In protestant theological institutions: a critical appraisal of contextual challenges in kerala, india jessy jaison b b s., M d

6.6.1 Balance between Larger Vision and Contemporary Cultural Values

Jesus was always aware of cultural values and the power of respecting them in his ministry. About the contextual ethics of Jesus, Stegemann states that Jesus’ ethos entailed a range of reasons that were part of the comprehensive cultural and social system, which he was part of.⁴⁸⁰ Yet, he did not let such an awareness exert vital control on his objectives. He gave due respect to cultural values, while His vision always transcended culture. Among the twelve and the seventy, Jesus had no woman and this effectively prevented destructive cultural reactions on his ministry which allowed him to continue his mission of uplifting women uninterrupted. Though the close twelve included no woman, Jesus’ alternative, unofficial methods of including women in worship and witnessing were extraordinarily powerful in the path of restoring women to the initial design of God for human beings. Jesus’ approaches helped women not to discard their traditional roles and hence cause confusion but “to re-orientate their traditional roles so that the priorities of the family of faith were heeded.”⁴⁸¹ Jesus was conscious of the need to preserve the cultural equilibrium and that wisdom appears indistinct to many theological minds of today. Elliot states that the argument that Jesus founded a ‘community of equals’ is devoid of social and political plausibility and more importantly, of textual and historical evidence. For him, with specific focus on family and household, “Jesus and His followers engaged not in social revolution.”⁴⁸² However, it is undeniable that Jesus initiated the process of transformation, although not by an abrupt revolution. Theological seminaries need to recapture this balance so that education will have relevance in the real lives of people.

6.6.2 Choice of Right Sequence and Pace in Actions

Jesus was cautious about the sequence of actions. He let women follow him first unofficially; later on he publicly acknowledged their unique values and services e.g. widow’s offering (Mk.12:43, 44), Canaanite woman’s faith (Matt.15:28), the insight of the woman who anointed Jesus with fragrant oil (Matt.26:10,13) are a few examples. For Fiorenza, “Jesus was remembered as having radically questioned social and religious hierarchical and patriarchal relationships” and “rejected all relationships of dependence and domination.”⁴⁸³ Although this has been a prominent case, there were refutations too. According to Elliot,

she [Fiorenza] offers no evidence of where and how the egalitarian structure which allegedly replaced this patriarchal structure of the family and its relations of dependence and domination was established and maintained.⁴⁸⁴

To resolve such conceptual conflicts and the amount of consequential dilemma they can stir up in patriarchal settings, there needs to be a hermeneutical bridging, that enables one to see both sides of the issue in equal focus and the balance maintained by Jesus intentionally. Jesus established justice for women by discarding dual-ethic for men and women in situations such as woman caught in adultery and at the question of divorce. His method in these was not enforcing laws but enlightening the minds of people and enabling them to assess their own lives critically. Jesus also performed as if it is normal for women to learn from him (Lk.10:39) and to grasp divine mysteries of Jesus as the messiah (Jn.4:23, 26), and the hope of resurrection to humanity (Jn.11:25). Jesus was not apprehensive to assign women the job of witnessing his resurrection first of all to the disciples (Matt.28:10). “Jesus was willing to perform extraordinary miracles (raising the dead), and to violate the rabbinic Sabbath regulations even in the presence of rabbis and in the synagogue in order to help women.”⁴⁸⁵ In his activities, he had no secret agendas but accomplished everything while surrounded by his followers. He did not tactfully escape criticisms; rather exhibited authority and determination that his was the eternal plan for the restoration of humanity. His perfect balance of pace in transformational steps should be the pattern for the church to follow today. Jesus did not do it all altogether; rather his approach was systematic and sequential.

Jesus consciously avoided destructive radical steps in his actions. Yet, he was radical in his alternative hermeneutical vision for women.
Jesus was not a radical by temperament. His disposition was to accept, to forgive and to heal gently…Yet He took a firmly countercultural stance on many issues, not because of a volatile, reactionary character but because His mission was to oppose that which violated the will of God.⁴⁸⁶
It was a culture that did not let women discuss or opine in religious matters; but Jesus courteously let them learn at his feet. The culture of the time restricted women from following a Rabbi; but Jesus let many women follow him and justified a ritually unclean woman’s act of touching him for healing (Lk.8:48). The culture in which Jesus ministered by and large neglected the needs of women as secondary; but Jesus stopped his other activities in order to give priority to the sufferings of women (Lk.13:12). People in general lived as if men alone are capable of knowing God’s matters; but Jesus revealed his great truths to women such as the Samaritan (that he is the Messiah and that true worshippers will worship God in Spirit and truth), to Mary and Martha (He is the resurrection and Life) and Mary the Magdalene (woman too can confidently witness Jesus as the risen saviour and minister unto Him). “It seems He was not afraid to do this [teaching women] in private when He was alone with women. This appears to indicate that Jesus was willing to go to some length and risk a certain amount of public scandal in order to instruct women.”⁴⁸⁷ The culture of his time kept women behind the scenes; but Jesus liberally acknowledged the faith (Matt.15:28), commitment (Jn.12:7) and ministry of women (Jn.12:7) in public. For example, the Canaanite woman’s faith, the widow’s offering. Culture kept women under bondage; but Jesus truly redeemed women into fullness in sharing life and vision from Him. He took no destructive move; but always ensured society sees one stage at a time constructively in the divine plan.

6.6.3 Determination for Progression in Transforming Culture

There was a progressive development in Jesus’ hermeneutic and practice of emancipating women towards their full redemption as persons of worth in God’s creational plan. His ethic always had this progressive dimension. That is why in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his hearers “You have heard… but I tell you” (Matt.5:22, 28). He did not thrust aside what was said in the law and the prophets but took people further towards restoration from what they thought would be an unchangeable system. He dealt with attitudes rather than final actions. Jesus’ hermeneutic was to reveal to people the divine will for people’s restoration from the fallen state. Glen Stassen attempts to rescue the Sermon on the Mount from antithetical interpretations and discovers three-fold transforming initiatives. He diagrams it in a triadic pattern rather than dyadic and puts it in three ways: traditional righteousness, vicious cycle and transforming initiatives.⁴⁸⁸ Stassen argues that through this pattern, Jesus engages people in “transforming initiatives that participates in the reign of God” and “suggests a hermeneutic of grace-based, active participation in eschatological deliverance that begins now.”⁴⁸⁹ Pharisees and the teachers of the Law could not easily grasp the meaning of Jesus’ actions and they tried hard to keep their faith closed, elitist and static. Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus rebuked and moved beyond oppressive attitudes. About divorce, Jesus tells that it was because of the hardness of hearts of people in Moses’ time, God let them divorce their wives (Matt.19:8,9). Jesus introduces his progressive vision where he says, thou shall not divorce. Bauckham said, “While in many respects this egalitarianism successfully resisted the highly hierarchical structures of the early churches’ social environment, the strategy of radical opposition to such structures was not uniformly applied.”⁴⁹⁰ Bauckham emphasizes that both Testaments take two different strategies: one of radical opposition to hierarchy and the other of relativizing and transforming hierarchy. The danger in understanding the ‘direction’ of the scripture is that “since it involves a pragmatic acceptance of hierarchical structures as a starting point, its egalitarian direction can be missed by a static reading of the texts which fails to observe the dynamic of biblical thought.”⁴⁹¹ Jesus always made his words and actions to repair the broken dimensions of human relationships, to lead them to perfect mutuality, and hence people can be restored to the sharing of responsibility to glorify God as in creation’s first design.

The sermon of Jesus on the Mount contains profound insights to support this case. While people during Jesus’ ministry, and in all times since, conveniently overlooked Jesus’ hermeneutic for women, skipped over His approaches that held women fully approved in the Kingdom mission, still the content of His message stood undeniably supportive to the case of women. The result of the mediocrity and suppression women suffered even among Christians who followed patriarchal oppressive values was what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, ‘the cheap grace,’⁴⁹² that makes people think even without identifying with all the kingdom values of Jesus, they can still be closer disciples of Him. This judgment has led many to compartmentalize faith and practice in Christianity.
Examination of the biblical and theological data reveals that women can be effective in ministry and the Scripture does not restrict women from serving the kingdom work in any capacity, in any culture. But what concerns us here is the question of discernment and balance in the process of women’s developing in this dimension. According to Niebuhr, responsible Christian theology and ethics presuppose careful comparative reflection of alternative historical answers to significant theological questions.⁴⁹³ It is difficult to comprehend when inequality based on sexual grounds is imposed with regard to Christian service and education. Atrocities and abuse of women are undeniable realities and they should come to an end. But the deformation that resulted from the fall in Genesis had definite consequences that cannot be overcome immediately. The contribution of feminist theologians, who have sacrificially studied the scripture to encourage other women to see that the biblical vision can give them hope, is noteworthy. A large number of women are involved in Christian ministry in various capacities today. Some of the biblical evidences drawn in this discussion essentially hold on to the insights below.
According to the biblical accounts, many women were called to service without being alienated on gender basis and women have taken the roles of leaders, deliverers of nations, sacrificial givers and silent followers in response to that call. As disciples of Jesus, women exhibited outstanding testimony and Jesus affirmed them and accepted their service. The women followers of Jesus were not ambitious to trounce others or to show off their ability to perform better; rather they were people of single-minded devotion to service, determined to take risks to proclaim God’s salvation and patient enough to let time disclose their genuineness. They also, as well as Jesus, had to maintain a balance of sensitivity to the cultural heritage they lived in and ability to take actions that transcended cultural restrictions. Jesus, throughout His earthly ministry maintained equilibrium between the cultural values of His time and the kingdom vision towards which He lived and served.
Hence, it could be argued that cultural relativism is not only necessary but it is possible, biblically convincing and theologically commended. It is therefore, essential at this stage, to integrate the previous deliberations with the specifics of the context of Kerala, whereby some recommendations could be explored.
6.7 A Practical Work Plan for Effectiveness in Theological Education of Women
The mission of seminaries in Kerala for their women students is enormous yet inevitable. The emphasis on the cultural mediation task of theological seminaries runs through the whole system of training. Seminaries should review the effectiveness of the intellect-oriented education women receive from seminaries as explicitly urged by the review of literature. There is a big difference between giving people information and facilitating learning in constant interaction with life’s realities. Christians are not only the products of a theological ideal, but also the product of their social context. This is the educational vision seminaries need to own, in order to assist their women students. The feminist emphasis on education as holistic transformation is crucial in this discussion.

