Nature and need of ICT?

Sathianathan Clarke epresses ICT occupied itself with the challenging process of recollecting,
reinterpreting and reappropriating its religious and cultural legacy mainly in terms of the Hindu
tradition. Correspondingly, theology in India continually sough to translate,adapt and correlate the good
news of Christian proclamation by taking into consideration its Hindu philosophical and cultural
framework. Dong contextual Indian Christian Theology was thus overwhelming conceived of a baptising
the gospel of Christ into the Holy waters of Hindu philosophy and culture.

Two concern:

1. to be loyal to the knowledge and experience of Jesus Christ who is the center of life and this signifies
that also to be loyal to those sources through which we know Jeus Christ.

2. To Interprete and proclaim our understanding and experience of God in such away that others may
ccome to the same knowledge.

ICT is a testing out of various interpretations of the scruti with view to the construction of anew
theology which yet witness to the same Satya(truth), which is Christ himself. It is an attempt to make
Christianity which is simultaneously faithful to the scruti and yet culturally ‘at home’ in India.

Need:

In the past, Indian churches by and large a product of western missionaries were content with repeating
without reflections, the confessions of faith evolved by the western churches in their cultural milieu.
“Colonial protection and missionary paternalism” kept the church away from the main stream of Indian
political and cultural life. There was very little awareness by the Indian churches of the rich cultural and
religious traditions around them. In fact the missionary attitude towards Hinduism and other religions
was often negative, their polemics were directed towards proving the superiority of Christianity over
Indian religions. Some even conceived Christianity as the crown of Hinduism In the wake of nationalism,
Indian theologians raised critical questions on the theological paradigm of the missionary era and
embarked on a vigorous search for a new paradigm that embraced the religio-cultural experiences of
the people in India. The new paradigm of theology is rightly characterised as ‘Christo-centric
Universalism’, ‘Cosmic Christ’, Lordship of Christ over all’, and ‘Christ the new Creation’- all these a
universal significance of Christ reality was unambiguously affirmed.

1. Church in India is dominated by Western attitudes and mode of thought. Especially in Church
publication, church music,church services, church organization, and church architecture.
2. Even a liturgy and other publications were fringed with western style, thought and terminology.
3. Surveying the theological college in India, it us ruled by western theology, and the impact is to
produced a preacher, minister, evangelist reflect the western theological categories.
Critics: There are attempts to harmonize Christianity, rather than Christ, with Hinduism. Raam Mohan
Roy (1772 - 1833), the father of modern India, and his successor Keshab Chandra Sen (1838 - 1884)
interpreted Jesus in Indian traditions. Jesus is portrayed as an Asiatic. His ethical precepts, independent
of his person, provide the way to happiness and peace. His "Divine Humanity" is explained within the
framework of Hindu mystic traditions. Jesus Christ and the "best elements" of Christianity are
conveniently accommodated under the wide umbrella of Hinduism. Because of the universalistic and
absorptive features of Hinduism, no tension is experienced in this.

If we go deeper into Indian Christian theology, we can understand that it is written mostly by the
high caste people. Most of the Indian Christian theologians wrote their theology in the high caste
perspective and we will find that they many times avoid the subalterns issues from their theological
records. This comes as major issue in interpreting the theology from the core Indian perspective.
There is the impossibility of the liberation which is the core teaching of Christ .

Reference: Abraham, K. C. Transforming Vission: Thelogical- methodological Paradigm shift. Thiruvalla:

CSS.2006

Lecture notes.

