THIS IS NOT JUST A THOUGHT, BUT A WONDERFUL
THOUGHT WORTH SHARING WITH OTHERS.
The Rain
It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was
well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.
While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.
The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health.
He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.
As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.
He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.
I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'
He smiled as he patted my hand and said,
'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'
I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, 'That is the kind of love I want in my life.'
True love is neither physical, nor romantic.
True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.
With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one that comes along that has an important message. This one I thought I could share with you.
The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.
I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did.
Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
But how to dance in the rain.
We are all getting Older........
Tomorrow may be our turn.
Enjoy life now--it has an expiration date!!!
I believe that friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Sir Mark Tully's Samatha Memorial lecture
HOW CERTAIN SHOULD WE BE, THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM
The ninth Rev. Dr. Stanley Samartha Memorial Lecture delivered by Sir Mark Tully,
on 7th October, 2010 at the Rotary House of Friendship, Bangalore, organised by the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)
Thank you very much for that very kind introduction. It’s a great honour to be here, but I’d say that this lecture for me is something more than an honour it’s a trial as well, because I’m speaking here in honour of a great theologian. I am a person who read theology rather inadequately and rather lazily when I was at Cambridge; and when I was asked to give a series of lectures, known as the Teape Lectures I had to start the first one by saying very firmly that I am a journalist and not as all the previous lecturers were, and as Dr Stanley Samartha undoubtedly was, a scholar.
I want to speak to you from my experience rather than from any very deep reading and I hope you will forgive me for doing that.
It seems to me that I can start off by making a rather general point. The theology that searches for pluralism is very much a theology in the Indian tradition. I was once asked to organise a meeting of people of different faiths to meet Prince Charles when he came to India, and one of those who came was Father Samuel Ryan, a Jesuit from Delhi. He told Prince Charles that it was because of the Indian tradition of pluralism and Indian Christian pluralist theology that the Roman Catholic Church had made it clear it no longer maintained there was no salvation outside the church. That is evidence of the penetration of pluralism in Indian Christianity, and it’s a reflection I believe of the pluralist nature of Indian culture. I am a firm believer that we need religious variety, and I am very interested to learn that Stanley Samartha rejoiced in variety. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this in the presence of people of the Church of South India which is a great example of oecumenicity, but I personally believe that rather than trying to jam all our churches together we should rejoice in the variety of the Christian experience and the variety of church traditions. .
To me there are two things about religion which we sometimes forget. One is that to some extent it’s culturally specific. In other words, there is a mix between religion creating a culture, and that culture having a life of its own which impacts on religion. To demonstrate that I love this story about a very orthodox young missionary priest who went to Africa. When he got there he was shocked because he found in his church that every day a group of women would come and sit around the statue of the Virgin Mary. They would talk and pray to her, and talk amongst themselves. Of course he was very concerned about this, because ,as you know the Roman Catholic church is very keen not to give the impression that the Virgin Mary is God, or equal to Jesus, or anything like that. So he hid behind the high altar one day and said in a loud voice “I am Jesus and you should be talking to me and not to Mary.” One of the women shouted back at him "Shut up, we are talking to your mom!" (Laughter) This is just one little illustration.
The other thing about religion I feel is important in the context of pluralism is that it’s always personal. There are no two Christians, no two Hindus, no two Muslims, who actually believe and behave and do everything in exactly the same way. And this is hugely true, of India. There’s a basic pluralistic culture in this country. Now, I know from experience what I am going to say now will be misinterpreted. but I think it’s justified, although controversial, to say that this Indian culture is deeply influenced by religion in this country. I’d prefer to say influenced by the development of Hinduism, although I know all about the controversies over that word. What has come about in this country is a faith which is highly individualistic, in other words it accommodates the fact I have mentioned, the fact that each person’s religion is in someway personal. But at the same time this faith is part of great historic traditions which have bound people together in common beliefs and forms of worship. Now, there are many arguments about the history of religion in this country. but the fundamental fact still remains that India has been a historic home to all great religions in the world. Of course there has been differences as there have been problems. But if you look at India today, I would ask you to compare it with the West and see the difference. See the muddle which is being created in the West, over religious pluralism, over the presence of Muslims in the West, and see India where 15 per cent of the population is Muslim, They are perfectly free to worship, no one is going to tell any woman she is not allowed to wear a burqa, or anything like that. And of course, you know, you have a substantial Christian population. This is not a recent phenomenon. It’s a historic fact that India has provided a home down the centuries for almost every religion in the world. So, I think this pluralism and this ability to recognise the individual element in your religion is culturally specific to India.
So, why is pluralism important today? Well, there are three reasons I’d give you. The first is of course the obvious one that if we don’t have understanding between religions we tend to have fights and differences can, as we see today degenerate into terrorism. But even in disputes that involve religion, it’s almost always wrong to blame religion entirely. There are usually economic, political and often ethnic reasons involved in those disputes. Nevertheless, they are fought in the name of religion..
The second reason of course is when these disputes become ugly, they defame religion. They give religion a bad name. One of the most absurd things said by the secular fundamentalist Richard Dawkins is that if there was no religion, there’d be no wars. The fact that some people are prepared to accept nonsense like that indicates the damage these disputes inflict on religion.
The third reason is in my view, is that not accepting that there are different ways to God is a hugely missed opportunity to demonstrate the validity of belief in God. The theologian we are honouring today searched for a way to demonstrate that in different cultures at different times in the history of the world in different languages, human beings have had experiences and held beliefs with a great deal in common. In other words we should search for the commonality in religions in order, in my view, to demonstrate that the religious urge is a common urge to humanity. That, if you’d like to put it crudely, is a selling point for religion. So, on the one hand you have religion defamed when religious pluralism is not practiced, on the other hand, you have evidence that can make you more secure in your faith and also able to justify it in discussions with others when you are pluralistic.
Now for Christianity, there are of course, difficulties in pluralism. One of the obvious difficulties in pluralism is of course is Christianity’s exclusiveness. Jesus’ reported statement in St John’s gospel that he is “the way the truth and life” has traditionally been taken to mean that he is the only way. It’s very interesting that perhaps one of the most outstanding Christian books on religious pluralism was written by a Belgian Jesuit who spent many years in India and was deeply influenced by the culture and religions of India, Father Jacques Dupuis. His book is called Toward A Christian Theology of religious Pluralism. Dupuis said that until recently theology often seemed in Christian circles to belong to Christianity as its exclusive property. And, in Western Christianity, first world theology, seemed to have the monopoly. Certainly when I did my theology in Cambridge, we didn’t learn about any other religion..
So Christianity not only made this exclusive claim to truth but also tended in its theology to be narrowly confined to the tradition of one part of the world. Even within that tradition because we couldn’t accept pluralism we have this long history of fighting each other. I am thankful to say things have changed. When I went to university I had many Roman Catholic friends, but they would not come to an Anglican service with me. In fact some of them were even reluctant to go into an Anglican church. Now that has changed totally. I was in Britain for the very recent visit by the Pope and one of the most touching aspects of this was the obvious friendship, despite their theological differences, between the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Pope not only celebrated Mass in the Roman Catholic Westminister cathedral, he also took part in a special service in the Anglican Westminster Abbey.
So Christians are making what I would argue is progress. But still we do have this problem of a theology which traditionally says Christianity is the way to God. A few years ago, I had the privilege of taking the Bishop of Kingston in South London to meet a friend of mine, Maulana Wahiduddin, who is a great Islamic scholar. The bishop said to the Maulana that in his view the need for a Christian theology of pluralism was the major problem facing twenty first century theologians. The Maulana said “I have an answer to that. I believe Islam is the true way but I respect other religions.” And he certainly expresses his respect in all he writes and all he says.
