{"id":30954,"date":"2015-01-30T08:16:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T08:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marthoman.tv\/?p=30954"},"modified":"2017-05-15T12:10:36","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T12:10:36","slug":"a-response-to-the-presentation-by-dr-deenabandhu-manchala-on-relocating-theological-education-in-a-marginalising-context-by-fr-k-m-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=30954","title":{"rendered":"A Response to the presentation by Dr. Deenabandhu Manchala on Relocating Theological Education in a Marginalising\u00a0 Context by Fr. K. M. George"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kmg_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let me make some \u00a0brief and modest comments with great appreciation for \u00a0the fine presentation by my good friend and formal colleague Dr Deenabandhu Manchala . For\u00a0 the sake of brevity I am obliged to be \u00a0laconic even at the expense of some degree of intelligibility.<\/p>\n

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  1. The term “re-locating” in the title evokes a lot of things, both old and new. The Latin locus<\/em> meaning place, space, spot, region, a literary passage, topic, context etc is the root for local and It reminds one of\u00a0 the discussion on\u00a0 the locus theologicus<\/em> or in plural Loci Theologici <\/em>of Melanchthon in the 16th century to John Millbank, Robert Schreiter and others in the 21st century. In the medieval scholastic understanding everything under the sun can be the locus of theology. This is still true since any context or a combination of multiple contexts can be the locus of theology today.<\/li>\n
  2. In our universe everything has its own place or location. Relocating suggests leaving the old place and finding a new one. We may also use the old metaphor of planting and replanting though it applies mostly to plants. When Dr. Deenabandhu wants to relocate theological education from its classical or conventional soil to a marginalizing context, he is clearly making a value judgment. The old locus, the centre, the mainstream is no more \u00a0congenial for theological education. One has\u00a0 to take it to the margins where our triumphalist notions of\u00a0 God, power and\u00a0 hegemony should be thoroughly redefined. We are asked to move away from conventional paradigms of theological education, mission and \u00a0 I am fully in agreement with what my friend speaks out \u00a0on these topics with clarity and conviction.<\/li>\n
  3. It seems to me that most of our theological and missionary discourse in ecumenical circles, in the WCC, and in our academic centres ruled by the western mindset and money still operates with a Euclidean understanding of space : center, periphery or margin\u00a0 -mission from the centre or\u00a0 from the margin, theology from below or from above, to\u00a0 right or left, center-left or center-forward\u2026..! \u00a0Euclid, the third century BC Alexandrian mathematician provided the basic Geometry studied in the west until today. His axioms and propositions are still valid, but only on a flat surface and \u00a0in a particular understanding of space. Our conventional ecumenical thinking is very much linear,\u00a0 progressing in a straight line between two points\u2026With the theory of Relativity, and with the revelations of the Quantum world our understanding of ‘spacetime’ has changed. Cosmic gravity bends even the\u00a0 supposedly straight path of light, giving us a totally different view of the universe. ..<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Postmodernity shows some sensitivity to the non-linear, interconnected, polycentric\u00a0 reality that defies our\u00a0 usual binaries and polarities. Inclusion and exclusion can happen at the same time in any point in space. Inside and outside are no longer\u00a0 spatially fixed categories. Any point can be simultaneously\u00a0 centre ,periphery and margin. All this has begun to\u00a0 affect human consciousness and its\u00a0 evolution. I am not suggesting that we should therefore discard our fight with life-denying hierarchies and unwholesome\u00a0 dichotomies that we\u00a0 still encounter\u00a0 at social, economic and cultural levels, and in the life of our churches.<\/p>\n

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    1. While we use the words global, local and glocal we are all aware that what is called global in terms of culture, finance, values and business are all extensions of some dominant “Local” mostly from the West. This is simply the legacy of the old imperial-colonial understanding . In the post-Constantinian period the heads of the local church of Rome \u00a0took over the imperial Roman paradigm. Globalization today had its theology and spirituality already shaped by the imperial-colonial Christianity. We have at least theoretical counterparts in India, in the rather mythical story of Aswamedha yaga<\/em>, apparently practiced by ambitious new emperors. A powerful warhorse is let loose to wander in any country \u00a0he chooses. An army follows the horse, and whichever land it happens to traverse would be annexed by the army for the emperor. If there is any opposition, there would be a bloody war in which all the opponents would be eliminated. We have no idea whether it was ever practiced in India at any time. But Christianity’s colonial-missionary outreach as well as the neocolonial enterprise of globalization practically illustrate the principle of Aswamedha<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      It seems\u00a0 violent opposition is building up across the world against five centuries long Western colonial-missionary aswamedha<\/em>\u00a0 as is evident\u00a0 in the\u00a0 rejection of \u00a0the standardization of culture, consumer products, entertainments, food and clothing and so on \u00a0in certain strands of terrorist movements. They reject the western notion of democracy, individual freedom, human rights, gender equality, and the permissive style of life. Some of them want to redraw the boundaries of their lands once drawn by western colonial powers. In the \u00a0conflicts now raging in our world, the\u00a0 secular West is labelled ‘Christian’ and an arch-enemy by some other cultures and religions. The new expressions like ghar vapsi<\/em> are semantic pointers to the changing scenario in our own country.<\/p>\n

