Challenges of Living as a Threatened Minority in the Midst of a Powerful Majority

Table of Contents

Topic: Reading Johannine Literature in Indian multi-faith, pluralistic Context: Challenges of living as a threatened minority in the midst of a powerful majority

The Gospel of John is considered one of the significant writings in the NT that appeals to Indian spirituality and Asian ideals in many ways. The Gospel’s genre dynamism, features of setting, ideological constructs, character traits, plot structure, and point of view reflect and reveal its assimilative power to reverberate the situational aspects of the Indian religious and contextual realities. The life of the early Johannine Christian community was not at all an easy one. They were facing opposition and pressure from both the Jewish community and the ruling Roman government. Their religious and communal identities were affected by their new found faith in Jesus, whom they proclaim as Son of God and Messiah. As the theology, ideology and loyalty of the community were different from their neighbours now they were forced to clarify affirm their allegiance which brought them into dialogue with their contextual realities, and inevitable excommunication and persecution. The community which enjoyed political and religious protection and freedom as a sub-sect of Judaism is now in danger from Jews and from the Roman empire. The Challenges of living as a threatened minority in the midst of a powerful majority are alarming, even affecting the very identity of the communities. Such was the context of Johannine community in the late 1st century Palestine. The Christian community in India share the above qualities of Johannine community in various aspects. This paper tries to briefly discuss the topic “Challenges of living as a threatened minority in the midst of a powerful majority” comparing the context of Johannine community to that of Indian context of today.

1. Johannine Community and the Jewish Context

The Johannine community as a newly emerged Christian group developed its theology out of the existential struggles. Their expulsion from the Synagogue and the resultant minority status in society forced them to develop an insider versus ‘outsider’ dialectic. Existential demands persuaded them to redefine their soteriology in relation eschatology and theology.¹ The insider dynamism was developed, first, to establish community identity and then to expand faith-centred and interactive theology to outsiders. Thus, it fostered faith in Jesus during existential struggle enabled the community to develop an intra-ecclesial theology with special emphasis on ‘life/ eternal life’.²

R. E. Brown explains the tension between Church and Synagogue and the polemics between Jews and Johannine sectarians, arguing that Johannine Christians, as a sectarian group expelled from synagogue, constructed a theology according to their existential demands and based on their faith affirmations. According to Robert Kysar, “Community experience was understood to be the key that unlocked the puzzles of the gospel, both the theological themes and the language it uses to tell the story of Jesus.³

a). Expulsion and ex-communication from Synagogues

During the late first century, Christians in Palestine faced excommunication from the Synagogue and even death because they believed that Jesus was the Christ.⁴ It was in such a context the Christian community, especially Johannine community as an emerging group had to undergo constant existential struggles. In John 15:18, 15:20 and 16:2b shows that Johannine community at least saw themselves as oppressed.⁵ Fear of expulsion from the synagogue (aposynagōgos) creates part of the tension throughout the Fourth Gospel. On three occasions John refers to the Jewish threat to expel those who “confess Jesus to be Christ” (John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2). Many Johannine scholars follow J. Louis Martyn and interpret these passages in light of the threat of expulsion that faced the Johannine community. Martyn argues that the threat of expulsion reflects the Birkat ha-Minim, a Jewish benediction that calls for the “Nazarenes [possibly, the Christians] and the Minim [heretics]” to be destroyed.⁶ But Scholars like Jonathan Bernier challenges Martyn’s use of the Birkat ha-Minim on few historical and philosophical objections.⁷ But none the less the practice of expulsion in the Jewish synagogues and the persecution of early Christian community are undeniable.

b). Johannine Community: The struggling minority

Building on the concept of antilanguage as theorized by Michael Halliday, Malina and Rohrbaugh claim, ‘John’s Gospel reflects the alternate reality John’s group set up in opposition to its opponents … They are the objects of the power of the law and subjects of their own antilanguage, which resists and undermines the power of the law’.⁸ The Johannine community seems to have also experienced a loss of physical space and have faced social and psychological bereavement of alienation from the family of Judaism.⁹ As a newly emerged community without canonized scripture and a highly organized ecclesiastical set up, it had to suffer persecution from both the conservative religious Jews and from the Imperial authorities. The very existence of the Johannine community was in danger as it was a minority community without power and influence.¹⁰

