: His idea of salvation is also impeccably orthodox. For him salvation
from this terrible power of sin over man from wrath to come is purely by God‘s
grace through Christ‘s atoning death, appropriated by faith.
Christ as a lamb of God was sacrificed once for all for our sake, as a penal
substitution in our place. It is through the death of Christ that we are made
partakers of God‘s nature as Church.
Hinduism understanding: soul= mind, sense and body=mukti=jnana/sastra
/guru/realization.
The Intra- and Inter-Religious Conversions
• Goreh contains a wealth of inter-religious and cross-cultural encounters.
• Goreh has tended to either focus on or view his whole life in light of his inter-
religious conversion.
• Three trends arise consistently in the course of Goreh's religious life: 1)
obsession with locating religious orthodoxy, 2) spiritual restlessness and
doubt/suspicion and 3) a sense of "holiness" or ascetic saintliness.
V. Missionary Constructions of Indian Christian Theology
Roberto de Nobili
• Roberto de Nobili (1577 – 16 January 1656) was an Italian Jesuit missionary to
Southern India. He used a novel method of adaptation (accommodation) to
preach Christianity, adopting many local customs of India .
• Roberto de Nobili, was a missionary to India, especially known for his
evangelization strategies for proclaiming the Gospel to the people of India.
• De Nobili was born to an Italian noble family. He was related to two popes and
was expected to achieve great things for his family.
• In the midst of his studies, de Nobili gave up on his family‘s dreams and joined the
Society of Jesus (jesuit mission)
• Inspired by the adventurous stories of the missionaries to Africa and Japan, de
Nobili prepared himself for the missions.
• He was sent to India, arriving in Goa in 1605. Initially de Nobili lived within the
Portuguese enclosures, surrounded by the benefits of European culture and went
to kochii and again came to tamil Nadu.
• He studied Tamil, the local language. De Nobili was then challenged by his
superior to enter into the interior of India and convert those outside the walls.
• De Nobili discovered that among upper class Hindus, the Portuguese were
considered part of the low caste.
• De Nobili adopted the garb of Brahmin scholars, gave up meat, and carried the
walking stick and water jug used by Hindu monks.
• He learned Sanskrit to read Hinduism‘s holy books, and translated Christian psalms
and prayers into Tamil.
• De Nobili spent the rest of his life living as an ascetic in the manner of the Hindu
holy men. With this strategy, he had considerable success in converting members
of both the higher and the lower castes to Christianity.
• He died in 1656, faithful to his Catholic faith and to the spiritual disciplines he
practiced in the Hindu environment.
Nobili Enters the Worldview of the Hindus
• As a sannyasi Nobili was expected to study hard and teach others the ways
to the truth. Since he deeply desired to know the Hindu religion, and his
disciplined study quickly began to bear fruit.
• Most of the ancient texts were in Sanskrit, and it was forbidden for any non-
Brahmin to study Sanskrit.
• Even as a sannyasi, Nobili was barred/lined from possessing the key that
would unlock the Hindu scriptures.
• By providence, Nobili found a scholar who would teach him Sanskrit, and
even at the risk of his life this scholar gave Nobili a copy of the Vedas. Nobili
at once set out to learn them and began using them to convince Hindus of
the one true God.
• Once Nobili understood the basic foundations of Hinduism, he was free to measure the
lives of Hindus by their own standards and then introduce the true way.
I take occasion to tell them that they are indeed mistaken if they think they can be saved
by any of those three laws and I proceed to prove it to them by the very words of their
books. As they are most anxious to save their souls, for which they undertake various works
of penance and alms-giving, I tell them that I have come from a distant country for the
sole purpose of teaching them that law which is said to have been lost. Thus, I adapt
myself to their ideas just as Saint Paul adapted himself to the ideas of the Athenians,
regarding the unknown God.

• The more Nobili learned from the Vedas, the more he debated with Hindus,
often using the very strengths of Hinduism to lead them to the cross.
• He also adapted the teachings of the church fathers and Western philosophers to
give Hindus keys to some foundational propositions on which Christianity stood.
• And yet for all the debates he held and all the booklets he wrote, it was primarily
his love and gentle spirit that touched the hearts of his hearers.
• Between Rome and Madurai, he himself must become a bridge of love.
• The way of life Nobili had chosen was a very crucial part of his contextualization.
• As a good sannyasi, he won the hearts of those who knew him. They saw his simple
lifestyle and the commitment he lived out to the one true God.
• At crucial junctures in the growth of his high-caste church, the Lord used him to
convince many of the Europeans that certain symbols used by the Brahmins were
more cultural than religious. Thus, for example, the converts were allowed to
retain the thread they received as young men and the tuft of hair signifying their
caste.
• Nobili clearly saw how much more open Brahmins would be to the gospel if they
were allowed to retain their caste identity. In the baptism of his first Brahmin
convert Nobili gained a major victory:
• he comprehensively studied all that the Christian and Hindu scriptures had to say.
Before making a final decision, he also considered the social impact it might have
in the Hindu community. One issue was the Hindu festival of Pongal. Nobili
developed an ecclesiology that constantly examined the issues in light of the
present context of society. He did not use a dialectical approach but rather
started first with Scripture and then moved to the context.
Nobili‘s View of the Indian Church
• Early on Nobili noted that the growth of the Indian Church would be stunted.
it would not be depended on foreigners for its sustenance. Therefore, it wasn‘t
long before he devised a bold plan to raise up hundreds of indigenous
leaders.
“Nobili wanted to train seminarists who, having preserved their Indian customs
and their castes, would be respected by their Hindu countrymen, to whom they
could speak on equal terms. He wanted his future priests to present Christianity
to the Indian people in their own languages, not in a jargon in which all religious
terms were Portuguese; to be well trained in Christian theology but also experts
in the religion of the Hindus around him; to depend for support and protection
on their own countrymen, not on foreigners. In the first half of the seventeenth
century such a plan was extremely bold and farsighted. “
• Nobili believed and acted on his belief that books conceived and written in
the Indian languages were absolutely indispensable to a ―truly‖ Indian
Church.
• Indian Christians wrote their own worship songs and liturgies, they published
books and tracts, and they willingly faced up to the social issues of the day.
Nobili‘s methods of Contextualization
• The nature of Nobili‘s methods of contextualization was very much
indigenous. It means, he wanted people to stay back in their own culture but
believe in Jesus as savior.
• Even, he rejected to identify himself and his followers to relate with the
term Parangi, because his main motive was ―to show that the Christian faith
could be thought and lived in a truly Indian way.
• His main
point was that it is impossible to be Indian without being Hindu and Christian
without being European‖.
• ―The Hindus had been watching the foreigners carefully to determine what
caste they were from, and after repeatedly observing them eat meat and
associate with low-caste people had labeled them ―Parangi‖ or ―those who
have horses and guns,‖ a term referring to low caste.‖
• Nobili believed that in order to understand others culture, we need to look
through their lenses because every culture has some good or evil.
• Moreover, he was not interested that his followers may be known as Christian.
However, he was interested that his followers may remain in their own cultures
and have their own identity of Indian.
• Nobili discovered that the life-style of Sannyasi is a common practice in South
India and the best way to gain respect. He realized that society respect
Gurus.
• Nobili‘s adaptation of the Life-style of Sannyasi and became Brahmin Guru
was to reach out the high caste and know their practices, beliefs thoroughly.
• Because, many high caste Hindus attracted by his life-style of Sannyasi and
used to visit him regularly.
• Nobili believes that there is not a single religious connotation to the life-
style of Sannyasi and Guru. By ―quoting the Brahminic literature, he clarified
that the term Guru did not denote an exclusively religious scholar.
• Moreover, he abstains from non-vegetarian food which causes him to
associate with the high caste Brahmins.
• Nobili observed certain Hindu practices, like, use of the holy thread, the tuft of
hair and sandal- paste.
• he was from a Roman Catholic priestly family and for him wearing thread was
common thing. Since some of the Roman Catholics are tradition oriented and for
Nobili thread was not new thing; even though form was different but then he
changes the form and kept same meaning. He argued that wearing thread has
nothing to do with religious matter, it is completely social thing.
Identity and Dialogue
• Despite his rather unique approach to dialogue and conversion, there is no way in
which de Nobili can be seen as being both spiritually Hindu and Christian.
• he does have a double religious identity of sorts, through being Hindu in means of
dress and custom; de Nobili serves as a great example of someone who has an
aesthetical, and even acquired a cultural, Hindu identity, whilst remaining
spiritually Christian, all for the sake of a Christian mission which would comfort the
pressure of Christian conversion.
• He is an example of how two facets, aesthetical and cultural, can overlap in
practice.
• Catholicism post Vatican II is inclusive (rather than exclusive) in its ideologies and
attitudes towards peoples of other faiths. The Hindu aesthetics he adopted are
what enabled him to spread the Gospel news, but they in no way reflect his
spiritual religious identity.
• de Nobili, then, demonstrates the role that double religious identity can play in
Christian mission, shown by his efforts in entering into dialogue and the conscious
use of his aesthetical religious identity for the purposes of conversion.
