KEYNOTE ADDRESSES (3)
 
 Asian Theology in a Changing Asia:
 Towards an Asian Theological Agenda for the 21st Century

by Dr. K. C. Abraham

Asian theologies are contextual theologies; they are also people�s theologies. Rooted in the realities of Asia they bear different names They are theology of struggle, of the minjung, of dalits and there are women�s (Feminist) theologies. They reflect on the deeper yearnings of their religions and cultures, critically rejecting some and reaffirming others.

In the past the Asian churches, by and large, a product of Western missions, were content with repeating, without reflection, the confessions of faith evolved by the Western churches. Creative theologies in Asia began to emerge in the 19th century when the churches started relating their faith to the questions and concerns peculiar to Asia. This theological encounter continues as the Church faces new problems and challenges. We have embarked on a new journey, breaking our tutelage with the Western masters. A new stage in this journey has begun as we are at the threshold of 21st century. How do we articulate our agenda for the future?

I. CONTEXT: APOLOGETIC AND POLEMICAL

Context has become a decisive factor in the development of any theology. How was Asian context understood in the recent past?

Contextualisation in the early phase was apologetic and polemical. The relation between Christian faith and the major religions was perhaps the theme that received singular attention at this time. The world-views and doctrines of traditional religions exercise a profound influence in moulding the sensibilities of the people of Asia. In the days of aggressive evangelization and colonization, the missionaries were not prepared to see any value in Asian religions. Most of them considered the religions in Asia to be discontinuous with Christian faith.

A new awareness of the spiritual values embedded in them surfaced as a result of objective study of these religions and a closer contact with the votaries of these faiths. Still basing their approach on a theological framework that drew a sharp distinction between Christ and religions, the missionary theologians began to interpret Christ as the fulfillment of the deepest yearning in the religions of Asia. J.N. Farquhar�s The Crown of Hinduism (1919) is perhaps the best known expression of this view. During this period there were bold attempts on the part of Asian Theologians to use concepts and doctrines of other faiths for the Church�s apologetic task. The Hindu concept of avatar was used to interpret the Christian doctrine of incarnation, or that of sat-chit-anand (being, consciousness, bliss) for explaining the doctrine of the Trinity. In all these, the superiority of Christian faith was affirmed but with a sympathetic, even if somewhat condescending view of other faiths.

A new stage was set when Asian theologians like D.T. Niles (1908-70) acknowledged the incognito presence of Christ in Asia�s history and religions long before the missionaries came to Asia. A cogent interpretation of this view is provided by P.D. Devanandan (The Gospel and Renascent Hinduism, 1964). Writing on the same theme, M.M. Thomas affirmed a more recognizable presence of Christ in renascent Hinduism, as the title of an influential book of his suggests, The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance, 1975).

In other parts of the region, writers tried to integrate the Gospel and Culture. Buddhist experience of nirvana and the reality of the Kingdom of God were brought together by writers in Sri Lanka. Christ assumed a cultural face in China. Chinese Christ was the man who was also the Tao in the writings of Chang I-Ching (b.1871) and Chao Tzu-ch�en (1918-56). For Pandipeddi Chenchiah (1886-1959), an Indian theologian, Christ was the cosmic Christ, whose birth brought a new creative energy into the biosphere. An admirable work of this genre was Kazo Kitamori�s Theology of the Pain of God (1946). Its main theme of pain (itami) was very familiar to people in Japan, who had suffered much during the war.

Theology at this time emerged from an active interaction between the Gospel and the religious philosophies of Asia. Concepts, doctrines and symbols of other religions were used freely and critically by Asian churches to deepen their experiences of Christ and to interpret the Christian faith. With this there was a vigorous search for an Asian face of Christ, dismantling the foreignness of Christianity. Profound was their recognition that the Christ reality was greater than formal Christianity and that the Christ was present but unacknowledged in the religions and cultures of Asia. Dialogue becomes the mode of theological existence. In the dialogue, as Stanley Samartha has said, �it is not ideas, but people, not religious systems, but living faiths, that are involved here� (One Christ Many Religions, Orbis, 1991, p.33).

