International Conference on Christian Studies

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Old Age and Well-Being in Christian Thought
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Lee, K.H.
Today, population ageing is taking place in nearly all the countries of the world. Consequently, how to cope with ageing has become a major issue in modern society. A predominant view in our society is that people become gradually more religious as they age and that there is an inevitable turning toward religion in later life. Every society from the earliest known times has had some system of religious beliefs and practices. The Church has been providing a variety of services and programs for seniors as well as widows, orphans and other minority groups. This paper has two objectives: 1) to review how old age has been associated with religion through literature, and 2) to examine relationships between religious activities and well-being amongst older people within Christianity. For the purpose of the study, the research is mostly a textual study and mainly depends on primary and secondary sources on the subject. According to records, old age has characteristically been associated with religion in many primitive societies. Some studies show that belief in God is stronger among the elderly than in other agegroups. According to Bahr (1970), there are two types of religious activities: organizational and non-organizational. Many studies have shown positive relationships between religious activities and the well-being among older persons. Blazer and Palmore (1976) found that for the elderly, happiness, a sense of usefulness, and personal adjustment are significantly related to religious activities and attitudes. At the individual level, religion may perform certain psychological functions during the later years. Similarly, at the social level, the church can help to reduce isolation of the elderly by affording them education, counsel and social services.
The Contextual Significance of the “Less Popular Saints” of the Archdiocese of Colombo
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jayatunge, M.
The paper is a study of the contextual significance of the “less popular saints” venerated by the Roman Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka. While many churches have been dedicated to the so called popular saints such as St. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, St. Anne, the Grand Mother of Jesus, St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Sebastian, it is observed that only a very few churches have been dedicated to saints such as St. Isidore, St. Augustine, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martin de Porres, St. Barbara, St. Cecilia, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Gerard Majella, and St. Blaise. This study inquires into the historical, social and cultural significance of each of these saints to the respective faith communities. Patron Saints of churches have a deep significance for the worshipping communities and the present research studies this phenomenon in detail.
The Christian Notion of the fall of the Human Being in Relation to Buddhism
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Atapattu, D.
The Bible holds a distinctive view of what has gone wrong with the human being. The story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the third chapter of Genesis is used to express the basic malady as it is experienced by both Christians and non-Christians. The Genesis story of the fall of human beings is a narrative which reveals the reason for death and the mystery of the human situation. There is a similar narration known as the Agganna Sutta in the Digha Nikaya of the Major Buddhist text the Tripitaka. It is several times longer than the Genesis story. The Genesis story as well as Agganna Sutta are myths. The term myth is not used in the sense of a fable, a figment of the imagination, but in the sense of a "literary form which describes other worldly matters in this worldly concepts". When thus considered, we see striking similarities in both stories, especially in regard to three fundamental matters (1) the fact of the fall, (2) the cause of the fall, and (3) the consequences of the fall. We do intend to trace how both Christianity and the teaching of the Buddha had dealt with the fall of human being under the above mentioned main three factors. It is an interesting fact to illustrate both stories which seek to account for the evil state in which the human being is, and point to a state of prior blessedness. Both stories also say that the human being has also fallen from that state of blessedness. In the Buddhist story beings lose their luster and descend from the Abassara world to dwell on earth where their bodies are solid and subject to mortality. In the other narrative of Genesis, the image of the human being is distorted and the human being is driven out of the garden. As systematic theologian Paul Tillich says, this is not an event that occurs in space and time, but, bears a trans-historical quality of all events in space and time. Apart from that we have identified that Christian teaching and Buddhism have taken desire or "Tanha" as the cardinal cause of the fall of human being. We analyze in detail how this common cause called "Tanha" (desire) causes the degeneration of a human being’s purity and blessedness into decay. This research is totally based on textual references from the Christian Scripture and Tripitaka. We have also included the studies of Lynn Alton de Silva to figure out the fundamental parallels in both Genesis story and the Tripitaka.
Religion and Public Attitudes towards Amnesty in Northern Ireland: Is There a God Gap?
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Brewer, J.D.; Hayes, B.C.