But without wanting to show disrespect to the Maulana, I think the Mahatma was more profound, because he went one step further. He not only respected all religions, but believed all religions can and should learn from each other. The Mahatma said “All faiths constitute a revelation of truth but all are imperfect and liable to error. Reverence to other faiths need not blind us to their thoughts, we must be keenly alive to the defects of our own faiths also. Yet we must try to overcome these defects.” And then e Mahatma went on to say, “looking at all religions with an equal eye we should not only hesitate but it’s our duty to blend into our faiths every acceptable feature of other faiths.” That I think is a more profound way of looking at religious pluralism.
Jacque Depuis said that Hindu Vedanta may help Christians purify and deepen their faith in the divine mystery. And mystery is in some ways, is the key to this problem. Because what does mystery say? Mystery means we are talking about something mysterious. We are talking about something that we cannot write up on a blackboard and say this is who God is and this is what religion is etc etc. As Christians, those of you who are Christians, you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But I bet, if you put five of you together all of you will have different interpretations of what Son of God means..
In the same way, with all other religions, if we remember that word mystery, then we will realise that all our beliefs are to some extent open to questioning. We do not fully understand. That great metaphysical poet George Herbert wrote a wonderful poem called Prayer, which ended with the words , “something understood”. In other words our prayers, our religious beliefs can never be absolute certainties, we will always only grasp part of the full mystery of God.
Here I would like to talk about the uncertainty of certainty, and this again is very Indian. If we believe in the uncertainty of certainty we will not take our certainties too far, and they will not get out of balance. We will realise that we will have to be open minded, look at our certainties and make sure we are maintaining our balance. You can put it very crudely that people can be too religious, people can be too certain about their faiths. And this suspicion of certainties is something which is fundamental to Indian philosophy as I understand it. It was very well put by a great scholar R C Zaehner who held the same chair at Oxford as Radhakrishnan did. Zaehner said “Hindus do not think of religious truths in dogmatic terms.” In other words, they don’t believe in certainties that can’t be questioned. According to Zaehner Hindus say, “dogmas can’t be eternal, only the transitory distorting images of truth that transcends not only them but all verbal definitions.” This is the mystery, something that transcends all verbal definitions. And then Zaehner goes on to say, “for the passio n for dogmatic certainty that has racked the religions of Semitic origins, from Judaism itself through Christianity and Islam to Marxsm they feel nothing but shocked incomprehension.”
I would put what I call Scientism in the same bracket as Marxism. By scientism I mean, the confident belief that everything can be answered by science and scientific answers are the only answers. It’s a creed which maintains that rationalism is the sole method of perception. I hasten to add here that I am not therefore saying religion can ignore reason or rationalism. Scientism is a dogmatic certainty, just as much as the belief that Jesus is the one and only one way to God is a dogmatic certainty. It’s very important, I think, to recognize that people like Richard Dawkins who popularise scientism are fundamentalists, just much as some religious people are.
By believing in Christian certainties the church has made classic blunders. It’s all right for the church to be suspicious about scientism but it has to respect scientific findings, and see how they relate to its beliefs. If it respects the fact that it’s dealing with a mystery the Church will not get involved in arguments with science which lead to blunders like the blunder over Galileo. In my view not being sufficientl,y open to scientific discoveries is producing problems at least some parts of the church are facing today. The Roman Catholic Church is deeply concerned about moral relativity, but on the other hand if we do not have an element of moral relativity we get stuck in a rut. That is why is the Christian faith fell behind in its understanding of the place of women in society in my view and fell behind in its understandi8ng of the way we should regard homosexuality as well. This is because Churches held on to outdated certainties instead of being prepared to move with the times.
I talked to you about balance. And obviously, there’s a need for balance here. If we respect the mystery, if we respect what science is saying to us, if we respect what the best of secularism is saying to us, and I firmly believe in secularism provided it’s the secularism, that leaves space for everyone, and has a genuine respect for religious belief as well as genuine respect for those who do not believe, we will be balanced. . But, secularism too has to be held in balance. The same is true for relativism. If we do not respect the need for being open to change, for a certain amount of relativism, then we get stuck in the past. On the other hand we have to be very careful that relativism doesn’t result in diluting traditional historic faith, and all that faith has stood for, so much that it loses its meaning. . If we become too relativist we will find that faith gradually withers away. There should be some ground on which we stand. And this is a matter therefore as I said of the Indian tradition of balance, the balance between the need to have an open mind, and the need to stand on some firm ground.
There are two other dangers I believe to taking relativism too far in being too open to change. One danger is what I call Pick and Mix Religion. That is when we say, “I don’t like this bit of that, and I do like that bit of that, and anyhow I am very clever and I can make it all up for myself. Therefore I am very happy to take a bit from Hinduism a bit from Islam, a bit from Christianity and mix it as I feel suits me, or I am very happy to take this from Christianity and drop the rest of it.
The other danger of relativism is its tendency to undermine all tradition. Then you find yourself saying “I don’t have any need for any institutional religion at all”. Now I know that institutional religion has problems. The church is fallible, the church has made mistakes. The church does get things wrong. But on the other hand it seems to me that unless your religious faith is rooted in the past, rooted in tradition, then in some ways it become rootless and over-personalised. Here I would like to come back to Gandhi and his famous saying that he wanted the windows of his house to be open to winds blowing from all quarters of the world, but he didn’t want to be blown off his feet. That is one of the most profound views of religious pluralism that I have ever come across.
Before I sum up, I want to give three health warnings. The first is that what ever I have said today does not mean that I am turning the whole western missionary argument on its head and, saying that Hinduism is the only valid religion.. There is a common problem in communication – how do you , prevent an audience, listeners, viewers, or readers seeing issues in black and white. So if I say something in favour of Hinduism many will take it to mean that I am opposed to every other religion, or at the least that I regard it as superior to any other religion.
There is a strange version of this black and white thinking in India. It is the type of secularism which has no place for Hinduism, and which sees anyone who says anything about that religion as a supporter of the RSS Hindu nationalism. In other words for those secularists either you are wholly white and you totally support their anti-religious point of view or you are wholly black in their eyes and support an organisation they condemn as communal. Only today I was interviewed by a journalist who said to me you have a reputation of being right-wing. When I asked what she meant by right wing she replied, “ RSS and all that.’ So I said to her, “I have written a book called India’s Unending Journey, in which I have tried to express my respect for Hinduism, as well as other religions. At the same time I made the limits of that respect absolutely clear, and criticised the RSS family. It isn’t the first time I have written or spoken like that. But because of the existence of what I’d call blind secularism in this country, and it does not include all secularists of course, expressing my appreciation of Hinduism, has, you tell me, labelled me RSS.” If you in the audience have been listening to what I have said, you will understand my understanding of Hinduism is very different to the dogmatic RSS school of Hinduism. My speech has been an appreciation of an undogmatic religion. So, that’s the second health warning that I wanted to give.
The third health warning I’d like to give is this. I may have trained to become a priest, but I only survived through two terms in the seminary before I was told by the bishop that because I liked drinking beer rather a lot, my place was in the public house rather than in the pulpit. So I hope you do not think that I have preached to you. I didn’t come here to preach. I came here to express in a sense my faith in religious pluralism. And the last thing I came to do was to preach to Hindus, because of course I have no right to do that. I have merely tried to explain to you why I see religious pluralism as so important., and how I believe the Indian tradition, the tradition of openness, the undogmatic tradition, can be the tradition that takes us down that road. As I said you already have great Indian theologians, or theologians who have been much influenced by India who are taking us down that road. There’s another person I mentioned to you, Julius Lipner who teaches Sanskrit at Cambridge, and has written a wonderful book on Hinduism. He calls himself a Catholic Hindu or Hindu Catholic depending which way he feels like saying it.
