DOCSLIB.ORG

Seeking India's Christ-Bearing Word

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Seeking India's Christ-Bearing Word Gospel Ferment in India among both Hindus and Christians Seeking India’s Christ-Bearing Word Some Reflections—Historical, Indological, and Theological— on the Quest for a “Christian” Vedanta by Richard Fox Young Who Needs to Rethink Hinduism and Why? o start these discussions off, let me share with you a few cursory observations of a philological nature on a Sanskrit word commonly T used in the Vedantic tradition, a word that comes close to describ- ing what I regard as a necessary predisposition for doing what this forum invites us to do, which is to “rethink” Hinduism. The word I wish to draw attention to is jijnasa, a desiderative form of the root verb jna, to “know” or “understand.” In the Vedantic tradition, salvific knowledge, mokashajnana or muktijnana, isn’t for just anyone, isn’t a universal entitlement. To qualify for it, one must seek for it single-mindedly, out of an overwhelming sense of urgency, because no other knowledge is more desirable, more salvifically con- sequential. Jijnasa, of course, isn’t the only prerequisite (among other quali- fications, one must also have a front-to-back familiarity with the Vedas), but without jijnasa, the predisposition to rigorously rethink the assumptions we routinely make, one might as well stay home (in the idiom of the Indian tradition, as a householder, grhastha), conduct oneself well according to the dharma, pursue the good things of life (artha, wealth, and kama, pleasure), and transmigrate a while longer to realize just how inconsequential all these things really are, compared with salvific knowledge. To repeat, one just isn’t ready for Vedanta unless the glint of jijnasa shines in one’s eyes.1 Since at this forum we too are being invited to rethink certain assumptions, the assumptions we routinely make about Hinduism, it wouldn’t hurt to muster up some jijnasa ourselves, or to talk about doing so in a Vedantic idiom even though the idiom isn’t ours. Otherwise we’ll find ourselves going around and around in a sansara of our own making, an endlessly repeating, ever worsening cycle of ignorance, superimposing upon Hinduism the same invidious misunderstandings of the past, like people who jump back in fear every time they see a coil of rope because they can’t help seeing it as a coiled snake. I’ll switch to a more familiar idiom in just a moment, but Vedanta Richard Fox Young, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of the History of Religions at here provides us with its own analogy for what we’re doing, a very familiar Princeton Theological Seminary. analogy for the way in which the true and the real (sat) gets confused with International Journal of Frontier Missions 19:3 Fall 2002•19 20 Seeking India’s Christ-Bearing Word Richard Fox Young 21 the false and the unreal (asat). It is at this point a whole cluster of collat- izing, reifying effect of referring to an analogy that can also speak to eral questions rears up. Among them, I this loose agglomeration by a single us cross-culturally about the need to address the following: which Hinduism name, “Hinduism,” sometimes seem rethink Hinduism and not be deceived do Christians need to rethink? where exaggerated or simply pedantic. by appearances. For that task, the pre- should Christian rethinking begin? The caution, however, is to be taken disposition of jijnasa is a prerequisite. how should Christian rethinking seriously, especially here, because to proceed? and—the most difficult of talk of rethinking Hinduism without Since, however, we are invited here to all— purpose(s) should Christian reference to contextually specifi- rethink Hinduism as Christians, the what rethinking serve? able, concrete particularities would glint of jijnasa in our eyes isn’t the only end in abstractions that would only thing, or even the main thing, Let me anticipate for you the trajec- themselves need further rethinking at required of us. Christian jijnasa must tory of my discussion by re-phrasing a subsequent forum. be accompanied by a change of heart the last question, the toughest, like and not only of mind, which is to say, this: would any other purpose than To sort through the multiform phe- in a more congenial idiom of our own, thinking about Hinduism with a view nomena that we sloppily, if inadver- that the proper predisposition of a toward its Christ-bearing potential tently, render uniform with the label Christian for the task at hand is that be sufficient to warrant a call for “Hinduism,” anthropology offers of metanoia, a turning from the false some helpful schemes of classification, and the unreal toward the true and especially the Great Tradition/Little the real. We need metanoia as well as I submit that Tradition distinction formulated years jijnasa because of the misunderstand- conservatives, who see a ago by Robert Redfield. According ings we superimpose upon Hinduism, to this, one