Sebastian Kappen

Born into a traditional Nasrani family in Kodikulam, Travancore, during the British Raj, Kappen entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20 (in 1944), and was ordained a priest on 24 March 1957.

He pursued studies at the Gregorian University (Rome), obtaining a doctorate in Theology (1961) with a thesis on Religious Alienation and Praxis according to Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

Away from scholasticism and its essentialism, he found in Marxian tools of social analysis effective instruments to understand the people's alienation from freedom and loss of ability to contribute to the wellbeing of society.

Henceforth, Freud, Marx and the gospel of Mark became the dialectical poles of Kappen's thought and life, in view of liberating the human person from hidden oppressive psychological and social forces.

In 1972 Kappen moved out of Jesuit large institutions and started living among the poor wherever he was posted: in Cochin, and later in Trivandrum, Madras and Bangalore as well.

This led him to a study of the liberating and humanizing potential of the original teachings of Jesus, with a strong preference for the Gospel of Mark.

Ever critical of systems, structures and institutions, Kappen felt his search was leading him beyond denominational and religious affiliations as well as political ideology.