So Christian theology is on the move, and it up to all of us who are Christians to welcome that. It’s also very important that all of those who are Hindus, and who suspect Christianity of being an exclusive religion that wants to convert everyone, should realise there is a big body of Christians who want to have a dialogue. There is Christian theology to support those Christians too. But dialogue after all, is like clapping. It does require two hands. So in a sense, my appeal is to Hindus, Muslims and Christians to dialogue with each other and to learn from each other.
To sum up, the principle of religious pluralism is accepting that in religion we are dealing with a mystery, which means claims to absolute truth are inevitably open to question. If there is a doctrine, it has to develop. For doctrine to develop we shouldn’t just live with other religions but learn from them. As Jacques Dupuis said dialogue is the necessary foundation of a theology of religions. And that’s also of course what the great theologian we are celebrating today said.
Thank you all very much.
Sir Mar Tully
The ninth Rev. Dr. Stanley Samartha Memorial Lecture delivered by Sir Mark Tully,
on 7th October, 2010 at the Rotary House of Friendship, Bangalore, organised by the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)
Thank you very much for that very kind introduction. It’s a great honour to be here, but I’d say that this lecture for me is something more than an honour it’s a trial as well, because I’m speaking here in honour of a great theologian. I am a person who read theology rather inadequately and rather lazily when I was at Cambridge; and when I was asked to give a series of lectures, known as the Teape Lectures I had to start the first one by saying very firmly that I am a journalist and not as all the previous lecturers were, and as Dr Stanley Samartha undoubtedly was, a scholar.
I want to speak to you from my experience rather than from any very deep reading and I hope you will forgive me for doing that.
It seems to me that I can start off by making a rather general point. The theology that searches for pluralism is very much a theology in the Indian tradition. I was once asked to organise a meeting of people of different faiths to meet Prince Charles when he came to India, and one of those who came was Father Samuel Ryan, a Jesuit from Delhi. He told Prince Charles that it was because of the Indian tradition of pluralism and Indian Christian pluralist theology that the Roman Catholic Church had made it clear it no longer maintained there was no salvation outside the church. That is evidence of the penetration of pluralism in Indian Christianity, and it’s a reflection I believe of the pluralist nature of Indian culture. I am a firm believer that we need religious variety, and I am very interested to learn that Stanley Samartha rejoiced in variety. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this in the presence of people of the Church of South India which is a great example of oecumenicity, but I personally believe that rather than trying to jam all our churches together we should rejoice in the variety of the Christian experience and the variety of church traditions. .
To me there are two things about religion which we sometimes forget. One is that to some extent it’s culturally specific. In other words, there is a mix between religion creating a culture, and that culture having a life of its own which impacts on religion. To demonstrate that I love this story about a very orthodox young missionary priest who went to Africa. When he got there he was shocked because he found in his church that every day a group of women would come and sit around the statue of the Virgin Mary. They would talk and pray to her, and talk amongst themselves. Of course he was very concerned about this, because ,as you know the Roman Catholic church is very keen not to give the impression that the Virgin Mary is God, or equal to Jesus, or anything like that. So he hid behind the high altar one day and said in a loud voice “I am Jesus and you should be talking to me and not to Mary.” One of the women shouted back at him "Shut up, we are talking to your mom!" (Laughter) This is just one little illustration.
The other thing about religion I feel is important in the context of pluralism is that it’s always personal. There are no two Christians, no two Hindus, no two Muslims, who actually believe and behave and do everything in exactly the same way. And this is hugely true, of India. There’s a basic pluralistic culture in this country. Now, I know from experience what I am going to say now will be misinterpreted. but I think it’s justified, although controversial, to say that this Indian culture is deeply influenced by religion in this country. I’d prefer to say influenced by the development of Hinduism, although I know all about the controversies over that word. What has come about in this country is a faith which is highly individualistic, in other words it accommodates the fact I have mentioned, the fact that each person’s religion is in someway personal. But at the same time this faith is part of great historic traditions which have bound people together in common beliefs and forms of worship. Now, there are many arguments about the history of religion in this country. but the fundamental fact still remains that India has been a historic home to all great religions in the world. Of course there has been differences as there have been problems. But if you look at India today, I would ask you to compare it with the West and see the difference. See the muddle which is being created in the West, over religious pluralism, over the presence of Muslims in the West, and see India where 15 per cent of the population is Muslim, They are perfectly free to worship, no one is going to tell any woman she is not allowed to wear a burqa, or anything like that. And of course, you know, you have a substantial Christian population. This is not a recent phenomenon. It’s a historic fact that India has provided a home down the centuries for almost every religion in the world. So, I think this pluralism and this ability to recognise the individual element in your religion is culturally specific to India.
So, why is pluralism important today? Well, there are three reasons I’d give you. The first is of course the obvious one that if we don’t have understanding between religions we tend to have fights and differences can, as we see today degenerate into terrorism. But even in disputes that involve religion, it’s almost always wrong to blame religion entirely. There are usually economic, political and often ethnic reasons involved in those disputes. Nevertheless, they are fought in the name of religion..
The second reason of course is when these disputes become ugly, they defame religion. They give religion a bad name. One of the most absurd things said by the secular fundamentalist Richard Dawkins is that if there was no religion, there’d be no wars. The fact that some people are prepared to accept nonsense like that indicates the damage these disputes inflict on religion.
The third reason is in my view, is that not accepting that there are different ways to God is a hugely missed opportunity to demonstrate the validity of belief in God. The theologian we are honouring today searched for a way to demonstrate that in different cultures at different times in the history of the world in different languages, human beings have had experiences and held beliefs with a great deal in common. In other words we should search for the commonality in religions in order, in my view, to demonstrate that the religious urge is a common urge to humanity. That, if you’d like to put it crudely, is a selling point for religion. So, on the one hand you have religion defamed when religious pluralism is not practiced, on the other hand, you have evidence that can make you more secure in your faith and also able to justify it in discussions with others when you are pluralistic.
Now for Christianity, there are of course, difficulties in pluralism. One of the obvious difficulties in pluralism is of course is Christianity’s exclusiveness. Jesus’ reported statement in St John’s gospel that he is “the way the truth and life” has traditionally been taken to mean that he is the only way. It’s very interesting that perhaps one of the most outstanding Christian books on religious pluralism was written by a Belgian Jesuit who spent many years in India and was deeply influenced by the culture and religions of India, Father Jacques Dupuis. His book is called Toward A Christian Theology of religious Pluralism. Dupuis said that until recently theology often seemed in Christian circles to belong to Christianity as its exclusive property. And, in Western Christianity, first world theology, seemed to have the monopoly. Certainly when I did my theology in Cambridge, we didn’t learn about any other religion..
So Christianity not only made this exclusive claim to truth but also tended in its theology to be narrowly confined to the tradition of one part of the world. Even within that tradition because we couldn’t accept pluralism we have this long history of fighting each other. I am thankful to say things have changed. When I went to university I had many Roman Catholic friends, but they would not come to an Anglican service with me. In fact some of them were even reluctant to go into an Anglican church. Now that has changed totally. I was in Britain for the very recent visit by the Pope and one of the most touching aspects of this was the obvious friendship, despite their theological differences, between the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Pope not only celebrated Mass in the Roman Catholic Westminister cathedral, he also took part in a special service in the Anglican Westminster Abbey.
So Christians are making what I would argue is progress. But still we do have this problem of a theology which traditionally says Christianity is the way to God. A few years ago, I had the privilege of taking the Bishop of Kingston in South London to meet a friend of mine, Maulana Wahiduddin, who is a great Islamic scholar. The bishop said to the Maulana that in his view the need for a Christian theology of pluralism was the major problem facing twenty first century theologians. The Maulana said “I have an answer to that. I believe Islam is the true way but I respect other religions.” And he certainly expresses his respect in all he writes and all he says.
