QUEST FOR REDISCOVERING TRIBAL SOCIAL ETHICS FOR CHRISTIAN ETHICAL PRINCIPLE

Abstract

When Christianity was introduced to the tribal people, without proper knowledge of their tradition and cultures, some missionaries regarded many of their practices as irrational, primitive and backward that did not match their expectations of what human culture ought to be. In such a context, the tribal religion and culture are looked down upon. So, conversion was understood in terms of replacement of the old ways of life which include rejection of traditional cultures and value system. At the same time, as we compare to the mission strategy of Paul, he adapted the Gospel in terms of intelligible to his audience and their mental outlook, and he interprets the message in their own way, in light of their own spiritual needs. He utilized such Hellenistic philosophical constructs to present the gospel to his Hellenistic audience in a culturally relevant and contextualized way by saying, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law.” Attempts have been made to analyze some tribal social ethics which could be helpful for maintaining Christian ethical principles. It is a task to teach our people that this is not simply going back to the old ways, rather rediscover the values of the tribal heritages for challenging the present problems of the society.