Ethnic Church Meets Megachurch

Indian American Christianity in Motion

Prema A. Kurien

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781479865727
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Traces the religious adaptation of members of an important Indian Christian church– the Mar Thoma denomination – as they make their way in the United States. This book exposes how a new paradigm of ethnicity and religion, and the megachurch phenomenon, is shaping contemporary immigrant religious institutions, specifically Indian American Christianity. Kurien draws on multi-site research in the US and India to provide a global perspective on religion by demonstrating the variety of ways that transnational processes affect religious organizations and the lives of members, both in the place of destination and of origin. The widespread prevalence of megachurches and the dominance of American evangelicalism created an environment in which the traditional practices of the ancient South Indian Mar Thoma denomination seemed alien to its American-born generation. Many of the young adults left to attend evangelical megachurches. Kurien examines the pressures church members face to incorporate contemporary American evangelical worship styles into their practice, including an emphasis on an individualistic faith, and praise and worship services, often at the expense of maintaining the ethnic character and support system of their religious community. Kurien’s sophisticated analysis also demonstrates how the forces of globalization, from the period of colonialism to contemporary out-migration, have brought about tremendous changes among Christian communities in the Global South. Wide in scope, this book is a must read for an audience interested in the study of global religions and cultures.

1

Syrian Christian Encounters with Colonial Missionaries and Indian Nationalism

On May 20, 1498 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, leading an expedition of four small ships, landed in Calicut, a port city in Kerala. Although the aim of the Portuguese expedition was to discover a new sea route to spice centers in India, da Gama was also in search of Kerala Christians, whom the Portuguese had heard about (Subrahmanyam 1998). Dom Manuel, the Portuguese king who had sponsored da Gama, apparently had big plans for Christians to regain their position in the Middle East and wrest control over spice routes from Muslims, and wanted Christian allies to achieve these goals. The religious zeal of the Portuguese monarch and the welding together of commercial and religious goals meant that Portuguese explorers and traders viewed proselytization in areas where they settled to be a “governmental and national responsibility” Brown (1956, 12). Vasco da Gama met the zamorin (king) of Calicut during this trip, but it is unclear whether he actually met any Kerala Christians, since he seems to have mistaken a temple to a Hindu goddess for “primitive” Christian worship of the Virgin Mary (Subrahmanyam 1998, 131–132). By Vasco da Gama’s second visit to Kerala in 1502, this time with twenty ships, Kerala Syrian Christians, locally known as Saint Thomas Christians, had heard about da Gama and his claim that his king “was one of the most . . . powerful kings of Christendom” (Schurhammer 1934, 9). Consequently they sent representatives to meet him, submitted themselves to the king of Portugal, and asked for his protection from the local Muslims and Hindus. As a token of their submission, they gave da Gama a “staff of authority . . . a red-coloured stick decorated with silver, with three silver bells on top” (Brown 1956, 13). They told him that the staff had belonged to a former Saint Thomas Christian king of Kerala.1 The Portuguese were only too happy to take the local Christians under their charge, since all territory they conquered came under the control of the king of Portugal. This control also meant that the Portuguese expected that any Christians they encountered or converted would come under the dominion of the pope, something that the Kerala Syrian Christians did not understand when they submitted to the Portuguese (Williams 1996, 59).

In the early period, when the Portuguese were establishing themselves as an economic and political force in Kerala, the Saint Thomas Christians and the Portuguese saw themselves as Christian allies. A letter written in 1504 by some Kerala Syrian Christian bishops to their patriarch in Mesopotamia, describes the Portuguese as their Christian “brethren.” This feeling was clearly not just one-sided, since the same letter describes how they were warmly welcomed by the Portuguese, given gold and beautiful vestments, and asked to celebrate mass according to Syrian Christian traditions after the Portuguese priest had finished his mass. The letter indicates that the Portuguese found the Syrian Christian religious rite “pleasing” (Schurhammer 1934, 7). Early Portuguese administrators of the two fort cities they had captured in Kerala made treaties with local monarchs that included favors for local Christians, such as rebuilding their Saint Thomas churches and restoring their ancient privileges (Brown 1956, 19).

