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