Rev. Dr. V.K. Nuh
Throughout the ages theological formulation arose in the context of cultural and history of the Church that theologians of different periods have interpreted the revelation of God in the contextual. Therefore, it must address the various issues of human society of the given context in the right perspective and relevantly. There are times when the message of the Church becomes ineffective and non-prophetic as a result of theological distortions. Nevertheless, the sharp cutting edge or corrective theology is always present at the future. Theology in the real sense must liberate people from all kinds of sin, social evils, exploitation, oppression, corruptions and other dehumanizing forces or structure.
The Western or the European theology cannot be considered as the theology of the ‘universal church’. The Liberation Theology of Latin America is a great challenge to the conscience of all Christians in today’s context. The Latin America theologians have articulated their theology from the perspective of the suffering and oppressed people. It is one of the best weapons to address the contemporary oppressive society. Today, the great challenge before the Naga churches is to develop a praxis theology to actively participate in the suffering struggle of the people. Politically, the Naga people have been undergoing through untold sufferings and human right violation due to their struggle for political independence for the last more than sixty years. Economically, the Naga society has been plagued with all kind of corruptions and injustices, and exploitation, leading to class conflict between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. However, Naga churches have not been able to formulate its theological stance to address this complex situation. The Church cannot be neutral. It must clearly demarcate between what is truth and what is false. Therefore I call upon to the Naga Churches, particularly the Naga theologians to formulate a theology, which can save and liberate the people from political oppression, economic exploitation, and religious apostasy.
Till 1960 the Naga churches have not realized how to relate itself with the prevailing situation. The Church involved in the peace work due to circumstances without any articulated theological concept. The consciousness to make a theological approach to the complex problems of the Naga society came very lately. The first Naga Theological Seminar was held at Kohima in 1984 (November 2-4). It came out with some strong resolutions (see the appendix I) to develop relevant theology for the Nagas and also urged the churches to study seriously the social, economic, political, religious and cultural dimensions of the gospel. Then in 1995 more than hundred concerned Naga theologians, after several consultations, signed the historic theological statement: “In search of Theological Statement” (see the full text in the appendix II). Through this statement a theological balance sheet was drawn up covering the various theological dimensions of the contemporary Naga society.
Unfortunately, no churches, neither scholars nor professionals have no notion what it means to the Naga people. Naga churches and its leaders are in sound asleep. They are not bothered about the kind of tragedy that had befallen the Naga society one after the other. They are confined within their four walls of their churches. Their worship of God has become more or less, festival of social entertainment gatherings. This is what Isaiah prophesied about the worship, “The Lord has told the foreign nations to come like wild animals and devour his people. He says, ‘All the leaders, who are supposed to warn my people, are blind! They know nothing. They are like watch dogs that don’t bark – they only lie around and dream. How they love to sleep!” (Isaiah 56: 9, 10).
A Word of Concern for Prevailing Situation
There is a delightful comic strip character called Mafalda. She is a six years old, an Argentine girl. Always concern with world affairs and speak philosophically about serious adult things. One day she and her friend Filepe were looking at a big globe of the world. Filepe said, “I wonder why it is that all the poor countries are in the Southern Hemisphere and all the rich countries are in North?” Mafalda advance a theory, she said, “It is because we are upside and all our good ideas fall off our heads”.
With this radical story I want to look into our situation what all 60 years Naga Theologians were doing, we have seen all unprecedented history happening every day. Every day as you picked up News Paper there is always something bad news about for Naga people. You are aware that most Theological books were born in the time of crises. But how many books have written about Theological concern over the situation? Besides I have never come across hardly any theologians have written articles against the evils. But no one of us bothered what is happening. Yes, academic excellence is absolutely necessary, but there are much more demand by the situation. Most of our theological Colleges confined in four wall rooms. As per our record we have 30 theological Colleges in Nagaland Producing 500 theological graduates yearly in Nagaland alone. Beside 90% students in ETC are Nagas. Above all most of Theological College in India Nagas are found majority in all the Colleges. Today, we have more than 2000 Theological graduates are occupied Pastoral ministry. Nearly 10,000 theological graduates are working in different institutions. And yet our contribution to the present situation is insignificant. Is it because of the absence of quality academic excellence? Or lack of dedication? I believe that something is wrong in our context.