Christian scripture and other scripture:

A bu a tang copy tur

Evaluation: The world context today is plural. There are different religious traditions and various
scriptures exist. Many religions and scriptures have emerged from the Asian context. The major religions
of the world are the contribution of Asia, including Christianity. The issues such as authority, inspiration,
infalliability inerrancy and the supremacy are always in question. Bible and God of the Universe: God is
acting beyond imagination. According to Bonhoeffer, God is the lord of the religious and the religionless.
God is always acting in history and he makes him known. One can realize the revelation of God. God
revealed himself through nature and the same God revealed very decisively in the person of Jesus Christ,
through his incarnation.
TRINITY WAS SACCITANANDA

Keshub Chunder Sen ( 1838-1884)

In his book on That Marvelous mystery, The Trinity (1882), K.C. Sen defines his position in the direction
of the full acceptance of the doctrine of Trinity. He is the first Indian thinker to expound the meaning of
trinity I relation to the famous definition of Brahman as Sat-Cit-Ananda ( Existence or absolute being,
Conciousness, and bliss). He writes “The Apex is the very God Jehovah, the supree Brahma of the Vedas.
From Him comes down Son in direct line, an emanation from Divinty. Thus God descends and toughes
one end of the base of humanity, then running all along the base permeates the world, and then by the
power of the HOLY ghost drags up humanity to heaven is the Holy Ghost. This is the whole philosophy of
salvation. Hr gives assort of Table equivalents or parralles, beginning with the Christian Trinity and
ending with Sat-cit-ananda.

Father Son Holy Spirit

The Creator The Examplar The Sanctifying

The Still God The Journeying God The Returning God.

I am I love I save

Force Wisdom Holiness

True Good Beautiful

Sat( truth) Cit (intelligence) Ananda ( Joy)

He says “The Trinity of Christian Theology corresponds strikingly with the Sat Cit Ananda of Hinduism.
You have three conditions, three manifestations of Divinity. Yet there is one God, one substance and
three phenomena. Not three God but one God. Whether alone, or manifest in the Son or quickening
humanity as the Holy Spirit, it is the same God, the same identical Deity, whose unity continues
indivisisble amid multiciplity of manifestations…Who can deny that there is an essential and undivided
unity in the so-called Trinity? Were I to contemplate the mystery of that marvel of Christianity, the
trinity, in solitarycommunion, I would close my eyes and lost in wonder, rapt in solemn silence, I would
point my finger thus , Above, Below, Within, The Father Above, The Son Below, The Holy Ghost within”.

Brahmabandhav Upadyay

He followed the footprints of K.C.Sen and explained the mystery of trinity in terms of Sat-Cit-Ananda. He
presented the trinitarian God as Sat(Being), Cit (Consciousness) and Ananda (Bliss)

God the Father as ‘Sat’: For Upadyay, “Being is the ultimate foundation of all certitude, the foundation
of thinking”. According to him, only God can be truly called sat, i.e. existence by itself which is eternal
immutable and infinite. All other ‘being’ has only a borrowed or contingent existence, enduring in time,
and is both mutable and limited.
God the Son as Cit: For Upadhyay, the object of God’s knowledge is God. The consciousness (cit) of God
must, of necessity, be distinguishable from the subject (sat) because, he reasons, “a being cannot stand
in relation to its identical self”. Yet, as has also been demonstrated God cannot go outside of himself for
any necessary relations. Thus Upadhyay argues that there must be a “relation of reciprocity” without
any division in the divine substance. This, according to the revelation, it is precisely what the Trinity
provides: “God begets in thought his infinite SelfImage and reposes on it with infinite delight while the
begotten Self acknowledges responsively his eternal thought-generation. Without compromising the
unity of the absolute there is a “variety of cognition and re-cognition, the subject and the object
corresponding with each other in knowledge”.

God the Holy Spirit as Ananda The third and final radical making up the doctrine of saccidanda is the
term ananda, translated as bliss or joy. The term ananda as you or bliss sounds strange to the western
ear until it is recognized that it seals the internal joy of the triune Godhead apart from any external
relationships, or to use Upadhyay’s phrase, it celebrates “the beatitude of triple colloquy”. His
development of ananda emphasises three main areas. First, he seeks to demonstrate how ananda
confirms the unrelated nature of the Absolute. Second, he seeks to make it clear that ananda is a
person, and third, eternal distinction within the Godhead. Third, ananda protects the doctrine of God
from slipping into a rationalistic abstraction, but clarifies that the Christian God is one, who out of joy,
does enter into direct, personal relations with humanity.

