Sunteți pe pagina 1din 5

THE ERAS OF MISSIONS HISTORY IN INDIA SAIACS, Bangalore July 20, 2002 Resource Person: Rev.

Atul Aghamkar, PhD Before we begin our lesson this evening, let me take this time to congratulate you for being in this Perspective Course. This is a very useful course that has been widely used throughout the world. I am personally impressed with your desire to get trained in the area of missions. Although all of you are working in secular fields, your interest in getting equipped for the mission and ministry is praiseworthy. Let me make a statement here: Great works of accomplished by great people, rather they are people, who become great because of what they God. I am convinced that even from among you accomplish great works in days to come. God are not necessarily accomplished by common attempted to do for God can

History of the Church and Missions tells that great movements of God were not necessarily initiated by the established structures but often they were started on the periphery of the established structures. For example, William Cary, John Wesley, even in India, FMPB etc. God's common people have great potential to be used by God. I see so much of potential in you and among you and trust that as a result of this training, you will become a dynamic force in missions in India. My prayer is that some of you would initiate great works of God in days to come. Therefore, I am honored to be available to give you my input during this evening hours. Although I am assinged to speak on Eras of Mission History, I am also told to focus on Eras of Mission in Indian Mission History. Learning from the History of Missions: History of Christianity is the interpreted record of the origin, progress and impact of Christianity upon human society, based upon organized data gathered by scientific method from archeological, documentary or living sources. It is the interpreted, organized story of the redemption of man and and the earth. While the original events can never be altered these can be interpreted to give definite meaning. The interpretation depends on the available sources and the theological orientation of the interpreter. The sources of Christian history are reliable because the primary sources are mostly contemporary to the events these describe. The originators of these sources wrote basing on their own experiences, and on the information of eye witnesses. Our aim is to see how God works in the world and how human beings respond to God's work of salvation. God works through people as well as nature, and therefore it is a study of God's instrument in history-his people. It is a study of what God did through and by his

people, and how people responded to this work. the impact that God's work had upon the world.

It is also a study of

History is not learning dates and names without connection with their over all content. Names and dates are aids to the minds to see things in chronological order and place events in their historical contexts. History is mainly a study of people and of groups and societies which they have formed. It is a study of what they have thought, felt, said and done. A study of the history of Christianity therefore, is the study of the lives and doings of Christians of past generations. It is a thoroughly human subject and one which, if rightly approached, is of great interest and value to Christians today. We can profit from the study of church history in three ways. First it helps us to understand the Christianity of today. No one can properly understand the present without a knowledge of the past. This is a truth we acknowledge in normal life situations. Without the knowledge of historical background and context, we cannot properly understand one another. It is also true of churches. Second, history warns us of dangers and can guide us to the better paths to follow. As we read dangers, failures and errors into which many individuals, movements and churches have fallen in their attempt to follow and serve Jesus Christ and articulate his teachings, we are warned of the possible dangers and pitfalls that may face us when we try to follow and serve Jesus and articulate his teachings. We will find, as we study the history of Christianity deeper. Third, it inspires and encourages us as we learn of the great followers of Jesus Christ in the past. History abounds with inspiring and encouraging illustrations for our personal edification as well as our preaching and teaching. A knowledge of the history of Christianity will not solve all the problems today. But it surely helps us to understand the present movements among Christians today, it warns us of dangers, it guides us to follow better ways and it inspires us through saintly lives and victories movements. (F. Hrangkhuma, An Introduction to Church History. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1996., pp. v,vi).

Christianity In India

It was one of the early eastward movements that first brought Christianity to India. According to tradition it was brought in the first century by one of the twelve apostles, St. Thomas. This has been the constant tradition of the Syrian Christians of Malabar, and it has been widely believed in the West also that this apostle's sphere of work was in India. At the St. Thomas Day celebration in New Delhi on 18 December 1955, Dr. Ranjendra Prasad, the President of India, made the following observation in his speech: "Remember, St. Thomas came to India when many of the countries of Europe had not yet become Christian, and so those Indians who trace their Christianity to him have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries. And it is really a matter of pride to us that it so happened. (M.A. Mundandan. History of Christianity in India Vol. I, Bangalore: Church History Association of India, 1989, p.1).

Psandit Jawaharlal Nehru also said that "Christianity in India is as old as Christianity itself. There is reliable evidence of Christian presence in south India from the third century A.D. South Indian Christian traditions suggest that the Apostle Thomas (one of the chosen twelve who followed Jesus) visited India and it is possible that true history lies behind this tradition. Details of the tradition include his date (52 A. D.) and place of arrival (Cranganore [Kodungallur]) and various details of his death by martyrdom in Mylapore (now a part of the modern city of Chennai [Madras]). The story of the coming of Christianity in India cannot start in any place other than the opening chapters of the Acts of Thomas. Written in Syriac and Greek. The section that deals with the coming of Thomas to India reports that when the apostles were together in Jerusalem and divided the world among them, the lot to go to Indian fell to Thomas, who in Syriac sources along is called Judas Thomas. He refused saying, "Iam a Hebrew man; how can I go among the Indians and preach the truth? In spite of his refusal Thomas finds himself constrained to go to India. On arrival, he is brought before King Gundaphorus. He was first sent to Mylapore (Mayilapuri), a place on the Coromandel coast just south of Madras. After this he itinerated in Malabar for thirty years; and, having gone to preach the Gospel in the Pandi (Tamil)country, on the way as he went an Embran Brahman)casting a dart smote him, and he was buried in the little mount of Mylapore. Thomas the apostle having spent the greater part of his time in India in Kerala and there to have had great success in his mission. Of the seven churches he is said to have founded, all with one exception are to be found not far from the coast and in the area in which to this day Christians form a large part of the population.

