Beyond B orders

Beyond B orders
C hallenging B oundaries of
P hil osophy, Faith & E ducation

A Festschrift Celebrating Five Decades of

P S Jacobs Career in Education

Editors:
G r ace Jac o b & Pau l s o n P u l i ko t t i l

Publishing & Media

Bangal ore, India

 Beyond Borders
Challenging Boundaries of
Philosophy, Faith & Education

A Festschrift Celebrating Five decades of

P S Jacobs Career in Education

Copyright 2010 The Union Biblical Seminary

Published 2010 by
Primalogue Publishing Media Private Limited
#32, II Cross, Hutchins Road, Bangalore, 560084, India
Website: www.primalogue.com
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stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
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ISBN13: 9788190890410

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Interpretations and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily
those of the editors or The Union Biblical Seminary
 Dedicated to
former, present and prospective students
of
Plamthodathil S Jacob
 Contents
Preface ix
Introduction x
I. Philosophy and Religion 1
1. Reflections on the academic study of religion - Paul B 3
Courtright
2. Humanism and Religion: The Emerging Dialogue - 9
Jesudas M Athyal
3. Colonial Construction of Religious Identities in India: 21
A Critique - Brainerd Prince
4. Ramanuja and Kierkegaad on the Concept of Faith 45
(Bhakti) : A Critique - Gabriel Merigala
5. Bhakti in Maharashtra - Sadanand More 61
6. Tracing the Volitional Contours of the Self in the 67
Hindu Context - Varughese John

II. Faith and Society 79

7. Christianitys Contribution to Marathi Language & 81
Literature - Gangadhar Morje
8. Pandita Ramabais Quest for Mukti: The Struggle to Be 105
an Indian Christian - Sebastian C H Kim
9. Re-Visioning God in the 21st Century: A Dalit Pentecostal 119
Perspective - V V Thomas
10. A Christian Response to Gender-based Domestic 139
Violence: Some Perspectives - Elizabeth Leelavathi
Manasseh
11. Apologetic Challenges in India - C V Mathew 151
III. Higher Education 161
12. Science-Library Partnership - Nitya Jacob and Andrea 163
Heisel
13. Higher Education: Perceived Role, Overriding 167
Concerns, Changing Scenario and Evolving Form -
K B Powar

IV. Tributes 183

1. Monty Barker 185
2. Mani Jacob 193
3. Thomas Barnabas and Satish Barnabas 197
4. Yeager and Louise Hudson 200
5. Mary Clark Seelye 203
6. Alice Clark 206
7. Reny Ninan 208
8. Smriti Jacob 210

Contributors 212
Index 215
 Preface

T he idea of doing a Festschrift for Professor P S Jacob, Jake or PS

as he is also called at the Union Biblical Seminary was originally
expressed by a close friend, Alice Clark when she was visiting India
in 2003. Alice felt that this was long due. Jesudas Athyal, a former
student of PS had some good suggestions and helped to list out
possible contributors to cover the various academic contexts of PSs
work and associations.
At the same time, the Management Council of The Union Biblical
Seminary felt the need for honouring Professor P S Jacob who has been
associated with it since 1973. Dr Samson Parekh who was Principal of
the Union Biblical Seminary took the initiative in materializing the idea
by getting the official nod from the Governing Board in 2008. Professors
Paulson Pulikottil and Grace Jacob were appointed as editors in order
to bring out this volume by the end of 2009 to commemorate Professor
Jacobs fifty years of teaching.
We are grateful to all the writers who were related to Professor P
S Jacob as students, colleagues or associates for contributing to this
volume in honour of him. George Korah and his team at Primalogue
deserve special thanks for taking up the publishing at a very short
notice. Special thanks to the Governing Board of Union Biblical
Seminary for their earnest support and to God for his sustaining
grace throughout project.
It is our prayer that this book which celebrates five decades of PSs
teaching career beyond borders will accompany many students and
scholars in their learning and teaching as PS himself continues to teach.
We wish him many more years of happy teaching!
 Introduction
This volume celebrates Plamthodathil Samuel Jacobs fifty years of
teaching, a lifetime achievement. Professor Jacob began his career at
Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar in Maharashtra in 1959 after his MA
in Psychology at the University of Pune. Dr Thomas Barnabas was the
Principal of the college at that time. Earlier, he was an undergraduate
student at Ahmednagar College at the invitation of Rev Dr B P Hivale,
the founder principal, who stimulated his thinking, teaching interests
and a wider academic outlook. Dr Manorama Barnabas, who was head
of the Department of Psychology was a close academic associate, friend
and counselor to him from his undergraduate days. Over the years his
academic interests expanded beyond Psychology to include the fields
of Education, Philosophy and Religion.
As an educator, he actively contributed to a number of innovative
programmes and projects which included the National Service
Scheme which was pioneered at the Center for Studies in Rural
Development (CSRD), Ahmednagar College in 1966. Dr S K Hulbe who
was the faculty advisor of the Student Christian Movement of India
(Ahmednagar chapter) and the director of the CSRD was inspirational
for his involvement in social work. As a young teacher he always led his
students beyond the prescriptions of the curriculum, exposing them to
field study through camps, site visits and independent study projects.
He also contributed to the administration of the Remedial Education
Programme of the University Grants Commission (UGC) which was
initiated in the 1970s at the college. He served on the UGC Standing
Committee on the College Improvement in Humanities and Social
Sciences Programme. He was also a resource person at the National
Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi and
jointly authored a volume on Teaching Methodologies in Colleges. His
thoughts and ideas on education are reflected in a number of academic
presentations and publications in the field of Higher Education. He
was associated with the growth and development of the All India
 Introduction xi

