Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD)
Director
Thomas Cattoi
Abstract
This dissertation, Towards a New Indian Christology: Chalcedon, Panikkar and the Challenge of Indian Liberation, presents the liberative dimension of the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon (451) despite a general tendency to dismiss its relevance in the Indian context. The project critically correlates the teachings of Chalcedon with the existing socio-cultural conditions and religious traditions in India. To this purpose, it uses Sarah Coakley's retrieval of Chalcedon's analogical dimension while bringing it into conversation with Raimon Panikkar's theological framework and his retrieval of the Dharmic tradition.
The rise of Hindu nationalism, posing a threat to India’s secular fabric, calls for an inclusive society. To this end, the project argues that Chalcedonian Christology can serve as a resource to develop a society marked by interreligious fraternity, something I could call a Dharmic civilization. It also serves as a corrective to the discriminatory caste-based social stratification that plagues India and endorse satyagraha (non-violent means) towards harmonious living.
The kind of spiritual practice implied by Chalcedonian Christology is geared to the deification of the individual through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, involving an embodied approach to prayer. This can correct the patriarchal epistemology currently characterizing the Church, as well as its attendant gender bias. Gayatri ii April 23, 2025 Chakravorty Spivak's "theory of epistemic violence" rightly guides the way for women to find their own voice, rather than merely being passive, and therefore to actively receive and disseminate the spiritual riches of the Church.
I argue that the Chalcedonian acknowledgment of the irreducible value of individual subjectivity, the transformative participation of all individuals in the divine, and their ultimate deification echoes the Advaitic religious experience that is articulated in the theological concept of sat-chit-ananda (being, consciousness, and bliss). The reality of sat-chit-ananda, which is the core of Panikkar’s non-dual vision, can reintroduce us to the cosmological dimension of Chalcedonian theology and spirituality. Finally, I claim then that a dialogue between Chalcedonian Christology and the Dharmic tradition can enrich Indian Christology, fostering dialogue with different religious traditions and cultures, as well as with individuals who are marginalized because of their gender or social location.
Recommended Citation
Rai, Punam, "Towards a New Indian Christology: Chalcedon, Panikkar and the Challenge of Indian Liberation" (2025). Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations. 154.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst_dissertations/154
