Rev Dr Wati Aier (extreme right) along with Dr AS Pillarson and his wife Kikanaro Jamir Pillarson at the launching event of Pillarson’s book ‘Cultural identity of the Nagas amidst tribal theology and globalisation’ in Dimapur on January 20. (Morung Photo)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 20
A book titled ‘Cultural identity of the Nagas amidst tribal theology and globalisation’ written by Dr AS Pillarson, was released by Rev Dr Wati Aier, Emeritus Professor of Constructive Theology & Philosophy, Oriental Theological Seminary, Dimapur, here at Tourist Lodge on Thursday.
According to the author, the book is based on his PhD thesis submitted to Pondicherry Central University and that it took around seven years to complete the book.
In the preface of his book, Pillarson who is currently a faculty member of Asian Institute of Theology, Dimapur, said he chose to write on the subject so as to enthuse further research in this filed among younger Naga generations.
“Under the broad subject area of this study, i.e., Cultural Identity, attempt has been made in this book to cover the multidisciplinary topics like ‘Naga cultural identity,’ ‘globalisation’ and ‘tribal theology’,” the author wrote in his preface.
“The book presupposes that Gospel values were already present in Naga worldview and their culture which need to be rediscovered for theologizing,” it added.
Rev Dr Wati Aier, in his speech as resource person said the title of the book is a reminder of the 21st century world – a world of pluralism and globalization where political changes take place in relation to identity. He said identity too is relative and there is no universal identity but that all identities are unique in one way or the other.
Rev Aier said the author in his book was concerned about the cultural identities of the Nagas. Rev Aier was of the view that Naga identity is plural as Naga identity consists of more than 40 Naga tribes. He also said that cultural identity is ontological, not monolithic but dynamic.
He further argued that theology is from above and cannot be dictated from below.
The author in his response dwelled on the challenges he faced in the course of writing his book. On ‘tribal theology’ as contained in his title, Pillarson clarified that the word tribal was not meant to be used in the negative connotation.
He explained that the line of reasoning in his book is that the cultural identity of the Nagas is in great danger in the processes of globalization, hybridization and the multiculturality of the present societies for which something must be done to preserve, promote and popularise the Naga/tribal cultural identity.
The author maintains that the holistic concept of the Naga worldview is congenial for contextualization of the Gospel and made an attempt to construct Christian tribal theology of identity. Assistant professor, ICFAI University Nagaland, Dr Imtinungsang Jamir, was the moderator of the book launching event.
