MM

can keep people in the power-struggle without turning corrupt and oppressor.
which
the gospel of forgiveness or justification by faith has great relevance to collective
Here
movements, in moulding their spiritual Unity for struggle, liberating the
liberation
movements from becoming self-idolatrous.”(35)
liberation
identified two possible dangers when the struggle for justice becomes seemingly
He
One danger is that defeatism: people lose hope and give up the
endless.
for justice. The other danger is that people betray the struggle for justice
power-struggles
radicalism, turning corrupt, oppressive and self-idolatrous. A spirituality that can help
by
to avoid these two dangers has to be informed, as he saw it, by a theology in
people
the struggle for justice is rooted in the Gospel of divine grace.
which
the second half of the 1970s, he frequently used the phrase ‘spirituality for combat’.
In
many ascribe this expression to Thomas himself, it was actually David Jenkins,
Although
director of the WCC Humanum Studies (1969-1975), who closed his paper
the
Inquiry Concerning Human Rights’ with proposal to develop a ‘spirituality for
‘Theological
“Perhaps what Christians are particularly called to work out (probably along
combat’:
men of other faiths and conscience, religious commitments) is what might be called
with
spirituality for combat … How might we help one another to so conduct our struggles
a
they become part of our worship?”(36)
that
call for a ‘spirituality for combat’ resonated with the need for a new stage in the
This
commitment to justice and peace, as felt by so many in those days.
ecumenical
began his exploration of the significance of spirituality for the people’s struggle
Thomas
in the early 1970s. In his opening address to the CWME conference on
already
Today’, in Bangkok 1972, he reflected on spirituality defining it as follows:
‘Salvation
spirituality, one might say, is the way in which man, in the freedom of his
“Human
seeks a structure of ultimate meaning and sacredness within which
self-transcendence,
can fulfil or realize himself in and through his involvement in the bodily, the material
he
number of elements are important in this definition. First of all Thomas was convinced
A
spirituality needs to come alive through the involvement in the day-to-day reality of
that
life. Within this reality the human being has the freedom of self-transcendence.
human
freedom is important for Thomas, especially in his assessment of Hinduism and the
This
ideologies in India. He rejected the divine or cosmic determinism of Hinduism,
secular
he also criticised the economic determinism of Marxist-Leninism. As we have seen
but
from participation in the historical reality and the gift of transcendence, Thomas
Apart
a third element to his understanding of spirituality, namely transformation or
adds
to dialogues with secular and religious faiths, he said: “Human
renewal.Referring
is integrally related to the sense of human self-hood, in which it knows itself to
spirituality
participating the necessities of nature and transcending nature in a historical
be
and transforming nature in relation to that destiny. Man’s relation to Nature is
destiny
and the social realities of his life on earth.”(37)
earlier, human freedom and creativity are essential elements in Thomas’ theology.
characterised by participation, transcendence and transformation.”(38)