Incarnational approach to theologizing.
During the second year of my theological formation I tried utmost to theologize from the point of view of incarnational approach. I tried to make use of the week-end ministry in Sanand mission for that purpose. Besides having the week-end ministry, we were offered to spend a week long village exposure to learn contextual theologizing. I grabbed this opportunity to try my incarnational approach to theologizing in Sanand mission. The spirit was high but the body was weak and I could not complete a week long stay in a village called Meital in the Sanand mission. However with a renewed spirit I expressed my deep desire to the Dean of the theologate Fr.Francis Parmar about my plan to do theology in the village set-up and cover the topics of missiology and eclessiology in the context of a mission village. I took Fr. Mangalam, a misssiologist and then the parish priest of Sanand as my guide and hence began my stay in the village, in the first week of our Diwali holidays.
Methodology:
There were three activities that characterized my initial stages of the contextualized theologizing.
1.Diary writing: At the end of each day, I used to spend an hour jotting down my observations related to the topics that I had planned with my guide.
2.Theoretical input: A continual theoretical input was made available through private reading, done in consultation with my guide.
3.Week-end meetings: Every week-end I would meet my guide to sort out things, to integrate what I was going through, to look at the theological perspectives and implications of the experience. Beside I would meet Fr.Darrel to nurture my spiritual life and look at my psychological growth.
Involvement:
Initially I spent one week in the village and then the next week at the mission centre Sanand, designing a plan to proceed meaningfully. What I wanted was to work in a context and experience the challenge of a multi-religious set up and poverty. I continued this procedure for two months. Though inculturation was the main focus first, but then I realized that the kingdom of God should be the goal and inculturation should be used as means to realize the Kingdom by using what was good in each ones faith.
I then felt the need to learn their customs, to learn their attitudes, to enter their world-view so to say, to enter their frame of reference – in short to identify with them as much as possible and in doing so knock of the spectacles of my frame of reference. I saw the ecological imbalance in the village – it being a year of severe drought I saw plenty of dead cattle. Reflecting on this, I realized that man is in continuity with creation. Man is no isolated being and the whole of creation is an extension of man and man is an integral part of it. If a part of creation is destroyed, man is maligned in the process. I saw a lot of waste land there and reflecting on this, I realized that perhaps ‘forestation’ was required.
A group comprised of mixed casts, having a special inclusion of people from the lowest rung of the society with the Koli Patels was formed with the help of the Behavioural Science centre Ahmedabad. Rural SEWA- a self-help women group who was working in the near by village too started approaching the government with the similar objective ‘Forestation’. The Mamladar of Dholka who had the power to allot the waste land for forestation programme, decided to award the waste land to the SEWA group. At the end I had to terminate the little initiative with a reluctant heart. However a mixed casts inter-village cricket tournament met with a huge success. There were about ten youth teams with mixed casts participated in the tournament. Though it was a small initiative in the contextual learning and involvement during the time of my theological studies in 1987-88, it made an indelible mark in my memory and my spirituality.
Fr.Lawrence Dharmaraj s.j
During the second year of my theological formation I tried utmost to theologize from the point of view of incarnational approach. I tried to make use of the week-end ministry in Sanand mission for that purpose. Besides having the week-end ministry, we were offered to spend a week long village exposure to learn contextual theologizing. I grabbed this opportunity to try my incarnational approach to theologizing in Sanand mission. The spirit was high but the body was weak and I could not complete a week long stay in a village called Meital in the Sanand mission. However with a renewed spirit I expressed my deep desire to the Dean of the theologate Fr.Francis Parmar about my plan to do theology in the village set-up and cover the topics of missiology and eclessiology in the context of a mission village. I took Fr. Mangalam, a misssiologist and then the parish priest of Sanand as my guide and hence began my stay in the village, in the first week of our Diwali holidays.
Methodology:
There were three activities that characterized my initial stages of the contextualized theologizing.
1.Diary writing: At the end of each day, I used to spend an hour jotting down my observations related to the topics that I had planned with my guide.
2.Theoretical input: A continual theoretical input was made available through private reading, done in consultation with my guide.
3.Week-end meetings: Every week-end I would meet my guide to sort out things, to integrate what I was going through, to look at the theological perspectives and implications of the experience. Beside I would meet Fr.Darrel to nurture my spiritual life and look at my psychological growth.
Involvement:
Initially I spent one week in the village and then the next week at the mission centre Sanand, designing a plan to proceed meaningfully. What I wanted was to work in a context and experience the challenge of a multi-religious set up and poverty. I continued this procedure for two months. Though inculturation was the main focus first, but then I realized that the kingdom of God should be the goal and inculturation should be used as means to realize the Kingdom by using what was good in each ones faith.
I then felt the need to learn their customs, to learn their attitudes, to enter their world-view so to say, to enter their frame of reference – in short to identify with them as much as possible and in doing so knock of the spectacles of my frame of reference. I saw the ecological imbalance in the village – it being a year of severe drought I saw plenty of dead cattle. Reflecting on this, I realized that man is in continuity with creation. Man is no isolated being and the whole of creation is an extension of man and man is an integral part of it. If a part of creation is destroyed, man is maligned in the process. I saw a lot of waste land there and reflecting on this, I realized that perhaps ‘forestation’ was required.
A group comprised of mixed casts, having a special inclusion of people from the lowest rung of the society with the Koli Patels was formed with the help of the Behavioural Science centre Ahmedabad. Rural SEWA- a self-help women group who was working in the near by village too started approaching the government with the similar objective ‘Forestation’. The Mamladar of Dholka who had the power to allot the waste land for forestation programme, decided to award the waste land to the SEWA group. At the end I had to terminate the little initiative with a reluctant heart. However a mixed casts inter-village cricket tournament met with a huge success. There were about ten youth teams with mixed casts participated in the tournament. Though it was a small initiative in the contextual learning and involvement during the time of my theological studies in 1987-88, it made an indelible mark in my memory and my spirituality.
Fr.Lawrence Dharmaraj s.j