J.N. FARQUAR
• Farquhar was born at Aberdeen in 1861. He was educated at Aberdeen
Grammar School and Aberdeen University and served as a draper, but he
returned to school at an age of 21, and finished his studies at Oxford
University.
• he was employed by London Missionary Society as a lay educational
missionary and sent to India in 1891. He arrived at Calcutta and started his
missionary work by teaching at Bhowanipur for eleven years from 1891.
• He joined Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in 1902 as a national
student secretary; later he became, as a literary secretary, a post which he
held until 1923.
• While working at YMCA, he struggled to enable the association to extend. he
requested to students through lectures, through personal friendships, and
through production of whole new body of literature.
• Due to ill-health, he left India in 1923. He spent last six years of his life working
as a professor of comparative religion in the University of Manchester. He died
in Manchester in 1929.
Fulfillment theory
• From 1902-1923 his main concern was to develop a theology based on
questions raised by Hindu thinkers, the very eminent thinkers like Rathakrishan,
Dayananda Sarasvati and Vivekananda.
• Farquhar felt that the crucial need of apologetic approach to the university
educated Indians, so that at end seek to find a more satisfactory relationship
between Christianity and Hinduism than that of mere mutual exclusion.
• In a serious of writings, he gradually worked out his idea of fulfillment. I came
not to destroy but to fulfill (Matthew 5: 17), he has cleared up for us
completely all our difficulties with regard to the OT, Can it be that Christ
Himself was thinking of pagan faiths as well as Judaism?
• If Christ able to satisfy all the religious needs of the human heart, then all the
elements of pagan religious needs of the human heart since they spring from
these needs, will be found reproduced in perfect form, completely fulfilled,
consummated in Christ.
• He believes that there is an evolutionary connection between Hinduism and
Christianity as of lower to the higher, so that what is only foreshadowed in
Hinduism is fulfill and perfected/ achieved in Christianity.
• Jesus Christ crowns and fulfills the quest that is in the Hinduism that is
understood as the fulfillment theory. What Christ has fulfilled in Judaism, is
fulfilled in Hinduism.
• He says, when we say that Christianity is the crown of Hinduism, we do not
mean Christianity as it is lived in any nation nor Christianity as it is deepened
and discipline of any single church but Christianity as it springs living and
creative from Christ himself.
• It is beyond denominationalism or sectarianism. Every religion has some truth and that
is instrumental in leading every man to God, he says. Every religion is useful to lead
people to God.
• According to him, it is a preparation of Christ and every worth truth is fore
shadowed in Christ.
• Farquhar maintained three things in relation to Hinduism. First of all, Christianity
should be able to demonstrate genuine sympathy with the phenomenon
of Hinduism.
• Secondly Christianity should be able to maintain scholarly accuracy objective
studies
• and lastly Christianity should continue to be directed by their own faith in Christ.
Fulfillment theology
• William Miller "Christ was the friend of all that was good and true not only in
Christianity, but in Hinduism."
• The idea of "Christ the fulfiller" was made familiar to the minds of South
Indians of Madras Presidency long before Farquhar's The Crown of
Hinduism published in 1913.
• Even the colleagues of Miller like Bernard Lucas and T.E. Slater, author of The
Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity published in 1909, long before
articulated "Fulfilment theology" at the World Missionary Conference held
at Edinburgh in 1910
• According to Eric J. Sharpe, professor of Religious studies at University of Sydney;
author of books like
• "Not To Destroy, But To Fulfil: the contribution of J.N. Farquhar to Protestant
missionary thought in India before 1914",
• "John Nicol Farquhar and the missionary study of Hinduism",
• "John Nicol Farquhar, a memoir", and "Faith meets Faith: Some Christian Attitudes
to Hinduism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries"; and
• Farquhar's theology and missiological approach to Indian religions, has observed.
• He was the pioneer in popularizing his missionary theology Fulfillment
theology. Although, he didn't invent it by himself, but based his theology
on William Miller Fulfilment theology that took its shape in Madras Presidency.
• According to this theology, "Christ came to fulfill and bring to completion not
only the law and the prophets (Matt.5:17) even for all the world's higher
religions." in this sense, Christ is the "Crown" of Hinduism.
• He popularized and expressed the idea that Christianity was the fulfillment of
other religions; he advocated that Christianity was not out to destroy other
religions but to fulfill.
• He intended to develop a workable apologetic to maintain a satisfactory
relationship between Christianity and Hinduism during his days, there was a
radical change in Indian thoughts against Western Christianity, sense of
nationalism and self-consciousness was growing among Indians, Hindu
nationalism started reasserting its opposition to Christianity, Christian
missionaries were considering non-Christian religions as evil,
• With "Fulfilment theology," he affirmed that Christianity or rather Christ, is the
"Crown" of Hinduism.
• He hoped, progressive Hindus will embrace the Christianity; Christians,
including Christian missionaries would be more sympathetic to other religions.
With an intention of developing satisfactory relationship between Hinduism
and Christianity, rather than of mere exclusion, he gradually worked out his
idea of "I came not to destroy but to fulfill."(Mathew 5:17).
• In his publication The Crown of Hinduism published in 1913, Farquhar argued
that:
“If all religions are human, and yet men can in the long run hold only Christianity, clearly it
must be, in some sense, the climax of the religious development in the world, the end and
culmination of all religions. If all the great religious instincts, which have created the other
faiths, find ultimate satisfaction in Christianity, then Christianity stands in a very definite
relation to every other religion. It is the fulfilment and crown of each; and it is our privilege
and duty to trace the lines of connection and lead the peoples up to the Christ.”
• Farquhar, though he saw some amount of truth in non-Christian religions, yet
he denounced some elements that Christianity cannot accept. Caste system
is one among them, as he felt that equality, freedom, and justice are
distinctive aspects of Christianity.
• According to Farquher, "Fulfillment" dictated sympathy and reverence as the
only "way of wisdom" for the missionary to the Hindu,
• Eric Sharpe has remarked that Farquhar was "more than any other individual
responsible for bringing about a decisive change in the thinking of Christians
over against the phenomena of other faiths.
Fulfilment in "The Crown of Hinduism"
• The Crown of Hinduism was Farquhar's response to the need for an effective
apologetic approach to the Hindu, (to depend common truth) which would
remove the misconception that the Christian Gospel was anti-national and
destructive of the Indian religious and cultural heritage.
• Farquhar's thesis of Hindu-Christian fulfilment in relation to all the main
features of Hinduism.
• Farquhar's project is skillfully outlined in the introduction the work in four
stages. First, he describes how to enhanced/improved modem
communication has contributed to heightened interest in other religions, and
a desire to share one's religious treasures with people of other faiths.
• Second, He restates two critical presuppositions of the Science of Religion
mentioned earlier: a recognition of the unity of the religious life of humanity,
and the possibility of a unifying framework provided by the evolutionary
hypothesis.
• Third The Church must feel this need as it seeks to understand its mission to the people of
other faiths and to respond to outside objections to its sense of missionary obligation.
• The growing opposition to Christian mission and conversion thus requires that
these be justified in a clear statement of Christian belief regarding the relation
of Christian faith to other religions.
• He asserts that "underlying unity in all religions": from the lowest to the highest
there are "gleams of light" and "suggestions of truth", giving every religion
"value" to its followers.
• Consequently, every religion has some legitimacy in enabling humanity to
reach God: "We must believe that it is possible for every human being, no
matter what his circumstances may be, to find his way to God, if he truly uses
all the light that he has, he can reach.‖
Christ, the Crown of Hinduism
• Christ is the "consummator" of all the world's religions and the "spiritual crown"
of Hinduism.
• he succeed in affirming Christ in relation to Hinduism and the other religions?.
• His entire discussion of the Hindu teaching on incarnation.
• The essence of the Hindu doctrine of the incarnation‖ ... that God became a
man, was born, lived, and died a man", is fulfilled in the Christian conviction
that "Jesus is the incarnate Son of God" and "the revelation of God.,‖
Likewise, in his treatment of the work of Christ is reflected in Hinduism.
• For instance, in concluding his discussion of how Christ fulfills the Hindu
concept of incarnation, he affirms the orthodox doctrine of the substitutionary
atoning death of Christ included all:
Jesus came into the world to save men from sin ... and the greatest of His acts
was His redemptive death ... .in His death Jesus laid down his life deliberately,
voluntarily, in full obedience to His Father's will, realizing that the Cross was
needed to secure our emancipation from the chains of sin. His blood was the
only possible ransom. It was shed for us.
VI. Christian Life as Bhakti Marga and Contemplation
Sadhu Sundar Singh
• (1889 - 1929), born in Patiala State, India, became an Indian Christian
missionary whose life and message had far ranging impact.
• Born into a Sikh family, Sundar grew up a faithful Sikh. When a boy, he
converted to Christianity, incurring the rejection by his father. Sundar
removed from a Christian seminary after refusing to cast off his Sikh clothing
and wear Western clothing.
