About the Book The book titled as Rethinking Mission draws its name from the Rethinking Group in the Indian history of mission. It seeks to re-think Indian cultural and religious issues in continuity with the Rethinking tradition in the history of the church and its mission, which has been addressed widely in this volume. The book has sought scholars and church leaders to rethink issues in mission from Biblical, Theological, Historical, Religious, and Ministerial disciplines. These multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional reflections on various issues challenge the traditional churches and its aged practice of mission and evangelism, in order to bring out biblically, theologically and religio-culturally relevant theology of Mission in the context of the churches and its mission. This book will enable the present churches to rethink their attitude towards mission and to strengthen their knowing, being and doing in every possible way to establish the Reign of God in this earth, especially in the pluralistic context of India.
About the Author Rev. Dr. J. A. David Onesimu serves as the Principal of the Madras Theological Seminary and College and is Senior Pastor at Evangelical Church of India, Chennai. He did his Th.M. in Mission Theology from Seoul Theological University, South Korea; M.Th. in Christian Theology under Senate of Serampore College (University); and his Ph.D. from Asia United Theological University-ACTS, Korea. He also holds a Diploma in Korean Language from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He was awarded Doctor of Theology (Honoris Causa) by Kernal University, USA. He was ordained in 1986 by Korean Evangelical Holiness Church, Korea.
Rev. Dr. K. Vijayan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Missiology. He was a former Lecturer at Calcutta Bible Seminary (CBS), Kolkata. Currently, he is teaching at the Madras Theological Seminary & College (MTSC), Chennai; and also teaching at the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute (GLTCRI), Chennai. He holds Doctor of Theology from the Senate of Serampore College (University), Department of Research, SATHRI. His doctoral research area was on "Orlando E. Costas Interpretation of Outside the Gate as a Postmodern Missiological Paradigm in the Context of India.
Preface In the context of the History of Christian Mission in India, Conversion, and Baptism, invariably involve a radical break with one's religion and cultural In the highly pluralistic context of India, the search for relevant patterns of Mission and Evangelism in most cases is also an encounter between the Christian faith and Other faiths, raising questions of Gospel and Culture at the Theological level. The fundamental relation between Religion and Culture also thus becomes central to our search for new paradigms of Mission and Evangelism During the first half of the 20 century, some of the most creative Indian Christian thinkers founded Rethinking Christianity Group' in 1938. The Madras Rethinking Group (MRG) is a group of Indian Christians in Madras led by Pandippedi Chenchiah, his brother in law Vengal Chakkarai. and Bishop A. J. Appasawmy in the 1930s. Their main task was to rethink and write about the Indian interpretation of Christianity. The purpose of this group was, "to promote Christianity firmly rooted in the soil, drawing its sustenance from the indigenous culture, above all built on the inner experience of the Lord which external vicissitudes can never imperial." They took many radical views with regard to questions like the authority of the church and the value of Hinduism. The origin goes back to the club known as the Young Liberals Club' in Bangalore consisting of young Christian thinkers. Sadhu Sunder Singh addressed this group and challenged them to rethink Christianity to correct with great Indian traditions and to provide an Indian interpretation of and his message. Upon this inspiration, V. Chakkarai then started the Christo Samaj in Madras in 1918 for the members from Madras to have Christian fellowship and to propagate the Christian faith among the educated Hindus. He began to organize prayer meetings in his house and many people of other faiths attended this and became followers of Christ. He also started the weekly journal 'The Christian Patriot' to express the views of the Christo Samaj. Though the weekly became defunct, the opinions of the group were propagated through "The Guardian' and 'The Pilgrim'. Latter, this Group met in the verandah (courtyard) of Chenchiah's house and came to be known as "The Verandah Club, Madras. The group met together was known as the 'Rethinking Group of Madras." Even though Chenchiah was not a trained theologian, he was the most creative and stimulating member of the "Rethinking Group'. From the title of his best-known publication Rethinking Christianity in India, gave the Rethinking Group an important place in the developing history of Indian theology. Being an insider of the church. Chenchiah's concern was for the people who were at the periphery of the church and outside the gate. He took his religio-cultural context seriously and enables the followers of Christ outside the church to remain in their society without moving into the new context called "Christian" or "Church." Though, he was misunderstood by many during his time, now the context has changed greatly from the time of Chenchiah. His thinking and writings offer valuable guidelines to the one who decides to become a disciple of Christ, should not be made or allowed to cut off from his/her relationship with the culture and spiritual traditions of India, but should be encouraged to live as a 'Hindu-Christian', Muslim-Christian Sikh- Christian. By name, they will be Hindus/Muslim/Sikh but in spirit and heart, they will be (Christians) followers of Christ. Several Indian theologians and from what has been called 'Rethinking Group of Madras objected severely to numerous aspects of the of the institutional church and mission leadership, policy and practices both internationally and especially in India. The institutional Christianity in India has shown that it is easily able to resist and outlast rethinking effort at reform, and a new rethinking effort aimed at changing the churches will almost a question today. However, the objective of the classic rethinking group is largely forgotten and token discussions in Seminaries and isolated individuals who live and minister in line with rethink such as Acharya Daya Praksh Titus, Dayananda Bharati, are all that can be found.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
