In the early centuries as the Church spread across Europe and North Africa, it implanted itself in various contexts and cultures integrating itself with them. This gave rise to various ritual families like the Byzantine, Syrian, Latin, Armenian, Coptic, Slavic, etc. But in the colonial period the Church was rather transplanted in the new territories with its Roman/Latin structures and rituals. The consequence was often a double religion: an official religion standing side by side with a popular religion, with people integrating their own traditional social and ritual action with the elements of the official religion. We can see this in Asia, Africa, Latin America and even in Europe in the rural areas. One can speak of an opening of the Church to the world only when the Church recognizes the otherness of the people with regard to their culture and even religiosity and creatively interacts with them in an ongoing manner.
Early Openings
In the Indian Church such an opening started already in the 17th century with Robert de Nobili (1577-1656), who maintained that people could become religiously Christian while remaining socially and culturally Indian, rather than become Portuguese. This meant that even the official sacramental rites which remained in Latin were progressively surrounded by local ritual. Other life-cycle rituals, social events and festivals were also adapted by the addition of a Christian prayer or symbol. Popular devotions to Mary and the saints flourished. There were local ritual specialists for these besides the priest. These were recognized, accepted and even encouraged by the priests since they facilitated the participation of the community in religion. Hymns and sacred dramas in local languages were composed to accompany the rituals and celebrations. This practice continues to this day. One critical comment that we could make about the Church of this period is that, in accepting the social system, the social inequalities of the caste system were also accepted. In the process the Church became a player in the socio-political field, in which the members of the other religions too were involved. Later efforts at social reform have not been successful, the Christians being a small minority of 2.3%. Around the 1840s a new wave of missionaries (Jesuits) started a network of schools and colleges that catered to the intellectual and moral development of young people of all religions, though the Christian poor were given preference.
- Cf. S. Rajamanickam, The First Oriental Scholar. Palayamkottai: De Nobili Research Institute, 1972. Also Roberto de Nobili, Preaching Wisdom to the Wise. Translated and introduced by Anand Amaladass and Francis X. Clooney. St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2000.
In the area of interreligious relationships, it was the Hindus who first showed themselves open to Christ, though not to the Church. Early converts like Brahmabandab Upadhyaya (1861-1907) could be said to have had a double religious identity as a Hindu-Christian. His attempt to start an ashram – an Indian style monastery – was forbidden by the Church. In the early decades of the 20th century, the spiritual riches of Hinduism were appreciated and collections of their sacred poems were made for use by Christians. A positive approach to Hinduism considered it a natural religion that is meant to find its fulfillment in supernatural revealed Christianity. J.N. Farquhar’s book The Crown of Hinduism (1913) referring to Christianity and Pierre Johanns’ series of pamphlets To Christ through the Vedanta (1944), showed how Hinduism can find its fulfillment in Christ. Actually a history of Indian Christian theology starts in the year 1820. Indian Christian ashrams were started by the Protestants in 1921 and by Catholics in 1950, attempting to dialogue with and integrate the Indian monastic and spiritual tradition.
2. Cf. David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree. Christianity and Caste Society in India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
3. Cf. Thomas Anchukandam SDB, “Local Practice and Christianity: Some Pertinent Clarifications in the Context of the de Nobilian Experiment” in C. Joe Arun (ed), Inculturation of Religion. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2007, pp. 83-104.
4. Cf. B. Aimananda, The Blade. Life and Work of Bramabandhab Upandhyaya. Calcutta: Roy and Son, 1947(?)
5. A.J.Appasamy, Temple Bells. Calcutta: YMCA, 1930.
6. Oxford, 1913.
7. Ranchi: Catholic Press, 1944.
8. Cf. Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology. Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1969.
In 1947 India gained independence from Great Britain and the Indian Church was forced to indigenize its ministers through active recruitment since visas for foreign missionaries were no longer available. This has been done rather successfully so that the Indian Jesuits, for example, today number nearly 4000, i.e. almost one fourth of the Congregation. An Indian Social Institute was founded in 1951 with the goal of building “a just, humane, secular, democratic and inclusive Indian society wherein the poor and marginalized communities cherish equality, dignity, freedom, justice, peace and harmony.” There was a new interest in Indian arts and culture so that they can be used in the proclamation of the Gospel.
The Church in India Seminar
In such a historical context, the Second Vatican Council came both as a confirmation and an encouragement to go further in opening to the world. Following the Council, a national seminar on “The Church in India Today” was organized, focusing on the renewal of the Church in the light of the Council. Its preparation started in 1966 and it was held in May 14-25, 1969 at Bangalore with about 600 participants representing all sections of the Church. Its16 workshops, prepared by special orientation papers, covered every aspect of life of the Christians in the world showing that the Church was no longer thinking of evangelization in a narrow sense of ‘planting the Church’, but of transforming the people from within as leaven. The deliberations and conclusions of the seminar show a Church opening itself to the world. It showed a special interest in the poor, in young people, in families, in the promotion of equality, justice and human rights. It was aware of the need to be deeply rooted in its own culture and to develop an Indian Christian spirituality and theology, taking into account its cultural and religious riches. It wanted to open out in dialogue and collaboration with all people of good will, belonging also to other Churches and religions, opting to work within the existing structures of society rather than setting up its own agencies. The Church was known and appreciated for its involvement in the field of education and social work. It would broaden and intensify its social involvement and make it more effective. It would also dialogue with the cultures and religions of the country.
I think that the Seminar succeeded in setting a tone, indicating a direction and inspiring action for the Church in India. I was a student representative and the large consensus and enthusiasm were encouraging. Soon after the Seminar, a National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre was established in Bangalore which has played a pioneering role in opening up and animating the Church in all areas, in spite of its name, by its research seminars and training programmes. Other research and training institutes were also founded, a series of research seminars were held and new apostolic initiatives were undertaken. India also actively collaborated with the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), having the second largest Christian community in Asia after the Philippines, but set in a multi-cultural and multi-religious context. The FABC had its periodic general assemblies and various conscientizing and educative programmes for the Bishops leading to the production of many documents. Rather than provide a list of all these various initiatives in India and Asia, which will be too long, I shall adopt a synthetic approach to show how the Church has opened up to the world in different areas of life and ministry, trying to underline new orientations in reflection and action.
A New Vision of Mission
Mission was traditionally understood as the proclamation of the Gospel leading to the implantation of the Church in new areas. The first general assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in 1974, deliberating on the theme of Evangelization, saw it as an ongoing dialogue of the Gospel with Asian reality, characterized by the many poor, the rich cultures and the living religions. Dialogue, unlike proselytism indicates openness. The vision of mission was deepened as being primarily God’s mission through the Word and the Spirit to the world everywhere and always, with which we are called to collaborate. It was broadened as the threefold dialogue with the poor, the cultures and the religions and sharpened as prophecy – that is, the dialogue, in order to be missionary, must be prophetic, calling for conversion and transformation of self and society.
9. Cf. All India Seminar Church in India Today. New Delhi: CBCI Centre, 1969, especially pp. 239-276.
10. Cf. For All the Peoples of Asia. 4 vols. (Various editors) Manila: Claretian Press, 1992ff.
The task of mission then becomes discerning God’s ongoing activity in the world and among peoples and to collaborate with it, witnessing to the special action of God in Jesus Christ and the Spirit, not only in the Church, but also in the world. The broadening of mission as dialogue with the living realities of the people sought to free them from economic and political oppression, transforming their world view and attitudes in the process of building up a new community of fellowship and leading them to turn to God away from Satan and Mammon, witnessing to the redemption and empowerment by Jesus Christ. This threefold dialogue becomes mutually involving so that none of them can be done without the other: One cannot liberate the poor without transforming culture and deepening religious commitment and so on. A Christian community, of course, is necessary for such prophetic witnessing and needs to be built up too. But the goal of mission is building the Kingdom of God as a community of freedom, fellowship and justice of all people and building the Church as its sacrament or symbol and servant.
Dialogue with the Poor
The 1970s saw the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America. It had a double root: a Marxist analysis of society and the liberating good news of Jesus expressed in his life and his paschal mystery. It had its impact also in Asia. But quickly the Indian Church realized that the struggle for liberation of the poor and the oppressed had started with Mahatma Gandhi in the 1930s, who, not only led the struggle for political independence, but also fought, with less success, for economic and social reform. What was new with Gandhi was that this struggle was non-violent, based on truth and love. There were also other leaders, belonging to socially oppressed groups like the Dalits or the Untouchables, like Bhimrao Ambedkar and Narayana Guru. There were similar leaders of liberation movements in nearby countries like Bhikku Buddhadasa in Thailand and Thick Nhat Hanh in Vietnam. All these leaders, not only insisted on non-violent ways, but also tried to build up international networks of solidarity countering atheistic communism on the one hand and the exploitative and secular capitalism of the West.
11. For this paragraph Cf. Michael Amaladoss, Life in Freedom. Liberation Theologies from Asia. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997.
The Philippines has had two non-violent revolutions overthrowing Presidents Marcos and Estrada. In India we have now various liberation movements of the Dalits, the Tribals and the Women. The focus is on educating, conscientizing and empowering them to get organized for their struggle. The movements bring people of various religions together, thus becoming inter-religious. They are centred round the assertion of basic human dignity and individual and social rights. There is a violent fringe in the country inspired by Marxist ideology. But they are not in the mainstream. The Dalits and the women are actually fighting on two fronts, namely within the Church and within society, because the Christian community also does not always respect their rights. India has managed to remain a functioning democracy. This makes non-violent struggles possible and effective, though the progress may be slow. A branch of the Indian Social Institute, focused on training social activists, was founded 1963 in Bangalore. Christians have been active also in the political field, though in a small way, given their numbers.
Dialogue with Cultures
Thanks to earlier missionaries like Robert de Nobili, most Indian Christians live like other Indians socially and culturally. Christianity comes into the picture principally in their religious life and worship. In the field of worship, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy envisaged, according to experts present at the Council, the emergence of new rituals families like the Indian, Chinese, African, etc. We do not even hear about this today. The unity of the Roman rite has been imposed in all the areas in which the Church was established in the colonial period. The Constitution also spoke of more radical adaptations and gave some powers to the Bishops and Bishops’ Conferences. All this power is now centralized. In India we did succeed in getting permission during the first ten years after the Council for some external postures, gestures, vestments and rites that give an Indian flavor to the Eucharistic liturgy. But the doors closed after the first ten years. There has been no further movement. No serious efforts have been made from the side of the Indian Church either. One reason may be that there is a flourishing popular religiosity, around and beyond the strictly liturgical ritual that may be satisfying the religious needs of the people. This is largely the people’s initiative, often encouraged by the clergy, because it gives a religious tone to their lives. The problem is that caste and other socially discriminating factors may enter into these social rituals, making them less than really ecclesial.
12. Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 4; P.M. Gy, OP, “Situation historique de la Constitution”, in La liturgie après Vatican II, edited by J-P. Jossua and Y. Congar (Paris: Cerf, 1967), p. 116. See also A.G. Martimort, “Adaptation liturgique”, Ephemerides Liturgicae 79 (1965) 7; J.A. Jungmann, “Konstitution über die Heilige Liturgie: Einleitung und Kommentar”, Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, Teil I (Freiburg, 1966), p.43.
13. Cf. D.S.Amalorpavadass (ed), Towards Indigenization in the Liturgy. Bangalore: National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC), 1971.
