BEREAN BAPTIST BIBLE COLLEGE AND SEMINARY

BANGALORE-25

An Presentation Paper on
“A. J. Appasamy”

Presented to
Dr. Sam. Harry

In Partial Fulfilment of The Requirement

For the Course of Asian Christian Theology (823)
For the Degree of Master of Theology (Exposition)

Due Date: 06\14\22, Submission Date: 22\01\23

Expected pages: 10, Actual pages: 16

I declare this my own unaided work: I have not copied it from any
person, Article, books, website, or others sources. Every idea or phrase that
is not my own has Been duly highly acknowledge.

Signature_________

By
Van Uk Lyan
#6312
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction

2. A Brief Biography; Historical, religious background and

Experiences of A. J. Appasamy

3. His ministry

4. His publications

5. His Theology

5.1. Christology: Avatara

5.2. Christ and God
5.3. Christ the Logos

6. View on salvation

6.1. Work of Christ

7. Conclusion

Bibliography
1. Introduction

In the Indian history, this A. J. Appasamy story was talk rarely. He was great
man to be remember what he had done in Indian Christian history, and not
only Christian story, but in Hinduism. So, here the researcher have clearly
research on his personal life, family background and even his theology. A.
J. Appasamy’s background led to a distinguished career that would see him
attend some of the best universities in the world, gain a position of authority
and influence among Tamil Christians, help orchestrate the union of
churches in South India, and eventually become a bishop in the newly
formed. In 1915 A. J. Appasamy went to study philosophy and religion in the
U.S.A. at Harvard University, and later in Britain at Oxford University, where
he received a doctorate of Philosophy. A. J. Apppasamy was a leading
Protestant churchman of the 20th century. From 1932 to 1936 Appasamy
was teaching in Bishop's College in Calcutta (Kolkata). In 1946 he became
an Archdeacon. These are some people whom he admires: St. John, St.
Paul, St. Augustine, Ramanuja, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Manikkavacakar,
St. Sadhu Sundar Singh. He had many Hindu, Muslim and Sikh friends.
Continuing his writing throughout his life, Appasamy’s great concern was
always to express Christian faith in a way that would be congenial to India.
He believed that to do this he needed to link Christianity to the bhakti, He
presented the Christian life as one of loving devotion to God in Christ.

Appasamy emphasizes the reality of the humanity of Jesus, and of the

historicity of the Incarnate Word. According to him, Jesus was one with God
in the sense that he loved what God loved and hated what God hated Jesus
from eternity past is so conformed to God’s will, so perfect in his obedience,
that the two persons are one, but in a moral rather than a metaphysical way.
He also states that, the union of Christ with God or of the Christians with
Christ, consists in carrying out God’s or Christ’s will to its complete
fulfilment. However, the union of Christ and God is that of essential unity.
We must see the distinction between the unity of Christ and God, and the
unity of Christ and the believer. Appasamy finds a similarity between the
 logos concept of St. John and the Hindu idea of immanent God, the one that
dwells within (antaryamin). Appasamy's study of Johannine literature led
him to define Christianity as bhakti marga; salvation, or moksa is by way 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.

2. A Brief Biography; Historical, religious background and

Experiences of A. J. Appasamy

It is somewhat surprising that one of the giants of Indian theology from the
middle half of the 20th century has, since his death, been quite quickly
forgotten or deemed irrelevant in theological circles and conversations.
Such has been the fate of Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy (1891- 1975), a
prominent and bishop of the Church of South India. A. J. 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), was a successful lawyer and a
‘great believer in a hill holiday’, preferring to spend one or two months of the
year vacationing to improve his health.1

However, his parents had radically different understandings of the faith. His
father, a convert from a Shaiva devotional background, wanted to preserve
the ties between his Hindu upbringing and his adopted religion. It was the
senior Appasamy who impressed upon his son “the need for a truly Indian
Christianity” which required an “immersion in classical Hindu literature” (13).
His mother, on the other hand, was quite conservative in her religious views,
“and believed implicitly that all those who were not of the Protestant faith . .
. were heading directly for hell”. The son lived with this double inheritance
all his life, on the one hand exploring and mining the Hindu tradition to craft
a reinterpretation of Christianity for the Indian context, and on the other hand
being deeply wedded to his inherited Anglican tradition.2

