ABSTRACT
In recent years, as missionary paternalism declines, Christian theologians in India have come closer to a real encounter with Hinduism. By Indian Christian theology the author means, in the first place, thought which is explicitly Christian and relates to the Christian theological tradition, rather than ideological responses to the encounter with Christianity on the part of those who make no pretensions to an engagement in Christian theology. The scale of Indian Christian theology may be small, but scale does not necessarily determine significance. Protestant and Catholic thought in India tend to reflect something of the classical differences of emphasis between the two systems. Indian Protestant theologians normally look to the Bible as the unchanging deposit of faith which is to be reinterpreted in the light of the Indian situation. Any worthwhile Indian theology is predicted upon a lively encounter and dialogue with Hindu religion and Indian society and culture.
