Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-Faith Context

Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) among Hindus and Sikhs in Northwest India

Duerksen

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781630878856
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

When Hindus and Sikhs become followers of Christ, what happens next? Should they join Christian churches that often look and feel very unfamiliar to them? Or to what degree can or should they remain a part of their Hindu/Sikh communities and practices? Uncomfortable with the answers that were provided to them by Christian leaders in northwest India, six followers of Christ began Yeshu satsangs (Jesus truth-gatherings) that sought to follow Christ and the teachings of the Bible while remaining connected to their Hindu and/or Sikh communities. Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-faith Context analyzes the contextualized practices and identities of these leaders and their gatherings, situating these in the religious history of the region and the personal histories of the leaders themselves. Whereas Christians worry that the Yeshu satsangs and related "insider movements" are syncretizing their beliefs and are not properly identifiable as "churches," Ecclesial Identities analyzes the Yeshu satsang's narratives and practices to find vibrant expressions of local church that are grappling with questions and tensions of social and religious identity. In addition to its ethnographic approach, Ecclesial Identities also utilizes recent sociological and anthropological theory in identity formation and critical realism, as well as discussions of biblical ecclesiology from the book of Acts. This study will be a helpful resource for those interested in global Christianity, the practices and identities of churches in religiously plural environments, and the creative ways in which Christ-followers can missionally engage people of other faiths.

Part I

Foundations of the Study

Chapter 1

Precedent Literature

Early Pioneers and Present Scholars of Contemporary Yeshu Satsangs

In this chapter I will locate my research within the growing number of studies regarding Hindu Christ-followers, Hindu “insider movements,” and Yeshu satsangs. Much of this extends from debates regarding baptism and ecclesiology that originated in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to this, however, several important and influential “non-conformist” Indian leaders critiqued and raised questions regarding the ways in which Christian churches related to Indian religious communities.1 I will thus briefly discuss two important leaders, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao, and their ecclesial perspectives. I will then follow this with a more extensive analysis of recent scholars that have advanced concepts and studies that are pertinent to my focus on Yeshu satsangs and their ecclesial identity.

Early Pioneers: Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao

Since the nineteenth century followers of Jesus in various parts of India have critiqued the forms and theologies of established Christian churches and offered their own variations. Though few of the ecclesial groups and institutions that these leaders founded actually outlasted them, several of these reflected on and wrote about their critiques and theologies of church. In this section I will briefly discuss two prominent leaders, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Kalagara Subba Rao.

Brahmabandhav Upadhyay

Brahmabandhav Upadhyay (1861–1907) was a pioneering leader in non-conformist ecclesiology.2 Born into a high-caste Hindu Brahmin family in Bengal, Upadhyay was influenced by family members and friends involved in the nationalist movement. As a result, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became the disciple of its then-leader, Keshub Chundar Sen.

Upadhyay was influenced by Sen’s openness to Christ and the rationalism with which he and the samaj approached religion. In 1890, through interaction with Church Missionary Society missionaries, Upadhyay became convinced of the divinity and supremacy of Christ and was subsequently baptized in 1891.3 Later that year he investigated and joined the Catholic Church, drawn in part through the Catholic’s respect and regard for Hinduism, as well as their understandings of natural theology. Though he became a member of the Church, Upadhyay retained a strong desire to “clothe” Christianity in the garments of Hindu vedantic thought.4 In 1894 he literally clothed himself in the light red garments of a sannyasi (Hindu monk) and adopted a traveling itinerary and lifestyle, for a time, to more closely identify with the Hindu community, while remaining a part of the Catholic Church.5 An active writer and journal editor, Upadhyay regularly articulated his developing ideas regarding the Christian faith, Hindu philosophy, and politics. Though he did not begin an organization or ecclesial structure, he developed several important ecclesiological ideas and critiques.

First, Upadhyay was convinced of the integrity of the Christian faith, and that God had clearly given this to the Catholic Church. Though he increasingly conflicted with the Catholic Church, he retained a strong core faith in Christ and considered himself a member of the universal Church.6

Second, particularly in his earlier years, Upadhyay believed that the Indian culture, and Hindu religion, was “humid soil” in which the revelation of Christ could be planted and cultivated. Because of this he became convinced of the need to convert the whole of India to the Catholic Church.7 In this he had no misgivings about calling Hindus to become followers of Jesus as it was articulated through the historic teachings of the Catholic Church.

