Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Praise for Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue is the fruit of Anantanand Rambachan’s lifetime of reflection and conversation, deep theological learning, and patient commitment to dialogue as understood and practiced at home and abroad. He shows us in a simple and direct way, free of jargon and from the heart, the ever-greater value of dialogue in today’s fractured and intolerant world. Hindus and Christians, and believers in every tradition, will want to travel the wise and serene pathway Rambachan clears for us.

—Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, and first president of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies

Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue is a thoughtful and thought-provoking series of essays on the blessings, challenges, and possibilities inherent in Hindu-Christian dialogue. Based on his own decades-long experience in the field, Prof. Rambachan presents his reflections with the intellectual rigor of a scholar and the humility of an earnest seeker of truth.

—Swami Tyagananda, head of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, and Hindu chaplain, Harvard University and MIT

Anantanand Rambachan offers a superb reflection on Hindu-Christian dialogue based on decades of his own committed participation. He wonderfully integrates personal narrative and theological analysis as an accomplished scholar and Hindu practitioner who is deeply acquainted with Christian life and thought. He clarifies the reasons for dialogue as the shared quest for meaning, friendship, and the moral imperative to work together to transform structures of injustice in a shared affirmation of human dignity. He also provides unsparing critique of both Christian and Hindu triumphalism and of caste, as well as profound insights into the core vision and concepts of each tradition. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in interfaith dialogue and is a worthy complement to Rambachan’s landmark work, A Hindu Theology of Liberation.

—Kusumita P. Pedersen, professor emerita of religious studies, St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, NY

In Dr. Anantanand Rambachan, who lives his life according to the Hindu religious tradition, I see a marvelous example of Hindu initiative to dialogue with Christians. Dr. Rambachan is aware of the significant evolution that the Hindu religious tradition has been undergoing. Though fundamentally different one from the other, Hindu and Christian religious traditions have much in common to engage in a fruitful dialogue for the benefit of both and especially for the common good of society, where these traditions are lived, especially in India. Dr. Rambachan challenges Christians to have an appreciation of Hinduism in order to overcome the present state of unease. Going beyond the general tendency to dwell on apparent analogies with facile irenicism, and avoiding superficial compromise, Dr. Anantanand Rambachan encourages friendship on a deeper level between Hindus and Christians, whose traditions, though different, could become occasions for mutual enrichment and engagement in creative dialogue for a peaceful and harmonious society. The book Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue brings out emphatically an encouraging message for a fruitful Hindu-Christian dialogue.

—Archbishop Felix Machado, Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Vasai, India

No one that I know is better equipped, better qualified, and has the spiritual credentials and credibility to expound the issues in Hindu-Christian dialogue with the integrity and honesty it calls for. For Rambachan, engaging in interfaith relations and dialogue is not only an academic and relational issue, but also—perhaps more so—a spiritual exercise. It is not surprising that the first comprehensive and compelling volume on Hindu-Cristian dialogue comes from him.

—S. Wesley Ariarajah, professor emeritus of ecumenical theology, Drew University School of Theology, Madison, NJ; former director of the Interfaith Dialogue program of the World Council of Churches

Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Anantanand Rambachan

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

PATHWAYS TO HINDU-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE

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Cover design: Savanah N. Landerholm

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-7460-1

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-7461-8

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For my Christian friends in dialogue

Contents

Foreword

S. Wesley Ariarajah

Introduction

1 Starting Points for Hindu-Christian Dialogue

2 Theological Resources and Challenges to Hindu-Christian Dialogue

3 Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva) and Hindu-Christian Dialogue

4 Caste and Hindu-Christian Dialogue

5 What Can Hindus Learn from Christianity?

6 What Can Christians Learn from Hinduism?

7 The Political and the Theological: Why Hindu-Christian Dialogue?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Foreword

Of all the dialogical relationships that Christians have cultivated with the other major religious traditions of the world, Hindu-Christian relations are perhaps the least developed. This is not because there has not been sufficient contact and relationship between the two traditions. Historically, there have been a number of thriving Syrian Christian communities in the southwestern parts of India from at least the second century CE, and an oral tradition maintains that the apostle Thomas himself brought the gospel to India in 52 CE. Although this specific claim has not been historically verified, there is no doubt that the Christian presence in India and its encounter with Hinduism go back to the early centuries of Christian history. It is of interest that this early encounter was, in fact, so cordial and dialogical that Saint Thomas Christians were considered Christian in religion, Hindu in culture, and Oriental in worship.¹

However, the major encounter between Christianity and Hinduism took place during the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Christian missionary outreach into many parts of the world, including the Indian subcontinent. This missionary outreach took place in the context of the colonization of much of Asia by Western powers, and this historical reality played a major role in shaping Hindu-Christian relations for much of the rest of history. Colonization primarily had to do with trade but was accompanied by a conviction on the part of the colonizers that their cultures, religions, and ways of life were far superior to that of those being colonized. Christianity, which had aligned itself with empires since the time of the Roman emperor Constantine, had incorporated much of this sense of superiority into its self-understanding. One of the significant differences between the colonization of Latin America and Asia, however, is that the colonial powers did not forcefully introduce Christianity into the regions but provided the context in which the missionary movement could promote Christianity.