6.7.1 Towards a Culture-Theology Correspondence

It takes risk to overcome the fear of change in a setting. It is a challenge to disturb the routine of theological training. And there will always be setbacks at the attempt of each trial. Immanuel, who researched the changes occurred in women’s theological education since the Ranson Report of 1945 in India wrote on how this setback occurs in a context where changes have deep religious and moral connotations. She says,

The 1967-68 consultation [NCCI] could have made a difference by talking about an all-inclusive and egalitarian ministry but ended up reiterating the same old concepts and ideologies of ministry which could only push women to the periphery. The perspectives of the historians also had the institutional and ideological backing.⁴⁹⁴
It is the challenge of seminaries to rise above such constraints and move on. Theological education loses its credibility when its women’s constituency is denigrated and is unable to receive light and life. Scholars have realized this decline of theology. John Cobb opines that this decline is “a result of the widening gap between the beliefs nurtured in the church and the dominant culture of our time.”⁴⁹⁵ Cox calls for “deprovincialization of theology”⁴⁹⁶ to redeem it from more decline. Along with Kraft,⁴⁹⁷ it should be claimed that biblical Christians are not closed minded. The New Testament is not conservative, but dynamic, adaptive and unafraid to risk. Kerala seminaries may play the vital role to help churches to come out of their theological impoverishment in order to venture with God, fearing God and not culture or the culture-bound traditions, to foster transformation. In this process, the greatest practical challenges would be the lack of openness from main stream leadership both in seminaries and churches and the lack of funding for research, seminars and dialogues in this regard. But still, due to their very nature and educational task, seminaries cannot remain inactive, without analysing their philosophical and practical structure of theological education for women.
The mission of nurturing the partnership and mutuality of men and women in ministry must be intrinsic to the objective of seminaries. This research, however, does not support pulling down the structures in a chaotic manner; rather supports the careful creation of awareness of the need and to recommend further steps towards the concept of partnership in theological training and hence in ministry. When the substantial numbers of women graduates come out of seminaries with little opportunities or backing in ministry, the time, effort and resources of seminaries are being wasted proportionately. Incorporating an “action-contemplation-reflection-action cycle”⁴⁹⁸ might help the situation improve. Influencing religious structures in a transformational direction is not easy because “religion is highly institutionalized in most cultures. It is very much part of the public domain, a vital source of power and a solution for authority.”⁴⁹⁹ With respect to the ecclesiastical and cultural challenges, seminaries have to take essential steps to ensure that the formation that women students gain from theological education is effective and timely.

6.7.2 From Fragmentation to Organizational Learning

As long as acceptance into training and alienation from ministry go in parallel, women’s theological education only remains futile. If seminaries believe their central mission is educational and hence transformative, they cannot let this problem go unresolved. Seminaries neglect to be relevant when they fail to focus on real theological education rather than its mere theory because theological education is formed in and through cultural problematics.⁵⁰⁰ When such a structural reformation is absent, seminaries could be held accountable for their laxity in carrying out their mission, unawareness of the theology of theological education, wastage of time and other resources and neglect of the women’s constituency. Without this reconsideration, women in seminaries are left with no direction in their choice to be in ministry-they are neither able to find their own alternatives to develop in ministry nor are they to be truly part of the theological education venture. This calls seminaries to become “learning organizations”⁵⁰¹ in the words of Peter Senge.

