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MR S Pindler RECENT INDIAN STUDIES of the GOSPEL

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MR S Pindler RECENT INDIAN STUDIES of the GOSPEL M. R. Spindler RECENT INDIAN STUDIES OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN : PUZZLING CONTEXTUALISATION The Gospel of John has been very popular in India in recent times and it is still the most distributed portion of the Bible. It has been studied by many Indian scholars who felt special affinities with the style and spirituality of the Fourth Gospel. The popularity of this Gospel can be traced down to the influence of one of the greatest Indian theologians in the 20th century, namely Dr. A.J. Appasamy (1891-1975), who wrote his Oxford doctorate thesis on The Mysticism of the Fourth GospeZ in its Reflation to Hindu Bhakti Lite- rature (1922, unpublished), and later toured all over India with his lectures collected in his influential books Christianity as Bhakti Marga: A Study of the Johannine Doctrzne of Love (CLS, Madras 1928) and What is Moksa ? A Study in the Joharm2ne Doctrine of Life (CLS, Madras 1931). Furthermore the interest in the Fourth Gospel has been greatly stimulated by the expectation of western theologians, such as B.F. Westcott, who expressed the hope that the most profound commentary on the Gospel of John would be written by an Indian theologians The reason for this very special affinity between India and the Gospel of John was the alleged common pattern of spirituality or my- sticism, but this has become problematic, and the relevance of the Gospel of John to Indian spirituality or better to Indian reality is no longer taken for granted; indeed it may be interpreted in very unexpected ways, as we shall see below. To start with Appasamy and his contemporaries would be far beyond the scope of Exehange. So I should like to take my starting point in 1974. The histo- rical fact of that year, with regard to the study of the Gospel of John in India, was an ecumenical seminar held in the Christa Prema Seva Ashram in Pune, in February 1974 on the subject "The Message of St John's Gospel in India Today". The papers and the summary of the discussions in workshops, 1) still mentioned in R.H.S. Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Chr2stzan TheoZogy, 2nd ed., CLS Madras 1975,1 . Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 08:23:09AM via free access as well as some elements of artistic and spiritual experiments made by several participants of the seminar, were published in 1975 under the title India's Search for Reality and the ReZevance of the CrospeZ of John. At this historic conference 36 Christians from diffe- rent traditions shared their approaches to the Fourth Gospel; they came from the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of North India, the Church of South India, the Lutheran Church and the Methodist Church; some were evangelists and pastors from rural areas, several theological teachers were present, together with one or two "urban missioners", some Church leaders and bishops, and several religious. A rather puzzl- ing picture emerged from the seminar, and the variety of approaches might suggest a lot of contradiction between participants; but the edi- tors comment that "St John's Gospel (...) seems to have some ability 2) to transcend mere logic"2). A first part of the present survey will be devoted to a description of the main approaches presented at Pune. A second reason justifies the choice of 1974/1975 as a starting point. A new theological periodical was launched in 1975 as a continuation and expansion of a Malayalam quarterly created in 1972; the new journal, called BibZebhashz�am. An Indian Biblical Quarterly, published by St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Kottayam, Kerala started with a quite regu- 3) lar pattern of composition3). Each issue is usually devoted to a parti- cular Biblical theme which is highlighted in the perspective of the va- rious literary units of the Bible, one of them being the Gospel of John. It is easy to follow the development of approach and interpreta- tion in this specialised periodical with regard to johannine literature. I shall not give, however, an equally specialised commentary on matters of biblical scholarship which are beyond the scope of this Bulletin. Such an attempt might be made in a forthcoming publication as the out- come of an interdisciplinary seminar at the State University of Leiden, 2)Chr. Duraisingh � C. Hargreaves (eds.), Indians Search for Reality and the Relevance of the Gospel of John. Papers from a Conference held in Pune in February 1974, ISPCK, Delhi 1975, 3. 3) The recent development of Indian Christian theological periodicals has been described in: M.R. Spindler, Indian Christian Periodicals: The Daily Life of Indian Theology, Exchange, no. 20, Vol. VII, 1978, 1-53. On BibZebhashyam see 30-32. Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 08:23:09AM via free access jointly conducted by Dr. M. de Jonge, professor of New Testament and specialist of johannine studies, and myself, in the acedemic year 1979/1980. The second part of the present survey will be devoted to a short analysis of periodical literature, especially of Biblebhashyam, pertaining to the Gospel of John. The third part of my survey will be devoted to a general presentation of a few monographies and essays entirely or partially concerning the Gospel of John. Some are dealing with the general frame of interpre- tation, but most of them are detailed exegetical studies, that may be classified as academic exercises for the sake of professional quali- fication, more than as independent research in unknown territories. Here I must warn my readers not to be impatient, and it is my experi- ence that a warning is necessary. The Gospel of John is definitely not an unknown territory, and it is certainly unfair when western scho- lars expect their Indian colleagues to discover this America of the Gospel of John and would force them to ignore past scholarship under the plea of the need for contextualisation and indigenity. In my view, it is quite legitimate and normal that Indian biblical scholars use the resources of available biblical scholarship even if these instru- ments are not entirely "made in India". By the way, who in the West is afraid of drinking Darjeeling tea ? My conclusion will touch the problem of hermeneutics in the Indian context, a problem which is increasingly considered in its own right, on the philosophical, logical, theological, sociological level, with- out application to a particular (Biblical) text. The old treasures of Indian philosophical and logical traditions are being explored with a view to making them relevant to modern exegetical and hermeneutical challenges. On the other hand the privileges of literacy and sacred literature(s) are being questioned by the universal pressure of popu- lar religiosity and the burning quest for religious immediacy, a very Tnrii an fcatmrn indeed Tr»T»7fl V*^Q �0me-���k of innacflmu ? again the limits of the present publication do not allow me to go very deeply into these extremely involved qflestions, but I shall be happy to share with my readers a very short glance at the problem. Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 08:23:09AM via free access I INDIA'S SEARCH FOR REALITY AND THE RELEVANCE OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Christopher Duraisingh and Cecil Hargreaves, both from the United Theological Seminary in Bangalore, have edited under the above title the excellent collection of papers and reports from the conference held in Pune in February 1974. In my view, every existing approach to the Gospel of John in India, at least among Christians, was re- presented at this conference. I have counted about six main trends, according to the emphasis recognized in the Fourth Gospel. Some see the emphasis in a mystical union with God in a more or less cogni- tive process, some place the union with God in the sphere of love, others in the area of decision and commitment, some others again identify a strong eschatological and historical frame in John, others insist upon universal symbols in the Gospel of John, and others use the Gospel as a resource and direction for meditation in the techni- cal sense. I was surprised, however, reading the introduction of the book that the editors acknowledge three approaches to St John's Gospel only, viz. contemplative, incarnationaZ and personal, as it were a typology of understanding; in fact very suggestive. "Some participants approached the gospel from the contemplative angle: they reminded us that this gospel has been the inspiration of countless search- ers after oneness with God. They brought out the significance of the Johannine 'Christ in the silence'. They focused attention on the interiority of much of the Johannine material, linking it up with phrases and thought-forms in the classical Indian religious tradition and in Hindu Scriptures" ..... "Other speakers and participants approached the gospel from the incarnationaZ angle: they focused our atten- tion on the theme of 'the Word made flesh': they em- phasised the figure of the prophetic Christ to be found in the Johannine material. They brought out for us that this gospel is and has been the inspiration of many prophets of social action" ..... "Others approached the gospel from the personal angle and pointed to the figure of Christ the personal Saviour of individuals in St John. At least one speaker drew attention to the basic importance of this aspect of St John's gospel, and one of the workshops made the same point. Since we were meeting in Maharashtra, it was entirely fitting that we had someone to tell us about the pattern of bhakti found in the writings of Narayan Vaman Tilak and its links with this gospel" (2). Downloaded from Brill.com10/07/2021 08:23:09AM via free access The editors insist on these three approaches in their conclusion.
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