Keynote address at the All India Consultation of Evangelicals in Social Concern from January 27-30 2002. Reprinted with permission from Drishtikone - the magazine of the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief available from EFICOR, 308, B-Block Community Centre, Janakpuri, New Delhi 110058. E-mail eficorhq@vsnl.com; website www.eficoronline.org.

Three traditions have influenced the idea of the state in India – the Hindu Rajah, the Islamic View and the European Secular State. From biblical and theological considerations, Christians must reject the totalism and ego-centrism of modern states and work for greater accountability and decentralised decision-making.

We need to renew a Christian social vision for the new millennium. By social vision is meant a view of society in all its dimensions which expresses a view of humanity rooted in an understanding of who human beings are and can become. There are many possible social visions. There is a weariness with social involvement. Quite a bit of involvement has not produced the expected results. Studies have shown that some of the Latin American church growth is a wish (...) of the pastors rather than a representation of reality. (shrink)

Following the Washington Conference held from June 28-30 2002 on The Bible and the Ballot Box, the final conference of the Study Programme of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians on Evangelicals and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the project director, Canon Dr Vinay Samuel shared these reflections at a chapel service at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. See www.evangelicalsandpolitics.org. Summaries of the regional studies follow this reflection.