1
A.J. Appasamy, Tamil Christian Poet: The Life and Writings of H.A. Krishna Pillai (London:
Lutterworth Press, 1966), 38.
2
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1711&context=jhcs
 The family-owned land, which they rented out to farmers; they lived in
prosperity on a large estate with numerous servants, and the walls of their
home were adorned with the oil paintings of the famous Ravi Varma. The
family was well connected with notable figures in local society as well as a
number of foreign missionaries (such as the American Congregationalist,
George Sherwood Eddy). A.J. Appasamy’s privileged background led to a
distinguished career that would see him attend some of the best universities
in the world, gain a position of authority and influence among Tamil
Christians, help orchestrate the union of churches in South India, and
eventually become a bishop in the newly formed.3

After becoming a Christian his father studied both Christianity and

Hinduism. In his 67th year he became consumed with a passion to see God,
learnt meditation from a Hindu guru, began to practise yoga regularly, had
mystical experiences, and emphasised the value of the prayer of dhyana
(contemplation) as a method of attaining truth. His son, A.J. Appasamy, was
aware of some danger but also of ‘the immense value’ of this view of prayer;
he was convinced that this practice of yoga had made a profound, positive
difference to his father's life. His father had been a Shaivite before coming
to the Christian faith at the age of 24. A. J. Appasamy often wrote of the
influence of his father and his family on him.4

In 1915 A. J. Appasamy went to study philosophy and religion in the U.S.A.

at Harvard University, and later in Britain at Oxford University, where he
received a doctorate of Philosophy. It seemed evident to Appasamy that ‘if
the Christians in India are to make any impact upon national life, they must
be well-educated men who are quite familiar with the literature of the
country, though they may not follow the Hindu religion.’ He came to this
conclusion from a comparison with the role of Christians in ancient Rome.
The influence of ‘many great scholars and inspiring teachers’, such as J. N.

3
A.J. Appasamy, Tamil Christian Poet: The Life and Writings of H.A. Krishna Pillai (London:
Lutterworth Press, 1966), 38.
4
Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The Christian
Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 134-136.
Farquhar, B. H. Streeter, Friedrich von Hügel, William Temple, Friedrich
Heiler and Rudolf Otto, led him to the conclusion ‘that we had a good deal
to learn from the life and experience of the bhakti writers of India.’ Another
influence which began at this time was that of the sadhu Sundar Singh, who
visited Oxford in 1920. Appasamy came to know Sundar Singh well, and
collaborated with B.H. Streeter in writing a book on him, The Sadhu (1921).

Pioneer of an Indian interpretation of the Bible, A. J. Apppasamy was a

leading Protestant churchman of the 20th century. After his education in
Tirunelvely and Madras, he studied in Europe and America from 1915 with
doctoral studies at Oxford and post-doctoral studies in Marburg. The
doctoral thesis was on the “Mysticism of the Fourth gospel in its relation to
Hindu Bhakti Literature”. Having met influential Western theological thinkers
like B.H. Streeter, Von Hugel and Rudolf Otto and also Sadhu Sundhar
singh during these years, Appasamy returned and served as editor with the
Christian Literature Society, pastor in the Anglican Church, and taught
theology at Bishop’s College Calcutta. He was an ardent ecumenist and
served on the joint committee on church Union for eighteen years. After the
formation of the church of South India He became the bishop of CSI diocese
of Coimbatore in 1950. He died on May 2, 1975.

He can be considered a pioneer of Indian Christian theology with

professional competence in both Christian theology and Hindu religious
thought. His books Christianity and Bhakti Marga (1928) and what is
Moksha (1931) were genuine attempts at an indigenous Christian theology.
He was also a member of the “Rethinking Christianity in India” group
engaged in reflecting on an Indian Christianity. Appasamy saw a
relationship between the fourth Gospel and the bhakti literature of India,
both emphasizing the interpersonal character of the devotee’s experience
of union with God as akin to Jesus’ realization of his oneness with God the
Father. It is not only a metaphysical union but also a moral one. He analysed
the relationship between God, the universal logos and the incarnate logos
in the fourth Gospel. The incarnation is the means by which every human
being can realize his oneness with God. The church and the mission of the
church are means by which this salvific purpose may be achieved. He links
sin with karma. And salvation is liberation from both through the redemptive
acts of christ. He saw the standard of Christian life as fourfold: the Scriptures
(Sruti), the Church (Sabha), Reason (Yukti) and experience (Anubhava).
The Scripture occupied the prime place in this scheme but he asked Indian
Christians also to listen to what points to Christ in the Hindu Scripture. Here
more than anybody else he identified himself with the bhakti tradition.5