For a period of time the ancient world, Christians were being ostracized from their local community and marked as ‘Out-of-the-Synagoguers’. But they soon learned not to be ashamed of this, but rather adopted it as a badge to be worn with pride. The negative consequences of this social stigma are overcome when they discover that Jesus himself told them that they would be Out-of-the- Synagoguers.¹¹

2. Roman Imperial Context

Augustan Ideology was dominating the society of that time. The three most important things to note of this ideology are: Supreme control over political and structural matters, Imperial cult, Augustan Poets. This Presented a serious threat to the Johannine community, since the community could neither accept nor participate in the Augustan Ideology, nor could it claim a legal exemption from doing so because of its excommunication from the synagogue.¹²

An inscription of note is found on a statue base, which honours Claudius with the following: “Tiberius Claudius Caesar Sebastos Gemanicus god manifest, saviour of our people too”. If we place John’s Jesus, the “Saviour of the World,” alongside these political, propagandistic proclamations of the Roman empire, we can begin to imagine how John’s community understood Jesus. Again, unlike the Roman emperors, Jesus did not come just to save “a people” nor “a nation,” for his task was far greater. Jesus would be the saviour of the world, and, ironically, this would mean saving Rome while simultaneously saving the world from Roman imperial power. One can begin to imagine here how those outside John’s community might have perceived this type of rhetoric.¹³

The Gospel of John is the story of Jesus, who lived on the margins of powerful religious and political worlds, as recounted by a community of believers lived on the periphery of imperial and religious power.¹⁴ John’s Gospel like any other writings of the New Testament, was produced in a hybrid milieu under the Roman Imperial rule.¹⁵

3. The Complex and Oppressive Structures of Imperial Roman Empire

Money and power are the primary steering media that regulate the formation and perpetuation of systems¹⁶, the ancient Roman rule was no exception to this. The empire was very hierarchical, with vast disparities of power and wealth. For the small ruling elite, life was quite comfortable. For the majority nonelite, it was at best liveable and at worst very miserable. There was no middle class, little opportunity to improve one’s lot, and few safety nets in adversity. The Roman Empire was an aristocratic empire. This term means that a small elite of about 2 to 3 percent of the population ruled. They shaped the social experience of the empire’s inhabitants, determined the “quality” of life, exercised power, controlled wealth, and enjoyed high status.¹⁷ In addition, the elite controlled various forms of communication or “media,” such as the designs of coins, the building of monuments, and construction of various buildings. These means communicated elite Roman values and shaped perceptions. Networks of patronage, and alliances between Rome and elites in the provinces, also extended control, maintained the status quo, and enforced the elite’s interests.¹⁸

a. The Emperor and the Ruling Elite

The emperor presided over the empire. He concentrated on financial and military matters (including diplomacy), both of which were crucial for preserving Roman power and for reaping the elite’s enormous rewards of power and wealth.¹⁹

b. Military Force

Rome’s empire was a legionary empire. Emperors needed loyal legions, the army’s basic organizational unit, to exercise sovereignty, enforce submission, and to intimidate those who contemplated revolt. Legions also spread Roman presence by building roads and bridges, and improved productivity by increasing available land through clearing forests and draining swamps.²⁰

c. Divine Sanctions

In addition to ownership of resources, military force, and working relationships with the elite, emperors secured their power by claiming the favour of the gods. Their imperial theology proclaimed that Rome was chosen by the gods, notably Jupiter, to rule an “empire without end”.²¹

d. Domination

Elites exercised material domination over nonelites, appropriating their agricultural production and labour. The hard manual work of nonelites and the coerced extractions of production sustained the elite’s extravagant and elegant way of life. Domination deeply influences personal well-being and feelings. It deprives people of dignity. It is degrading and humiliating. It exacts not only agricultural production but an enormous personal toll of anger, resentment, and learned inferiority. Moreover, elites legitimated and expressed their domination with an ideology or set of convictions. They asserted it was the will of the gods (see chapters 5 and 6, below). They claimed social hierarchy and exploitation were simply the way things were.²²

e. Resistance to the Domination

The absence of violent revolt, however, does not mean the absence of protest. Sometimes protests took more public forms such as pilfering elite property, evading taxes, working slowly, refusing to work at all, or attacking a symbol of domination.²³ Often protest is disguised, calculated, self-protective. It may comprise telling stories that offer an alternative or counter-ideology to negate the elite’s dominant ideology and to assert the dignity or equality of nonelites. It may involve fantasies of violent revenge and judgment on elites. It may imagine a reversal of roles in favour of nonelites.²⁴