of the primary and as if the Commandment not to bear venomous snake in every most symptomatic features of Great false witness against our neighbors harmless rope, need to Tradition Hinduism would be its tex- doesn’t apply to the faithful of this tuality, the fact of its being embedded religion or others. rethink Hinduism . and in the Veda and its auxiliary literature the same goes for liberals, in Sanskrit, and along with textual- It isn’t, therefore, only to rethink ity there is the literacy that textuality Hinduism that we are meeting, but who see a harmless rope in implies. It follows from this, of course, also, I would suppose, to rethink every venomous that Great Tradition Hinduism is Christianity and who we are as about as universal, or pan-Indian Christians in relation to Hinduism. I snake. as Indian religions ever get, because would further suppose that rethinking radical “rethinking”? That is not literate communities everywhere enjoy Hinduism—intellectually and meta- virtually unlimited access to it. noically—as faithful Christians who to deny, of course, that other, non- confess that the misunderstandings theological purposes would be served Where Little Tradition Hinduism is we’ve been content to perpetuate, is by rethinking Hinduism, or that I concerned, one of its most primary something we all need to do, whatever downplay the need to be more aware and symptomatic features would be theological tag we care to wear, con- of them—I refer here to the academic orality, the fact of its being embedded servative, liberal, or something else. discipline of the history of religions, in unwritten texts, which implies the about which theologians need to be absence of literacy, although oral texts At the risk of caricature, I submit that more cognizant if their theologies of can be just as complex and highly conservatives, who see a venomous religion are to be anything more than developed as written texts. It fol- snake in every harmless rope, need to a priori abstractions. lows from this that Little Tradition rethink Hinduism (Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism is geographically localized etc.), and the same goes for liber- Which Hinduism Do and linguistically restrictive, since for als, who see a harmless rope in every reasons of language anyone who isn’t venomous snake. As unlike in their Christians Need to Rethink? Because “Hinduism,” like all world a part of the community will find it theologies as conservatives and liber- difficult of access. als are, they are at least alike in being religions, our own included, is a aloof from, or indifferent to, the deep, semi-fictional construct of European As obvious as it seems, it needs to be origin, superimposed upon a loose jijnasa-like and metanoic engagement further observed in this connection with Hinduism (or, for that matter, agglomeration of variable and con- that Great Tradition Hinduism, being Buddhism, Islam, etc.) that this trastive phenomena, any rethinking of Sanskritic, contextually specifies the forum refers to as “rethinking” what it, by theologians or non-theologians, religious complex of the privileged we think we already know. ought to be contextually specifiable, minority, a miniscule community in by which I mean verifiable in regard terms of percentages, whereas Little To say that Christians across the to concrete particularities. One can Tradition Hinduism contextually board need to “rethink” Hinduism, hardly afford in today’s academic specifies the religious complex of the intellectually and metanoically, isn’t climate to be slack in this regard, even marginalized majority, known in saying very much, of course, because though concerns about the essential- today’s nomenclature as Dalits (or in International Journal of Frontier Missions 19:3 Fall 2002 20 Seeking India’s Christ-Bearing Word Richard Fox Young 21 the outdated Gandhian terminology themes that Advaita Vedanta perenni- The objection is one to which I am of the past as Harijans, and so forth). ally addresses with a variety of per- sensitive. One would have to search mutations, two stand out as being of long and hard for a Vedantic coun- One can get more contextually spe- special relevance for Christian rethink- terpart to Christian theologies of cific than this, and it would, of course, ing: the Brahman/ dichotomy, liberation, because the only liberation be the responsible thing to do, but my Ishvara or the ontological difference between of interest to classical Vedanta is the purpose is only to suggest a way, a way unqualified ( ) and qualified liberation from rebirth ( ). among others, in which our rethink- nirguna samsara ( ) being ( ), and its corol- But such theologies have emerged ing of Hinduism might be made saguna sat lary, the epistemological trichotomy among neo-Vedantins even in Dalit more verifiable in regard to concrete between 1) transempirical ( communities, as was demonstrated particularities.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Absent Vedas