• That set the direction of his ministry, seeking to wear the clothing and speak
the terminology of the Sikh while conveying the Christian message.
• Sundar's impact went far and wide, influencing important spiritual leaders,
such as Mahatma Ghandi and C.S. Lewis.
• Sundar had international trip he made visit to the Western during 1920s,
shared his view that many more Indian and Asian people have profound faith
than those in the West.
• During Sundar's lifetime, Great Britain ruled India, but he paid little attention to
that political situation. He focused his mission on reaching Indian
and Tibetan people with the life example and message of Jesus Christ.
Reflecting on his way of life, he said that if Jesus Christ could have sent his
disciples to India during Jesus' lifetime, they would have lived and worked as
Sadhu Sundar Singh had. His life displayed how the lifestyle and message of
the New Testament can integrate seamlessly into the life style of
a Sikh, Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist holy person.

• it is believed that he died in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1929, although his
body was never found.
Definition of ‘Bhakti‘
• The word ―Bhakti” is derived from the Sanskrit root ‗bhaj’, which has
the sense of divide, participate and share. Sanskrit English Dictionary
defines it as attachment, devotion, fondness for trust, homage,
worship, piety, faith or love. The parallel English word for Bhakti is
(loving)devotion.
• However, generally it has been translated in English as faith. It refers to
a sense of love, obedience, devotion to God. According to, Sadhu
―Bhakti is the loving devotion to a personal God.‖
• For T. Dayanandan Francis, ―Bhakti implies a distinction between God
and man (sic). Bhakti is the deep longing of the soul for the worship of
God and for union with God.‖ Martin Alphonse considers Bhakti as a
spiritual act of love or devotion of a bhakta (devotee) to a personal
God.
• Appasamy quotes definition on Bhakti, ―Personal faith in a personal
God, love for Him (sic) as for a human being, the dedication of
everything to His (sic) service, and the attainment of ―Moksha‖ (final
bliss) by this means, rather than by knowledge, or sacrifice or works.‖
• For Appasamy Bhakti means a deep and unselfish love of the whole
humankind for God, finding its highest bliss in union with God.
• Thus, Bhakti can be understood as communion with personal God,
love and devotion for God and attainment of moksha by means of
Bhakti.
Bhakti Mysticism and Sundar Singh's Fulfillment Framework
• Christian is a Bhakti marga or path of devotion to God but
it is a mysticism.
• His teaching and writings are marked by direct simplicity
of insight and vividness of expression.
• Sundar Singh's distinctive interpretation of the Christian
faith as embodied in his lifestyle and reflected in his
sermons and writings.
• His contribution to the development of Indian Christianity
in spiritually with devotion.
• the fulfillment approach of Sundar Singh, resulted in the
emergence of an original framework for relating the
Christian faith to the bhakti tradition.
• Sundar Singh's bhakti orientation and framework of
'continuity' between Sundar Singh's bhakti and Christian
experience.
The Background and Sources of Sundar Singh's Bhakti Mystical
Orientation.
• The outstanding characteristic of Sadhu Sundar Singh's
theology is that it is grounded in personal experience:.... Faith
and experience must come first, and understanding will follow.
• We cannot understand until we have some spiritual
experience, and that comes through prayer or devotion.
• The spiritual experience of Sundar Singh and his religious life,
reflected widely to his students.
• Spiritual mystic makes saint rather than a philosopher,
theologian or scholar.
• the significance of the term 'mysticism‗ it relates to Sundar
Singh's spiritual experience.
• 'mysticism' this terms, as a universal phenomenon presents in
various religious traditions, involving direct and non-rational
appropriation of the ultimate reality.
• Hence, the terms 'mysticism' or 'mystical' are used hereafter in
this study in a non-technical sense, it is a inner psychological,
devotional and spiritual dimensions of religious experience.
• In Sundar Singh it is expressed in a blend of Hindu and Sikh
bhakti elements within a framework of Christ-centered
devotional experience.
Bhakti Mysticism as a Framework of Continuity' in Sundar Singh's
Fulfillment View
• the influence of bhakti upon Sundar Singh's theological
framework.
• those aspects of his pre-Christian bhakti religious consciousness,
which conditioned his conversion experience, and then
subsequently became incorporated into his Christian world-
view.
• from influence of the New Testament on Sundar Singh's thought
is fairly explicit; and nature of bhakti influence. Worship Lord
the Spirit and truth.
• Sundar Singh 'borrowed' certain elements from various bhakti
elements within his Christian framework, as much as to
demonstrate 'continuity' - that elements in his pre-Christian
consciousness.
• So it is being fulfilled commonly in all religions or it is a common
way to reach God.
• So, We focus on three critical components: his conception of
God, his understanding of divine revelation, and his view of
salvation.
God:
• From Bhakti and Sikh mystical theology reflected when he speaks of God as
ineffable and ultimately incomprehensible in essence, transcending all
human categories and powers of expression: "No man has ever seen or heard
God as He is in Himself.‖ He thus occasionally uses abstract terms such as
'Reality' or 'Truth' to address God.
• too This emphasis on God as 'Truth' or 'the True One' resonates deeply with the
Sikh view as observed in the opening words of the Japji":
• There is one God whose name is true, the Creator, devoid of fear and enmity,
immortal, unborn, self-existent; by the favor of the Guru. The True One was in
the beginning; the True One was in the primal age.
• In keeping with the emphasis in both Sikh and Vaisnava bhakti, however, the
'Truth' or 'Reality' which Sundar Singh refers to is clearly a personal being, an
object of worship and devotion: "God Himself is pleased when we pray.
• He rejoices in our worship. Yes, God and the soul long for each other. God
needs our prayer, just as a mother does not feel well if her baby does not lie
on her bosom and drink." Although he most commonly uses the biblical
image of God as 'Father' or 'Heavenly Father', he also uses other personal
terms such as 'Creator', 'Spiritual Mother' or 'Heavenly Mother-Father' to
address God.
• The conception of God as love is at the heart of the bhakti framework, and,
for Sundar Singh, God is supremely and above all else perfect, pure, self-
giving love, "God is love."
• God is the source of love. The force of gravity ... [is] the manifestation in
matter of that spiritual force of gravity, which is love and whose source is God
... God's love is infinite ... God's capacity for love is without limit and,
therefore, is sufficient for all.
Divine Revelation:
• According to Sundar Singh, God is always present in his
creation, and every aspect of God's creation, visible and
invisible, animate and inanimate, in some way reflects the
nature and attributes of God.
• The God who has never been seen or heard as he is in himself
he reveals his wisdom, power and glory through his creation: ―In
heaven and in earth God proclaims His power and wisdom and
glory in His wonderful handiwork.‖
• Sundar Singh, consequently, nature is the handiwork and
reflection of the Creator-God.
• He takes the revelation of God in nature very seriously,
frequently comparing the "Book of nature" alongside the Bible:
• ―The Bible and the Book of Nature are both written in spiritual
language by the Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit being the author of life, all Nature, instinct with
life, is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the language in which it is
written is spiritual language.
• The Bible and the "Book of nature" both have the same author,
the Holy Spirit, and use the same spiritual language of the Spirit,
which only those who are "born again" understand.
Salvation:
• Sundar Singh's understanding of salvation is strongly
conditioned by the bhakti mystic quest for union with the
divine.
• God is our Creator and we are His creatures; He is our
Father, and we are His children. If we want to rejoice in
God and liberate, one must union with Him.
• Man's deep desire for union with God is an intuitive
impulse, expressed in a search for true peace and
happiness.
• The thirst in the soul for true happiness and peace. It
implies that real happiness and peace exists.
• This craving of the soul is fulfilled only when it attains real
communion with God.
• Sundar Singh's own spiritual experience absorbed into
God‘s salvation.
Christ as Fulfillment:
• Sundar Singh's conception of the preparation-fulfillment
relationship is the bhakti quest for salvation through mystical
fulfillment. Salvation is for all humankind.
• Sundar Singh's view of salvation, God's concern for the
salvation of all humankind, and the decisiveness of Christ in
God's plan of salvation.
• Sundar Singh's overwhelming sense of the love and mercy of
God causes him to affirm strongly that God wills the salvation of
all men and women.
• God's continuing concern for people ensures his ongoing
commitment to their well-being and happiness. Through Christ
got fulfilled.
• The Creator formed every creature for some particular purpose,
and as neither man nor God will destroy the spirit of man or the
divine seed that is in him, the purpose for which he was created
will one day be fulfilled.
• He may go astray and be lost, but eventually he will return to
the one in whose image he has been made, because this is his
destiny .... As God created man to live in His presence and
fellowship it is impossible that he should become separated
from Him forever.
The Logos-Christ of Mystical Experience
• Christ is central to Sundar Singh's fulfillment theological
framework. His dramatic conversion to Christianity was the
direct result of a vision of Christ, and thereafter, Christ remained
the focus of his religious experience. He is convinced that it is in
Christ alone that God is fully revealed, and that we have no
knowledge of God or salvation apart from him.
