Liberative Service: A Comparative Theological Reflection on Dalit Theology's Service and Swami ...

429 Pages·2015·3.66 MB·English

Liberative Service: A Comparative
Theological Reflection on Dalit
Theology's Service and Swami
Vivekananda's Seva
Author: Christopher Robert Conway
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:103548
This work is posted on eScholarship@BC,
Boston College University Libraries.
Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2014
Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
Boston College
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Theology

LIBERATIVE SERVICE: A COMPARATIVE THEOLOGICAL
REFLECTION ON DALIT THEOLOGY’S SERVICE
AND
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S SEVA

a dissertation
by
CHRISTOPHER ROBERT CONWAY

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

August 2014
© Copyright by Christopher Robert Conway
2014

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Liberative Service: A Comparative Theological Reflection on Dalit Theology’s Service
and Swami Vivekananda’s Seva

Christopher Robert Conway

Dr. Catherine Cornille

Abstract:

This dissertation offers a comparative theological reflection on Dalit Christian
theology—a contextual, liberation theology rooted in the Dalit communities’ experiences
of caste-based oppression—and Swami Vivekananda—the late 19th c. Neo-Vedantin and
founder of the Ramkrishna Math and Mission. It seeks to provide a model of Dalit
liberative service that attends to the theology’s objectives—identity affirmation and a
liberative social vision—works to foster liberative partnerships beyond the Dalit
Christian community, and responds to the critical, but constructive assessment of Dalit
theology offered by its present generation of theologians. As a work in comparative
theology, it does so through a close, reflective reading of Swami Vivekananda, his
Practical Vedanta, and his own reworking of sevā (devotional service). The intent is not
to present Vivekananda as a corrective, but rather to see newly and understand differently
the dimensions of liberative service that are made manifest by seeing and understanding
how sevā performs in Vivekananda’s thought and how it there leads to spiritual and
social liberation. These dimensions include recovering by uncovering the imago Dei in
Dalit theology, re-presenting liberative service as representing the Kingdom of God, and
service understood as doubly and mutually liberating.
While Chapter Five presents the fruits of this comparative theological reflection
on Dalit Christian theology and Swami Vivekananda, the preceding four chapters provide
the necessary foundation for this engagement. The first and second chapters address the

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historical and theological development of Dalit Christian theology presenting its origins
in the Modern Maharashtran Dalit Movement and the Indian Christian context,
respectively. The third and fourth examine Vivekananda’s development of Practical
Vedanta and sevā. Together they provide the content from which and through which this
comparative theological reflection occurs.

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Acknowledgements

I have had the good fortune to have been accompanied by so many fine folks throughout
this dissertation. Their guidance and support sustained me during the tough times, and
their humor and joy provided me with many good times as well. As a collective they have
seen me through to this point, and I so am grateful. As individuals the have shaped,
challenged, and comforted me, and so am I am blessed to have had them alongside of me.

Let me begin by thanking my committee without whom this dissertation would not have
been possible: my director Dr. Catherine Cornille and my readers Drs. Francis X.
Clooney, S.J. and Roberto Goizueta. Their support for and insight into this project has
been immense as has their patience and kindness been towards me. I was fortunate to
have such a distinguished class of scholars serving on my committee, but even more
fortunate to have such a remarkable class of persons.

Thank you also to my CT professors and classmates at Boston College for great
conversations and friendships: Professors Ruth Langer, John Makransky, and Jim Morris;
my current classmates Gregory Baker, Tim Carey, Stephanie Corigliano, Won-Jae Hur,
Neil Hutton, Kevin Johnson, Emma O’Donnell, Jillian Stout Maxey, Glenn Willis, and
Jen Wade; and those who have gone on Bede Bidlack, Karen Enriquez, and Bagus
Laksana, S.J. The BC CT area also provided funding for my research in India for which I
am most grateful. A special thanks to Erik Ranstrom with whom I entered this program
and who has been a great friend ever since.