A second stream in Asian Christian Theology has its beginning in the churches� encounter with the socio-political realities of their context. Early beginnings of this emphasis are found in the life and writings of Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960) of Japan. He had questioned the �spatially extensive evangelism� and attempted to relate the Gospel to the social realities of his people, especially to the labour situation in Japan. In reflecting on the experience of colonialism and the freedom movements, many Asian thinkers discovered a vital link between the Gospel and the aspirations of their people for a freer and better social and political order. A profound analysis of the Asian revolution from the perspective of the Gospel is provided by M.M. Thomas in a number of his writings. According to him, colonization, though ruthless and exploitative, has been the bearer of an ambiguous process of humanization in Asian societies especially through technology and industry and liberal ideas of freedom and justice. Christ, the promise of a new humanity, he argued, should be confessed as the transforming and judging presence of God.

The East Asia Christian Conference provided the forum for Asian thinkers to reflect more deeply on the events of the Gospel in the social and cultural contexts of Asia. They affirmed that confessing faith in Christ meant constructive participation in revolution and in the building of nations based on justice and freedom. The methodology governing their theology is that of contextualization. The late Shoki Coe of Taiwan, who contributed significantly to the growth of Asian theology, indicated that this process is a dynamic interaction between the text and the context. Contextual theologians also proposed a critical Asian principle as a method for doing theology in their situation.

In recent years, the theme �people� has assumed a special significance in the discussions of Asian theology. Korean theologians focused their attention on minjung. Indian theologians reflect on the experience and struggle of dalits, and women do their theology based on their marginalisation.

The irruption of people�s histories and cultures into Asian consciousness has brought a critique of the elite-oriented theologies and philosophies of religion. But there is constant interaction between the two above streams, and this has taken place with the emphasis on people.

The minjung and other sections of the marginalised (not all of whom are Christians), are the theological actors or subjects of theology in the measure in which they struggle against domination. The place of theology, therefore, is the human community striving for liberation and life, in which the Spirit is at work. The minjung theology of minjung and other marginal groups expresses itself in people�s stories - mostly unwritten, articulated in symbols, folk songs, poems, myths, dance and celebration.

The method of doing theology with people�s symbols and images holds great promise. Indications are that if this project is pursued, there will emerge a distinct voice in theology that comes out of the deepest yearnings of the people of Asia. Choan-Seng Song of Taiwan has made important contributions in this area. (Theology from the Womb of Asia, 1986 is one among many volumes). Mention must be also made of the work of Kosuke Koyama (Mount Fuji and Mount Sinai 1984) and Masao Takenaka (God is Rice, 1986).

The sweeping survey of the theological scene in Asia during the last fifty years is understandably very selective. We have left out many important developments within it. But our survey helps us to make some observations about the character of Asian theologies.

(i) Asian reality cannot be rigidly compartmentalized into socio-political and religio-cultural, although such classifications may be necessary for discussion. People are the centre of these theologies and their experiences and stories can be cultural and social, it may be political and economic. They all interface each other. Any analysis of the context has to be aware of this complexity and confluence of different aspects

(ii) Asia�s pluralistic context is unique. We cannot assume Christian symbols and language as self-evident. Our spiritual sensibilities are moulded by different faiths and traditions at the same time. We can be Hindu and Christian at the same time! This peculiar religious consciousness should be the basis of our theology.

Speaking about Asian theology, R.S. Sugirtharaj writes:

The basic thrust is not the declaration of the Gospel in an Asian style but discerning it afresh in the ongoing broken relationships between different communities and between human beings and the created order. Their task is seen not as adapting the Gospel to Asian idioms, but as reconceptualising the basic tenets of the Christian faith in the light of Asian realities. The new mood is not to assume the superiority of Christian revelation, but to seek life-enhancing potentialities also in the divine manifestations in Asia. (Frontiers in Asian Christian Theology, Orbis, 1994,).