• Sundar Singh's bhakti mystical orientation ensures that the
Logos-Christ of mystical experience has priority over the
historical Jesus as the object of his faith.
• This emphasis enables him to 'universalize' the Christ of
experience. Sundar Singh it was the "risen", "living" or "inward"
Christ.
• The various fragments of truth are brought together in Christ, in
whom alone the Logos-light is manifested in full measure.
• For Sen, Christ was primarily the universal Logos-Christ who may
be appropriated through mystical experience in the context of
all cultures and religions.
The Joy of the Cross
• Peace and joy in the mind of Sundar Singh, these form the motives of the normal
Christian life.
• But in his own experience he has never found such pure, deep, overflowing joy
and peace as in times of most painful external sufferings. But through Christ.
“When I had to suffer for my Savior, I found heaven on earth; that is, a
wonderful joy, which I did not feel at other times. In suffering I have always
had such a strong sense of the Presence of Christ that no doubt could cross my
mind.
• This paradoxical experience has led the Sadhu into the depths of the Christian
philosophy of suffering. Suffering is the way to communion with God and to
blessedness.
• ―The Cross is like the fruit of the orange. The outer rind is bitter, but the inside is
refreshing and strengthening.
• From the outside the Cross has neither beauty nor goodness; its essence is only
revealed to those who bear it. They find a inside of spiritual sweetness and inward
peace.‖ suffering is a experiencing with Christ.
• Thus, it is that suffering and the Cross are the means which God uses to give to
men the deepest and purest blessedness. But the Cross does not bring only
blessed- ness to man, it makes him like God. Because the Savior of the world
Himself endured suffering and the Cross.
• in like manner humanity becomes transformed into His likeness through the Cross
and through suffering. True suffering is part of Christian mysticism; it draws the
Christian into the closest living fellowship with Christ.
• " Hence it is Sundar Singh's earnest desire in all things to follow the example of the
suffering Christ. Sundar Singh is a true " Lover of the Cross."
Heaven upon Earth
• The experience of Christ's Presence in prayer, deep joyful peace of
soul, the sweetness of the Cross and of suffering in this world all this the
Sadhu loves to call Heaven upon earth.
• " This expression, which he uses again and again, both in his public
addresses and in private conversations,
• Sundar Singh has not borrowed from the New Testament or the Imitatio
Christi still less from Luther or from Jakob Bohme, but rather from the
old Vedic writings. In one of the most famous of the Upanishads this
phrase occurs: In very deed, this Atman is in the heart ... in truth, he
who knows this enters daily into the heavenly world."
• Sundar Singh feels as though the whole of his life since his conversion
has been lived in heaven. " This is my testimony," he said again and
again in Switzerland, " for the past sixteen years I have lived in
heaven."
• ―When we wait upon God in the stillness of prayer,‖ we do not need to
wait for the next world, we have already reached heaven upon
earth.‖ ―The Christian lives already in heaven here upon earth.
• His heavenly life consists in prayer, in continual communion with God
in prayer.‖ ―In prayer we are filled with the life of God and taste the
bliss of heaven.‖
• ―Through prayer this earth is turned into God's heaven.‖
A.J. APASAMY
• Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy was born in Palayamkottai Tamil Nadu (south
India) on 3 September 1891, from Christian parents His father had been
a Shaivite before coming to the Christian faith at the age of 24.
• A. J. Appasamy often wrote of the influence of his father and his family on him.
After becoming a Christian his father studied both Christianity and Hinduism.
• In his 67th year he became consumed with a passion to see God, learnt
meditation from a Hindu guru, began to practice yoga regularly, had mystical
experiences, and emphasized the value of the prayer of dhyana (contemplation)
as a method of attaining truth.
• His son, A.J. Appasamy, was aware of some danger but also of ‗the immense
value‘ of this view of prayer; he was convinced that this practice of yoga had
made a profound, positive difference to his father's life.
• In 1915 A. J. Appasamy went to study philosophy and religion in the U.S.A. at
Harvard University, and later in Britain at Oxford University, where he received a
doctorate of Philosophy. It seemed evident to Appasamy that ‗if the Christians in
India are to make any impact upon national life, they must be well-educated
men who are quite familiar with the literature of the country, though they may not
follow the Hindu religion.‘ He came to this conclusion from a comparison with the
role of Christians in ancient Rome. The influence of ‗many great scholars and
inspiring teachers‘, such as J.N. Farquhar, B. H. Streeter, Friedrich von
Hügel, William Temple, Friedrich Heiler and Rudolf Otto, led him to the conclusion
‗that we had a good deal to learn from the life and experience of
the bhakti writers of India.‘ Another influence which began at this time was that of
the sadhu Sundar Singh, who visited Oxford in 1920. Appasamy came to know
Sundar Singh well, and collaborated with B.H. Streeter in writing a book on
him, The Sadhu (1921).
• After returning to India in 1922 Appasamy became an editor of the Christian
Literature Society. This enabled him to continue his studies, turning to Sanskrit texts
as well as Tamil; for which he turned to Sanskrit pandits. He was particularly
interested in ‗how Ramanuja had constructed into a theological system his deep
personal experience of God.
Christianity as Bhakti Marga
• A. J. Appasamy was Indian theologian who identified himself with the Bhakti
tradition.
• Therefore, Alphonse goes even to call him as a Christian Bhakti theologian of
Indian.
• He was influenced by Sadhu Sunder Singh, who visited Oxford in 1920; the time
when Appasamy was in Oxford.
• Appasamy attempted to interpret the Christian Gospel from the perspective of
the Bhakti tradition of Hinduism, particularly within the framework of Ramanuja‘s
philosophy. Because he particularly emphasized on God experience.
• According to R. S. Sugirtharajah and Cecil Hargreaves, Appasamy identified
himself with the Indian Bhakti tradition and used its insights for exposition of the
fourth Gospel.
• Robin Boyd also points out this, ―As Brahmabandhab used Sankara as his
instrument or elaborating an Indian Christian theology, and as Chenchiah turned
towards Sri Aurobindo,
• so Appasamy has looked to the personal tradition of bhakti and philosophical
exposition as found in Ramanuja.‖
• Appasamy‘s subject of his Oxford doctorate dissertation was The Mysticism of the
Fourth Gospel in its Relation to Hindu Bhakti Literature. He was interested in the
work of his own Tamil devotional poets of both the Saivite and Vaisnavite
traditions. (Siva and vishnu) and connected with yoga.
• He found himself deeply encouraged by the steadfast belief of these poets in a
personal God and their intense longing for communion with God.
• Thus, he found an Indian tradition which had close affinities with Christianity and
could surely be used as a way leading to the fuller Indian understanding of the
Christian faith. Hence, he concluded that, ―Bhakti tradition and
its philosophical expression in Ramanuja is the best and most helpful
available Indian instrument for the proclamation and explanation of the Christian
message.
• Appasamy‘s search for a philosophical basis for the Bhakti tradition led him to
study of Ramanuja‘s philosophy.
• The fruit of his search resulted in the publication of two books, which are perhaps
his best books. They are: Christianity as Bhakti Marga (1928) and What is Moksha?
(1931). These books are an exposition of the Fourth Gospel by the wealth of
illustration from the Tamil Bhakti poets.
• The Christian life is seen as one loving devotion to God in Christ, and the goal of
life which is moksha (salvation) for which a Hindu or Christian long is to found in
faith-union with Christ.
• Appasamy believed that Christianity at its very source is mystical. His approach
towards mysticism is Christological when we read gospel.
• He interprets Christ‘s devotional life as the mystic experience. He states that, the
life of Jesus shows a perfect balance between its inner and outer aspects.
• Appasamy sees Apostle Paul as mystic. He states that, Paul‘s central experience
was that of living in Christ.
• This indicates that Paul lived from day today in intimate fellowship with Christ.
• His whole being was rested in Christ.
• His prolific intellectual activity, his many-sided practical service, his strivings, his
yearnings, and his groaning-all these emerged from a life of fellowship with Christ.
• Appasamy sees even St. John as a mystic. He considered upon the words of Jesus
until they give him fresh meaning. He treasured all those parts of Jesus‘ teachings
which dealt on the life of communion with God.
• Beside them, coming down the centuries we find great saints such as St.
Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Kempis, St. Teresa and others who had real
mystical experiences. Interestingly, they are all among the most powerful
influences in the Christian Church.
The Union of God and Bhaktas
• According to Sunand Sumithra, ―Usually, the two great sayings or
mahavakyas from John‘s Gospel, ―I and my Father are one‖ and ―Abide in me‖,
are used to prove that God and Christ
and believers are one in the same manner and that it is a union rather than comm
union.‖
• The traditional western understanding of Christ‘s relationship with God is
homoousios, which means Christ is of the same substance (ousia) as God.
• This unity was considered to be metaphysical unity between God and Jesus.
• Appasamy challenges this view by pointing out that Jesus always thought of God
as his Father and he used this name for God constantly.