After returning to India in 1922 Appasamy became an editor of the Christian

Literature Society. This enabled him to continue his studies, turning to
Sanskrit texts as well as Tamil; for which he turned to Sanskrit pandits. He
was particularly interested in ‘how Ramanuja had constructed into a
theological system his deep personal experience of God.’ There he
produced his most influential works, Christianity in Bhakti Marga (1927) and
What is Moksha? (1931). In 1932 he moved to Calcutta to teach at Bishop’s
College, but in 1936 he returned to his birthplace to serve the church there
as an Archdeacon, working for the theological education of school teachers
and organizing evangelistic campaigns, prayer meetings, and revivals. 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 Coimbatore, where he
stayed until his retirement in 1959.6

3. His Ministry

From 1932 to 1936 Appasamy was teaching in Bishop's College in Calcutta

(Kolkata). There, he made extra study of the neo-Hindu movements in India,
such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mission. After 1936 he
worked several years in a village of seven hundred people at a night school

5
Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, A Concise Encyclopaedia of Christianity in India (New Delhi:
Rekha Printers, 2014), 29.
6
Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology", in The
Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings, Francis, T.D, 144.
for adults. He was also concerned in the IMC (International Missionary
Conference) in Tambaram in 1938. He associated himself with the
‘Rethinking Christianity Group’, of which Pandippedi Chenchiah and V.
Chakkarai were leaders. In 1946 he became an Archdeacon. From 1951
until his retirement in 1959 he served in the newly formed Church of South
India as bishop in Coimbatore diocese, Tamil Nadu. In his works Appasamy
mentions all kinds of people: some as illustration, some to disagree with and
some as examples to learn from. These are some people whom he admires:
St. John, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Ramanuja, St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
Manikkavacakar, St. Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Thomas a Kempis,
Kabir, Luther, Tukaram, George Fox, John Wesley, John Henry Newman,
H.A. Krishna Pillai, pandita Ramabai, M.K. Gandhi, C.F. Andrews, Albert
Schweitzer, Sadhu Sundar Singh. Some with whom he often disagrees are
Shankara, Eckhart, Suso, Chaitanya. Appasamy was a forerunner of inter-
faith dialogue and cooperation, and influenced theologians such as Paul D.
Devanandan and M.M. Thomas. He had many Hindu, Muslim and Sikh
friends. He died in 1975.7

Continuing his writing throughout his life, Appasamy’s great concern was
always to express Christian faith in a way that would be congenial to India.
He believed that to do this he needed to link Christianity to the bhakti, or
devotional tradition, of which the chief exponent was Ramanuja. He
presented the Christian life as one of loving devotion to God in Christ. The
goal is faith-union with Christ, which is not absorption into the divine, as
Hindu advaita philosophy would teach, but a loving personal union. He
rejected ideas of mephitical unity between God and Christ, as Chalcedon
had taught, in favor of an eternal conformity of wills and union of love.8

7
Francis, T.D. "A.J. Appasamy: An Advocate of Indigenous Christian Theology" in A.J.
Appasamy, Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of the Johannine doctrine of love, xiv.
8
https://www.bu.edu/missiology/2017/08/16/appasamy-aiyadurai-jesudasen.
4. His select publications

In 1964 Appasamy listed his more important books. Here we follow his list,
with some additions.

An Indian Interpretation of Christianity (1924)

Christianity as bhakti marga: a study of the Johannine doctrine of
Love (1926; 2nd. ed. 1930). [Based on his Oxford University doctoral
thesis of 1922, 'The Mysticism of Hindu Bhakti Literature especially
in its relation to the Mysticism of the Fourth Gospel', with further
study].
Church union: an Indian view (1930)
What is moksa? A study in the Johannine doctrine of life (1931).
The Johannine doctrine of life. A study of Christian and Indian
thought (1934)
Christ in the Indian Church. A primer of Christian faith and practice
(1935). [Explains Christianity simply for young people entering, or
growing up in, the Church.]
The Gospel and India's Heritage (1942). [Written for the National
Christian Council, relating the Gospel to Indian traditions, especially
bhakti.]
A Spiritual awakening in south India (1955)
The Cross is Heaven. The life and writings of sadhu Sundar Singh
(1956)
Sundar Singh: a biography (1958)
My theological quest (1964)
Write the vision! Edwin Orr's thirty years of adventurous service
(1964)
Tamil Christian Poet: the life and writings of H. A. Krishna Pillai
(1966)
The Theology of Hindu Bhakti (1970). [Mainly on the bhakti theology
of Ramanuja and its relevance to Christian experience.]9

9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiyadurai_Jesudasen_Appasamy
5. His Theology

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. Appasamy's study· of St. John's
Gospel convinced him that Christianity is primarily bhakti marga, a life of
loving devotion to God in Christ. For him the Christian Mahavaka (great
sentence) is 'Abide in me and I in you '.