The Christian Community
The New Testament writings can, in part, be thought of as “hidden transcripts.” They are not public writings targeted to the elite or addressed to any person who wants to read them. They are written from and for communities of followers of Jesus crucified by the empire. The New Testament writings assist followers of Jesus in negotiating Rome’s world. Because of their commitment to Jesus’ teaching and actions, they frequently dissent from Rome’s way of organizing society. Often, though not always, they seek to shape alternative ways of being human and participating in human community that reflect God’s purposes.²⁵

Persecution of Christianity created tremendous anomie in the early years of the Christian church. And in John’s day, when the normatively regulated actions of the “Jews” (actions determined by the Law) came into conflict with Roman power (e.g., the Jewish War), a period of anomie or normlessness ensued. This cross-mixture of actions “involves substituting strategic forms of economic and legal action mediated by money and power for communicative forms of action responsible for socialization, cultural transmission, and social integration.²⁶ Under such duress, the “Jewish” lifeworld was (over time) unilaterally restructured by the powerful (i.e., the Romans) and the “Jewish” lifeworld had to be reinterpreted in terms of a new political, economic, and religious life (e.g., the reinterpretation of Torah and traditions).²⁷

Thus, in John’s hands the idea that Rome’s political authority comes “from above” has connotations very different from those it is usually thought to have in Romans 13. That authority is thoroughly relativized for the Johannine Christians, who, like Jesus, are “from above” (3:3-8), are “not of this world,” and therefore are hated and persecuted by the world (15:18-21; 16:1-4). Even Jesus’ transcendence of the category of kingship is not “apolitical,” since the witness to truth confronts Caesar’s man with a challenge beyond his grasp and finally strips him of the authority, he thinks is his.

4. Challenges of living as a threatened minority in the midst of a powerful majority

a. Indian Context

The Indian constitution does not declare India to be multicultural. Nevertheless, there are guarantees in the Constitution that has made a multicultural society possible in India. India identity itself with the majority Hindu Culture, thereby communities that differ from it are designated as minorities. The problem, here, does not lie with the definition of majorities and minorities but with the idea that “irreconcilable difference exists between majority and minority culture.” Worse, minorities and majorities are seen to increasingly clash over such issues as language rights, regional autonomy, political representation, education curriculum, land claims, national anthem or public holidays.²⁸

Indian Constitution is perceived by many as not only secular but multicultural as well. Besides, Indian Constitution recognises Christian minority and rites. Yet there is discrimination in the form of equity relating to identity and empowerment. Because of being Christians there is restriction and reinterpretation of the Article 25²⁹ and 26³⁰. Because of being Christian there has been violation of the Article³¹ 29.³²

Hindu majority culture is itself not a culturally homogeneous community because of presence of four hierarchical Caste (almost similar to class in Western context) and number numerous sub-caste within them. Over time, the caste system was formalized into four distinct classes (varnas) – Brahmin, Kshtriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras. Beneath the four castes there is a fifth group, which is not included as part of the Indian Caste system who are named as untouchables or Dalits.³³

b. Johannine Community and Indian Christian Community

The cross-cultural nature of the Gospel is demonstrated through the Judean, Galilean and Samaritan integration, and the Jerusalem-centric Sitz im Leben Jesu³⁴ and the Ephesus-centric Sitz im Leben Kirche³⁵ intertwining. This aspect of the Fourth Gospel can be considered a paradigm in the multi- religious, multi-cultural, and pluralistic context of India.³⁶

The Johannine community was treated as a minority sect and were expelled from the Synagogue (Ch 9:22, 34; Ch 16:2). Indian Christian communities suffer discrimination and rigorous persecution due to their minority status.³⁷
In Roman Palestine, Jesus worked among the masses, especially those who were poor, marginalized, and ostracized (4:1–26; 5:1–18; 9:1–41). In India, the church, in her mission, focuses on the poor sections of the society.³⁸

Looking into the context of Indian minority, while the Indian constitution provides freedom to express and propagate one’s religion. In that sense the struggle of Christian Communities in India is in several ways equivalent to the struggles of Johannine community. In the multi-religious, Pluralistic Indian context, politicization of religion and communal tendencies are rampant and the minority’s rights are not at all protected.³⁹

