Christ in Multidimensional Context (An Integrated Presentation of Articles)

The book makes an attempt to understand Christ from different perspectives in the contemporary world. It tries to survey, both traditional as well as contemporary understanding of the subject and their relevance in the present day situation. This book is an outcome of much discussions and enormous reading. It explores the problem of religious language in theology and historical understanding of Christ as well as His contemporary view & its relevance. It calls for the theology to begin from the context and bottom not necessarily always from the transcendental level.

The Author has also showcased the teaching efforts and articles written and presented at different times by the esteemed personalities of this genre. He challenges us to be more active in understanding Christ from different parameters vis a vis the changed scenario of the modern world. The Author believes that Christ needs to be brought forth as a force of liberation and be embodied in all the changed situations, where still the unjust social structures suffocate people to live and grow.

This book is meant to be a handy tool for both the socio-theological fraternity as well as lay leadership, alike.

Rev. Amit Thomas, having completed his M.A from Kashi Vidhyapeeth (University), Varanasi, and B.D. and M.Th. degree from U.B.S and NIIPGTS (University of Serampore), is teaching in the Department of Christian Theology, Allahabad Bible Seminary, Allahabad, since 2001. He has also presented several articles in different journals.

Explorations on thematic issues in sixteen short essays wide ranging from Religious language, Hermeneutic, God, Sin, Atonement, Christology salvation, Kingdom of God, Black and Tribal theology through the eyes of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Rudolph Bultmann, James Cone, Sebastian Kappen, and M. M. Thomas is commendable. The author is a theological educator as well as a research scholar. In between teaching and research, his effort of writing the work and getting it published is quite commendable and encouraging.

In one of the essays pertinently he draws attention to "the thought of a new community which is valid to present a new fellowship of mutual forgiveness created by Divine forgiveness in Christ expressed in the Eucharist and social 'koinonia' of the church as the foretaste of true human community as the essential gospel". It highlights the call for an engagement of the Church in the world. The essays try to address each issue from a particular perspective without interlinking them with any common thread. Not the least he cites and gives a challenging call with the statement of Jesus "whosoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all " should not be interpreted as mere advice but a call to radically renounce all exercise of power.

Many of us who have been writing the theology are not conscious of what are the things that happen around us many times. Many of us do theology but are unaware about the discussions outside of our classrooms. We are comfortable within our four closet boundaries of thinking and thus sometimes we fail to understand the Multidimensional contexts in which we live. I have been teaching in the area of Christian theology, so it's a delight for me that I got the opportunity to publish this work. This book is the fruit of my teaching and research which I have been doing in the past years. My discussion with people around the globe, Church leaders and Theologians suggests that everywhere we are wrestling with the question: How to understand Christ in Multidimensional contexts?

The context undergoes many changes and as a result, different new awareness about the reality comes into light. As the title suggests, this book aims to get into the different discussions and see Christ from the Multidimensional perspectives. This book is basically the teaching efforts and collections of articles written and presented at different times. They deal primarily with the Christ as a Person & His Works, and how Christ understanding is relevant from different spheres of life. It also presents the challenges which are brought forth to us for doing theology in the given context.

**Contents and Sample Pages**