Third, though Upadhyay was firm in his Christology and affirmed the idea that God had “deposited” the truth of His revelation in the Catholic Church, he had serious misgivings about the way in which Christian churches, including Catholic churches, expressed their faith. If India was to be converted, Upadhyay felt, the Catholic faith needed to rid itself of its European practices and culture and adopt the “clothes” of the Hindu religion.8 As part of this Upadhyay regarded himself a “Hindu Catholic,” and never insisted that converts to Christ renounce their Hindu identity.

In order to hold these three points together, Upadhyay gradually refined and clarified his understanding of both “Church” and “Hinduism.” In line with Catholic doctrine, the “Church” for Upadhyay was ultimately a universal gathering of those committed to Christ Jesus, capable of incorporating a variety of Christological and ecclesiological expressions. Regarding Hinduism, Upadhyay distinguished between two dharmas, or duties, of the Hindu. The samaj dharma are comprised of social duties, including customs, eating and dressing. The sadhana dharma, on the other hand, are the individual duties that focus on personal devotion and, ultimately, on personal salvation.

Both duties, asserted Upadhyay, are present in Hinduism and Christianity. However, in Hinduism it is the samaj dharma, or social duties, that are most important, while in Christianity it is the personal duties of devotion to Christ that supersede social rules and duties.9 Thus, Hindus could remain Hindu in their social duties and identities while following a personal devotion to Christ and expressing this devotion using Hindu terminology and philosophical categories.10 Upadhyay did not explicitly state the ecclesiological implications of this formulation. I will, however, suggest two. First, though Upadhyay affirmed the importance of receiving the sacraments during mass for personal devotion, he did not place high emphasis on the local gathered community of faith as an expression of Church. Rather, he begins to indicate that the “Church” could be manifest through a Hindu society committed to Jesus. Second, Upadhyay did not see a tension between a Hindu religious identity and a Christian identity. New Christians thus did not need to renounce their Hindu identity as a pre-requisite for becoming members of a Church.

Upadhyay’s theological formulations of a Hindu-Christian synthesis are recognized as important contributions to an early Indian Christian theology. However, the particular articulations were rarely adopted or developed by ecclesial communities. Indeed, as Jeyaraj has pointed out, the high philosophical nature of Upadhyay’s arguments rarely appeal to most Hindus, the vast majority of whom do not engage in deeply philosophical considerations of the Hindu faith.11 However, though Upadhyay’s philosophy may have only appealed to a small number of elite Hindus, he identified and grappled with the commonly felt tension between the identity of the Hindu family and the identity of the individual Christian and the Christian community. One way of dealing with this, as I have described, was to divide the Hindu dharma between social and personal devotion and duties. Though many Hindus do not make such formal divisions, Upadhyay nonetheless posited that, in theory, they could be divided and that a disciple community could thus retain a Hindu identity. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church could ultimately not accept this proposition and distanc...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One: Foundations of the Study
• Chapter 1: Precedent Literature
• Chapter 2: Social Theory Framework
• Chapter 3: Ethnographic Methodology
• Chapter 4: An Introduction to Yeshu Satsangs and Their Context
• Part Two: The Formation and Markers of Ecclesial Identities of Yeshu Satsangs
• Chapter 5: Structural Emergent Properties Of Hindu/Sikh Practices
• Chapter 6: Inscribing New Cultural Emergent Properties on Hindu and Sikh Practices
• Chapter 7: Resisting and Reshaping Christian Practices
• Chapter 8: Ecclesial Identity Markers of the Yeshu Satsangs
• Chapter 9: The Emergence of the Yeshu Satsang’s Ecclesial Identities
• Part Three: A Critical Correlation of Yeshu Satsang and Biblical Ecclesial Identities
• Chapter 10: Ecclesial Identity Emergence in the Book of Acts
• Chapter 11: Conclusion and Recommendations
• Appendix A: Delimiting Region Versus Religion
• Appendix B: Summary of Yeshu Satsangis and Leaders
• Appendix C: Leadership Questionnaire
• Appendix D: Satsangi Questionnaire
• Appendix E: Summary of Yeshu Satsang Leaders by Community
• Appendix F: The Use of Bhajans by Yeshu Satsangs
• Glossary
• Bibliography