Towards a Christian Theology of Dialogue Communication at Grassroots in a Multi-Religious Context

Jointly written by Rev Anugrah Ramble and Rev Joshva Raja

Theologies in India

Over the years theological thinking in the South Asian Context has undergone many changes. At the beginning Indian Philosophical schools, mainly Brahminical texts and thoughts influenced the theological framework . Later, contextual theologies emerged and critiqued some of the dominant Brahminical influence on Indian Christian theologies because many of the Christians are from non-Brahminical background . Thus on the one hand Christian theologies in India have often not emerged from the campus of the theological seminaries to the churches and to the grassroots Christians because of their sophistication or ideological influence. On the other hand the churches are exposed to charismatic and evangelical theologies from para-church organizations and preachers. It is quite likely that a parallel system of theological institutions, with evangelical and popular support, may emerge (in many contexts have already emerged) to counter established theological colleges, challenging the established churches in their basic theological and ministerial training.

One of the reasons may be due to the strong emphasis on contextual theologies and a narrow academic approach to Biblical texts. The aim of this paper is to go beyond such theologies and to explore a new methodology of doing theology in a South Asian Context. This new approach has to take into account people’s experience in multicultural and pluralistic contexts on the one hand and diverse competing narratives and their religious interpretations on the other hand. It takes into account how people can be committed to their own faith, tradition and culture while recognizing, engaging and interaction with the presence of the others’ faith, tradition and cultures around them...  

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