Jesus Beyond Borders (Towards a 'Glocal' Christology)

This book addresses the fundamental twin-foci of Christology, i.e., Divinity and Humanity of Jesus, the Christ and its relevance to Christologizing. In the study of Christology, there is always the tendency to adhere to either of the two. There are very few attempts to find an integrated path, a middle-way.

The author takes up the 'challenge' to attempt a shot at the middle-way in Christology. Therefore, when we talk of 'Jesus Beyond Borders,' there is an integrated approach to Christology and not a 'Borderless-Christology.' A unitive paradigm is the sole-motif of being borderless. Finding the common ground is the approach of such a position. In such a Christological paradigm, there is an inter-play of seemingly contradictory categories, such as divinity and humanity of Jesus, the Christ. Therefore, it is a Christology of Complementarity. The book is a treat for those who are willing to amplify their radius of understanding Christian theology from a new aspect.

Dr. Samuel George (hailing from Jammu & Kashmir) is Professor of Christian Theology at Allahabad Bible Seminary (Serampore University), Uttar Pradesh. He holds a Master's degree in Sociology (MA), and Doctorate in Theology (Serampore University). He has served as a Christian theological educator in many Institutes in north India, and from 2012- 2015 he served as the Principal of Master's College of Theology (Serampore University), Visakhapatnam, India. He is a member of the Reference Group of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN) of the World Council of Churches, Geneva. He is the author/editor of the following books: Christology: An Introduction (Serampore, 2013); The Historical Particularity of Jesus: A Dialogue with the Hindu view of History (Punthi Pustak, 2014); "The Gospel as Public Truth": An Indian Multi-Religious Perspective on Lesslie Newbigin (CWI, 2015); Ekklesia: Indian Conversations (CWI, 2015); Christian Theology: Indian Conversations. Vols. 1 & 2 (BTESSC, 2016). Many of his writings are published in national and international journals. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of New Life Theological Journal. He is married to Dr. Atula Ao (Tsüdir) from Nagaland, a biblical scholar in the field of Old Testament.

The life of Jesus is of monumental significance to the world. Such is the impact of this 'man' that the common denominator to divide the line of world history is the life of Jesus, the Christ. "I love Jesus, the Christ." This work is my way of offering worship to this great soul about whom St. Paul writes, "... who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).

I began my formal theological education in 1996 at Bishop's College, Calcutta (as it was known then). It is here that I met the person who impacted my theological foundation so enormously, especially in studying the person of Jesus, the Christ. Late Rev. Dr. Somen Das' (the former Principal of Bishop's College) classes on Christology were so enamouring that I fell in love' with Jesus, the Christ again. Since then, I have undertaken three research (thesis) works (BD, M.Th., and D.Th.). All of them were on the subject of Christology. The love for Christology was re-enforced by my theological guru Rev. Dr. O. V. Jathanna (former Principal of United Theological College, Bangalore). It is to these great theological educators that I owe the most in shaping my theological perceptions.

Since 2003, I have been writing regularly on theological issues in various theological platforms. Last year (2015), while updating my bibliography (works written by me), I was intrigued by a particular subject (Christology) that has found bulk of the space in my writings. In hindsight, I can testify the enormous impact I had from my theological gurus especially in the area of studying Christology. I decided to put these works (updated and re-edited) with few new ones into a book on Christology.

I'm delighted and gratified to provide this Foreword to this collection of solid, substantial and significant essays written by one of our finest young public theologians, Samuel George, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing as a student and now a colleague in the enterprise of theological education. Theological studies are a wonderful thing and when I think back thirty-six years when I started this journey back at the United Theological College in Bangalore, I'm reminded of a classmate of mine who in a fit of pure joy, possibly coupled with deeper underlying problems related to Biblical literalism, started to tear pages from the Bible and stuff them in his mouth, because he took seriously the phrase "the word of God is sweeter than honey" in Psalm 119: 103, words echoed in various places in the Bible including Ezekiel 3: 3, where we read: "Then he said to me, 'Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.' Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey," and even from the prophet Jeremiah (15: 16), where we read "Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart..."

Needless to say, my classmate has had a wonderful career- not in word and sacrament ministry, but a form of word and service, where thanks to the support of his wife, he has steadily, systematically and sincerely painstakingly written out each word of the Hebrew and Greek bibles in beautiful calligraphy, transliterated this on top, and added the English translation below. Far be it from any of us to tell him that this work has been done many times down the years. He has also enjoyed counting each and every word and variant in the Bible and listing them. Far be it from any of us to tell him that using any good Hebrew, Greek, and English concordance could have saved him the time and trouble. He found his calling and vocation and we celebrate the way the word continues to be effective in his life. It may not be a path that I'd recommend for everyone, but there it is.

**Contents and Sample Pages**