A.J.

APPASAMY APPROACHES TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST AND

IMPLICATION TO INDIAN CONTEXT

Research Paper

Submitted to
Dr. Biren Nayak Kumar

In partial fulfillment for the requirement of the course

“Theology in context”
For the Degree of Master of Divinity

By
Khriekuovi Zumu
Reg. No. 2045

NEW LIFE COLLEGE, BANGALORE

 Content
1. INTRODUCTION
2. APPASAMY’S BIOGRAPHY
3. A. J. APPASAMY UNDERSTANDING OF CHRIST
3.1 Avatara
3.2 Christ And God
3.3 Christ the logos
3.4 The immanent Christ
3.5 Sin and salvation
4. BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO APPASAMY’S VIEW OF CHRIST
5. APPASAMY’S THEOLOGY AND ITS IMPLICATION TO INDIAN CONTEXT
6. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1
1. INTRODUCTION

2
 2. APPASAMY’S BIOGRAPHY
Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy was born on 3 September 1891 into a wealthy
Pillai family in the dominant Vellalar caste of Tinnevelly (now Tirunelveli). Appasamy’s
father, Dewān Bahadur A.S. Appasamy Pillai (1847–1926),2 was a successful lawyer and
a ‘great believer in a hill holiday,’1 who converted from Shaivism to Christ at the age of
24, partly because of Krishna Pillai. After his studies in Tirunelveli, Appasamy left for
America and later for Oxford, where he wrote his doctoral thesis: “The mysticism of the
Fourth Gospel in its Relation to the Hindu Bhakti Literature.” When he was still at
Oxford Sadhu Sunder Singh visited there and they developed a deep friendship leading to
Appasamy’s writing a very authentic book on the Sadhu called The Sadhu.2 On his return
in 1923 he was employed by the Christian Literature Society in Madras to conduct
research and writing. There he produced his most influential works, Christianity in Bhakti
Marga (1927) and what is Moksha? (1931). for 18 years he was a member of the Joint
Committee for Church Union in South India. His advocacy of union was shown in his
book Church Union: An Indian View (1930). In 1950, three years after the formation of
the Church of South India, he was consecrated as bishop of Cominbatore, where he
stayed until his retirement in 1959.3
3. A. J. APPASAMY UNDERSTANDING OF CHRIST
For Bishop Appasamy the clue to Christology lies in the moral unity of the Son with the
Father, and to soteriology in the life of bhakti or faith-union with Christ. He takes his
stand in the bhakti tradition of India and philosophically in the Visistadvaita of
Ramanuja. He found kindred spirits in the Christian bhakti poets, whose names have been
mentioned earlier and who sang of the soul's longing for union with God.4
3.1. Avatara: according to Appasamy the term avatara can helpfully and fruitfully be
applied to the incarnation of Christ, provided certain safeguards are observed.
Appasamy outlines a Christian doctrine of Avatara, noting on the way the undoubted

1
Joshua D. Broggi, “Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy,” Diversity in the Structure of Christian Reasoning,
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004298057_005, accesses 19th October 2022.
2
Sunand Sumnithra, Christian Theologies from an Indian Perspective (Bangalore: Theological Trust Book, 2002),
106.
3
Charles W. Forman, “School of Theology History of Missiology,” Appasamy, Aiyadurai Jesudasen (1891-1976)
August 16th, 2017, accesses 19th October 2022.
4
V. P. Thomas, Indian Christian Approaches to 'the Know ledge of Christ, pp. 90.

3
 fact that in many Indian languages the word avatara has in fact for generations been
used by Christian to describe the incarnation of Christ. The one complete avatara
usually accepted is that of Visnu incarnate in Krishna. Obviously such a conception is
incompatible with the Christian view of the incarnate Christ who is the incarnation of
the whole being of God, and in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. So,
the purpose of the avatara is to described in the Gita is inadequate, since Christ came
not for the destruction of the wicked but in order to save them. Further, the Gita
presupposes that God becomes incarnate again and again, as need arises. But for the
Christian the incarnation of Christ is once for all and unique. He regards the Hindu
view of avatara as docetic – “Theophany” rather that a true incarnation. Most Hindu
avataras are incomplete, except the “Krishnavatara.” However, Christ’s is a full or
complete incarnation.5
3.2. Christ And God
The oneness 'of Christ with God is conceived not as hypostatic or essential union, but as a
union of will and purpose. It is moral unity, rather than a metaphysical one as the Church
has traditionally held. Appasamy has tried to avoid pantheistic interpretation, and hence his
attempt to understand the union of God and Christ as a moral unity. Similarly, the union of
Christ and the believer is a moral one. The two Mahavakyas, 'I and the Father are one', and
'abide in me and I in you ' are interpreted in terms of a union of will and purpose, love and
obedience. Those passages in St. John which indicate subordination of the Son to the Father
(Jn. 14: 28), and Jesus, use of the term father in relation to God are cited to establish his
contention that the Son is subordinate and dependent on God. 2 The doing of the Father's
will constitute the essence of Jesus' oneness with the Father. 6
3.3. Christ the logos
Appasamy finds a similarity between the logos concept of St. John and the Hindu idea of
immanent God, the one that dwells within (antaryamin). Christ is· conceived as the
immanent eternal logos, immanent in the world and dwelling in all men, not merely in those
who consciously accept him as Lord. The Logos includes personal and impersonal elements.

5
Robin Boyd, Indian Christian Theology: An Introduction, pp. 127-128.
6
V. P. Thomas, Indian Christian Approaches to 'the Know ledge of Christ, pp. 90-91.

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 Appasamy is not certain whether personality is final and supreme in importance, and he is
inclined to think of God as transcending personality. 7
Another of his important thought is his exegesis of John 1:10, “he was in the world”. Christ
in the world is understood to refer only to his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, Appasamy
however interprets it to mean the presence of the immanent Christ both before and after
that. This is something similar to the Logos Spermatikos. So he says Incarnation is a more
effective means of showing God than mere immanence. 8
3.4. Sin and salvation
Appasamy's study of Johannine literature led him to define Christianity as bhakti marga
salvation, or moksa is by way of bhakti. Christ's life of selfless love which leads to suffering
and death is the supreme illustration of God's love, and as a result men are morally
influenced by it to a life of faith-union with Him and to a life of bhakti. Christian life is a life
of loving devotion to God in Christ, and the Goal of Life is moksa which is realized through a
life of faith-union with Christ.9
4. BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO APPASAMY’S VIEW OF CHRIST
5. APPASAMY’S THEOLOGY AND ITS IMPLICATION TO INDIAN CONTEXT

7
V. P. Thomas, Indian Christian Approaches to 'the Know ledge of Christ, pp. 91.
8
Sumnithra, Christian Theologies from an Indian Perspective, 109.
9
V. P. Thomas, Indian Christian Approaches to 'the Know ledge of Christ, pp. 91.