Evaluation:
Missionary Construction of Indian Christian Theologies a)

Radical Accommodation to Hindu life: In order to achieve his goal:

1) He decided to act the role of a Christian sanyasi and to adopt the appropriate garb and style of
living.
2) Nobili could able to master both the Vedas and Vedanta and so to use Indian philosophy and
philosophical languages as a vehicle for conveying Christian theological truth.
3) he accepted the social customs of his time. He moved from the missionary compound into a hut
in the Brahmin quarter of the city and shaved his head except for a small tuft on hair.
4) He spoke only Tamil, hired a Brahman cook and houseboy and became vegetarian. He
abandoned the black cassock and leather sandals of the Jesuit order and adopted saffron robe
and wooden clogs. To cover the ‘nakedness’ of his forehead, he put sandalwood paste on his
brow to indiacate that he was a guru. He referred to himself not as a priest but as sannyasi.
5) One more Veda. Nobili made an attempt to compile a book. Nobili called it the fifth Veda. As far
as Nobili was concerned this was the Law which had been lost. What he meant was the primitive
religion revealed to mankind but lost because of sin, embodied again and perfected in Christian
revelation. In order to provide right perspective about satyavedam he attempted to serve
Biblical truth with local religious aroma.

Kudumi and Brahmin Church: By 1609 Nobili had persuaded Sivdarma to read the Bible, which Nobili
referred to as the “Christian veda” and to accept Christian baptism. He knew that, as a Brahmin,
Sivadarma wold be reluctant to worship with the people of lower castes. Would then be proper to
degregate the believers according to their caste? Secondly, was it necessary, as other missionaries
insisted, for Sivadarma to discard the triple thread and shave the Kudumi or single braid of hair marking
him as a member of the higher caste? Nobili resolved the first problem by forming a totally Brahmin
church. To an answer to the question of the thread and the kudumi, he appealed to his superior Laezio,
insisting that the thread and the kudumi braid were social symbols rather than religious ones.

John Nicol Farquhar 1861

Theological Method:

His theology was based on the fulfilment theory. He felt the crucial need of a workable ‘apologetic’
approach to the university educated Indians and as a means to that end tried to find a more acceptable
relation between Christianity and Hinduism than that of mere mutual exclusion. According to him, every
religion has some truth BD/BTT12 13 Prepared by: Rev.Sebimon.PK in it and has been instrumental in
leading people to God. Every religion is valid for a persona as long as it is the highest they know. But,
when a higher faith is presented, sincerity requires of the person to move towards the new. In Hinduism
there is an aspiration which would be considered as preparation for Christ, and every important
Christian truth is part of Hinduism. He uses the fulfilment idea in evolutionary sense and sees the
process of fulfilment as a radical displacement of Hinduism by Christianity.

The Crown of Hinduism

In his article, The Relation of Christianity to Hinduism, Farquhar reviewing the past pronouncements
made on Indian religions by the missions, he came to the conclusion that the rejection of Hinduism as
evil could not be taken as scientific judgement based on serious study, but the result of hasty inferences
from pre-conceived notions and superficial observations.

A.G.HOGG(1875)

Hogg’s Missionary Reflection

In his article, The Christian Interpretation of Mediation he says, is it possible to state the Christian
estimate of Jesus as the one unique Mediator between God and man in a way which shall not repel
sympathetic and thoughtful Hindus? In the formation of this estimate preserved in the Creeds of
Christendom there is much that appears hopelessly foreign to Indian ways of thinking, and it may not be
rash to conjecture that, if Christianity had made its first abiding conquest in India instead of in Europe,
Its Creeds would have been couched in a terminology singularly different.

In his early years in India he was therefore working, not toward any lessening of belief in the uniqueness
of Christ, but toward a restatement of that belief in terms that India could comprehend and accept. The
root of the matter he believed rest in the area of ethics- and Hogg’s theology was always of a strikingly
ethical kind, consistent with his Kantian philosophy. It was this which drove him to an examination fo
the antithetical doctrines of karma and redemption. Hogg presented a revised law of Karma,
interpreting it in the light of the Christian doctrine of redemption. According to the interpretation,
Karma doctrine shall be simply the idea of causality applied to the ethical realm.