The attitude of the central authority in the Church may have been strengthened by the fact that both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have stated that the Christian faith has had its first insertion in Greek culture and this is normative for all Christians everywhere. This is, of course, not true and acceptable and is against the usual perspective of inculturation. Paul VI said in Evangelii nuntiandi: “The gospel and, therefore, evangelization cannot be put in the same category with any culture. They are above all cultures… They can penetrate any culture while being subservient to none.” It is also true that Benedict XVI, in a discourse on St. Ephrem, accepts that early Christianity was inculturated, not only in Greek culture, but also in Jewish Aramaic culture. He also makes a reference to India in this connection. John Paul II has encouraged Indians: An immense spiritual impulse compels the Indian mind to an acquiring of that experience which would, with a spirit freed from the distractions of time and space, attain to the absolute good. This is the time, above all for Indian Christians, to unlock these treasures from their inheritance. Some efforts have been made along these lines. I shall come to them later.
14. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 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.” (Sept, 12, 2006).
15. Cf. Michael Amaladoss, Beyond Inculturation. Can the Many be One? Delhi: ISPCK, 2005.
16. 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)
John Paul II, Faith and Reason, 72.
There are some problematic areas however. One is the phenomenon of multi-culturalism. India is a land of many cultures and languages, though there is one overarching culture, excluding the north-eastern indigenous peoples. If local cultural sensitivities are taken into account conflicts may arise and do and hurt the witnessing potential of the Christian community as catholic. About 50% of the Christians belong to subaltern cultural groups like the Dalits and the Indigenous peoples. They look on the dominant culture, because of a hierarchical social system that also conditions religion, as oppressive and unworthy of being dialogued with. Most of the other Christians too do not belong to the elite castes. This means that the Christians are not really open to meet the dominant elite culture of the country in evangelical dialogue. Due to the progress in education and technological modernization in the recent decades, a hybrid globalizing culture may tend to dominate today, especially the youth. The Church is not having any impact at this level either. That the manifestations of a traditional culture is controlled by particular dominant caste groups that exclude the Christians may be another problem.
Another dimension of inculturation is that the Word of God becomes incarnate in every culture in order to transform them from within in the power of the resurrection. Unfortunately much emphasis has been put so far on indigenization and not on cultural transformation. Slavery continued in the Christian communities for 18 centuries and continues even today under other forms like migrant labour. Casteism and linguistic and cultural nationalism still divide Christian communities in India.
There is also a tension between traditional culture and the globalizing scientific and technological modern culture promoted and controlled by the modern media of communications. The majority of the Christians in India are poor, slowly emerging into the middle class. In a post-colonial situation, in which there is a hidden admiration for the colonial powers which still dominate the world economically and politically, they may tend to identify themselves more easily with the modern Western culture than the traditional Indian one. The traditional cultures, then, are no longer partners in evangelical dialogue. The Church does not have its own cultural agenda. But it has to be open and sensitive in dialogue to ongoing cultural changes, which do not depend on itself. At the same time, it has to continue to seek to transform economic and social inequalities, especially the caste system and patriarchy. At the moment, the secularization of society does not seem to be a big problem in India. But the Church needs to be watchful, especially with regard to the youth.
Dialogue with Religions
The third area of evangelical dialogue is with the living religions of Asia. India has a special role here because it is a multi-religious country. Some of the living world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism were born here. India has also been host to Christianity and Islam almost from their very birth. The few Zoroastrians justify in the world have their roots in India. In spite of some fundamentalist forces, it has remained secular in the sense of being politically open to all religions. As I had indicated earlier, India was open to inter-religious dialogue much before it became official for Christians at the Second Vatican Council. As a matter of fact the openness to all religions goes back to the emperor Ashoka in the third century before Christ and the Muslim emperor Akbar in the 16th century after Christ passing through other saintly figures like Kabir, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. This tradition had encouraged Christians and others to be open to each other even before the Council. In any case they were socially living together in multi-religious communities and their fellowship was shown at the time of local Christian festivals, which the whole community, Hindu and Christian, celebrated together, till this was stopped by the Bishops in the 1950s. But this dialogue of life continues in some way.
19. Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy. Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
20. See Michael Amaladoss, Beyond Dialogue. Pilgrims to the Absolute. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2008, pp. 1-14.
After the Council, dialogue groups made up of religious experts open to the others sprouted a little everywhere. The dialogue secretariat of the Indian Bishops’ Conference organized meetings of such experts in different parts of the country. In these meetings the experts not only shared experience and discussed common questions to deepen understanding of each other’s tradition, but also read together inspiring texts from different religious scriptures, celebrated festivals, visited various sacred places together and even prayed and meditated together on special occasions. This movement however has now abated, though some groups still meet every month in a few places. Similar encounters may take place in the ashrams. In the beginning it was only the Christians who took the initiative to organize such meetings. Now also the Hindus and Sikhs do so.
21. Concerning various dimensions of dialogue in India see Michael Amaladoss, Beyond Dialogue. Pilgrims to the Absolute. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2008.
22. Cf. Desmond Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday, 1999.
Such an experience of dialogue between believers of different religions does lead to theological reflection on the role of religions in the salvific plan of God in the world. As a matter of fact the Hindus are more open to other religions, unlike the monotheistic faiths like Christianity and Islam. I shall come to this later. Religious fundamentalists and violence are not absent in the country. But they are fringe groups and I think that the secular identity of the country as a whole remains strong, protected by the Constitution and the rule of law. Direct involvement in conflict resolution, as happened in South Africa, is a complex and difficult affair. But we can bring people together to reflect on such events and promote harmony through mutual respect, understanding and acceptance. Such meetings do take place, especially in times of conflict. We are also focusing now on the children and youth to educate them to a life of peace. Here we are moving from tolerance to acceptance of the other and from dialogue at a strictly religious level to collaboration in view of promoting and defending religious freedom and harmony in social life.
In recent years a group of Hindus have been meeting every Saturday in Varanasi, a place very sacred to the Hindus, to read the Bible and to pray to Chirst. On the first Saturdays of the month the crowd may go up to 20,000. They call themselves ‘Disciples of Christ’ – Christu Bhaktas. But they have not been baptized for sociological and other reasons. They came together to celebrate Easter last month. Now one hears about similar groups elsewhere in the country. On the one hand the Church may hesitate to baptize them for sociological and political reasons, the Church still remaining, or at least seeming to be in general, culturally foreign. On the other hand, there is a desire to promote discipleship to Christ, unfettered by structural conditions. Some suggest that there are a considerable number of similar undeclared disciples of Christ in India.
An Indian Christian Spirituality
The first Catholic ashram was founded in 1950. There are now about 60 of them, mostly small. In these ashrams there is an effort to develop and live an Indian Christian spirituality. This search is shown in multiple ways. They live a simple life close to nature, very different from the style of life to which the clergy and the religious are accustomed in India. They make a conscious effort to follow Indian methods of prayer and meditation like the yoga, especially with reference to breathing, posture and concentration. They read and meditate on the scriptures and mystical writings of other believers, of course, in the context of their own Christian belief and scriptures. In 1974 there was a research seminar asking the question whether the scriptures of other religions can be considered inspired. The answer was a qualified yes.
23. See http://matridhamashram.org/content/khristu-bhakta-movement.
24. See Michael Amaladoss, “Do Ashrams Have a Future?”, Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 67 (2003) 977-990.