The granting of amnesties has now become a cornerstone of peacebuilding efforts in societies emerging from conflict. Yet, to date, the role of religion in determining attitudes towards such arrangements remains highly anecdotal. This is particularly the case when the views of victims are considered. Mindful of these omissions, this article investigates the relationship between a range of religious measures – religious practices, beliefs in and about God, and religious saliency – and attitudes towards an amnesty for those who admitted carrying out acts of violence during Northern Ireland’s troubled past. Based on nationally representative survey data, the results suggest that Protestants are significantly more opposed to such an initiative than Catholics and this relationship holds regardless of whether individual victims or members of the general public are considered. For both religious communities, however, it is beliefs in and about God which emerges as the key, albeit divergent, determinant of views.
The Emergence of Israelite Monarchy: Political or Theological
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Gunasekera, S.I.A.
The monarchical form of government in Israel was established roughly around the year 1000 BCE. Thereafter, the people of Israel lived under monarchical rule until the Babylonian exile in 587/6 BCE. However, the exercise of monarchical power created a very strong negative impact on the life of the people in many ways. The political blunders, thirst for power, and religious infidelity on the part of several kings led the entire nation to ruin. The oppressive measures of certain kings created division within a nation which boasted about its unity as the ideal. The prophetic literature abounds in condemning the oppression of the monarchical institution. The text which is being subjected to the present research, namely 1Sam 8 has given rise to centurieslong discussions on the emergence of Israelite monarchy. When dealing with these issues, in the first place one could see that 1Samuel 8 has different compositional layers among which the most visible being the antimonarchical layer. The need for a standing army in the wake of invasions from the neighbouring kingdoms would have been an existential necessity. Hence the ancient Israelite demand for a king around 1000 BEC was probably historical. Hence 1Samuel 8 could be considered as a response to a political crisis in ancient Israel.
The Diverse Musical Traditions of Sri Lankan Passion Plays
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Samarakoon, K.
The primary objective of this study is to present an analysis on the different genres of music that is embedded in Sri Lankan Passion Plays. Sri Lankan Passion Play music is influenced by musical disciplines of several countries such as Portugal, India, and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Passion Play tradition can be traced as far back as 1602 with the arrival of the Franciscans (1553) and then the Jesuit missionaries (1602). When the Passion Plays were enacted in different parts of Sri Lanka they were accompanied by different regional musical traditions. Thus through the Sri Lankan Passion Plays one can trace European, South Indian as well as Sri Lankan musical elements with regional cultural and linguistic differences. To achieve my objective I have selected three Sri Lankan Passion Plays, namely, Pesalai (1907), Boralessa (1924) and Duwa (1939).
Proselytization in Socially Discriminated Estate Tamil Community
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Fernando, N.
The paper focuses on the proselytization of Estate Tamils by evangelical groups. It is evident that some Estate Tamils who are attracted to these groups come from socially and emotionally depressed backgrounds. The up country Tamil population called “Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka” have been discriminated since their arrival here in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. In general socio-economically their standard of living has been below that of the national average. The objective of the study was to socially analyze the cause of the religious emigration from their ancestral folk Hinduism to evangelical Christian groups. With the research carried out in 2014 and 2015 in the district of Kandy in Sri Lanka it manifests that rapid conversion growth of Christian Evangelical groups among estate Tamil community is something of phenomenal magnitude. The unmitigated reality is that socially discriminated estate Tamil community has become a happy hunting ground for proselytizing into evangelical resurgence. Inability and lack of interest of religious traditions and social institutions to respond to crisis emerged due to caste discrimination; social status and identity crisis, unequal distribution of resources, deprivation of basic needs such as education, hostilities by certain Buddhist groups have aggravated the religious emigration. Missionary zeal and out-reach approach are effective strategies of evangelical activity where conversion marks the birth of a new identity in the process of transition. The research manifests that affiliation into evangelical groups by up country Tamil converts has gained upward social mobility. Hence the rapid influx of Christian evangelical groups in the predominantly Hindu localities has absolutely altered the landscape of religious pluralism.
Ethics of Mercy: From Being Perfect to Being Merciful
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wasalathanthrige, E.L.
