St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (Aug 2023)
Theology in India
Abstract
This article provides an overview of the structure and content of the various theological streams that have shaped Indian Christianity over two millennia. The theology of the ancient St. Thomas Christians, widely considered the earliest Christian group in India, though embedded in the liturgy and articulated by the worshipping community, was borrowed from abroad and was alien to the Indian context. This article also discusses the path of accommodation of Robert de Nobili that took a different course to the St. Thomas Christians and interacted with the local culture, but there too, there was little critique of culture. It was during the last 100–150 years that a concerted effort at theologizing developed in Indian Christianity. This article considers the Reformed theology represented by the Protestant missionaries as it heralded the genesis of a truly indigenous Indian Christian theology. The attempts of the renascent Hindu thinkers to define Christ from within Hinduism is explored, as well as that of the Madras Rethinking Group as it symbolized the Indian church’s creative potential for indigenous theological expression. An explosion of theological creativity in the twentieth century, characterized by diverse streams of indigenous Christian faith and practice, affirmed a national theology that has come of age. This article provides an overview of the Second Vatican Council as it set forth a new theological direction in India. Further, theologizing was radically challenged and redefined by interpretations from the perspective of the marginalized and oppressed people in the form of Dalit theology, Tribal theology, and Womanist theology. In addition, this article acknowledges the Pentecostal theology that located spirituality and theology in conversation with each other, in the process representing the decentralization and de-mystification of traditional forms of theology. In conclusion, this article will outline the challenges of religious nationalism, conflict, and violence that are throwing up new theological questions before the Indian church today.