But without wanting to show disrespect to the Maulana, I think the Mahatma was more profound, because he went one step further. He not only respected all religions, but believed all religions can and should learn from each other. The Mahatma said “All faiths constitute a revelation of truth but all are imperfect and liable to error. Reverence to other faiths need not blind us to their thoughts, we must be keenly alive to the defects of our own faiths also. Yet we must try to overcome these defects.” And then e Mahatma went on to say, “looking at all religions with an equal eye we should not only hesitate but it’s our duty to blend into our faiths every acceptable feature of other faiths.” That I think is a more profound way of looking at religious pluralism.
Jacque Depuis said that Hindu Vedanta may help Christians purify and deepen their faith in the divine mystery. And mystery is in some ways, is the key to this problem. Because what does mystery say? Mystery means we are talking about something mysterious. We are talking about something that we cannot write up on a blackboard and say this is who God is and this is what religion is etc etc. As Christians, those of you who are Christians, you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But I bet, if you put five of you together all of you will have different interpretations of what Son of God means..
In the same way, with all other religions, if we remember that word mystery, then we will realise that all our beliefs are to some extent open to questioning. We do not fully understand. That great metaphysical poet George Herbert wrote a wonderful poem called Prayer, which ended with the words , “something understood”. In other words our prayers, our religious beliefs can never be absolute certainties, we will always only grasp part of the full mystery of God.
Here I would like to talk about the uncertainty of certainty, and this again is very Indian. If we believe in the uncertainty of certainty we will not take our certainties too far, and they will not get out of balance. We will realise that we will have to be open minded, look at our certainties and make sure we are maintaining our balance. You can put it very crudely that people can be too religious, people can be too certain about their faiths. And this suspicion of certainties is something which is fundamental to Indian philosophy as I understand it. It was very well put by a great scholar R C Zaehner who held the same chair at Oxford as Radhakrishnan did. Zaehner said “Hindus do not think of religious truths in dogmatic terms.” In other words, they don’t believe in certainties that can’t be questioned. According to Zaehner Hindus say, “dogmas can’t be eternal, only the transitory distorting images of truth that transcends not only them but all verbal definitions.” This is the mystery, something that transcends all verbal definitions. And then Zaehner goes on to say, “for the passio n for dogmatic certainty that has racked the religions of Semitic origins, from Judaism itself through Christianity and Islam to Marxsm they feel nothing but shocked incomprehension.”
I would put what I call Scientism in the same bracket as Marxism. By scientism I mean, the confident belief that everything can be answered by science and scientific answers are the only answers. It’s a creed which maintains that rationalism is the sole method of perception. I hasten to add here that I am not therefore saying religion can ignore reason or rationalism. Scientism is a dogmatic certainty, just as much as the belief that Jesus is the one and only one way to God is a dogmatic certainty. It’s very important, I think, to recognize that people like Richard Dawkins who popularise scientism are fundamentalists, just much as some religious people are.
By believing in Christian certainties the church has made classic blunders. It’s all right for the church to be suspicious about scientism but it has to respect scientific findings, and see how they relate to its beliefs. If it respects the fact that it’s dealing with a mystery the Church will not get involved in arguments with science which lead to blunders like the blunder over Galileo. In my view not being sufficientl,y open to scientific discoveries is producing problems at least some parts of the church are facing today. The Roman Catholic Church is deeply concerned about moral relativity, but on the other hand if we do not have an element of moral relativity we get stuck in a rut. That is why is the Christian faith fell behind in its understanding of the place of women in society in my view and fell behind in its understandi8ng of the way we should regard homosexuality as well. This is because Churches held on to outdated certainties instead of being prepared to move with the times.
I talked to you about balance. And obviously, there’s a need for balance here. If we respect the mystery, if we respect what science is saying to us, if we respect what the best of secularism is saying to us, and I firmly believe in secularism provided it’s the secularism, that leaves space for everyone, and has a genuine respect for religious belief as well as genuine respect for those who do not believe, we will be balanced. . But, secularism too has to be held in balance. The same is true for relativism. If we do not respect the need for being open to change, for a certain amount of relativism, then we get stuck in the past. On the other hand we have to be very careful that relativism doesn’t result in diluting traditional historic faith, and all that faith has stood for, so much that it loses its meaning. . If we become too relativist we will find that faith gradually withers away. There should be some ground on which we stand. And this is a matter therefore as I said of the Indian tradition of balance, the balance between the need to have an open mind, and the need to stand on some firm ground.
There are two other dangers I believe to taking relativism too far in being too open to change. One danger is what I call Pick and Mix Religion. That is when we say, “I don’t like this bit of that, and I do like that bit of that, and anyhow I am very clever and I can make it all up for myself. Therefore I am very happy to take a bit from Hinduism a bit from Islam, a bit from Christianity and mix it as I feel suits me, or I am very happy to take this from Christianity and drop the rest of it.
The other danger of relativism is its tendency to undermine all tradition. Then you find yourself saying “I don’t have any need for any institutional religion at all”. Now I know that institutional religion has problems. The church is fallible, the church has made mistakes. The church does get things wrong. But on the other hand it seems to me that unless your religious faith is rooted in the past, rooted in tradition, then in some ways it become rootless and over-personalised. Here I would like to come back to Gandhi and his famous saying that he wanted the windows of his house to be open to winds blowing from all quarters of the world, but he didn’t want to be blown off his feet. That is one of the most profound views of religious pluralism that I have ever come across.
Before I sum up, I want to give three health warnings. The first is that what ever I have said today does not mean that I am turning the whole western missionary argument on its head and, saying that Hinduism is the only valid religion.. There is a common problem in communication – how do you , prevent an audience, listeners, viewers, or readers seeing issues in black and white. So if I say something in favour of Hinduism many will take it to mean that I am opposed to every other religion, or at the least that I regard it as superior to any other religion.
There is a strange version of this black and white thinking in India. It is the type of secularism which has no place for Hinduism, and which sees anyone who says anything about that religion as a supporter of the RSS Hindu nationalism. In other words for those secularists either you are wholly white and you totally support their anti-religious point of view or you are wholly black in their eyes and support an organisation they condemn as communal. Only today I was interviewed by a journalist who said to me you have a reputation of being right-wing. When I asked what she meant by right wing she replied, “ RSS and all that.’ So I said to her, “I have written a book called India’s Unending Journey, in which I have tried to express my respect for Hinduism, as well as other religions. At the same time I made the limits of that respect absolutely clear, and criticised the RSS family. It isn’t the first time I have written or spoken like that. But because of the existence of what I’d call blind secularism in this country, and it does not include all secularists of course, expressing my appreciation of Hinduism, has, you tell me, labelled me RSS.” If you in the audience have been listening to what I have said, you will understand my understanding of Hinduism is very different to the dogmatic RSS school of Hinduism. My speech has been an appreciation of an undogmatic religion. So, that’s the second health warning that I wanted to give.
The third health warning I’d like to give is this. I may have trained to become a priest, but I only survived through two terms in the seminary before I was told by the bishop that because I liked drinking beer rather a lot, my place was in the public house rather than in the pulpit. So I hope you do not think that I have preached to you. I didn’t come here to preach. I came here to express in a sense my faith in religious pluralism. And the last thing I came to do was to preach to Hindus, because of course I have no right to do that. I have merely tried to explain to you why I see religious pluralism as so important., and how I believe the Indian tradition, the tradition of openness, the undogmatic tradition, can be the tradition that takes us down that road. As I said you already have great Indian theologians, or theologians who have been much influenced by India who are taking us down that road. There’s another person I mentioned to you, Julius Lipner who teaches Sanskrit at Cambridge, and has written a wonderful book on Hinduism. He calls himself a Catholic Hindu or Hindu Catholic depending which way he feels like saying it.
