Origin of Christianity in South India: Historiographical Critiques: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53555/ssh.v3i2.323Keywords:
some writings, their subjective, derived in order, understand the problem.Abstract
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 19th 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.
Downloads
References
Chad M. Bauman, Indian Christian Hist oriography from Below, from Above, and in Between. Butler University, cbauman@butler .edu
Cyriac K. Pullapilly, review, Origin of India's St. Thomas Christians: A Historiographical Critiqueby Benedict Vadakkekara
John C. B. WebsterA Social History of Christianity: North-west India since1800,New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007
John C.B. Webster, Historiography of Christianity in India, Oxford University Press, NewDelhi, 2007
John R. Mabry, The Way of Thomas: Nine Insights for Enlightened Living from the Secret Sayings of Jesus,John hunt Publishing Limited, London 2006, ISBN 1846940303, 9781846940309
Laura Nasrallah and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Ed, Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies.Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009
Richard Fox Young Ed, India and the Indianness of Christianity: Essays on Understanding—Historical, Theological, and Bibliographical—in Honor of RobertEric Frykenberg,Grand Rapids, Mich. Eerdmans, 2009.
Richard Fox Young, World Christian Historiography, Theological ‘Enthusiasms’, and the Writing of R. E. Frykenberg’s Christianity in India, Article first published online: 1 FEB2011
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 gnpublication@
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
In consideration of the journal, Green Publication taking action in reviewing and editing our manuscript, the authors undersigned hereby transfer, assign, or otherwise convey all copyright ownership to the Editorial Office of the Green Publication in the event that such work is published in the journal. Such conveyance covers any product that may derive from the published journal, whether print or electronic. Green Publication shall have the right to register copyright to the Article in its name as claimant, whether separately
or as part of the journal issue or other medium in which the Article is included.
By signing this Agreement, the author(s), and in the case of a Work Made For Hire, the employer, jointly and severally represent and warrant that the Article is original with the author(s) and does not infringe any copyright or violate any other right of any third parties, and that the Article has not been published elsewhere, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in any form, except as provided herein. Each author’s signature should appear below. The signing author(s) (and, in
