Christianity in India: A Select Bibliography (original) (raw)

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Christianity in India: A Select Bibliography, 2

Did you know that the apostle Thomas reached India? The likely date for his arrival in the Indus River Valley was 40 AD. Gondophares, whom Thomas evangelized, was the king of a Hellenistic Indo-Parthian kingdom there in what is now Pakistan and westernmost India, reigning from 19-46 AD. Thomas was probably in South India no later than 52 AD. Some of the later traditions of the fourth century Thomas of Cana, a Syrian or Persian missionary to the Malabar Coast, have likely been conflated with the older traditions about the apostle, but the evidence for Thomas serving as a missionary in India is every bit as strong (and perhaps stronger) than the evidence that Peter went to Rome. Communities of "Thomas Christians" remain among the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world.

History of Christianity in India: An Archaeo-linguistic Perspective

2022

The Apostle Thomas and his travel to the Indian Peninsula soon after the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be the key response if someone asked about the beginning of Christianity in the Indian subcontinent or the responsibility of spreading the faith in India. His journey to South India and subsequent conversion of the Namboothiri Brahmans of Kerala, followed by his martyrdom at Mylapore, near Chennai, is the most interesting and descriptive narration we would hear from any authentic church historian or believer. Though the story has many illogical twists and turns, contradicting plots, and no proper evidence, it has become a conventional history among believers and non-believers alike. Volumes of explanation and detailing have been done by many church historians, referring mainly to apocryphal, non-canonical, or hagiographic works. Though these explanations are in great volumes, their authenticity is still disputed by many renowned scholars and historians alike.

ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY IN SOUTH INDIA: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CRITIQUES-A REVIEW

It has been a forced departure from the idea of narrating historical stages of Christianity in South India but to delve on the existing historiography on early South Indian Christianity. The rationale behind is that the writings of different authors about the emergence of Christianity in India, south India in particular has still been not accepted completely and kept as a debatable topic. Paucity of primary data in this particular field makes historians handicapped. The available historical sources comes in the way of 'tradition' are not sufficient to satisfy international community on this important socio-cultural history of India. The fact is that there are many areas in the historical past for which historians do not have sources to construct them elaborately for understanding. They fell right in the historical period for which historians supposedly have plenty of sources to understand that stages. These are the black holes exist in historical past. This could completely turn around the structure of a particular society if not a whole state when they are explored and understood. The early history of Christianity in south India cannot be put under Dark Age type either, as it has some sources (Indian tradition) and references (apocryphal writings on Indian Christianity) to build an idea. Nevertheless, array of historical writings both in missionary perspectives and historical methods on this field has been established from 3 rd century AD for the first type and from 19 th century AD for the second type. The missionary based writings are declining in postcolonial setup. Through Eric Frykenberg's self accusation of his own master narratives with post colonial and subaltern methods one can observe that shift had happened quite long before his original work on the 'Christianity in India: From the Beginnings to the Present'. Religious texts always have evangelical proselytizing trait inherited onto them. Understanding the psycho lingual nuances, embedded objectives and contexts of these texts are very difficult for even a trained historian to maintain historical objectivity let alone the common reader. This is the problem of the given topic. However, acceptance, towards historical truths will lead us to the destination of historical objectivity. Here, some writings and their subjective themes are derived in order to understand the problem.