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Towards an Indian Constructive Theology: Towards Making Indian Christians Genuinely Indians and Authentically Christians

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Towards an Indian Constructive Theology: Towards Making Indian Christians Genuinely Indians and Authentically Christians LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations Spring April 2011 Towards An Indian Constructive Theology: Towards Making Indian Christians Genuinely Indians and Authentically Christians Dominic K. Arputham Loyola Marymount University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Arputham, Dominic K., "Towards An Indian Constructive Theology: Towards Making Indian Christians Genuinely Indians and Authentically Christians" (2011). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 136. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/136 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Towards An Indian Constructive Theology: Towards Making Indian Christians Genuinely Indians and Authentically Christians A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Loyola Marymount University Department of Theological Studies in Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Theological Studies Los Angeles, California on April 29, 2011 By Rev. Dominic K. Arputham Committee Signatures: _________________________________ Director Rev. Dr. Thomas P. Rausch ____________________________________________________ Reader Dr. Christopher Key Chapple ____________________________________________________ Reader INTRODUCTION “Why don’t you write something very interesting and really constructive in your graduate thesis?” my late loving brother, Fr. Arulraj, a former graduate student of Loyola Marymount, used to ask me. Though I doubt everybody might find my thesis of sufficient interest to draw them away from the Euro‐American way of theologizing, it is a project I have found compelling and engaging. I hope Indian Christians will be as absorbed as I have been. Indian Christians, involved in educating in the faith—whether as teachers, preachers, pastoral ministers, and theologians, are the primary audience of my thesis paper. It also is intended for the many Christians who live their faith with great conviction and seriousness, and want to deepen their faith in the pluralistic context of today’s world. This thesis, secondarily, is a study of educating for religious particularism and pluralism in India. By analyzing in depth a few instances of contemporary Christian engagement with the “other” in Asia, my thesis will implicitly suggest ways we might more adequately educate Indian Christians to creatively participate in a religiously pluralistic society. The Second Vatican Council’s declaration (Nostra Aetate) “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non‐Christian Religions”—invites us to think about who we are as Christians in today’s context facing the formidable task of taking a long, hard look at ourselves and changing appropriately. I take to heart a mandate that Pope Paul VI delivered to Asian bishops in the early 1970s. Paul VI said the Church should make an effort to understand the faith expressions native to their countries, their cultures, their races, and “draw nourishment 1 from the genuine values of the venerable religions and cultures.”1 Another inspiration for my thesis is the words of Karl Rahner in Robert Blair Kaiser’s book East meets West: The journey of Aloysius Pieris—“Vatican II is not an end, but a beginning.” One is called to bring its liberating message to the people, translate it for them, and help spell out its implications in the context of their lives. In an effort to aid the task of theologizing today in India, I am trying to do in my thesis, for my people in India, exactly what Rahner asks us to do. Vatican II also encourages this kind of effort in our modern times: “The Church learned early in its history to express the Christian message in the concepts and languages of different peoples and tried to clarify it in the light of the wisdom of their philosophies: it was an attempt to adapt the Gospel to the understanding of all men and the requirements of the learned, insofar as this could be done. Indeed, this kind of adaptation and preaching of the revealed Word must ever be the law of all evangelization. In this way it is possible to create in every country the possibility of expressing the message of Christ in suitable terms and to foster vital contact and exchange between the Church and different cultures.”2 Following the mandate of his holiness Paul VI in 1970 FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences) meeting, the Asian bishops pledged themselves to the development of "an indigenous theology ... so that the life and message of the Gospel may be ever more incarnate in the rich historic cultures of Asia..."3 Carolus B. Putranta, in his 1986 survey of the FABC documents up until 1982,4 does not include the word “indigenization” or, as it is more often termed in later documents, "inculturation"—among the major themes addressed in the 1 See Statutes of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (Hong Kong: FABC Central Secretariat, 1992). 