So Christian theology is on the move, and it up to all of us who are Christians to welcome that. It’s also very important that all of those who are Hindus, and who suspect Christianity of being an exclusive religion that wants to convert everyone, should realise there is a big body of Christians who want to have a dialogue. There is Christian theology to support those Christians too. But dialogue after all, is like clapping. It does require two hands. So in a sense, my appeal is to Hindus, Muslims and Christians to dialogue with each other and to learn from each other.
To sum up, the principle of religious pluralism is accepting that in religion we are dealing with a mystery, which means claims to absolute truth are inevitably open to question. If there is a doctrine, it has to develop. For doctrine to develop we shouldn’t just live with other religions but learn from them. As Jacques Dupuis said dialogue is the necessary foundation of a theology of religions. And that’s also of course what the great theologian we are celebrating today said.
Thank you all very much.
Sir Mar Tully
Calling Saldanha's bluff
1,000 attacks against Christians
CALLING SALDANHA’S BLUFF
The Compass News has reported:" Christians in Karnataka State are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in the last 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court"
But, "the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has recorded only 72 attacks on Christians in 2009. That represents a decline from 112 attacks the previous year".
It proves that Justice Saldanha’s allegation that there were 1,000 attacks against Christians in Karnataka during the last 500 days is utterly false and outrageous, and the reality easily verifiable. The allegation reflects his shocking ignorance about the real religious situation in Karnataka.
But, people like me who have access to the media and who are still in control of our Betz cells know that all such propaganda is being peddled in the name of a bogey man called Sangh Parivar! If any one is honest in his analysis, the so-called Sangh Parivar, it is certainly the outcome of the actions of the arch conversionists of Christianity and the Jehadi Muslims who challenge the religious sensitivities of the Hindu majority in the State.
Mr. Saldanha should apologize for his irresponsible and unsubstantiated comments; he should also check and recheck facts before deciding to disparage Hindu ‘extremists’ in public. In this day and age, when greater inter religious understanding and mutual respect is the need of the hour, levelling wild accusations that do not have any foundation, in fact, can hardly help matters.
The Sangh Parivar bogey man will disappear if Saldanha and his Catholic Bishops and the Protestant Evangelical leaders will come out openly and affirm that they are taking a solemn pledge in the name of Jesus to abide by the admonition of Jesus not to go miles to make a proselyte. If they can do that, the so-called Sangh Parivar will disappear
India and its tolerance for the diversity of its religious communities were built up over thousands of years. But, it looks like if individuals like Saldanha and his like-minded friends are not checked and their false propaganda nipped in the bud, your children and the children of India's minorities will have no future anywhere near the equity and fairness that they have so far enjoyed despite India being a predominantly Hindu nation.
I marvel and admire the enormous charity and Christ-like compassion of the Hindu majority to accept a Muslim President and a Sikh President and Prime Minister and a foreign-born Christian woman Party Leader of the ruling party. No Islamic or Judeo-Christian country on this world's stage can hold a candle to the wisdom of the majority people of India who truly know what Sanatana Dharma is. It is high time that Mr.Saldanha and his protagonists make an attempt to appreciate that. That would be a true Christian,s humility if that is indeed possible for them to manifest
Is there a true Christian leader among us who can light a candle amidst the encircling gloom spread by the religious conversionists of both fundamental Christianity and Jehadi Islam?
P.N.BENJAMIN
CALLING SALDANHA’S BLUFF
The Compass News has reported:" Christians in Karnataka State are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in the last 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court"
But, "the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has recorded only 72 attacks on Christians in 2009. That represents a decline from 112 attacks the previous year".
It proves that Justice Saldanha’s allegation that there were 1,000 attacks against Christians in Karnataka during the last 500 days is utterly false and outrageous, and the reality easily verifiable. The allegation reflects his shocking ignorance about the real religious situation in Karnataka.
But, people like me who have access to the media and who are still in control of our Betz cells know that all such propaganda is being peddled in the name of a bogey man called Sangh Parivar! If any one is honest in his analysis, the so-called Sangh Parivar, it is certainly the outcome of the actions of the arch conversionists of Christianity and the Jehadi Muslims who challenge the religious sensitivities of the Hindu majority in the State.
Mr. Saldanha should apologize for his irresponsible and unsubstantiated comments; he should also check and recheck facts before deciding to disparage Hindu ‘extremists’ in public. In this day and age, when greater inter religious understanding and mutual respect is the need of the hour, levelling wild accusations that do not have any foundation, in fact, can hardly help matters.
The Sangh Parivar bogey man will disappear if Saldanha and his Catholic Bishops and the Protestant Evangelical leaders will come out openly and affirm that they are taking a solemn pledge in the name of Jesus to abide by the admonition of Jesus not to go miles to make a proselyte. If they can do that, the so-called Sangh Parivar will disappear
India and its tolerance for the diversity of its religious communities were built up over thousands of years. But, it looks like if individuals like Saldanha and his like-minded friends are not checked and their false propaganda nipped in the bud, your children and the children of India's minorities will have no future anywhere near the equity and fairness that they have so far enjoyed despite India being a predominantly Hindu nation.
I marvel and admire the enormous charity and Christ-like compassion of the Hindu majority to accept a Muslim President and a Sikh President and Prime Minister and a foreign-born Christian woman Party Leader of the ruling party. No Islamic or Judeo-Christian country on this world's stage can hold a candle to the wisdom of the majority people of India who truly know what Sanatana Dharma is. It is high time that Mr.Saldanha and his protagonists make an attempt to appreciate that. That would be a true Christian,s humility if that is indeed possible for them to manifest
Is there a true Christian leader among us who can light a candle amidst the encircling gloom spread by the religious conversionists of both fundamental Christianity and Jehadi Islam?
P.N.BENJAMIN
Saturday, January 15, 2011
RADIANT DAWN
Hour before radiant dawn
P N Benjamin
Is the New Year going to be different from the old? Many in this country, millions upon millions, would certainly like to ring out the old and ring in the new with new hopes and expectations.
They would wish the spectre that haunted them in the past – natural calamities, impoverishment, unemployment, fratricidal clashes, caste, communal and terrorist violence – to disappear and not keep company with them in the journey ahead.
But, to begin the New Year with forebodings may sound like a pessimist’s pastime. But we must face it with buoyant self-confidence. And the stout-hearts among us should not lose hope.
Caught in the immediacy of the present we may be agonising over these maladies. But, there is still hope. This may be the darkest hour before the radiant dawn. God has not gone bankrupt. If past is any pointer to the future, there is indeed hope.
There is resilience in our people, which no combination of adversities can kill. Our ideals and principles might appear to be in eclipse. But, eclipses are short-lived.
In an atmosphere surcharged with cynicism on the one hand and despair on the other, we would do well to remind ourselves that our present predicament is not unique. India in the past has seen many a crisis. But, the country lives on. The present ordeal too will pass and the country will again resume the path of progress.
The old value system has collapsed, but already an intense search has begun for new values for the establishment of a new morality in public life. Dedicated men and women, sacrificing comfort and many allurements of the consumerist society are building a new India in the remote villages and hilly regions of this vast land of ours.
There abound in this country today men and women of finest moral qualities, experts in their respective fields seeking to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to serve the community by disseminating it to the public.
They are playing their role in the building of this great country and are sharers, in common with others, in the triumphs and setbacks that come their way. They give us reasons for hope. Hope, where there is despair. Light, where there is darkness. Joy, where there is sadness.