The tribal cultural values of simplicity, trustworthy and dignity of labor have been adversely affected by the alien culture. The Naga people preach religiosity, worship and say much prayer, fasting and prophecy showing great zeal to mission enterprises but our daily lives are filled with hatred and violence: Streets are stained with blood; young people are being captured by drugs and alcohol. The Church has become so hypocritical that it does not have the courage to face reality. A.W. Tozer believed that, “The popular notion that the first obligation of the Church is to spread the gospel to the utter most part of the earth is false; her first obligation is to be spiritual worthy to spread”
I agree with Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “Whoever accepts evil without protesting is in reality working with it” We believe that a godless society cannot expect to be a glorious society. It must be admitted that many of the Naga Christians have not been able to produce even a small measure of spirituality. Theological contribution to society by the people of the region is very insignificant.
In the last half century, the Church despite having gone through very difficult times has not stood up with a theological stand to fight for the truth. There is very interesting statement given by Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer when Germany was going through a dark history. In January 1933, the Nazi party won one third of the popular votes in the last democratic election. One may wonder what made Adolf Hitler retain power, when many Protestant and Roman Catholic Church leaders along with six million Jews were executed. Many Christians have different opinions. Bonhoeffer took part in a plot and made an attempt on Hitler’s life, saying that Nazism is a devilish political movement. He tried to escape from dangerous situation but at last he realized his mistake.
I have made a terrible mistake in coming to America, I must live through the difficult period of our national history with Christian people of Germany, I will have no right to participate in reconstruction of Christian life Germany after the war. If I do not share this time my people Christians in Germany.
He came back to Germany and was arrested, and imprisoned for 3 years, at last executed.
Karl Barth expressed the belief that a theologian is not a man of sects. He thinks and speaks a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’. He is a man of action and not reaction, his freedom is not primarily ‘freedom from’ but ‘freedom for’. The free theologian is an active theologian and private Christianity is not Christianity at all and private theology is not free theology. It is not a theology at all.
A key word of biblical concern both in the Old Testament and the New Testament is justice. One cannot serve the truth by being part of a structure that exploits. Today, churches in Naga region have lost truth force, soul force and love force. Churches have not engaged themselves in moral and spiritual conflict with power and spiritual. It means refusing to accept that which is just. We made peace with established power and much loyalty is given to institutionalized visible Church organizations, but not to the invisible Church that is Jesus Christ.
There is a cry for help. They are hungry and thirsty. They are suffering from oppression in every aspect of life. But there is a silent and deafening from theological point of view. Which sound similar to the following cry;
• I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger.
• I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel in the cellar and prayed for my release.
• I was naked and among you, you debated the morality of my appearance.
• I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
• I was homeless and you preached to me the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
• I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.
• I was beaten and lay in the road side, but you left me uncared, too busy for your class work.
• You seemed so holy, so close to God, but I lost my human dignity.
These questions have to be answered one day with reference to the Bible (Matthew 25:42, 43).
Paradigm Shift of Theology
In the book Missing Dimension of Statecraft edited by John Douglas, a refreshing change is mentioned. It consists of cases studied from around the world including Nicaragua, Nigeria, East Germany, Philippines and South Africa etc., in which religious organizations have played major roles as a mediating agency in ending conflicts of democratic changes. Besides the changes in Latin America and Eastern Europe, theologians work in the context of their situation that Liberation Theology has played a tremendous role for the oppressed and weaker sections of the human society.
The Christian view in the political life is the most relevant subject in the present world, particularly in our North East India context. Throughout history we have come to know that they interpreted their theology according to their context and culture. In the Old Testament time, the people of Israel had ‘Yahwestic Theology’ or “The Prophetic Theology” and so on. They employed their theology according to their own times.