Thank you to my many wonderful professors and classmates in the BC Theology
department, and especially Professors M. Shawn Copeland, Mary Ann Hinsdale, Fred
Lawrence, Jim Kennan, S. J., John McDargh, Erik Owens, Steve Pope, and Margaret
Schatkin; and classmates Kim Bauser, Tom Fraatz, Daryn Henry, Megan McCabe,
Autumn Ridenour, and Bobby Rivera. Thank you also to all the members of my cohort.

Thank you to my current flatmates: Kirstin Farchaus, Aaron Fix, Amanda Gallinat, and
our Boston Terrier Maebe. One could not ask for better persons to live with.

Thank you to my former Newman Housemates: Kevin Ahearn, Rob Broderick, Megan
Courtney, John Edwards, Nichole Flores-Henry, Meghan Lovett, Stephen Okey, Amanda
Osheim, Nicole Reibe, and Aaron Taylor. It was a joy to live in community with you.

Thank you to my friends in the wider Boston College community including my regular
noontime basketball group, Dr. Craig Burns, and members of BC Econ Department:
Samson Alva, Rosella Calvi, Farooq Pasha, Geoff Sanzenbacher, and Meg Skira. And to
my friends in the Great Boston Area: Doug Ballas, Alex Daigle, John Henderson, Ann
and Justin Palmer, Iyar Mazar, Liz Shea, and V. Lee Stephenson.

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Thank you to my professors and classmates from Princeton Theological Seminary:
Professors Luis Rivera-Pagan, Herman Tull, and Richard Fox Young, and my classmates
Jessica Bratt, Jamey Heit, Scott Haile, Amanda Ihan Joe Kramp, Larry Stratton, and Clay
Stauffer. A special thanks to Jeff Meyers, my pastor and friend, and Pangernungba and
his family, who first introduced to me to Dalit theology and hosted me in Nagaland.
Thank you as well to all those from Georgetown University.

Thank you to the faculty and staff at United Theological College in Bangalore: Professors
Peniel Rajkumar and Joseph Dayam Prabhakar both of whom were very generous with
their time; Jai Singh and Balakrishnan Kathamuthu and his family for their hospitality
and prayers. They all made my time in India productive and transformative. Thank you
also to Chinna Devaraj and Swami Tyagananda both who from Boston provided me with
many contacts in India.

Thank you to all my friends from Louisville, KY: Joseph Ardery, Omar Kahn, Chris
Kosfled, Greg May, Chris Stege, Greg Wirtzberger and Andrew Wobbee. A special
thanks the Agrawal family: Arpit, Nirmesh, Nirmala, and Mahesh who first introduced
me to the beauty and truth in Hinduism.

Thank you to Margaret Nuzzolese whose support and encouragement saw me through to
the end and for whom I am ever thankful.

To the many others I have forgotten, my thanks and my apologies.

Finally, thank you to my family whose love made this all possible. My sister Margaret,
my brother-in-law Jack, my niece Eleanor, my nephew John, and my grandmother Ruth.
To my father, Peter, who has been my rock, and to my mother, Lorrie, a fount of love, I
dedicate this dissertation: non potest ut filius istarum lacrimarum pereat.

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Table of Contents

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction
Dalit Theology: Then and Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Why Swami Vivekananda? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Swami Vivekananda, Dalit Theology, Comparative Theology . . . . . . . . . . 8
Swami Vivekananda, Dalit Theology, and I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Conclusion the Road Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter One
In the Beginning: The Origins of Dalit Theology and the ‘Dalit’ of Dalit Christianity
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Towards the Beginning of ‘a’ Theology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
From Whence Dalit Theology: The History of a Beginning . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Maharashtran Influence: The ‘Dalit’ of Dalit Christianity
Jyotiba Phule: Recovering a History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Raising a Conscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Dalit Sahitya: Making a Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Dalit Panthers: Taking it to the Streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Dalit Christian Theology: Taking a Historical Consciousness and a Name
to the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

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