Kurien Kunnumpuram
# Kurien Kunnumpuram

Kurien Kunnumpuram S.J. pronunciation (help·info) (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.

Kunnumpuram studied at the University of Innsbruck, completing his Doctorate in Systematic Theology in 1968 on "Ways of Salvation". The following year, he began teaching theology at the Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology (Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology), in Pune, India. He became the faculty dean in 1974, a post he held until 1977.

In 1987, Kunnumpuram became Rector of Jnana Deepa, Institute of Philosophy and Theology, Pune, India. He left the role in 1993.

In January 1998, Kunnumpuram founded the Jnanadeepa: Pune Journal of Religious Studies and acted as the journal's editor and publisher. Four years later, in 2002, he started editing AUC: Asian Journal for Religious Studies.

Kunnumpuram's 80th birthday was celebrated at the Papal Seminary in Pune with a mass and felicitation hosted by Rt Rev Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Pune.

## Later life and death

In 2013, Kunnumpuram returned to the Jesuit Province of Kozhikode in Kerala. On 17 November 2017, at the age of 86, he suffered a minor stroke. He suffered a blood clot to the brain on 25 September 2018, and went into a coma. He died on 23 October 2018 at Nirmala Hospital in Kozhikode, Kerala, India.

