Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy

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A. J. Appasamy
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BornAyyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy
3 September 1891
Palayamkottai, Tamilnadu
Died 1975 (aged 84)
Occupation bishop

Bishop Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy (3 September 1891 – 1975) was an Indian Christian theologian, and bishop of the Church of South India in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was a member of the 'Rethinking Christianity Group', and sought to reconcile Christian with Hindu philosophies. He interpreted Christianity as 'bhaktimarga'.

A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight.

Church of South India

The Church of South India (CSI) is the second largest Christian church in India based on the number of members and is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Church of South India is the successor of a number of Anglican and Protestant denominations in India, including the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the Church of Scotland after Indian Independence. It came into being by a union of Anglican and Protestant churches in South India. It combined the South India United Church ; the then 14 Anglican Dioceses of South India and one in Sri Lanka; and the South Indian District of the Methodist church. With a membership of nearly four million, CSI is one of four united churches in the Anglican Communion, the others being the Church of North India, the Church of Pakistan and the Church of Bangladesh.

Coimbatore Metropolitan in Tamil Nadu, India

Coimbatore, also known as Kovai and coyamuthur, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbatore is the second largest city in the state and the 16th largest urban agglomeration in India. It is administered by the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation and is the administrative capital of Coimbatore district.

Contents

Early life and studies

Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy was born in Palayamkottai Tamil Nadu (south India) on 3 September 1891, to Christian parents [1] His father had been a Shaivite before coming to the Christian faith at the age of 24. A. J. Appasamy often wrote of the influence of his father and his family on him. [2] [3] After becoming a Christian his father studied both Christianity and Hinduism. In his 67th year he became consumed with a passion to see God, learnt meditation from a Hindu guru, began to practise yoga regularly, had mystical experiences, [4] and emphasised the value of the prayer of dhyana (contemplation) as a method of attaining truth. His son, A.J. Appasamy, was aware of some danger but also of ‘the immense value’ of this view of prayer; he was convinced that this practice of yoga had made a profound, positive difference to his father's life. [5]

Tamil Nadu State in Southern India

Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian subcontinent and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. It is bounded by the Eastern Ghats on the north, by the Nilgiri Mountains, the Meghamalai Hills, and Kerala on the west, by the Bay of Bengal in the east, by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait on the southeast, and by the Indian Ocean on the south. The state shares a maritime border with the nation of Sri Lanka.

Shaivism A Hindu tradition inspired by god Shiva

Shaivism is one of the major traditions within Hinduism that reveres Shiva as the Supreme Being. The followers of Shaivism are called "Shaivites" or "Saivites". It is one of the largest sects that believe Shiva — worshipped as a creator and destroyer of worlds — is the supreme god over all. The Shaiva have many sub-traditions, ranging from devotional dualistic theism such as Shaiva Siddhanta to yoga-oriented monistic non-theism such as Kashmiri Shaivism. It considers both the Vedas and the Agama texts as important sources of theology. The origin of Shaivism may be traced to the conception of Rudra in the Rig Veda.

Hinduism is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life, widely practised in the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, "the eternal tradition", or the "eternal way", beyond human history. Scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This "Hindu synthesis" started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE, after the end of the Vedic period, and flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India.

In 1915 A. J. Appasamy went to study philosophy and religion in the U.S.A. at Harvard University, and later in Britain at Oxford University, where he received a doctorate of Philosophy. It seemed evident to Appasamy that ‘if the Christians in India are to make any impact upon national life, they must be well-educated men who are quite familiar with the literature of the country, though they may not follow the Hindu religion.’ He came to this conclusion from a comparison with the role of Christians in ancient Rome. [6] The influence of ‘many great scholars and inspiring teachers’, such as J. N. Farquhar, B. H. Streeter, Friedrich von Hügel, William Temple, Friedrich Heiler and Rudolf Otto, led him to the conclusion ‘that we had a good deal to learn from the life and experience of the bhakti writers of India.’ [7] Another influence which began at this time was that of the sadhu Sundar Singh, who visited Oxford in 1920. Appasamy came to know Sundar Singh well, and collaborated with B.H. Streeter in writing a book on him, The Sadhu (1921). [8]