5.1. Christology: Avatara

Appasamy regards Jesus as the Avatara of God. Earlier to him, Keshab

Chandra Sen and Upadhyaya called Jesus an Avatara, as one of the many
Avataras of popular Hinduism, and perhaps would consider him the highest
of the avataras. But to Appasamy, Jesus Christ is the only puma Avatara,
in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2: 9). The
incarnation of Christ is once and for all and is unique.10 He regards Hindu
avatars as theophanies rather than incarnations, and he is of the opinion
that the Hindu conception is docetic and does not regard historicity as
important. Appasamy emphasizes the reality of the humanity of Jesus, and
of the historicity of the Incarnate Word.

5.2. Christ and God:

According to Sunand Sumithra, “Usually, the two great sayings or

mahavakyas from John’s Gospel, “I and my Father are one” and “Abide in
me”, are used to prove that God and Christ and believers are one in the
same manner and that it is a union rather than communion.” The traditional
western understanding of Christ’s relationship with God is homoousios,
which means Christ is of the same substance (ousia) as God. This unity
was considered to be metaphysical unity between God and Jesus.

10
Appasamy, The Gospel and India's Heritage. London, S.P.C.K., 1942, p. 209.
Appasamy challenges this view by pointing out that Jesus always thought
of God as his Father and he used this name for God constantly. Jesus also
says, “The Father is greater than I’. This shows that he regards himself as
wholly depended upon the father; thus, he is not identical with God.
Therefore, the relation between God and Jesus is personal relation between
Father and Son. He also points out that the oneness of Jesus with God was
amoral identity. The oneness was experienced continually and the sense of
dependence was there all the time. According to him, Jesus was one with
God in the sense that he loved what God loved and hated what God hated
Jesus from eternity past is so conformed to God’s will, so perfect in his
obedience, that the two persons are one, but in a moral rather than a
metaphysical way. Appasamy also states that, there is a moral oneness, an
intimate fellowship between God and human being in thought, feeling and
will. He also states that, the union of Christ with God or of the Christians
with Christ, consists in carrying out God’s or Christ’s will to its complete
fulfilment.

The oneness of Christ with God is conceived not as hypostatic or essential

union, but as a union of will and purpose. It is a moral unity, rather than a
metaphysical one as the Church has traditionally held. It is interesting to
note that Keshab Chandra Sen had spoken of the union of the Father and
Son as one of deep communion, a unio mystica, rather than a unio
hyostatica, and he had gone on to interpret the relation of Christ and believer
in the same way. 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.11
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

11
Appasamy, op. cir., pp. 35-36 ; What is Moksa ?, p. 59.
on God. The doing of the Father's will constituted the essence of Jesus'
oneness with the Father. · From a biblical and experiential point of view,
Appasamy is correct to think of the relation of the believer to Christ as one
of faith union, that is a moral union of love and devotion (bhaktz). However,
the union of Christ and God is that of essential unity. We must see the
distinction between the unity of Christ and God, and the unity of Christ and
the believer.

5.3. Christ the Logos

T. Dayanandan Francis remarks that, the immanence of God is the basis

for Bhakti tradition. Alphonse states that, in Bhakti tradition God is believed
to be antaryamin (indwelling) in the devotee and energizing him/her from
within, constantly affirming His (God) presence therein. The Hindu bhaktas
often speak of God as dwelling in the depths of their souls. God is always
connected with the deepest parts of a person’s being. Appasamy points out
that there are ample of teaching about the immanence of God in the New
Testament. John 1:10, “he was in the world”, is usually understood to refer
only to his incarnation. However, Appasamy interprets it to mean the
presence of the immanent Christ, both before and after the incarnation.
According to Appasamy God can be known only in the heart of the world.
God is present in the world and in human beings. Therefore, he associated
Logos of the Bible with the Hindu idea of the immanent God, who indwells.
For him Christ did not come only for the Jews rather he came for all men
and women, for all are his own. He considered everyone as by nature
children of God. Therefore, Christ as antaryamin is already present in all
men and women. But men and women failed to understand him fully.
Therefore, in the person of Jesus, the immanent Logos has incarnated so
that through the indwelling of the incarnate Logos Christ, every human
person may realize communion with God in its fullness. He was convinced
that bhakta’s longing to realize the immanence of God as the in dweller of
the human heart is the most important lesson, we can learn from Bhakti
tradition. Thus, He felt that, if Christians in India cultivate such longing, we
would have reached higher levels of spirituality than we have now. And it
would have also helped us to live and work for a fuller realization of God’s
abiding presence.

