Theology-Christopher

“Coming of the Messiah is Good News for the Oppressed” God of life… Wake us up with your life giving Words. Splash our faiths with your Truth, which can make gasp and catch our breath. Draw us deeper into the depths of our Spiritual lives, where we may learn to realize more by your life giving words. Surprise us with deeper meaning of the Scriptures which would help us to enlarge our vision and action. Fill us with the sense of urgency to perceive and obey your powerful words. Renew and strengthen our faiths. In Jesus name we pray………… Amen Advent is a special season in Christian ecclesial faith and tradition, marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing for deliverance and for justice. Advent is a season of hope and expectation within the context of exclusion, poverty, untouchability, oppression, violence, stigma and discrimination and injustice in the world. The joy of advent contrasts sharply with the suffering people who live in the edges of the soc...

The Indian Constitution acknowledges and affirms ‘democracy’ as the way of life for every individual citizen of this country and has set a model for the world at large. Our political context today does not make it evident that "democracy has become a global choice of governance.” Some of the following incidents in our democracy lead us to re-examine the very idea and purpose of democracy and the question whether it serves the purpose: The entire winter session of the Indian Parliament was simply usurped by the opposition parties. Several hundred crores of money and precious time was wasted just to have a discussion on a ‘scam’ of similar value. Every other day we as the public are given the terrible news that some kind of violence has claimed lots of lives in civil society and several hundred crores worth of public properties have been damaged and destroyed. Several State administrations are not able to handle the public demonstrations against the policy decisions of the states an...

World without Children: Voices From and Around the Manger Christianity around the globe traditionally reads and reflects the life enhancing activities in the birth narratives of Jesus in the Gospels. Characters that fascinate us during such reflections are baby Jesus, Manger, Crib, Christmas-tree, Star, Angel, Joseph, Mary, Shepherds, Wisemen with expensive gifts, and animals in the stable. Most of our celebrations and greetings are not without their depiction. They have projecting the Christmas as only ‘celebration’. While it is not at all completely off track itself to ‘celebrate’ Christmas, one’s reading of the scripture should span the peril that Jesus and other children around the time of Jesus’ birth went through. Children below two years of age became an endangered lot instantly. Forced migration and escape for life certainly add new dimensions to theological, missiological, and social thinking of the churches. In fact the popular superficio-mystical religiosity and spirituality...

“…you shall raise up the foundations of many generations ...” Is. 58:12. (NRSV) Back Ground: The affiliates of Isaiah's addressees were fasting for all the erroneous reasons! They fasted to get things from God and hypocritically appear righteous. God says, though, that we should fast to free others from their sins, to intercede with God for their healing, to help provide for their needs and to understand the Will of God. Here the writer says, you shall build the old waste places - Shall repair the old ruins, and restore the desolate cities and fields to their former beauty. This language is taken from the condition of Judea during the long captivity at Babylon. The land could have been desolated by the Chaldeans, and lain waste for a period of seventy years. Of course all the remains of their former prosperity would have gone to decay, and the whole country would be filled with draughts and ruins. But all this, says the prophet, would be restored if they were obedient to God and w...

The Earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. Psalm 24:1 (NRSV) Peace I leave with you: I my peace I give you. I do not give as the world give. Jn 14: 27 (NRSV) The centenary celebration of the 1910 Edinburgh International Mission Conference is just over with a global gathering in Edinburgh deliberating on the theme ‘Witnessing Christ Today.’ The Edinburgh 2010 critically evaluated different mission models to explore relevant praxis-oriented missiologies that enable the church to witness Christ meaningfully till the end of the World. When the entire Christian world reaffirms this commitment to witness Christ relevantly, the Christian community in India is contemplating on the meaning of relevant Christian witnessing in the midst of new crises that we confront every day in our country. An deeper engagement with the crises of our times, hence, is a pre-requisite for our missiological discourses on witnessing Christ relevantly today. Kashmir is literally burning, and in order to bring p...

World Environmental Day (WED) June 05th 2010 World Environment Day (WED) which is observed on 5th of June every year, is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment, societal attention and public commitment. To the faith-oriented it also presents an opportunity to search for faith responses. The theme for this year is, Many Species: One Planet, One Future. It is estimated that 5 million to 100 million species inhabit this wonderful planet. Scientists have managed to identify only about 2 million species so far. In God’s creation human race is one in several million species that live in this planet. We do not have adequate information about the other species with which we share this earth, many of whom disappear even before they are discovered. A total of 17,291 species are known to be threatened with extinction – from little-known plants and insects to charismatic birds and mammals. Such extinctions are on account of our present approach to development, we have caused the cleari...

EDINBURGH 2010: Call to Confess and Commorate The Centenary of the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh 1910, for many, is a suggestive moment for seeking direction for Christian mission in the 21st century. While looking forward to 2010 Centenary conference It is important to register, refer and recall the idea and proposal for the International Missionary Conference was suggested from India by the father of the Modern Mission movement. Rev. Dr. William Carry, the first Baptist missionary in Sri Rampur, West Bengal. The idea of a great international conference to discern the next steps for worldwide Christian mission is by no means the sole prerogative of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference . According to John R Mott, the Conference Chairman “Edinburgh 1910 is the most notable gathering in the interest of the worldwide expansion of Christianity ever held, not only in missionary annals but in all Christian annals.” Scott LaTourette’s says that “The World Missionary ...