PREFACE

The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) - Asia-Pacific (AP) and the Christian Conference of Asia Youth Department, has decided the topics for the Bible Studies. Obviously, they are vast in scope and character. I will venture to deal with these diverse and complex issues from a Biblical perspective, bringing out their theological-ethical import and importance.

As the topics are diverse and complex, so is the Bible. The Bible is not a single book, written by one author at one time and in one place. On the contrary, it has several authors, written over a long period of time, reflecting on many different situations or events. Therefore, it is not easy to understand the Bible. The Bible cannot give answers to modern problems or issues. But it can certainly provide guidelines, principles and goals for our modern life and living. We must be willing to listen, learn and live according to the revelation embedded in the Biblical corpus. It is for us to discover and discern the signals of transcendence in those human words contained in the Bible.

The Bible is the good news of God's continuous action in history and in the whole of creation. It is for us to discern and distinguish between the good news and the bad news. Every annunciation presupposes denunciation. Proclamation, kerygma, must clarify and not confuse, must unveil and not veil our search for divine-human encounter and experience. In this pilgrimage, I have no desire to indulge in either naive reductionism or simplistic dualism of truth and reality, life and living. With this objective in mind, I have tried to advocate the priority, perspective and balance of the Bible, as I understand it.

All the themes selected are relevant and meaningful. These are recurrent issues that we have to wrestle with all the time. As a result, there are new articulations or formulations on the same subject. We seem to discover a new horizon of meaning or reach a new crossroad. Therefore, there is a constant need to explore and experience the same old themes in a new way. May God guide us in this journey.

In conclusion, I like to take this opportunity to convey my heartfelt gratitude to Ms Cynthia Yuen, CCA Youth Secretary, and Rev. Shin Seung Min, Regional Secretary, WSCF AP, for requesting me to do these Bible Studies. I hope the readers will find them stimulating and provoke further research and study of the themes from a Biblical perspective. May God challenge particularly, the young people to justice-oriented action, leading to authentic liberty and life. May God be glorified in and through this, "work of faith, and labor of love and steadfastness of hope" (I Thessalonians. 1:3b).

Somen Das