A Matter of Belief
A Matter of Belief

Author: Vibha Joshi

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0857456733

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‘Nagaland for Christ’ and ‘Jesus Saves’ are familiar slogans prominently displayed on public transport and celebratory banners in Nagaland, north-east India. They express an idealization of Christian homogeneity that belies the underlying tensions and negotiations between Christian and non-Christian Naga. This religious division is intertwined with that of healing beliefs and practices, both animistic and biomedical. This study focuses on the particular experiences of the Angami Naga, one of the many Naga peoples. Like other Naga, they are citizens of the state of India but extend ethnolinguistically into Tibeto-Burman south-east Asia. This ambiguity and how it affects their Christianity, global involvement, indigenous cultural assertiveness and nationalist struggle is explored. Not simply describing continuity through change, this study reveals the alternating Christian and non-Christian streams of discourse, one masking the other but at different times and in different guises.

Christianity in Northeast India
Christianity in Northeast India

Author: Chongpongmeren Jamir

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781032400099

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This book examines the distinctive formation of Christianity in Nagaland, Northeast India, since 1947. It argues that an understanding of the history of Christianity in the region can be found in its cultural milieu and the changing political, social and religious environment. In Nagaland, almost 90 per cent of the population are Christians. This book shows that segmentation as a cultural characteristic of Naga society inspired both unity and divisiveness in the Naga churches, which subsequently shaped the beliefs and practices of the churches in the region. Using the methodology of cultural history, the author examines ecclesiastical events and suggests that the history of Christianity should be examined in the light of its interaction with its cultural context rather than as an isolated phenomenon. The book demonstrates that the ethnic status which the Christian faith assumed, the extent of its identification with the local culture, and the scope of the mission of the Naga churches as key stakeholders in society, offers a new angle on the history of Christianity in India. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, particularly those concerned with Northeast India and Christian history, historiography, cultural history, history of Christianity in India and faith-culture interface, religious studies, history and South Asian Studies.

Asian and Pentecostal
Asian and Pentecostal

Author: Allan Anderson

Publisher: Wipf and Stock

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781610979177

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This is a collection of essays on Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in Asia, a neglected but vitally important area of Christian studies. The many and various forms of Asian Pentecostalism certainly represent a truly remarkable expression of Christianity that will be with us for a long time to come, and we ignore this at our peril. This book presents Charismatic face of Christianity that is becoming its most prominent expression. The voices of these mostly Asian scholars are an important contribution to our understanding of Pentecostalism in Asia, they will open to the academic world new vistas in research and orientation, and they will set parameters for the future study of Christianity in the World's largest and most diverse continent. The book begins with thematic studies on Asian Charismatic Christianity, and then deals with the phenomenon in nine countries in three different regions, South Asia, South East Asia and East Asia, followed by conclusions. This is an important contribution to our understanding of global Christianity that should not be missed.

Christianity and Politics in Tribal India
Christianity and Politics in Tribal India

Author: G. Kanato Chophy

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1438485832

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Through an ethnohistorical study of the Nagas—a congeries of tribes inhabiting the Indo-Myanmar frontier—this book explores an unusually interesting region of India that is all too often seen as peripheral. G. Kanato Chophy provides a distinct vantage point for understanding the Nagas in relation to colonialism, missionary encounters, identity politics, and cultural change, all seamlessly woven around American Baptist mission history in this region. The book also analyses India's cacophonous postindependence democracy in order to delineate multifaith issues, multiculturalism, and ethnicity-based political movements. Within the West, episodic memories of the "Great Awakening," a significant landmark in the history of Protestantism, have faded into archival records. But among the Nagas of the Indo-Myanmar highlands, Baptist Christianity persists as the dominant religion, influencing the daily lives of nearly three million people. Focusing variously on evangelical faith, missionary zeal, ethnic identities, political struggle, and complex culture wars, Christianity and Politics in Tribal India is an original and major study of how Protestant missions changed the history and destiny of a tribal community in one of the unlikeliest regions of South Asia.

Christianity in India
Christianity in India

Author: Leonard Fernando (s.j.)

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780670057696

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"Written by two of the country's foremost theologians, Christianity in India traces the fascinating history of each of these communities, and describes the role of Christians in education, social services, multilingual publishing and the freedom struggle. The authors explain to non-Christians the tenets and rituals that bind the faithful, whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox - prayer, the Sunday service, baptism and marriage, the role of Jesus in daily life, Christians' understanding of other faiths - and examine the controversial issues of caste within Christianity and conversions from other faiths."--BOOK JACKET.

Constructing the Divine
Constructing the Divine

Author: G. Kanato Chophy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-01-14

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 042953731X

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From being characterized as ‘primitive tribe’ in the colonial imagination to become predominantly practitioners of the American Baptist faith, the Sumi Naga – formerly known as the Sema Naga – in the North-East Indian state of Nagaland have come a long way ever since this Naga tribe encountered the white man toward the latter half of the nineteenth century. This book in a way chronicles the transition of Sumi society from the period of colonial contact up to the present-day context. A critical understanding of Sumi society and culture is at the heart of the narrative, and the analysis of Sumi religion and world view remains the main thrust of this book. It is argued that the Sumi, who are overwhelmingly Baptists, are faced with new religious issues which has brought about not only schismatic divisions but also rendering ebullience to religious life, and that a new discourse has emerged in Sumi religion. The author positions himself as an ‘insider’, and in doing so has given a reflexive account of Sumi religious life, meanwhile substantiating the arguments and findings in the light of contemporary theoretical developments. The volume brings out compelling evidence that religion significantly shapes the daily life of the Sumi. It offers a detailed ethnographic study of Sumi religion and world view, as the Sumi Naga was seldom studied in-depth in the post-Independence period. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Christianity in Northeast India
Christianity in Northeast India

Author: Chongpongmeren Jamir

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-22

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1000057380

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This book examines the distinctive formation of Christianity in Nagaland, Northeast India, since 1947. It argues that an understanding of the history of Christianity in the region can be found in its cultural milieu and the changing political, social and religious environment. In Nagaland, almost 90 per cent of the population are Christians. This book shows that segmentation as a cultural characteristic of Naga society inspired both unity and divisiveness in the Naga churches, which subsequently shaped the beliefs and practices of the churches in the region. Using the methodology of cultural history, the author examines ecclesiastical events and suggests that the history of Christianity should be examined in the light of its interaction with its cultural context rather than as an isolated phenomenon. The book demonstrates that the ethnic status which the Christian faith assumed, the extent of its identification with the local culture, and the scope of the mission of the Naga churches as key stakeholders in society, offers a new angle on the history of Christianity in India. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, particularly those concerned with Northeast India and Christian history, historiography, cultural history, history of Christianity in India and faith–culture interface, religious studies, history and South Asian Studies.