The Indian Church Opening to the World (original) (raw)
2018, Pathways for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue
In the first Christian centuries as the Church spread across Europe and North Africa, it implanted itself in various contexts and cultures integrating itself with them. This gave birth to various national churches and liturgically produced several different rites like the Byzantine, Syrian, Latin, Armenian, Coptic, Slavic and so on. In the colonial period a different model prevailed: the Church was transplanted in the new territories with Roman/Latin structures and rituals. This often resulted in religious dualism: an official religion standing side by side with a popular religion, with people integrating their own traditional social and ritual action with the elements of the official religion. We can see this even nowadays in Asia, Africa, Latin America and even in Europe in the rural areas. In this chapter, I will address these dynamics in the Indian context. One can speak of an opening of the Church to the world only after the Church recognizes the otherness of the people with regard to their culture-and even their religiosity-and creatively interacts with them in an ongoing manner. I will briefly sketch some historical developments leading up to the Second Vatican Council, before discussing several ways, including new understandings of mission, dialogue and cultural transformation, in which Indian Christians today express their openness to the world.
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