Stanley Jedidiah Samartha

Stanley Jedidiah was born on 7 October 1920 in Karkala, Karnataka into a pastoral family. His mother was a primary school Teacher while his father was a Pastor with the Basel Evangelical Mission. Stanley had his education at the Basel Evangelical Mission High School after which he enrolled at the local Government College. Later in 1939 he joined the Jesuit St. Aloysius College (then affiliated to the University of Madras) from where he obtained a B.A. in 1941. ==Divinity==

It felt natural for Stanley to follow in the footsteps of his Professors, particularly Marcus Ward and P. D. Devanandan. In 1945, he was awarded the graduate degree of BD from the Seminary. Pastor and lecturership From 1945 to 1947, Mangalore beginning from the academic year 1947 – 1948 to teach Theology and Religions. After availing study leave for the period 1949–1952 Samartha returned to the Seminary and resumed teaching responsibilities. The Basel Evangelical Mission ordained S. J. Samartha on 30 March 1952. It was during Samartha's period at Mangalore that the Seminary became affiliated which eventually got published. In 1950, in 1951. Samartha's doctoral thesis was entitled The Modern Hindu View of History according to Representative Thinkers. After completion of doctoral studies at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1951, Samartha spent a year at Basel, Switzerland at the invitation of the Basel Mission Board. ==Appraisal by other Scholars==

• Israel Selvanayagam, Principal, United Theological College, Bengaluru. • Andreas Anangguru Yewangoe of Indonesia: • Hans Schwarz, University of Regensburg, Germany. • Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena. • Timothy Yates, an Anglican Evangelical Missiologist, Durham. • Kirsteen Kim, Past Lecturer, Union Biblical Seminary, Pune. ==Contribution==

Samartha was acknowledged as a leading authority on inter-religious dialogue. S. Wesley Ariarajah quotes Samartha on dialogue: Criticism Criticism wasn't too far. Sunand Sumithra in his doctoral dissertation defended at the University of Tübingen, Germany in 1981 criticised (page 217) Similarly, Ken Gnanakan of ACTS Institute, Bengaluru, argued that Samartha's writings failed to uphold the Biblical Text in a setting of theology of religions. submitted to the Utrecht University where Dirk brings to light the fact that Samartha rejected the Dutch Reformed Theologian Hendrik Kraemer's version of Christology stating that it was Christomonistic and not theocentric. Samartha first met Hendrik Kraemer in Bossey during his sabbatical in Basel. ==Stint at WCC==

After being relieved as Principal of Serampore College, Serampore in 1968, Samartha served as Associate Secretary, S. Wesley Ariarajah succeeded Samartha at the WCC. ==Honours==

In 1982, the Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore brought out a festschrift in his honour edited by the then Principal Rev. Dr. C. D. Jathanna entitled Dialogue in Community: Essays in Honour of Stanley J. Samartha. the Senate of Serampore College (University) in West Bengal conferred upon Samartha an honorary doctorate in 1986 In the same year, the Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands also awarded him an honorary doctorate. ==Retirement and death==

In 1980, Samartha returned in Bengaluru. Tributes • Georges Lemopoulos, Acting general secretary (2001), World Council of Churches, Geneva. {{succession box | before=William Stewart 1966 1968 {{succession box | before=William Stewart 1959–1966 1968–1969 ==See also==