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Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 4

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Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 4 Project Faith: Christianity Around the World Session 4: Middle Eastern Christianity 1) Do we have to take our shoes off in Church? 2) Christianity is India's third most followed religion according to the census of 2011, with approximately 28 million followers, constituting 2.3 % of India's population. Hindus = 80% Muslims = 14% 3) Aryan Migrations 1700-1100 BCE 4) Aryans (Noble Ones) “Indo-Aryan” refers to the peoples and languages that originate in the Indus Valley civilizations. 5) Many English words have direct ties to Sanskrit words. 6) First-century trade between the Mediterranean and India. 7) Jewish Presence in India: Jewish people arrived in different waves. 8) When did Christianity Arrive in India? This is debated 9) It is traditionally believed that Christianity was introduced to India by Thomas the Apostle, who supposedly landed in Kerala in 52 AD. There is a general scholarly consensus that Christianity was definitely established in India by the 6th century AD, including some communities who used Syriac liturgies, and it is possible that the religion's existence extends as far back as the purported time of St. Thomas's arrival. 10) Syriac Christianity: Monophysite and Nestorian Christianity spread eastward. 11) Christianity has been in India somewhere between 1600-1200 years longer than in America. 12) The Syrian Orthodox Church of South India (Marthoma Church) 13) The coming of Islam: Arab traders bring Islam to the west coast of India in the 7th century. Turkic invaders bring Islam to northern India in the 12th century 14) The advance of Islam 15) The Mughal Empire (1526-1857): Turkic-Mongol & Persian Muslims rule most of India for over 300 years, until the British set themselves up in the 19th century. 16) The Coming of Catholic Christianity: Roman Catholicism was first introduced to India by Portuguese, Italian and Irish Jesuits in the 16th century to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ among Indians. Most Christian schools, hospitals, primary care centers originated through the Roman Catholic missions brought by the trade of these countries. 17) Early Portuguese traders promised to protect local peoples from Arab pirates if they agreed to convert to Christianity. St. Francis Xavier in 1542 began more direct evangelization through teaching. 18) St. Teresa of Calcutta 19) Portuguese Colonies in India: Starting in the late 15th century, Portuguese traders, explorers & “New Christians” made their way to India, forming colonies, bringing economic exploitation and evangelization. 20) The Coming of the British: The RaJ (1858-1947) 21) The English East India Company: Starting as early as 1611, the English set up trade posts in India. This eventually became a monopoly on trade that led to the rule of England over India from 1858 to 1947. 22) The Partition of India: India was partitioned into Hindu and Muslim areas in 1947-8, after many years of clashes between Hindus and Muslims. 23) Protestant Missions In India 1700-present: The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. By 2006, there were three million Lutherans in Tranquebar. The British brought Anglicanism. The Church of South India is a Protestant union church that has an episcopal polity and has over 3.8 million members. 24) Christianity in Mizoram: The Christianity is the largest religion in Mizoram. The majority (87%) of Mizos are Christian in various denominations, predominantly Presbyterian. Welsh missionaries brought Christianity here in the 1890’s. 25) Dialogue with an Indian Christian: Johnson and Shirley Thomas were raised in the Marthoma Church. Johnson grew up in Mumbai, a cosmopolitan city where Christians are free to worship. Johnson thinks that Western Christians could learn about familial closeness and hospitality from Indian Christians. Christians in India have challenged the caste system, seeing all people as equal in God’s sight. Christian missionaries established schools. Now Christian schools are preferred even by Hindus. Christians are seen as getting funding from the West. Others are jealous. The threat to Christianity’s future: superstition and politics. The rise of Hindu nationalism is a problem. Christians are seen as compassionate to people but cruel toward animals. Johnson Thomaskutty – New Testament scholar What does your book, St. Thomas the Apostle, conclude about the popular view that Thomas is “the Apostle to the East?” An overview of the Thomas documents from geographically vast areas over a chronologically extended period of time [show us that] the details regarding Thomas outlined in the Johannine and the apocryphal documents are further substantiated by the traditions from the church fathers, historians, travelers, and geographers. I conclude that India had a well-established trade relationship with the rest of the world, even before the beginning of Christianity. Hence, India was not a terra incognita for outsiders during the post-resurrection period. Furthermore, we can now expound how Thomas’s apostleship to India was unanimously accepted, consistent, and reasonably early. As Thomas’s Indian apostolate was acknowledged over a longer period of time and there were no convincing contradictory views, it continues to remain as an accepted view in historical documents of the church. .
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