This has a lot to do with the leadership of seminaries, who generally tend to avoid rather than address issues relating to women’s training. They keep eyes closed to the reality of cultural change and the irrelevance of training patterns traditionally followed. Seminary leaders need to see their leadership roles as more than mere sharing of knowledge. Effective leaders who lead in a culture of change should have ‘five core mind-action sets of competencies’⁵⁰² as explained by Micahel Fullan.⁵⁰³ These competencies are, moral purpose, understanding change, developing relationships, knowledge-sharing and coherence-building. This presupposes open dialogues, seminars and research reflections and above all, intensive commitment. In his review, John Roskosky writes,
Fullan wraps the book up with the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. Lasting change is not accomplished with lightening speed techniques but rather with a more tortoise like approach, tinkering with the status quo to bring successful change. Positive change in any organization is possible, but it must start with leaders willing to invest time and effort and involve all stakeholders in the change process.⁵⁰⁴
Seminaries in Kerala might consider moving along this direction. When a system is closed for analysis and reflection, it rejects all possibilities of transformation. Senge states that "reflection and inquiry skills provide a foundation for dialogue" and that "dialogue that is grounded in reflection and inquiry skills is likely to be more reliable and less dependent on particulars of circumstance, such as the chemistry among team members."⁵⁰⁵ Wherever accrediting agencies remain oblivious or silent about such dimensions of training, the responsibility of bringing awareness comes on seminaries. In fact, if the leadership of accrediting agencies become enlightened on the challenges of women’s training and they initiate discussions and policy making, the whole process would turn out much easier for seminaries. This is not a straightforward task mainly due to the passiveness of seminaries in addressing the issue. This might demand a focused work plan of theologically trained women along with the production of quality research publications on the issue.

6.7.3 From Static Theology to Kingdom Vision

Seminaries in Kerala tend to degrade women students theologically. Aruna Gnanadason (Executive Secretary for Women in the WCC’s Unit III on Justice, Peace and Creation), an Indian theological thinker, explains the theology suffering imposed on women in India.

Christ suffered and died for you on the cross. Can’t you bear some suffering too? is a question often raised, in one form or another, to women when they appeal to the church for succour. Perhaps one of the most pernicious aspects of Christian teaching has been the imposed “theology of sacrifice and suffering.⁵⁰⁶
It is the mission of seminaries to take people from the shallow cultural views to the theological vision that transcends cultural degradation. The wrong theological constructions, which otherwise would get rooted in common people’s minds as ‘the truth of God,’ have to be corrected. A mere provision of educational access does not guarantee utility; there should be intentional moves towards transformation. Seminaries cannot get rid of their responsibility to re-evaluate the abstract formulation and static preservation of their ‘theological’ values that are commonly understood as the body of un-alterable, traditionally held truths. A contextually irrelevant theology is not theology as explained previously in this discussion. Theology is always contextually involved whether it realizes it or not. Therefore, seminaries are responsible to communicate on what impact culture has on people and how central the interpretive task of theological education in working out that link is.
Seminaries are also to ensure a balance between fostering contextual relevance of theology and too much contextualizing. Seminaries should bridge the gap between them and churches that fear the practical imbalance and keep to their traditional features with regard to women’s involvement. While initiating this transformational mission for women, the theological, sociological, psychological, educational and organizational issues involved have to be taken into account. This is unachievable unless research, discussions, writings, constant reflections and action plans are intentionally designed. This might well describe the “saving work” of seminaries that Chopp suggests,
central to the conversation of theological education must be a discussion of current cultural problematics, such as the tremendous changes in women’s lives, the problems of binary ordering and patriarchal oppression, and the role of intellectual work as “saving work” Furthermore, central to my focus on practices and theology within these practices is a foregrounding of cultural contexts within what and how we learn. ⁵⁰⁷
Such a balanced work plan will prevent seminaries from floating along the stream without knowing the destination. Imposing changes without considering the theological and cultural challenges would be unrealistic and therefore a sense of balance is central. This is an essential educational task, without which, seminaries continue to be ineffective in their mission. Scholars have looked into this theme of balance in complex cultural settings. Kraft identifies that all analyses and proposed solutions must focus on recognitions such as
(i) the centrality of world view (2) the necessity that cultural equilibrium be maintained if changes are to be properly constructive rather than destructive (3) the superiority of slow transformational (yeast like) change to revolutionary (dynamite like) change, (4) the place of allegiance and paradigm shifts issuing in reinterpretation and rehabituation within the culture in transformational change and (5) the desirability of an informed use of all these processes to achieve Christian ends.⁵⁰⁸
Collaboration, creativity, research and reflection will help seminaries in reconsidering their mission to women students in a kingdom perspective.