Dalit Theology In The Twenty First Century

Papers presented at the Symposium on 'Dalit Theology in the Twenty-first Century', held at Calcutta in January 2008.

In fulfilling the long-awaited need for a constructive and critical rethinking of Dalit theology this book offers and explores the synoptic healing stories as a relevant biblical paradigm for Dalit theology in order to help redress the lacuna between Dalit theology and the social practice of the Indian Church. Peniel Rajkumar's starting point is that the growing influence of Dalit theology in academic circles is incompatible with the praxis of the Indian Church which continues to be passive in its attitude towards the oppression of the Dalits both within and outside the Church. The theological reasons for this lacuna between Dalit theology and the Church's praxis, Rajkumar suggests, lie in the content of Dalit theology, especially the biblical paradigms explored, which do not offer adequate scope for engagement in praxis.

A second generation of emerging Dalit theology texts is re-shaping the way we think of Indian theology and liberation theology. This book is a vital part of that conversation. Taking post-colonial criticism to its logical end of criticism of statism, Keith Hebden looks at the way the emergence of India as a nation state shapes political and religious ideas. He takes a critical look at these Gods of the modern age and asks how Christians from marginalised communities might resist the temptation to be co-opted into the statist ideologies and competition for power. He does this by drawing on historical trends, Christian anarchist voices, and the religious experiences of indigenous Indians. Hebden's ability to bring together such different and challenging perspectives opens up radical new thinking in Dalit theology, inviting the Indian Church to resist the Hindu fundamentalists labelling of the Church as foreign by embracing and celebrating the anarchic foreignness of a Dalit Christian future.

Jobymon Skaria, an Indian St Thomas Christian Scholar, offers a critique of Indian Christian theology and suggests that constructive dialogues between Biblical and dissenting Dalit voices – such as Chokhamela, Karmamela, Ravidas, Kabir, Nandanar and Narayana Guru – could set right the imbalance within Dalit theology, and could establish dialogical partnerships between Dalit Theologians, non-Dalit Christians and Syrian Christians. Drawing on Biblical and socio-historical resources, this book examines a radical, yet overlooked aspect of Dalit cultural and religious history which would empower the Dalits in their everyday existences.

This book is a critique of Dalit theology, leading to proposals for the future directions of a theology of social transformation in India. Dalit theology has ruled the roost for the last forty years in the Indian theological landscape. It has captivated the theological imagination in India in spite of other theological movements, like tribal theology, green theology, and so on, which are relatively recent and have had little impact. Despite the dominance of Dalit theology, in the last decade many writers have questioned its social impact and theological efficacy. This book takes advantage of the critique to make some proposals for doing a theology of social transformation in India. It explores new ways of doing Christology, pneumatology, and ecclesiology. In addition, it argues for the need of a public theology in the changing religious-political scenario in India.

In this landmark volume, a rich array of voices make the case that religion is not partitioned off from the secular in the Global South the way it is in the Global North. Authors work at the intersections of freedom and Nationalism, peace and reconciliation, and gender, ecology, and ethnography to contend that religion is in fact deeply integrated into the lives of those in the Global South, even though "secularism"--a political philosophy that requires the state to treat all religions equally--predominates in many of the regions. World Christianity and Interfaith Relations is part of the multi volume series World Christianity and Public Religion. The series seeks to become a platform for intercultural and intergenerational dialogue, and to facilitate opportunities for interaction between scholars across the Global South and those in other parts of the world by engaging emerging voices from a variety of indigenous Christianities around the world. The focus is not only on particular histories and practices, but also on their theological articulations and impact on the broader societies in which they work.

In this second edition of the best-selling Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, Robin Gill brings together twenty essays by leading experts, to provide a comprehensive introduction to Christian ethics which is both authoritative and up to date. This volume boasts four entirely new chapters, while previous chapters and all bibliographies have been updated to reflect significant developments in the field over the last decade. Gill offers a superb overview of the subject, examining the scriptural bases of ethics as well as discussing Christian ethics in the context of contemporary issues, including war and the arms trade, social justice, ecology, economics, medicine and genetics. All of the contributors have a proven track record of balanced, comprehensive and comprehensible writing making this book an accessible and invaluable source not only for students in upper-level undergraduate courses, graduate students and teachers, but anyone interested in Christian ethics today.

Bringing together articles and chapters from his considerable work in theological ethics, India, and the social order, Duncan Forrester incorporates new writing and introductions to each thematic section to guide readers through this invaluable resource. This book offers stimulating studies in three related areas - Indian Christianity with particular attention to the caste system, contemporary Christian theological ethics, and the distinctive and challenging theological approach that Duncan Forrester has developed in relation to public issues such as prisons and punishment, welfare provision, social justice, and poverty.