Re-Imagining an Indian Theology of the Cross Using Dalit Cultural Resouces

The cross is central to Dalit Christian understanding of the divine and the consequent spiritual practice.

Their idea of Christian God is that He/She is the crucified one, and the call to Christian discipleship includes carrying the cross.

The popular imagination of the cross, although informed by the traditional interpretations of the cross, often goes beyond them and creatively and contextually expands the meaning and significance of the cross in the life of the faith community.

Any re-imagination of the cross in the Indian context with the caste system as the distinctive feature of social stratification needs to take into account the centrality of the cross in the spirituality of the Dalit Christian faith community.

In this dissertation I attempted to re-imagine the cross using Dalit cultural resources that would affirm the self-worth of the Dalits, fund their liberation and help envision a more inclusive community.

A theology of the cross that stems from an engagement with these resources opens up new possibilities in understanding the cross not merely as a way of dealing with personal sin but dealing with the dehumanizing consequences of systemic structures that exclude the marginalized communities.

Emerging from an examination of the performance of sacrifice in popular religion, the cross as an occasion of re-membering of the dismembered body politic, envisages an inclusive community.

As a symbol of divine identification with the suffering communities, the cross assures of divine accompaniment in the lives of the Dalits that are characterized by a world of crosses and provides a horizon of hope.

Culling a clue from Dalit literature I imagined the cross as a messianic memory that invites the Christian communities to an active engagement of solidarity with the struggles of the Dalits.

The cross as a symbol of God's essential nature, Pathos, opens up a new possibility to imagine God as the Dalit, the broken God.