However, religious developments in Europe soon affected the warm relationship between the Portuguese and the Saint Thomas Christians. The Reformation had begun in the early sixteenth century in Europe, and by the late 1520s the Protestants had broken away from the Catholic Church. The Counter-Reformation, or the reform of Catholicism in reaction to the Reformation, began with the Council of Trent, in 1545–1563. In 1560, the Portuguese launched the Inquisition in Goa, to the north of Kerala. The determination to eradicate heresy, which was the defining characteristic of the Council of Trent and of the Inquisition, also came to impact the Saint Thomas Christians as Portuguese missionaries and religious functionaries worked to rid the group of Hindu influences and Nestorian ideas, which they were believed to have imbibed from their East Syrian connection, and to bring them under the Church of Rome.2

A little over one hundred years after Vasco da Gama first landed in Kerala, the East India Company (EIC) was formed in Britain in 1600 to establish a trading base in India. However, religion and commercial interests were not intertwined with the EIC as in the case of the Portuguese traders. In fact, the view of Christian evangelicals in Britain was that the EIC was “hostile to Christian Missions” through the entire period of its history from 1600 until 1858, when it was dissolved and India came directly under the Crown (Stock 1899, 51). The only role for religion within the EIC was the appointment of chaplains to look after the spiritual needs of the employees of the East India Company in India. These chaplains were expressly instructed not to undertake missionary activity among the Indian people (Davidson 1990, 30). Apparently the Company was afraid that missionaries would alienate the natives and consequently hurt their trading prospects (Stock 1899; Buchanan 1819, 268–271).

In the meantime, England (together with Europe and North America) saw a religious revival in the eighteenth century. The Evangelical movement arose, characterized by a nondenominational, antiritualistic, gospel-oriented Christianity with an emphasis on a personal experience of Christ, inward piety, and evangelism (Bebbington 1989, 5–10; Shenk 2009). The British Evangelical view of ancient churches was diametrically different from that of the Portuguese Roman Catholics. The Evangelicals viewed as “pure and primitive” all the ancient episcopal churches that rejected the supremacy of the pope (P. Cheriyan 1935, 116). They looked back to the primitive church for guidance, since their view was that “the nearer we approach the ancient Church the better” (Stock 1899, 63). Consequently, their aim was to help to “revive” the Eastern Orthodox churches to their primitive purity and vitality, and purge them of all Roman Catholic influences. They believed that “the Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, and Abyssinian Churches, though in many points far gone from the simplicity and purity of the truth . . . possess within themselves the principle and the means of reformation” (Stock 1899, 227, citing the Church Missionary Society’s Missionary Register 1829, 407). But the British Evangelicals realized that these churches did not even have printed copies of the Bible and that most people did not understand the ecclesiastical languages. Consequently, their efforts became focused on providing these ancient churches with translations of the Bible in the vernacular.

The British Evangelicals began a movement to change the charter of the EIC to establish an Anglican Church in India and to allow the church to conduct missionary work. An attempt by the evangelical forces to change the EIC charter in 1793 when it came up for renewal was defeated; William Wilberforce, the Christian leader, lamented, “all my clauses were struck out last night, and our territories in Hindostan, twenty millions of people included, are . . . committed to the providential protection, of—Brama [Brahma, a major Hindu deity]” (Stock 1899, 55). This attempt actually led the company to tighten its regulations against allowing missionaries into India (Stock 1899, 95–96). The Evangelicals of the Church of England thereupon formed the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in London in 1799. In 1812, when the charter again came up for renewal, they were finally successful, and “England prepared to pour into India the civilization, the Christianity, and the science of the West” (from Expansion of England, 310, quoted in Stock 1899, 104). In 1813 the British resident in Travancore, Kerala, Colonel John Munro, initiated the process to establish an Anglican seminary for Syrian Christians and in 1816 the CMS sent its first two missionaries to Kerala, Thomas Norton and Benjamin Bailey. Two more missionaries, Henry Baker and Joseph Fenn, followed in 1818. The missionaries were given strict instructions by the CMS Committee:

[Not] to pull down the ancient Church and build another, but to remove the rubbish and repair the decaying places. The Syrians should be brought back to their own ancient and primitive worship and discipline rather than be induced to adopt the liturgy and discipline of the English Church, and should any considerations induce them to wish such a measure, it would be highly expedient to dissuade them from adopting it . . . for the preservation of their individuality and entireness, and greater consequent weight and usefulness as a Church.” (cited in Stock 1899, 233)