Association for Christian Higher Education and was its president from
1990-1993. Jacob served as the Principal of Ahmednagar College from
1982 until his retirement in 1993.
All along his teaching career, he nurtured a keen interest in
Philosophy. After his MA in Philosophy from the University of Pune in
1964, he proceeded as a Fulbright Scholar to teach Philosophy courses
at Colby College, Waterville, Maine (USA), at the invitation of Professor
John Clark who was also a Fulbright professor from the United States
at Ahmednagar College. John Clark was a great inspiration for Jacobs
teaching and research. He had also worked with Professor Yeager
Hudson another Fulbright professor at Ahmednagar in publishing
a pioneering volume of self-study of the college titled Profile of a
College. While Jacob was on the Fulbright programme, he joined the
Ecumenical Fellows Programme in Advanced Religious Studies at The
Union Theological Seminary, New York in association with Columbia
University New York. During this time, he was privileged to take
courses offered by the famous theologian, Paul Tillich. At Columbia he
also served as an instructor for the Peace Corps Volunteers who were
coming to India. Interestingly, during this programme he associated
with Lillian Carter the mother of President Jimmy Carter, who was a
Peace Corps volunteer and they maintained communication during
her volunteer work in Mumbai (then Bombay).
While he was in New York in the Columbia University programme,
he met V S Naravane, professor of Modern Indian Thought at the
University of Pune, who encouraged him to return to India to pursue
his doctoral research. His thesis titled Christian Influence in Modern
Indian Thought: A study in the Philosophy of Religion was completed
under the supervision of Professor S S Barlingay and was awarded the
Gurudev Ranade Damle prize by the University of Pune for the best
doctoral thesis in Philosophy during 1972-1973. He was a contributory
teacher and a research guide in Philosophy at the University of Pune.
In 1996, he worked with professor Barlingay in organizing the World
Philosophers Meet in Pune. One of the significant contributions he
made to the field is his philosophical analysis of the religious poetry
of Narayan Vaman Tilak, the well known Marathi poet.
Jacob returned to teach in the Department of Philosophy and
Religion at Colby College in 1976. During 1990-1991 he served
as visiting professor at Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS) in
Decatur, Georgia. He recalls with great pleasure his friendship and
xii Beyond Borders

association with the well known Old Testament scholar, Professor

Walter Bruggemann at CTS. He served as visiting professor in the
Department of Religion at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia during
1993-1994 at the invitation of professor Paul Courtright, who has been
a long term friend and academic associate. During this visit he also
taught courses at Agnes Scott College, Decatur and later taught full
time at the college during 1995.
While he was at Ahmednagar College, he was visiting professor at
Jnana Deep Vidyapeeth (JDV), Pune teaching courses in experimental
psychology during 1979-1982. His associates at the JDV included John
de Marneff, the well known philosopher at the Pune University and
Fr Hans Staffner. Fr Mathew Lederle of Sneh Sadan, Pune was also a
close associate.
Jacobs association with the Union Biblical Seminary (UBS) began
in 1973 at Yavatmal as a visiting professor. Dr Saphir Athyal, the
Principal was instrumental in getting him interested in theological
education under the auspices of the Senate of Serampore College
(University). Since 1996, he has served as a full time adjunct professor
of Contextual Theology and recently as the Principal of UBS during
2009-2010. He is the founder editor of UBS Journal and continues to
guide doctoral theses for Senate of Serampore College (University).
In our conversations with Jacob he mentioned several persons with
whom he worked closely and whose names we have not been able
to include here. He has always acknowledged with gratitude their
contribution in shaping his life and thoughts.
Jacobs career in a secular educational background and close
association with people of different religious traditions has significantly
shaped his approach and outlook to theological education. By
constantly interrogating conventional borders, he urges his students
to cross over for a while and discover new boundaries of knowledge
and understanding. This he believes is an essential transcendental
experience for pluralistic learning and his students, colleagues and
associates have encountered this over the years. Right from his early
years of teaching at Ahmednagar College, he was inspired by the idea
of providing the opportunity for quality higher education to students
who would not have been able to access it due to socio-economic
hurdles or other challenges for learning. He was thus constantly
committed to innovative teaching in the process of engaging his
students in participatory life-long learning experiences. The insights
 Introduction xiii

gained from both his theological and secular educational experiences

have enriched each other.
The contributions to this volume by former students, colleagues,
associates, friends and immediate family are intended to provide
a reading experience on a range of topics and issues in Theology,
Philosophy, Religion, Christian Influence in Maharashtra and Higher
Education.

Philosophy and Religion

In a reflective and dialogical style, Paul Courtright narrates his
experience in the teaching and study of religion in higher education
in the American context. He tells us how it not only leads one to
perceive the similarities and differences in rituals and traditions across
religious cultures other than ones own but also to understand more
deeply ones own religious tradition. Hence the study of religion as
an academic subject has an important role to play in the contemporary
global situation in order to develop an inclusive outlook towards
religious pluralism.
Jesudas Athyal draws attention to the philosophical roots of
humanism in both Marxism and religion. He observes that though
Marxist humanism was the basis for political ideology in communist
states like the former Soviet Union and China, these states neglected
the development of humanism as perceived by Marx and Engels
in favour of their capitalistic interests. He underscores the need
for Marxist and religious camps to come together and fuse their
humanistic positions in order to address the concerns for protecting the
eco-system and counteracting fundamentalist forces in both religion
and communism.
Brainerd Prince argues that Hindu identity in India was shaped as
a result of colonialism. However its expression today in postcolonial
times in the form of communalism is not just religious but also of
caste and class politics. Very often caste politics is misread as clashes
between religious groups and identities and this he contends is the
basic reason for the spread of communalism in India. Prince illustrates
his point with reference to the recent communal violence in Kandhamal
in Orissa which he says could be seen as a conflict between two tribes
for their economic reasons, though this was not how it was projected.
He goes on to argue that it is important for politicians and others to
xiv Beyond Borders

drop the language of religious divide in order that the nation is not
polarized in terms of religious identities.
In a comparative analysis, Gabriel Merigala draws a parallel
between the concept of bhakti and the concept of faith by comparing
the views of the vedantic scholar Ramanuja and the existentialist
philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He elaborates how bhakti and faith
are distinct concepts in very diverse socio-religious contexts and
yet similar when it comes to describing the directions that a human
self needs to take while liberating itself from the clutches of karmic
bondage or sin. In both philosophical positions the human self has
to overcome alienation by responding to the quiet call or grace
of God.
We have a further elaboration of bhakti and the bhakti movement
in Maharashtra in Sadanand Mores paper. He highlights an essential
feature of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra-- the shift away from
Sanskrit to the Marathi language as a literary and philosophical
medium in the 13th century used by the Manubhava and Varkari cults.
Bhakti in Maharshtra gained an aesthetic expression of song and dance
particularly in the varkari tradition.
Varughese John argues that the dharmic self within the classical
Hindu religious tradition is predetermined. He goes on to say that
there is a chasm dividing the traditional and modern notion of self in
India whose growth points are the premises of the constitution and
its statements He is optimistic that this gap between the traditional
and the modern can be closed when the volitional self breaks free of
the limitations of the traditional one.

