Regunta Yesurathnam (16 October 1941 – 8 August 2011)Senate of Serampore College (University), Minutes of the Eighty-sixth meeting of the Senate of Serampore College (University) held on 9 and 10 February 2012 at the New Theological College, Dehradun, 2012. was a priest hailing from the Diocese of Medak of the Church of South India, headquartered in Medak, notable as a systematic theologianCharles E. Van Engen, Five Perspectives of Contextually Appropriate Missional Theology in Charles H. Kraft (Edited), Appropriate Christianity, William Carey Library, Pasadena, 2005, p.194. who served as a faculty member from 1974 through 2001 of the Andhra Christian Theological College, affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College (University), in Secunderabad, Telangana, India.
Yesurathnam has been acknowledged for his contribution to the disciplines of dialogical theology and comparative religion.T. Swami Raju, The Study of Religion: Methods of Perspectives, BTESSC, SATHRI, Bangalore, 2004, p.54.
As a pupil of another CSI systematic theologian, Joshua Russell Chandran, under whom he was groomed in the 1960s, Yesurathnam established himself as a scholar and during the subsequent decade, as evidenced by his interest in dialogical theology, Yesurathnam seemed to have been influenced by the religious scholars Stanley Jedidiah Samartha of the Church of South India (CSI), Herbert Jai Singh of the Methodist Church in India (MCI)Herbert Jai Singh, The Teaching of Religions in the Indian Context, Indian Journal of Theology, Volume 29, Numbers 3 and 4, July–December 1980, pp.149-159. and David C. Scott, also of the MCI. During the initial years of his doctoral research in the 1970s, it was Arvind P. Nirmal, CNI (the proponent of Dalit theology) who supervised and enabled Yesurathnam to push through his doctoral studies.
Contribution Dialogical theology
In a work about Dialogical Theology, with special reference to the activities of the World Council of Churches and its unit on Dialogue, Professor Jutta Sperber, of the University of Münster, Germany, has quoted the work of Yesurathnam on the Christian-Muslim dialogue. Similarly, Sonia CalzaSonia Calza, La contemplazione: via privilegiata al dialogo cristiano-induista : Sulle orme di J. Monchanin, H. Le Saux, R. Panikkar e B. Griffiths, Pauline, Milan, 2001, p.359. while researching on interfaith dialogue with reference to Hinduism and Christianity, referred to Yesurathnam's work on Dialogical Theology while writing about the contribution of Henri Le Saux.Catherine Cornille (Edited), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
Comparative religion
Yesurathnam, also wrote on the work on the concept of Avatara, which has been cited by other scholars. Bob RobinsonBob Robinson, Christians Meeting Hindus: An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India, Regnum, Oxford, 2004, p.275. noted this work with special emphasis on the relationship to Christianity and Steven Tsoukalas quoted Yesurathnam's work on the forms of Avatara.Steven Tsoukalas, Krishna and Christ: Body-divine Relation in the Thought of Sankara, Ramanuja and Classical Christian Orthodoxy, Paternoster, Milton Keynes, 2007, pp.23, 227, 240, 241.
Contextualization
Inter-disciplinary writings by Yesurathnam have struck new ground in inculturation as espoused by Swamy Amalorananda and the New Testament Scholar Suppogu Joseph, STBC (2007)S. Joseph, Adaptation of the Gospel Tradition in Luke, ISPCK, 2007 had made a sustained research exploring possibilities for the Gospel to adapt itself to the multi-religious ethos of India. Earlier proponents who experimented with Contextualization, emphasizing on the presentation of Christ adapting to the Indian culture, were Robert de Nobili, SJ, E. Stanley Jones, MCI, and B. V. Subbamma, AELC, who together were known for their contribution to the Christian Ashram Movement in India.
Yesurathnam's definition of Contextualization has been acknowledged by scholars as a resourceful addition. Charles E. Van Engen and Akintunde E. AkinadeAkintunde E. Akinade, The Crucible of Faith: Justice and Liberation in the work of Engelbert Mvent in Religions - A Scholarly Journal, Issue 3, 2012, pp.107-116. refer to the word contextualization as defined by Yesurathnam.
Renewal of the Church
Yesurathnam cautioned the Church against falling into traditionalism. During the Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Uniting church, the CSI held in Chennai in 1997,John C. B. Webster, The Church of South India Golden Jubilee in International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 22, Number 2, 1998, pp.50-54. Yesurathnam spoke on the ills befalling the Church in India, Echoing the apprehensions by Yesurathnam, Stanley Jedidiah Samartha who was also present at the Jubilee in Chennai, pointed out that one must first introspect before raising cudgels against the Indian caste system and believed that one failed to notice the gradual transformation of the episcopacy into such a system.Stanley Jedidiah Samartha, "Vision and Reality: Reflections on the Church of South India" in People's Reporter, 1–15 September 1997, p.4. Yesurathnam, in an introduction to the book Jesus' Tears! by Elizabeth Thelma Johnson (2007),Elizabeth Thelma Johnson, Jesus' Tears!, ISPCK, New Delhi, 2007, p.xv. has highlighted the work of a Laity and appreciated their contribution towards the Christian missions.