(iii) Theology is not a systematic explication of timeless truths nor is it a matter of laying a prefabricated system of ideas to a situation. It is a reflection on the articulation of the faith experience of people in a given context. Professional theologian is a spokesperson or a �technician� who provides a structure of discourse. Theology is not a detached academic exercise, neither is it populist in the sense that there is no critical reflection.

The primary objective of theological reflection, however, is to help people in their struggle for justice and freedom. It is not only to understand and interpret God�s act, that is, to give reason for their faith, but also to help change their situation in accordance with the utopia or the vision of the Gospel. In this sense we affirm that the contextual theologies are liberative. They raise critical awareness of people vis-a-vis their situation of bondage, they provide a vision for the future, and empower people to change the existing values and relationships. They are integral to people�s ongoing search for their identity and their struggles for justice.

II. VARIATION IN THE CONTEXT AND NEW CHALLENGES

Today we are facing a new context. Some dominant trends could be mentioned, indicating the issues they raise for theology.

(1) Globalisation -- The World Market has emerged as the dominant economic force. The development of all Third World countries has to be related to the World Market which is virtually controlled by the market of the industrialised countries. The production needs and patterns are determined by the market forces. They seldom take into consideration the basic needs of the people. The production of goods for export or for conspicuous consumption of the rich is a common phenomenon. The small entrepreneurs have very little chance of survival in the system. The development is controlled by the multinationals and other monopoly institutions with the help of elites. The foreign debt of the Third World further works as an instrument that controls the development process of the Third World. Terms and conditions are imposed on them which make it virtually difficult to develop on their own terms. An unfettered growth of multinationals and the emphasis on foreign trade are not conducive for a pattern of development that is oriented to the basic needs of the poor.

Human relationships are distorted and vitiated by a consumerist ideology and life-style; a commodity mentality pervades them. Rural communities that maintained a degree of inter-personal relationships are fast coming under the influence of technology which destroys much of the traditional infrastructure.

A new elite has emerged on the national scene, whose primary interest is to promote the consumerist culture for their profit. They are aided by the international economic systems. There is no reason to think that their dominance will disappear. on the contrary, they are becoming more and more powerful. The condition of the poor has deteriorated. The nature of the development is such that vast masses of the Third World have become redundant. The simple fact is that even in the change of Third World situations the poor continue to be oppressed.

In this situation the search for an alternative to the present pattern of growth and development has become urgent for the Third World and Asia has to play a special role in this scene. In the long run, it is futile to look for an alternative to the Soviet expression of socialism in capitalism. S. Kappen has expressed this strongly:

The search must be for an alternative to capitalism which means the struggle against capitalism must continue to be on at the local, national and international levels. (The Future of Socialism and Socialism of the Future, Visthar, 1991, p. 32).

Today, capitalism has changed in style and operation. We should not be facile and superficial in our analysis. Information technology, for example, has broken the monopoly of power by the elite. It is more �democratised.� The old way of approaching capitalism should change. What is important, however, is that the value system that nurtures capitalist systems remains unchanged. One may have to direct one�s attention to it. As S. Kappen pointed out, capitalism has a culture. People internalise the values of capitalism. Soviet communism has not been sensitive to this dimension of capitalism with the result that when a crisis broke out it was easy for people to make a transition to capitalism.

Theological task in this situation has several dimensions. It is important to create a deeper awareness of the diabolical nature of capitalist culture and values and of consumerist ideology as destructive of human dignity. A new form of socialism has to emerge if social justice is to be promoted. For this a solidarity of the poor, and not the solidarity of the proletariat, has to be developed. By uniting workers of the world an alternative to capitalism was envisioned. But today that alternative is incapable of producing a qualitatively different society. They are part of the establishment benefiting from the existing system. What is needed is a new solidarity of the poor who are outside the development process. These are the subaltern groups, who try to organize themselves around their new-found cultural and religious identities.

