Bless me my Lord

United Theological College, Bangalore

Course Title: Indian Christian Contextual Theology (MCT014)

Topic: Nation Building, Humanism, and Dialogue ( P. D Devanandan, M. M. Thomas, S.

J. Samartha)

Faculty-in-Charge: Prof. Rev. Dr. Rohan P Gideon

Presented by: Nithin V Rajan (Christian Theology, M.Th.-I)

India is not only a nation but a subcontinent with a diverse mixture of communities’ facing
complex social and economic challenges. Christian Commitment to Nation Building, was and
is part of our ongoing effort to understand the meaning and implications of the common task
of building the Indian Nation which is our Matrubhumi and Punyabhumi, and contribute
towards this process. A deeper understanding of our Christian faith commitment urges us to
rededicate ourselves to the task of building the nation as a communion of various communities.
Each community should have a genuine freedom in realizing its legitimate aspirations and, at
the same time, exercise a sense of responsibility in cherishing and fostering other cultures and
religions. This paper tries to understand the contribution of three great legends of Indian
Christian Theology:- P. D Devanandan, M. M. Thomas, S. J. Samartha

1. P. D Devanandan

Introduction 1

Paul David Devanandan(1901–1962), was also known as P.D. Devanandan was an Indian
Protestant theologian, ecumenist, and one of the notable pioneers in inter-religious dialogues
in India.

P. D Devanandan was born in Madras on 8 July 1901, and graduated from Nizam College,
Hyderabad. He did his M.A from Presidency College, Madras. While studying at Madras, he
was acquainted with K. T. Paul, a prominent Social activist, Christian and YMCA leader. He
taught briefly at Jaffna College, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. With assistance from K.T. Paul, he flew

1
“Paul David Devanandan: Indian Theologian (1901 - 1962) | Biography, Facts, Information, Career, Wiki, Life.”
Peoplepill.Com, peoplepill.com, https://peoplepill.com/people/paul-david-devanandan. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

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United States in 1924 and did his theological studies at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley,
California. He received his doctorate in Comparative religion from Yale University in 1931—
for his dissertation on the concept of Maya in Hinduism.

Upon his return to India in 1931, he became the professor of philosophy and religions at United
Theological College, Bangalore between 1932 and 1949 for seventeen years. He had a lasting
and long association with YMCA; he worked as a secretary at the Delhi YMCA, and later as
national literature secretary at YMCA between 1949 and 1956

In 1954, he was ordained as a presbyter of the church of South India. In 1956, he was appointed
as the director of the new "Center for the study of Hinduism"—later renamed to "Christian
Institute for the Study of Religion and Society"(CISRS), Bangalore.

He tried to originate a theology of Christian participation in nation-building and of dialogue

with religious and secular faiths. He was also a proponent of Christian participation in politics
and he encouraged the Christians to make a distinctive contribution to the nation

His theological expressions are found in his works on

• The Concept of Maya: An Essay in Historical Survey of the Hindu Theory of the World
with Special Reference to the Vedanta (1950),
• Our Task Today: Revision of Evangelistic Concern (1959),
• Christian Concern in Hinduism (1961) and
• A Bibliography on Hinduism for Use of Christian Students (1961).

Theological Foundation on Humanism2

At U.S. he was influenced by the humanistic philosophy, thus he claimed, we as Christians

ought to act as pioneers in radically removing the more important social evils in India by
personal example. Due to the influence of K.T. Paul he was also involved in the freedom
struggles. His nationalistic concerns were by no means superficial since, he felt, any human
efforts to achieve national unity must reckon with the living God who is the generating power
of all true community being. From this insight two of Devanandan’s deepest convictions are
revealed. The first is that the fulfilment of the goals of humanism is in every way associated
with the fulfilment of God’s purpose for human. Without the latter the former cannot be

2
“Lecture: P.D. Devanandan (1901-1962.” Share and Discover Knowledge on SlideShare,
https://www.slideshare.net/pothanav/lecture-pd-devanandan-19011962. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.