Ethics, in general, is defined as the science of voluntary human behaviour based on accepted customs and norms of conduct of a particular context. This is self-explanatory in its etymology. In the course of history, this term has been used to indicate three interrelated ideas, namely, (i) the general patterns of human living, (ii) a science that formulates rules or moral codes of human conduct (normative science based on pure reason), and (iii) philosophical description of human behavior (descriptive science based on practical reason). Hence, we can say that the goal of ethics is not merely to know objectively what one ought to do and avoid in general but also to know how to make practical moral decisions in concrete situations. Philosophers developed normative aspects of ethics. Plato presented good as the resemblance of the pure/universal form of good - the perfection. For Aristotle, right actions and virtuous characters are the means of achieving personal happiness and social welfare. Theologians laid emphasis on descriptive aspects of ethics. For St. Augustine the final goal of human life is happiness. It is found only in God and cannot be achieved by merely living a so-called perfect life. It is attended only through the union of love. St. Thomas Aquinas adopted Aristotelian and Augustinian ethics and in him both speculative and practical aspects of ethics are bound together. For Aquinas, ethics is not just a science of purely theoretical knowledge (know how human beings ought to behave) but a practical science of becoming good (know how to make correct moral decisions). The pure reason tells every rational being that they can meditate on objective truth/objective moral laws. However, the practical reason, the experience tells them that every moral agent is in tension, conflict, limited, finite … sinful. The concretization of the objective moral principles in a moral context is a difficult process, a difficult journey that every sinful moral agent has to make through constantly making morally right decisions. Hence the sinful moral agent can reach only the ‘excellence that is humanly possible’. Hence, contextual ethics must be based on realism and not on idealism. The followers of Jesus Christ are invited to understand this moral struggle and be merciful with everyone who is in the struggle. The Gospels witness to Jesus’ merciful approach to the sinners who are struggling in their moral journey inviting all to be merciful: ‘be merciful just as your Father is merciful’.
A Redaction-Critical Study of Petavatthu
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Gamage, A.K.
Applying the methods of Biblical criticism particularly Redaction criticism this paper presents a redaction-critical study of Petavatthu-pāḷi (the seventh book of Khuddakanikāya in the Pāli canon). While doctrinal, chronological and philological aspects of the Petavatthu have been studied so far, the method of Redaction Criticism has not been employed in studying this text. This paper attempts to fill that lacuna. Redaction Criticism is meant to detect the redactor’s or editor’s intervention in an author’s original work. The two terms ‘editor’ and ‘redactor’ are used synonymously in this paper while the term ‘author’ refers to the creator of the original work. The redactor intends to facilitate the reader’s comprehension of the text by ‘filling in the blanks’ or adding material that would allegedly interconnect disparate statements in the original text. As specialists in Redaction Criticism assert, such seams or stitches, though meant to clarify the original text, might end up interrupting its flow. Modelling on John 3 and Mark 16, the interventions of the redactors (saṅgītikārā) in the Petavatthu-pāḷi, is examined. The commentary on the Petavatthu is also consulted as a possible aid to detect the editorial interventions.
Thomistic Theory of Friendship: Interpretation of Charity as Amicitia Hominis ad Deum
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wellington, A.
A person is justified in saying that St. Thomas’ notion of friendship (amicitia) is a reworking of the classical Aristotelian notion of friendship in the light of Christian faith. In this process, he makes every possible effort to combine classical Aristotelian ideas with important and significant ideas of Christianity. This effort resulted in a theory of friendship which is more flexible and accommodating and has such wide parameters that it even accommodates real human differences and disagreements. Aristotle proposed a separate treatise on friendship. He, in fact, devoted one fifth of his Nicomachean Ethics to a discussion on friendship. Thus we see Aristotle expounding his ideas on friendship in the VIII and IX books of Nicomachean Ethics. However, St. Thomas, though an ardent follower and lover of Aristotle, did not develop a separate treatise on friendship. Rather, he places his discussion on friendship (amicitia) within the context of the passion of love (amor) and the theological virtue of charity (caritas). Even though the Aristotelian discussion is purely rationalistic and Thomistic discussion is a mixture of reason and faith, yet we can notice that St. Thomas who expended great efforts to construct a rationally coherent and humanly consistent understanding of friendship closely adheres to Aristotelian structure. A closer look at both Aristotelian and Thomistic discussions on friendship enables a person to infer with certainty that Humans are not only rational beings but they are also social and political beings. This very nature of the human being means that he/she naturally has the desire to belong and to form bonds of friendship. This rational and political/social being develops, flourishes and realizes his/her potentialities within and through interpersonal ties.
The Garden of Communion and the Ground of Dominion: Genesis 2,4b-3,24 as an Aetiology of Domination
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wijesinghe, S.L.