Syrian Christians:
Christianity was strengthened in India by the coming of two major migrations of Syrian Christians. The first was in 345 AD under the leadership of Thomas of Cana when three to four hundred Christian families migrated to Kerala, probably with a group of pries. The second migration took place in 833 AD. Those Christians seem to have been merchants from Mesopotamia. In the course of time they almost monopolized the pepper trade and were recognized as prosperous respectable part of society. The Indian Christianity was strengthened by the Syrian connection but was weakened by their foreign dominance. They received their bishops and priests from Mesopotamia. Indian Christians lived in two worlds. Socially, they lived alongside Hindu neighbors. Ecclesiastically, they were Syrian, receiving bishops from Mesopotamia, using the Syriac language for worship, and following Syrian theology. They made little attempt to Christianize their non-Christian neighbors. There were other small Christian groups during this period in Goa, Chaul, Thana, Sopara, Gujarat, and Sind on the western coast; Mylapore on the eastern coast.

These were believed to exist in 800 AD. By the time the Portuguese came to India, the Syrian Christian numbered about 30,000 families.

Indian Christianity during the Moghul Period 1500-1700.

The Latin (Roman) mission to India began towards the end of the 13th century. It was Jordan Catalini of Severac who actually founded the Latin Mission in India around the area of Thana and Sopara (Near Bombay) But Jordan was stoned to death by Muslims in Thana in 1336. At the approach of the 16th century, two events permanently changed the face of Indian history, the coming of the Portuguese and the beginning of the Moghul rule in India. The Portuguese monopolized the European trade during the 16th century. But in the 17th century other European companies such as the Dutch, the Danes, the English and the French increasingly reduced the power of the Portuguese. Only the Portuguese took keen interest and played an active role in Christian missions. Seeing the Portuguese kings' deep interest in spreading the Catholic faith, the Pope entrusted them with the task of evangelizing the contacted countries. This they called the Padroado System. Several religious orders ministered during this period, such as the Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians and later, Carmelites, etc. The Portuguese and the Syrian Christians were delighted to discover each other as Christians. During the century that followed, the Roman Catholics attempted to absorb the Syrian Church. And in 1599, under the leadership of Aleixo Menezes, at which time the entire body of Syrian Christians came under the Roman Catholics. But the Syrian Church revolted in 1653 in what is called Coonen Cross incident when a number of priests declared their independence and carried nearly a third of the church back with them to become an independent entity and to continue the Syrian tradition out of which came the mar Thoma Syrian Church in 1879. This period witnessed evangelistic efforts among the non Christians in various places such as Goa, Bassein, Bardes, most of the western coasts from the Calicut to Cape Comorin, Nagappattanam, Fishery coast, Madurai, Myusore, Benagal, Diu and Daman, the Moghul Courts, Surat, Madras and Pondicherry. One of the greatest missionaries of the era, Francis Xavier SJ, arrived in Goa in 1542. When he heard that the entire Parava Caste in southeast India had become Christians but were left without proper spiritual care, he went there and ministered fro three years, laying the foundations of Christian education and worship. By the end of the century, the Paravas had been formed into groups in sixteen villages, each under the care and authority of a resident Jesuit. Due to the interest shown in all religions by Akbar the Great, the first mission arrived at his court in Agra in 1550. The mission continued until 1803. Very few were converted. Another notable missionary of the period was Robert de Nobili who came to India in 1606 and died in 1656. He carried out an experiment of compete identification with the high caste Hindus and the Indian situation.

At the end of the period, Indian Christians numbered between 700,000 to 750,000. Missionaries normally Marco Polo, who was there in 1293, asserts without hesitation, that 'the body of Messer St. Thomas the Apostle lies in the province of Malabar at a certain little town having no great population. .. Both Christians and Saracens also do hold the Saint in great reverence. It appears that that , about the year AD 800 Christians were a well established community in Kerala, though limited both in numbers and in the range of their operations, and still retaining some of a foreign impress though already long resident in India. When, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese began their exploration of the Indian world, it was not long before they encountered this fluorinating Christian community, prosperous and strong enough to exercise some influence on the affairs of the area in which it was settled. What had been happening to these Christian communities in the seven centuries which had elapsed between the period of earlier evidences and the beginning of the modern world? Then in the 12th and thirteen centuries, Nestorian Christians were found on the western coast of India. These must have been either Nestorian traders or converts made by the Nestorian Christians who were fleeing persecution. (C. B. Firth,An Introduction to the Indian Church History. Madras: CLS 1961)

S-ar putea să vă placă și