mydiglobal elckerly in everyday wonderland: Samuel

In taking our model of inter-religious dialogue and theology of religions as a case-study, we intend to describe this theological approach systematically. While this analysis aims at a theologically-systematic description and analysis of such an approach, it incorporates, too, several historical sections in order to give relief and background to the issues involved. The historical sections are limited and functional; that is, with a view to a proper understanding of such a model of religious pluralism in the context of ecumenical (including Indian) discussions.

In the historical and systematic study of this work, we want to pose the question of truth and relevance of this pluralist model of theology of religions in relation to the other two models, described several times before (exclusivism & inclusivism). For this reason, throughout the whole of this study there is a dialogue between exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist thinkers. The question of the truth of those models does not necessarily imply a final rejection of any of them. I want to keep open the possibility of the relevance of then different models in their own contexts.

When, after a lifelong search for a genuine christian identity in a pluralist society, Samartha was asked to write about his own spiritual journey, he defined disown identity as unmistakably Indian and distinctively Christian: "I am a Christian by faith, Hindu by culture, Indian by citizenship & ecumenical in the deepest and widest sense of the term." this quotation indicates Samartha's profound encounter between his Christian commit-ment and his Indian cultural background. What is his background? What are the influences upon Samartha, which, in later years, made him choose for a pluralist model of theology? Samartha's theology is, indeed, rooted in biography: without taking into account his biography, Sam's
theology cannot be fully grasped.

Stanley Jedidiah Samartha was born ninety years ago in Karkal, a small village in South Kanara District: this is now part of Karnataka State.
The Kanara coastal region, where Sam was raised and educated, and where he had his first jobs, is separated from other parts of Karnataka by the Western Ghats on the East. Hindu historians proudly write about the history of Karnataka & the Kanara coastal region: a history which dates back tom early times ...