Theological Voices For Our Times

The book covers a series of topics that are felt to be urgent and relevant for our times, as the title suggests. The articles were contributed by teachers and scholars from diverse theological disciplines. The areas covered include important subjects like Theological Education (by way of serious critique and positing toward hopeful prospects and possibilities); Biblical studies on the subject of Justice and Peace, Intertextual readings; Important place of Tradition and Innovation in our Theological Journey; Importance of addressing the Psychosocial well- being of people exposed to Armed Conflicts; Biblical and Historical reflection on the present pandemic, Psychological stress in the context of COVID 19, Pastoral care and counseling in the context of the COVID pandemic; Feminist Theological and Ethical Issues; and the necessity to seriously address the problem of Ableism within the economy of our Christian anthropology of God's Image. As such, this book serves as a humble yet powerful theological source for students, teachers and readers of theology especially in relation to responding to some of the important theological questions of our times.

Greetings from the Office of the Association of Theological Teachers in India (ATTI)! It is with great joy that I am expressing a few words of preface along with appreciation. As you all may know, ATTI is an organization of theological teachers of the affiliated colleges under the Senate of Serampore College. This is the organization through which the theological community can reflect on contextual issues biblically and theologically and articulate their thoughts for the enrichment of the community and theological education. The ATTI has an executive committee comprising of theological teachers of the various colleges and seminaries, elected by the General Body which meets once in three years. ATTI occasionally organizes theological conferences and seminars at the national and regional levels. The Seminar papers after much discussions and revisions are published with the help of and in partnership with renowned publishers in India.
This particular book titled, Theological Voices for Our Times, is a product of the ATTI National Seminar and General Body Meeting in September 2019. Not all the papers are of the seminar, but several of them are. Papers related to COVID-19 and few others are later additions to make the book much more contextual and relevant with our present reality. Our editor Dr. Lovely Awomi James, has put in serious work to bring this project to its completion and I thank her for that. She had a good contact with the Christian World Imprints (CWI), which helped ATTI to have them as our publisher and ATTI has entered into an agreement with them to that effect. Our sincere gratitude goes to the CWI. In organizing and coordinating the entire process of publication, ATTI Secretary Rev. Prof. Dr. Hmuaka also helped a lot. The effort of the contributors also needs mention. I thank every one of them. It is the Will and Wisdom of the Almighty God, which enabled all of us to be part of ATTI for which all praise, glory and thanks are due to God now and forever.

This book, Theological Voices for Our Times, is an outcome of painstaking labour of about seven to cight months by all concerned - beginning with the authors, ATTI EC members, editor and the publisher. The book covers a series of subjects and issues that are found to be very urgent and relevant for our present context and time. The articles are written by theological teachers and scholars representing diverse theological disciplines.
The first article entitled. Decolonizing Pedagogies: Theological Education as Aesthetic Education by Y. T. Vinayaraj, employs decolonized pedagogies for aesthetic education in an era of globalization in order to address the pain and agony of the marginalized. The author employs Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's innovative pedagogy of aesthetic education and brilliantly critiques the heavy influence of western missionary educational values on Indian theological education. He strongly argues for the necessity of re-locating Indian theological education in own epistemological context.
A Critical Appraisal of Theological Education in India Today: Tribal Perspective by Lovely Awomi James, very openly (and without any pretensions) critiques the present theological education in India especially under the Senate of Serampore from tribal perspective. She passionately argues for practical space in our theory- oriented theological education; for change in the male-centered curriculum; for methodological freedom for the tribals from the western and Indian elite methodologies, for critical self-examination and biblically-sound teachings to check ourselves from blindly rushing headlong into any and every trendy human rights movements etc.
Feminist Theology Movement in India: Problems and Challenges by Limatula Longkumer, clearly traces the origin and development of feminist theology movement in India. She critically states that there is no one common name or concept that can be draped over the women's movements in India owing to the fact that there is no uniformity or singularity when it comes to the rich diversities of women's experiences, contexts and cultures in India. She highlights the seriousness of Indian women's concrete realities in diversified historic settings like that of the tribals, dalits and adivasis and how such realities call for doing theology from their own specific contexts and perspectives.