Evaluation: Attempts to explain, interpret, and formulate the essentials of Christianity in Indian
thought - patterns have enabled Indian thinkers to contribute something to Christian theology.
While contributing to the field of apologetics, these attempts to wed faith with reason, revealed
theology with natural theology, have had only partial success. It has, to an extent, made the
gospel relevant in the context of Indian nationalism, religio-cultural pluralism, and
socioeconomic development. It marks the beginning of Indian biblical scholarship and creative
theological formulations..

Reference: Christianity in India throught the centuries.

Stanley M. Guthrie “Nobili, de Robert” in Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions,

Pramanas of ICT

1) Sruti comes from the root sru, to hear, and it refers to the fact that the rishis are supposed to
have ‘heard’ the scriptures directly from God. The word has for Hindus the acquired meaning of
‘revelation’; the ‘inspired’ scriptures of the Veda and Vedanta reveal God in a way that other
`scripture (the smriti or rembered works) do not.
A.J. Appasamy fully accepts the witness of the OT and affirms that it cannot be supplanted by
the Hindu shastra (sacred/teaching). However, he believes that the Hindu sastras can
supplement it because they show how God has been preparing the people of India for the
coming of Christ.

KM Banerjea, in his book The Aryan Witness, tried to show a striking parallele between the old
TEstsment Judaism and that both are fulfilled in Jeus Christ. Therefore the task of the Christian
theologian is to help the Hindu rediscover the messianic prophecies and prefiguration of Christ in the
Vedic religions.

Swami Dayananda Sraswati proclaimed that the true religion of India is to be found only in the Vedas.

2) Anubhava-experience: the second pramana is experience or anubhava. In Hinduism there are

several terms unmediated experience of God-Saksatkara, pratyaksa, anubhava, etc., and they
are terms which can be used with Christian content. The Indian tradition lays great stress on
‘realisation’, and this is true not only of bhakti marga but also of Jnana marga, for a man is not
regarded as entitled to speak of religious matters unless he himself can speak of his own
personal experience of unity with God. And for the Christian faith personal experience is
essential, as st.paul makes clear when he repeatedly refers back to his experience of the living
Christ on the Damascus road (Act.22, 26, Gal.1) Experience does not means mere vague
consciousness of God. For Christian it means a firsthand encounter with Christ living World who
is revealed in the scripture.
3) Anumana- Inference/ philosophy: The Rise of Systematic Theology What is logically inferred
from the teaching of scripture as expounded by those who have direct experience of Christ? In
this category includes all the theological formulations of the church, in which men have
attempted to work out in logical and systematic fashion the teaching of the Bible. In Indian there
have appeared few major and comprehensive works of systemeatic theology, and few detailed
statements of faith which could be called ‘an Indian Confession’. One could mention for example
A.G.Gogg’s Karma and Redemption (1909); V Chakkarai’s Jesus the Avatar (1932)dealing with
incarnation; C.S.Paul’s The Suferring God (1932); Raymond Panikkar’s The Unknown Christ of
Hinduism (1964).

Inference serves theology as

Preamble: Preparation of the people to understand the faith.

Atool: It is used as an instrument to better understand the faith.

A bridge: It provides common principles where believer and non-believer can meet.

A shield: Defender of faith against argument of non-believer.

Fakkirbhai used Hindu Philosophy of prema (love) to describe God. Creation is not maya in the sense
of illusion but is God’s act of love; estrangement from God’s love is sin;and salvation is restoration to
love.

Critics: The final authority seems to rest upon context and not the Bible. More than the special
revelation in Scripture, various social sciences influence and determine the content and scope of
Indian theology. Instead of being theocentric, God in relation to man, it becomes more
anthropocentric, man in relation to man or structures. However, no one philosophy or sociology can
provide an adequate framework for Christian theology that is faithful to revealed content of
Scripture. The quest for relevance in theology, whether European, American, African, or Indian,
should not be at the expense of commitment to the finality of the written and living Word.
Dialogue:

Dialogue is part of the living relationship between people of different faiths and ideologies as they
share in the life of the community. Dialogue is a “service” aimed at facilitating life in community; it is
a ministry.