Faith and Society

Two papers focus on the theme of Christian influence in Maharashtra.
Gangadhar Morje describes how Marathi language and literature
underwent changes in form at various levels both spoken and written
as a result of its use in Christian missionary work. In the attempt to
translate the Bible into an accessible Marathi, the lexis from spoken
dialects were incorporated into the written form and new words
and concepts included thus expanding on the existing lexicography
of standard Marathi of the time. A new Dictionary, Molesworths
Dictionary included words spoken by the common people and
served as a model for dictionaries that followed. Thomas Candy
 Introduction xv

introduced the system of punctuation, on the lines of English grammar.

Christian Marathi evolved as a dialect of Marathi and a significant
body of Christian literature in Marathi was also published in traditional
literary forms: For example, the Khrista Purana by Fr. Stevens in 1614
and the abhangs of Narayan Vaman Tilak in the early twentieth century.
Laxmibai Tilaks autobiography Smriti Chitre is also recognized as
a major contribution to Marathi literature. Beyond langauage and
literature, Morje also comments on the influence of Christianity at the
socio-cultural level.
Among the converts to Christianity from the upper castes was
Pandita Ramabai who is known as an articulate and independent
thinker. Sebastian Kims paper draws attention to her conflict with the
church hierarchy and Christian doctrines in her struggle to maintain her
identity as an Indian Christian. This is reflected in her correspondence
and exchanges and her own testimony.
Leelavathi Mannaseh reports on a study that she conducted on Christian
women who were abused in their marriage. The observations show
how bible study could be used effectively as a means for overcoming
abuse. The findings have implications for theological education with
particular reference to domestic violence.
In an overview of Pentecostalism as a reform movement which
was directed towards religious social and cultural inclusiveness,
V V Thomas illustrates the case of the Dalit Pentecostal Movement in
Kerala. He addresses the need for a further broadening of the vision of
God and spirituality in keeping with the social realities of a globalised
world.
C V Mathew outlines the challenges that a Christian apologist
should be prepared to face as a theologian while trying to present the
Christian faith and its practices in India. He underscores the need for
a cross-cultural understanding in key areas and an attitude of humility
in trying to live ones faith.

Higher Education
In their essay, Nitya Jacob and Andrea Heisel briefly share their
observations from a collaborative study on faculty-librarian
partnership at Oxford College, Emory University. They elaborate
on how the scientific thought process of investigation in a laboratory
is completed only when students link it to the literary resources
xvi Beyond Borders

in the library. In the process, young science students learn how to

substantiate their experimental evidence with references to published
works. Both the science teacher and the librarian have their own
proactive roles to play in the partnership.
K B Powars paper on Higher Education provides both a historical
overview and a state-of-the-art perspective. He traces the paradigm
shifts that have occurred globally in the purposes of Higher Education
under the influence of changing political, social and economic scenarios
and a shift from elitist to egalitarian centers of learning.

Tributes
This section contains the personal reflections of select friends and the
Jacob family: Monty Barker, Mani Jacob, Thomas Barnabas and Satish
Barnabas, Yeager and Louise Hudson, Mary Clark Seelye, Alice Clark,
Reny Ninan, Smriti Jacob

Grace Jacob
and
Paulson Pulikottil
Philosophy and Religion
 1

Reflections on the Academic Study of Religion

Paul B Courtright

In July 1964, when I first arrived in India to take up a job in Ahmednagar College
as a tutor in English, I was met by a handsome young professor at the train station.
Welcome. My name is Jacob, P S Jacob. I am from Ahmednagar College. Though I
could not have imagined it then, that moment was the beginning of a life-long academic
and personal friendship.

In the years that have transpired, each of us has pursued careers in the academic
world: psychology, philosophy, religion, and administration and we have helped each
other along the way. Jacob helped facilitate my research visits to India; I assisted him
in arranging teaching opportunities in the States. We each wrote books, married, raised
children, and participated in a life-long conversation about India, America, and religion.
We share an ongoing interest in how religion shapes and is shaped by the cultural and
historical contexts in which it finds itself. We each recognize some of the ways religion
gives comfort and reassurance to individuals, families and communities, and some of the
other ways it corrodes human communities and sanctions violence. Like food, water and
air, religion can be nourishing and life giving; it can also be toxic and contaminated.