The New Year is upon us. Come, let us make it the hour before that radiant dawn. The present with all its unhappiness and misery will pass.
It is the future that counts and it is that future that beckons to us. Beyond the winter of our discontent and despondence, there is the Spring of Hope!
Deccan Herald, 31/12/2010
P N Benjamin
Is the New Year going to be different from the old? Many in this country, millions upon millions, would certainly like to ring out the old and ring in the new with new hopes and expectations.
They would wish the spectre that haunted them in the past – natural calamities, impoverishment, unemployment, fratricidal clashes, caste, communal and terrorist violence – to disappear and not keep company with them in the journey ahead.
But, to begin the New Year with forebodings may sound like a pessimist’s pastime. But we must face it with buoyant self-confidence. And the stout-hearts among us should not lose hope.
Caught in the immediacy of the present we may be agonising over these maladies. But, there is still hope. This may be the darkest hour before the radiant dawn. God has not gone bankrupt. If past is any pointer to the future, there is indeed hope.
There is resilience in our people, which no combination of adversities can kill. Our ideals and principles might appear to be in eclipse. But, eclipses are short-lived.
In an atmosphere surcharged with cynicism on the one hand and despair on the other, we would do well to remind ourselves that our present predicament is not unique. India in the past has seen many a crisis. But, the country lives on. The present ordeal too will pass and the country will again resume the path of progress.
The old value system has collapsed, but already an intense search has begun for new values for the establishment of a new morality in public life. Dedicated men and women, sacrificing comfort and many allurements of the consumerist society are building a new India in the remote villages and hilly regions of this vast land of ours.
There abound in this country today men and women of finest moral qualities, experts in their respective fields seeking to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to serve the community by disseminating it to the public.
They are playing their role in the building of this great country and are sharers, in common with others, in the triumphs and setbacks that come their way. They give us reasons for hope. Hope, where there is despair. Light, where there is darkness. Joy, where there is sadness.
The New Year is upon us. Come, let us make it the hour before that radiant dawn. The present with all its unhappiness and misery will pass.
It is the future that counts and it is that future that beckons to us. Beyond the winter of our discontent and despondence, there is the Spring of Hope!
Deccan Herald, 31/12/2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
ECLIPSES ARE SHORT-LIVED
WE SHALL OVERCOME
By P.N.BENJAMIN
Deep-rooted fatalism, dumb acceptance of misery, a raging sea of poverty, and a few islands of vulgar luxury, inhabited by a few who behave as if nothing has happened. This is India today. And this should disturb every sensitive Indian today. The time is long past when one could pacify one’s conscience by angry outburst or exposure of a few misdeeds. The situation is far more serious, the prospect grimmer.
The cancers that have grown in the vitals of India are so horrendous that whole limbs may decay and die before some sort of curative effort succeeds in the rest of the system. Men of vision, integrity and merit were at the helm of affairs in the early years of this nation. A different set of qualifications has now become necessary to attain and then retain office. Men and women of merit have disappeared from the higher echelons of power.
The welter of crashing values, the miasma of poverty, the insensate outburst of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, regionalism and casteism: it is chaotic. One is also shocked at the sight of brute force trampling upon the underprivileged, while the elite enjoy all the inevitable accompaniments of permissive morality, addiction to vicarious violence, erotic and narcotic fantasies.
Caught in the immediacy of the present we may be agonizing over these maladies. There is still hope. “There is an ebb and tide in the affairs of man. Things will change”. This may be the darkest hour before the radiant dawn. God has not gone bankrupt. He can make the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame cross the mountain. If past is any pointer to the future, there is indeed hope. There is resilience in our people, which no combination of adversities can kill. Our ideals and principles might appear to be in eclipse. But, eclipses are short-lived.
In an atmosphere surcharged with cynicism on the one hand and despair on the other, we would do well to go out anywhere, amidst the din and bustle of the factories or vast expanses of the fields, in the beehive of busy offices or in the boisterous, crowded campuses – among men, women, the young and the old – you will hear a thousand and one questions why things have gone wrong and what’s the way out of it.
Dedicated men and women, sacrificing comfort and many allurements of the consumerist society are building a new India in the remote villages and hilly regions of this vast land of ours. There abound in this country today men and women of finest moral qualities, experts in their respective fields seeking to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to serve the community by disseminating it to the public. In the prevailing darkness they move about like figures in silhouettes; soon the sun shall arrive and identify them, and among them shall be seen new leaders with a new message of enriched patriotism. A new resolve to make this land of ours a better place to live in. The saga of such endeavours is hardly publicised by the media addicted to the burlesque of present-day politics. But they give us reasons for hope.
The reserves of India are too strong to be contained by the unworthy for too long. Today’s rulers as well as the ones waiting in their wings to be future rulers must necessarily be themselves marginalised sooner or later because they are superficial manifestations of a superficial phenomenon; neither they nor the phenomenon that sustains them have any validity in the general scheme of human progress.
Like wars, seemingly hopeless political cancers help steel a nation’s nerve and accelerate the maturing process. India will then step out of the new into the newer.
P.N.BENJAMIN
501, Indira Residency
Hennur Road
Kalyan Nagar
Bangalore 560 043
Tel. 08025435716
Mob. 09731182308
By P.N.BENJAMIN
Deep-rooted fatalism, dumb acceptance of misery, a raging sea of poverty, and a few islands of vulgar luxury, inhabited by a few who behave as if nothing has happened. This is India today. And this should disturb every sensitive Indian today. The time is long past when one could pacify one’s conscience by angry outburst or exposure of a few misdeeds. The situation is far more serious, the prospect grimmer.
The cancers that have grown in the vitals of India are so horrendous that whole limbs may decay and die before some sort of curative effort succeeds in the rest of the system. Men of vision, integrity and merit were at the helm of affairs in the early years of this nation. A different set of qualifications has now become necessary to attain and then retain office. Men and women of merit have disappeared from the higher echelons of power.
The welter of crashing values, the miasma of poverty, the insensate outburst of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, regionalism and casteism: it is chaotic. One is also shocked at the sight of brute force trampling upon the underprivileged, while the elite enjoy all the inevitable accompaniments of permissive morality, addiction to vicarious violence, erotic and narcotic fantasies.
Caught in the immediacy of the present we may be agonizing over these maladies. There is still hope. “There is an ebb and tide in the affairs of man. Things will change”. This may be the darkest hour before the radiant dawn. God has not gone bankrupt. He can make the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame cross the mountain. If past is any pointer to the future, there is indeed hope. There is resilience in our people, which no combination of adversities can kill. Our ideals and principles might appear to be in eclipse. But, eclipses are short-lived.
In an atmosphere surcharged with cynicism on the one hand and despair on the other, we would do well to go out anywhere, amidst the din and bustle of the factories or vast expanses of the fields, in the beehive of busy offices or in the boisterous, crowded campuses – among men, women, the young and the old – you will hear a thousand and one questions why things have gone wrong and what’s the way out of it.
Dedicated men and women, sacrificing comfort and many allurements of the consumerist society are building a new India in the remote villages and hilly regions of this vast land of ours. There abound in this country today men and women of finest moral qualities, experts in their respective fields seeking to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to serve the community by disseminating it to the public. In the prevailing darkness they move about like figures in silhouettes; soon the sun shall arrive and identify them, and among them shall be seen new leaders with a new message of enriched patriotism. A new resolve to make this land of ours a better place to live in. The saga of such endeavours is hardly publicised by the media addicted to the burlesque of present-day politics. But they give us reasons for hope.
