Disconnected Christianity
Prologue: This is merely a ‘cut and paste’ review article on Graham Kings, Christianity Connected: Hindus, Muslims and the World in the Letters of Max Warren and Roger Hooker, New Delhi, 2002, Indian Edition, ISPCK, 2017. Yes I not only quoting verbatim from the book, but also to substantiate my reflections I verbatim quote from other scholars. There is an advantage in such ‘cut and paste’ writing. With my limitation I need not present the scholars view in my own words. Though, in general such long quotes from the scholar might irritate any reader, there is no other option for me. First, I need to quote in length from the book, in order to provide a clear context for my reflection. Similarly the lengthy quotes from other scholars will also help the reader to understand their points in context.
Of course any ‘cut and paste’ writing looks very dry and artificial. But it matches with the title ‘disconnected Christianity’, as that too looks like a ‘cut and paste’ religion for the Indians. Neither remain completely western nor remain Indian it remains a ‘patch work faith’—a kind of hybrid. Though its origin is in Asia, it was introduced as part of Western civilization in their civilization attempt both the by British and Missionaries. Unable to fit neatly with the Indian Dharmic civilization (Badrinath)1 at the same time unable to get liberation from Western Civilization it became a patch work faith and still remains ‘disconnected’ with Indian civilization. And my reflections on this book further high lights it.
I am not sure whether I can call this as ‘review article’. It runs more than 100 pages. After Introduction, my reflections are arranged on topic wise in the following order:
Hinduism, Idolatry, Hindu Scriptures are from Devil, Dialogue, How far to go, Presence of Muktinath, conversion, community, contextualization, Theological problem, Evangelism, Muktiveda as Foundation, Religions, Cross and evil, Failures of Muktinath; just acts of God; Liberal, Redemptive acts of God, Spirituality and Social responsibility, Worldview, Imperialism, God and history, Jews and the Lord, Reductionism, Work of the Holy Spirit, Mukti, Summary and Bhakti Theology
I am also not confident whether I can share this in my blog. It needs to be properly edited and critiqued. So I am not going to post this in the blog. But those who are interested can send their email to me and I will send this ‘review article’ with a request to help me to correct where I misunderstood both Warren and Hooker and failed to communicate their thought properly. Thanks.
1-12-2018