According to J. Samartha “ dialogue is part of the living relationship between people of different
faiths and ideologies as they share in the life of the community”.

Here we will identify four perspectives and certain fundamental issues connected with dialogue.

1. Socio-Political Perspective:

Christians happen to live in different socio-political atmospheres. They have socio-political duties as
responsible citizens. Inter-faith dialogue becomes very significant when socio-political decimation
against minority religious communities is felt. In a country like India where secularism and religious
persuasions are kept in tension, socio-political perspective in inter-faith dialogue is very significant.
Communal tension, politicization of religion and communalization of politics have rocked the
country, which otherwise is noted for its spiritual resources. The question of identity of developing
measurable criteria for being religious and of the sufficiency of secular mechanism to promote
development and harmony have become issues for inter-faith probing.

Cultural Perspective:

In India , Christianity is considered as a foreign religion mixed with the western culture. Therefore
inculturation or indigenization has been a major concern in Christian thinking. Indian culture is a
composite culture as in the case of many other cultures too. As such, it is difficult to recognize the
dominant or great traditions and calculations in this regard may be wrong. The Hindu revivalists who
claim to be the custodians of the Indian culture say that the Muslims and Christians are agents of
alien cultures. It is the responsibility of the Muslims and Christians to convince their Hindu friends
that they can also contribute to the richness of the Indian culture.

Theological Perspective:

The most difficult to do in a multi-religious context is to affirm that ‘we believe in one God, for most
religions of the world affirm the same. How to relate the God of Jesus who revealed himself through
him to the genuine devotional experience of people of other faith? Christians have split hairs from
the beginning of this question. The answers vary and they are now roughly classified into three
models: exclusive, inclusive and pluralist. The exclusivist gives no theological significance to their
religions however good some of their values may be. The inclusivists hold that God is active in other
religions in some way although in Christ he has acted fully, openly, clearly or decisively. For the
pluralists different religions are either different responses to the same mystery or reality or different
manifestations of the same God. The truths of the truth and the meanings of the meaning seem to
be the most important themes in theological reflection on religious plurality.
. Missionary Perspective: since the International Missionary Conference of Edinburgh, 1910 people of
other faiths have been mentioned in connection with Mission. A new awareness about them found
expression in missionary consultations following the study of religions and their renaissance in various
parts of the worlds.

According to P .D Devanandan the relation between religions in the following way. The inter-faith
dialogue is, 1) To annihilate differences by insisting that all leads to the same goal and that there are no
differences that matter where religious faith is concerned.

2) Attempt to reconcile differences by setting them in the larger framework of an evolving world
religion.

3) To frankly admit that there are differences which we should be willing to accept and give all men of
faith full freedom for religious self-expression.

Words of two Indian Theologian

S.J.Samartha, “Dialogue is a part of the living relationship between people of different faiths and
ideologies as they share in the life of the community. It is not the techniques which are important for
dialogue, but a living relationship with the people. 1) Openness is a quality to be developed for
meaningful inter-faith dialogue. We are not to condemn or evaluate others, but to mutually understand
and to share the experience. 2) Friendship is another important quality. By friendship one can share
Christ/one’s faith to others. It is not by confrontation but by love and friendship our faith can be
exposed to others. It is the best means to share the faith experience. 3) life-witness is another way of
dialogue. If living relationship with others is indeed dialogical as our neighour’s will realize the kind of
faith and experiences we have. Life should be dialogical and it should reveal our faith and experience.

Panikkar

Inner dialogue: “…we must engage in an inner dialogue in which, while retaining a firm grasp of Christ,
we ‘ dive deeply into non-Christian Spiritualities, studying the Hindu Scriptures and tryng to understand
and ‘live’ the whole Hindu Religious experience.”

