Editorial: Dharma of Jesus

George Soares-Prabhu, SJ (1929-1995) was one of the stalwarts
of Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth. I Ie exercised enormous influence
on his students and colleagues, challenging them to rethink
Christian faith in a way that would bring it alive in the Indian
context, especially the context of the poor. He was a biblical
scholar, and his theology was “distinctly a biblical theology of 
liberation seen through Indian eyes.” It is that sensitivity to the
Indian context that led him coin the phrase “dharma of Jesus”. 
The Sanskrit word dharma has many meanings and is used in
the Indian religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, besides
that family of religions known as I linduism. Coming from the root
dhr, meaning ‘to hold’ or ‘to support’ it might be taken to mean
as ‘that which upholds’. Roughly it can mean the ‘metaphysical
basis of religion’, ‘cosmic order’, ‘ethical code of conduct’, 
‘teachings’ of a guru, and so on. With such rich meanings, it
becomes immediately clear as to how apt the word dharma is
for describing what Jesus taught, and, above all, lived. In grateful
memory o f  Soares-Prabhu’s contributions, Jnana-Deepa
Vidyapeeth organized a seminar in October 2014. The essays in
this issue were presented at that seminar.