    The Absent Vedas Will SWEETMAN University of Otago The Vedas were first described by a European author in a text dating from the 1580s, which was subsequently copied by other authors and appeared in transla- tion in most of the major European languages in the course of the seventeenth century. It was not, however, until the 1730s that copies of the Vedas were first obtained by Europeans, even though Jesuit missionaries had been collecting Indi- an religious texts since the 1540s. I argue that the delay owes as much to the rela- tive absence of the Vedas in India—and hence to the greater practical significance for missionaries of other genres of religious literature—as to reluctance on the part of Brahmin scholars to transmit their texts to Europeans. By the early eighteenth century, a strange dichotomy was apparent in European views of the Vedas. In Europe, on the one hand, the best-informed scholars believed the Vedas to be the most ancient and authoritative of Indian religious texts and to preserve a monotheistic but secret doctrine, quite at odds with the popular worship of multiple deities. The Brahmins kept the Vedas, and kept them from those outside their caste, especially foreigners. One or more of the Vedas was said to be lost—perhaps precisely the one that contained the most sublime ideas of divinity. By the 1720s scholars in Europe had begun calling for the Vedas to be translated so that this secret doctrine could be revealed, and from the royal library in Paris a search for the texts of the Vedas was launched.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Curriculum Vitae Francis X. Clooney, S.J. Parkman Professor of Divinity
    Curriculum Vitae Francis X. Clooney, S.J. Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions Harvard Divinity School 45 Francis Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 384-9396 [email protected] http://www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty/clooney.cfm Educational Data 1984 Ph.D., University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations 1978 M.Div., Weston School of Theology; with distinction 1973 B.A., Fordham University; Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Doctorates College of the Holy Cross, 2011 Australian Catholic University, 2012 Corresponding Fellow, British Academy, 2010- Memberships and Editorial Boards American Academy of Religion Board of Directors, 2003-2008 Executive Committee, 2005-2006 Chair, Publications Committee, 2003-2005 Hinduism Group, Steering Committee, 2003-2005 Comparative Theology Group, Founder and Member, 2006- American Theological Society, 1998- Boston Theological Society, 1984- Catholic Theological Society of America; Board of Directors (2001-2003) Center for Faith and Culture at Saint Michael's College (Vermont), 2005- 1 Coordinator for Interreligious Dialogue, Society of Jesus, United States, 1998-2004; National Dialogue Advisory Board, Society of Jesus, 2005-9 Dilatato Corde, Editorial Board, 2010- European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Editorial Board, 2007- International Journal of Hindu Studies, Editorial Board International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies: First President, 1994-1996; Chair, Book Committee,
    [Show full text]
  • 314 Francis X. Clooney S.J. Western Jesuit Scholars in India Is An
    314 book reviews 340 Francis X. Clooney S.J. Western Jesuit Scholars in India: Tracing Their Paths, Reassessing Their Goals. Jesuit Studies: Modernity through the Prism of Jesuit History, 28. Leiden: Brill, 2020. Pp. xviii + 288. Hb, $134.00. Western Jesuit Scholars in India is an eminently readable critical survey of four centuries of Jesuit scholarship in India. The Jesuit mission in India was inaugurated by Francis Xavier (1506–52) who arrived in Goa in the year 1542, followed by a long line of Jesuits who made significant contributions to lit- erary, scientific, and religious scholarship in the region. Their role in devel- oping a religious vocabulary for Christianity in South Asia is perhaps one of the most important achievements of the order in the region. This volume is a collection of fifteen essays on Jesuit theology drawn from three decades of Francis X. Clooney’s scholarship on Jesuits in India and classical Hinduism. The essays are arranged chronologically and provide critical insight into some key Jesuit texts composed between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries in India. Considering the fact that it is a compilation of research conducted at various times in the last thirty years, the chapters display remarkable flow and thematic unity. Critical analysis of primary texts from the Catholic and Hindu traditions, reassessing the narrative surrounding Roberto de Nobili (1577–1656) and later Jesuits, and inter-religious learning are some of the major concerns of this work. The complex relationship between the scholarship of the Jesuits and their missionary goals is another thread that runs throughout the work (179).
