1st Edition
Christians and Missionaries in India Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500
The assumption that Christianity in India is nothing more than a European, western, or colonial imposition is open to challenge. Those who now think and write about India are often not aware that Christianity is a non-western religion, that in India this has always been so, and that there are now more Christians in Africa and Asia than in the West. Recognizing that more understanding of the separate histories and cultures of the many Christian communities in India will be needed before a truly comprehensive history of Christianity in India can be written, this volume addresses particular aspects of cultural contact, with special reference to caste, conversion, and colonialism. Subjects addressed range from Sanskrit grammar to populist Pentecostalism, Urdu polemics and Tamil poetry.
Biography
Robert Eric Frykenberg, Alaine Low
'I commend this book both to those who know India well and would like to know more, and those beginning their encounter with Indian Christianity.' - Church Times
'The quality of this volume is virtually guaranteed by its editor, Robert Frykenberg, one of the foremost living experts on the East India Company and British India. ... As with the editor, so with the contributors; the level of scholarship is uniformly high and the writing graceful.' - ANVIL'Each study in this book illustrates the complex and unexpected results of any intervention in another culture.' - Themelios
'It is to be recommended as a colourful, scholarly and up-to-date introduction to the rich hisotry of cultural interaction which Indian Christianity embodies.' - Ecclesiastical History
'The authors deserve our warm appreciation, for they have admirably enhanced our understanding of Christianity in India. Students of India and of Indian Christianity will find this remarkable volume very helpful indeed.' - Daniel Jeyaraj, Judson-DeFrietas Associate Professor of World Christianity, Andover Newton Theological School, Massachusetts