Conversion has played a central role in the history of Christianity. In this first in-depth and wide-ranging narrative history, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming). However, when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest. No single, unitary paradigm defines conversion and no easily explicable process accounts for why people convert to Christianity. Rather, a multiplicity of factors-historical, personal, social, geographical, theological, psychological, and cultural-shape the converting process. A History of Christian Conversion not only narrates the conversions of select individuals and peoples, it also engages current theories and models to explain conversion, and examines recurring themes in the conversion process: divine presence, gender and the body, agency and motivation, testimony and memory, group- and self-identity, "authentic" and "nominal" conversion, and modes of communication. Accessible to scholars, students, and those with a general interest in conversion, Kling's book is the most satisfying and comprehensive account of conversion in Christian history to date; this major work will become a standard must-read in conversion studies.
A second generation of emerging Dalit theology texts is re-shaping the way we think of Indian theology and liberation theology. This book is a vital part of that conversation. Taking post-colonial criticism to its logical end of criticism of statism, Keith Hebden looks at the way the emergence of India as a nation state shapes political and religious ideas. He takes a critical look at these Gods of the modern age and asks how Christians from marginalised communities might resist the temptation to be co-opted into the statist ideologies and competition for power. He does this by drawing on historical trends, Christian anarchist voices, and the religious experiences of indigenous Indians. Hebden's ability to bring together such different and challenging perspectives opens up radical new thinking in Dalit theology, inviting the Indian Church to resist the Hindu fundamentalists labelling of the Church as foreign by embracing and celebrating the anarchic foreignness of a Dalit Christian future.
There are over two-hundred million Dalits– people designated as "untouchable" – across South Asia. Dalit women are subject to greater oppression than men: many are denied access to education, meaningful employment and healthcare and are subjected to temple prostitution and rape. A Cry for Dignity explores the lives of Dalit women and the violence they face and examines whether their spirituality – manifest in songs, stories and myth – is a source of strength or oppression. The lives of Dalit women on the subcontinent are set within the broader context of Dalits in the diaspora. A Cry for Dignity presents the plight of Dalit women from the unique perspective of their own movements for solidarity and justice.
“This is a powerful and exciting work. Mosse has produced a work of scholarship that is lively and readable without any loss of subtlety and sophistication. It is a ground-breaking study, of critical importance to the ways we understand religious nationalism and the anthropology of postcolonial experience.”—Susan Bayly, author of Asian Voices in a Postcolonial Age
Stephen Neill (1900-1984) was a towering figure of twentieth-century global Christianity, but was in many ways a broken man who faced profound and crippling struggles. A Worldly Christian charts the extraordinary but often tragic life of a global Christian pioneer par excellence in a church that diversified dramatically during his lifetime. Privileged to live in radically different cultural contexts over the course of his life, Neill excelled by turns as a missionary and bishop in India, an ecumenist in Geneva, a professor in Hamburg and Nairobi, and a prolific author of some seventy books and hundreds of articles upon his retirement to the UK. Throughout this varied career, he shared his tremendous knowledge of the world Christian movement with scholars, clergy and laypersons alike. Many will find his story compelling, from Christian scholars to all those who have cherished his influential body of work and benefit from his legacy.
Weaving together the varied and complex strands of anti-colonial nationalism into one compact narrative, Christhu Doss takes an incisive look at the deeper and wider historical process of decolonization in India. In India after the 1857 Revolt, Doss brings together some of the most cutting-edge thoughts by challenging the cultural project of colonialism and critically examining the multi-dimensional aspects of decolonization during and after the 1857 revolt. He demonstrates that the deep-rooted popular discontent among the Indian masses followed by the revolt generated a distinctive form of decolonization movement—redemptive nationalism that challenged both the supremacy of the British Raj and the cultural imperatives of the controversial proselytizing missionary agencies. Doss argues that the quests for decolonization (of mind) that got triggered by the revolt were further intensified by the Indocentric national education; the historic Chicago discourse of Swami Vivekananda; the nonviolent anti-colonial struggles of Mahatma Gandhi; the seditious political activism displayed by the Western Gandhian missionary satyagrahis; and the de-Westernization endeavours of the sandwiched Indian Christian nationalists. A compelling read for historians, political scientists and sociologists, it is refreshingly an indispensable guide to all those who are interested in anticolonial struggles and decolonization movements worldwide.
This book probes into the marginalized communities of the Indian society through historical and contemporary societal perspectives. It discusses socio-cultural aspects of the experiences of Scheduled Castes, Dalits, Scheduled Tribes/tribal communities, Other Backward Classes, linguistic minorities, religious minorities and the queer/LGBT as sexual minorities. Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach, it looks at all these segments of Indian society through historical and societal perspectives. Divided into three broad sections – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and minorities, this book provides historical perspective backed by the contemporary situation and emerging social changes among these communities. Written in a lucid manner, the book aims to reach and impact readers without having any prior academic exposure to this subject area. This book would be useful to the students, researchers and teachers of sociology, social work, history, economics, political science, and other interdisciplinary courses in social sciences. The book will also be valuable reading for those interested in South Asian studies, especially contemporary Indian society.