The Academic Study of Religion in the American Context

The academic study of religion as a project within higher education is a
distinctively American phenomenon. It has its origins in late nineteenth
century discourses on world religions or the great religions, modeled
after the categories in Protestant systematic theology, the study of other
religionsHinduism, Buddhism, Islam. It focused on sacred texts
(scripture), beliefs, and ethics. The study of religion is basically the
study of texts, drawing upon the methods of Orientalist scholarship
and Biblical studies.
From the 1960s to the present day, the academic study of religion
in colleges and universities has expanded its perspective to include
4 Beyond Borders

anthropologically informed research on religious practices such asin

the case of Hinduism: yatra, puja, and sampradaya. American scholars
working in India in recent decades have taken to what goes on religiously
in homes, shrines, and communities of practice. Scholarly publications
have expanded from the study of Sanskrit texts and traditions to regional
and local contexts. In the area of scholarly training, emphasis is placed
on learning Indian languages, lengthy field visits often with longitudinal
follow-up research over a period of years.
The process of moving the study from the world of texts to the world
of practices brings up important and sometimes vexing questions about
what the academic study of religion is actually about. One incident
comes to mind in my own experience that drove home the predicament.
Some years ago while I was staying in Pune for a few weeks studying
aspects of religious traditions in Maharashtra, I had the good fortune
of working with a distinguished scholar of Marathi literature, meeting
at his home several times a week. On one occasion while we were
having lunch with some European and American scholars one of
them mentioned he was going to the town of Jejuri, where there was an
important shrine to the god Khandoba, thought by many to be a form of
Shiva. An important festival was going to take place in which Khandobas
devotees carry his image from the temple at the top of the ghat, down
a steep stairway, to the nearby river for bathing and worship. Many
people brought their small images of their family deities for purification
and renewal. Our colleague was working on a film of this tradition and
wanted to add some footage to his project.
We drove to Jejuri and joined the thousands of devotees gathered
there. Most of them were from villages and small towns. A handful
of foreigners attracted some attention and before long a small crowd
gathered around us. We were not there to conduct research, so we had
the leisure of wandering around. One of my colleagues was fluent
in Marathi, and before long a conversation with some of Khandobas
devotees began. What place are you from? questioned one curious
young man. America, we are from America my colleague replied.
Are you here to worship Lord Khandoba? he asked, No, we are
here to see what everyone is doing. The young man looked puzzled.
Then, are you missionaries? he inquired. No, we are teachers in
universities in America. What is your subject? he asked. Religion
(dharma) she answered. Religion? What do you teach about it? She
went on in more complex Marathi than I could follow. She had told him
 Reflections on Academic Study of Religion 5

the Hindu religion was taught in American University classrooms as

stories, rituals, art, and history . The purpose of such instruction was to
describe Hinduism, compare it with other religions, and learn about the
place of religion in peoples lives. Our goal was to make our students
more aware of Hindu traditions and appreciate their contributions to
human experience.
Im not sure at what point the foreigners became the exotic other
to the assembled devotees of Khandoba. Such a practice as the study of
religion in a classroom may have seemed curious indeed. At this point it
was time to make the ascent to Khandobas temple. The conversation was
a cordial one. We were not there to proselytize; we were not spies. What
exactly we were there to learn or see, I suspect, remained perplexing or
curious to those who were there for specific religious purposes. They
were there to have the darshan of Khandoba, to complete or initiate a
vow, to refresh their own spiritual lives, and to join their family and
community in a place and at a time of heightened significance.
I have thought about that exchange from time to time as I teach and
write about religion in general and religion in India in particular. What
is it, precisely, that the study of religion seeks to study? My colleagues
in the sciences, history, anthropology, philosophy, or literature seem to
have something more specific in mind in their research: the behaviour
of particles, a political event, a kinship system, a set of ideas, a text. To
study religion as it is practiced seems less precise.
My own experience with the practice of the academic study of
religion is to assume that almost everything is relevant. Indeed, religion
is about everything in general. It is about how we understand the world
in which we find ourselves. It is about how we are related to the things
in the world that remain unresolved and undefined. My experience in
learning about the world called Hindu invites me to see how sacred
textsVedas, puranas, stotras, vrat katha, etc.are related to what
individuals, families, and communities do at particular times and places.
Like a vast jigsaw puzzle, seeing how individual pieces of ceremony,
food preparation, singing; indeed, breathing itself, form a complex and
coherent framework of meaning.

Finding there here: When the familiar becomes familiar

Kipling once wrote, He who knows only England knows not England.
Kiplings imperialist sentiments aside, I take his point to be that we do
6 Beyond Borders

not know our own place if we only know our own place. At the core of
the liberal arts vision in American higher education is the notion that
students must study things that are close to home: history, literature,
arts; acquire skills in getting access to knowledgesciences, including
information sciences; and they must study things that are far from home.
In the early part of my career in teaching comparative religions most of
my students were of Christian, Jewish or secular backgrounds. With the
demographic transformations that have been taking place over the past
few decades, nearly a quarter of my students are from Hindu, Muslim, or
Buddhist backgrounds. They bring important formation and experiences
to the classroom when the religion being studied is their own.
For many students the practice of looking at a religious tradition
as a matrix of practices, histories, sentiments, and narratives from the
outside, from a perspective that sets aside the normative claims a
religious tradition may make on its adherents, presses them to explore
more deeply what they already know. As several students over the
years have told me, we do these things (eg, puja, arati, etc.) but Ive
never thought about why. There is no single answer to the question
of why. Religious practices, like dietary ones, come from lineages of
family habits and traditions. It is only when one steps out of the familiar
frames of reference that the question of why becomes relevant, even
urgent. The consequence of asking why is not one of abandoning the
traditions, but deepening the nuances they bring.
In relation to the comparative study of religion, the study of a
tradition other than ones own, can also yield surprising result. Here I
can give another anecdote from personal experience, one that connects
again to my scholarly friendship with Jacob.
My own religious formation was in the liberal Protestant tradition.
This tradition places a relatively low level of emphasis on ritual practices,
especially in the home. When I returned to India for the second time,
now to engage in dissertation research, I focused on aspects of Hindu
ritual practices surrounding puja. I paid very close attention to the
settings of pujas as they were performed, especially in homes. I recorded
the pujaris utterances, photographed the domestic shrine space, noted
each gesture, and discussed each ritual episode with experts and family
members. Along the way I consulted scholarly books and articles
that were relevant to what I was observing. Eventually, I assembled a
narrative of what I had observed, quoted extensively from the ritual
 Reflections on Academic Study of Religion 7

