Church as Diaconal Community
Diakonia is generally
understood as the “responsible service of the gospel by deeds and by words
performed by Christians in response to the needs of people”. There is no doubt
that this form of diakonia or charitable service has been a permanent activity
throughout the history of the church, rather like koinonia (fellowship),
kerygma (witness) and didache (teaching). In the modern ecumenical parlance,
however, diakonia is also seen as used in a larger sense. At the Third Assembly
of the World Council of Churches held in New Delhi in 1961, the term ‘social
diakonia’ was used to distinguish it from charitable diakonia and to emphasise
the church’s action to change the structures of the society in the direction of
justice. M. M. Thomas’ book ‘A Diaconal Approach to Indian Ecclesiology’ compelled
him to revisit on old issues in new ways from the effects and consequences of
modernization, globalization and communalism to the Indian situation. Then he
wrote this book with a purpose to enquire about structuring the church of
Christ in modern religiously and ideologically pluralistic India and to provide
a diaconal approach to Indian ecclesiology in the midst of pluralism.
(a) Towards an Ecclesiology in
context: M.M. Thomas sees that Indian churches emphasize preaching
and sacrament in its order of the fellowship, but the diakonia of the church to
the society and culture is neglected very often. That is why he uses Diakonia.
He hoped that understanding the church as koinonia in Christ and committed to
diakonia to the larger community could make a very important contribution in
the dialogue with people of other faiths. Humanization is one of the aspects of
modernization, and Christianity and Modernity cannot be separated. The church
seek to humanize the modernity through hope in the divine gift of the Kingdom
in Jesus Christ and can be fulfilled in India only if the Indian churches
actively participate and function on the basis of diakonia.
(b) Modernization and Diakonia: The dialectics of modernization and its impact on India and the
church’s diakonia are closely related. The church should actively participate
in the process of modernization in bringing changes to the lives of the people
especially empowering the marginalized and the poor, humanizing the
dehumanized. Diakonia focus larger human development that will cover all kinds
of people. This points to the holistic character of the alternative paradigm of
modern development as a transforming agent. An Alternative Paradigm of
Modernization must shifted from economic development to social development along
with social justice, there will be more involvement of people in the
development process, that will automatically bring equal development under
modernization.
(c) Search for a Spiritual
Reinforcement of Secularism in India: After Indian independence, secularism
shifted its meaning and emphasis due to religious fanaticism. It needs to be
reinforced with an open secularism that will open gates for religious,
ideological and cultural movements for justice in the society. If the
churches in India continue to be static community that concerns its own
self-interest, it will violate the true calling of the church to be a body to
fill the entire society, across boundaries of caste, class, language and race.
That is why, the open church is emphasized with flexible structures,
boundaries, rules and rituals, which is in dialectical and dialogical
relationship with religions, ideologies and cultures towards movements for
justice in the society.
(d) India as a Community of Diverse
Peoples: Thomas describes India as a community of diverse people with the
notion of holism, which concerns for building India a community of peoples with
parity given to their respective cultures. The cultures are interacting culture
as they are community of diverse brought by cultural self-identities of
peoples. It is the situation where peoples of different religions need to work
together for common hope and motif of justice in the society. An important
aspect of the present situation is reinterpretation of both traditional and the
modern culture. In that situation, the Indian church’s diaconal role has been
building the church as fellowship of peoples with diverse cultural traditions.
(e) Faiths in Dialogue on the
Spirituality of Suffering Servanthood: This deals with the need of
interfaith dialogue on a spirituality which can keep the struggles within the
framework of the ultimate goals of the whole community of life on the earth. It
also looks for the specific contribution of the church as koinonia in Christ to
this spirituality. According to Thomas, there are three types of spirituality
in India- the primal cosmic, the mystic a cosmic and the historical
messianic. The primal vision of spirituality is characterized by the
spiritual unity of human, animals, nature, spirits, gods and high gods. This spirituality
is usually represented in the practical ways of community living. The mystic
spiritual vision realizes itself in the experience of undifferentiated unity of
human self with the Universal Self. Historic mesianism finds human
self-fulfilment in participating in the ultimate purpose at work in human
history moving to an ultimate community of freedom and love. The Church is
called for an active dialogue with other faiths to build up syncretism of
spiritualities based on the Messianism of the Suffering Servant, which is
symbolized by the centrality of the Crucified Christ and the prophetic diakonia
of the church. Looking Indian pluralistic situation, if the churches present
the spirit of Christ Kingship and Lordship, the writer of the book sees no conformity
for the welfare of the society. That is the reason why he proposes the
Suffering Servanthood of Christ in dialogue with other faiths
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