The adaption of their message to their audience has been regarded as the central feature of the Jesuits in their communication of Christian message at least from the 17th century. The principle of accomodatio brought both successes as well as notoriety to them. It made their message profoundly acceptable to the people but it also raised the debate concerning its appropriateness within the Christian world of that time. Some scholars trace the principle of accommodatio to St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. We can find it in Apostle St. Paul who writes in the letter to the Corinthians that he had become all things to all people (1 Cor 9: 22). Some link the principle of accomodatio to the humanistic and classical rhetoric. The belief that God directly works in the Individual and therefore, the individual has to be accommodated is said to be the fundamental premise of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. We can find accomodatio being employed in Brazil, other countries in South America, China and India. This manifests that accomodatio was a central strategy of the Jesuit evangelizing practices. This does not mean that all members of the Jesuit order agreed with each other on the exact meaning of accomodatio. Conservative Jesuits like Jose de Acosta actively opposed it in Brazil. One can clearly discern accomodatio being employed by the Jesuits in the evangelization of Goans in the sixteen and seventeen century. This can be seen in their interest in the native language, tolerance of caste distinctions among the Christians. Caste survives aming chrsitians till date mainly through the confraternities. Confraternities being solidarities of spiritual brotherhood might have been employed to absorb caste communities in Goa.
Within this primacy of the principle of accomodatio, one can view the life and work of Fr. Thomas Stephens.
The adoption of Christian doctrine to the local realities of the people was very central to him. Such an approach is what today in a post-Vatican II scenario, the theologians call inculturation. If one moves away from the principle of accomodatio one might be viewed as indulging in mere indoctrination that often failed to take deep roots in the life of our people. accomodatio is definely one important factor behind the success of the Jesuits in Salcete and other places in Goa. It might have been the principle of accomodatio that led to the systematic study of Konkani, our mother tongue in places like Old Goa, Rachol and Reis Mangoes. Since we are celebrating the fourth centenary of the death of Fr. Thomas Stephens, I focus on his accomodatio that he worked out in his magnum opus, Krista Purana.
We can see how Fr. Stephens found a way of presenting the salvific message of Jesus through the framework of Purana of the Hindu tradition. Much like the manner in which the Church fathers made use of Greek philosophy to understand and communicate Christian message, Fr. Stephens skilfully brings a theological encounter of Christianity with the Vaishnava tradition that he came across mainly in Margao in his days. One can trace accomodatio at work in the very choice of articulating and poetizing the story of Jesus in Marathi so that it reaches the people who seem to speak Konkani but used Marathi as a language of high culture. Krista Purana is a biblical epic in the style of classical Marathi writers like Jnanadeva and Eknatha. Stephens’s work thus exhibits and achieves a great height of Marathi literature but also depths and breath in the theology of inculturation and inter-faith dialogue that has become so vital to Christianity today.
Stephens uses Ovi meter which consists of three rhymed lines followed by one shorter unrhymed one. Several scholars including Saldana indicate that Stephens was profoundly influenced by the Brahmins of Salcete. We can trace the Ovi meter in the work of Jananadeva , Eknatha and several other great Marathi writers and thinkers. Most of these others belong to the bhakti movement of the Vaishnava tradition also known as Varkari whose main deity was the form of Vishnu/ Krishna called Vitthal or Vitthoba. Besides, this imitation of the style of the great sages of Maharashtra, Stephens inserts the story of Jesus/history of salvation in a religious literary mold or motif of a purana . Punaras a mainly thought of as Hindu popular religious texts although there are also puranas among the Buddhists and Jains. Puranic literature consists of Mahapuranas, upapuranas, mahatmyas and caste puranas. Hindu puranas were mainly in Sanskrit but there were also some in the vernacular. Besides taking up this literary form, Stephens brings about a theological fusion of horizons with the Vaishnava tradition. Thus, for instance, Baptism becomes Jnana-snan or knowledge-bath. Like Jnana-snana, we can trace several couplets coined and employed by Stephens. Chief amog them are Adipursa-karma ( original sin) or Vaikumtha-mukti ( heaven). he used them to present foundational Christian ideas in terms of Vaishnava theogical terminology. We can still trace in Konkani terms like yemkond from the abode yema , the God of death, Viakumtha that was the heaven of Vishnu to signify hell and heaven. Stephens uses svarga synonymously with Vaikuntha in his book Doutrina Christam. He is using yempuri for hell and limbaloka for the purifying place we call purgatory in Krista Purana. He also includes words like sodavone, tarane /trahane /tarka that means to set free to drive home the salvific significance of Jesus Christ. In Doutrina Christam he presents Jesus as Taroku of Samsara who came from svarga. Thus, we can find in the work of Stephens what we might call metaphorical theology where the theological terms of Vaishnava tradition become vehicles or verbal sacraments of the message of Jesus. one can also discern how he takes up the Indian mode of darsana (Vision) as a way of becoming muktivhamta ( freed). The theology of light of the Vaishnava tradition is strategically adopted by him to convey the experience of salvation in Jesus Christ. While we stand in awe at the great piece of work, we cannot but remember with great affection and respect the interlocutors of Thomas Stephens who taught him theology of the Vaishnava tradition, introduced him to the writings of seers Jnanadeva, Eknatha and others and taught him Konkani and Marathi. It is because of this great encounter with the then Vaishnava tradition of Salcete, we can even find that catholic theology in Konkani today is chiefly put in the alphabets of Vaishnavism. It is fusion of two great traditions. we have the challenge as well as an imperative to explore it to contue this fecund and fruitful dialogue in our days.