texts used, and described the details of photographs taken.1

Several years after I had completed that study, my family and
I began to attend a more so-called high church form of Christian
liturgy. I began to realize that I was noticing aspects of the ritual I was
not aware of before. Gestures, the logic and structure of the ceremony,
the use of language, exchanges of sacred food, assembled themselves
into an overall process that made it more possible to understand why
people came back to the altar again and again throughout their lives.
What became clear to me was that my process of detailed observation
and inquiry into Hindu ritual had given me a framework through
which I could see things that were so familiar that they had escaped
my notice before. My enhanced capacity to appreciate my cultures own
tradition was made possible by the hospitality of my Hindu friends and
colleagues who helped make my research possible.2 Along the way I
shared my findings with Jacob. Being both Christian and Indian he
helped me clarify perspectives that were still taking shape in my own
mind.
Stepping out of ones own culture and attempting to make the
strangeness of another culture familiar is a practice for which there are
no set instructions. Crossing over into other peoples worlds, stories, and
sentiments is part method, part intuition, and part timing. Sometimes
scholars get it wrong at the level of facts and details. Other times they
identify patterns or interpretations that the practitioners themselves
find interesting or uncongenial to their own views. Like translating a
text from one language to another, translating one culture or religion
to another involves technical accuracy and intuition. If it were a simple
matter of equivalence, translation could be done by computers entirely.
Like poetry, religious texts work at the edges of language, potentially
pulling in new associations and meanings with each reading or recitation.
The last couple of decades have witnessed a new level of religious
passion. Contrary to confident predictions in the West in the early
twentieth century modernity that religion was coming to the end of
its career and would be replaced by a secular humanism, religion
is back in ways that are more muscular, defensive, and aggressive.

1 Paul Courtright, Gaesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1985).
2 Paul Courtright, Looking at Eucharist through the Lens of Puja: An
Experiment in the Comparative Study of Religion. International Journal of Hindu
Studies. 2/3, 1998, pp. 423-440.
8 Beyond Borders

Each of the major world religions has some ultra or extremist or

fundamentalist voices that claim to speak for the authentic tradition.
For many, identity and subjectivity are tied up with exclusivist and
totalitarian readings of religion that are inward looking and suspicious
of boundary-crossing hospitality to others. Perhaps these developments
are inevitable responses to the global consumerism of late modernity as
many scholars have argued.3 There is much to be learned from paying
careful attention to these developments. Perhaps, like the twists and
turns of the histories of religious traditions, these ominous developments
will be succeeded by a new generation of voices that are more welcoming
to difference and pluralism.
It is to this latter vision, a robust embrace of religious difference
and the kinds of dialogues that emerge at the boundaries, that Jacob
has spent working on for most of his intellectual life. From his research
on Narayan Vaman Tilak, a Brahmin-Christian to his educational
leadership in higher education in the secular state of India, Jacob
has taught us the value of listening, comparing, and appreciating the
complexity of individual religions and the relations between them.

3 See, Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious
Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
 2

Humanism and Religion: The Emerging

Dialogue
Jesudas M Athyal

A Tribute to a Mentor

During 1984-89, I had the privilege of doing my PhD study under Dr Jacobs
guidance. As a research scholar in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Poona,
I could see the respect Dr Jacob commanded among the largely Maharashtrian Brahmin
circles of the University. The fact that as a student he had been moulded by the legendry
Professor Barlingay added to his stature. Owing to all these factors, in a rare departure
from convention, the University allowed me to work from the Ahmednagar College of
which Dr Jacob was then the Principal. What was remarkable about Dr Jacob as a teacher
was that, within the broad methodological framework of the research, he would allow the
student immense freedom to innovate and experiment with new and radical ideas even when
they differed from his own ideological positions. He is indeed a researchers dream guide.

Philosophy of Religion had been Dr Jacobs passion throughout his life. To his credit
it must be stated, that even while working as the Principal of one of the biggest colleges in
Maharashtra, he set aside several hours each day for scholarly pursuits. He was a sought
after resource person at academic gatherings in the country and abroad. Dr Jacob taught
religion in secular, academic as well as theological colleges. He is an original thinker, eager
to break out of the conventional and stereotypical approach to the study of religion. As his
classical study on Narayan Vaman Tilak revealed, rather than doing a textual or rigidly
academic study, he preferred to study religion in the context of dialogue with living faiths
in which he displayed a rare sensitivity to the cultural background of the context.

Religion, Marxism & Humanism

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Socialism and
Communism in several East European countries have simultaneously
re-kindled an interest in humanism as the under-lying value in all
socio-political systems. Of course, whether humanism is not at the
10 Beyond Borders

heart of Communism continues to be an unsettled academic question.

Communists themselves would prefer the term, the socialist man to
any references to the humanist, to underscore the political content of
any socio-political system. According to this analysis, Socialism failed
because the socialist societies succumbed to the lure of sophisticated
consumer goods and capitalist cultural values dangled in front of
them from across the borders. It neglected the task of building the
socialist man as envisaged by Marx and Engels. The creation of the
socialist man was, quite evidently, not a part of the political agenda
and therefore excluded from the academic fora.1 Thus, the failure
of the socialist system is analysed as a failure at the political front
alone. From the historical information available now, there is no
doubt that the earlier writings of Marx contain the rudiments of a
Marxist humanism, extremely important for any current discussion
on humanism. What is important at this stage is that contemporary
history also reiterates the belief that any socio-political ideology, to
sustain the onslaught of time, must be rooted in a holistic philosophy
that values the humanity of humankind. As M N Roy put it almost
half a century ago: Except on the basis of a philosophy embracing
the totality of existence, all approaches to the problems of individuals
and social life are bound to be misleading.
An interesting offshoot of the debate on reforming Communism
is the preparedness to treat religion as something more than a mere
relic from the past which would be swept away in the inevitable
and dialectical course of history. Of course, the similarities between
religionparticularly Christianityand Marxism in the composition
and mentality of early Christian and communist groups, their relations
with society as a whole and the emergence of ideological conflict are
not totally unknown to Marxist theoreticians. Several statements of
Engels himself reveal remarkable points of contact between them
(S.F. Kissin). Some prominent Christiansboth theologians and lay
peoplesuch as Reinhold Niebuhr, Nicholas Berdyaev and Jacques
Maritain endorse the similarities between institutions and concepts
of early Communism and early Christianity. There have been similar
attempts in other parts of the world too, relating Communism to
religion. In the Indian context, Shashi Joshi had stated that in the recent
past, Marxism and religion underwent a crisis of varying proportions
and sections from within the fold which sought to overcome it and
restore what they perceive as its original pristine purity by a return to