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obtained. And secondly, behind the concern to pinpoint the areas of Christian humanistic
responsibility Devanandan is stressing a concept of religion as down to earth. If the Christian
faith stands for anything at all it stands for the redemption of the whole humanity

Secularistic humanism͛ as a gospel of hope with three doctrines3:

(1) The ultimate destiny of human life must be found in the nature of man

(2) It can be reached by means which are possible to men, if they will only properly utilize
their own native capacities and environment for the common good

(3) Natural and social sciences give us all the guidance and direction we need to realize our
destiny

He argued for a Christian concern in society and desired the creation of a theology which
affirms a positive approach to other religions and cultural contexts. He says One of the primary
tasks of Christian evangelism in India as elsewhere in our modern world is to make clear to the
mind of thinking people that religion is relevant to life; that Christianity concerns this life as
much as the life everlasting; that ours is a revolutionary faith which asks to realize here on
earth abiding standards of righteousness and justice because these are the very nature of the
Church. For some time past, we have considered our evangelistic task in terms of confronting
other non-Christian religions systems with the counter-claims of Christianity as another system
of religion. We have preaching a way of life, a system of thought, instead of the gospel of Jesus
Christ which still is: God’s reign is already here. He interpreted mission as lokasangraha. To
Devanandan, mission as lokasangraha meant the producing of the community of human with
human and human with God, a triangular community, the true community, in which alone a
person finds himself or herself as a person among persons in relation to the person. His
theocentric perspective accommodated all religions as within the common search for
community around one God, while he yet retained his Christian claim to the uniqueness of
Christ as a person who alone mattered. He spoke of God’s redemptive activity outside the
Church with Theo-centricity transcending confessionalism. He wrote it may not be fair to say
that God in His graciousness will not regard the faith of non-Christian seeker. Yet, as a
Christiana prologetic he goes on to say “we press forward with the mission of testimony, which
has been delivered to us declaring to the end of the time that there is no other name given under
heaven by which human shall be saved except the name of Jesus Christ.”

3
.PDDevandan.et.al, Presenting Christ to India Today (Madras: CLS, 1956), 4.

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PD Devanandan raised the question ͞has Christians in India evolve a common Indian way of
life, which is not to be confused with adherence to common religious beliefs and practices?͟4
This search redefines the secularism of the state, founded upon the conception that whatever
one may or may not believe about otherworldly values, the state is profoundly interested in
the realisation of this-worldly values. A Secular state can never be anti-religious5

2. M. M. Thomas

Introduction6

Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas, (1916-1996) Born in the Travancore region of Kerala,

Thomas was raised in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, whose combination of ancient
sacramental liturgy with modern evangelical spirituality undergirded his life and ministry.

Thomas served the World Council of Churches (WCC) as moderator of its Central Committee
from 1968 to 1975. Earlier, he was Asian staff member of the WCC church and society
department, then chair of the departmental working committee and co-chair of the World
Conference on Church and Society in Geneva, 1966. He was also secretary of the East Asia
Christian Conference for church and society concerns. He was a tireless speaker and writer,
stimulating ecumenical debate and forging consensus, expressed in countless conference and
meeting reports he helped write. Towards a Theology of Contemporary Ecumenism (1978)
presents some of this work.

In India, Thomas served as associate, then director, of the Christian Institute for the Study of
Religion and Society from 1958 until his retirement in 1975. His work produced a library of
studies and conference reports on the religious and social dimensions of Indian life in Christian
perspective. He also wrote extensively in his own name, interpreting Christian faith in light of
the Asian revolution, in Indian society, and in encounter with Hinduism and secular ideologies.
In retirement, he continued to write biblical studies and theology in Malayalam, his mother
tongue. He served as governor of Nagaland, by appointment of the government of India, from
1990 to 1992.

Works

4
.PD Devanandan, Our Task Today ,Prevailing View On Evangelism(Bangalore:CISRS,1959),23
5
.P D Devanandan, Preparation for Dialogue (Bangalore: CISRS, 1964), 127. The same argument can also be
seen in his book Christian Issues in South Asia (New York: Fortress Press, 1963),85.
6
Charles C. West, “Thomas, M(adathilparampil) M(ammen),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions,
ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 666-7.

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 1. The acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance (1969 SCM Press, London)

2. Risking Christ for Christ's Sake

3. Nagas towards 2000

4. My Ecumenical Journey 1947-75 (1990)

5. Response to Tyranny

As an ecumenical theologian and a social thinker7, Thomas was deeply concerned about
Christian mission. Thomas located his framework for mission in the person of Jesus Christ, the
God-man, the God-for-Man, and thus his theology of mission is grounded in his Christo
centrism. He recognized the redemptive work of God in the person of Christ and the
proclamation of this message for the salvation of humanity. This evangelistic dimension of
mission, for Thomas, was essential and the cutting edge of Christian mission. However, he did
not confine mission only to this concept, what he called the ultimate destiny, but believed that
mission must be understood in a broader perspective of the struggle for humanization, the
historic destiny—human rights and social justice. For Thomas, salvation was eschatological,
but the eschatological framework must embrace “the task of humanisation of the world in
secular history.” Therefore, he maintained that humanization is an integral part of the Christian
message of salvation, and it was intrinsic to salvation. He believed the search for humanization
was embodied in the contemporary revolutions in which he discovered the mission dimension.
Thomas saw Christ at work in revolutions, and he called upon the church to discern it and
participate in this mission for an increased human dignity and fuller humanity.

CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO POLITICS8

According to M.M. Thomas the idea of non-political Christianity is too deeply rooted in the
Christian spirituality that churches are happy only in the works of individual salvation and
charitable service. They are afraid of participating in organizing struggles against the
oppressive caste-class power-structures existing in this land to secure social justice. The
consciousness of being a minority community is so strong that they easily become appendages
to the status quo-power-structure and ideology forgetting that they represent the destiny of the
humanity of all people in this land. Pastoral ministry in India is too inward-looking. Thus, the

7
Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (Delhi: ISPCK, 2012), 311
8
M.M. Thomas, A Diaconal Approach to Indian Ecclesiology (Rome: CIIS and Thiruvalla: CSS, 1995), 70.

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church’s witness in the world of politics requires renewal in the spirituality and theology of the
Church in India.

Salvation as humanism

M.M. Thomas signifies salvation in Christ as Christ the bearer of new community. Salvation
will lead one to be part of a new community i.e. in Christ. The quest for salvation is the search
for ultimate meaning of human existence. This involves: first, a desire for selfhood, self identity
and group identity; second, a search for historical consciousness and purpose in history; and
third, a search to realize the new ideal community based on freedom, equality and fraternity.
He also interpret salvation as being glorified in humanity of Jesus Christ or as being
incorporated in the glorified humanity of the risen Christ, and therefore salvation is closely
related to the struggle of the oppressed for a richer and fuller human life or to the process of
humanization. God is the God of liberator who delivers His people from slavery, and thus
salvation involves social liberation. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
overcoming man’s contrariness to God; and through the Cross He had broken down all walls
of partition among mankind, and united them into a unity in Christ. Salvation includes
community and unity among mankind9

Dialogue

Thomas is always concerned to find a basis for the living together of different faiths and
ideologies in a working harmony which can secure the wellbeing of all people. His concern
was to relate between ultimate faiths commitments which end to separate people. He speaks of
the need for Christians to put their faith alongside other faiths and different faith commitments
must be placed alongside one another. Thus he developed theological frame work for dialogue
among religion and secular ideologies to develop a common secular anthropology as the basis
of common action in politics, economics and society in our religiously pluralistic situation; and
to understand the creed and cults of each other’s religion life, for the understanding of the depth
of the mystic of other religions10.