Reflection: Interreligious dialogue in a pluralistic society helps us to arrive at certain conclusions: All
religions are pilgrims in search of the Absolute. Since we claim that God revealed Himself in various ways
and forms , He can be approached through different means. The whole humanity takes part in the same
divine essence because it is created in God's image. God is omnipresent and universal. Therefore he is
beyond any sectarian rituals, symbols and worship. This is made clear in Jesus' conversation with the
Samaritan woman:″Believe me, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on
this mountain or in Jerusalem... They will worship him in spirit and truth″ ( Jn. 4: 21-24). All people are
God's children irrespective of race, religion and belief.″ There is no Greek nor Gentile nor Jew. Allare
God's Children″
 (Gal. 4:3 1). God being the origin and end o fhumanity, the ultimate goal of all religions is nothing but
the Kingdom of God. Again the Fatherhood of God and the pilgrim nature of all religions motivate the
believers to love their neighbours, particularly the poor and the margenalized.

. Dalit Christology

3.1. Dalit

Dalits in India have suffered oppression under the dominant castes for at least last three millenniums.
The word “Dalit” means - “crushed”, broken” or “split apart.” Dalit experience in India is invariably
colored by their subjugated experience. They endure broken experiences at the physical, emotional, and
psychological levels.14

3.2. Dalit Jesus

, Jesus‟ reconstructed identity as a“Dalit-of-his-owntime” the Dalitness of Jesus is emphasized by

referring to his genealogy in the Gospels which include social outcasts like Tamar, Rehab, and Solomon,
an illegitimate child born to David through Bathsheba. Jesus‟ preferred title “Son of Man” and the
associated rejection, mockery, contempt, suffering and eventual death are very important in Dalit
Christological reflections. “Jesus underwent these Dalit experiences as the Prototype of all Dalits”.

3.3. Pathos
In order to prove the dalitness of Jesus A.P. Nirmal brings pathos from Jesus’ genealogy. Dalit
experiences are grounded on the fundamental feelings of suffering, servitude, oppression, and
powerlessness. It is based on their own Dalit experiences of their Pathos (suffering) and their
protest against the socio-economic injustices that they have been subjected to throughout
history. Dalit Christological reflections which enable Dalit believers to identify with Jesus Christ
in his suffering conjoined by their sharing in his offer of redemption and liberation.

3.4. Preferential option for the Dalits

Dalit Christology is that of the cleansing of the temple that the event was significant for its
implications for the gentiles. The gentile court was changed into a market area denying the
access to the gentiles. Jesus, the messianic King restores the right of the gentiles. Indian Dalits
who had to struggle for the temple entry rights and we know about temple entry legislation in
the various states of India”. In Jesus‟ act of restoration of the Gentile rights to worship. The
Indian Dalit struggle for their prayer and worship rights”.