In short, the Portuguese and the British Christians had very different understandings of Christianity, which in turn affected their interactions with the Syrian Christians in Kerala. Whereas the Portuguese “traced all the evils of the Syrians to their isolation from Rome . . . English Protestants, on the other hand, considered that if only the Roman elements which had been introduced by the Synod of Diamper could be eliminated, and the Syrian Church could return to her ancient canons, there would be a glorious exhibition of primitive purity in doctrine and worship” (Rae 1892, 283). Portuguese and British traders also differed in their views on how trade and missionary activity should be related. Since the Portuguese traders were sponsored by the monarch, they were agents of the padroado. The East India Company on the other hand was a private company that was given monopoly privileges on all trade with the East and consequently viewed any actions that might interfere with its ability to make a profit to be a hindrance to its mission. Both groups of colonial missionaries would bring about profound changes in the Saint Thomas Christian church in Kerala.

Colonial Missionary Encounters and Their Impact

There is a large literature on colonial Christian missionary encounters between Western and non-Western groups, examining how these “extended conversations” shaped the self-understandings and practices of religion on both sides (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 1997; Keane 2007; Tomlinson 2009; Keller 2005; Robbins 2004).3 As we will see, the two Western Christian groups encountered by Saint Thomas Syrians—the Portuguese and the British—operated with very different models of Christianity. The three Christian groups consequently disagreed with one another on what constituted the core elements of the faith that needed to be preserved. We see the workings of colonial power, as also some of the factors leading to conversion and to syncretism, or the borrowing or blending of ideas and practices from a variety of traditions, among Syrian Christians as a result of their encounters with the Portuguese and the British.

There is a vigorous debate regarding how and why the colonized adopt new religious ideas and practices. Some of this literature, especially studies that focus on group conversions, adopts a utilitarian perspective and emphasizes economic, social, or political motivations (Bayly 1989; Oddie 2000). Other literature uses Gramscian notions of hegemony or Foucauldian conceptions of micropower to discuss colonial conversion as the outcome of a process of internalizing dominant ideas, and to frame resistance and hybridity (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 1997; Copland 2007). As we will see, Syrian Christian conversions to various types of Christianity do not fit neatly into any of these perspectives.

Syncretism is a contentious and disputed term within the study of religion, since it either suggests that there was a “pure” essence that was then sullied, or is tautological since all religions are syncretic. Some of the literature discusses the importance of power in the study of syncretism, but even here there is a disagreement about whether syncretism is an outcome of an attempt to integrate with a dominant group or is a manifestation of resistance to assimilatory pressures (Apter 1991). Or is it antisyncretism that is an indicator of resistance and the attempt to protect religious boundaries (Shaw and Stewart 1994)? Charles Stewart (2005, 265) points out that European missionaries active during the process of colonialism used syncretism as a “term of abuse” against non-Western churches that indigenized Christianity. Both the Portuguese and the British missionaries tried to purify or purge Syrian Christianity in Kerala of what they considered to be “heretical” elements, in order to bring it back to the “true religion.” In the case of the Portuguese, these elements were the “Nestorian” heresies they believed the church had imbibed from its contact with the East Syrian church, as well as the local Hindu practices that were integrated with Christianity. The British, on the other hand, considered both Roman Catholic and Hindu customs as the “rubbish” that needed to be removed to revive the ancient church.

Different lenses on Christianity can also be seen in the approaches of the various authors, religious functionaries of a variety of Christian traditions, to the early history of Syrian Christians, before the coming of the Portuguese. Many of the Roman Catholic writers view Syrian Christians as having always hewed to the Catholic Roman faith (e.g., Schurhammer 1934, 33; Podipara 1973, 108–109). Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, argue that Syrian Christians had practiced the original Orthodox faith without any Roman influence (C. V. Cheriyan 1973, 144; Verghese 1973). Anglican commentators (Geddes 1694; Hough 1839) saw the Syrian Christian church as being very similar to the early Christian church, which they themselves used as a model. Similarly, key events of colonial history are interpreted through the religious frames of the various authors. Each Syrian Christian denomination has a slightly different narrative of many of these events, presenting their own religious and social leaders in the most favorable light and casting aspersions on the actions of the leaders of rival denominations.

