Conversion
According to Raimond Pannikar “…people are invited to have a
conversion towards the Cosmotheandric Reality.” The different religions,
incommensurable as they are on the level of lived belief and doctrine, do meet
in the depth of the Cosmotheandric Intuition- It is the house of reality and
everything is understood in cosmos. Antropos is the consciousness and
obejectifying dimension. Theos is the depth dimension. It is the absolute
principle and it interacts with cosmos and anthropos.
S.J.
Samartha further asserted that conversion is
not from one religion to another, but from unbelief in God to belief in God,
and that mission is not the church’s work but God’s own work. According to him
‘We need the conversion of the bishops, priests and religious of India, a
conversion from being rich to being poor, a conversion from working for the
poor to working with the poor, a conversion from being for the poor to being of
the poor.’
It
is commonly presented that the only task of church is to convert others even
though it is not conversion but to make disciples i.e. shishyas or bhaktas.
Church as an agent of reign of God should know the socio-economic-political
struggles of bhaktas and should partners with agencies that provide hope and
support to bhaktas. Church as an indigenous community should use the available
traditions of the land to shape its ecclesiology i.e. ashram way of spirituality.
According
to Felix Wilfred, Conversion has been one of the ways in which the dalit
selfassertion has found expression. These conversions were not for economic
benefits but were part of the dalit search for human dignity, respect and
equality and thus a new identity. But even within the church they are
discriminated and separated from the higher castes. Even the constitutional
provision of reservation for them has become an extremely sensitive political
issue in the country. The solidarity of the church with the dalits and their
cause is the challenge of the hour. There are three aspects for a proper
understanding of conversion today. They are: (a) The centrality of the kingdom
of God (b) The historical and concrete situation (c) The priority of the people
or nation as such over individuals.
Therefore,
the church in India today should concern not primarily with individual
conversion rather should be directed to the presentation of the gospel
confronting the whole country and calling it to conversion from its present
state of oppression.
In
today context and reality of present scenario Christian life and mission in
terms of conversion has to consider very sensitive under the anti-conversion
laws which states that the law is a state-level statutes that have been
enacted to regulate religious conversions.
Our mission endeavor has to be scrutinize and carried out very carefully
but standing firmly with the commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Baptism
It was in 1609 Robert De Nobili referred “Christian Veda” in
his ministry and urged the Brahmin to read Bible and to accept Christian
baptism. K.C.Sen also introduced sacrifices, baptism and Eucharist,
mystic dances and even magic in his teaching and ministries.
M.M.
Thomas argues that is the final allegiance
in response to Christ, “at a deeper level are those who accept the divine
mediation or the atonement of the suffering Messiah. At another level there are
those who accept the very person of Jesus as the ultimate model of the Messiah
to come. He sees all these as valid responses to the Christ. This quantifying
of the Pauline faith is rather radically new. But finally he also sees man’s
response to Christ involving his allegiance to him as the Lord and savior and
joining his church in baptism.” Thomas emphasizes more on the ministry
of the laity in the world when he talks about the church. For him the church
must have koinonia, or open fellowship, without any barrier. For this reason he
discusses baptism whether it should be an entrance ticket into the church or
privilege of the member of the church.
Russell
Chandran who belongs to that generation of
Indian Christians and stand between the colonial period and the emergence of
indigenised Christianity, repeatedly lamented that “Baptism is sadly misunderstood
as bringing man and woman from out of the world into the exclusive community of
the church.” For Chandran baptism represents “not separation from the world but
commitment for the Lord”. The ‘corrupt communal interpretation’ of baptism must
be replaced by “an interpretation emphasizing commitment for the renewal of the
world.” The theological basis for this inclusive interpretation which Chandran
suggests is from Christ’s baptism. It was not a baptism of sinners, but Jesus’
identification with sinners. This inclusiveness of all mankind is based on the
common humanity of man as man. This is the meaning of baptism: incorporation
into the New Humanity of Jesus Christ, commitment to mission in the world, and
identification with the world.
In
contextualisation or indigenisation the elements to be presented in Indian
Christian theology have diverse significant. Conversion and baptism are all too
commonly seen as part of a movement of ‘denationalization.’ Though the real
fear is the awakening and uprising of the people, opposition is expressed in
terms of religious conversion. But once we are freed from the obsession to
baptize, to ‘save`, and our concern becomes the much wider concern of God to
bring about God’s Kingdom, the obvious relativization of baptism opens the way
to understand the Church not as an Institution of Salvation, but as a movement
of Jesus followers at the service of all God’s people and God’s creation. So,
important in India context is viable to ponder deeply, Is Baptism in the Indian
Context — An Event of Separation or Human Solidarity? However, Baptism is an
important elements of sacrament in Christian beliefs, so instead of having the
notion as an event of separation and must committed with our dogmas and
doctrines. Christian must committed to work for
a new just socio-economic order, for the integrity of all creation they will
necessarily cause divisions between those who accepts and rejects.
The obvious relativization of baptism opens the way to
understand the Church not as an Institution of Salvation, but as a movement of
Jesus followers at the service of all God's people and God's creation. This
transformed image will enable the Church more effectively and creatively to be
in communion with others for the cause of the Kingdom.
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