J. N. Farquhar orientalist

John Nicol Farquhar was a Scottish educational missionary to Calcutta, and an Orientalist. He is one of the pioneers who popularised the Fulfilment theology in India that Christ is the crown of Hinduism, though, Fulfilment thesis in Bengal was built on foundation originally laid in Madras by William Miller.

Friedrich von Hügel Austrian Roman Catholic layman theologian

Friedrich von Hügel was an influential Austrian Roman Catholic layman, religious writer, Modernist theologian and Christian apologist.

Friedrich Heiler was a German theologian and historian of religion.

After returning to India in 1922 Appasamy became an editor of the Christian Literature Society. This enabled him to continue his studies, turning to Sanskrit texts as well as Tamil; for which he turned to Sanskrit pandits. He was particularly interested in ‘how Ramanuja had constructed into a theological system his deep personal experience of God.’ [9]

Ramanuja Hindu philosopher, exegete of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta school

Ramanuja was an Indian theologian, philosopher, and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. His philosophical foundations for devotionalism were influential to the Bhakti movement.

Christian Ministry

From 1932 to 1936 Appasamy was teaching in Bishop's College in Calcutta (Kolkata). There, he made extra study of the neo-Hindu movements in India, such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mission. [10]

Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It is practised today mainly as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1839. After the publication of Hemendranath Tagore's Brahmo Anusthan in 1860 which formally divorced Brahmoism from Hinduism, the first Brahmo Samaj was founded in 1861 at Lahore by Pandit Nobin Chandra Roy.

Ramakrishna Mission organization

Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement. The mission is named after and inspired by the Indian saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and founded by Ramakrishna's chief disciple Swami Vivekananda on 1 May 1897. The organization mainly propagates the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta–Advaita Vedanta and four yogic ideals–jnana, bhakti, karma, and Raja Yoga.

After 1936 he worked several years in a village of seven hundred people at a night school for adults. [11] He was also concerned in the IMC ( International Missionary Conference) in Tambaram in 1938. He associated himself with the ‘Rethinking Christianity Group’, of which Pandippedi Chenchiah and V. Chakkarai were leaders. [12]

Pandipeddi Chenchiah (1886–1959), spelt also as Pandippedi Chenchiah, a second generation indigenous convert to Christianity, was a jurist, South Indian Christian theologian, and radical thinker of Rethinking Christianity in India group for Indianisation of Christianity. He published Rethinking Christianity in India, as an Indian Christian answer to the Hendrik Kraemer's The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World.

Vengal Chakkarai Chettiar was an Indian Christian theologian, missionary, independence activist, politician and trade unionist.

In 1946 he became an archdeacon.

From 1951 until his retirement in 1959 he served in the newly formed Church of South India as bishop in Coimbatore diocese, Tamil Nadu.

In his works Appasamy mentions all kinds of people: some as illustration, some to disagree with and some as examples to learn from. These are some people whom he admires: St. John, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Ramanuja, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Manikkavacakar, St. Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Thomas à Kempis, Kabir, Luther, Tukaram, George Fox, John Wesley, John Henry Newman, H.A. Krishna Pillai, pandita Ramabai, M.K. Gandhi, C.F. Andrews, Albert Schweitzer, Sadhu Sundar Singh. Some with whom he often disagrees are Shankara, Eckhart, Suso, Chaitanya.