    [Show full text]
  • Development of Theological Language in the Encounter with Cultures and Religions— Mission in the Case of Robert De Nobili (1606-1656)
    Development of Theological Language in the Encounter with Cultures and Religions— Mission in the Case of Robert de Nobili (1606-1656) Soosai Arokiasamy1 Introductory Observations In the history of mission in South India, I take up the development of theological language in the case of Robert de Nobili, an Italian missionary considered a pioneer in inculturation. It is also a critque of cultural nationalism. The theme of my presentation is “Theological language in the context of encounter with cultures and religions exempli ed in the case of mission experiment of Robert de Nobili.” My own area of specialisation and interest is Christian and religious ethics. My presentation has two parts: Part I deals with theological language generated by encounter with religions and cultures; and Part II deals with the case of de Nobili and his contribution to theological language. I hold that we can draw some lessons from the mission history de Nobili for development of theological language. In our re ection we suppose some understanding of culture, religion, encounter, theology and language that goes with it. The context of our re ection is Indian and Asian. Here we have to note that Indian and Asian Christians who have been part of the cultural and religious traditions of India and Asia do not really encounter the cultures and religions of their country and the continent since they are, in an implicit sense, heirs to these traditions. This paper supposes some working understanding of culture, religion, and encounter, theology in Indian and Asian contexts and theological language that goes with it.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping Hinduism: "Hinduism" and the Study of Indian Religions, 1600-1776
    3 Indian Religions in Early Seventeenth-Century European Thought Seventeenth-century European encyclopaedic works on the religions of the world typically dealt with their subject matter within a fourfold categorial scheme. In addition to Christianity, there were separate catego­ ries for Judaism and for Islam (i. e. ‘Mahumetanisme’, ‘SaracenicaH’ or ‘Moorish ’ religion etc.), religions long known to western writers.1 The fourth category was a vague entity referred to as ‘Heathenism ’, ‘Paganism’, ‘Superstition’, ‘Gentilism’ or ‘Idolatry’, these terms being used more or less interchangeably. This type of classification is set out explicitly in works such as Edward Brerewood’s Enquiries touching the Diversity of Languages and Religions through the Chiefe Parts of the World (1614), Alexander Ross’s Pansebeia: or, a view of all religions in the world (1653) and Richard Baxter’s The Reasons of the Christian Religion (1667). 2 In the fourth category was placed virtually any form of religion not obviously Jewish, Christian or Islamic, sometimes including the dead religions of Europe’s past. Where this category was subdivided, it was on a geographical basis, and it is here that the religions of India were to be found. While the religion of the ancient Indians is treated in these works as a unitary entity, contemporary Indian religion is discussed under the rubric of the religions of the inhabitants of particular regions of India. Thus Ross, following his section on the ‘religion of the ancient Indians’, discusses separately the religions of Siam, Pegu (Burma), Bengala, Magor, Cambaia (Gujarat), Goa, Malabar, Narsingar and Bisnagar (Vijayanagara), Japon, the Philippiana Islands, Sumatra and Zeilan (Ceylon).3 This treatment arises in part from the nature of the sources on which the compilers of these works relied.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Reviews
    Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 13 Article 18 January 2000 Book Reviews Francis X. Clooney Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Clooney, Francis X. (2000) "Book Reviews," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 13, Article 18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1238 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Clooney: Book Reviews Book Reviews 47 Order of Vaishnava monks (Vijay Pinch); historical understanding: (ix). What should and comparisons between Vivekananda and be preserved from the past and what should other significant leaders and thinkers: be discarded from the world's religions? Brahmabandhab Upadhyay (Julius Lipner), These questions are as crucial today as they two sanatan dharma propagandists in the were a hundred years ago. Together with Punjab (Kenneth Jones) and Govind Rambachan's recent The Limits ofScripture: . Chandra Dev in East Bengal (Hiltrud Vivekananda's Reinterpretation ofthe Vedas Rustau). What the volume shows, says the (University of Hawaii Press, 1994), this editor, William Radice, is that for book would provide the basis for an Vivekananda modernization meant both excellent graduate/senior undergraduate physical and mental reform. "His central seminar on "Vivekananda and Hindu project - uniting his work in India and the Reform". West - was to work out what in the religious traditions not only of India but of all Harold Coward countries and civilizations was valid and University of Victoria acceptable to modem scientific and His Star in the East.