(2) The Struggle for Ethnic Identities and Justice -- The struggle by different ethnic groups for their identity and justice has brought serious questions to the nature of a pluriform community, we are committed to build and to the task of theologising. It has to be discussed against the backgrounds of two conflicting developments. Threatened by the emergence of modern nation-state and ideas of secularism, some sections in all religions assert a fundamentalist posture. Under the guise of identity struggle, the undamentalists particularly in majority religions, are creating a volatile situation. The majority community wants to perpetuate its dominance by controlling the political process through their militant organisations. The Hindutva philosophy of the BJP-RSS-VHP combine in India is the best example. The process has created a sense of insecurity among the minority communities and marginal groups. This form of resurgence will only strengthen the oppressive forces and we should reject it.

At the same time, marginal groups like dalits and tribals are seeking a new identity for themselves based on their past religion and cultures which had been suppressed or destroyed by dominant communities. In their struggle against historical as well as contemporary processes of domination, the Dalits and indigenous groups became conscious of their identity as people. Reflection on mission should be related to this newly gained awareness of marginalised groups.

The Church in the past has been ambiguous in regard to its response to the identity question. Christian mission for sure has enormously contributed to the social transformation of indigenous people. But it has been insensitive to people�s struggle for cultural identity. The Church has often projected a view of uniformity that suppresses all differences.

We need to affirm that plurality is God�s gift and diversity is in the very structure of God�s creation. We are called upon to celebrate God�s gift of plurality and diversity.

If the struggle for dalit and tribal identity is a demand to secure the rightful space of indigenous people in the wider human discourse and relationships, then it should be accepted as integral to God�s purposes for them. The theological link between Christian faith and the struggle for identity should be strengthened.

The struggle for identity is also a struggle for justice and participation. This gives a concrete and distinct focus for our struggle. Here the biblical tradition of faith can make significant contribution. The prophets were uncompromising in their stand on justice. They rejected any pattern of relationship that fails to ensure justice, as contrary to God�s will. I believe that this focus on justice in our identity struggle gives us a concrete direction as well as a new theological meaning for it.

From a Christian perspective, identity, however, is not an absolute category. We are for an open identity and not a closed one. Moltmann in his discussion on the doctrine of creation points out the significance of Oikos, living space for our understanding of group identity. He says any living thing needs a space, a boundary for its secure living; but if that boundary is absolutely sealed and closed, the living thing dies. �Every frontier, if it is closed, the living thing dies� (Moltmann).

A renewed community which allows space for different identities to flourish should be our common goal. We need to mobilise the humanistic and liberative vision of religions for building a just and participatory community. Fundamentalism is the denial of the very essence of religion. At the same time to ignore the reality of religion in the lives of the poor is to ignore their basic struggle.

Commitment to peace and justice is the essence of religious faith - that is a conviction shared by many people in all religions, not Christianity alone.

(3) Ecological Crisis and the Demand for a New Spirituality -- The ecological crisis has burst upon our consciousness with great urgency. Many writings on this issue have appeared already. Theologians have reflected on it. But a Third World perspective on this issue is yet to be crystallised. A romantic view of nature is evident in some of the green movements. We need to see the crisis as a justice issue. If the ecological crisis is the result of the pattern of development we have adopted, then we need to ask for whom is the development? Pressures created on the eco-system are largely caused by the life-style of the rich. There is no willingness to change this, as was evident in the Rio discussions. Without this the earth will continue to lie polluted and the ecological problem will be aggravated.

Specific challenges brought to the Asian theologies may be noted: One, a renewal of the theology of creation: Leonardo Boff has rightly pointed out that �the dominant Christian reflection did not go too deeply into the mystery of creation. For historical and institutional reasons it concentrated much more on the mystery of redemption� (Voices from the Third World, Vol. XVI, No. 1, p.112). He further notes that when we forget creation, the importance of the Bible is exacerbated (fundamentalism), the role of churches is blown up (ecclesiocentrism); the role of sacraments is exaggerated (sacramentalism). Judeo-Christian revelation is meant to rescue and not substitute the revelation of creation. For this reason we must not argue the Bible against science, not elevate. ecclesiastical magisterium as if it had access to knowledge which is denied to those who belong to creation.