Appasamy was a forerunner of inter-faith dialogue and cooperation, and influenced theologians such as Paul D. Devanandan and M.M. Thomas. He had many Hindu, Muslim and Sikh friends. [13]

He died in 1975. [14]

Select publications

In 1964 Appasamy listed his more important books. [15] Here we follow his list, with some additions.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Bhakti literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity". In Hinduism, it refers to devotion to, and love for, a personal god or a representational god by a devotee. In ancient texts such as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, the term simply means participation, devotion and love for any endeavor, while in the Bhagavad Gita, it connotes one of the possible paths of spirituality and towards moksha, as in bhakti marga.

Bhakti movement

The Bhakti movement refers to the theistic devotional trend that emerged in medieval Hinduism and later revolutionised in Sikhism. It originated in eighth-century south India, and spread northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.

Several contemporary groups, collectively termed Hindu reform movements or Hindu revivalism, strive to introduce regeneration and reform to Hinduism, both in a religious or spiritual and in a societal sense. The movements started appearing during the Bengali renaissance.

Bhakti yoga, also called Bhakti marga, is a spiritual path or spiritual practice within Hinduism focused on loving devotion towards a personal god. It is one of the paths in the spiritual practices of Hindus, others being Jnana yoga and Karma yoga. The tradition has ancient roots. Bhakti is mentioned in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad where it simply means participation, devotion and love for any endeavor. Bhakti yoga as one of three spiritual paths for salvation is discussed in depth by the Bhagavad Gita.

In the field of comparative religion, many scholars, academics, religious figures have looked at the relationships between Hinduism and other religions

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References

  1. ↑ Gurukul Theological Research Group of the Tamilnad Christian Counsel. A Christian theological approach to Hinduism: being studies in the theology of A.J. Appasamy, V. Chakkarai and P. Chenchiah, 1-2.
  2. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 134-136.
  3. ↑ Wagner, H. Erstgestalten einer einheimischen Theologie in Südindien – Ein Kapitel indischer Theologiegeschichte als kritischer Beitrag zur Definition von "einheimischer", 11.
  4. ↑ Gurukul Theological Research Group of the Tamilnad Christian Counsel. A Christian theological approach to Hinduism: being studies in the theology of A.J. Appasamy, V. Chakkarai and P. Chenchiah, 1.
  5. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 137-138, 141.
  6. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 144.
  7. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 145, "The Christian Task in Independent India", 95-96.
  8. ↑ Boyd, R. An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology, 119; 132-133.
  9. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 146. Boyd, R. An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology, 119.
  10. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 146.
  11. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. The Christian Task in Independent India, 49; 108-109.
  12. ↑ Schouten, J.P. Jezus als goeroe – Het beeld van Jezus Christus onder hindoes en christenen in India, 108.
  13. ↑ Francis, T.D. "A.J. Appasamy: An Advocate of Indigenous Christian Theology" in A.J. Appasamy, Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of the Johannine doctrine of love, xiv.
  14. ↑ Wagner, H. Erstgestalten einer einheimischen Theologie in Südindien – Ein Kapitel indischer Theologiegeschichte als kritischer Beitrag zur Definition von ‘einheimischer Theologie’, 106.
  15. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology" in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D., ed., 147.
  16. ↑ Appasamy, A.J. Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of the Johannine doctrine of love, vii.
  17. ↑ Francis, T.D. "A.J. Appasamy: An Advocate of Indigenous Christian Theology" in A.J. Appasamy, Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of the Johannine doctrine of love, ix.
  18. ↑ Gurukul Theological Research Group of the Tamilnad Christian Counsel A Christian theological approach to Hinduism: being studies in the theology of A.J. Appasamy, V. Chakkarai and P. Chenchiah, 2.
  19. ↑ Gurukul Theological Research Group of the Tamilnad Christian Counsel A Christian theological approach to Hinduism: being studies in the theology of A.J. Appasamy, V. Chakkarai and P. Chenchiah, 3.
  20. ↑ Francis, T.D. "A .J. Appasamy: An Advocate of Indigenous Christian Theology" in A.J. Appasamy, Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of the Johannine doctrine of love, x.
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