Kurien Kunnumpuram

Rev. Prof. (Dr) Kurien Kunnumpuram S.J. (8 July 1931 – 23 October 2018) was a Roman Catholic, Indian Jesuit priest and well-known Christian theologian. A member of the academic staff of the Faculty of Theology at Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Pune (India) (Emeritus), he contributed in the field of ecclesiology, particularly with regard to Vatican II.

He was the founder-publisher-editor of Jnanadeepa: Pune Journal of Religious Studies, from 1998 to 2010. He was also the founding editor of JDV's Encyclopedia of Indian Christian Theology, till 2009. He was the editor of AUC: Asian Journal of Religious Studies.

Life and career Kunnumpuram was born on 8 July 1931 in Teekoy, Kerala, India. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1950 and was ordained a priest in March 1963.

He pursued advanced studies at the University of Innsbruck, completing a Doctorate in Systematic Theology in 1968 on “Ways of Salvation.” The following year he began teaching theology at Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Pune, India, became faculty dean in 1974 (serving until 1977), and served as rector from 1987 to 1993.

In January 1998, he founded the Jnanadeepa: Pune Journal of Religious Studies and served as its editor-publisher, and, beginning in 2002, he edited AUC: Asian Journal of Religious Studies for the Papal Seminary, Pune.

Kunnumpuram’s 80th birthday was marked at the Papal Seminary in Pune with a Mass and felicitation hosted by Rt Rev Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Pune. Shortly before his passing, a national seminar was held in his honour, recognising his contribution to Indian Catholic theology.

Later life and death In 2013, Kunnumpuram returned to the Jesuit Province of Kozhikode in Kerala, where he continued to write and mentor younger scholars; among his late publications was Freedom and Joy (2018).

On 17 November 2017, at the age of 86, he experienced a mild stroke. In October 2018, a national seminar in Pune honoured his theological contributions.

He suffered a blood clot in the brain on 25 September 2018, which left him in a coma,