God who intervened in human history in order to break down the structure of injustice and who raised up prophets in order to point out the way of justice and mercy. The prophet of eighth and seventh century were outspoken in their denouncement of formalism and hypocrisy of the Israelites’ worship.
The prophet Amos said that their worship of cultic community is unacceptable to Yahweh because Israelites did not live as the community of Yahweh.
The prophets were uncompromising as they stood for justice, and they rejected the pattern of relationship that failed to ensure justice is contrary to the will of God.
The prophetic faith that transforms power emphasized, “The living reality of God power present rule not only spiritual, but also in the world of nature and human history”.
We are aware of what had happened in the early church and medieval church and also of the paradigm shift in theology during their respective times. Again there was paradigm shift of theology during the reformation period. The modern world is fast changing according to people’s thinking. The Liberation theology and the Black theology have changed the whole nations of Latin America; the Minjung theology has changed the Korean Christians; and the Dalit theology, the Christians in India. The Christian thinking has changed the entire dimension of the global family.
We stand at the dawn of a new era. The changing world is in a critical period of human history. We have to re-interpret our theological stand. Love your enemies and obey your master was the theology of the 19th century. Turn to liberate the oppressed people was the 20th century theology. We have learned from what people have done in the past; we talk about what we are doing today: We think of what we will do the following day. John Stott gave a remarkable statement for today’s world: His word is not a prehistoric fossil to be exhibited under glass but a living message for the contemporary world. It belongs to the market place not the museum. Unfortunately, most of the Theological Seminaries are being institutionalized and become focused on academic study only. The old paradigms are no longer adequate to meet the challenge of the 21st century. Interestingly, Dr. J.K. Chandran has said in the Third World Theological Conference in 1976).
We rejected as irrelevant an academic type of theology that divorces from action. We must prepare for a Radical break in epistemology which makes commitment the first act of theology and an engramma critical reflection to the praxis of the reality of the Third World.
The majority of the North East India people, basically tribal in character, are Christians and yet have not been able to formulate praxis theology despite having been through insurmountable sufferings for the last more than 50 years. The time has come for a critical analysis of the prevailing situation and to develop their own theology. It must be able to speak for the suffering and oppressed people. The message must be relevant to our situation. John Stott said, “The world has changed dramatically since Jesus’ day, and goes no changing with ever more bewilding speed. People rejected the gospel, not necessarily because of they think it false, but because it no longer resonates with them”
The paradigm shift in theology happens according to their peculiar situations. Therefore, the 16th century theology may not be valid for the Nagas today. Likewise, the Latin American theology may not be relevant to the NEI society. NEI theology must speak according to the perspectives of the region’s people and needs as long as it does not deviate from the biblical truth.
A time has now come for the people to re-examine the needs of the prevalent situation and know from where things had started going wrong. The chief causes of the problems must be uprooted. The North East India problems are Church apostasy, being too permissive, economic problems, political problems, endangered ecology, tribal conflicts, hatred and violence, extortions and killings, and loss of dignity of labor and integrity.
Any people group’s interpretation of theology must be living and practical theology. It must be able to speak to the contemporary realities. If the North East India people believe sovereignty, it must be interpreted theologically and everyone should participate in the struggles and sufferings in mass movement towards establishment of a common identity and freedom. The Christian principle for political struggles is through non-violence and not otherwise. This is the clear mandate of the Bible. The living theology must speak the truth to liberate the oppressed people from every kind of oppression. Jurgen Moltmann believed that, “Where the Kingdom of God is near, God’s people gather together, and then they proclaim the message of the Kingdom and lead the world to the conversion that will save it. The Church is an evangelizing and a liberating community. If it is not it is not a Christ Church nor indeed a Church at all”
Martin Luther King Jr. clearly summed up the qualification for participation in non-violence when he wrote thus:
Non-violence cannot be taught to a person who fears to die and has no power of resistance. In the non-violence army, there is no examination, no pledge, … In the armies of violence the ‘soldier’ is expected to inspect his carbine and keep it clean, non-violence soldiers are called upon to examine and burnish their greatest weapon- their heart, their conscience, their courage and their sense of justice.
