AS I See It

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION – BEYOND STEREOTYPES

Valson Thampu In a recent verdict, the Supreme Court of India – Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud presiding a bench of seven judges- adjudicating a case pertaining to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), decided that minority educational institutions ‘fully funded by the State’ cannot impart ‘any religious education’ to their students. It decided, further, that […]

DEMOCRACY IS DECLINING AND WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED

M.K.George S J Ever since humans started living in common, there have been various forms of governance. The primary classification has been democratic, non-democratic and other types. In the democratic type, there have been direct democracy, representative democracy (republic government, parliamentary government), and constitutional democracy. In the non-democratic types, we have seen authoritarian, totalitarian, oligarchy, […]

RAM MANDIR AND BEYOND

As I write this, the Ram Mandir fervour is being worked up to a fever pitch. No one is in any doubt that what is envisaged is a great deal more than the inauguration of a temple. It is, as Swapan Dasgupta of the BJP said the other day, ‘a symbol of Hindu self-assertion’. Self-assertion […]

IS THE MASS CONTROVERSY SACRAMETAL?

Valson Thampu When controversies break out the need to think, and think radically, becomes imperative. That is all the more so, when controversies persist and refuse to settle down. The persistence of a problem issues from the vitality of the truth that is denied in the extant scheme of things. Controversies are to our religious […]

IS THE SOIL OF INDIA TOO HARD FOR CHRISTIANITY?

Valson Thampu I have heard it said ever and anon, ‘Christianity has been in India for two thousand years. Yet we are only a little over two per cent of the population!’ Why so? Well, it is certainly not because resources, opportunities and mission-and-conversion enterprises have been lacking. Surprisingly, it is not even because the […]

SCRIPTURE AND CREATIVE FREEDOM : A view on Sarah Joseph’s novel, Kara

Valson Thampu I have wondered for long as to what is more spiritual: theology or literature? Theology makes the concrete abstract. Literature makes the abstract concrete. Literature, like spirituality, is incarnational. But Incarnation is a paradox. To be incarnated is to be stained. Sarah Joseph certainly thinks so. Hence the title of her new novel: […]

GOD, DOGMA AND VIOLENCE: KALAMASSERY AND BEYOND

Valson Thampu We do not know how the war on Hamas was launched. Did the Israeli War Ministry initiate it preceded by prayer for the victory of that knotty campaign. Was a prophet -of the pedigree of Balaam- brought in to ‘curse’ Hamas and to tilt the outcome in favour of Israel? Was the prophet […]

The Truth of War and The War on Truth

Valson Thampu I write this even as ominous clouds of a potentially cataclysmic war lour over the Middle East. War is exciting, irresistible grist to the media mill. War may be bad news, if not for humanity as a whole, at least for those who are directly afflicted by it. But it is a gold […]

Eviction-facing Indian Catholics to fight Muslim charity’s claims

Goans oppose tourism project near 16th century basilica