They can be considered inspired analogically in so far as they can be looked upon as belonging to a cosmic covenant of God with Adam and Noah that preceded God’s covenant with Abraham and Moses. Their possible use in the liturgy was proposed but forbidden by Rome even before a formal request was made. But there are many collections of such texts available and used by people privately. An Indian guru, Sebastian Painadath, has recently been preaching retreats based on the Bhagavad Gita and the Gospels. The ashram communities welcome searchers of all religions. They also engage in social work helping the poor people around them. They witness to the good news by their life and example – more by attraction than by proselytism, as Pope Francis has suggested. Unfortunately this spirituality has not really spread out in the wider Christian community. But the ashrams do present an alternate way of living the Christian faith. Their way of life and their search have also led to deeper theological reflection.
One significant fruit of such experiential search for God-experience in India is the focus on the advaita or non-duality. God and the world/the self are neither one nor two but not-two. The West looks at God as creating the world outside Godself implying a dualistic outlook. Cause and effect cannot be the same. India affirms that God is the only real. The world is not another real to be set beside God. It is totally dependent on God. But it is not simply a kind of emanation or modification of God’s being in a pantheistic sense.
25. See D.S.Amalorpavadass (ed), Research Seminar on Non-Biblical Scriptures. Bangalore: NBCLC, 1974.
26. Cf. Sebastian Painadath, “The Integral Spirituality of the Bhagavad Gita”, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 39 (2004) 305-324; id. Spiritual Co-Pilgrims. Towards a Christian Spirituality in Dialogue with Asian Religions. Quezon City: Claretian, 2014.
Nor is it, as some Indians say, monistic, the world being unreal or maya. The human is free, but it is not an absolute freedom. We can find this perspective in texts like “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30); “ It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20); “Father, as you are in me and I in you, may they also be in us” (Jn 17:21). To realize this advaitic oneness is to be free of suffering and reach fulfillment. Mystics in the West, like Meister Eckhart, also speak such language. Some Christians in India, both Indian and European, have tried to attain and live such an experience. For them, God is not ‘She/He’, nor even ‘Thou’, but a deeper ‘I’.
A Search for an Indian Theology
In 1979 there was a seminar on “Theologizing in India Today”. One of the proposals highlighted in it was the need to base theology on the experience of faith. A movement towards inculturation in theology insisted on theologizing in local contexts, with local resources and languages. A number of regional theological centres were started where attempts were made to develop a contextual theology done in a local Indian language. Around the same time there was also the inspiration from the circles of liberation theology proposing a new method in theologizing starting from experience and going on to questioning, analysis, correlation with revelation and tradition, reflection, discernment and action. This was known as the theological-pastoral cycle. This method of theologizing was widely adopted all over Asia. Obviously, this was different from the official systematic theology that we had inherited from the West. In Scholastic theology, philosophy was supposed to be the handmaid of theology. But what happened was that the mystery of God beyond name and form was reduced and made to fit the framework and categories of scholastic philosophy. Today in the West other systems of philosophy have replaced scholastic philosophy in theological reflection. But philosophy conditions rather than serves theology.
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, Towards an Alternative Theology. Confessions of a Non-dualist Christian. (Bangalore: Asian Trading, 1991); Michael Amaladoss, “Theosis and Advaita. An Indian Approach to Salvation”, Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 75 (2011) 887-901.
28. Cf. M. Amaladoss, T.K.John and G. Gispert-Sauch (eds), Theologizing in India Today. Bangalore: Theological
Publications in India, 1981.
In India, at a first stage, there were efforts to fit reflection on God into the framework of Indian philosophy. But this effort was soon given up to focus on contextual experience as the starting point of theological reflection which dialogues with Scripture and Tradition. The context of life was understood and analyzed, not in terms of a philosophy, but with the help of the human and social sciences like economic and political theory, anthropology, psychology, sociology and comparative religion. Multi-religiosity was also part of the context and taken seriously. For example, when the Asian theologians prepared a text on the theology of harmony, they started with the conflictual situations in Asia which required harmony and went on to explore the various efforts made by the different religions before going on to develop a Christian theology of harmony based on its own scripture and tradition. They did not follow any particular philosophical framework. But unfortunately, the Western systematic theology is still imposed in our seminaries and faculties. Western theologians look on us as pastoral theologians, not following the systems current in Europe. Rome looks on our younger theologians as sociologists rather than theologians and refuses to approve them as professors in our faculties. This happens when one is really open to the world.
