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From Christian anti-imperialism to postcolonial Christianity: M. M. Thomas and the ecumenical theology of communism in the 1940s and 1950s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2018

Justin Reynolds
Justin Reynolds*
Affiliation:
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Harvard University, William James Hall, Third Floor, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA E-mail: jmreynolds@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

This article uses the early thought and career of the Indian Mar Thoma Christian and Marxian theologian M. M. Thomas to investigate the connections between ecumenism’s theology of communism and its engagements with anti-colonial politics and decolonization in the 1940s and 1950s. The article situates Thomas’ efforts to reconcile Marxian doctrine with Christian faith within the movement’s institutional practices for combating the entropic effects of modern secular civilization and Cold War polarization. Tracing Thomas’ ascent from Christian Marxist youth circles in south India to leadership positions in the World Student Christian Federation and the World Council of Churches, the article highlights the central role of his theology in establishing ‘revolutionary’ postcolonial social transformation as the object of Christian global governance in the post-war era.

Keywords

Cold Warcommunismdecolonizationecumenismimperialismreligious thought
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , July 2018 , pp. 230 - 251
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank the United Theological Seminary, Bangalore, for permission to consult material from the M. M. Thomas Papers. For valuable feedback on earlier versions of this article, I am grateful to Andrew Preston, Ana Isabel Keilson, Samuel Moyn, Susan Pedersen, Shruti Kapila, Eugene McCarraher, and to participants in the European Network in Universal and Global History Congress in Paris in 2014 and the Political Thought and Intellectual History Graduate Conference at the University of Cambridge in 2015. Many thanks also to this journal’s editors and anonymous reviewers who provided clear and helpful comments on this article.

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29 ‘Introduction’, in Deadlock in India, p. 14.

30 Deadlock in India, pp. 20–1, emphasis in original.

31 Thomas, ‘British SCM and the Indian political situation’, Guardian [Madras], 21, 50, December 1943, p. 6, emphasis added. Abridged in Thomas, Ideological quest, pp. 80–1, emphasis in original.

32 Thomas, ‘British SCM’, pp. 83–4.

33 ‘National Christian Youth Council’, pp. 353–4; ‘Students and the Indian national movement today’, Student Outlook, 17, 3–6, 1945, pp. 28–31.

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40 Quoted in Coupland, Britannia, p. 151.

41 WCCA, 213.13.125, M. M. Thomas to Robert Mackie, 27 February 1947.

42 Ibid.

43 WCCA, 213.13.162, Philippe Maury to M. M. Thomas, 19 March 1947.

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50 Ibid., emphasis in original.

51 Thomas’ contribution appeared as M. M. Thomas, ‘The situation in Asia – II’ in The church and the disorder of society, Amsterdam Assembly Series 3, New York: Harper Brothers, 1948, pp. 71–9. For critical reviews of the paper, see for instance WCCA, 213.13.162, Kenneth Grubb, ‘Comment on “The situation in Asia – II”’. For responses to Thomas’ critique of Niebuhr, on which his contribution was based, see WCCA, 24.207, ‘Minutes of round table meeting of Christian politicians, Bossey, June 13th–16th, 1947’, pp. 4–5.

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55 Thomas Papers, United Theological College, Bangalore, Box 38, M. M. Thomas, ‘Faith seeking understanding and responsibility’, unpublished autobiographical manuscript, n.d., p. 55.

56 ‘Report of Section III’, in The church and the disorder of society, p. 220.

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58 Among Amsterdam’s preparatory studies, the most detailed discussion of Asian and African politics occurred in the American ecumenist O. Fredrick Nolde’s survey of the status of human rights: ‘Freedom of religion and related human rights’, in The church and the international disorder, pp. 159–60.

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71 ‘Christian witness’, p. 4.

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75 Thomas and McCaughey, ‘The Christian in the world struggle’, p. 1.

76 Ibid., p. 3.

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80 Ibid., p. 8.

81 Ibid., p. 3.

82 Inboden, Religion and American foreign policy, pp. 46–7.

83 ‘Report of Section III’, in The church and the disorder of society, pp. 189–90. For reactions to the ‘responsible society’ in the US, see Reynolds, ‘Against the world’, pp. 321–2.

84 WCCA, 301.014, W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, ‘Notes on the World Council of Churches as between East and West’, confidential memorandum, March 1949, p. 1.

85 For the Czechoslovak protest, see WCCA, 37.0003, ‘Letter from Prof. Josef L. Hromadka and Dr. Viktor Hajek to Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft’, 30 November 1950. For Berezcky’s protest, and subsequent exchange with Visser ’t Hooft, see their correspondence in WCCA, 42.009.

86 WCCA, 428.16.2.9.1, T. C. Chao to the Presidents of the WCC, 28 April 1951.

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92 E. de Vries, ‘The churches and the problems of social and economic development in South and South East Asia’, condensed version of a paper delivered at the Ecumenical Study Conference for East Asia, Lucknow, India, 27–30 December 1952, published in Christ: the hope of Asia, p. 5.

93 WCC, 422.005, ‘World Council of Churches Study Department staff meeting minutes’, Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland, 25–30 November 1954, p. 10.

94 See Paul Abrecht, ‘The development of ecumenical social thought and action’, in Fey, History of the ecumenical movement, vol. 2, pp. 248–50.

95 The common Christian responsibility toward areas of rapid social change, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1955, pp. 4–6.