3. S. J. Samartha

Introduction:

9
R.S. Sugirtharajah and Cecil Hargreaves, eds., Reading in Indian Christian Theology Volume 1 (Delhi: ISPCK,
1992 [2000]), 93-94
10
Laji Chacko, Introduction to Christian Theologies in India (Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2014),147

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 Stanley Jedidiah Samartha is one of the renowned missiologist of the world due to his
contribution on Inter-religious dialogue. His theology is shape by the diversified life of India
where everything that related with human comes in multi-faceted. Hence, he naturally
advocated religious pluralism which is the manifestation of the true colour of Indian culture.
S.J Samartha, born on 7 October 1920 in Karkala, grew up in the peaceful multi-religious
society of Karnataka in the South of India Karnataka11. He had his education at the Basel
Evangelical Mission High School and the local Government College. Later in 1939 he joined
the Jesuit-run St. Aloysius College from where he obtained a B.A. in 1941 He joined the United
Theological College, Bengaluru in 1941 where he was under the influence of his Professors,
Marcus Ward and P. D. Devanandan. In 1945, he secured BD degree Beginning from the
academic year 1947 – 1948, he was appointed as Lecturer in the Basel Evangelical Mission
Theological Seminary (now Karnataka Theological College), Mangalore to teach Theology
and Religions. He was ordained by The Basel Evangelical Mission on 30 March 1952. He was
given opportunity to do post-graduate studies in 1949 at Union Theological Seminary in New
York. He studied under Paul Tillich, the Christian existentialist Philosopher and worked out a
thesis titled The Hindu View of History According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan which eventually
got published. In 1950, he was enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the Hartford Theological
Seminary, Connecticut and was awarded a PhD in 1951 with a doctoral thesis entitled as The
Modern Hindu View of History according to Representative Thinkers".

After completion of doctoral studies at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1951, he spent

a year at Basel, Switzerland at the invitation of the Basel Mission Board. While spending his
days there, attended Karl Barth's weekly lectures at the University of Basel besides visiting the
local congregations in Switzerland as well as in Germany. It was there he met Hendrik
Kraemer, the Dutch Reformed Theologian and the first Director of the Ecumenical Institute,
Bossy. Then he taught two year in the Hartfort Theological seminary. Upon his return to India
in 1952, he was immediately appointed Principal of the Basel Evangelical Mission Theological
Seminary now known as Karnataka Theological College at Mangalore.

In 1968, he accepted an invitation to join the staff of the World Council of Churches as a
Associate Secretary in the Department of Studies in Mission and Evangelism, he remained
there for twelve years. During these years he paved the way for the formulation of the

11
Konrad Raiser, “Tribute to Dr. Stanley J. Samartha” in the official blog of World Council of Churches. “World
Council of Churches.” World Council of Churches, http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/cd38-
02.html. Accessed 1 Apr. 2023.

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"guidelines" for inter-religious dialogue which were approved by the Central Committee of the
WCC in January 1979 and have provided a reliable and valid foundation for the continuing
work of the Council in this area.

Beside his role in WCC, he was also a Consultant to the Christian Institute for the Study of
Religion and Society (CISRS), and the South Asia Theological Research Institute (SATHRI) -
Bangalore. He served as Principal of Karnataka Theological College, Professor in the United
Theological College and Principal of Serampore College.

Works

• Hindu Response To The Unbound Christ,

• The Other Side Of The River,
• The Search For New Hermeneutics In Asian Christian Theology,
• One Christ – Many Religion,
• Courage To Dialogue,
• the Pilgrim Christ,
• I could not go to church on Good Friday,
• The Lordship of Jesus Christ and Religious Pluralism.

He was champion for the inter-religious dialogue. Samartha start his theology with the elements
of the inclusive nature mission in the New Testament.12A cursory investigation on the works
of S.J Samartha reveals that, his main focus of mission is to bring equality of all religions which
would have religious tolerance, communal harmony, and mutual acceptance. To break up the
religious barriers which keep particularity into watertight compartment is the goal of religion;
which is in short can be summed up as religious pluralism or inclusivism. Consequently, his
whole theology of mission is within this framework

Jesus Christ is the center of Christian life and is the substance of Christian faith. Christologies
are human attempt to articulate the meaning and message of Jesus Christ to the Church and the
world. Consequently, Christology is the core of Christian mission. Samartha does his
Christology from below which he called the Bullock Cart Christology. In his Christology, the

12
S.J Samartha, “Dialogue in Religiously Plural Society” in The Multi-Faith Context of India - Resources and
Challenges, edited by Israel Selvanayagam, (Bangalore: The Board for Theological Text Books Programme of
South Asia, 1992), 14.