In the Context of Other Religions
The Church’s experience of and openness to other religions has marked its theological reflection and pastoral practice. The Indian Bishops, responding to the lineamenta of the Asian Synod, wrote:
In the light of the universal salvific will and design of God, so emphatically affirmed in the New Testament witness, the Indian Christological approach seeks to avoid negative and exclusivistic expressions. Christ is the sacrament, the definitive symbol of God’s salvation for all humanity. This is what the salvific uniqueness and universality of Christ means in the Indian context. That, however, does not mean there cannot be other symbols, valid in their own ways, which the Christian sees as related to the definitive symbol, Jesus Christ. The implication of all this is that for hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings, salvation is seen as being channelled to them not in spite of but through and in their various sociocultural and religious traditions. We cannot, then, deny a priori a salvific role for these non-Christian religions.
29. See Michael Amaladoss, 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)
The first observation to make here is the role of religions in God’s plan for salvation. St. John Paul II has called them participated mediations. While the other religions are not parallel or complementary they can be collaborators towards a common goal, namely the Kingdom of God of which the Church is the symbol and servant. The Church proclaims and spreads the Kingdom of God not merely by founding local Churches, but also by spreading the ‘Gospel values’, open to “the Spirit who breathes when and where he wills.” The Kingdom, therefore, reaches out beyond the Church to include also the other religions in which the people live “gospel values”.
31. Peter C. Phan (ed), The Asian Synod. Texts and Commentaries. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002), p.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.” Redemptoris Missio, 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 (cf. Jn 3:8)”. Ibid., 20.
The Indian Bishops affirm that Jesus Christ is the definitive symbol of God’s salvation for all humanity. But this salvation may pass to the other believers through other symbols, though the reality of the Saviour and salvation is one and the same. There are two ways of understanding this process. One is to say that the Spirit of God is present and active in other religions, but then assert that the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. So Christ is active through the Spirit. Another way is to say that, not only the Spirit, but the Word itself is present and active everywhere in the universe (cf. Jn 1:1-4) as “the true light which enlightens everyone.” (Jn 1:9) In this way, the uniqueness of Christ is further deepened. The question then is not whether the Word is present and active everywhere, but how it is experienced.
The Indians also seek to link this image of the Word to the “cosmic Christ” of whom Paul speaks in his letters to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 1:3-10) and to the Colossians (cf. Col 1:15-20). They will also feel comfortable with the “cosmic Christ” of modern mystics like Teilhard de Chardin. May I recall here what I have said above about advaita or non-duality. This vision of the cosmic Christ also links us with the whole cosmos, offering an ecological dimension to salvation. Pope Francis has said recently: “The Spirit of life dwells in every living creature and calls us to enter into relationship with him.”
Conclusion
The Council saw the universal Church as a communion of local Churches. It is by allowing the many local Churches to emerge with their own identities that the Church will become catholic. The Churches will become local precisely by creatively dialoguing with the local contexts, cultures and religions. Such dialogue is its very mission.
34. Ibid., 28-29.
35. For an elaboration of these ideas see Jacques Dupuis, 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), p. 297.
37. Laudato Si’, 88.
It is through this dialogue that the Christian community witnesses to and spreads the gospel values, attracting some to become Christians and encouraging and helping others to move closer to the Kingdom of God. Without such openness to the world the Christian community will stagnate. It is often said that the Second Vatican Council opened the windows of the Church to the world. It is also suggested that some have been trying to close them down. I think that it is time, not only to open the windows, but also the doors. The agents of such dialogue are the People of God with their ministers. They are gifted by the Spirit with the ‘sensus fidei’ and they are worthy of trust.
Michael Amaladoss, S.J.