Christian ashram movement

The Christian ashram movement (not to be confused with United Christian Ashrams) is a movement within Christianity in India that embraces Vedanta^[1] and the teachings of the East, attempting to combine the Christian faith with the Hindu ashram model and Christian monasticism with the Hindu sannyasa tradition.

Origin and spread

The "father" of the Christian Ashram movement was 17th-century Italian

Holy Trinity,^[4]^[3] an identification coined by Keshub Chandra Sen in 1882.^[5] He also founded an ashram Kasthalic Matha, although it didn't last long.^[4]^[3]

In the footsteps of Upadhyay and Sen (second half of the 20th century) came French

trappist Francis Mahieu and who took over leadership of Saccidananda Ashram after Monchanin's death and Le Saux's decision to leave for his hermitage.^[6]

In the late seventeenth, early eighteenth, century, P. Charles François Dolu and Jean-Venance Bouchet designed Catholic ceremonies that integrated Hindu traditions. Bouchet became a noted scholar of Hinduism and adopted Hindu dress, ascetic practices, and even vegetarianism.^{[citation needed]}

Many other Christian ashrams now exist in India. By 2004, there were at least 50 of them, including: Saccidananda Ashram (aforementioned),

Tirupattur and also founded by Ernest Forrester Paton and S. Jesudasan, but by Anglicans rather than Roman Catholics, in the 1930s), Christa Prema Seva Ashram (located in Shivajinagar (near Pune) and founded in 1927 by Anglican John "Jack" Winslow), Jyotiniketan Ashram (in Bareilly), and Christi Panti Ashram (in Varanasi).^[7]^[8]^[9] Other ashrams founded by the movement include Sat Tal Ashram (founded by Methodist E. Stanley Jones) and Nava Jeeva Ashram, Founded by Pradhan Acharya John Thannickal in Bangalore.^[8]^[10]

Whilst Saccidananda and others were founded by

Stanley Samartha reported in 1980 that the movement had "almost dried up".^[11]^[12]

Conflicts

The movement has not been without interreligious friction. Although there was

dialogue between Hinduism and Christianity in general in the 1960s, this broke down as few were willing to engage in common meditation or social work practice.^[9] The Christian Ashram Movement, specifically, came under attack from some factions of Hinduism, as can be witnessed from a series of letters exchanged between Bede Griffiths and Swami Devananda — more on which can be found in Catholic Ashrams (Goel 1988).^[13] Such criticism from (some) Hindus has been severe; but criticism has also been levelled from the Christian side, where conservative groups within the Catholic Church have regarded the Hindu influences upon Christian ashrams with some suspicion. The view of Indians as a whole appears to be that the Christian ashram movement is mainly "for foreigners"; however the view remains that the movement, at least the Catholic side, will continue in existence and provide (in the words of one commentator quoted by George Soares-Prabhu in 1994) "an important point of contact for dialogue with Hinduism".^[14]

Griffiths hoped to restore Christianity to what he considered its roots where meditation and direct experience of God was emphasized, as with the Desert Fathers. Proponents consider this spiritual wisdom to be found in the New Testament, but believe that has been de-emphasised throughout much of Christian history.^{[citation needed]}

While never losing sight of the fact that Jesus is the way to

nonduality and thus allow Christianity to return to being a more inwardly-directed religion.^{[citation needed}

]

The

Roman Catholic teaching as, "All the sacred scriptures are a gift of God to humanity.".^[16]

References

^ "Exploring the Harmonious Convergence of Christian Vedanta". Ecerkva. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
^ Trapnell 2001, p. 219.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Coward & Goa 2004, p. 87.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Trapnell 2001, p. 220.
^ Collins 2007, p. 83–84.
^ Coward & Goa 2004, p. 87–88.
^ Oldmeadow 2004, p. 234–235.
^ ^a ^b Bryant 2003, p. 60.
^ ^a ^b von Brück & Rajashekar 1999, p. 551.
^ ^a ^b Melton 2005, p. 50.
^ Robinson 2004, p. 56.
^ Collins 2007, p. 79.
^ Oldmeadow 2004, p. 235.
^ Robinson 2004, p. 56–57.
^ Elnes 2004.
^ Sahajananda 2009.

Sources used

von Brück, Michael; Rajashekar, J. Paul (1999). "Hinduism and Christianity". In Fahlbusch, Erwin; Bromiley, Geoffrey William (eds.). The encyclopedia of Christianity. Vol. 2. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
ISBN 978-90-04-11695-5
.

Bryant, M. Darrol (2003). "ashrams". In Christensen, Karen; Levinson, David (eds.). Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual world. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). SAGE.
ISBN 978-0-7619-2598-9
.

Collins, Paul M. (2007). Christian inculturation in India. Liturgy, worship, and society. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6076-7
.

ISBN 978-0-231-12961-9
.

Elnes, Eric (2004). "June 25–27, Days 53–55: Shantivanam Ashram". Eric's Sabbatical Journal. Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
Melton, J. Gordon, ed. (2005). "ashrams, Christian". Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Infobase Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-8160-5456-5
.

Oldmeadow, Harry (2004). Journeys East: 20th century Western encounters with Eastern religious traditions. The library of perennial philosophy. World Wisdom, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-941532-57-0
.

Robinson, Bob (2004). "Ashrams and Interreligious centres". Christians meeting Hindus: an analysis and theological critique of the Hindu-Christian encounter in India. OCMS.
ISBN 978-1-870345-39-2
.

Sahajananda, John Martin (January 2009). "Guidelines for Interreligious Dialogue". Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (Bulletin 82). Archived from the original on 19 December 2010.
Trapnell, Judson B. (2001). Bede Griffiths: a life in dialogue. SUNY series in religious studies. SUNY Press.
ISBN 978-0-7914-4871-7
.

Origin and spread

Conflicts

References

Sources used

Further reading