1 Ashok Mitra, Social Scientist (July-August 1994): 5

 Humanism and Religion: The emerging Dialogue 11

the sources and scriptural reinterpretation.2 Further, Joshi claims that

this has led to the emergence of the twin phenomenon of humanistic
socialism on the one hand and liberation theology on the other.
Whether such direct parallels between the revolutionary changes in
Marxism and religion as claimed by Joshi, can be drawn, is indeed
a matter to be probed further. What is important for our present
discussion is the fact that the willingness of the theologians to treat
Marxism as a tool for social analysis and the Marxist appreciation of
the liberative potential of religion, have emerged today as strong points
for continuing the dialogue between faith and ideology. Indeed, the
humanism of the religious believer and the humanism of the subscriber
to Marxian ideals appear to meet as allies at this stage.
What is attempted in this paper is an identification of those
humanist elements in religion, Marxism and post Marxism that can
be the basis of such a dialogue.

Humanism: Philosophical Roots

The term humanism is generally understood in the context of an
ideological system that considers the human being as the measure of
all things. The rudiments of humanism can be found in various ancient
philosophical systems. Greek Philosophy originated as an inquiry into
the humanistic problems of knowledge and conduct as elaborated in
the theories of Heraclitus and Parmenides. The Sophists and Socrates
turned away from ontological and cosmological speculations regarding
the constitution and origin of the external world and devoted their
attention almost exclusively to the problems of human beingsto
human knowledge and conduct.
Similarly, the ancient Hebrew philosophy also represented a
humanism which visualised the highest and the most desirable human
state as a life in communion with God. As Martin Buber, the Jewish
theologian, put it,

God speaks to every man through the life which he gives him again
and again. Therefore, man can only answer God with the whole of life
- with the way in which he lives this given life. The Jewish teaching of
the wholeness of life is the other side of the Jewish teaching of the unity
of God. Because God bestows not only spirit on man, but the whole

2 Shashi Joshi, Economic and Political Weekly (Nov. 9, 1991): 2564.

12 Beyond Borders

of his existence, from its lowest to its highest levels as well, man
can fulfil the obligations of his partnership with God by no spiritual
attitude, by no worship, on no sacred upper storey; the whole of life
is required, everyone of its areas and everyone of its circumstances.3
While such an understanding of humanism falls short of the
secular criterion in treating the human being as an autonomous
and self-sufficient entity, it does place the total human being in a
harmonious relationship with the rest of humanity, nature and the
transcendental reality. Unlike the Sophist and the Socratic Greek theory
of human beings, thus, the Hebrew thought represents a humanism
which is essentially theistic in nature.
The ancient Stoics too had developed a humanism that placed the
human being in harmony with God and nature. Reason was considered
as the highest virtue and a life in accordance with rational laws, the
most ideal. Human existence should be intellectual, and all bodily
pains and pleasures should be despised. A harmony between the
human will and universal reason constitutes virtue. The Stoics thus
developed a humanism based on ethical norms.
The Epicurean philosophy, on the other hand, was essentially
materialistic and individualistic in nature. By freeing atomism of its
original naivety, Epicuros made room for individual freedom in a
law-governed universe, in a world obeying the laws of nature. This
concept of humanism too was rooted in ethical values as the rules of
physical science were considered as subordinate to and dependent on
moral science. However, the metaphysical and ethical aspects of the
Epicurean humanism did not prevent the human being from being
essentially epicurean, for, his philosophy was the art of enjoying
life; it had no concern for death or the power of the gods whom he
called the product of delusion; It was indifferent to the future, because
there was nothing after death, the soul being a congeries of atoms
which dissolved into its constituent.4 In short, despite its spiritual
and moral aspects, Epicurean humanism was rooted in the hedonistic,
materialistic and atheistic streams of the ancient Greek Philosophy.
Coming to the middle ages, the rational and humanist thought
of the Christian era permeated to the religious structures as well. In

3 Quoted in Philosophy for a time of crisis, (ed) Adrienne Koch (New York: E P
Dutton And Company, 1959), 191.
4 Koch, Philosophy, 191.
 Humanism and Religion: The emerging Dialogue 13

Europe, the Arabs were the torch bearers of scientific knowledge and
rationalism. This paved the way for the renaissance in the Continent
later. The spirit of free inquiry and humanism had entered the church
structures as well. There was a growing demand for a reform of the
church, moderation of the ecclesiastical authority and liberalising of
the dogmatic orthodoxy. A passionate appeal to the church to return to
its humanist roots however, was interpreted by the church fathers
as heresy and atheism. The way was thus paved for the church to be
reduced to a rigid, hierarchical institution.
The spirit of rational inquiry and humanism however, had
permeated far too deep into the society to be put down by the
ecclesiastical institution. The spectacular progress and achievements
of science since the Renaissance had a profound impact on human
life and mind. The traditional religious belief had instilled in human
beings the feeling that everything worldly is evil and that what is of
real value is the life beyond. Such spiritualization of the universe and
life led effectively to a degradation of the human being. Renaissance,
on the other hand, with a passionate love for nature and appreciation
of the good things in life, blazed the humanist trail by negating all
de-humanising forces. In Lord Actons words, the Renaissance, by a
passionate worship of beauty and the joys of life, placed the aesthetic
against the ascetic. Renaissance was thus a crucial phase in history as
it liberated the human from the clutches of the dehumanising forces
and restored his/her humanity.
Humanism, as it evolved into a well-defined philosophical system
during the Renaissance, had a definite spiritual dimension as well.
The supernaturalism of the traditional religious belief was opposed
to naturalism. Human as well as universal nature, placed against
the supposedly transcendental dimension, was projected as finite
and blemished. According to M N Roy, renascent humanism, on the
other hand, held that, if God had made man after his own image,
the flesh could not be impure; its desires could not be sinful and to
satisfy them could not be immoral.5 What humanism did was not to
negate moral or ethical values but to re-define them in the light of the
emerging rational and scientific spirit. In tackling the moral as well as
aesthetic question, however, renascent humanism did not fall back on
the Greek or Christian philosophical systems of abstract speculation
and spiritualism. Rather, the approach of the renascent humanists

