A Critical Study ..... (Ph.D Thesis) (Introduction)

INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH RATIONALE AND METHODOLOGY

1.      Purpose of the Study

The primary purpose of the study of this dissertation is to construct a relevant

Theology of Mission out of the interaction between the Gospel and Culture in a Mara context. The existing theology in Maraland is the traditional exclusive theology inherited from the Western missionaries that is from London during the Colonial times which cannot cope any more with the present context, with all its problems. Moreover, the spread of British administration, the conversion of the Maras to the Christian faith and the rapid social change brought by Colonialism and modernization has run through all the fabric of the Mara life. While admitting that change is a need of the society and irreversible process, this change has also brought many problems. To address these problems and to cope with the present context, it is imperative for Mara Christians to construct a relevant theology to meet the challenges of the present realities. However, as the existing theological paradigm is an exclusive one which rejects the Mara religion-cultural values and at the same time not opens to dialogue or change. Therefore, a shift to contextual paradigm might be a radical shift in the Mara context. To engage in this work, this study will critically analyze the interaction between the Christianity brought by the Missionaries from London and the traditional Mara religion and culture for the past one hundred years. Mara traditional religious, social and cultural elements such as the concept of the Supreme Being, human and the world view, Chapchar kut or Lyuva Khutla (a Mara traditional festival) and the Mara philosophy of apiepasaihna hro (altruism-altruist) will be taken for theological hermeneutics.

2.      The Research Questions

Even after celebrating the centenary of the Mara Christianity, the interaction of the Gospel and culture has continued to be the subject of debate among the Mara Christian. In fact, the Christian theology has not been interpreted in terms of Mara religion-culture and thought forms which has led to identity crisis and displacement and inadequate theology that is not open to change. Why did the Maras have to abandon their traditional religious, social and cultural practices when they converted to Christianity?

It was believed that the revival movements first started in 1934 and continued occasionally in subsequent years were the backbone of Mara Christianity because they provides the Maras with a setting for regaining and maintaining their identity and selfhood against the prevailing process of westernization. To what extent did traditional cultural values and practices influence the revivalists? How far was the revival movement in Maraland responsible for reformulating or reinterpreting the Mara cultural elements to form indigenous Mara Christianity?

Then, with the inspiration of the missionaries and the revival movement in Maraland, Mara Christians have been engaged in mission and evangelism work in Myanmar and in India. However, the resurgence of other religions (e.g. Buddhism) is perhaps the most significant feature of the contemporary religious context in Myanmar, and (e.g. Hinduism) in India today which we did not see in Colonial times. In such a context, the traditional colonial paradigm adopted by the Mara Evangelical Church and Evangelical Church of Maraland in her mission and evangelism work is seen by others as having an intolerant and arrogant attitude. For example, the Mara missionaries’ activities among the poor people under the pretext of rendering social service are seen as suspicious and are sometimes forbidden. How should the Mara Evangelical Church and Evangelical Church of Maraland confront this newly discovered world, a world inviting confidence rather than distrust?

Accordingly, we observe today that new ways of understanding the gospel have emerged. Mara Christians have started a search towards self-identity and begun to look at what they have inherited as the gospel message and Christian culture. The Mara Christians have an awareness of the need to reinterpret the gospel anew in their own culture and express it using idioms and concepts that make sense to their people. In this context what will be the response of the Mara Evangelical Church and Evangelical Church of Maraland if they want the gospel to take root deep into their culture and become effective?

3.      Methodology

In response to the research questions, the author will adopt a methodology which will be the main interpreting tool to construct a Mara theology of mission. Theological methodology is here understood as a working principle used by theologians in the articulation of theology with a view to achieving a theological vision of the community of faith. Usually the choice of the methodology depends on the theological vision of a particular theologian and the situation in which theology is to be constructed. In response to the complex situation where identity crisis, displacement and social injustice become the theological agenda, the concern is to integrate both social transformation and enculturation of the Christian gospel. It is these concerns which compel the author to employ two particular theological approaches. The first one is postcolonial approach because of its comprehensive critique of both colonial and neo-colonial practices and uncovering of hidden agendas and meanings. It also provides alternative readings which is not only binary, but also from the perspective of resistance and dissent, retrieval of heritage, etc. Secondly, we have a synthetic model which is concern with the development of a new and relevant theology from the synthesis of gospel and culture to compliment the postcolonial discourse.

Postcolonial Approach

The term “Postcolonialism” refers broadly to the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture and human identity itself are represented in the modern era, after many colonized countries gained their independence. Post-colonial as originally used by historians after the Second World War designating the post-independence period. However, from the late 1970’s the term came to mean not only a simple periodisation after the western countries dominated militarily, but also a methodological revisionism that enables a wholesale critique of western structures of knowledge and power since the enlightenment. This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is a key in postcolonial theory. This led to what came to be called colonialist discourse theory in the work of critics such as Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who introduced terms such as “subaltern and essentialism.” Postcolonial theory deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. It is essential for theological reflection that one understands it as a critical tool addressing primarily imperialism’s general and continuing ideological roles in peoples and cultures of the Third World countries. It is not simply concerned with salvaging past worlds, but learning how the world can move beyond this period together, towards a place of mutual respect. As suggested by R.S. Sugirtharajah, the term generates at least three meanings.

First, in a historical sense, it encapsulates the social, political and cultural conditions of the current world order, bringing to the fore the cultural, political and economic facts of colonialism, and aiding recognition of the ambiguities of decolonization and the ongoing non-colonization.

Secondly, as a discursive practice, postcolonial criticism has initiated arresting analyses of texts and societies. It provides openings for oppositional readings, uncovers suppressed voices and more pertinently, has as its foremost concern victims and their plight. It has not only interrogated colonial domination but has also offered viable critical alternatives.

Thirdly, the term implies the political and ideological stance of an interpreter who is engaged in anti-colonial and anti-globalizing theory and praxis. Applied to theological studies, it seeks to uncover colonial designs in theological development, and endeavours to re-read theology from such postcolonial concerns as identity, hybridity and Diaspora.

Hybridity commonly refers to the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization. Hybridity has most recently been associated with the work of Homi K. Bhabha, whose analysis of colonizer/colonized relations stresses their interdependence and the mutual construction of their subjectivities. Bhabha contends that all cultural statements and systems are constructed in a space that he calls the “third space of enunciation.” Thus the new Mara converts who used to sing only translated hymns, composed new songs with a tune which was neither exactly the western tune nor Mara traditional tune; a hybrid new tune has emerged which really satisfies the Mara Christians. Diaspora, the term once used to describe Greek and Jewish dispersion, has now been widened to include other, parallel experiences, based on the transnational migrations which have been a major consequence of the colonial project. In postcolonial terms, Diaspora signifies the formation of identities based on diversity and difference and is not necessarily seen in terms of reconnecting with a reverential notion of homeland. It challenges the territorially confined notion of national culture through the fact of wide-ranging movements of people. Therefore, in constructing a vital and coherent theology diversity and difference should not be minimized; rather it has to be held together as a mosaic to enrich Christian theology. As the society we live in is changing, a relevant theology cannot be static. It is not possible to think of one theology for all ages and places. It must be opened to critical evaluation and if necessary, to reconstruction to meet the need of the context.

Postcolonial theory has various readings, the author intends to apply heritagist, resistant and dissident readings which are in line with the proposed investigation.