The reserves of India are too strong to be contained by the unworthy for too long. Today’s rulers as well as the ones waiting in their wings to be future rulers must necessarily be themselves marginalised sooner or later because they are superficial manifestations of a superficial phenomenon; neither they nor the phenomenon that sustains them have any validity in the general scheme of human progress.
Like wars, seemingly hopeless political cancers help steel a nation’s nerve and accelerate the maturing process. India will then step out of the new into the newer.
P.N.BENJAMIN
501, Indira Residency
Hennur Road
Kalyan Nagar
Bangalore 560 043
Tel. 08025435716
Mob. 09731182308
Friday, December 24, 2010
Responses to SONG OF MARY
RESPONSES TO SONG OF MARY
Jeykar Jerome
Many thanks for your Christmas message. Frankly I had never thought of the Magnifact in this way. Wishing you and Mrs Benjamin (your only wife !) a Blessed Christmas and God's blessings all through the New Year.
Veena & Jayakar
Dear brother,
Thank you for the engaging article with the usual original look at history and the scripture.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love and regards,
A.P.Durai
Mark Tully
The Song of Mary
From: markandgilly@gmail.com
To: benjaminpn@hotmail.com
Dear Benjamin, Many thanks for your theological Christmas card. Best
wishes to you and your family for Christmas and the New Year. Mark
M.V.Nadkarni
Dear Mr Benjamin,
Thank you for the beautiful song.
I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and happy New year.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
M V Nadkarni
P.N.Seshadri
Thank you Mr. Benjamin.
"sarve janah sukhinO bhavnatu" is the centarl thought that our Indian people are advised to remember always.
THE SONG OF MARY holds the same rich thought and it is universal.
I still remember from a lesson - Sermon on the mount- in my high school (1955) english book - Blessed are the Meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. Also another lesson I remember from Gurudev Tagore's Githanjali " strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart". Sometime I wonder the story of humans world over seems to has some thing else to say - obsession with acquisition and control.
No wonder Che Guvera said "My revolution stems from my love of my people". Society is being constantly and deliberately disturbed by
the modern merchants with impunity. The silent suffering cry of billions - from all forms of life - is deafening.
Regards
Seshadri
Sister Amala
Thanks !!!
Wishing you too a blessed and gracefilled Christmastide and a New Year that fulfills many of our deep desires to see the Reign of God established.
Keep up the good work !!!
Amala
--
Sr. Amala, 101 Maria Kripa Apts II,
12 Davis Rd, St Thomas Tn,
Bangalore 560084 Tel: 080-25470645
Susan Varkey
Dear Benjichayam and Maychechy,
Wish you Happy and Meaningful Christmas( in whichever way you define the word)
How is Nina and family? I had heard about Nina 's hospitalization.Thank God she is okay.
What's Maychechy up to these days?
Here we are fine. We get about 10 days of vacation. Our boys )who are away in University) will come home for Christmas.Looking forward to it
Any trips to Kerala planned?
Love and prayers, Susan.
Dr. David Scot
Dear PNji,
(Apologies for the devanagari script; my computer doesn't have the appropriate script for Kannada.
Hearty thanks for the meditation on the Magnificat, a truly revolutionary document. Indeed this is a fitting cap for the other two documents -- the USCIRF Report on Karnataka and Mark Tully's lecture -- you have sent recently.
All in all, this comes with hearty expectation and hope that the cosmic revolution initiated by the birth of the Christ will come a little closer to fulfilment in the New Year ahead.
Peace and Joy,
David Scotachen
Maher Spurgeon Madras C hristian College
Dear Brother Benjamin
Thank you for your thought provoking Christmas Thought.
Wish you a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year
Spurgeon
Chaplain
Madras Christian College
Rev. Kiran Sebastian
Dear Mr Benjamin,
This comes to thank you for your meaningful and powerful words - as usual they offer much to reflect upon and challenge us to be open to the invasion of the spirit.
Wishing you and your family all the very best for a meaningful and happy Christmas and a new year filled with invigorating hope.
With many greetings and warm good wishes,
Kiran
Rev. Dr. J. Jayakiran Sebastian
7301 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1794
http://www.ltsp.edu/people/jsebastian
FRANCIS Good neighbor
Dear Mr. Benjamin,
Greetings!
An analytical and powerful message on the eve of Christmas!
God bless you and keep you in good health and spirits!
Regards,
M.Francis
Rev. Dr. M.J.Joseph
Dear friend
May the song of Mary be heard from the Churches, the temples .mosques and the pagoddas.May it help the worshipper to bow his/her kness and touch the earth for Peace on Earth.
Wishing you the blessings of the Almighty.
MJJ,Devalokam,Eco-Baba!
MANI CHACKO
Dear PNB,
Thanks for the most inspiring reflection on the Magnificat. I do hope it will sink deeply into the minds of those who read it.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you both a meaningful Christmas and a peaceful New year.
Warm Regards,
Achen
Rev.Dr.Mani Chacko, Ph.D( Lond.)
Director
Ecumenical Christian Centre
Post Bag 11
Whitefield
Bangalore - 560066
Karnataka
India
Telephone : 0091 80 2845 3158 ( Direct )
0091 80 2845 2270
Dear PN
What an appropriate thought on this festive occasion.You have rightly concluded it by your last two paragraphs.
Thank you and wishing you and your family all the best during this Chistmas and for ever.
Sincerely
K.v.Rajagopal
Jeykar Jerome
Many thanks for your Christmas message. Frankly I had never thought of the Magnifact in this way. Wishing you and Mrs Benjamin (your only wife !) a Blessed Christmas and God's blessings all through the New Year.
Veena & Jayakar
Dear brother,
Thank you for the engaging article with the usual original look at history and the scripture.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love and regards,
A.P.Durai
Mark Tully
The Song of Mary
From: markandgilly@gmail.com
To: benjaminpn@hotmail.com
Dear Benjamin, Many thanks for your theological Christmas card. Best
wishes to you and your family for Christmas and the New Year. Mark
M.V.Nadkarni
Dear Mr Benjamin,
Thank you for the beautiful song.
I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and happy New year.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
M V Nadkarni
P.N.Seshadri
Thank you Mr. Benjamin.
"sarve janah sukhinO bhavnatu" is the centarl thought that our Indian people are advised to remember always.
THE SONG OF MARY holds the same rich thought and it is universal.
I still remember from a lesson - Sermon on the mount- in my high school (1955) english book - Blessed are the Meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. Also another lesson I remember from Gurudev Tagore's Githanjali " strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart". Sometime I wonder the story of humans world over seems to has some thing else to say - obsession with acquisition and control.
No wonder Che Guvera said "My revolution stems from my love of my people". Society is being constantly and deliberately disturbed by
the modern merchants with impunity. The silent suffering cry of billions - from all forms of life - is deafening.
Regards
Seshadri
Sister Amala
Thanks !!!
Wishing you too a blessed and gracefilled Christmastide and a New Year that fulfills many of our deep desires to see the Reign of God established.
Keep up the good work !!!
Amala
--
Sr. Amala, 101 Maria Kripa Apts II,
12 Davis Rd, St Thomas Tn,
Bangalore 560084 Tel: 080-25470645
Susan Varkey
Dear Benjichayam and Maychechy,
Wish you Happy and Meaningful Christmas( in whichever way you define the word)
How is Nina and family? I had heard about Nina 's hospitalization.Thank God she is okay.
What's Maychechy up to these days?
Here we are fine. We get about 10 days of vacation. Our boys )who are away in University) will come home for Christmas.Looking forward to it
Any trips to Kerala planned?
Love and prayers, Susan.
Dr. David Scot
Dear PNji,
(Apologies for the devanagari script; my computer doesn't have the appropriate script for Kannada.
