Abstract
For Christians in India, the Church’s opening to their world began with Roberto de Nobili in the seventeenth century. The author describes post-conciliar developments and sets them against this long history of creative and beneficial reflections within India on the topic of culture. In 1969, an all-India seminar set the agenda for the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, seeing mission as a threefold dialogue of the Gospel with the poor, with cultures and with religions. Theological discussions continued in the 1970s and 1980s, including seminars on whether non-biblical scriptures could be considered inspired, whether and how the Church can engage in the struggle for a new society, and whether and how far Christians can share worship with other religions. The article charts just some of key theological developments in India vis-à-vis culture and other religions, concluding with a plea for collaboration with all people of good will and greater acceptance of the reflections of the Indian faithful on these matters.
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- 1.
See Savarimuthu Rajamanickam, The First Oriental Scholar (Palayamkottai: De Nobili Research Institute, 1972); see also Roberto de Nobili, Preaching Wisdom to the Wise, trans. and intro. Anand Amaladass, S.J., and Francis X. Clooney, S.J. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2000).
- 2.
See David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012).
- 3.
See Thomas Anchukandam, S.D.B., “Local Practice and Christianity: Some Pertinent Clarifications in the Context of the de Nobilian Experiment,” in Inculturation of Religion, ed. C. Joe Arun, S.J. (Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2007), 83–104.
- 4.
See Brahmachari Rewachand Aimananda, The Blade: Life and Work of Bramabandhab Upandhyay (Calcutta: Roy and Son, 1947).
- 5.
Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy, Temple Bells (Calcutta: YMCA, 1930).
- 6.
Oxford: University Press, 1913.
- 7.
Ranchi: Catholic Press, 1944.
- 8.
See Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1969).
- 9.
See All India Seminar Church in India Today (New Delhi: CBCI Centre, 1969), especially 239–276.
- 10.
See For All the Peoples of Asia, 4 vols. (Manila: Claretian Press, 1992).
- 11.
For this paragraph, see Michael Amaladoss, S.J., Life in Freedom: Liberation Theologies from Asia (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997).
- 12.
See Sacrosanctum Concilium, 4; Pierre-Marie Gy, O.P., “Situation historique de la Constitution,” in La liturgie après Vatican II, ed. Jean-Pierre Jossua, O.P. and Yves Congar, O.P. (Paris: Cerf, 1967), 116; see also Aimé-Georges Martimort, “Adaptation liturgique,” Ephemerides Liturgicae 79 (1965): 7; Josef Andreas Jungmann, S.J., “Konstitution über die Heilige Liturgie: Einleitung und Kommentar,” Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, Teil I (Freiburg: Herder, 1966), 43.
- 13.
See Duraiswami Simon Amalorpavadass, ed., Towards Indigenization in the Liturgy (Bangalore: National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre [NBCLC], 1971).
- 14.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio, AAS 91 (1999): 5–88, no. 72. Benedict XVI, in his famous speech at the University of Regensburg had this to say: “In the light of our experience with cultural pluralism, it is often said nowadays that the synthesis with Hellenism achieved in the early Church was an initial inculturation which ought not to be binding on other cultures. The latter are said to have the right to return to the simple message of the New Testament prior to that inculturation, in order to inculturate it anew in their own particular milieux. This thesis is not simply false, but it is coarse and lacking in precision.” AAS 98, no. 10 (2006): 728–739.
- 15.
See Michael Amaladoss, S.J., Beyond Inculturation: Can the Many be One? (Delhi: ISPCK, 2005).
- 16.
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, AAS 68 (1976): 5–76, no. 20.
- 17.
“Common opinion today supposes Christianity to be a European religion which subsequently exported the culture of this Continent to other countries. But the reality is far more complex since the roots of the Christian religion are found in the Old Testament, hence, in Jerusalem and the Semitic world. Christianity is still nourished by these Old Testament roots. Furthermore, its expansion in the first centuries was both towards the West–towards the Greco-Latin world, where it later inspired European culture–and in the direction of the East, as far as Persia and India. It thus contributed to creating a specific culture in Semitic languages with an identity of its own” (Nov 28, 2007).
- 18.
John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 72.
- 19.
Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy. Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983).
- 20.
See Michael Amaladoss, S.J., Beyond Dialogue: Pilgrims to the Absolute (Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2008), 1–14.
- 21.
Concerning various dimensions of dialogue in India, see ibid.
- 22.
See Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness (New York: Doubleday, 1999).
- 23.
- 24.
See Michael Amaladoss, S.J., “Do Ashrams Have a Future?”, Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 67 (2003): 977–990.
- 25.
See D.S. Amalorpavadass, ed., Research Seminar on Non-Biblical Scriptures (Bangalore: NBCLC, 1974).
- 26.
See Sebastian Painadath, “The Integral Spirituality of the Bhagavad Gita,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 39 (2004): 305–324; Painadath, Spiritual Co-Pilgrims: Towards a Christian Spirituality in Dialogue with Asian Religions (Quezon City: Claretian, 2014).
- 27.
See Swami Abhishiktananda, Ascent to the Depth of the Heart (Delhi: ISPCK, 1998); Raimon Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2010); Sara Grant, R.S.C.J., Towards an Alternative Theology: Confessions of a Non-dualist Christian (Bangalore: Asian Trading, 1991); Michael Amaladoss, S.J., “Theosis and Advaita: An Indian Approach to Salvation,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 75 (2011): 887–901.
- 28.
See Michael Amaladoss, S.J., T.K. John, S.J., and George Gispert-Sauch, S.J., eds. Theologizing in India Today (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1981).
- 29.
See Michael Amaladoss, S.J., Quest for God: Doing Theology in India (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2013).
- 30.
See Asian Christian Perspectives on Harmony, FABC Papers 75 (Hong Kong: FABC, 1996).
- 31.
Peter C. Phan, ed., The Asian Synod: Texts and Commentaries. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002), 22.
- 32.
“Although participated forms of mediation of different kinds and degrees are not excluded, they acquire meaning and value only from Christ’s own mediation, and they cannot be understood as parallel or complementary to his.” John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, AAS 83 (1991): 249–340, no. 5.
- 33.
“The Church serves the kingdom by spreading throughout the world the ‘gospel values’ which are an expression of the kingdom and which help people to accept God’s plan. It is true that the inchoate reality of the kingdom can also be found beyond the confines of the Church among peoples everywhere, to the extent that they live ‘gospel values’ and are open to the working of the Spirit who breathes when and where he wills (Jn 3:8).” Ibid., 20.
- 34.
Ibid., 28–29.
- 35.
For an elaboration of these ideas see Jacques Dupuis, S.J., Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2001).
- 36.
“In a pluralistic and static Nature, the universal domination of Christ could, strictly speaking, still be regarded as an extrinsic and super-imposed power. In a spiritually converging world this ‘Christic’ energy acquires an urgency and intensity of another order altogether. If the world is convergent and if Christ occupies its centre, then the Christogenesis of St. Paul and St. John is nothing else and nothing less than the extension, both awaited and unhoped for, of that noogenesis in which cosmogenesis-as regards our experience-culminates. Christ invests himself organically with the very majesty of his creation. And it is in no way metaphorical to say that man finds himself capable of experiencing and discovering his God in the whole length, breadth and depth of the world in movement.” The Phenomenon of Man (New York: Harper, 1958), 297.
- 37.
Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, AAS 107, no. 9 (2015): 847–945, no. 88.
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Amaladoss S.J., M. (2018). The Indian Church Opening to the World. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98584-8_13
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