Source-critical studies on Gen 2,4b-3,24 had assigned a very early pre-exilic date to its composition. But recent research has challenged this century long hypothesis. There is a growing consensus that the final text of the second creation narrative was completed during the post-exilic period. There are similarities between in Gen 2,4b–3,24 and late texts in Ezekiel, Second Isaiah and Job. Furthermore pre-exilic texts of the OT hardly refer to the second story of creation. These reasons prompt the exegetes to posit a post-exilic date to the final version of the text. Without excluding the possibility that the text contains redactional layers, it is possible to consider it as a post-exilic work. Interpreting the symbol of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” as “freedom” and the serpent/ground as the unorganised appetite, it is possible to see an evaluation of the Ancient Israelite History in Gen 2,4b-3,24. Israel was expelled from the garden of communion because of the loss of equilibrium between the world of freedom and the world of the appetite. While presenting a historical evaluation, the second story of creation also functions as an aetiology of domination.
New and Home-grown: A Postcolonial Approach to ‘Theology in Context’
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Hettiarachchi, S.
The paper focuses on the significance of ‘context’ to theology and how the postcolonial perspective could be deployed to reassess theology in context informed by praxis. The South Asian landmass and its people were subjugated by various regimes and nothing of it remained untouched by ‘colonialism’ and continues with its residue to this day. It enforced political contour and determined governance and land, from spices to religion, alliance, allegiance and loyalty to the powers that be in the distant theatres. Theology became a ‘handmaid’ of the empire which framed history, creating new socio-political, religio-cultural domains close to their home but impacting upon the ‘colony’ and its masses they governed. There is an unfinished debate on the place, role, mode and model of theology since the end of the colonial world with freedom movements and the national quest for identity, a sense of ‘peoplehood’ as if ‘lost and found’. However, theology being part of the historical development of the churches whose prime concern has been to be faithful to ‘their context of splintered church doctrine and practice’ with less or no regard to the ‘new context of the heathens’ where they ‘pitched their tents’ which prioritised ‘planting of churches’ and ‘salvation of souls’. Evolving a theology without a context could even leave ‘God’ endangered because God too gathers meaning in context. Therefore, contextual theology is not an option but an imperative for the churches of Asia to make sense of the ‘difference’ where ‘oneness’ and ‘manyness’ of ‘religion(s)’ require insightful reading and fresh understanding. Postcolonial perspective as a tool, critically pursues to recover, re-index and re-codify terms of reference and strategies of engagement, with the plurality of context of the Christians in Asia. It also helps provide content to theology in context and opens new frontiers to the Asian theological intellect.
“Justice” in Rerum Novarum (1891) and After
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Abeyasingha, N.
The present author has found it rather difficult to obtain an overview of the content of “justice” as found in Catholic Social Teaching. Study of the relevant documents seems to point to the fact that the scope of the content of justice has changed – indeed expanded - over the years. The obvious starting point is the classical framework of justice as commutative and distributive. That was the basic framework in which Rerum Novarum (1891) emerged. It placed the issue of distributive justice in the context of virtue, in the light of the common good. But even more important was the situation in which the encyclical came. Not very much earlier, Pius IX had refused compromise with the emerging world scenario through his syllabus (1864). But in many parts of Europe, there were emerging movements that sided with workers. Leo XIII did not attempt a theoretical defence against his predecessor’s refusal to adapt to the emerging world. He simply went ahead and offered a proposal of adaptation to the emerging world. With Pius XI, Leo’s basic approach found a further vocabulary in regard to distributive justice as social justice (Taparelli) and social justice was presented as the justice between human and human – a relationship that presupposes and fosters equality. And so, the elaboration of content over the centuries has linked other terms and concepts with social justice – subsidiarity, community, socialization, human rights, solidarity, the subjective dimension of labour, development worthy of human being, and most recently ecology. Obviously, this paper cannot treat each of these expansions in depth, but it outlines a possible framework for understanding “justice” as an expanding concept in Catholic Social Teaching.
Preaching Christ and Him Crucified: A Spiritual Study on the Interior Experience of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus and of Saint Eugene on Good Friday
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Sylvester, A.
