This volume brings together fifteen insightful essays that delve into the vital relationship between Indian Christianity and the democratic process. With a firm belief in the faith's historical and theological affinity with democracy-especially in empowering India's marginalized communities-the author explores how this tradition can actively contribute to shaping a just and inclusive society. Drawing from the rich heritage of the Catholic Church, the essays call for a renewed commitment to public theological discourse and interfaith collaboration. Together, they offer a compelling vision of how Indian Christianity can help animate a transformative political imagination rooted in democratic ideals. This book is an invitation to scholars, faith communities, and citizens alike to engage deeply with the promise of democracy through the lens of lived faith.
Gnana Patrick (b. 1962), Ph.D., formerly Professor and Head of the Department of Christian Studies, University of Madras, holds a doctorate in Christian Studies. In 2024, he was awarded a Visiting Scholar fellowship at DePaul University, Chicago, and in 2013 he was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer Fellowship to teach a course at the Divinity School, Harvard University, USA. His published books include Public Theology-Indian Concerns, Perspectives and Issues (USA: Fortress Press, 2020), Indian Christianity and Its Public Role (edited, New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2019), and Wings of Faith - Public Theologies in India (New Delhi: ISPCK, 2013).
Religion and politics are being related to one another in unprecedently complex and crucial ways all over the globe today. While the times of monarchical rules, which by and large took religions to be part of their royal powers, are generally gone by, the era of democratic politics opened contextually nuanced ways of relating religion and politics or even separating them. One of the salient ways of imagining the relationship between the two had been named as the liberal democratic framework which had come to be adopted by majority of the modern states of the world. But today the scenario is changing.
Liberal democracy is facing a crisis all over the world. Democratic political systems, built upon inalienable universal rights of human individuals, are changing their characteristics under the weight of the communally divisive forces, which have come to sail on the wings of populism, corporate capitalism, religio-cultural nationalism, regionalism, ethnic nationalism, racism and other retrogressive elements. Signs of emergence of dictatorial rulers, using the democratic framework paradoxically though, is clearly visible on the global political horizon of the present day.
Not merely at the manifest political level, but also at the level of civil society one finds the preponderance of voluntary agencies or initiatives founded by or oriented towards the ideologies of the Right. Forces of domination, constituting and legitimating themselves with resources from "traditions" which have been, beside being identity markers, also serving as sources of hierarchies, discrimination, and regressive power, seem to gain salience in the civil sphere.
At a personal level, an individual seems to experience one's individuality not so much for one's own worth, dignity and freedom, but in terms of one's affiliation to an identity that dominates the world of art, culture, and politics.
The inalienable human rights seem to reorient themselves towards a regime of rights associated with various identities. The ethical self of an individual seems to be anchored on the so-called pride and honour of one's outward identity. The depth dimension of the self and the ethical anchoring of personhood seem to dissipate into opportunism and crass individualism.
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist