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The Trinity and the Structure of Religious Life: An Indian Contribution to Wider Christian Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Frank Whaling
Affiliation:
New CollegeEdinburgh, EH1 2LX

Extract

Indian Christian theology has begun to make a significant contribution to total Christian theology in a number of ways. One of these ways is to look at the doctrine of the Trinity again not merely in terms of the Godhead itself but also in terms of the religious life resulting from the fact that Christians think of God in terms of a Trinity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1979

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References

page 359 note 1 A good summary of modern Hindu thought is to be found in Sarma, D. S., Hinduism Through The Ages (Bombay, 1973)Google Scholar. Thomas, M. M., The Acknowledged Christ of the Indian Renaissance (SCM, London, 1969)Google Scholar, details the Christian influence upon the Hindu reformers.

page 359 note 2 Boyd, Robin, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology (CLS, Madras, 1975)Google Scholar, intimates this, as do the various publications of the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society, Bangalore.

page 360 note 1 As the medieval period developed theologia came to refer to all Christian doctrinal formulations, not just that of the Trinity.

page 361 note 1 Mathothu, K., The Development of the Concept of Trimūrti in Hinduism (Palai, Kerala, 1974).Google Scholar

page 361 note 2 There are a number of reasons for this claim. Two important reasons are that the Goddess Śakti came to replace Brahmā the Creator as an effective focus of later Hindu devotion; also that the three personal deities were seen as separate manifestations rather than as strictly trinitarian.

page 361 note 3 Saccidānanda is the union in Sanskrit of the three words sat, cit, and ānanda.

page 362 note 1 It is interesting to note that the Arabic language too has not so radically divorced the meaning of the words Being and Truth.

page 362 note 2 Sen was a leader of the Brāhma Samāj; he had a deep attraction to Christ; he was also influenced in later life by the Hindu mystic Rāmakrishna.

page 362 note 3 Rām Mohan Roy engaged in dialogue with Marshman, one of the Serampore missionaries, and he converted another, Adam, to Unitarian Christianity.

page 362 note 4 Sen, Keshab Chandra, Keshab Chandra Sen's Lectures in India (Cassell, London, 1909).Google Scholar

page 363 note 1 As formulated by the followers of the great Indian philosopher Śankara, Advaita posits two levels of truth, the empirical and the higher levels. A leap of realisation is required to pass from one to the other, and they are discontinuous.

page 364 note 1 Brahmabandhab Upādhyāya (1861–1907), a Bengali Brahmin, was baptised in 1891.

page 364 note 2 Panikkar, R., The Trinity and World Religions (CLS, Madras, 1970).Google Scholar

page 366 note 1 The rise of the notions of Christian Yoga and Christian Zen is evidence of this.

page 367 note 1 Fakirbhai, D., Kristopanishad (CISRS, 1965)Google Scholar; and The Philosophy of Love (ISPCK, Delhi, 1966).

page 368 note 1 The bhakti of the earlier devotional movements influenced by Rāmānuja was moderate and restrained; some of the later devotional movements were more ecstatic in nature and prema indicates a more emotional content in the devotional attitude.

page 368 note 2 The modern stress upon secular Christianity would be an example of this.