The minority sects during the time of Johannine community have much in common with the minorities of Christians today in India. The following aspects are significant in that regard of living as a threatened minority in the midst of a powerful majority.⁴⁰

While the Johannine community was treated as a minority sect and were expelled from the Synagogue (9:22, 34; 16:2), Indian communities suffered discrimination and rigorous persecution due to their minority status.
In the Roman Palestine, Jesus worked among the masses, especially those who were poor, marginalized and ostracized (4:1-26; 5:1-18; 19:1-41). In India, the church’s mission focuses on the poor sections of society.
As John portrayed women with respect and on par with men characters (2:1-11; 4:1-42; 12;1- 8; 20:1-18), the Indian churches have started to adopt a hermeneutics of suspicion to make the voice of women hear in the church and in society.
As dialogue is the preferable literary genre within John, Indian Christians are dialogical and interactional in the public arena.
As in the case of Johannine community situation, the Dalit communities in India, the Minjung in Korea, and other poor sections across Asia endure economic deprivation, social vulnerability, and religious dehumanization.⁴¹

The Gospel consequently encourages believers to remember that the Messiah to the marginalised was himself marginalised. The Gospel of John challenges contemporary believers to oppose prevailing structures and social patterns that oppress the minority.⁴²

c. Christianity as a minority’s religion

Religion has been used for the communalisation religious communities and interreligious conflict in the present time. The religiously stirred conflict and outcome as violence has once again forced us to rethink on religion. The modern welfare democratic state uses religion as one of the major sources of identity and policy formulation for its citizens and protection of their rights and to provide justice. There is no denying fact that religion is one of the major sources of social identity at present time and people are discriminated and exploited and their human rights are violated because of their affiliation to certain religious beliefs and faith.⁴³

Christians face threats, intimidation and violations of freedom of religion or belief, including destruction of churches, attacks on pastors and the illegal detention of church workers. They have also been the target of discriminatory laws and practices. Anti–conversion laws have a particularly negative impact on Christians. This is both on account of their discriminatory content and by providing a level of legitimacy to allegations that Christians are performing forced conversions. Despite little evidence to support such claims, they have been invoked by right-wing groups to garner support for attacks against India’s Christian minority.⁴⁴

d. Discrimination and ‘Laws’ that perpetuate further Discrimination

According to a 2018 briefing by the Library of Congress, eight out of India’s twenty-nine states have Freedom of Religion Acts often called “anti-conversion” laws, that regulate religious conversions. These laws are seen to in particular target Christian groups. However, it is reported that there have been very few arrests or prosecutions under these laws.
According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) an independent U.S. federal government commission that reports on religious freedom, the right to proselytize is protected alongside freedom of religion or belief in India’s constitution. However, religious freedom is “subject to public order”, a “vague phrase allowing the suspension of rights to protect social ‘tranquillity’”.⁴⁵

In its 2021 report the USCIRF stated that “these anti-conversion laws are too often the basis for false accusations, harassment, and violence against non-Hindus that occur with impunity”. In 2020, the Commission detailed that “Mobs—fuelled by false accusations of forced conversions—attacked Christians, destroyed churches, and disrupted religious worship services. In many cases, authorities did not prevent these abuses and ignored or chose not to investigate pleas to hold perpetrators accountable”.⁴⁶

Such is the state of Christian community as a minority in the midst of a powerful majority, where even the judiciary laws formulated in accordance to the constitutions are also twisted to suit the purposes of the people in power, to promote their own interests.

Conclusion

Christianity as a minority religion in India is in many ways similar to the Johannine community, that existed during the Roman Imperial rule. Though these two contexts are separated by a time gap of two millennia yet, there were striking similarities among them, which enables us to draw insights from the life, faith and struggles of the Johannine community. Compared to the highly established religious, cultural, and political structures of that time, both of Jewish and of Roman origin, the new found faith of Johannine Christians was relatively underdeveloped yet they have pledged their loyalty to “the Son of God” in whom they have found their “Messiah”. The counter-cultural, liberative and transformative message they have carried with themselves in the name of Jesus, have challenged the existing socio- political and religious structures which eventually led to their excommunication and persecution. Even in the midst of extremely unfavourable conditions of their time the Johannine community thrived and expanded. Their message embedded with the kingdom values taught by Jesus had won many to their side, despite severe opposition.

