Topic
Interpreting the Bible in India: An Appraisal of George M. Soares-Prabhu’s Cross-Scriptural Hermeneutical Method
Introduction
Ø An Indian interpretation of the Bible, in Soares-Prabhu’s view, “results from the cross fertilization of modern methods of New Testament exegesis with contributions from Indian exegetical tradition, coming to flower in the stormy climate of the socio-cultural reality of India Today.” Though he rightly admitted that an exact shape of an exegetical practice cannot be determined a priori and thus abstained from formatting one method applicable to the whole of India, he did predict the directions an Indian exegesis might follow, and materialized those predictions in some of his own interpretations of biblical texts.
Ø Although his was an unfinished project, he did nevertheless try to bring out the viability of a certain critical-integral hermeneutical method which involves at least three moments: a comprehensive grasp of the profound religious meaning of the text; a precise understanding of the specific imperative of the text in a context; and, an awakening into the deeper meanings the text unfolds in a process of comparison with other religious texts available in the context.
Ø The third moment is obviously an inter-religious engagement. And, as matter of fact, all the three constitutive aspects of the interpretive act Soares-Prabhu designs are sensitive to the multi-religious realities. He achieves his inter-religious hermeneutical project by integrating many different social and cognitive concerns of an Indian interpreter – all of which are directly related to the religions in India – into the essential dynamic of interpretation.
Ø Soares-Prabhu’s idea of biblical interpretation as an inter-religious conversational enterprise is what interests us. We will, first of all, briefly expose the kind of cross-cultural hermeneutics developed by/along with his context-sensitive interpretations of the Bible and the meta-reflections thereof; and, to this we will add, in a second place, a Christian theological and a Hindu philosophical critique.
Part I - An Outline
Soares-Prabhu’s Indian Christian Hermeneutics
- a. Semantic Autonomy of Text and the Conversational Character of Understanding
b. Identity of the Interpreter and the Circular Nature of Interpretation
i. Exegetical Suspicion
ii. Concerns of the Indian Interpreter of the Bible
1. The Poor
2. The Indian Way of Thinking
1. The Logic of Inclusion
2. Cosmo-centric Approach
3. Indic Means of Knowledge/ Experience
4. Pragmatic Interests
c. A Cross-cultural Hermeneutics of Integration
i. Text, Context, and Co-Texts
ii. Locus Hermeneuticus and the Criteria for Validation
iii. The Actual Process of Integral Interpretation
1. Religious Reading
2. Social Reading
3. Integral Reading
Part II: Some Questions and Remarks
In this section, we will make a critical reconsideration of some fundamental theological issues at stake in his project. However appreciative one is (as I am) of his proposal for integral reading, one cannot ignore the problematic nature of his idea of ‘religious reading’ which functions as one of the two starting points of interpreting the Bible in India. A half of the religious reading has to be done with direct reference to the Indian religious traditions, especially, Hinduism, while the other half is made in reference to Christianity. He takes Hinduism so seriously because Hindus make up approximately 83% of India’s population, and, more importantly, the traditional Hinduism has shaped ‘the Indian worldview’ shared by different cultural forms.
According to some Hindu scholars, the word religion and categorization of Indians as adherents of different religions distort the indigenous religious phenomenon in India. This is because; unlike in the case of Western Christianity, multiple affiliations are constitutive of Indians, at least the Hindus; also, the separation between culture and religion is unimaginable in the Indian context.
Ø Has Soares-Prabhu, as a Christian interpreter, succeeded in identifying the ‘religious other’ in the Indian context?
Ø Can Indian religious realities be used as raw materials for constructing the Christian theological artefact?
Is there a possibility of charging some abstract biblical images with some Hindu faith-concepts?
Ø Is not Hinduism ‘scapegoated’ in Soares-Prabhu’s biblical interpretations? Some subtle ‘mimetic rivalry’, one may suspect, works behind his engagement with the Indian religions!
The crucial question Soares-Prabhu has to answer in his inter-religious theology is about the notion of authority. He, however, takes for granted that the ‘Jesus of faith’ (as he understands Him,) has authority over all else engaged in dialogue. Thus, Christology becomes the crucial element in Indian theology, though he gives an impression that ecclesiology is of prime importance.
Martin Sebastian Kallungal
Fr. Dr. Augustine defending his dissertation
Dr. Kellely with the jury: Prof. Dr. Johan De Travernier, Prof. Dr. Frank Vosmann, Prof. Dr. Joseph Selling, Fr. Dr. Augustine Kallely, Prof. Dr. Roger Burggraeve, Prof. Dr. Thomas Knieps