• Jesus also says, ―The Father is greater than I‘. This shows that he regards himself as
wholly depended upon the father; thus, he is not identical with God.
• Therefore, the relation between God and Jesus is personal relation between Father
and Son.
• He also points out that the oneness of Jesus with God was a moral identity.
• The oneness was experienced continually and the sense of dependence was
there all the time. According to him, Jesus was one with God in the sense that he
loved what God loved and hated what God hated.
• Jesus from eternity past is so conformed to God‘s will, so perfect in his obedience,
that the two persons are one, but in a moral rather than a metaphysical way.
• Appasamy also states that, there is a moral oneness, an intimate
fellowship between God and human being in thought, feeling and will.
• Thus, he holds that the union of the believers with Christ is a moral union, based on
love and obedience.
• He finds similarity between the union of Jesus with God and the union of believers
with Christ. The quality of life which the Bible, particularly John‘s Gospel, calls
eternal life, Appasamy calls it moksha.
• (Moksha) is a real harmony with the holy and righteous Father
(sic).
• It is a personal experience which, however, in its higher reaches
transcends the personal.
• It is a corporate experience, man (sic) mingling with his (sic)
fellow-men (sic) in order to attain the heights of God‘s love.
• It begins even in this life and does not wait for an in definite
future.
• Thus, it is been understood that Appasamy understood eternal
life which is moksha in terms of areal harmony and a personal
communion with God.
• He also believed that moksha could be experienced within this
life.
• And to attain this moksha Appasamy chooses
the Bhakti Marga which maintains a real harmony and a
personal communion with God. Therefore, for him Christian life is
the life of moksha (salvation) realized here and now and could
be described as a life of Bhakti (devotion). Since, the Bhakti
(devotion) is personal, it engages our
whole personality, will, feeling and thought.
• However, he states that Christian Bhakti (devotion) demands a
response of the will, in ethical living.
The Immanence of God
• T. Dayanandan Francis says that, the immanence of God is the basis for Bhakti tradition.
• Alphonse also states that, in Bhakti tradition God is believed to be antaryamin (indwelling) in
the devotee and energizing him/her from within, constantly affirming His (God) presence
therein.
• The Hindu bhaktas often speak of God as dwelling in the depths of their souls. God is always
connected with the deepest parts of a person‘s being.
• Appasamy points out that there are ample of teaching about the immanence of God in the
New Testament. John 1:10, ―he was in the world‖, is usually understood to refer only to his
incarnation.
• However, Appasamy interprets it, mean the presence of the immanent Christ, both before
and after the incarnation. According to Appasamy God can be known only in the heart of
the world. God is present in the world and inhuman beings.
• For him Christ did not come only for the Jews rather he came for all men and women, for all
are his own.
• He considered everyone as by nature children of God. Therefore, Christ as antaryamin is
already present in all men and women. But men and women failed to understand him fully.
Therefore, in the person of Jesus, the immanent Logos has incarnated so that through the
indwelling of the incarnate Logos Christ, every human person may realize communion with
God in its fullness. He was convinced that bhakta’s longing to realize the immanence of God
as the indweller of the human heart is the most important lesson we can learn from Bhakti
tradition.
• Thus, He felt that, if Christians in India cultivate such longing, we would have reached higher
levels of spirituality than we have now. And it would have also helped us to live and work for
a fuller realization of God‘s abiding presence.
Prayer as Communion
• Prayer is fundamentally a means of communion with God. Appasamy points out that, it is
important to remember that the most uplifting and ennobling experience in life is fellowship
with God. We must approach God with an attitude of intimate fellowship rather than an
expectation. We need to merely admire God‘s goodness, truth and beauty. Therefore, it is
essential for us to be in God‘s presence.
VII. Christian Response to Freedom Movement and Nation Building
P.D. DEVANANDAN
• He was born in Madras(present Chennai) on 8 July 1901, and graduated
from Nizam College, Hyderabad. He did his M.A from Presidency College,
Madras.
• While studying at Madras, he was acquainted with K. T. Paul, a
prominent Social activist, Christian and YMCA leader.
• He taught briefly at Jaffna College, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. With assistance
from K.T. Paul, he went United States in 1924 and did
his theological studies at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
• He received his doctorate in Comparative religion from Yale University in
1931 for his dissertation on the concept of Maya in Hinduism.
• Upon his return to India in 1931, he was absorbed as a professor
of philosophy and religions at United Theological College,
Bangalore between 1932 and 1949 for seventeen years.
• He had a lasting and long association with Young Men's Christian
Association(YMCA); he worked as a secretary at the Delhi YMCA, and
later as national literature secretary at YMCA between 1949 and 1956.
• In 1954, he was ordained as a presbyter of the Church of South India. In
1956, he was appointed as the director of the new "Center for the study
of Hinduism" later renamed to "Christian Institute for the Study of Religion
and Society"(CISRS), Bangalore. His address to the Third Assembly of
the World Council of Churches at New Delhi in 1961, under the title
"Called to Witness," delivered few months before his death caught the
attention of the large ecumenical church. He died on 10 August 1962
at Dehra Dun, India, on his way to a conference at the Christian Retreat
and Study Centre.
Movements in Hinduism for national building
• 18th and 19th century, It has been a steady modification of the concepts of man
and of society in Hindu thought and practice.
• Perhaps the greatest force in making for this change was nationalism. In the earlier
phase the primary concern was to achieve political independence by throwing
off foreign rule.
• nation-building, the creation of a stable social structure, a pattern of society which
will promote a sense of national community, economic security and social justice.
• One of the characteristic features of Indian nationalism is that it has been closely
bound up with religion.
• Nationalism in India from its early beginnings turned to religion for its inspiration
and drive.
• This has been very obvious in the teachings of all" national leaders, beginning with
Ram Mohan Roy on to Vinoba· Bhave.
• To state it briefly, they laid emphasis on
• (i) worthfulness of the human individual;
• (ii) the equality of the sexes;
• (iii) freedom from social restrictions which prevented the development of
individual personality ;
• (iv) development of a sense of social solidarity which transcended the distinction
of class, caste and creed ; and
• (v) realization of social justice in the concrete situations of everyday concern.
• These were largely drawn from the Hindu intellectuals, and the concern was
concentrated on the removal of caste disabilities and the restoration of rights to
the woman in society: The spread of education which was increasingly influenced
by Western liberalism was another important factor.
• The very ideal of nationalism which claimed freedom as a birthright was due in
great part to the new education.
• the mass movement of satyagraha which was the final phase of
nationalism inspired by Mahatma Gandhi-all these were undoubtedly
influenced by Western concepts in regard to man and society.
• But at the ·same time increasing emphasis was also placed upon the
traditional concepts of Hindu religious orthodoxy.
• At first the reformers turned to the Upanishads. This was true in the
case of the Brahmo Samaj. It emphasis in Upanishadic literature for a
theistic justification for the new teaching about man in society.
• a later generation of reformers under the leadership of the Arya
Samaj turned instead to the Vedas, the Rigveda in particular.
• special sense Gita teaching lend themselves to the social needs of
the modern Hindu man.
• The Sankhyan analysis of human nature is easily adapted to the
contemporary need for explanation of economic and social disparity.
• Similarly, the Gita doctrine of nishkama karma seemingly gives
support and provides the motive for social service.
• A dynamic and religious faith to the modem Hindu understanding of
personality and community. Also, the Gita teachings about varna
dharma and karma samsara are frequently cited to explain the
modem view in regard to caste and the persistent belief in
transmigration.
Humanistic concern as a national building
• In 1931, Devanandan was in America. In one of his earliest published writings ("
Religion and Youth in America")
• he was sharp to acknowledge the challenge in the rise of humanistic philosophy
in the west. "
• Humanism is undermining orthodoxy," he wrote, breaking down the " old
cocksureness/confidence of an implicit faith.‖
• in 1938 at the SCM Rangoon Quadrennial Conference he and other concerned
Christians pressed for a Christian social order.
• "We as Christians ought to act as pioneers in radically removing the more
important social evils which are prevalent in India.
• Devanandan was also a passionately involved nationalist-both in the: pre-1947
struggles and the post-Independence "nation-building'' stage.
• He brought religious understanding and for national unity."
• his own views on the Christian's contribution within the national struggle-partly
influenced by K. T. Paul.
• He says that the Christian's contribution is a mission of peace, not unrelated to the
Great Commission to preach the good news "to all nations. ―
• he felt that human must efforts to achieve national unity must reckon with the
living God who is the generating power of all true community being.
• From this insight two of Devanandan's deepest convictions are revealed.
• The first is that the fulfillment of the goals of humanism are in every way associated
with the fulfillment of God's purpose foremen.
• secondly, behind the concern to pinpoint the areas of Christian humanistic
responsibility. Devanandan is stressing a concept of religion as down to earth. If
the Christian faith stands for anything at all it stands for the redemption of the
whole human.
• Socially, Devanandan was aware of the awful fact of human need. and
therefore, for Christian diakonia (service among other) or building in
response to it.
• he was also aware and attempt to eradicate social evils.
• He says that the task of restructuring society must be,
• firstly, associated with the ultimate hope of the coming of the Kingdom of
God " when all the children of men shall have been transformed to
become the children of God."
• secondly, a view of man and his worth can only be measured in terms of
man as God's creature .
Theocentric
• When he took up a teaching post in the United Theological College.
• He was very much a child of the theological liberalism of his day.
• But towards the end of the 1930s, and largely as a result of the influence
of Hendrik Kraemer.
• He felt an emptiness in the Liberal tradition which became increasingly
evident to him.
• After Devanandan's death, his friend and colleague, M.M. Thomas wrote:
• As a student of theological liberalism which reduced his Christianity to a
kind of religious philosophy, he revolted against it and found in Kraemer
a basis for the renewal of his theology. It means not of destroying gospel.
• The essence of the Gospel is not a new teaching about God; it is the
good news that" God so loved the world."
• means a new recognition of God the Creator as the
sovereign of every part of life.
• there is redemptive activity in the world. In the Kingdom of
God which has now come upon us.
• God's purpose for the world; he is moving it towards an
end involving all of human life and relationships in a
transformation.
• God was in secular history, to all those who through faith
could discern His movements, making it salvation history.
• So he created new Theo-centricity for a Christian
humanism.
• all involved a revaluation of the meaning of human.
The New Creation
• According to Devanandan humanism can not be complete without paying
full attention to the concept of the New Creation.
• New creation as a national building. Bringing liberation also as a new
creation.
• As we await a fulfillment, which has its " earnest" in the here, and now-" a new
humanity is now in the making."
• Thus, central to Devanandan's understanding is the view that God's salvation
for men bring newness.
• For Devanandan salvation was " for" a "new humanity to which and for which
we are saved."
• we can discern the pattern of God's working, which is also revealed in the
New Man, Jesus Christ.
• God himself in Christ has initiated a reconciliation between men and God,
which breaks down the barriers, and takes in the " whole network of human
relations.‖
• God's purpose for human should not be separated from the work of bringing
men to a realization of their worth and dignity in modern humanism.
• since Christ he has already made possible man's redemption and fulfillment
of his destiny.
• The vital link between what men do and what God has done and is now
doing in the ferment is Jesus Christ.
• He is the New Man in whom the New Creation is a present reality.
• Devanandan, There is "a new humanity in the making, in which all men are
being reconciled to God, one to another and each to his own self."
P. CHENCHIAH
• Pandipeddi Chenchiah (1886–1959),a second
generation indigenous convert to Christianity.
• was a South Indian Christian theologian, and radical thinker of Rethinking
Christianity in India group for Indianization of Christianity.
• He published Rethinking Christianity in India, as an Indian Christian answer
to Non-Christian World.
• He along with his brother-in-law Vengal Chakkarai were the founders
of Madras Christo Samaj, influenced by Calcutta Christo Samaj founded
by K.C. Banerjee and J.G. Shome

Religion
• Chenchiah promoted a progressive and reformist view of religion.
• In his own words, Religious outlook has changed profoundly in two
respects in the shift of emphasis;
• 1. From other-worldliness to life in the world;
• 2. From individualistic to social.
• If religions refuse to face social and economic problems, they die.
• Chenchiah advocate for religion in the face of secularist.
• Whether ethics should be reflected from religion.
• The history of Christianity and Hinduism in their long
perspectives teaches us that the freedom of spirit is never
a danger to religion and the true danger comes from
solid structures of words and samskaras.
• Thus, true religion for Chenchiah centered in vital personal
experience lived out in society.
• Chenchiah‘s impatience towards orthodoxy and
organized religion did not necessitate.
• rejected of the standard paradigm of various world
religions.
• transformational approach did set him up for undermining
the traditional reified categories associated with religion.
Nationalism: Challenge of Hindu Renaissance
• The nationalist movement, a movement was for specific
purpose for the removal of foreign domination, provided a
new context for the Church to rethink its mission.
• Nationalism was linked with a reassertion of Hinduism and its
values.
• A response to the Hindu Renaissance was there. It was integral
part of Christian witness in modern India.
• A social issue that was widely discussed in regard to this is the
attitude of Christians to other faiths and the relation of the
Gospel to the claims of other religions.
• P. Chenchiah, who was committed to this task, articulates the
need for a change in the Christian attitude to Hinduism in these
words:
• People like Chenchiah, V Chakkarai, A. J. Appasamy and
others made the affirmation that the living forces of Hinduism
could be ―a positive key to the still inaccessible riches of
Hinduism.
• They were not content with a mere intellectual approach to
Hinduism but wanted to enter into the spirit of Hindu
religion with a desire to learn new things about their own faith
and to express them on the basis of their encounter.
• A positive attitude towards Hinduism and other faiths was based
on the faith in the universal Lordship of Christ.
• many Indian theologians say that God is already at work in
whatever area of life which Christian is speaking to make the
Gospel effective.
Nation Building: Service, Development and Justice
• According to chenchiah the struggle for independence and
the process of nation building have also brought challenges to
the churches with regard to its social and political witness.
• The question was posed as to how to witness to Christ in the
midst of socio-political changes? A conviction widely shared
that Christ was present in social and political realities and
transforming them.
• Witnessing to the Gospel in the social and political context was
a theme developed by the synod of the Church of South India
that met in 1962.
• concerning Indian church‘s thinking on social questions. It
• He believes that the Church is created by God to be a people
wholly unto the Lord and to seek the establishment of
Righteousness, Mercy and Love in human society.
• The synod called upon all Christian institutions, congregations
and individuals to take seriously their responsibilities in relation
to:
• 1) The need to offer the love and compassion of God in
Christ to all sorts and conditions of human;
• 2) The need to establish within the life of the Church a
fellowship transcending distinction of caste and class;
• 3) The need that each Christian should be a politically
conscious and responsible citizen;
• 4) The need to witness to the kingdom of God, to set
forth and establish in society both the love and the
righteousness of God in Christ;
• 5) The need to make Christians in ‗secular occupation‘
realise that their occupations themselves which supply
the physical and economic needs of society are also in
the plan and purpose of God for the total redemption of
society.
Chenchiah on Christianity
• Christian Society must the Study of Hinduism to promote
truth in Hinduism.
• It will give to the Christian an understanding of the Hindu
mind and Hindu religious psychology so that Christ may
be presented to the Hindu
• ....It will be our constant endeavor to present Christ to the
Hindu and Hinduism to the Christian.
• the Indian Christian must represent the redemption.
• The Indian Christian should be the embodiment of Indian
Christianity and our Programme will be to give body,
features, language, utterance to Indian Christianity.
• Indian Christians alone can put the majesty and
magnitude of Christian salvation to intelligible of Hindu.
• Indian Christianity must welcomes Jesus into the Indian
heart to be the indwelling Lord.
• Indian Christianity as a blueprint consists of new lines of
Christian thought and activity.
• he suggested "We need to shift Christianity in India from
creed to conduct, and from conduct to new life,―
• he focused on Christian literature, suggesting that the
"Indian Christian has done very little in this field".
• "every problem has a Christian solution (i.e.) a solution
which uplifts and enlarges human."
• Indian Christians have not shown any initiative in
originating and maintaining institutions.
• Depending too much on foreign help they have lost self-
help.
• The very fact that religion cannot move without money in
[the] modern world shows how far Indian Christians have
moved away from true sources of power.
• But Before [the] Roman state became Christian the
Christians were among the poorest in the state but
spiritually most powerful. Spiritual power and Holy Spirit do
not go with money.
Jesus Christ
• According to Chenchiah Jesus Christ represents a new being
different from either God or man.
• He is God-man, not merely hyphenated God-man.
• He is the product of God and man. He is a new emergence,
'the first of a new race', a new creation‗.
• In Christ, God's ideal/morality of a New man takes historical
shape.
• He is the first born, the pattern of the new creation, the Adi-
purusha of a new creation.
• substantial unity between God and Christ as traditional
theology holds.
• Between Christ and God, a measure of unity is conceived it is
not complete unity nor is its complete difference.
• God is God, man is man.
• 'The two have met in Jesus, not merely met, but fused/attached
into one, into a new being.
• The traditional two-nature doctrine of Christ is also irrelevant as
far as Chenchiah was concerned,
• He is the God-man. Along with Chakkarai, Chenchiah holds
that the human element in Christ is not· temporary but
permanent.
The Work of Christ, the New Creation
• The ministry and works of Jesus Christ is not primarily to restore
humanity to its original condition but to produce a new stage.
• the works of Salvation does not consist in sinlessness, but in life-
fulness.
• work of Christ is for 'New Creation‗.
• Example: As God in Jesus and has made a 'new creation'. In
him is the manifestation of a new cosmic energy.
• In him is the emergence of a new life, not bound by Karma.
• Therefore, Christ's saving work is in the new quality of our life.
• Jesus produced a newness in our life.
• human must attempt to reproduce Christ in them through yoga
of the Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit is to inspire and help men to be united with Christ
and thus participate in the quality of the new life.
