CHRISTOLOGY IN INDIAN CONTEXTUAL APPROACH
Dalit Christ
A.P. Nirmal claims God of
Old Testament prophets is a servant God- a God who serves. Service of others
has always been the privilege of Dalit community in India. In order to prove
the dalitness of Jesus A.P. Nirmal brings pathos from Jesus’ genealogy. The
genealogy highlights Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, who outwitted her
father-in-law by sleeping with him; Rahab the harlot who helped the Israelite
spies; Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, Son of David. These minute details of
Jesus’ ancestry suggest his dalit conditions. Jesus used the title ‘son of
Man’, this title got very significance and the Son of Man is used to indicate
his suffering and death. These saying speak of him encountering rejection,
mockery, and contempt, suffering and final death. He underwent these Dalit
experience as the prototype of all dalits.
According
to Maria Arul Raja, God deliberately took on vulnerable human flesh to
show complete solidarity with the suffering masses as well as restoring their
lost human dignity. Jesus is viewed as the Messiah in relation with his
suffering to provide salvation to the marginalized including the Dalits. For James
Massey, God preferred to be born as a poor person and this reflects the
fact that in our context Jesus is a Dalit, the poorest of the poor. Dalit
theologians rightly connect the dalit experience and Jesus experience. Nirmal
also believes that Jesus had the Dalitness in him both to serve and suffer. He
says that Jesus is like a dhobi (washerman) or bhangi (sweeper) who strives to
eradicate the dirt from society, but still he was rejected, treated as inferior
and humiliated.
Felix
Wilfred claims that the death of Jesus
“outside the gate” of the city of Jerusalem is a particular moving events for
Dalits. For, in traditional Indian society, since the Dalits were treated as
untouchables, they were segregated from the main village, and they had to confine
themselves to habitations in a separate place outside the village. Here the
Dalits identify their plight with the situation of Jesus, cast out and killed
outside the gates of Jerusalem. The Dalit experience of rejection also finds
connection with the life of Jesus. For M.E. Prabhakar Christology is not
to be understood in terms of power but what is humble and frailly human… it is
a call to make sacrifices on behalf of the poor. He wants an Indian expression
of Dalit Christology and urges to create indigenous Dalit concepts or
expressions. The Dalit way of expression is actually quite contrary; they are
very fuming in nature and we could find a protest in them; be it songs, dances,
musical instruments, worship or rituals. So therefore, when we use these Dalit
expressions to spell Christology, we will certainly end up with an active,
effective and result-oriented Christology.
Dalit
Christology present Jesus as the Messiah of the Dalit community and there is a
visible connection between the life of Jesus and the dehumanized life
experience of Dalit community thus he provide them hope against all atrocities
and injustice.
Tribal Christ
Taking
the Biblical verse from Hebrews 1 : 1 ff, “in the past God spoke to our
ancestors…but in these days he has spoken to us through his Son Jesus Christ”,
Renthy Keitzar speaks on making Christ present in our midst as
one of us, not as a foreigner, because God has spoken to our people, too,
through him. Since God spoke to our ancestors, writes Keitzar, our cultural
traditions are important, but it is in Christ God has finally spoken and so all
our heritages must be reinterpreted in terms of God’s final revelation in
Christ Jesus. Keitzar insists that we have to take risks to reinterpret Christ
in the contexts of our socio-cultural traditions and contemporary realities.
H.
Lalpekhlua edify Christ in the context of Mizo rich traditional and cultural
background as Pasaltha (pronounce as Pasalthra) meaning great warrior. He explains the death of Christological formulates the
north-east India tribal context and more relevant to the Mizo. Vashum proposes
Jesus as the Rooster. Every society identifies a special or sacred animal/bird
that symbolizes their identity. For the Naga’s, Rooster is a sacred animal/
bird for sacrificial purposes in protecting humanity. Rooster sacrifice
was conducted for restoring wellness and harmony among individuals or
community.
Tribal Christology develops from the tribal ethos. Tribal exists
because the community exists, and each one lives for the community and is ready
to give his/her life for it. This sense of corporate identity is very strong
among the tribals. It is the communion of mind and heart the Good News in the
Christian sense. Also its characteristic is closeness to creation and
attachment to the land. Land is more than a means of production. Finally, their
democratic orientation, sense of equality, sense of independence, habit of
open, frank discussion, absence of inhibitions, creatively, simplicity,
sincerity, truthfulness, happy and jovial disposition, hardworking,
hospitality, sociability, practicality, peace loving, etc. all these positive
qualities are a reflection of the Goodness of God and an affirmation of Gospel
values and reflects Christ in their communitarian context.
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