Bharat Raj Patta

Dalitekklesia Bharat Raj Patta

Dalitekklesia: A Church from Below offers a Dalit understanding of God as a suffering God, and offers the church a church of the margins recognising and acknowledging the agency of Dalits in this endeavour. The locality of the Indian church is discussed by bringing in contextual social analysis of the margins, particularly discussing the locality as Peta, which is used for Dalit localities. The location of the church is defined by its public witness and therefore this book offers some perspectives in that direction of reimagining the church from below. The aim of this book is to engage in critical reflection on the very understanding of church from below, for the church traditionally has been understood as a hierarchical church running on the model of exercising power top-down. This book is an invitation for all those people who see the vision of a church bottom-up, where powers and principalities are dismantled. When all our churches became churches from below, the vision towards a new creation is possible.