On the road to Damascus, St. Paul had a profound experience of Risen Christ as the Son of God. He accepted Jesus as the Son of God. The experience of Risen Christ shattered his idea of the Divine and opened to him new possibilities of understanding God. The Resurrection of Christ was the fundamental belief of the Saint. During a Good Friday liturgy, St. Eugene de Mazenod the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary had a similar experience of the Divine. This was at a particular time in his life when he was shattered and could not find meaning in his life. De Mazenod and his family were severely affected by the French Revolution. The family was displaced and young De Mazenod found himself uprooted from this familiar milieu. While gazing on the cross and contemplating on blood shed by Jesus for the liberation of humans, he came to the realization that he is saved by Christ and that Jesus is his Saviour. The love of Christ was the fundamental belief of St. De Mazenod. An experience does not arise from a universal dictum. The letters of St. Paul and the writings of St. De Mazenod are results of the reflections on their own personal experiences. This paper is a comparative study on the spiritual journeys of St. Paul and St. De Mazenod. Focussing on the personal relationship between Jesus and Paul and between Jesus and De Mazenod, I have argued that the life of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate should be seen from the theological foundations of De Mazenod, namely God who is the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, the Church and priesthood.
A Study of the Traditional Lenten Pasan Singing
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Weerakkody, I.S.
The paper is a research on the Pasan chants of the Catholic communities in Doowa, Pitipana and Wahakotte in Sri Lanka. The Catholic Church has organized its worship into five different phases spread throughout the year, namely Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time. Pasan is sung during Lent. In commemorating the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Catholics observe numerous rituals. From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday there is a 40 day period during which the Catholics (besides other religious rituals and practices) use prose and verse chants and prayers to deepen the Lenten spirit in homes and in churches. One of these special chants is the singing of Pasan songs by small groups of persons. It is believed that Sri Lankan Catholics inherited this tradition after the arrival of the Portuguese. At present the Catholics in Sri Lanka follow the Pasan tradition established by Jacome Gonsalves, transmitted from one generation to another orally over four centuries. In the present ethnographic research, many Pasan singing styles practiced by the Sri Lankan Catholics have been identified. There are many versions varying according to regional differences. During the Lenten season there are many prose Pasan styles and verse Pasan styles. The present research is a comparative study of the singing styles and other related variations in the Pasan singing of the Doowa (Negombo), Pitipana (Negombo) and Wahakotte (Matale) regions. Both primary and secondary sources were used in accumulating the data. The methods used were intensive field studies, indepth interviews and participant observation.
Obstacle to Discernment of God’s Will: Satan, Evil Spirit, or Reason misled by Self-love?
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Aloysius, P.S.J.
Christianity, as a theistic religion, defines spirituality as obedience (i.e., hearing and doing) God’s Word/Will, not without discussion, dialogue and even debate. This process of hearing and doing implies a mental procedure known technically as discernment which ensures that it is genuinely God’s word/will that one hears and executes. The question discussed in this paper is who or what stands in the way of discernment. The general answer is “Satan” a rational creature, who goes by many other names. The Author asks whether it is necessary to have recourse to such an external agent and proposes an alternative explanation as a mere hypothesis, namely that the “serpent” mentioned in Genesis 3,1-24 need not refer to an agent outside the human person (such as Satan) but symbolizes human reason misled by greed or inordinate passion. This hypothesis avoids the contradiction between the belief in all-loving and all-powerful God on the one hand and an irredeemably wicked rational being either created by God or having an independent existence.
The Discovery and Affirmation of the Concept of ‘Human Person’ in Christian Philosophy
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Rohan, P.
The concept of the ‘Human Person’ has a long history and has become the subject matter for many branches of study. Human beings are characterized as ‘Persons’ apart from all other kinds of entities. ‘Person’ is a comprehensive name which expresses the entire nature of the human being. The term person in English is derived from the Latin persona which is also traceable to the Greek prosopon (πρόσωπον). The direct meaning of prosopon is face which was originally used in the Greek theatre to denote the made-up faces or the masks worn by an actor. For Romans, persona had a juridical sense which expressed a kind of dignity, recognized by the law. For them only a Roman citizen was persona. With the advent of Christianity a new world vision was opened. This vision influenced the outlook on the human being as well. Human beings were considered unique because of their special place in nature and their superiority over other creatures. According to the Christian metaphysical tradition, human being is unique because of the endowment of the immortal rational soul and being created in the image of God. Severinus Boethius, a Christian philosopher of early 6th century, defined the concept of ‘Person’ for the first time. This was considered a classical definition which provided a firm theoretical base to a new humanism, that is, to view all the human beings as persons who have equal rights and dignity. Thus, Christian Philosophy pioneered to discover and affirm the concept of ‘Human Person’ in an innovative way, discarding the previous oppressive and narrow perspectives. My research focuses on this aspect in order to declare once more the value and dignity of each individual as a ‘Human Person’. There is a serious need for it in the contemporary society, to provide a theoretical forum to affirm the personhood of all individuals, so that all may become ‘persons’ and allow others to be ‘persons’ and construct a society based human values.