Studies From his youth, Yesurathnam was inspired by the work of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Christian missions in Telangana. He entered the ministry of the Protestant Church through the Diocese of Medak, becoming a ministerial candidate during the bishopric of Frank Whittaker, the first Bishop-in-Medak. He studied at a seminary in Bangalore for spiritual formation and was ordained in 1967 by Bishop Eber Priestley, the then Bishop-in-Medak.
Graduate After initial schooling at the mission schools founded by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (WMMS) in Telangana, Yesurathnam decided to take up priesthood. Bishops Frank Whittaker and Eber Priestley, successively, became his Spiritual Confessors and led him to take up spiritual studies at the United Theological College, Bangalore during 1963–1967. He was awarded a B. D. degree.
Postgraduate
In 1969, Yesurathnam was recalled from parish work and sent to the Protestant Regional Theologiate in Bangalore for further spiritual studies that lasted until 1972 and resulted in the award of a Master of Theology degree after research under Joshua Russell Chandran of the CSI.
Doctoral
After a five-year teaching ministry that began in 1974 at the Andhra Christian Theological College, Secunderabad, Yesurathnam qualified to undertake doctoral level research in 1978 and was granted a five-year study leave.R. Yesurathnam, Religious Pluralism: Some Implications for the Mission of the Church in H. S. Wilson (Edited), The Church on the Move: A Quest to Affirm the Biblical Faith, Christian Literature Society, Chennai, 1988. Yesurathnam's Bishop during that period, B. G. Prasada Rao, made efforts to ensure that Yesurathnam was able to join his alma mater, the United Theological College, Bangalore, where he was able to take up research in the discipline of systematic theology under the guidance of Arvind P. Nirmal, CNI. Yesurathnam also came under the tutelage of Stanley Jedidiah Samartha, a leading authority on Dialogical Theology.Hans Schwarz, Theology in a Global Context: The Last Two Hundred Years, William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005. pp.523-526. During the research period between 1978 and 1982, Yesurathnam was also sent to the University of Birmingham, England, in 1979 for a two-year research exposure through the efforts of Gordon Shaw who ensured his overseas travel and stay in England at Kingsmead College under the Selly Oak Colleges, where he was supervised by Walter Jacob Hollenweger, a leading authority on Pentecostalism.Walter Jacob Hollenweger, My Pilgrimage in Mission, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 29, Number 2, 2005, p. 85-88.
By 1981, Yesurathnam returned to the United Theological College and began shaping his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of David C. Scott and by 1982, he rejoined the Andhra Christian Theological College, which by then was being led by the New Testament scholar,David Komaravalli, Divine Operation and Human Response: A Comparison Between Rudolf Bultmann's Understanding of the Pauline Perspectives and Certain Elements in Recent Indian Thought, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1973. K. David, CBCNCMar Aprem Mooken, Indian Christian who is who, Bombay Parish Church of the East, Bombay, 1983, p.106. and took up his teaching role in systematic theology, but was able to submit his doctoral thesis to the university through his supervisor at the United Theological College and finally in 1987, much before nearing a decade of registering with the university, it awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology.Senate of Serampore College, List of the Recipient of the Degree of Doctor of Theology.
Though Yesurathnam sought permission from the Senate of Serampore College to publish his doctoral work nearly two decades later, in 2006. His thesis was already being referred by research scholarsAntony Kalliath, The Word in the Cave: The Experiential Journey of Swami Abhishiktānanda to the Point of Hindu-Christian Meeting, Intercultural Publications, New Delhi, 1996, p.436. on works relating to the contribution of Swami Abhishiktananda.
Ministry
Pastoral ministry
Yesurathnam was ordained in 1967 by Priestley, then Bishop-in-Medak, and was assigned ministerial functions in the parishes falling under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Medak and served in Sangareddy and other towns shepherding congregations for nearly a decade until he was recalled in 1974 by then Bishop, H. D. L. Abraham, and reassigned the role of a Spiritual Formator.
In 1992, when Victor Premasagar vacated the bishopric of Medak on attaining superannuation, the ensuing Sede vacante was contested among whom Yesurathnam stood in the fray for the vacant bishopric, which was overseen by Ryder Devapriam, then Moderator of the Church of South India Synod and a former colleague of Yesurathnam at the Protestant Regional Theologiate. However, the sudden death of Devapriam on 4 September 1992Diocese of Nandyal while in GermanyNational Council of Churches Review, Volume 112, 1992, p.774. turned the tides for those in fray, resulting in the appointment and subsequent consecration of B. P. Sugandhar.
Teaching
The Andhra Christian Theological College (ACTC) relocated from Rajahmundry to Secunderabad. Yesurathnam was invited to join the college in 1974, during the Principalship of Victor Premasagar.William Gordon Carder, On theological education in Andhra Pradesh of the Canadian Baptist Mission Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars 1880-1975 in Indian Church History Review, Volume 13, Issue 1, 1979, pp.70-84. In 1993 he was appointed guest professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel in Germany,Matthias Freudenberg, Anniversary letter to Jürgen Fangmeier, 2011, p.6. where he taught until 1994. He then returned to ACTC and was appointed principal under the institution's policy of rotating that office between the various constituent churches in four-year cycles.
Yesurathnam took a year's sabbatical leave in 1998 to the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, to continue his research pursuitsR. Yesurathnam, Book Review: Relevant Patterns of Christian Witness in India: People as Agents of Mission, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 25, Issue 88, 2001. and rejoined the Theologiate in Secunderabad to teach for two more years until 2001.
Missionary service