In St. Thomas and India, renowned scholars trace the historical, religious, and cultural connections link India's Syrian Christian community with St. Thomas the Apostle. They use modern historiographical methods seek to corroborate the ancient tradition that tells of St. Thomas's missionary journey to India in the middle of the first century, in which he established seven churches in some of the major commercial centers of Malabar. From this first churches, Christianity spread throughout the region. St. Thomas in India also examines the legacy of the ancient Christianity on the Syrian community in India today, as well as exploring the various cultural and religious connections between the Syrian church in Indian and other ancient churches in the east.

• Comprehensive study of the St. Thomas in India myth with reference to Christian iconoclasm in South India from the 7th century till today. • Reviews and related material for this book can be accessed on the Acta Indica website at https://ishwarsharan.com/. • The copyright © of this book belongs to Voice of India, 2/18 Ansari Road, New Delhi 110002. The Creative Commons licence for this book is Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND).

During the twentieth century, the Syrian Christian population of Kerala underwent a process of transition in its demographic and socio-economic status. This book describes the demographic transition in terms of size, composition, geographical distribution, and growth rates of the Christian population in general and the Syrian Christian population in particular. It goes on to study the growth of the Christian population in Kerala in the context of the growth of the Christian population in India. The underlying demographic factors of transition--fertility, mortality, and migration--are analysed in detail. It describes the socio-economic transition of the Syrian Christians as seen in their education levels, employment status, and material possessions. The discussions are carried out in a comparative setting, where corresponding changes that have come about in other communities--Hindus, Muslims, and Latin Christians--are also examined. The book concludes by drawing attention to projected demographic trends and their likely impact on the community. It suggests the need for some introspection by the Syrian Christians to cope with the adverse fall-out of the emerging trends

ABOUT THE BOOK"The Nasranis, The St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, India" is a compilation of the religious and cultural matters of a group of people who believe that St. Thomas, one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ, founded their Church in the first century A. D. itself. Even though physical proofs are circumstantial for a modern view, their belief is based on the legends and stories they were told from generation to generation from the first century of the Christian Era till now, which hopefully will continue forever.The book also touches the history of early civilization of India and the great philosophies which lead to the birth of many Indian religions, and how religions from outside the country were welcomed and let flourish. To enhance appreciation of the survival of this unique group, a brief account of early Christianity as well as Christian activities of the East and the West (European) also is given. All in all, the book is expected to enlighten the readers by the information and opinions given herein. Molly K. Varghese author

Christians form the third largest religious community in India. How has this come about? There are many studies of separate groups: but there has so far been no major history of the three large groups - Roman Catholic, Protestant and Thomas Christians (Syrians). This work attempts to meet the need for such a history. It goes right back to the beginning and traces the story through the ups and downs of at least fifteen centuries. It includes careful studies of the political and social background and of the non-Christian reactions to the Christian message. The narration is non-technical and should present few difficulties to the thoughtful reader; the more technical matters are dealt with in notes and appendices. This book will be of interest to all students of Church History and will also prove fascinating to many who are concerned with the development of Christianity as a world religion and in the dialogue between different forms of faith.

This book is one of the first research studies on Western Rite Orthodox communities of Oriental Orthodox Churches, with emphasis and special reference to the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Indian Orthodox Malankara Church. Two Western Rites, the Independent Catholic Church of Ceylon, Goa and India and the Christian (Old Orthodox) Catholic Rite Church of America was constituted with the blessings and permission of Moran Mor Ignatius Peter IV (III) - Patriarch of Antioch and All East. These communities came into existence as a result of the great missionary vision of Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV (III) and the Prelates of Malankara. The book is a journey through the great missionary efforts of Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV (III), Malankara Metropolitan Pulikkottil Mar Joseph Dionysius II, Metropolitan Alvares Mar Julius, Archbishop Rene Vilatte Mar Timotheus I, Dr. Lisboa Pinto, St. Gregorious of Parumala and other great leaders of Syriac and Malankara Churches.

The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities investigates music's role in everyday practice and social history across the diversity of Christian religions and practices around the globe. The volume explores Christian communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia as sites of transmission, transformation, and creation of deeply diverse musical traditions. The book's contributors, while mostly rooted in ethnomusicology, examine Christianities and their musics in methodologically diverse ways, engaging with musical sound and structure, musical and social history, and ethnography of music and musical performance. These broad materials explore five themes: music and missions, music and religious utopias (and other oppositional religious communities), music and conflict, music and transnational flows, and music and everyday life. The volume as a whole, then, approaches Christian groups and their musics as diverse and powerful windows into the way in which music, religious ideas, capital, and power circulate (and change) between places, now and historically. It also tries to take account of the religious self-understandings of these groups, presenting Christian musical practice and exchange as encompassing and negotiating deeply felt and deeply rooted moral and cultural values. Given that the centerpiece of the volume is Christian religious musical practice, the volume reveals the active role music plays in maintaining and changing religious, moral, and cultural values in a long history of intercultural and transnational encounters.

Drawing together international and Indian sources, and new research on the ground in South India, this book presents a unique examination of the inculturation of Christian Worship in India. Paul M. Collins examines the imperatives underlying the processes of inculturation - the dynamic relationship between the Christian message and cultures - and then explores the outcomes of those processes in terms of architecture, liturgy and ritual, and the critique offered of these outcomes, especially by Dalit theologians. This book highlights how the Indian context has informed global discussions, and how the decisions of the World Council of Churches, Vatican II and Lambeth Conferences have impacted upon the Indian context.

This book covers the history of the Syrian church of India from its founding by the apostle Thomas in 52 A.D., until the first half of the 20th century. During which, the author explains the various obstacles the Indian Church faced in therms of theology and colonialism. The several delegations of the Apostolic See of Antioch to India from the 17th to the 20th centuries form an indispensable account of the vicissitudes of a struggling native Indian Church trying to preserve its Antiochene identity.