Sathianathan Clarke - Gandhis Truths in an Age of Fundamentalism and Nationalism

Praise for Gandhis Truths in an Age of Fundamentalism and Nationalism

A splendid effort to bring wisdom and sanity to a world mired in religious fundamentalism and hyper-nationalism. The book throbs with creative and critical reinterpretations of Gandhis Truth from the margins, directed to universal well-being.

Felix Wilfred, Emeritus Professor, University of Madras, Chennai, India

Readers will not only learn new insights about Gandhi but will reconsider how we should approach truth. Clarke and Pickard bring together essays that illustrate the genius and strength of Gandhis pursuit of truth. What really sets this book apart is their insightful critique of Gandhi, making his message more relevant for today.

F. Douglas Powe Jr., Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, and James C. Logan Professor of Evangelism, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, USA

Gandhis ideas have informed and infuriated, inspired and irritated nationalists, social justice practitioners, scholars of religion and society, and those working on issues related to peace and human dignity. Without succumbing to hagiography, the authors of Gandhis Truth in an Age of Fundamentalism and Nationalism offer us much to interactively reflect upon and prudently put into practice in these messy and hazardous times. Ideas do travel, and ideas do return home, but they return transformed, and the contributors are to be commended for exploring Gandhis ideas from their own locations with bold frankness, knowledgeable thoughtfulness, and forward-looking engagement.

Jayakiran Sebastian, Dean and H. George Anderson Professor of Mission and Cultures, United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg and Philadelphia, USA

The collusion between the nation-state and religious fundamentalism arises in response to the loss of societal unity (pluralism) and the perceived absence of the sacred (secularism). All too often this results in violence against minorities; terrorism is its more extreme expression. This volume examines Mahatma Gandhis ethics of nonviolent resistance and commitment to existential truth as the pathway forward to dialogue, freedom, and peace. In so doing, it raises vital questions about the nature of religion and its role in being an opiate or a poison for our human and planetary future.

Gerard Hall, SM, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University, AU

This is a remarkable and timely book for our age. Clarke and Pickard have brought together an exceptional group of writers who reflect on the legacy of Gandhi and what it means for us in the twenty-first century. Embedded in each essay are profound and searching questions concerning the future of humanity. Can we live with difference and disagreement? Can we forge genuine reconciliation across profound social, moral, religious, ethnic, and political divides? Can we turn the other cheek and refuse to pay back brutality and cruelty with violence of our own? This book will challenge the reader, but much more importantly, it offers us a future based on hope: one of kindness, compassion, and understanding. Now, more than ever, we need activists, politicians, and reformers who lead with a kindly light.

Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, UK

Editors

Sathianathan Clarke and Stephen Pickard

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

GANDHIS TRUTHS IN AN AGE OF FUNDAMENTALISM AND NATIONALISM

Copyright 2022 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover image: Silhouette Of Mahatma Gandhi Statue Against Sky. Getty Images, Srividya Vanamamalai / EyeEm, Creative #: 65473999

Cover design: L. Owens

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-6998-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-6999-7

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

This volume of essays had its origin in a consultation in Canberra to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019. The consultation was jointly hosted by the Australian Centre for Christianity and the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre at Charles Sturt University. We are very grateful to both centers of the university for hosting and supporting this event and especially the staff of the centers, Hazel Francis, Sarah Stitt, and Lauren Bartley. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the address delivered by His Excellency Dr. A. M. Gondane, High Commissioner, High Commission of India, Canberra. We are extremely grateful to Professor Satendra Nandan for his contributions at the consultation in public lecture, poetry, and the release of his book Gandhianjali. We thank those scholars who attended the consultation and gave papers that have become chapters for this present volume: Sathianathan Clarke, Peter Hooton, William W. Emilsen, Stephen Pickard, and Peter Walker. Four scholars who were not at the consultation subsequently wrote chapters for this volume: C. Anthony Hunt, Suka Joshua, Anderson H. M. Jeremiah, and Josiah Ulysses Young III. These scholars took Gandhi from the Canberra context into the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. To other participants at the consultation, we offer our grateful thanks. Thanks are also due to Fortress Press for publishing these essays and especially to Jesudas Athyal, acquiring editor, and Elvis Ramirez, production manager. As ever, we offer our thanks and gratitude to our spouses, Prema and Jennifer, for their constant support and encouragement.

Sathianathan Clarke, Washington, DC (USA)

Stephen Pickard, Canberra (Australia)

Sathianathan Clarke is the Bishop Sundo Kim Chair in World Christianity and professor of theology, culture, and mission at Wesley Theological Seminary. He has taught previously at United Theological College in Bangalore, India, and as visiting faculty at Harvard University Divinity School. Clarke is the author of Competing Fundamentalisms: Violent Extremism in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism (2017) and Dalits and Christianity (1998) and is coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Anglican Studies (OUP, 2016), Dalit Theology in the Twenty-First Century (2010), and Religious Conversion in India: Modes, Motivations, and Meanings (2007).

Stephen Pickard is executive director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and professor of theology at Charles Sturt University in Australia. He is also currently an assistant bishop in the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese in Australia. He was Head of Charles Sturt Universitys School of Theology from 1998 to 2006. Since then, he has served as an Anglican bishop in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, visiting fellow at Ripon College Cuddesdon, acting CEO Anglicare Canberra and Goulburn, and a priest in a Canberra parish. He is the author of several books, including