    [Show full text]
  • 1237-1242 Research Article Christian Contribution
    Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education Vol.12 No.9 (2021),1237-1242 Research Article Christian Contribution To Tamil Literature Dr.M.MAARAVARMAN1 Assistant Professor in History,P.G&Research Department of History,PresidencyCollege, (Autonomous),Chennai-5. Article History: Received: 10 January 2021; Revised: 12 February 2021; Accepted: 27 March 2021; Published online: 20 April 2021 Abstract: The Christian missionaries studied Tamil language in order to propagate their religion. Henrique Henrique’s, Nobili, G.U. Pope, Constantine Joseph Beschi, Robert Caldwell, Barthalomaus Zieganbalg, Francis Whyte Ellis, Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai, Henry Arthur Krishna Pillai, Vedanayagam Sastriyar, Abraham Pandithar had been the Christian campaigners and missionaries. Pope was along with Joseph Constantius Beschi, Francis Whyte Ellis, and Bishop Robert Caldwell one of the major scholars on Tamil. Ziegenbalg wrote a number of texts in Tamil he started translating the New Testament in 1708 and completed in 1711.They performed a remarkable position to the improvement of Tamil inclusive of the introduction of Prose writing.Christian Priest understood the need to learn the neighborhood language for effective evangelization. Moreover, they centered on Tamil literature in order to recognize the cultural heritage and spiritual traditions. The Priest learnt Tamil language and literature with an agenda and no longer out of love or passion or with an intention of contributing to the growth of the language.Tamil Christian Literature refers to the various epic, poems and other literary works based on the ethics, customs and principles of Christian religion. Christians both the catholic and Protestant missionaries have also birthed literary works. Tamil- Christian works have enriched the language and its literature.
    [Show full text]
  • EUROPE Sixteenth Through Eighteenth W Centuries
    Asi\ IN THE EYES 0$ EUROPE Sixteenth through Eighteenth w Centuries The 1 km - University ofChicago ^ Library m I: 1 ASIA IN THE EYES OF E U R O P Ey Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries DONALD F. LACH THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY 1991 3iM fL330 mi iooo copies of this catalog were published in conjunction with the exhibition Asia in the Eyes ofEurope: Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries held in the Department of Special Collections, the University of Chicago Library, January 23 -May 1, 1991. The publication of this catalog was underwritten by the University of Chicago Library Society. Cover illustration: Half tide from Philippus Baldaeus, Naauwkeurige beschryvinge van Malabar en Choromandel, der zelver aangrenzende ryken, en hat machtige eyland Ceylon, 1672. Copyright 1991 by Donald F. Lach and The University of Chicago Library. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. The University of Chicago Library, Chicago 60637 Produced by Kim Coventry Design by Lynn Martin Photographs by Alma Lach and Jean Grant Printed by Dupli-graphic Processors on Mohawk Superfine Typeset in Galliard by Paul Baker Typography, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lach, Donald F. (Donald Frederick), 1917- Asia in the eyes of Europe: sixteenth through eighteenth centuries / Donald F. Lach. p. cm. Catalog of an exhibition held Jan. 23-May 1, 1991 in the Dept. of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-943056-14-4 1. Asia--Early works to i8oo--Bibliography--Exhibitions. 2. Asia-- Study and teaching- -Europe- -History- -Exhibitions. 3. Bibliography- - Early printed books- -Exhibitions.
