About a Book
Incarnation and Contextual Communication
By Rev. C. Retnadas

Christ the incarnated Son of God
The conclusion of this book is that it is possible to contextualize the message of Incarnation by using the term avatar.  With all humility and vulnerability, a witnessing Christian can find joy in approaching people of the Hindu faith with their familiar but respected concept of avatar.  It is sign of matured faith to bring a harvest to the Lord if evangelism is the first priority of a Christian.  Incarnation is a better word for Christian to understand, but in order to communicate faith, we may have to use avatar as a bridge word.

It is a method for reproduction of Christ or multiplication of the body of Christ as stated by Chenchiah and Fakirbhai.
1. Tamil terms very closely related to Incarnation are Avataram or Thiruavataram (holy avatar).  Kadavul Manithan Aanar (God became man). 
2. The word avatar is used instead of incarnation with a view to introduce the unique Christ of history.  It is used with a missiological perspective rather than with a theological perspective.  Avatar is used to introduce Christ to the people of other faiths.
3. The pastors and lay persons of the church in India need to distinguish the meaning of the terms incarnation and avatar in their life and ministry.  They are called to use avatar with a missioligical prospective.  They need sufficient motivation to understand the differing perspectives of avatar and the uniqueness of incarnation.  It will lead to a study on contextualization and communication.
4. The main differing perspectives of avatar and uniqueness of incarnation are the following:

The first differing perspective of the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth was and is found in the incarnate God, who existed before the foundations of the world. He is unique in His life, death, resurrection and ascension, which is incomparable.  The scholars do not agree about the sainthood and moral codes of the life of avatar.  The question of the morality of avatars has been problem even for Hindu scholars.

The second differing perspective is found in the historicity of Jesus Christ who is unique, while avatar is a theophany. 

Rama Krishna and Goutama the Buddha, as they appear in the earliest literature, are men, and men only, .....

Third, the holiness and righteousness of Jesus Christ is wholly Supreme. No avatar can be called holy and righteous.  In contrast, there is the Christ who is holy, righteous and sinless.  His righteousness was proved by the historical judges five times before His crucifixion.  The human avatars have never been proved as faultless.

Fourth, peace, joy and forgiveness is bestowed by Jesus Christ who has offered Himself as the ransom for all.  No avatar offered himself such sacrifice!  Jesus Christ is unique and perfect in all aspects.  Russel Chandran, a theologian of India stated "This is a theological insight about the universality of Christ's redemption.  There is no area which has not been affected by Christ's redemptive work.

Fifth, while Jesus Christ is the full revelation of God, who came to dwell in the heart of a saved sinner.  Who came to forgive sins and wash it away by His blood.  The forgiveness of God for the sins of humanity by his unique sacrifice in Christ far outshines any avatar.

How can a Christian understand the concept of avatar?

An answer to the first question in brief is found in the uniqueness of the incarnation of Jesus Christ mentioned earlier.  His life, death, resurrection and ascension are the unique points as compared with the life of any of the avatars.  His historicity is also a valid point to be shared.  Finally, an analogy of Sadhu Sundarsingh will be used as an illustration to contextulalize the message of incarnation.

The second stage is to lead a person to the question, who is the perfect avatar without sin among all avatars?  A committed Christian can listen to the Hindus when they state how they are fascinated by the lives of the avatars.  The Christian would lead such persons to know more about the historic, sinless but unique Christ.  He is unique in His death on the cross and His resurrection.  In Him, God and man became one, not in transcendent idealism, but in actual visible reality. 

Analogy of Sadhu Sundarsingh:

Before his conversion Sadhu Sundarsingh understood Christ as a great man, but after his conversion he explained the incarnation by the following analogies.  A child can read the word "God" merely as a word without thinking anything of the truth behind it.  As a beginner in the spiritual life would think of Christ, the word incarnate, as a great man or incarnate, in whom dwells all the fullness of the God head bodily (col 2:9).

He further asked the question, how can we believe in reality without seeing and knowing it fully?  He answered that the full knowledge of reality is not necessary to make us believe in realities like our organs, for example our heart and brain.  Though one cannot see one's heart and brain, one cannot deny that one has them.  "When we are thus unable to see our own brain and heart, on which our life depends largely, how much difficult must it be to see the creator of our brain and heart, on whom all our life depends!

Sundarsingh illustrated this further through a story of a man who had several hundred sheep whom he met in the Himalayan mountains of India.  Since he lost many of them he asked his servants to go and search for them.  they feared the wild beasts, hence refused to seek them.  As he wanted to save the sheep, he took the form of a sheep using a big sheep's skin and went out just like a sheep, because the sheep would no follow the master as they knew not the master but only his servants.  "The sheep were not afraid because he was just like a sheep and he brought all this lost sheep to the cave.  He was glad all his sheep had been saved, and then took off his sheep skin...So Jesus Christ is God.  He became man in order to save those who are lost.