Nirmal Minz

Nirmal Minz
Bishop Emeritus
ChurchLutheran
SeeN.W.G.E.L.Church
In office1980-1996
PredecessorPost Created
SuccessorPrabhudas Sunil Tirkey
Previous post(s)Professor, Gossner Theological College, Ranchi
Personal details
Born(1927-02-11)11 February 1927[1]
Anwratoli, Gumla District, Jharkhand[1]
Died5 May 2021(2021-05-05) (aged 94)

Nirmal Minz (11 February 1927 – 5 May 2021) was an Indian Christian theologian. He was Bishop Emeritus[2] of the Protestant North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church Society who served as bishop from 1980 through 1996.

As a scholar, Nirmal Minz was an authority[1][3] on Tribal and indigenous people and culture. Minz viewed tribes as being the indigenous people of India and opined that moves to alienate their landholding will cause destruction to the planet Earth itself.[4] As for the attitudes of the indigenous peoples, Minz believed that the accommodative nature, communitarian ownership of properties and decision by consensus did not find favour with the colonial British India which even continues to this day with the powers that be.[5] Professor K. P. Aleaz in A Tribal Theology from a Tribal World - View[6] considers Nirmal Minz along with Renthy Keitzer[7] and Timotheas Hembrom[7] as the Theologians with focus on Tribal cultures and ideologies.

The Gossner College, Ranchi was founded[1] by Nirmal Minz in 1971 where stories abound about its students topping the ranks.[8]

  1. ^ a b c d Ashok Kumar Sandil, Nirmal Minz in Anand Amaladass (Edited), Indian Christian Thinkers, Volume I, Satya Nilayam Publications, Chennai, 2005, p.135. [1]
  2. ^ Religion and Society, Volume 50, Issues 2-4, CISRS, 2005, p.3. [2]
  3. ^ R. S. Sugirtharajah, The Bible and Asia, Harvard College, 2013, p.203. [3]
  4. ^ Roger E. Hedlund, Quest for Identity: India's Churches of Indigenous Origin: the "Little Tradition" in Indian Christianity, ISPCK/MIIS, New Delhi/Madras, 2000, p.16. [4]
  5. ^ M. Stephen, Contextual Issues: Theological, Ethical and Missiological Responses, Concept, New Delhi, 2011, p.85. [5]
  6. ^ K. P. Aleaz, A Tribal Theology from a Tribal World - View in Indian Journal of Theology, Volume 44, 1 and 2, 2002, pp.20-30. [6]
  7. ^ a b Timotheas Hembrom was supervised for his doctoral studies by both Nirmal Minz and Renthy Keitzer. Foreword by Timotheas Hembrom in The Santals: Anthropological-Theological reflections on Santali and Biblical Creation Traditions, Punthi Pustak, Calcutta, 1996. [7]
  8. ^ Arthur Bonner, Averting the Apocalypse: Social Movements in India Today, Duke University Press, 1990, pp.251-252. [8]