The Karunaiyananthar Ashram can best be described as a purely self-supportive – agricultural and educational - mission camp and charitable medical trust.
As a spiritual health center, the ashram emphasizes preventive medicine in terms and in the tradition of world-wide Adventist BLUE ZONE locations (e.g. Loma Linda, California) for longevity and healthful living. – Its compassionate care and loving “theology from the perspective of the poor” (“Bullock-Cart Theology”, Spicer College, Pune, 1988) is directed towards serving the poor and under-privileged Tamil neighbors in Thirupoonthuruthi.
WHY CONTEXTUALIZATION?
It was only after my return to Europe in January 2020, that I learned: In many other parts of the world, indigenization or the contextualization of religions are not very important issues in European theology and missiology.
Contextualizing the life and teachings of Jesus in an Indian Hindu culture, especially in inter-religious ashram communities, are therefore not very easily accessible to Christians of Western faith traditions.
Poovelingam Solomon´s perspectives on contextualization may be best described, as following Jesus in a Hindu context and refraining from exclusive Christian traditions, that alienate Hindus from Jesus. At Karunaiyananthar Ashram “contextualization” is a personal process, where religious barriers - in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ - are being resolved in communion with Muslims and Hindu believers.
Visitors of all faith traditions are welcome in this ashram. They will be personally introduced to the unique life changing experiences of the founder. His philosophy as a former Hindu very convincingly helps to understand, what it means to finally become a disciple of Jesus Christ in developing a renewed mind-set.
In that way like many other visitors before, I was indeed impressed by his testimony, which was different from what I had experienced in Catholic and Hindu ashrams and Christian churches, in Asia, Europe and the US before. Poovelingam Solomon´s testimony to me is a manifesto and a substantial criticism of Western theologies:
“I see Jesus in his context as well as in the Indian context in the view of the four gospels alone. Jesus served the people with compassion. As a reformer he attacked religious hypocrisy.
The Adventist Church in India has become captive to Western theology and culture by the efforts of the Adventist missionaries who came to India. The duplication of American Adventism in India helped to uplift the Dalits through education, medical and humanitarian services but failed to present Jesus in the spiritual context of India in reaching the educated caste Hindus.“
-- Poovelingam Solomon, 2020
MISSION IN THE RELIGIOUS CONTEXT OF THIRUPOONTHURUTHI
Dr. Solomon took me on a tour to nearby Thirupanthuruthi, a village where approx. 18 000 people of multiple religious belongings had been peacefully living together for many centuries. We visited spiritual centers, like Muslim Mosques, Hindu Temples, and Christian Churches of the early missionaries to India. I had the privilege to attend interreligious meetings, where Poovelingam Solomon and his friends in a very loving and compassionate way were reaching out to the formerly unreached and under-privileged for years. Many of the Christian, Muslim and Hindu leaders had developed a deep friendship with Dr. Solomon and the ashram community.
They were enjoying the ashram not only as a spiritual center for dialogue and contemplation, but liked to join the ashram community as a spiritual group, where Poovelingam Solomon´s personal testimony of being a faithful disciple of Jesus was openly acknowledged.
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