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. Appasamy is not
certain whether personality is final and supreme in importance, and he is
inclined to think of God as transcending personality.

6. View on Salvation

6.1. The Work of Christ:

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.

Thus, he holds that the union of the believers with Christ is a moral union,
based on love and obedience. He finds similarity between the union of
Jesus with God and the union of believers with Christ. The quality of life
which the Bible, particularly John’s Gospel, calls eternal life, Appasamy calls
it moksha. In regard to Appasamy’s view on moksha, Sumithra quotes from
Appasamy’s book What is Moksha? A Study in the Johannine Doctrine of
Life,

“(Moksha) is a real harmony with the holy and righteous Father (sic).
It is a personal experience which, however, in its higher reaches
transcends the personal. It is a corporate experience, man (sic)
mingling with his (sic) fellow-men (sic) in order to attain the heights of
 God’s love. It begins even in this life and does not wait for an indefinite
future”.

Thus, it is been understood that Appasamy understood eternal life which is

moksha in terms of areal harmony and a personal communion with God. He
also believed that moksha could be experienced within this life. And to attain
this moksha Appasamy chooses the Bhakti Marga which maintains a real
harmony and a personal communion with God. Therefore, for him Christian
life is the life of moksha (salvation) realised here and now and could be
described as a life of Bhakti (devotion). Since, the Bhakti (devotion) is
personal, it engages our whole personality, will, feeling and thought.
However, he states that Christian Bhakti (devotion) demands a response of
the will, in ethical living.

The stress on bhakti or faith-union is helpful, true to the New Testament

witness and Christian experience. However, we should not think that the
arousing of bhakti is created only by an example or an expression of God's
love. The moral influence theory speaks only of one aspect of the manifold
wisdom contained in the fact of incarnation, life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Bhakti can equally be aroused by meditating on what God has
done in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. The New Testament
speaks not of a fuller realization of the divine indwelling which already exists,
but redemption from sin and death, and entrance to abundant life.

7. Conclusion:

As I have wrote A. J. Appasamy life story and his theology. It is good to know
who was once faithful minister to God, and through his teaching many were
know about what was Christianity all about, through his faithfulness we are
encouraged to be faithful and work more for the Lord. He has succeeded to
a great extent in his task of interpreting the Gospel in the light of India's
religious thought. He has opened our eyes to the beauty and value of India's
heritage especially the bhakti religion-and he opens up the possibility of a
fresh understanding of Christ and His redemptive work. The doctrine of the
indwelling God and the identification of Him with the Hindu conception of the
immanence of God is to confuse the specific character of the Christian
experience of the presence of God in the lives of believers and the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. God, Christ, Holy Spirit do not belong to the natural being
of man; such presence is a gift, and is God's continuous activity in the lives
of believers. And I believe through reading of this assignment reader will get
to know how A. J. Appasamy life was and his teaching as I mentioned briefly
on the paper.
 Bibliography

Appasamy, A.J., Tamil Christian Poet: The Life and Writings of H.A. Krishna
Pillai, London: Lutterworth Press, 1966.

Vidyapeeth, Jnana-Deepa, A Concise Encyclopaedia of Christianity in India,

New Delhi: Rekha Printers, 2014.

Others sources

Appasamy, A.J. "My Theological Quest – The Need for an Indian Theology",
in The Christian Bhakti of A.J. Appasamy – A collection of his writings,
Francis, T.D, 134-136.

Appasamy, op. Cir., pp. 35-36; What is Moksa?

Appasamy, The Gospel and India's Heritage. London, S.P.C.K., 1942.

Francis, T.D. "A.J. Appasamy: An Advocate of Indigenous Christian
Theology" in A.J. Appasamy, Christianity as bhakti marga – a study of
the Johannine doctrine of love, xiv.

Internet sources

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1711&conte
t=jhcs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiyadurai_Jesudasen_Appasamy
https://www.bu.edu/missiology/2017/08/16/appasamy-aiyadurai-jesudasen