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divinity of Jesus and the ‘only Jesus’ notion is denied due to the fact that this becomes the
stumbling block for other faith to live together in harmony.13

Samartha advocates the need of a revised Christology in the multi religious context. For
him, Christian identity has been distorted by emphasizing Christology from above. He calls for
are vision of Christology from helicopter to bullock cart. The helicopter theology emphasizes
on the Christology from above. Samartha says that a helicopter Christology, in its attempts to
land on the religiously plural terrain of Asia, makes such a lot of Missiological noise and kicks
up so much of theological dust that people around are prevented from hearing the voice and
seeing the vision of the descending divinity. A bullock cart Christology, on the other hand, has
its wheels always touching the unpaved roads of Asia, for without the continual friction with
the ground, the cart cannot move forward at all. Moreover, a bullock cart Christology has the
advantage of having its bullocks move on with a steady pace even when the driver sometimes
falls asleep14

In a multi-religious society like India in particular and Asia as a whole, the place of Christ is
an important issue. The traditional Christocentric Christology is exclusive; it is not acceptable
by the other faith community. Moreover it makes it impossible for persons belonging to
different religious traditions to live together in harmony and to cooperate for common purposes
in society. Samartha refute that though the New Testament writers are Christocentric, Jesus
Christ himself is Theocentric.15

Dialogue16as mission strategy:

According to Samartha, mission should be carried out in the dialogical context.

Dialogue indeed reject and weaken the colonial attitude of mission – mission as conquest for
Christ. So he listed out four different way of doing mission.

i. Mission as conquest for Christ basing on Mt. 28:19

ii. Mission as Christian presence, symbolized by the images of light, salt, leaven and
mustard see.

13
Ibid.
14
S. J. Samartha, One Christ – Many Religions: Toward a Revised Christology (Bangalore: SATHRI, 2000) 132
15
S.J. Samartha, The Lordship of Jesus Christ and Religious Pluralism, (Madras: The Christian Literature
Society,1981), 11.
16
Dialogue is a mood, a spirit and a new attitude in relationship to our neighbours , i.e., people of other faith.

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 iii. Mission as being with Christ, suffering with Christ, ‘outside the gate’, basing on
Heb. 13;13.

iv. Mission as participating in God’s mission basing on Jn. 21:19-23.

He rejected the first one which was practice during the colonial period and at present also by
many mission societies, but agrees with the last three. He argues that the time of ‘onward
Christian Soldier’ is over. Our mission is to bear witness to our faith in the situation which
dialogue with people of other faiths provides us. By having a good relationship with other faith,
we would have chance to share our experience of the revelation and salvation revealed to us
17
through Jesus Christ, in his life and work, his crucifixion and resurrection. While doing
mission we have to remember others also have a story to tell us as much as we have a story to
tell to them. This entails another important element of doing mission – religious tolerance
which will be discussed in the next sub-heading.18

For doing mission in the pluralistic world within the religious pluralistic framework one has to
cautious about the approaches of the following19-
i. Plurality of religions and cultures – it has to be accepted with courage and hope.
Plurality is the inescapable fact of history.
ii. Exclusive claim of religion - All religion that make exclusive claim will have to
re-examine and re-define within them at first, then to other or with other neihgbour
of other faith.
iii. Plurality method –Mission is God’s continuing activity through the Spirit to mend
the brokenness of creation, to overcome the fragmentation of humanity, and to heal
the rift between humanity, nature and God. In a religious plural world, Christians,
together with their neighbors of other faith are called upon to participate on this
mission.
iv. Mission and Conversion –the statistical increase of Christian in the world has
nothing to do with the creating and redeeming activity of God which is prior to the
Church’s mission. So, conversion from one religion to other is not necessary.
Samartha claims that, the church is not to abandon mission for mission is integral
to gospel. However, the kind and manner of Christian’s doing mission is

17
S.J Samartha, “Dialogue in Religiously Plural Society”….14.
18
Ibid., 14.
19
S.J. Samartha, One Christ-Many Religion. Toward a Revised Christology, (Bangalore:South Asia Theological
Research Institute, 2000), 162-173.