The Indian Christian community, just like the Johannine community, is a minority group in India. Religion plays an extremely crucial role in Indian context, affecting almost all the dimensions of individuals as well as society. As the majority religion Hinduism have its influences in the socio-cultural and political lives of the people and the country at large, dominating the sphere of governance. The rules and laws are formulated to serve the purpose of the ruling majority, marginalizing the minority groups. And with the rise of Hindu Fundamentalist groups (Hindutva) there is increase in the religious intolerance and violence in the name of religion was increased. The rights of the minorities are systematically oppressed using the same means that are meant to safeguard the rights, i.e., The Constitution. In this context the Christian community just like the Johannine community is facing multiple levels of subjugation and oppression. But as the world is becoming more democratic and inclusive and as the Indian constitution gives scope to fight against oppressive structures and promote equality and Justice, the Christian community can and should stand up for their rights and within the frame work of the Constitution. The Johannine community is a model for us to look up to, as they have endured with persistence without compromising their faith and conviction, we too in our Indian context should be bold in our faith and be faithful witness of God’s reign though our very presence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carter, Warren. The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006.
Ingram, David. Habermas: Introduction and Analysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.
Koshy, Asish Thomas. Identity Mission and Community: A study of the Johannine Resurrection Narrative. New Delhi: Christian Publishing & Books from India, 2018.
Lalfakmawia, H Joseph. Re-reading the Gospel of John from Indian Perspective. Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013.
Richey, Lance Byron. Roman Imperial Ideology and The Gospel of John. Washington: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series, 2007.
Segovia, Fernando F. What is John Readers and Readings of the Fourth Gospel. Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 1996.
Thomaskutty, Johnson and Chandrankunnel, Mathew eds. Johannine Spirituality in the Indian/Asian Contexts. In Wider Contextualized Biblical Spirituality. New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2021.
Thomaskutty, Johnson. Faith and Theology in The Johannine Community and in the Reformation: A Paradigm in the Indian Context.
Thomaskutty, Johnson. The Gospel of John: A Universalistic Reading. Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2020.

JOURNALS AND ARTICLES

Chacko, Biju. “Engaging with the powers of domination: An Intercultural and Subaltern Reading of the prologue of John’s Gospel”. Doon Theological Journal Volume 14/1 (March, 2017): 5-27.
Doole, J Andrew. “To Be ‘An Out-of-the- Synagoguer’”. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Vol. 43 /3 (2021): 389–410.
Galbo, Steven David. “Critical theory and Johannine mission a test case: the Johannine community as divine communicative action”. D.Ph Dissertation, Middlesex University, 2014.
Panigrah, Kumuda Chandra. “Human Rights and Dalit Christians in India”. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences Vol. 8 Issue 1 (January 2018): 889-904.
Reed, David. “Rethinking John’s Social Setting: Hidden Transcript, Anti-language and the Negotiation of the Empire”. Biblical Theological Bulletin Volume 36/3 (August, 2006): 93-106.
Thomaskutty, Johnson. “Reading John’s Gospel in the Nepali Context”. Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology Volume 20 (2016) : 5–21.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

https://voice.dts.edu/review/aposynagogos-and-the-historical-jesus-in-john-rethinking-the-historicity-of-the-johannine-expulsion/ , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
http://www.chereum.umontreal.ca/activites_pdf/session%202/Raj_Christian%20Minority%20in%20Indian.pdf , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/christians-of-india/ , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2022-0042/ accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/reading-fourth-gospel-india , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.

Footnotes:

1 Johnson Thomaskutty, Faith and Theology in The Johannine Community and in the Reformation: A Paradigm in the Indian Context, 86
2 Johnson Thomaskutty, Faith and Theology in The Johannine Community and in the Reformation: A Paradigm in the Indian Context, 87
3 Johnson Thomaskutty, Faith and Theology in The Johannine Community and in the Reformation: A Paradigm in the Indian Context, 81
4 H Joseph Lalfakmawia, Re-reading the Gospel of John from Indian Perspective (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2013), 18.
5 Fernado G Segovia, ed., What is John? Readers and readings of the fourth Gospel (Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature. 1996), 116-118.
6 https://voice.dts.edu/review/aposynagogos-and-the-historical-jesus-in-john-rethinking-the-historicity-of-the-johannine-expulsion/ , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
7 Historically – a late first-century date for the Birkat ha-Minim, which coincides with the authorship of John’s Gospel, is less tenable than a later second century date. And Birkat ha-Minim only suggest expulsion, which does not necessarily mean Christians alone. Philosophically, Bernier questions the foundation upon which Martyn’s reading rests. The roots of Martyn’s argument go back to the Bultmannian idea that the Gospels reflect a post-Easter Christology read back into the life of Christ. But the basis of expulsion is confessing Jesus as Messiah. So, it fails to address this matter.
8 J. Andrew Doole, “To Be ‘An Out-of-the- Synagoguer’”, Journal for the Study of the New Testament Vol. 43 /3 (2021): 403.
9 Asish Thomas Koshy, Identity Mission and Community: A study of the Johannine Resurrection Narrative (New Delhi: Christian Publishing & Books from India, 2018), 221.
10 Johnson Thomaskutty, The Gospel of John: A Universalistic Reading (Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2020), 155.
11 J. Andrew Doole, “To Be ‘An Out-of-the- Synagoguer’”, Journal for the Study of the New Testament Vol. 43 /3 (2021): 404.
12 Lance Byron Richey, Roman Imperial Ideology and The Gospel of John (Washington: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series, 2007) 28
13 David Reed, “Rethinking John’s Social Setting: Hidden Transcript, Anti-language and the Negotiation of the Empire”, Biblical Theological Bulletin Volume 36/3 (August, 2006): 96.
14 Biju Chacko, “Engaging with the powers of domination: An Intercultural and Subaltern Reading of the prologue of John’s Gospel”, Doon Theological Journal Volume 14/1 (March, 2017), 5.
15 Biju Chacko, “Engaging with the powers of domination: An Intercultural and Subaltern Reading of the prologue of John’s Gospel”, Doon Theological Journal Volume 14/1 (March, 2017), 6
16 Steven David Galbo, “Critical theory and Johannine mission a test case: the Johannine community as divine communicative action” (D.Ph Dissertation, Middlesex University, 2014).
17 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 3
18 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 4
19 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 4.
20 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 4 – 5.
21 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 7.
22 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 11.
23 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 11
24 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 12
25 Warren Carter, The Roman Empire and The New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 12-13
26 David Ingram, Habermas: Introduction and Analysis (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010), 272.
27 Steven David Galbo, “Critical theory and Johannine mission a test case: the Johannine community as divine communicative action” (D.Ph Dissertation, Middlesex University, 2014).
28 http://www.chereum.umontreal.ca/activites_pdf/session%202/Raj_Christian%20Minority%20in%20Indian.pdf , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
29 Article 25(1) guarantees religions rights, “All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.”
30 Article 26 – Every religious denomination the right to establish religious and charitable institutions, manage its own religious affairs, and acquire and administer property in accordance with law provided they did not contravene public order, morality or health.
31 Article 29(2) seek to protect the educational rights of minority communities: “No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of the State funds on grounds of religion, race, caste, language, or any of them.”
32 http://www.chereum.umontreal.ca/activites_pdf/session%202/Raj_Christian%20Minority%20in%20Indian.pdf , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
33 http://www.chereum.umontreal.ca/activites_pdf/session%202/Raj_Christian%20Minority%20in%20Indian.pdf , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
34 Life setting of Jesus
35 Life setting of the Church
36 Johnson Thomaskutty and Mathew Chandrankunnel eds., Johannine Spirituality in the Indian/Asian Contexts. In Wider Contextualized Biblical Spirituality (New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2021), 155–70.
37 Johnson Thomaskutty, “Reading John’s Gospel in the Nepali Context”, Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology 20 (2016): 15.
38 Johnson Thomaskutty, “Reading John’s Gospel in the Nepali Context”, Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology 20 (2016): 10.
39 Johnson Thomaskutty, The Gospel of John: A Universalistic Reading (Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2020), 167.
40 https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/reading-fourth-gospel-india , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
41 https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/reading-fourth-gospel-india , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
42 Fernando F Segovia, What is John Readers and Readings of the Fourth Gospel (Atlanta: The Society of Biblical Literature, 1996), 121.
43 Kumuda Chandra Panigrah, “Human Rights and Dalit Christians in India”, International Journal of Research in Social Sciences Vol. 8 Issue 1 (January 2018): 895. 889-904.
44 https://minorityrights.org/minorities/christians-of-india/ , accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
45 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2022-0042/ accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.
46 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2022-0042/ accessed on 10-08-2022, 4PM.

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