Valson Thampu served for many years as principal of St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He would also serve as the pastor of the college, and was often the man leading lessons in catechism for Christian students. His latest book, though, riles against the limitations imposed by religion, against the shackling of God and man. Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity is a collection of essays written over several years, drawing on deep scholarship and quiet activism, as Rev Thampu fought alongside the late Swami Agnivesh to show to the faithful how deeply faith is twinned with reason.
“Our places of worship,” he writes, are serene in ambience because they are sterile in love.” He argues that God, in being confined, has been banished from the rest of the world. By confining God to sites of worship, and limiting worship itself to a highly ritualized process, religion has been hollowed out. Spirituality has quietly flown away, while we argue, litigate, die or kill over a mere empty shell.
“Belonging to a large, organized collectivity makes individuals feel secure proportionately as they are, in themselves, weak and inadequate,” he writes. The strength to walk alone, when those you call out to do not heed your voice, is what makes for freedom and true spiritual growth. Ekla chalo re, as the Tagore poem goes.
This is a book dense with references – the endnotes run into 100 pages. The language is dense, Thampu uses few metaphors. The appeal is to the rational mind, not the one that hankers for poetry or beauty.
“Religions mirror, in their diverse ways, the self-same need of our species: The need to cope with the primeval rupture that plagues existence.” The book is not the sort of companion you could carry on a flight or train journey. It can only be taken in a little at a time. Use this book if you wrestle with the priesthood and fossilized tradition in your own religious community; draw on it if you are atheist and curious. Read it a little at a time. The book serves a footnote to all the world’s religious scriptures.
Title: Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity
Author: Valson Thampu
Publisher: Pippa Rann Books and Media, England, UK
Number of pages: 384
Price: Rs599
In England, the report of News cast cliché is “Church going man/woman”….. done this or that !! Makes me wonder all these huge Church building which was built by strong Christian believers became empty halls now used for variety of purposes – This book should give some visions why it happened and where we are heading- Thank you, Dr Rev Valson Thampu