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 questioned. Nevertheless, the distinctiveness of Christian mission lies in its being
Christian, rooted in God through Jesus Christ and in being active in the world in
the power of Spirit.While doing mission, Christian has to remember that neighbor
of other faiths too have their mission in the global community. Therefore, we cannot
just deny other faith’s mission.
v. The content of mission: the spiritual, theological and ethical dimensions of mission
are all inter-related in Jesus Christ in whose life and work, death and resurrection,
which are manifested in the history. So, the content of mission is to serve the poor
in the name of Christ, the removal of ignorance, the healing of sick, the caring of
orphans and widows, and the comforting of those in distress irrespective of their
religious or ideological affiliations, have always been part of the mission of the
church and to bring justice in society. In these entire thing it is important to
acknowledge that the neighbouring other faith are also actively participate in charity
called dana, and also fighting for justice in the society. By drawing our
commonness we can come out from our alienation to other faith community.

Conclusion20

The existence of Christianity in India goes back to the first century and there is a Christian
community in Kerala that traces its origin to Apostle Thomas however this community effort
to produce any dogmatic systems is not visible. It was only when the western missionary
arrived this efforts got prominence and here Christianity and colonial interpretation got
intermingled. It was the Hindu reformers who while remaining faithful to their own religious
upbringing searched the meaning of Christ and the gospel for their own faith community and
thus started a project “Jesus Made in India.” For example is Swami Vivekananda. Gradually
Christians sought some connection between Christian faith and their own culture resulting in
the Brahmanical captivity of Indian theology. The emergence of nationalistic movement raised
curiosity among few Christians to recognize that to know Jesus means to know human struggle
and their generosity of spirit helped them to support Indians who opposed the colonial
Christians in power. Today’s context of mass poverty, inequality, rising price, human right
violation, abuses by the totalitarian state, terror and violence all over challenges Indian
Christian theologies to offer ingredients that provide nutrition for healthy society. Foreign

20
Chacko, Laji. Introduction to Christian Theologies in India. 2014.

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missionaries also served India and the social location of their mission motivated them to
develop diverse theological responses. They emphasized on adoption, fulfilment, reinterpreting
gospel truths according to Indian context and their quest for presenting Jesus for India proves
their passion. Indian Christian theologies are surrounded by such a great cloud of religious
systems that theology emerges within the context of dialogue. The task of dialogue is to build
trust, meeting common challenges and addressing conflicting issues. The Indian context is one
of the great diversities, contracts and it may seems to be contradictions and here Christian
theologies of dialogue leads to connectivity.

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Board of Theological Education of Senate of Serampore College, 1998.

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Society, Bangalore, 1959.

_____.The Hindu Response to the Unbound Christ: Towards A Christology in India, Christian
Institute for the Study of Religio~ and Society, Bangalore, 1974.

_____.Courage for Dialogue, World Council of Churches, Geneva, 1981; Orb is Books, Mary
knoll, New York, 1982. )

_____.The Lordship of Christ and Religious Pluralism, Christian Literature Society, Madras,
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_____.The Other side of the River, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1983.

_____.The Search for New Hermeneutics in Asian Christian Theology, Senate of Serampore
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_____.One Christ-Many Religions: Toward a Revised Christology, Orbis Books, New York,
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Thomas, M.M. The Christian Response to the Asian Revolution. London: SCM, 1966.

_____. The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance. London: SCM, 1969.

_____. Risking Christ for Christ’s Sake: Towards an Ecumenical Theology of Pluralism.
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