Introduction:
He was born on 17 January 1880 to Kesava Chetty and Andal Ammal
who belonged to the Chettiar caste in Tamilnadu. His father died when Chakkarai
was 6. He studied at Madras Christian College and came under the influence of
the principal, William Miller, who believed that Hinduism found its fulfillment
in Christ. The mystery of the cross of Jesus led him to accept Jesus as Lord
and Redeemer. . He was baptized in 1903 and received into the Free Church of
Scotland[1]. Chakkarai, along with Chenchiah, S. J. Appasamy and others,
belonged to the Rethinking Christianity in Indian group of theologians in South
India. He was a nationalist-minded Christian intellectual and this led him to
oppose the imitation of Western Christianity in India. He agrees with K.T. Paul
believes that "Christianity should not be a public policy, it should
dissolve on its own like salt." [2]
He thought:
Chakkarai theology is divided into two books: Jesus Avatar (1927) and The Cross and
Indian Thought (1932). He was also a major contributor to the volume:
Rethinking Christianity in India (1928) published in connection with the
International Missionary Board meeting at Tamaram in 1938. Chakkarai used Hindu
terminology extensively in expressing his faith and formulating his theology
without committing himself to any school of Hindu philosophy . Cakkarai
theology was primarily Christological. He argues that instead of interpreting
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in light of a prior connection with
God or an ultimate reality, We must explain the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus. So he speaks first of the Christianity of God rather than the
Divinity of Jesus. Humiliation and glorification, death and resurrection, the
historical Jesus and the spiritual Jesus are two sides of one reality. [3]
Christocentric: The Chakkar point of Christology is the beginning of
theology. Do we begin our Christian theology with Jesus or with God? he asks,
and the answer is how we must turn away from Christ. He formulated the
"doctrine of the Christianity of God", where true and valid knowledge
of God must begin with a personal experience with Christ. He declares that
"our knowledge of God must be based on the knowledge and consciousness of
Jesus, not on the prophecies of the past like Anthem in Europe and Sankara in
India. If God exists, or if there are elements in him unrelated to Jesus and
existing outside of him, they simply do not exist for us.”[4]
Jesus the Avatara: Dues Absconditus (hidden God) became dues revelatus
(revealed God).[5] Chenchi Christology is the starting point of theology. This
led him to formulate what he calls the "doctrine of the childhood of
God", because he believes that the real and knowledge of God must begin
with the experience of Christ in direct contact with the humanly immanent God,
the indwelling Christ. This represents an important point in Chakkarai's
theology, perhaps the central theme of his book Jesus avatar; unlike the avatar
of Hinduism, Jesus' incarnation is not temporary and static, but permanent and
dynamic.[6] Chakkarai's understanding of the avatar of Jesus differs from the
Hindu recurring avatar because the avatar of Jesus is permanent and once only.
Jesus remains forever the "God-man" in human history as the mediator
between man and God. However, in the classical Hindu theory of Avatars, an
avatara comes from time to time in human history as a need arises and then
disappears, the divine part of their nature being reabsorbed into God. The
Incarnation of Christ is dynamic and works even today through the power of the
Holy Spirit. The avatara did not end either with the cross or with the
ascension, but God in Christ still remains a man, lives and works in the lives
of believers[7].
In Saiva Siddhanta, souls are divided into three groups according
to whether they are dominated by one, two or three malamas (impurities). Jesus
was the most egoless known in history and therefore the most universal of all.
Such is the description of his characters in the Dharma Sermon on the Moon. He
accomplishes this by a real process, and as the Hebrew writer expressed it. He
learned obedience by what he suffered. His suffering exceeded ours, not in
depth, but in quality. In the last phase of his life, Jesus was deprived of
everything that would distinguish a person - he was friendless, penniless and
denied the legal jurisdiction of imperial and arrogant Rome.[8]
Cross: According to
Chakkaraia, the cross is the only way to enter into communion with God. It is
on the cross that sinful man meets God. It is in the cross that the chaotic
flow of human life meets the infinite grace of God through Jesus Christ. At the
cross there is a mysterious power that takes away sin and restores the sinner.
The cross in some mysterious way "opens a channel" in the heart of
man, through which the divine sakti flows in a powerful stream into the Christ,
the Great Physician, the "Parama Vaidya" of the soul, and deals with
sin as a disease, and from the cross descended upon the human heart and mind
the healing energy of moral and spiritual renewal. In a way that cannot be
understood, Christ's sufferings are transformed into the radiant shakti of his
redemptive sacrifice and thus become the active energy or kriya sakti of the
new world order. Chakkarai sees the death of Christ as the ultimate
"niskamya karma" the ultimate act of self-denial. And the Bhakta who
is devoted to Christ, who is justified by his faith in him, must be confirmed
by Christ's example and ways. Chakkarai describes justification as a Bhakti
marga devoted to the crucified Christ who lovingly meets the gifts of his
transforming power with those who share in the fellowship of his suffering.[9]
Conclusion: These
Christological expressions from Asia are an inculturation of the Christian
faith and message of leading Indian thinkers into the Indian religious context.
In the Indian environment, Christianity exists in a pluralistic context.
Christological reflections from Asia, especially India, help the Christian
gospel to become more relevant to the Indian context.
[1] M. M. Thomas and P. T. Thomas, Towards an Indian Christian Theology:
Life and Thought of some pioneers (Tiruvalla: The New Day Publications of
India, 1992),122.
[2] M. M. Thomas and P. T. Thomas, Towards an Indian Christian Theology …,
123.
[3] M.M. Thomas and P.T. Thomas, Towards
An Indian Christian Theology…,139
[4] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology, (Delhi:
ISPCK, 2009), 167.
[5] Sunand Sumithra, Christian Theology from an Indian Perspective, (Bangalore:
Theological Book Trust, 1990),108.
[6]Robin Boyd, An Introduction To
Indian Christian Theology…,165, 171
[7] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology…,171
,174
[8] R.S. Sugirtharajah and Cecil Hargreaves, readings in Indian Christian theology volumn1, (Delhi: ISPCK
Allianz Enterprise, 2009)70-80
[9] Robin Boyd, An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology…,
177-179.
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