Gurukul Forum for Social and Theological Issues : Struggle for Freedom and Justice as the common platform for Christians and others to come together

Gurukul forum for Social and Theological Issues initiated a discussion on “Christian Participation in a Pluralistic Context” in the Ziegenbalg auditorium on 22nd August 2008. The session was moderated by Rev. S. Doraiswamy (MTh.II – Old Testament). Forum Convener Mr. Daniel T. Philip welcomed the gathering. Rev. N. Solomon James Sudhir, Staff Adviser, led the opening prayer. The philharmonic group rendered a special song. Mr. A. Dalvin Kristi Dass, BD II, member of the committee, proposed vote of thanks. Dr. Sam P. Mathew, Acting Principal, closed the meeting with a word of prayer. A panel of four people looked at the topic from different perspectives: Ms. Belinda, BD IV, who went to Fiji Islands on the Face to Face Programme, presented a Fijian perspective, Mr. Pa Hmo, BD IV, approached the issue from Mara Perspective, Ms. Vekutulu Lohe, a Ph. D. candidate in the department of Communication, viewed topic from the Northeastern perspective and Mr. Sam Thomas, (MTh. II – Theology) approached the topic with a North-western perspective. There was enthusiastic participation in the general discussion that followed the main presentations. The theme pluralism as well as the differing perspectives on it was theologically very challenging. Several significant questions were raised from the floor. What is the nature of mission in a pluralistic context? What makes a Christian, Christian? How do the theologies and ecclesiologies we inherited from the west relevant to our multireligious cultural context? How do we meet the contextual challenges in relation to the gospel of Christ?
Ms. Belinda, from her experience in Fiji, pointed out how Fijian Christians are trying to interpret the meaning of Christ in their culture. She said that in Fiji most sacred and important animal is pig and there are Christological attempts which view Christ as the Pig of God. In cultures where Jesus Christ is interpreted as lamb of God, pig is not an accepted symbol; in some societies lamb is quite unknown and they do not have any meaning with the image of Christ as the lamb. M. M. Thomas in his introduction to the Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance has narrated how missionaries took with them a stuffed lamb to an island where lamb was an unfamiliar animal. Clearly Christians many times failed to understand the meaning of the message of the gospel just as the Jews in Jesus times failed to understand the meaning of the law. They were trying to be true to their faith not knowing that faith needs creative understanding and interpretation to remain as faith and to prevent it from becoming dead ideology which cannot account for “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Ideology without faith is blind. It cannot see beyond, rather looks back for inspiration. One of the challenges of pluralism is to understand theological doctrines in quite different terms from what is familiar to us, to be challenged by people and ideas from others who think and act differently from us. To the European missionaries who came from homogeneous cultures it was difficult to accept what they saw unfamiliar in other cultures and suppressed the cultural values of people. It may seem offensive to certain people some cultural symbols familiar and accepted in some other cultures which are not present in one’s own culture. We should not make our cultural values as the criterion to evaluate other persons, or for understanding their ethics. The discussion on cultural questions was very humbling for many of us and a challenge to shed our cherished doctrines as the absolute theology. Theology can be theology only when it is contextually meaningful. Most participants in the discussion held that the churches need to get out of the western framework of doing theology and participate in the struggles of people for food, freedom and justice. Christians need to participate with other religious communities to ensure these rights of the people. Rev. Duraiswamy said that etymologically Christian means an anointed one, for the Greek Christos is the translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah which means the anointed one. Christians are anointed people, entrusted with a special task, to do the will of God, in serving the people in need, in our living context.