There had not been a uniform response to Hinduism on the part of individual missionaries; one can trace wide-ranging approaches, from the total rejection of Hinduism as superstition to a deep appreciation of its spiritual heritage. But perhaps the most appropriate word that would describe the initial response of Christians to Hinduism is bewilderment. Christianity is a founded religion with a single founder, with one scriptural canon widely accepted by the community and with its basic teachings codified into creeds, doctrines, and dogmas. It also developed a magisterium or a centralized teaching authority that sought to preserve the purity of the doctrines. In many ways, it was everything that Hinduism was not. As a traditional religion with no specific founder, incorporating almost all the spiritual streams that arose within India for over three thousand years, with a multiplicity of ways the ultimate reality is conceived and responded to and many ways of practicing the faith, Hinduism presented a daunting challenge to Christianity. Questions like Who is a Hindu? What is Hinduism? and Who or which community represented the traditions? were as ambiguous then as they are to this day. There is a real sense that Christians were not sure how to identify the Hindu partner for dialogue. Christians also found the highly stratified social organization based on levels of ritual purity and the plight of women in society difficult to deal with.

From the Hindu perspective, Christianity presented itself as an intolerant and arrogant religion. Hindus could not understand why God, whom both religious traditions acknowledge as the Creator of the universe, would reveal Godself only in the history of Israel and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian claim of being in possession of the whole truth and the only way for salvation or liberation also presented an unsurmountable problem to the Hindus. Even more troubling was the Christian attitude to religious plurality, which discounted the validity of other religious traditions and expected everyone to become part of the Christian community.

Perhaps the most troubling to the Hindus was the Christian understanding of mission. Hinduism believed in the right of persons who have had any form of spiritual enlightenment to share it with others, as the Lord Buddha, Mahavira, and Guru Nanak did, and to bring their followers into a believing community. Although there had been confrontations among these traditions, including brief periods of persecution, gradually, the traditions settled down into kind of sister religious traditions. But Christianity was unable to accept religious plurality and, at least in theory, sought to replace the religious traditions of India with Christianity. The rhetoric of bringing India to Christ persists to this day among Christian conservative circles. Conversion and the Christian intention to create a culturally and religiously alternate community continues to bedevil Hindu-Christian relations. Although Christianity in India has undergone many changes and some of the colonial dimensions of Christianity have been shed by most Indian mainline churches in our day, the Hindu image of Christianity as an intolerant religion continues to persist.

This does not mean that there have not been more beneficial relationships as a result of the arrival of Christianity in India. Christianity introduced modern education and health care into India and provided the inspiration for a number of social reform movements within India. Many who found the missionary movement and the church to be a problem still took inspiration from the life and teachings of Jesus. However, today, the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement, Hindutva, challenging the legitimacy of Christianity and Islam as part of the Indian religious life has brought new challenges to this relationship.

These realities make an exploration of Hindu-Christian dialogue a challenging and arduous task. One needs to have an informed understanding of both Christianity and Hinduism as well as a firm grasp of the principles, dimensions, and goals of interfaith dialogue to be able to discuss it. One should also be able to affirm what is positive in other religions and state clearly where one disagrees with them. More importantly, one should have the humility to be able to be self-critical about one’s own tradition.

Anantanand Rambachan has deep knowledge of both traditions, has developed friendships across the two traditions from his school days, and has had many decades of sustained involvement in Hindu-Christian and multilateral dialogues organized by the World Council of Churches, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and international interfaith organizations like Religions for Peace, Parliament of the World’s Religions, and so on. I have personal knowledge of the history of his involvement in interfaith dialogue as a practicing Hindu, equaled by his excellent academic credentials.

No one that I know is better equipped or better qualified and has the spiritual credentials and credibility to expound the issues in Hindu-Christian dialogue with the integrity and honesty it calls for. For Rambachan, interfaith relations and dialogue is not only an academic and relational issue but also, perhaps more so, a spiritual exercise. It is not surprising that the first, most comprehensive and compelling volume on Hindu-Christian dialogue comes from him.

S. Wesley Ariarajah

August 2021

Introduction

I was born in the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost in the chain of Caribbean islands stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the South American mainland. Trinidad sits 6.8 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

I am a descendant of Indians, primarily Hindus and Muslims, who were brought to Trinidad starting in 1845 to replace emancipated Africans who refused to continue working on sugar plantations and who chose instead to become small independent farmers. Harsh measures to induce them back to the land included laws against squatting and heavy taxes on land and buildings not connected with sugar cultivation. These efforts, however, proved futile. The survival of the plantation economy was threatened, and Chinese and Portuguese workers, recruited to replace Africans, drifted into business or private agriculture as soon as their contracts expired. India proved to be the most suitable source of individuals with the required labor skills and provided a steady stream of immigrants from 1845 when the first group of laborers arrived in Trinidad until 1917 when the system was abolished.

Indian immigrants to the West Indies came under a system of indentureship. The labor contracts were generally for a period of five years in the case of males and three years for females. At the end of this