In the past sufficient attention has not been paid to developing a theology of creation as important for the struggles of the poor. But a new awareness about the inter-connectedness between the renewal of the earth and struggle for justice has now set the stage to bring about a dynamic understanding of God�s liberating act. An exclusive anthropocentric view of theology with heavy concentration on the historical categories is called into question. Some notable reformulations of theology of creation have already been attempted (see Boff�s �Proposals on Christian Pan-in-theism� (Voices, XVI p.110) and Sally McFague�s Body of God).

Two, the need for a value system which is capable of nurturing and preserving our bond with nature. If theology has to take the Oikos as the primary context of its reflection, then inclusiveness becomes an over-riding value. Justice has to be formulated in inclusive terms. In fact, one dimension of prophetic spirituality is inclusiveness of the weak and the marginal caring for the poor and the orphans. Intensity of justice is expressed as solidarity and sharing. Its goal is to eliminate the causes of poverty and injustice (Isa. 65:17-25).

Three, developing a new vision of spirituality. The Nairobi Conference of EATWOT in 1991 firmly declared that the Third World theology should be decisively shaped by the spirituality of the marginalised-women, indigenous people, minjung, dalits and others. This eco-spirituality is rooted in the experience of people closer to the earth. The focus of theological discussion has become spirituality-a creative form of spirituality that is life-affirming and dynamic. This shift from theology to spirituality is significant. Several important discussions have been held and they are particularly relevant for us. (See Asian Christian Spirituality, ed. Febella and others). Spirituality is from �Spiritual� a badly misunderstood term. In the Bible, spiritual is not opposed to material. To be spiritual is to live with a consciousness that orients one�s life to a transcendent purpose. To walk according to the Spirit, in the Spirit, in the Bible, is to choose and live by the purpose of God for all humanity which is justice and love. To walk according to the flesh is to follow the path of self-aggrandisement. To be spiritual, in the Biblical sense, is to practise the God of Life, Love and Justice and it is possible only by a rejection of forces of oppression and aggression which are posed as gods or idols of power.

The essence of Asian spirituality also brings this challenge. Buddha has commanded his followers to share all things �even the morsel of good falling into the begging bowl�. Greed and acquisitiveness are isolated as the source of bondage. Material poverty is to be tampered by non-acquisitiveness and sharing. Aloysius Peiris writes �In an Asian situation, the antonym of �wealth� is not poverty but acquisitiveness and avarice, which makes wealth anti-religious. The primary concern is not eradication of poverty, but struggle against mammon - that undefinable force that organises itself within every person and among persons to make material wealth anti-human, anti-religious and oppressive� (Asian Theology of Liberation, p.75).

To counter these forces the value and act of sharing is made the controlling power of spirituality. Unfortunately, in its development Asian spirituality has pre-occupied itself with individual, moral behaviour or of forming an exclusive community -- a spiritual aristocracy. In both cases the spirit of non-acquisitiveness has lost its human thrust. In fact, food which is the symbol of sharing and means for creating one community has become the source of sharing pollution, the sanction of caste. This has produced a system by which some people are perpetually kept under bondage to grow food for the dominant groups even while they are deprived of the fruits of their labour. However, the religiosity of the poor, of dalits and tribals, maintained a communitarian spirituality which has never been allowed to surface. And their consciousness has been colonised by the dominant castes.

The spirit of non-acquisitiveness of sharing, of harmonious relationship with human and nature is the essence of tribal spirituality. It should be recovered from all the distortions that crept into it. It should enter creatively into building a human community of love and justice. Then all forms of development will be directed to the welfare of all.

The Biblical vision of sharing and the Asian and tribal spirituality of non-acquisitiveness and harmonious growth that arose out of the context of food is now assuming a special relevance in our search for a viable form of development.