• The Holy Spirit according to Chenchiah is the divine cosmic
energy which in Jesus and through Jesus entered the universe.
• The work of the Holy Spirit, the new cosmic energy, in the life of
the individual is given a great deal of significance in
Chenchiah's thought.
V. Chakkarai
• Vengal Chakkarai Chettiar (17 January 1880 – 14 June 1958) was an Indian
Christian theologian, missionary, independence activist, politician and trade
unionist.
• Chakkarai was born to a Hindu Chettiar family. He was educated at the
Scottish Mission School, Madras Christian College, graduating in 1901 after
majoring in philosophy.
• He aslo studied at Madras Law College, and practiced for some time as a
lawyer.
• In 1913, Chakkarai joined the Danish Mission Room as a Christian preacher
and worked as a missionary for twenty years.
• During these years, he also became a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and
participated in the Indian independence movement.
• He served as mayor of Madras from 1941 to 1942.
Indian Freedom Fighter and Christian Theologian
• Chakkarai unique and worthy of recognition. He was willing to challenge the
church‘s mainstream attitude regarding social issues and dependence on
foreign resources.
• Chakkarai called the Indian church to reconsider how much freedom truly
existed in their worship.
• participation in the independence movement that Chakkarai began to see
the extent of Western influence in the life of Indian Christians.
• He frequently expressed a longing for freedom for Indian Christians to
think for themselves and develop their theology and practices from
the treasures of their Indian heritages.
• Chakkarai‘s efforts to connect his Hindu past with an indigenous
theology were the result of his nationalistic sympathies rather than a
genuine Christian conviction.
• Chakkarai sought for the Indian church to not be pressured to
conform to the ―organization‖ of foreign church authorities but instead
to be full of life as an ―organism‖ rooted in Indian soil.
• He had no desire to demonize the Indian church itself, his frequent
challenges to the local churches‘ dependence on foreign influence
was often ill received.
• Chakkarai wrote, ―Those Indian Christian young men who threw
themselves into the political propaganda were looked upon as even
traitors to the Lord, because they would not prove traitors to their
motherland.‖
• his efforts in promoting an indigenous Christianity on the national level.
Theology
• Chakkarai tried to explain the Christian faith through the Hinduism point of
view. Some of the Chakkarai's point of view about Christianity faith:
• Jesus is truly human (sat purusa).
• Holy Spirit is Christ himself who continues to exist and work until now.
• God cannot be seen as the creator of sin.
• Humans themselves are responsible for the sins that they commit.
• Knowledge of God is not something that is intellectual (jnana), but a personal
experience of God (anubhava).
• Sin is seen as the handcuffs (pasa), which prevents the human soul (pasu) to
reach God.
Jesus the Avatar
• Jesus Christ is the essential thing in Christianity. He is the unique Avatar of God
(avatar par excellence)
• In Him is the real avarohana (descent) of God. As Avatar, He is the revealer of
God.
• The incarnation does not end by the crucifixion but is permanent and is still
today advancing to new depths of meaning.
• The incarnation is not temporary or static but is permanent and dynamic.
• classical Hindu theory of avatara is that it comes into the world ·from time to
time, as need arises, and then disappears and is reabsorbed in God. But
Chakkarai regards the Christ event as singular, once and for all times.
• The avatara does not cease with the cross or ascension, but God in Christ still
continues to be man, living and working in the lives of believers.
Humanity and Divinity
• Jesus the Avatar is both human and divine. As said above, the humanity is
real and permanent. The uniqueness of his humanity is found particularly in
two respects: (1) his prayer life and (2) his sinlessness.
• The divinity of Christ was not the result of an apotheosis, but he was God
always. His divinity is particularly seen in two facts: (1) the resurrection and (2)
the indwelling of the risen Lord in the believers.
• The resurrection and the transformation of the human body into a spiritual
body is the result of bhakti (love) and sakti (energy) in Jesus. The divinity of
Christ is also attested by His indwelling in His bhaktas.
• Chakkarai says, ' Whereas the Indian incarnations, for instance, Rama and
Krishna, were temporary and passed away, but the Christian view that we are
describing is that it is abiding and permanent.
Christ and the Holy Spirit:
• The Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ in the human personality.
'Jesus Christ is the Incarnation or Avatar of God; the Holy
Spirit in human experience is the incarnation of Jesus
Christ.' Jesus as Holy Spirit not only inspires every bhakta,
but also animates the Sangha (the Church).
Jesus and Humanity
• Jesus is true Man (sat purusha), the original pattern in the
mind of God after whom all men have been fashioned. To
quote, ' He is the Sat Purusha; and though we are not as
at, we are dominated by maya. In Jesus the maya is cast
off, and transcended and His full glory and light have
shone on the world.' Christ is the spiritual background of all
humanity, the mula purusha.
The Work of Christ
• In explaining God's act of redemption in Jesus Christ. he
uses many terms and phrases in the traditional and
biblical sense.
• Through the moral sakti of His redemptive suffering, Christ
eradicates the disease of sin.
• Under the influence of Christ's sakti the sinner turns, after
the long night of sin.
• The way of salvation lies in union with Christ in bhakti
which involves the cross and suffering.
• He Made implication this idea in to context.
• it involves the redemption of society from the sins of the
social order. He has much to say about social justice, and
the solidarity of the individual with society, and brings
them into his comprehensive view of the Kingdom of God.
M.M THOMAS
• Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas was born on 15th May 1916 at
Kavungumprayar and brought up at Kozhencherry in Travancore
which is now called Kerala,
• (1916—1996) was an Indian Christian theologian, social thinker, and
activist. He served as Governor of the Indian State, Nagaland (1990–
1992), and as the Chairperson of the Central Committee of World
Council of Churches (1968–1975).
• He was a rural lower middle-class family background. His father
Mammen was a Gandhian socialist, who worked as secretary of a
local Corporative Society
• His father was a pious and active member of the Syrian Mar Thoma
Church of Malabar and was an active evangelist and enthusiastic
patriot.
• was involved in the Independence Movement in India during the Salt
Satygraha.
• Thomas‘ mother was a school-teacher. Thomas had his early
education in a school that was run by his church in his own village. He
was regular to church service, Sunday school meetings and cottage
prayer meetings of the church.
• He believed in the importance of prayer; he was convinced that
intercession for a personal, social and religious life would impact the
society towards humanization.
• Thomas used books such as Self-Training in Prayer and Self-Training in
Meditation.
• the spirituality of Thomas was characterized by the
evangelical, sacramental tradition and the liturgical
tradition of his church. He was so carried away by this
evangelical spirituality during his early period that he had
no attention for the social.
National building
• Social responsibility: from the impact of Thomas‘ personal
salvation was great importance in his search for social
dharma and responsibility.
• He writes ―The self-consciousness that Jesus Christ is the
ground and goal of my life became deep rooted in me. I
dedicated myself to God in Jesus Christ on that occasion
and it marks the beginning of my search for Christian
social dharma.‖
• Thomas writes: I felt compelled to re-state my
understanding of Christ in the context of my new
discovery of the richness of other religions on the one
hand and my slow awakening to the social implications of
the Gospel on the other.
• In Search of Political Responsibility (1977–1992): Thomas, after his
retirement from WCC and CISRS, at the age of 61, became actively
involved in political action.
• During this period, he was actively involved in politics, fighting for
democratic rights and freedom of the people.
• He did this, as an ordinary responsible citizen and in his capacity as the
governor of Nagaland.
• Nagaland is one the states of India in the North East. The Nagas are a
tribal community and Nagaland is a Christian state.
• A Quest and search for ideologies: Thomas began to associate and
interact with different people and ideologies, he began to realize the
one-sidedness of his evangelical background.
• His quest for ideologies started when he realized the social implications of
the gospel and the need for the transformation and humanization of the
society.
• He says ―Ever since I accepted that Christian Faith had social and
political implications, I considered the quest for Ideology as integrally
necessary to witness to the faith in concrete historical situations.‖
• In this search he was attracted to several ideologies and accepted them
critically and even tried to Christianize them for the sake of the possibility
of a ‗New Humanity‘ and ‗New Community in Christ.‘
• Christians must involve themselves with others in creating and promoting
ideologies which are informed by Christian insights and which can help
the people in their struggle for justice.‖ He explains ideology as ―a sort of
social analysis, an analysis of the power-situation in terms of the
interrelation of the forces of caste, class, religion, etc.‖
• Humanism
• Another ideology that influenced his concept of salvation
and humanization was humanism.
• Thomas acknowledged the role of humanism, and in
particular new humanism, in bringing justice and equality
to humanity.
• new humanism recognizes ‗individual freedom and
equality between man and woman, and among all
people in the society.‘ Thomas considered Christ the
source for a new humanism.
• According to his perception, it is Christ who transcends
cultures and transforms life of community.
• Therefore, according to Thomas, one should ―present
Christ who transcends all cultures and incarnates Himself
in all cultures, as the source of a New Humanism, for
integration of cultures.‖
Secularism
• The presence of religious pluralism in India and the
realities of its challenges made Thomas to move towards
opting for a secular ideology of the state that would
undertake the social and religious freedom of all people.