    [Show full text]
  • Christianities of South Asia Smt36/6645Hf: Indian Christianity: History, Thought, Practice Smc456h1f: Indian Christianity
    RLG3280H/SMT36/6645HF/SMC456H1F (University of Toronto, 2014-15) page 1 RLG3280H: CHRISTIANITIES OF SOUTH ASIA SMT36/6645HF: INDIAN CHRISTIANITY: HISTORY, THOUGHT, PRACTICE SMC456H1F: INDIAN CHRISTIANITY MEETING TIMES: Thursdays, 10 am – 1 pm in Alumni Hall 204 Instructor: Reid B. Locklin Office: Odette Hall 130 Phone: 416.926.1300, x3317 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: T 10:10-12 noon and by chance or appointment Email Policy: I will attempt to respond to legitimate email enquiries from students within 3-4 days. If you do not receive a reply within this period, please re-submit your question(s) and/or leave a message by telephone. Where a question cannot be easily or briefly answered by email, I will indicate that the student should see me during my posted office hours. Course Description This seminar explores the claim of diverse Christian traditions in South Asia to be religious traditions of South Asia, with special attention to these traditions’ indigenisation and social interactions with majority Hindu traditions. Our study will begin with an overview of the historical development of Christianity in India from the first century CE to the present. In a second unit, we move to close readings of four major theological articulations of an indigenous South Asian Christianity: M.M. Thomas, Vandana Mataji, James Theophilus Appavoo and Wessley Lukose. Finally, our attention will turn to the concept of ritual hybridity in Christian practice and the ethnographic study of Christian communities in India. Most of our attention will be focused on Christian traditions in India, but students are encouraged to choose topics related to Christianity in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and/or Bhutan for their research papers.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Nidān, Volume 5, No. 1, July 2020, pp. 78-81 ISSN 2414-8636 Doi.org/10.3886/nidan.2020.5.1.5 Book Review Testing Ground for Jesuit Accommodation in Early Modern India: Francisco Ros SJ in Malabar (16th-17th Centuries). By Antony Mecherry, SJ. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici Societatis Iesu. Volume 79. Rome, 2019. l + 494 pp. ISBN: 978 88 7041 379 3. Price: € 60. Antony Mecherry, SJ is a professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute (Scienze ecclesiastiche orientale) in Rome, a rising scholar who promises to be for decades to come one of the leading historians of the Society of Jesus in India. Impressively detailed scholarship underlies the book, a mastery of sources in the required Western and Indian languages, including archival materials, letters and texts that have never been printed. It is a paradigm of meticulous scholarship, valuable even for its bibliography, which runs to thirty pages. The book makes a fresh contribution to familiar and much discussed issues with respect to Christianity in Asia. Testing Ground for Jesuit Accommodation is highly recommended for readers interested in nuancing the story of the arrival of Western Christianity in India, and in seeing the complexities of what the missionaries were up to. The context is this. The early members of the Society of Jesus who reached Asia engaged in many pastoral, intellectual, economic and political activities. But aside from St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), those most remembered today were the missionary scholars among them. These were committed missionaries who were determined to understand the cultures around them, with the sensible view that they could communicate the Gospel successfully only if they understood those cultures, their languages, and social structures.
