Contextualizing Christian theology in South Asia

An analytical study from 1542-1947

  • Farman Ali Visiting Faculty, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
  • Dr, Humaira Ahmad Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Keywords: South Asian Christianity, Indian Christianity, contextualization, Malabar controversy, jesuits in India, religion and culture

Abstract

Abstract Views: 206

South Asian region has largely been under the influence of Indian, Chinese and Arabic cultures. All of the religious traditions have been strongly localized and tolerated various forms of folk cultures. Christianity in this region came in the early sixteenth century and flourished in the colonial era. It is normally assumed that it escaped from the process of adaptation and syncretism. However, this is not the case, as there were a number of missionaries not interested in Europeanizing their converts as in the case of Jesuits missionaries in India. Here in this article an attempt has been made to explicate the early attempt of western missionaries and local Christian to localize Christianity. To achieve this goal this paper has been divided into three sections. First section sheds light upon the overall attitude of early missionaries to the indigenous cultures and religions of India. Second section deals with the early efforts of contemporization in Indian Subcontinent. Third section will illustrate the situation church had to face after the partition of India, and how this partition impeded the process of contemporization movement. As a method, this article reviews the efforts of both native Christians and missionaries to indigenize Christianity in Indian first chronologically and then thematically.

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References

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Published
2019-12-18
How to Cite
Farman Ali, and Dr, Humaira Ahmad. 2019. “Contextualizing Christian Theology in South Asia”. Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization 9 (2), 272-97. https://doi.org/10.32350/jitc.92.14.
Section
Articles