Today, production and distribution of food have become political matters and objects of technological development. Food is power. All constellations of power -- ideologies, system, market, multinationals -- together build an �Oikoumene of domination�. Its logic is power of exploitation and profit. How can we build an �Oikoumene� of solidarity whose logic is sharing, of building a just community? That alone can bring the fruits of development to the poor and the marginalised. How can we change the present pattern of development which favours the rich? As Christians how do we by our lives and relationships witness to the logic of sharing?

III. NEW QUESTIONS FOR ASIAN THEOLOGY

In the earlier section we have indicated some of the issues that need further attention as we face a new context in Asia. Here, we can only summarise them.

(a) Pressures brought upon the Christocentric framework that is often assumed in radical theologies: The tendency of modern theology is to subsume all the new questions of theology under a framework that can be described as �Christocentric Universalism�. The concerns of secular and religious pluralism all somehow or the other fit into this. Too much weight is thus put on this paradigm. The new concerns of Third World theology cannot be easily reverted to it. Christocentrism is not the most helpful paradigm, but Christ-in-relation seems to be the better way of affirming God�s renewing transforming work in our midst. Centre, uniqueness, majesty and Lord are all terminologies of authoritarian and patriarchal culture. There is good reason to reject them as Christ himself did. His own ministry and the context for the divine manifestation is the periphery. To capture this movement from periphery we need a different formulation. A spirit-filled theology that respects the integrity of spiritual vision and values of people in their own tradition and culture has to evolve. The characteristic posture of the spirit is openness and an ability to transcend limits. The affirmation of solidarity of the poor is the spirit�s creative activity. To discern the spirit�s working, we need �Christic� sensitivity, but it can never be wholly interpreted by Christological formulations.

(b) Community Building -- Theology should be at the service of people in their search for meaningful communities in Asia which exist in harmonious relation with nature, and between different faiths. This will be communities that refuse to accept the logic of profit and progress which has turned our life into commodities. They will be different from the traditional collectives that have submerged our selfhood and suppressed our women. They will be communities that have overcome all human-made barriers of caste, creed and religion and that celebrate their common humanity, �living life to the full, in harmony with self, others and nature�.

Our vision is for a radical change of global society on an entirely new basis. But our strategy is to build smaller local communities which are counter signs to existing society. Such counter communities are beginning to emerge in different parts of Asia. How can they be multiplied and empowered? Our theology should be rooted in their praxis, it will be critical and prophetic. How can the Church which in its origin was a movement of counter-culture become communities of resistance giving an alternate vision?

(c) Language -- Asian theology is seeking a new language. Women�s experience and their perception of reality as holistic has decisively shaped all people�s theologies. They challenge the dominance of rational language in theology. Rational language is the legacy of the enlightenment tradition. Dorothee Solle says, �it (rational language) is too small for our needs. It explains, but does not satisfy. It �enlightens� even if seldom - but does not warm�. She further notes that modern language is �governed by consumerism�. Modern theology is influenced by rational language and �categories of possession�. But we need a new language that expresses the power and love of the spirituality of the poor (On The Earth As in Heaven, p.85).

Samuel Rayan, with his usual eloquence, has described the language of Third World theology. �The language of our theology will be critical, symbolic, metaphoric, indicative, interrogative, exclamatory, indignant, hot, linear, spiral, systematic, unsystematic, imaginative, it will be everything that can help us �explicate the intelligible content of the faith, relate life to faith, maintain the boundaries of the universe of faith�, sustain life�s struggles, foster love and defend the mystery of human beings and of God. We do not believe that understanding happens (only) when divorced from beauty, imagination, emotion and interest. Third World theology is expressed in scientific language, but also in the id ion of painting and sculpture, of dance and egalitarian social organisation, and in poetry and story and silence�. (Third World Theologies in Dialogue, EATWOT-India, 1991).

Asian theology is people�s theology. It grows out of people�s struggle and sufferings, their stories and myths, their persecutions and protests as well as their sorrows and joys.

We take Asia to our hearts,
See her and feel her within her within us, Embrace her,
In her wholeness and brokenness.
(Asian Christian Spirituality, 1992)