• Thomas defines secularism as ―a movement from a
sacred to a secular ethos in corporate life.‖ It is ―a revolt
against the control of traditional religion over social and
political life.‖
• This concept of secular state had two features: the
declaration of religious liberty as a fundamental civil right
of every citizen and the coexistence of different religions
and cultures in dynamic interaction for a peaceful life.
• These elements of Indian secularism were a result of the
impact of western democratic and socialist secular
ideologies.
• Thomas believed that secularization delivers men from the
superstitions and oppressive religious institutions and
dogmatism.
Theology of M.M Thomas
• Salvation: Thomas states that salvation is ―the
transcendent ultimate destiny of human beings.‖
• Salvation according to Thomas is ―the spiritual inwardness
of true humanization and [that] humanization is inherent in
the message of salvation in Christ.‖
• Thomas therefore sees a close link between salvation and
humanization; salvation includes humanization and
humanization include salvation.
• Salvation has to do with the inwardness of the person; it is
the salvation of the soul.
• ―Salvation itself could be defined as humanization.
• Thus, salvation is the ‗realization of man‘s humanity‘ and
connected with the ultimate and eschatological destiny
of people.
• Humanization: Thomas coined the term humanization in
1971. For Thomas, humanization means making the
human genuinely and fully human, liberated from all
social, political and religious dehumanization.
• The inwardness of humanization is salvation and the outward-
ness of salvation is humanization.
• He writes ―Salvation has always been seen by Christian missions
in India in close integration with humanization. Indian
theologians such as P. Chenchiah have even sought to define
Christ and his salvation in terms of the ‗new humanity‘ offered
by God for the ultimate humanization of all humankind.‖
• Thomas believed humanization is possible in and through Christ,
as Christ is the source and foundation of true humanization.
Christ is the source because he is the new and perfect
humanity; through his death and resurrection he offers a fuller
and a richer life.
Humanization as new humanity in Christ: Thomas interprets
humanization as ‗New Humanity‘ in Christ. Jesus Christ is the New
Humanity, the ideal humanity who came to this world to make
the dehumanized community a new humanity in God through
Christ.
• God is at work in the world in Christ through the church with the
goal of making human community as a new humanity.
• New humanity according to Thomas was ―the restoration of the
human person in Christ as God‘s free creative agent in the
divine act of new creation to restore the wholeness of the entire
universe throughout history.‖
• According to Thomas traditions and technologies have to be
humanized so that they support eco-justice and social justice
which would lead to a new humanity in Christ.
• Thomas writes ―The new humanity revealed in Jesus Christ is the
instrument of constant revolution in social history.
Mission as Humanization
• Thomas believed that the church should exercise ―a divine
option for the poor‖, striving for the humanization of people
especially the poor and the marginalized like Dalits, tribal and
women.
• The church should involve in the prophetic mission of
humanization in the context of religious pluralism,
technological development and modernization. The focus
should be justice to the whole person, social justice to the poor
and the marginalized and justice to the organic natural basis of
production and reproduction of life on earth.
X. Intra And Inter-Faith Dialogue: Towards A Community of
Communities (ABHISHIKTANANDA)
Swami Abhishiktananda
• Swami Abhishiktananda was not a professional systematic theologian.
• 30 August 1910, in Saint Briac, Brittany – 7 December 1973,
in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India)
• was a French monk who, having moved to India in 1948 in search of a
more radical form of spiritual life, adopted sannyasa in accordance
with Indian tradition and became one of the pioneers of Hindu-
Christian dialogue.
• Multiple contacts with prominent saints such as Sri Ramana
Maharshi, Sri Gnanananda Giri and Sri H.W.L. Poonja, led him to
profound advaitic experience as well as to final recognition of the
truth of advaita during the last years of his life.
• Swamiji himself had theological conversation partners like Raimon
Panikkar.
• his sannyasa was a justification for the double initiation Hindu and
Christian.
Methodology
Abhishiktananda is an early example of theological
reflection that has experience as its starting point and
context.
• He discovers a commentary of these in the Upanishads,
which convey the experiences of other sages. He
engages in a spiritual dialogue with these sages, seeking
to share their advaitic experience rather than an
intellectual dialogue with the different schools of Indian
philosophy/theology.
• his methodology is that it is dialogical in an interreligious
context. His dialogue is not a comparative study of
religions by someone who is outside them.
• His approach is not even comparative theology that
explores similar theological systems by placing them side
by side, while respecting their specificity.
The Theology of Religions
• The current orthodoxy suggests that, not only Jesus Christ, but also the
Church is the only ‗way‘ to salvation.
• Though people belonging to other religions may be saved in ways
known to God alone, the other religions are not such ways.
• In India, a seminar in 1973, the other religions are seen as valid ‗ways‘
to God. Theologians in India would today widely accept the other
religions as ‗ways‘ to God or salvation.
• asking whether we can consider the Scriptures of other religions as
inspired.
• other religions belong to the Cosmic covenant so that their scriptures
can be considered inspired analogously. (Genesis 1:22).
• namely salvation, being one, the believers of other religions are seen
as co-pilgrims to the same goal
• Swamiji contributed to such openness to other religions in his own
way.
• he considered that the advaitic experience of the Ultimate went
beyond ‗names and forms‘ of any kind, whether Hindu or Christian.
• God is ultimate, beyond, seek moksha (liberation) through
recognizing this illusoriness of the phenomenal world and
acquiring vidyā (knowledge)of one's true identity as Atman, and the
identity of Atman and Brahman.
• The theology of religions will have to break out of traditional
paradigms like ‗exclusivism, but dialogue had inclusivism and
pluralism.
• the many manifestations and ways to the Absolute. The Absolute itself
transcends all that is relative.
Christ
• For him Jesus Christ is the great manifestation who assumes all of us in
his own advaitic union with the Father.
• Jesus is a person who has totally discovered, realized his mystery… His
name is ‗I AM‘…
• He has shown and has opened the way out of samsara, the
phenomenal world. he is beyond the heavens – which is the mystery
of the Father.
• In discovering the Father, he has not found an ―Other‖: I and the
Father are one. In the only Spirit, he has discovered his non-duality
with Yahweh; it is the Spirit that is the link, the non-duality.
• It is in this way that Jesus ‗saves. It is this advaitic communion with the
Father and the Spirit that makes Swamiji say ―Christ is not a
namarupa.‖
The Advaita/God
• The absoluteness of the ultimate mystery is discovered in
the absoluteness by Him.
• God are no longer notions which man tries desperately to
understand by way of analogy. So it is not sufficent.
• Then God is no longer a HE about whom men dare to
speak among themselves, nor even THOU/YOU.
• God is discovered and experienced as I, the ―aham asmi‖
of the Upanishads. FOR example of the Burning Bush.
• He lived this non-duality with absolute intensity/power.
The Advaita and the Trinity
• Swamiji speaks of the relations between Jesus, the Trinity
and the advaitic experience.
• The Trinity can only be understood in the experience of
advaita. The Trinity is an experience, not a
theologumenon [theological formulation].
• Swamiji suggests often that the Trinity is the Greek way of
explaining the experience of Jesus.
• ―The Trinity, is the way in which God appears to human
beings in the circle of believers in Jesus. The Trinity only
exists in relationship to us.
• No formula can explain the mystery of Being.‖ But when
Jesus has his advaitic experience of ―aham asmi‖ [I AM]
the Trinity can be understood.
• The Trinity is God, the original source, Brahman; It is the
atman, the universal presence of God… And finally, there
is the atmavan, God in the form of a person, ―one
equipped with an atman‖, with the spirit [pneuma].
• To tell the truth, there is only one Person in the Trinity, and
that is Christ, the Purusha.
The Contemplative Church and the Interreligious Dialogue
• He believed that the Church needed to reclaim its
contemplative roots because she was facing two difficult
challenges in the contemporary world.
• Firstly, the modern Western world, which consider
Christianity to be, at best.
• he always hoped and prayed that the Church could be
redeemed by those ―deep contemplative souls‖
• thus ensuring that church can open herself to the
dialogue with the other religions.
• Abhishiktånanda clearly linked the spiritual awakening of
the Church to the dialogue with the deeply
contemplative and spiritual religious traditions.
• In 1960s, He also makes a comment regarding the Second
Vatican Council. He says ―the Vatican Council took it for
granted that salvation is open to any sincere man.
• Abhishiktånanda links contemplation not only to the Hindi-
Christian dialogue, but also to any interreligious dialogue.
• To be fully Catholic, or universal, the Church must
integrate into her own life all nations, all cultures and all
languages.
• Just as Christianity incorporated Judaism and Greek
thought, so the Church could incorporate Hindu thought.
• Abhishiktånanda‘s perspective, the dialogue with
Hinduism is as needed as was the dialogue with the
Hellenistic world in the early Church.
• the Church developed within the religious and
philosophical context of the Hellenistic world.