    [Show full text]
  • Il Gesuita Roberto De Nobili
    BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSITARIA DI GENOVA – PERCORSI TEMATICI UNIVERSALITAS & PERVASIVITAS il costituirsi e diffondersi della S.J. e suoi echi (1540 - 1773) di A. Pisani Schede di approfondimento di argomenti generali MALABARICI (RITI) Il gesuita Roberto De Nobili <1577-1656>, insieme al confratello portoghese Giovanni de Britto, aveva adottato nel Malabar, e più precisamente a Madura, tecniche di evangelizzazione ampiamente assimilabili a quelle di Ricci in Cina, come il Ricci concludendo che le cerimonie ivi praticate erano di natura essenzialemente civile e, sempre come Ricci, puntando sulla fascia socialemente più elevata, quella dei bramini, per fare breccia nella popolazione. Il metodo di evangelizzazione a Madura ebbe un notevole successo e inevitabilemente attirò le resistenze o addirittura l’ostilità degli altri Ordini. Non si possono ridurre, però, le critiche ai “riti maduresi” (o “malabarici”) a una questione di invidia, tanto è vero che, seppure in misura minore, le stesse resistenze presero campo anche all’interno della Societas stessa, segnatamente in una delle sue figure chiave: il cardinale Bellarmino. E’ per contrastare queste ostilità e queste resistenze che nel 1623 papa Gregorio XIV Ludovisi emanò la Costituzione Romanae Sedis Antistae con la quale autorizzava, invero all’interno di precisi limiti canonici, i metodi di padre De Nobili. [Malabar Rites] A conventional term for certain customs or practices of the natives of South India, which the Jesuit missionaries allowed their neophytes to retain after conversion, but which were afterwards prohibited by the Holy See. The missions concerned are not those of the coast of south- western India, to which the name Malabar properly belongs, but those of inner South India, especially those of the former "kingdoms" of Madura, Mysore and the Karnatic.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Stephens–A Human Monument of Inculturation in India
    Bulletin of the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University, No.46 (2011) 1 THOMAS STEPHENS–A HUMAN MONUMENT OF INCULTURATION IN INDIA Cyril VELIATH 400 年ごろのインドでは有名なマハーバーラタ物語がほぼ現形のごとく まとめられた。しかし、その叙事詩の要素をさらに発展させて成立したの がプラーナ聖典である。プラーナはヒンドウー教の聖典であり、現代イン ドの民間信仰と極めて密接な関係がある。国家主義とインカルチュレー ションの立場からみれば、16 世紀インドで活躍したトーマス ･ スティー ブンス（1549-1619）という英国人のイエズス会の宣教師が書いた「キリ スタ ･ プラーナ」という名作は、現代世界のキリスト教文献のなかで貴重 なものとして考えられている。それはヒンドウー教のプラーナのやりかた を模倣して書かれたイエズス ･ キリストの生涯の物語である。商人の息子 で、スティーブンスはオックスフォードで学び、イエズス会に入会してか ら南インドの西海岸にあるゴアに宣教師として派遣された。現在のインド では、彼はコンカニ語とマラーチ語の最高の作家のなかに数えられている。 Introduction Among other definitions, the Oxford English Reference Dictionary speaks of a ‘monument’ as “anything enduring that serves to commemorate or make celebrated, and especially a structure or a building.” Viewed from this perspective, to describe a human being as a monument would by no means be considered odd or anomalous, for History bears ample witness to the fact that in almost all civilizations and cultures, there have arisen in times of need people who in a multitude of ways have ushered in solace and hope, to their nations, peoples, or the religious faiths they adhere to. − 153 − 2 Cyril Veliath In this article I wish to focus on an acclaimed human monument of India, an individual whose name and life are indelibly etched within the psyche of the average Indian. He was a Jesuit, or a member of the Society of Jesus, who on departing the shores of Europe after having severed ties with his family and friends, opted to pass what remained of his days within the balmy and scenic climes of tropical South India, to convey in a hitherto unknown tongue the teachings of Christ to the nation’s diverse indigenous people. Notwithstanding what one might say with regard to the integrity of their motives, men like him nevertheless served as advocates of the local heritage and architects of Inculturation, who made constructive efforts to embrace and cherish the many homegrown beliefs and cultures they came upon.
    [Show full text]