THE FAITH AND RATIONALITY OF DALIT CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

Authors

  • Mathew N Schmalz DHARMARAM VIDHYA KSHETRAM (DVK)

Keywords:

FAITH AND RATIONALITY, DALIT CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

In his encyclical Fides et Ratio, John Paul II observes that faith and
rationality belong to the essence of Christianity: rationality without
faith courts nihilism, while faith without rationality conjures
superstition. As love of wisdom, philosophy shows “in different
modes and forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature
itself.2 Moreover, each culture has its own “seminal wisdom” that
finds expression in forms that are “genuinely philosophical.”

Author Biography

Mathew N Schmalz, DHARMARAM VIDHYA KSHETRAM (DVK)

Mathew N. Schmalz Mathew N. Schmalz is Associate Professor of Religious
Studies and Director of the College Honors Program at the College of the Holy Cross,
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. His primary areas of research and publication are
Global Catholicism, South Asian Studies, and Modern Religious Movements. He is
co-author of Engaging South Asian Religions: Boundaries, Appropriations, and Resistances
(SUNY Press) and regularly writes for the Washington Post website “On Faith.”
Schmalz lived as a student and researcher for four years in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

References

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship between Faith and Reason, Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1998.

Benedict XVI, “Culture and Truth: Some Reflections on the Encyclical LetterFides et Ratio,” The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches, eds. John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2007).

Fides et Ratio.

Mathew N. Schmalz,“Dalit Christian Pentecostalism in a North Indian Village,” Dalit International Newsletter 7 (October 2001).

Adam Kuper, Culture: The Anthropologists’ Account, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

D.S. Amalorpavadass, The Gospel and Culture, Bangalore: National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturigical Centre, 1978.

RaimonPanikkar, A Dwelling Place for Wisdom, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,1993.

Mathew N. Schmalz, “Ad Experimentum: Theology, Anthropology and the Paradoxes of Indian Catholic Inculturation,” Theology and the Social Sciences, ed. Michael Barnes, Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Mathew N. Schmalz, “The Indian Church: Catholicism and Indian Nationhood,” The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives, eds. Paul Manuel, Lawrence Reardon, and Clyde Wilcox, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006.

Robert Deliège, “Myths of Origin of the Indian Untouchables,” Man (N.S.) 28 (1993).

Arvind P. Nirmal, ed. Towards a Common Dalit Ideology, Madras: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, n.d.; James Massey, Towards Dalit Hermeneutics, Delhi: ISPCK, 1994.

George Soares Prabhu, S. J., The Dharma of Jesus, ed. Francis Xavier D’Sa, S. J., Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003.

J. Brian Benestad, “Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Historicism in Pope John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio,” in Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A. A., eds. Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2002.

Mathew N. Schmalz, “Veronica’s Candidacy,” Dalit International Newsletter 9 (June 2005).

Mathew N. Schmalz, “The Broken Mirror: John Masih’s Journey from Isai to Dalit,” On the Margins of Faith: Dalit and Tribal Christianity in India, eds. Rowena Robinson and Joseph Marianus Kujur, Delhi: Sage Publications, 2010.

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Published

2011-03-31

How to Cite

Schmalz, M. N. . (2011). THE FAITH AND RATIONALITY OF DALIT CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. Asian Horizons, 5(01), 24–35. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/2372