2 Gaudium et Spes, no. 44. 3 Asian Bishop's Meeting, November 29, 1970. Resolution 1. Published in G. B. Rosales and C. G. Arevalo, eds., For All the Peoples of Asia: Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences Documents from 1970‐1991 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books; Quezon City, Philippines, 1992), p. 9. 4 Carolus B. Putranta, "A Brief Survey of the FABC Documents, 1970‐1982," FAPA, pp. 263‐269. 2 Federation's first twelve years of existence; the reader of the documents, however, cannot but be struck at how the effort to theologize in an Asian way seems to be the driving force behind every FABC meeting, seminar or consultation. The term "inculturation" (expressing the faith differently according to the argot and customs of the local cultures) may not be the best description of the process by which the variety of Asian religious, cultural, and economic contexts are taken seriously in the theological enterprise.5 Nevertheless the search for ways to make the Asian church more truly Catholic by making it more truly Asian functions as the leading motif of every FABC concern. This thesis is on emerging a theology for India from the perspective of Asian context. I have tried to draw my sources mainly from FABC documents, and the works of Orthodox, Christian scholars and missionaries from Asia as well as from the West. I would like to acknowledge a number of theologians whose works have been directly helpful to me in preparing this thesis. Felix Wilfred’s book Beyond Settled Foundations, published in 1993, has been the best book on the journey of Indian theology coming from one of the post‐independent generation of Christian thinkers of India. A brief note about him: He was born in 1948. He is a professor in the Department of Christian Studies, University of Madras. He has lectured in several universities and higher institutes of research in different parts of the world. He was president of the Indian theological Association during 1983‐1986. Professor Wilfred has the singular distinction of being the first Indian to have been appointed by the Pope to be a member of the theological Commission for the Vatican. He serves also as an advisor to the 5 L. Nemet, "Inculturation in the FABC Documents," East Asian Pastoral Review, 31, 1&2 (1994), p. 94. 3 FABC on matters of Christian doctrine. His writings have appeared in several languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Fr. Alangaram’s book Christ of the Asian Peoples: Towards an Asian Contextual Christology was particularly helpful to figure out a methodology with six stages towards developing a theology for India. I have drawn the materials from the works of so many significant theologians from East and West. Indian theologians and missionary thinkers who initiated the Asian way of doing theology are Roberto De Nobili, Raimundo Panikkar, Bede Griffiths and Brahmobandhav Upadhyaya. Asian theologians who are helpful to me in developing a theology for India: D.S. Amalorpavadoss, Miceal Amaladoss, Lourdu Anadam, Jules Monchanin, Henri Le Saux, Aloysius Pieris, Sebatian Kappen, Samuel Rayan and Jacques Dupuis. Western thinkers, helpful in developing a contextual theology for India, are Karl Rahner, Walter Kasper, Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Lakeland and Jim Fredericks. Asian Way of Doing Theology The establishment of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) is certainly a landmark in the history of Christianity in Asia. As a transnational body it binds together the various local Churches of Asia, comprising 14 full members (i.e., Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos‐Cambodia, Malaysia‐Singapore‐Brunei, Myanmar [Burma], Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam) and ten associate members (i.e., Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau [Aomen], Mongolia, Nepal, Siberia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan)6 represented by their bishops, in fellowship and mutual cooperation. The members of this Federation are the bishops' conferences in South, 6 For a history of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), see Edmund Chia, Thirty Years of FABC: History, Foundation, Context and Theology. FABC Papers, no. 106 (16 Caine Road, Hong Kong: FABC, 2003)—The associate members joined the FABC in 1998. 4 Southeast and East Asia. The origin of the Federation dates back to the historic gathering of 180 Asian bishops in Manila in November 1970, on the occasion of the visit of Pope Paul VI. "Never before," writes Indian theologian Felix Wilfred: “Asian bishops come together to exchange experiences and to deliberate jointly on common questions and problems facing the continent. The meeting marked the beginning of a new consciousness of the many traditional links that united the various peoples of this region of the globe."7 An Asian way of doing theology is not simply based on a geographical basis, but a common expression of the many bonds; historical and contemporary—which exist among the peoples of South, Southeast and East Asia.
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