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      1. There is a classical patristic notion of the ‘human person as the mediator’ (anthropos methorios<\/em>) constituting a transparent border between the Creator God and the created world, between the material and the spiritual, between spirit and body, between humanity and the rest of creation. This mediatory role of humanity is granted as part of the image of God. It, therefor, involves a huge responsibility on the part of human beings to assure the proper communication between these different spheres. The ethical responsibility implies humanity’s care for creation since everything is created by God’s will, and everything created carries the stamp of God’s love. The quality of the human person as a ‘border-being’ can be extended to all that humanity does or lives in this world. Theological education, scientific research, cultural productions, business\u00a0 deals, — all should carry this mediatory border quality. The border is movable and open. Its flexibility and transparency should be at the service of justice and peace, love and compassion. On the basis of this anthropology, we may say that any theology\u00a0 should be a border theology<\/strong> carrying its mediatory, prophetic and ethical character between the constantly changing\u00a0 centres and margins, between different \u00a0dichotomies and polarities.<\/li>\n
      2. While looking for the locus of theology we need also to expand our search beyond the geometrical categories of center and margin, to the intricate network of the created world. The complex ecological crisis, the huge advances in biotechnology and the technological control of the world, the ascending cry for justice in all its shades, the emerging new consciousness and search for identity \u00a0in world religions and cultural subgroups, the alarming depletion of essential resources, the climate change, the violent religious-cultural clashes sweeping the whole world, the terrible\u00a0 insecurity of life haunting people even in\u00a0 highly advanced countries — These and countless other issues are all locus of theology and theological education requiring locating and relocating with discernment. In a way, we are going back to the medieval scholastic understanding of locus theologicus<\/em> as everything under the sun. We\u00a0 know now that\u00a0\u00a0 theology, and also science, the so-called objective, universal science, and any form of knowledge can be\u00a0 a cultural product, and can modify its truth content depending on ruling political or religious ideologies as we have seen in the Indian Science Congress recently. Therefore, we need to be cautious about simplistic models of mission, ministry, theology and theological education proposed by dominant cultures.<\/li>\n
      3. We know why the powerful Christian mission ideologists always\u00a0 highlighted\u00a0 the mission model of Matt 28:19-20,(‘Make disciples of all nations..’) as the unique\u00a0 mission paradigm while ignoring\u00a0 the other model that\u00a0 has its great appeal \u00a0as a non-possessing, self-denying\u00a0 mission of a radical simplicity (Matt.10:1-15; Mk.6:7-13; Lk.10:1-12) . ‘Take- nothing- for\u00a0 the- journey’ method\u00a0\u00a0 eminently suits \u00a0\u00a0our culture \u00a0that retains\u00a0 great memories of the peaceful Buddhist mission in\u00a0 Asia which began 2000 years before the Western colonial -missionary movement ever started\u00a0 . It is obvious that\u00a0\u00a0 the latter does not provide any rationale for \u00a0\u00a0an\u00a0 imperial conquering-possessing\u00a0 mission as does the former.<\/li>\n
      4. Deenabandhu rightly wishes to change the word mission<\/em> because of its heavy colonial baggage. My humble suggestion is that we may go beyond \u00a0simply changing the word; \u00a0the whole concept should be\u00a0 pulled down. At the least our “missiology”\u00a0 should enter \u00a0a long\u00a0 voluntary hibernation. During the missiological\u00a0 hibernation Christians can dream dreams and\u00a0 traverse the profound inner recesses of human faith and consciousness, and discover deep sources of life-giving streams from within (Jn.7:38) . We have too long been\u00a0 exploring and exploiting the geophysical macro world, the sthoola prapancha<\/em>, \u00a0reaching<\/em> out to the end of the world wearing three-piece suits, preaching<\/em> to all nations in deafening\u00a0 pitches silencing their cultures, and also unabashedly poaching<\/em> in God’s garden ”as all men desire to do”, while losing all sensitivity to the finer shades, the sookshma <\/em>dimension of reality.\u00a0 In a missionary hibernation we can\u00a0 possibly stop this reaching , preaching and poaching, and review in the light of the life-giving Gospel of Jesus the mission story of\u00a0 the last 500\u00a0 years or so.<\/li>\n
      5. The concept of Mission<\/em> does not automatically generate the idea of self-sacrifice or self-effacing or kenosis or letting the other grow in the spirit of John the Baptist who said: He must increase and I must decrease<\/em>. Our theological education seem to have taught us that\u00a0 Mission\u00a0 is something to be ‘accomplished’. It is succeeding, achieving, grabbing, possessing, defeating, power-consolidating. For us the word\u00a0 witness<\/em> appears to be weak in the context of a conquering mighty\u00a0 We should not however, forget that witness\u00a0 (martyria<\/em>) \u00a0semantically suggests the eventuality of martyrdom . It \u00a0is becoming\u00a0 increasingly\u00a0 true in our country, it seems. Christian faith will be forced to\u00a0\u00a0 bear witness in many unanticipated ways even outside of foreseeable margins. It\u00a0 would be good to prepare theological education and ministry in this direction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Let me make some \u00a0brief and modest comments with great appreciation for \u00a0the fine presentation by my good friend and formal colleague Dr Deenabandhu Manchala . For\u00a0 the sake of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-fr-dr-k-m-george"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53130,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30954\/revisions\/53130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}