Many of us are aware of the contribution made by William Wilberforce who fought against slave trade. Subsequently, the British Parliament passed the bill in 1770. George M. Trevelyn, a British historian, said, “If the slave trade and slavery had not been brought to an end by Christian abolitionists, the industrialist revolution would have made Africa a great slave farm in the twentieth century, and slavery would have wrecked civilization in Europe, Africa and North America.”
We have seen in the recent history of Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Africa and Asia how they have dramatically changed for the better when influenced by Christian principles in their own context. Changes were effected thanks to some courageous and committed people who took risks, through Christian thinking. If our theology cannot change our situation, that means we have no theology.
As mentioned in an earlier section, a Colombian theologian once said, “We have to read Latin material with the eyes of the Bible, and we have to read the Bible with the eyes of Latin America.” Every new situation requires a new Christology. We all know that Christological themes have played a major role in the main stream of American political life.
Now the North-eastern region has not yet been able to formulate a theological stand till today although the people have been going through many provoking and insurmountable situations. So the most pertinent question to ask in such a situation, perhaps, is: What are the Christians and theologians of the region going to do about this?
Gustavo Gutierrez once said that, “Liberation was not the product of a seminary professor working at the desk, but the reflection of Christian engaged in human struggle. It is not an intellectual exercise but participation in the story of God’s liberating action history. I believe one thousand thoughts on liberation are not worth one single act of liberation”. Today, the society in the region is in desperate need of radical thinkers and leaders. Theology of Liberation is theology of Salvation in the light of concrete historical and political condition of the present day.
New Challenges of Today’s Naga Theology
A day will come that the Universal Church has to stand before the judgment of King of kings and Lord of lords. The church that belongs to any denomination either local church or individual church member have to answer what kind of church you belong. God will not judge according to institutional organization, but only question with one by one who can answer whether he or she being born again or not, through the Blood of Jesus Christ who believes the risen Lord will be called sons of God. The Bible says quiet. (Romans 9:33) Where you do find true church, according to Jesus His beatitude identify them as those whom belong to true church. There are two churches, one is visible church and the other is invisible church. I have watched for last 50 years that many churches commit themselves to a completely worldly religion which cannot make distinction between body and soul, the sacred and secular. When Martin Luther King fought civil rights in USA, many white churches opposed him saying, “Is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King born again?” But in reverse he asked the white churches, “I have found myself asking what kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where is their voice?” He was rejected and criticized but ultimately the churches recognized that Martin Luther King belong to a true church.
A man or woman belong to magnificent visible church may worship without conscience whether it is acceptable for the Lord or not. It is questionable today to our denominational set up and members of the churches. In the last a few years I had attended 35 Jubilee, Platinum, centenary and witnesses well attended with best choir and modernized. It was well organized, elaborate function, but only outward celebration. It was nothing connected with the Jubilee principle and with God intended to bring social justice. The form of celebration was just the way Israelites wrong concept of religiosity condemned by 8th century BC prophet (Isaiah 13:4; Amos 5:21-24).
It is interesting to note how Latin American churches were restructured in dramatic way last few decades. This was true even so called conservative churches. The one called “Evangelical” in United States. Latin American Evangelical has produced a new generation of leaders of an international caliber who cannot label with the old clichés about ‘fundamentalists’, ‘conservatisms’ or ‘evangelical’. These are Christian people coming from marginalized poor masses in the society and had found new life and hope in Christ. They found Christ and they have discovered their people.
The challenge is not between status-quo and change; it is between violent change and peaceful changes.
The 156 Bishops were not alone in Medellin. There were 100 experts with them. With the help of Christian economists, sociologists and theologians, the Bishops were able to see deeper than mere expressionistic view Latin American and to root causes and underlying structures of injustice and oppression. They call those realities and structures “External Colonialism” Money imperialism and ‘Inter-colonialism’ and they prophetically pointed to them as “Institutionalized violence” as a sinful situation.