5 M. N. Roy, Reason, Romanticism and Revolution (Vol.I), 79.

14 Beyond Borders

was practical. They did not theorise about the relation between ethics
and aesthetics, they lived a life which indicated a solution of the old
problem. It confronted them in a somewhat different form, as the
conflict between asceticism and aesthetic. The essential characteristic
of the renascent morality was at once humanist because the human
being was taken as the measure of all things and naturalist, because
it was morality that does not shun but enjoys the goodness of nature.

Marxian Humanism
It is generally agreed by the Marxist as well as non-Marxist scholars
that Karl Marx stands essentially in the European humanist tradition
though he made a distinctly original contribution to it. Following Marx,
there was a wave of existential humanist-interpretations of Marxism
which focused on alienation-anthropological questions.
The basis of Marxian humanism is Marxs materialism which is
identified as historical, dialectical and practical.6 Marxian materialism
as an anti-metaphysical and anti-speculative system developed under
the philosophical influence of Hegelian thought. Hegels philosophy,
on its part, came as the culmination of German idealism and speculative
metaphysics. The credit for laying the dialectical framework of
Marxs thought goes to the Hegelian methodology. However, Marx
acknowledged Feuerbach as the philosopher who had brought down
the idealistic speculation of Hegel with his materialism and thus
brought about a decisive defeat of all metaphysics by overcoming the
highest and most sophisticated expression.7
According to Marx, the distinction between classical materialism
and dialectic materialism is essentially humanist in nature. Classical
materialism contemplated nature as an object, studied its laws,
and eventually reduced everything to the operations of these laws.
Consequently, the worth of the human person was reduced to that of
a cog in a machine. Even the thought process of human beings was
considered nothing more than mere physical reflexes of the brain.
Thus classical materialism was in reality mechanical misanthropy.
The philosophy that originated in such an environment was one far
removed from the existential realities of human beings. Even the

6 Marx, however, made a distinction between classical materialism which is

essentially metaphysical and the dialectical (historical) form of materialism
7 Bastiaan Wielenga, Introduction to Marxism (Bangalore: Center for Social
Action, 1984), 289.
 Humanism and Religion: The emerging Dialogue 15

humanism of Feuerbach and his contemporaries did not take the

historical dimension of any serious consequence.
The principle of dialectics, on the other hand, applies to the
humanising process of the human-nature relationship. Classical
history had treated human history as part and parcel of natural
history. While such a characterisation underlined the continuity of the
human-nature dialectic, it had relegated the human role to a secondary
position. What was overlooked is the invariable link between the two.
Just as it is impossible to study nature without human beings, so it is
impossible to study human beings without nature. Nature and human
history are not only closely connected but they condition each other
as well. Within the natural process, both operate in dialectical tension.
Marxian humanism also affirms that the humanisation of the
human person is possible only by the humanisation of nature. Nature
as an exploited social structure stands in contradiction to the essence of
human beings or the human values. Marx defined such a contradiction
as alienation and proceeded to analyse the roots of such alienation
in the political and economic spheres. Private property, the division of
labour, capital, land, wages, profit, ground rent and also competition
and the concept of exchange value are identified as the areas where
the alienation of the human being occurs in a most glaring and gross
manner. There is an invariable and negative link between the human
who produces and his/her production.
Marx thus envisaged a humanising process by transforming the
exploitative social structures and money relations to a more egalitarian,
harmonious and just order. All labour is social and needs to be
organised from the proletarian perspective. The resultant production
too is social. Since both labour and production are social, such a process
links human to human and relates the isolated individual to the whole
society. Marx identified the whole of the production process and the
society as invariably linked to and dependent on nature.

Post-Marxian Humanism
While there are many historical and philosophical reasons for a
reassertion of the humanist emphasis in the post-Marxist period, one
important reason is the degeneration of Marxism as the dogmatised
ideology of the Marxian State. There were wide-spread criticisms,
even in Marxist circles, about the excesses committed by Josef Stalin
16 Beyond Borders

in the Soviet Union in the nineteen thirties. While most of the critics
were neo-Marxists or post-Marxists, a radically different approach to
Marxism came from another sector of the Communist establishment
China. The political theory of Mao Tse Tung emerged from the context
of the revolutionary practices in the mainland of China. Mao did not
directly attack Stalin, but his propositions, aiming at a rejection of
dogmatism, deviated from the orthodox Marxist position. Inspired by
the revolutionary practice, it is generally considered that Mao comes
closest to the spirit of the Feuerbachian theses. He started with the
critique of pre-Marxian materialism which examined the problem
of knowledge apart from the social nature of man and apart from
his historical development. Maos political theory can be seen as a
combination of the Feuerbachian and Marxian humanism applied to
the unique situation of China. Along with Marx, Mao too maintained
that the human persons social practice alone is the criterion on the
truth of his/her knowledge of the external world.
The Polish Marxist philosopher Adam Schaff, on the other hand,
critiqued Marxian socialism from the European humanist tradition.
Schaffs attempt was to defend the humanist characteristic of Marxism,
against the criticism of some neo-Marxists that Marxism essentially is
theoretical anti-humanism. Their position was that Marx presented
a scientific breakthrough and that his scientific socialism is a break
from the traditions of bourgeois humanism. The French philosopher
Louis Althusser was among the foremost in developing a critique of
Marxian humanism which focuses on the central role of human beings
as the subjects of history. Althusser held that in order to arrive at a
scientific understanding of society, Marxist theory has to focus not on
the conscious activities of the human subject but on the unconscious
structures which these activities presuppose. He cautioned against
the danger of Marxism slipping into the individualist Feuerbachian
humanism instead of a revolutionary social praxis.
Marxism, by definition, seeks to analyse human alienation in
society and projects the vision of a new social order where the humanity
of the alienated people is restored and thus can be characterised as a
humanist philosophy. Though the entire Marxian theoretical edifice is
built on such a humanist basis, the works of the later (or mature)
Marx are devoted to a scientific analysis of the economic and social
factors responsible for human alienation. Humanist references are
rare here and when made, are coated heavily with economic and
social thoughts. It is the writings of the early (or young) Marx,
 Humanism and Religion: The emerging Dialogue 17

first published only in 1952, that present the humanist philosophy in

a more explicit manner, from the Marxian perspective. Initially, there
were strong tendencies to dissociate the economic-social Marx of the
latter period from the humanist-philosophical Marx of the former
period. However, a more comprehensive study would establish the
integral relationship between the philosophical and the materialistic
trends in Marxian theory.
While there is no unanimity of opinion on whether the works of the
mature Marx were an extension or a negation of the earlier humanist
framework, what is undisputed is that any study of the humanist
philosophy of Marx needs to take seriously his earlier writings, known
otherwise as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
Like Mao, Althusser too developed his Marxian critique against
the background of the de-humanisation under Stalin. Significantly, it
was during the post-Stalinist period that the Economic and Philosophic
Manuscripts were discovered. Against the background of the
discoveries of the Manuscripts and the de-humanist image of Stalin,
several Communist countries in East Europe stressed the need for a
reaffirmation of the humanist values within the Marxian framework.
Striking a warning note however, Althusser added that such
generalized interpretation of the Marxian theory could undermine the
revolutionary potentials of Marxism. He saw in such humanist talk the
danger of petty-bourgeois values undermining the firm foundations of
scientific socialism and hampering the class struggle. He conceded
that alienation and the complete emancipation of the human species
are indeed the humanistic basis of the anthropological Marx. But the
humanism of the early Marx needs to be rejected for the sake of a
proper discovery and distinction of the real breakthrough achieved by
the mature Marx.8 This, Althusser calls, is the epistemological break
where Marx gave up both the Hegelian idealism and Feuerbachian
humanism and started studying history with structural concepts such
as forces of production and relations of production.
Althussers analysis thus is that Marx gave a structural analysis in
which the relations of production and not the isolated human beings
play the crucial role. The individual man is made the subject of history
in the Marxian scientific analysis of society. The epistemological

8 Louis Althussar, Lenin and Philosophy and other essays (New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1971), 105.
18 Beyond Borders

break is with the bourgeois humanist theory which places the pursuit
of the individual person after wealth and status, the centre of history.
Marx discovered the crucial role of the material and technological
conditions of production. He presented the mode of production
rather than, man as the key to a scientific analysis of society. In
such a sense, it has often been pointed out that Marxian humanism is
theoretically anti-humanist in nature.
Bastiaan Wielenga, reviewing Althussers critique of Marxism,
points out that Althusser overlooks that Marx, with his scientific
analysis, is not presenting a new general truth, but that he is involved
in a concrete critique of the capitalist mode of production. What is
important is that it is capitalism which turns the productive process
against the human beings, thus degrading their human hood. Even for
the latter Marx states the confrontation is not between the mechanical
and inanimate objects called capital and labour; the tension
essentially is between dead labour and living labour where
the former dominate over and exploit the latter. It is the throbbing
human labour that stands at the centre, as being reified, alienated
and subordinated to the laws of motion of capital. Thus, under the
capitalist conditions, humans have been turned from being the subjects
to be the objects of history. It is this humanist emphasis in Marx which
Althusser seems to miss in his critique. The Marxian emphasis on the
subjective element of living labour is not presented as an apology
for bourgeois humanist illusions, but in order to critique it from a
socialist perspective.

Prometheus Rediscovered
For Marx, the tyranny of religion is the consequence of the tyranny
of the private property and the division of labour in the natural
change of history. Religion thus represents the secular and religious
forms of human alienation, rooted in this basic form of alienation. The
abolition of this form of human alienation, consequently, becomes the
condition for the abolition of all human alienation. That this process
is completed only under a communist system is the position of the
Marxian humanist theory.
Apart from the role of the oppressive religious structures, the
Marxian theory has fundamental philosophical problems with the
theistic position. Here too, the approach is essentially humanistic as
the purpose of the Marxian rejection of God is to affirm the centrality
 Humanism and Religion: The emerging Dialogue 19

of man. The symbol of Prometheus, the Greek mythological figure, is

chosen to make this point. The confession of Prometheus in simple
words: I hate the pack of gods, is its own confession, its own aphorism
against all heavenly and earthly gods who do not acknowledge human
self-consciousness as the highest divinity. It will have none other
beside. Prometheus best represents the militant humanism of Marx.
The mythological figure symbolises the liberation of the oppressed
humanity. As a contemporary dialectics of the Magnificat, the
symbol points towards the need to bring the gods down from their
exalted positions, in order to lift the human to the heavens.
Paradoxically, Prometheus also symbolises the point of entry
in a Marxist-religious dialogue today. The emergence of liberation
theologies that reject the academic, transcendental nature of traditional
theology and affirm the humanity of all humankind and the integrity
of creation has been a phenomenon in all religions in the modern
period. As a result, a section of theologians and clergy have involved
themselves in the struggles of the economically oppressed and socially
marginalised people, especially in third world societies. Several
concerned individuals from religious as well as Marxist backgrounds
are convinced that a fusion of the two ideas is the urgent task today.
The need to preserve the delicate eco-system, combat the forces of
communalism and religious fundamentalism and resist the onslaught
of capitalism and imperialism on non-western societies (neo-
colonialism) are a few of the major challenges before the liberative
sections in the various religions and the Marxist / Socialist camp today.
By striving together to redeem the lost humanity of humankind, a new
humanism will be born.