3.5. Jesus’ Particularity and Universality

The resurrection means that the universal fact of God‟s salvation and God‟s option for the poor
and oppressed are not limited to the particularity of his Jewishness but is available to all “who
labor and are heavy-laden” and all who fight for the liberation of humanity in this world”. Thus
both the particularity as well as the universal applicability of Jesus‟ life and activity is considered
in Dalit Christological reflections.
9.3 Church as People’s Movement Peoples Movement is important phenomenon in today world.
There are many kinds of social movements or people movements in India like peasant
movements, fisher community movements, Dalit movement, women’s movement, environment
movements etc.According to T.K. Oommen, social movements are mechanisms through which
human attempts to move from the periphery of a system to its center. They are conscious
efforts by the people on the periphery “to mitigate their deprivation and secure justice” and
emerge “when people committed to a specified set of goals participate in protest-oriented,
purposive collective actions.”14 M.S.A. Rao describes social movements as an organized effort
on the part of a section of the population, involving collective mobilization based on an
ideology, to bring about changes in the social system.15 The Indian society is marked by grave
injustice and violence built into its structures and institutions of civil life. Economic exploitation
and social exclusion based on caste, marginalization of large sections of people in the civil and
political processes, unfair distribution of the benefits of scientific and economic progress,
unequal access to educational and employment opportunities, forced poverty, discrimination
against rural people etc. are all different forms of conflicts, injustice and violence imbedded in
our social fabric. The movements are having concern about these issues. They play a vital role in
conscientizing the civil society in areas such as human rights, social justice and ecology. They
compel the civil society and the state to address issues like corruption, poverty
marginalization of women and girl children, oppression and exploitation of dalits and tribals,
iniquity in the distribution of natural resources like water and land, exploitative incursion of
MNCs into the nation’s economy and ecological degradation.16 The social movements provide
an option to the struggling community to move from the periphery and to start a search for
freedom and justice. Church surely got a mandate for liberative motive and thus it should
participate in the issues of people and support these social movements. For the church and for
people’s movements human dignity is a primary value. Everyone has a right to live with dignity
irrespective of their gender, race, language, region, religion, caste or sociopolitical and
economic status. The church’s social doctrine and the social vision of movements place the
human person at the center of all economic and social life must be at the service of human
beings, especially the disprivileged. Further, they agree that human dignity is not an abstract
principle but a value which needs to become tangible in the actual life of people and
communities, in the rights to life and security, livelihood, education, property, gender equity,
etc.17 Providing dignity and equality is one of the fundamental vision and goal of the body of
Christ and leading the de-humanized into humanity is the mission of church consequently
church and people’s movement can be partners in this venture. The movements want the
pursuit of development to accord priority to the livelihood needs of the weaker sections of
society over the consumeristic demands of the elite. In the case of people’s movement,
solidarity with the poor is seen first of all in marginalization. Solidarity leads the activists to
consistent, sustained and committed involvement in people’s struggles for justice, liberation
and inclusion. It demands a lot of sacrifice. Solidarity with the socially marginalized was a
characteristic trait of the life and mission of Jesus, who sought to defend the human dignity of
the despised of his society that included tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes and victims of
leprosy. He took the good news of God’s reign of love, mercy, justice, reconciliation, and healing
into their daily life and struggles. The contemporary church sees solidarity as a fundamental
social virtue directed to the common good. The life of Jesus provides hope and solidarity for the
discriminated people because the biblical pictures of Jesus presented in the gospel traditions
present Jesus being in solidarity with the margins. Jesus movement was movement providing a
voice to the voiceless in Galilee and the early Christians were from socially deprived group.
Church as the herald of Jesus’s life and ministry should show sensitivity to the issue of solidarity
with the struggling community by supporting various social movements. Justice is the chief issue
which most people’s movements try to address. The priority of the disprivileged with regard to
opportunities for education, employment, etc. is integral to their understanding of justice.
Gender justice too is a necessary component of social justice. The people’s movements are a
prophetic reminder in our times of the priority of justice to the oppressed. They call for the
empowerment of people, especially the poor and the marginalized. The foundational
experience of Israel was the Exodus in which God revealed himself as a God of justice and
liberation. The classical prophets were fierce in their condemnation of injustice in the land and
violation of the rights of the poor. Amos and Micah laid stress on social morality and justice (cf.
Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:7,11,24;8:4-6 and Mic. 2:1-5;3:1-12;6:6-8;7:1- 6). The message of Jesus, which
is good news to the poor (cf. Lk. 4:18-19), enjoins upon us the demands of justice in personal
and social life. The priority of the downtrodden is a crucial component of the social doctrine of
the church which teaches that “the poor, marginalized and in all cases those whose living
conditions interfere with their proper growth should be the focus of particular
concern.”19Justice refers to the quality of relations between people and groups of people and
the resources they share for life. Today justice is viewed as the transformative participation in
the structures of the society and church should strive to embody structures of justice as an
alternative community
The contemporary church and many movements stand for a non-consumeristic and sustainable
lifestyle that keeps us from unduly exploiting natural resources. There are several movements
that advocate environmentally sustainable technologies in the management of natural
resources. The church agrees with such movements that the pursuit of development must be
oriented towards creating just, humane and sustainable societies based on harmonious and
non-exploitative relationships within and between human communities and between human
beings and the ecosystem.20People’s movement based on environmental crisis provide sense of
reverence to the nature, earth, trees, rivers, mountains, animals etc. and by doing so one
becomes aware of the oneness of life that we are part of the nature . It provides a holistic vision
of life in general and of the corporate life of the human community. Church can easily identify
itself with these concerns because these are the attempts to find t