It is amazing to see how Latin American Churches radical thinking restructured the whole structure. This is what I mean re-structure need a leader who can discover the people and situation. This needs a man who has a sense of radical thinking and participate the realities of prevailing situation. As we see our situation today, we need to restructure of our institutionalize churches.
Every theology must be a living theology and it must address to the contemporary realities in a given context else it is just a price of historical study of religion. The Naga Christian theology today must address to the living realities of Nagaland such as self-determination of the people, pain and suffering of the people. Problems of peace, justice and human rights; unity of the people, tribal solidarity and tribalism, social evils and corruptions; prophetic missions of the church. Ecological concern; unemployment, substance abuse and so on, the church and its theologians are entrusted with a mission to interpret the Word of God in every generation and so as the Naga Christian Theologians are given the same task today. Is our message relevant to answer the Naga problem today?
Therefore, theology today should take into account the historical recollection of the past God’s revelation in and through His people that ‘today’ of theology must be understood in the right perspective all through the history of humanity. What was today of the Old Testament became yesterday of Jesus’ time. What was today Jesus time was yesterday of the early church. In each period theologian interpreted the historical recollection of God’s revelation in the context of their time and situation.
Hence the term ‘todayness’ is dynamic, we too need reinterpretation, contextualize and theologize. That is theology today for us.
A society must be properly organized (a definite territory distinct from others) and such a society or community requires mutual adjustments and co-operation. A life to share becomes other’s weal and woe. Its activities sometimes, somehow become political, the term is reserved for those common affairs which are under the direction of an authority or agency, managing or controlling these affairs on behalf of and in the name of the community. This agency or authority is what we call the state. Now, then politics is the concern of every man with a sense of responsibility, for everybody is affected by its rules and decisions.
According to John R.W. Stott, most recent theologian has interpreted the term of politics with Biblical conception saying that “Politics is the art of living together in a country, science of governments. It concerns with development and adoption of specific policies….”
Conclusion:
As we see the condition of Naga people today, it is far from expectation. Our streets are filled with violence. Our system is filled with corruption. Our worship places are filled with apostasy and indifference. Alcoholism and drug addiction are rampant. They kill not only our body but soul. Our society has turned into an immoral society. Our national politics has turned into factionalism. The guardian of law has become law breaker.
The watch dog, the prophets are exploiting common people. Many young people have become national highway robbers. Poor people are crying for food, fatherless children rise up and cry, ‘where is my father?’ This leaves us with the urgent question, ‘what does your theology say about them?’ Today people say that church leaders should never handle controversial subjects and never warn their people against erroneous views. It looks just like a watch dog which had become dumb dog and sleepy shepherds are best allies of the wolf, the thief and robber. (Isaiah 56:10-12 NIV). We all believe that iron never become rusted made as long as it is hot. There is a great saying, “No great advance has ever been made in science, politics or religions without controversy”. Whenever there is problem or controversy it also benefits the society. The people and society for the sake of the truth, the Lord Jesus denounced the Pharisees and Sadducees, so also Martin Luther break the unity of the churches, for the sake of the truth. Whitefield and John Wesley rejected the mere moral teaching of the clergy that time. Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who does evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing”
The need of the hour is what should the Naga people be doing? We need to seek the living God to bring us back to our senses so as to be Holy creature. If we refuse to allow Holy Spirit to operate and transform this ugly truth, we shall remain defeated people.
The real battle line between good and evil must be drawn in the heart of every person. We must verify the truth by our theological reason based on Biblical truth. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking, correcting and giving instruction for the right living.”(II Tim. 3:16)
When everything had gone wrong in the early part of 16th century, Martin Luther the father of reformation boldly challenged the emperor and Pontiff. The secret of his courage is that he stood on the rock of the Holy Scriptures and declares “I cannot choose but adhere to the Word of God which has possession of my conscience, nor can I ever possibly make any recantation. Since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience, here I stand, do otherwise so help me oh God Amen”
