278 Paul M. Collins, Christian Inculturation in India(Aldershot
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278 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 7 (2011) 265–290 Paul M. Collins, Christian Inculturation in India (Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007) 252 pp. £50.00. ISBN 978-0-7546-6076-7(hbk). I was one of the two initiators of the link between Queen’s College Birming- ham, and the Tamilnadu Th eological Seminary (TTS), in Madurai, South India. Th is has involved exchanges of students and faculty for over 20 years, and many have seen their ministry and theology opened in fresh directions. Th is has often involved personal renewal, and a new sense of global mission, with implications for the local context. Th is book is the result of a particularly fruitful such example. Paul Collins’ engagement with South India began only in 2000, with a sabbatical at TTS, when he was teaching at Queen’s. Several more visits have followed, now made from his base with the University of Chichester, and we can see here how a liturgy and doctrine teacher within the British context has found a vocation in interpreting questions of incul- turation as experienced in India, to a wider audience. Th e pity is that the book’s cost will limit how wide that audience will be. Th e book is in the Ashgate series Liturgy, Worship and Society. Th is is apt, since it combines well those parameters. Mission theology could well be added as another pri- mary focus. Th e book contains theoretical and historical dimensions. It is easier to ‘feel’ what culture is than to ‘defi ne’ it. Th e author is very aware that cultures are not static, but dynamic, and the rapid recent growth of globalisation has had major impact in India. It is not only the question of what is culture, but whose culture, whose values? Power, often asserted through education as well as eco- nomics, class or caste, is often the determinant of what becomes dominant. Here colonial history is a major dimension. Moreover, there are complex dis- tinctions within Christian culture, historical, geographical and denomina- tional. Th e Gospel itself was born within a particular Jewish culture, as was Jesus, and questions of inculturation are as old a Christianity itself. Th e author addresses diff erences in words like adaptation, accommodation, translation, indigenisation, inculturation and contextualisation. He is also very clear of a distinction between unintentional and intentional incultura- tion. Conferences and liturgical committees may authorise or scrutinise what happens intentionally; but so much happens whether such authorities like it or not. Th is applies particularly in societies which operate largely through non literate means of expression, such as in Indian villages. Collins’ visits to India have not been confi ned to any one church tradi- tion. He has spent time with the Church of South India, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, and also Pentecostal groups. When he considers © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI 10.1163/174553111X559562 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 7 (2011) 265–290 279 architecture, art, rites and rituals, as well as theology, we fi nd rich examples and black and white illustrations from all these churches. His analysis of the Orthodox churches in Kerala is particularly valuable, as often forgotten, and here the unintentional has been more infl uential than the intentional, in what are very conservative ecclesiastical traditions. Th e Roman Catholic church has been to the fore, not only through Vatican 2, but also before that. Th ere were changes taking place pre 1960, not opposed by the Vatican. Th ese fed into the dramatic changes brought by the Council. Collins concentrates on the Ashram movement, and analyses well the contribution of Abishiktananda and Bede Griffi ths, showing how Ashrams they inspired provided a theological as well as liturgical challenge. So also the National Catechetical and Liturgical Centre in Bangalore. What is practiced in such places, and in seminaries, was never going to be reproduced in the average parish. But they provide exemplary challenges to thinking and praxis. He shows how Anglicanism, through its Lambeth conferences, was much later in addressing questions of inculturation adequately. Th is, and the preoc- cupation with ecumenical questions raised by united churches, and colonial and post colonial questions, meant that progress was slower, and liturgical and theological conservatism, particularly in the cities, very strong. Unintentional inculturation has been seen most substantially in villages, and I have experi- enced this, even when the liturgical framework remains the BCP! Th e most substantial contribution came only in 1989, at a meeting in York. Th e WCC was also slower to respond, which is not surprising with the complexity of churches involved. Collins asks why so late, when Indian churches had seen the need since the 19 th century, and especially since the 1950’s Most helpful is a critique of various liturgies that have come from the inten- tional indigenisation movement, including the Mass for India (Bangalore 1974), the alternative CSI Liturgy, and the Bharatiya Pooja, as celebrated in Kurisumala Ashram, Kerala. Texts are included. Paul Collins addresses Dalit questions, and how what is normally seen as inculturation is, for them. irrelevant, or abhorrent. It stems from oppressive Sanskrit or Brahminic traditions. Th e challenge is how a balanced position can be reached, which is about both-and, and not either or. In one extreme view, a foreigner like Collins, can have no place in such an analysis, any more than distinguished non Dalit writers such as Sathianathan Clarke and Dhyanchand Carr, who are quoted here. Th e present writer omits reference to Abraham Ayrookuzhiel, another non-Dalit, who died in 1995, who gave his whole life and his writings, to making known the Dalit traditions of Kerala, and he was honoured on his death as an Honorary Dalit. .