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Story of a Pioneer of Indian Theology of
Liberation
The
Person
In our
interactions with Kutti Revathi during the Theological Sypomsium, one of the
questions subtly surveyed her scholarly foundations. Revathi wittingly
responded, I quote from my memory “we are not academicians but activists
thinking in the field.” Far from escaping scholarly research, she affirmed that
she was not an armchair thinker or academician but an activist-thinker.
Somewhat similar to this type is Sebastian Kappan (1924-1993), a Jesuit Indian
Priest activist-theologian from Kerala. From what I gather from his close
associates, I picture Kappen to be an independent, critical, unsparing, marxist,
Christian, social-activist theologian. Quite approvingly, Felix Wilfred phrases
him as ‘very much admired at the same time a controverted theologian’. All
through his life, Kappen remained engaged in different streams of liberation in
our country and with several groups of social activists. Therefore, with his
style/method and thought, he became a milestone in the evolution of the Indian
Christian theology of liberation. He was a bilingual theologian literarily
active in both Malayalam and Tamil. Some of his famous works are Jesus and Freedom (Orbis, NY, 1977), Jesus and Cultural Revolution: An Asian
Perspective (Bombay, 1983). Generally, scholars/theologians esteem Kappen
for his efforts to translate Christianity relevant to the world of poor and
marginalized through writings and social action.
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Thought:
Theology of Liberation
In
contrast to those who cone human liberation as a secular struggle carefully
undoing it from theology, Kappen, founded on the Asian wisdom and Sraminik traditions (Jainism, Buddhism etc.),
put liberation as the ultimate concern of theology. Liberation here signifies
the total (secular/material and sacred/spiritual) wellbeing of the human
person. Hence he envisaged theology as a collaborative project between
different traditions (religions and Ideologies) including secular traditions
everyone for that matter who worked for the emancipation of the marginalized.
He defined it as a critical reflection on the ‘historical self-manifestation of
the Divine as gift-call and on the human response to it’.[1]
Wilfred mentions that Kappen made a conscious choice of the term divine than god to stay away from prejudices and to incorporate secular
atheistic traditions in the project of emancipation – theology.
Kappen
held that divine manifested in and through history. In other words, we
continually encounter divine in the events that go on in and around us day
after day. He proposed two modes of encounter with the mystery: one as a gift and another as a call. It becomes a gift in moments of joy, love, friendship, well being, peace and
similar events that enhance the integral growth of individual, society and
environment. On the other hand in the face of injustices, distinction,
exploitation and abuses we experience the mystery as extending a mandatory
invitation, a call, to become agents
of transformation. He named this continuous dynamics of divine revelation and
human response in the heart of history as theandric
praxis. This way everyone’s life would be a fiat, instruments for the
establishment of the kingdom of God.
Theology,
for Kappen, is the discipline that facilitates these encounters and critically
reflects to strip off the prejudices that hinder an authentic divine encounter,
a true discernment of the divine will in the daily living. We revise the
definition, “Theology is a critical reflection on the ‘historical
self-manifestation of the Divine as gift-call and on the human response to
it’.” He called this as the foundational
theology of liberation. Thus, he evolved an Indian version of the liberation
theology. It was comparatively broader that the Latin American sensitive to the
religio-cultural dimension and the pluralistic context of India.
Kappen
envisioned Christian theology of liberation within the broader framework of the
foundational theology and our commitment as one among the others who have
undertaken this project. In the Indian context, he noted that such humility was
inevitable as we were a minority in the country. With his invitations for
collaborations, Kappen stood out as offering a realistic solution to the
problem of liberation in India. He
described Christian theology of liberation as theandric process founded on
Jesus and his Gospel; but that was one side of the story. According to him, it
implied a radical shift from a religion centered on the scripture and tradition
of a distant past looking forward to the future reward to one that made the
presence of the mystery/divine, tangible in the joys and struggles of the
people.
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Christianity
in India
Kappen
contended the irrelevance of Christianity as a religion similar to Hinduism
with all its code, creed, cult and community. I quote,
Further the type of religiosity
it (Christianity) represents dovetails, in the main, with that of popular
Hinduism. Both religions hold fast the distinction between the pure and impure,
cult, priesthood, the veneration of image and pietistic devotions. The figure
of Christ who had already taken on features of a hellenistic God, became
further assimilated to the gods of Hinduism. He has lost much of his uniqueness
and has consequently little now to give to India. [2]
He held
that India never needed another god in Jesus Christ, which it possessed in great
numbers, instead Jesus the prophet of Nazareth and his teachings. Quite
different from the debates of other Indian Christian theologians, he likened
Christianity to form part of the ethical religious traditions beginning from
Mahavira, Buddha, and Medieval Bhaktas to the contemporary secular humanitarian
traditions. He writes, “What I claim therefore is not the superiority of
Christianity over the Indian religious traditions, but the superiority of the
humanizing religiosity of the Buddha, the radical Bhaktas and Jesus over the
magico-ritualistic religiosity of orthodox Hinduism and the depropheticised
religiosity of tradition-based Christianity”.[3]
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Marxism
Kappen
acknowledged the contribution of Marxism in the development of his interests
for the poor and the marginalized and his critical thinking. However, he
extended the Marxian social analysis to the religio-cultural dimensions of
human being to effect a total liberation of the human person who is more than
mere economic being.
Conclusion
In the
history of Indian Christian theology Kappen is irresistible as he takes
Christianity to the adulthood of its presence in India. He evoked the urgency
to initiate and join efforts to work for the well being of the poor and
marginalized and to break every structure of injustice in the society. While he
apparently sounds irrational in his rejection of Christianity as a religion and
Jesus as God, in the context of the full picture of his theology of liberation
and the history of religious traditions of India, it is courageous work to
explore the possibilities of Christianity’s collaboration with non-theistic
religious traditions of India which rose as a revolt to the mainstream
Brahminic ritualistic religious traditions. It is in this bargain his choice
for the historical Jesus than the mystical Christ would make sense. In his we
find a good blending of Marxism, Christianity and Indian religious traditions.
Unlike other theologians/activists who belonged to either of these traditions,
Wilfred notes that Kappen’s life manifested that he belonged to the marginalized
and the downtrodden Indian masses. His life was music of liberation that
soothed the ears of the poor, while discomforting the complacent people.
[1]
S. Kappen, Liberation Theology and
Marxism (Puntamba: Asha Kendra, 1986) 42 as cited in Felix Wilfred, Beyond Settled Foundations (Chennai:
University of Madras, 1993) 140.
[2]
S. Kappen, Jesus and Cultural Revolution:
An Asian Perspective (Mumbai: Build, 1983) 53 as cited in Wilfred, 143.
[3]
Kappen, Jesus and Cultural Revolution: An
Asian Perspective, 70-71 as cited
in Wilfred, 144.
