TASK AND MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA
Keywords:
Corruption, Deception, Demagogue, Disinformatzya, Dissent, Fake News, Justice, Mercy, Post-truth, Relativism, Repentance, Truthseekers, Truth-tellers, Post-modernity, SolidarityAbstract
Since the Oxford dictionary has selected ‘Post-truth’ as the word of the year in 2016 it gets our special attention in many ways. The word ‘posttruth’ is defined thus: ‘where objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.’ Post-truth describes a type of political campaigning, fuelled by emotive arguments rather than fact-checks, with gut instincts, disinformation and misinformation that turn the political world upside down. It has its special significance in the context of US election, wherein Donald Trump became the President of USA and later the event of Brexit. Political observers argue that the ideology of post-truth works in India too especially with the regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This article describes the challenges and role of the catholic theological education in India in the post-truth era. First, it explains the term, posttruth and its salient features. Second, it explains how it works in Indian political and ecclesial domains. There are many events wherein facts are fabricated, truths are hidden and false information is circulated. Third, this article brings out the challenges of catholic theological education in India based on the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, Veritatis Gaudium and the letter he has written to the faithful on 20 August 2018.
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