Hearty thanks for the meditation on the Magnificat, a truly revolutionary document. Indeed this is a fitting cap for the other two documents -- the USCIRF Report on Karnataka and Mark Tully's lecture -- you have sent recently.
All in all, this comes with hearty expectation and hope that the cosmic revolution initiated by the birth of the Christ will come a little closer to fulfilment in the New Year ahead.
Peace and Joy,
David Scotachen
Maher Spurgeon Madras C hristian College
Dear Brother Benjamin
Thank you for your thought provoking Christmas Thought.
Wish you a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year
Spurgeon
Chaplain
Madras Christian College
Rev. Kiran Sebastian
Dear Mr Benjamin,
This comes to thank you for your meaningful and powerful words - as usual they offer much to reflect upon and challenge us to be open to the invasion of the spirit.
Wishing you and your family all the very best for a meaningful and happy Christmas and a new year filled with invigorating hope.
With many greetings and warm good wishes,
Kiran
Rev. Dr. J. Jayakiran Sebastian
7301 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1794
http://www.ltsp.edu/people/jsebastian
FRANCIS Good neighbor
Dear Mr. Benjamin,
Greetings!
An analytical and powerful message on the eve of Christmas!
God bless you and keep you in good health and spirits!
Regards,
M.Francis
Rev. Dr. M.J.Joseph
Dear friend
May the song of Mary be heard from the Churches, the temples .mosques and the pagoddas.May it help the worshipper to bow his/her kness and touch the earth for Peace on Earth.
Wishing you the blessings of the Almighty.
MJJ,Devalokam,Eco-Baba!
MANI CHACKO
Dear PNB,
Thanks for the most inspiring reflection on the Magnificat. I do hope it will sink deeply into the minds of those who read it.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you both a meaningful Christmas and a peaceful New year.
Warm Regards,
Achen
Rev.Dr.Mani Chacko, Ph.D( Lond.)
Director
Ecumenical Christian Centre
Post Bag 11
Whitefield
Bangalore - 560066
Karnataka
India
Telephone : 0091 80 2845 3158 ( Direct )
0091 80 2845 2270
Dear PN
What an appropriate thought on this festive occasion.You have rightly concluded it by your last two paragraphs.
Thank you and wishing you and your family all the best during this Chistmas and for ever.
Sincerely
K.v.Rajagopal
A theological Christmas card
The celebrated BBC bureau chief in New Delhi for for more than thirty years, Sir Mark Tully, has described the following article by me (already posted here) as "the theological Christmas card"
THE SONG OF MARY
By P.N.Benjamin
There is more to Christmas than peace and goodwill. The story of the birth of Jesus Christ begins with a revelation to a peasant girl that she would be the mother of the Messiah – the Saviour of the world. She would conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God. She was so overpowered by the message that she breaks into poetic utterance:
“My soul doth magnify the Lord/ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour…/He hath showed strength with his arm/He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts/He hath put down the mighty from their seats/And exalted them of low degree/He hath filled the hungry with good things/And the rich he hath sent empty away…”
This Song of Mary is called the Magnificat. Mary sees a vision of a new order of things where the weak and the poor will throw off their shackles. It is a song of liberation for man as well as for woman.
The Song of Mary reflects the teachings of the prophets of the Old Testament in the Bible. These prophets denounced the oppressors of the people, those who would sell the needy for a pair of shoes. The prophets were constantly exhorting the people to “untie the knots of the yoke, and loose the fetters of justice, to set free those who have been crushed”. And, Mary belonged to this oppressed section of the people.
It might seem strange that in this momentous hour of her life when the angel had cast her in this stupendous role, she should be preoccupied with justice for her people. But one can well imagine that, then as now, this was a burning question. The Jews were under the Roman yoke and longed for the Messiah who would liberate them. Mary’s Song is a song of deliverance not only from foreign domination but the oppressor within the gates.
She did not know then that beginning with the Magnificat the road would end at the Cross where she would stand weeping for her son would show the world an entirely new way. But now it is a cry for justice, liberation from the tyranny of the rich and the exalted. Thus, woven into message of peace and goodwill is also the lesson that these conditions can only come when there is social justice.
It is unfortunate that the Church has sidestepped this problem dispensing charity while ignoring the deeper claims of equality. The Song of Mary is a reminder that charity without justice is an insult, and peace only a graveyard where there is no equality.
Yes, the voice of Christmas cries in the wilderness. It is not a call to violent revolution – for violent revolutions always end in tyranny of one kind or another. Christmas calls for a change of heart, a turning away from oneself to one’s neighbour, and therefore to God. We like to imagine that religion is a love affair between man and God. But the face of the neighbour intrudes.
Christmas reminds us that in a creative relationship there is God, man and always his neighbour – only in such a cooperative partnership can we hope for a restructuring of the social fabric, which will be permanent. In short, Christmas comes to remind us that we are all inextricably bound together in this brief sojourn on this troubled planet – that either we are ALL saved or we are ALL damned for we are all human, all vulnerable, all in need of one another.
With greetings of peace in this Christmas season and happy New Year.
P.N.BENJAMIN
Christmas Day 2010
Dec, 25, 2010
THE SONG OF MARY
By P.N.Benjamin
There is more to Christmas than peace and goodwill. The story of the birth of Jesus Christ begins with a revelation to a peasant girl that she would be the mother of the Messiah – the Saviour of the world. She would conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God. She was so overpowered by the message that she breaks into poetic utterance:
“My soul doth magnify the Lord/ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour…/He hath showed strength with his arm/He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts/He hath put down the mighty from their seats/And exalted them of low degree/He hath filled the hungry with good things/And the rich he hath sent empty away…”
This Song of Mary is called the Magnificat. Mary sees a vision of a new order of things where the weak and the poor will throw off their shackles. It is a song of liberation for man as well as for woman.
The Song of Mary reflects the teachings of the prophets of the Old Testament in the Bible. These prophets denounced the oppressors of the people, those who would sell the needy for a pair of shoes. The prophets were constantly exhorting the people to “untie the knots of the yoke, and loose the fetters of justice, to set free those who have been crushed”. And, Mary belonged to this oppressed section of the people.
It might seem strange that in this momentous hour of her life when the angel had cast her in this stupendous role, she should be preoccupied with justice for her people. But one can well imagine that, then as now, this was a burning question. The Jews were under the Roman yoke and longed for the Messiah who would liberate them. Mary’s Song is a song of deliverance not only from foreign domination but the oppressor within the gates.
She did not know then that beginning with the Magnificat the road would end at the Cross where she would stand weeping for her son would show the world an entirely new way. But now it is a cry for justice, liberation from the tyranny of the rich and the exalted. Thus, woven into message of peace and goodwill is also the lesson that these conditions can only come when there is social justice.
It is unfortunate that the Church has sidestepped this problem dispensing charity while ignoring the deeper claims of equality. The Song of Mary is a reminder that charity without justice is an insult, and peace only a graveyard where there is no equality.
Yes, the voice of Christmas cries in the wilderness. It is not a call to violent revolution – for violent revolutions always end in tyranny of one kind or another. Christmas calls for a change of heart, a turning away from oneself to one’s neighbour, and therefore to God. We like to imagine that religion is a love affair between man and God. But the face of the neighbour intrudes.
Christmas reminds us that in a creative relationship there is God, man and always his neighbour – only in such a cooperative partnership can we hope for a restructuring of the social fabric, which will be permanent. In short, Christmas comes to remind us that we are all inextricably bound together in this brief sojourn on this troubled planet – that either we are ALL saved or we are ALL damned for we are all human, all vulnerable, all in need of one another.
With greetings of peace in this Christmas season and happy New Year.
P.N.BENJAMIN
Christmas Day 2010
Dec, 25, 2010
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