Human Responsibility in Salvation (Understanding Christian Soteriology in a Hindu Context)

Human Responsibility in Salvation: Understanding Christian Soteriology in a Hindu Context is an important conversational theological work. Unlike many books in the area of systematic theology, where one question is followed consistently and argued out pointedly, this book offers an exercise in dogmatic theological hermeneutics. Dr. Joseph Oliparambil is making an effort to understand Christian soteriology in a Hindu context.

Dr. Oliparmabil is addressing the question of human responsibility in salvation in a real inter-religious and intra-religious context where Christians and Hindus have different and sometimes similar views on the same. What is achieved in this work is a renewed pre-understanding for doing Christian, Hindu, and Hindu-Christian theologies of salvation. The author has consulted a wide variety of literature in the field of Christian soteriology, Hinduism, inter-religious hermeneutics and comparative theology. This book is an elaborate preface to any Christian theology of salvation done in an Indian context.

Dr. Joseph Oliparambil is a Catholic priest belonging to the Archdiocese of Verapoly, Kerala. He was ordained a priest in 2003. After a few years of ministry in different parishes he did his licentiate in Youth Ministry and Catechesis. He served as the director of the Youth Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Verapoly for three years. In 2021, he completed his doctoral research in Systematic Theology at St. Joseph's Pontifical Institute, Aluva, Kerala. At present, he is the rector of the Archdiocesan Minor Seminary at Kalamassery, Kerala, India.

That understanding itself is a specific object of understanding is an insight we received with the hermeneutic turn in philosophy and theology. After the so-called interpretive turn, theology restated its self-understanding as hermeneutics. Of course, there have been quarrels between hermeneutical and anti-hermeneutical thinkers about this renewed self-understanding of theology. Many modern and post-modern theologians do not see a big point in hermeneutics; but many others, especially, contextual theologians who have to work with intersectionality, accept hermeneutical approach to any theological question as the starting point of all conversational thinking. Human Responsibility in Salvation: Understanding Christian Soteriology in a Hindu Context is an important conversational theological work. Unlike many books in the area of systematic theology, where one question is followed consistently and argued out pointedly, this book offers an exercise in dogmatic theological hermeneutics. Dr. Joseph Oliparambil is making an effort to understand Christian soteriology in a Hindu context.

Dr. Oliparmabil is addressing the question of human responsibility in salvation in a real inter-religious and intra-religious context where Christians and Hindus have different and sometimes similar views on the same. What is achieved in this work is a renewed pre-understanding for doing Christian, Hindu, and Hindu-Christian theologies of salvation. The book is well structured, and there is a clear logic in the division of chapters. The author has consulted a wide variety of literature in the field of Christian soteriology, Hinduism, inter-religious hermeneutics and comparative theology. The bibliography is very extensive and helpful for further studies on related themes. Great care has been taken in composing a complex footnote apparatus in each chapter. Texts are written in good and persuasive academic language and style.

The ultimate purpose of religion is to provide salvation to those who believe in it. The very fact that there exist many different religions in the world indicates that there is a great variety of opinion about what salvation is and how to attain it. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "The fundamental idea contained in the English word salvation, and the Latin salvatio and Greek sotéria from which it derives, is that of saving or delivering from some dire situation." The idea of saving or delivering from some dire situation logically implies two parties - the one who is saved and the one who saves. Hence soteriology. i.e.. different beliefs, doctrines and study of any religion concerning salvation, may be divided into two, namely, objective soteriology and subjective soteriology. The objective soteriology focuses on the role of God (in the case of theistic religions) in salvation, whereas the subjective soteriology focuses on human responsibility. This research concentrates on the subjective dimension of soteriology. To be precise, we try to arrive through this research, at a clearer notion of the Christian understanding about the human responsibility in salvation, in the context of Hindu religious thought.

Living in India and choosing to ignore what Hinduism teaches is neither an easy job nor a wise thing to do. If we want to make sense of what we believe in a multi-cultural and multi-religious context and likewise to keep our faith, some version of comparative theological reflection is required. This research is an attempt to make such a theological comparison. We are not proposing a new theology here. Rather, we are trying to understand Christian subjective soteriology in the light of the Hindu understanding of salvation.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages