Experiencing the divine: A relevant approach to contemporary South Indian realities and biblical narratives.

摘要

Nicholson, Lori J. 2015. "Experiencing the Divine: A Relevant Approach to Contemporary South Indian Realities and Biblical Narratives". Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies. PhD ICS. 187 pp. Western missionary efforts, culture, and theological perspectives influence the way pastors in Indian are taught to do church, understand the Bible and minister to people. This is problematic because there is a major disconnect between the way people in India, particularly those in rural Hindu settings understand, experience and relate to God in comparison to those in the west. In this research I utilize Relevance Theory to analyze the phenomenology of Tamil village Hindu and Convert experience of the Divine as it relates to the experience of people in the biblical narrative. I use a triangulation of anthropological research methods, participant observation, interviews and focus groups to collect over 200 data points. For the biblical data, I take a Phenomenological approach to research the experiences of people in the biblical narrative. My application of Relevance Theory demonstrates the overlap or "shared cognitive environment" of experience between the three groups, Tamil Hindus, Converts and people in the biblical narrative. My findings demonstrate people living in Tamil villages, Hindus and those who now follow Jesus alike, have more in common, culturally, and experientially with people in the Bible than people living in western cultures. iii The approach to my research and the subsequent findings result in my applying Relevance Theory in a new way to the field of anthropological and theological research. This enabled the establishment of a contextual and biblical hermeneutic focused on actual experience rather than philosophical understanding. This hermeneutic empowers Tamil village pastors to do theology in their context in a way that is both biblical and culturally relevant to the people in their communities, Hindu and Convert alike. My recommendations include further study among village pastors as to how they personally experience and relate to the divine, along with the development of a curriculum to equip village pastors to apply this contextual hermeneutic for the purpose of better communicating God's desire for relationship in a way that is relevant to people in the Tamil village context.