Thomistic Influence on Natural Law
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Amarasinghe, P.
St. Thomas Aquinas stands as an ivory tower in the world of western jurisprudence. Ecclesiastical works he compiled inspired later generations of jurists to reinterpret the form of natural law. During the dark period between the decline of classical civilization and the birth of medieval order the church fathers like Augustine and Ambrose preserved the notion of natural law. But they always kept the state under the authority of the church. For them the church was given absolute supremacy over the state, which only exists to protect peace on earth. This dogmatic theological concept on the state reached its very end by the new scholastic system of St.Thomas Aquinas. In his magnum opus "Summa Thiologica" Aquinas defines law as "an ordinance of reason for the common good made by him who has the care of the community and promulgated". He accepts the fact the divine law is supreme and whole community of universe is governed by divine reason. But it is not accessible for mortal humans. Such part of it as is intelligible to the human being reveals itself through the eternal law as the incorporation of divine wisdom, which gives direction to all actions and movements. However as a result of Aristotelian influence Aquinas did not adopt an antagonist view towards the state like Augustine. According to Aquinas, the state is a natural institute, born from elementary social needs of the human being. The argued state is a fundamental necessity to make the social life of the human being secured though it is evil. He categorizes natural law under the thread of divine law, that part which reveals itself in natural reason. It is from the elements of eternal law, as revealed in natural law, that all human laws derive from it. It is a considerable fact that Thomistic influence has made its profound contribution to the modern idea of natural law. Most importantly St. Thomas Aquinas justified the public commotions against tyrannical rule. He simply suggested that laws of tyrants are not laws, but rather kind of a perversion of laws. When such a law becomes harmful to the society, one can resist it. But this whole process should be confined within certain limits. Aquinas points out that resistance cannot contravene one's private right and it should be based on self defence. My research paper would illustrate how the natural law received its foundation nourishment from the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Edifices in Dark Days: Origin, Types and Development of Oratorian Missionary Churches in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jayasinghe, S.
The early 19th century Catholic churches in Sri Lanka built by the Goan Oratorian missionaries mainly follow the unique Indo-Portuguese architectural concepts which were adapted to the political and economic demands of Sri Lanka as well as to certain aspects of the local climate and culture. However, the distinctive architectural model of missionary architecture of Sri Lanka has not been identified in-depth in available historical references and in modern research. First, during the Dutch occupation and the period of persecution of Catholics and later, with the advent of the British, the members of the Oratorian order have played a crucial role in the restoration and reconstruction of a territorial network of Catholic churches to its former stronghold. This study intends (i) to discuss the origin and the development process of the network of Oratorian churches in Sri Lanka and (ii) to analyse the impact of Indo-Portuguese architecture on those churches built by the Oratorian mission in the Island during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Effective Evangelization through Contextual Theologies
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wanjala, F.
The presentation, guided by the theme “Contextual Theology” seeks to argue that contextual theologies are the indispensable means through which the Good News of the Kingdom of God can successfully touch the hearts of the human race. God’s revelation, as transmitted to the world through Scripture and Church Tradition, bears an essentially universal hallmark and as such its kernel is relevant for the entirety of humanity. In communicating the divine message, however, God has chosen to employ a secondary cause, namely the human language. The implication for this is that this Good News is couched in a specific human language though its utility is intended for humankind in general. Relying principally on John Paul II’s Encyclical Fides et Ratio which maintains that the Church has no preferred philosophy on the one hand, and that all cultures have an inherent philosophical system, on the other, the paper reaches four basic inferences, namely, (i) the need to comprehend the divine message in its original setting so as to pinpoint the substance behind the wordings of God’s communication; (ii) the need to interpret the retrieved immutable content using the purified contextual philosophy of specific peoples, thus creating a contextual theology; (iii) the need to disseminate the contextualized Good News among the people from whom the contextual philosophy has been previously gotten. The procedural last step above is what the presentation proffers as effective evangelization. This is the category of evangelization which spontaneously leads to the inner positive transformation of a person.