In this chapter, I examine Syrian Christians’ understandings of Christianity and how these understandings were honed, but also readjusted, as they encountered new and powerful Christian groups, the Portuguese, and the British. I also focus on the encounter of Syrian Christians with Western evangelical doctrines which would lead the Mar Thoma group to break away and form a new Syrian Christian church, attempting to blend Orthodox and Reform elements together. Since there is no neutral perspective on the colonial and precolonial history of the Syrian Christians, I will endeavor to present this history largely from the perspective of the Mar Thoma tradition.

Syrian Christians in the Precolonial Period

The church in Kerala that traces its origins to Apostle Thomas is called the Malankara Syrian Christian church because Saint Thomas is believed to have landed in Malankara, in Kerala (Brown 1956, 52). Legend has it that he converted several Brahmin Malayali Hindus to Christianity. Although the historical evidence to support the visit of Apostle Thomas to Kerala is inconclusive, there are several local oral traditions as well as palm-leaf manuscripts in Kerala detailing the Apostle’s life and work in Kerala that have been carefully preserved to the present (Frykenberg 2008, 99–101; Brown 1956, 49–51). Robert Frykenberg (2008, 245), who has examined the oral traditions of the Syrian Christians, indicates that at the time of the arrival of Westerners in Kerala, Syrian Christian lineages “claiming direct descent from Brahmin converts of the Apostle, could be recited from memory for as many as seventy or more generations.” The upper-caste status of the converts is important to the identity and prestige of Syrian Christians. It is believed that Saint Thomas subsequently moved to the east coast, near present-day Chennai, and was martyred there on July 3, 72 C.E. According to the tradition, his body was moved from Mylapore, near Chennai, to be reburied in Edessa where Saint Thomas is believed to have founded a church (Moffett 1992, 46).

There is considerable evidence that Christians existed in the Kerala region in the early Christian centuries (Neill 1984, 36ff). Kerala’s long western coastline and strategic position at the center of the Indian Ocean, together with its tremendous natural wealth of spices, teak, and ivory, brought traders from the Middle East as early as the third millennium B.C.E. if not earlier. There was regular trade between the Persian Empire and the coast of Kerala, and Christianity, along with Islam and an ancient Jewish community, arrived in Kerala through this route. The five old Syrian crosses with inscriptions in Pahlavi (ancient Persian) that can still be seen in south India (four in Kerala and one near Chennai) provide evidence of the Middle Eastern provenance of early south Indian Christianity (Williams 1996, 55).

The arrival of other Christian groups from the Middle East in Kerala in the early decades of the Christian era, through maritime trading routes, strengthened the early Saint Thomas Christian community (Neill 1984). Kerala sources provide accounts of a migration of East Syrian Christians to northern Kerala in 345 C.E. led by a merchant, Thomas of Cana. According to the traditional account, the Metropolitan of Edessa had a dream about the difficulties experienced by the Christians in Kerala and sent Thomas with four hundred East Syrian Christians to help. Thomas and the others landed at the Kerala port Cranganore, and the ruler of the region is believed to have welcomed them and given them gifts of land and also bestowed social honors on them so that they had a social status equal to the Brahmin Christian converts who were already in Kerala at the time. These gifts were documented on copper plates. The original copper plates apparently disappeared “mysteriously” shortly after being shown to Alexis de Menezes, the Portuguese archbishop of Goa in 1599. However, copies of these plates have survived (Frykenberg 2008, 108).

The early Malankara Syrian Christians were known as Nazranis or Saint Thomas Christians. The East Syrian Patriarch in Persia periodically sent them bishops, whom they revered highly and honored as saints. In practice, however, it was the local archdeacons who were the “social and political leaders” of the community (C. V. Cheriyan 1973, 138). The Nazranis used the Eastern Syrian liturgy in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic. Since Aramaic was the native language of Jesus it was viewed as a “divine” language, and the Syriac liturgy was a source of great pride to the Saint Thomas Christians. Their Syriac liturgy may also have been a means of retaining a distinctive identity in a society where each of the major religious communities (Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian) had their own “sacred language” (Neill 1984, 38).

In the early centuries of the Christian era, the Christians increased in numbers through conversion and fresh migration. They were a prosperous group, and foreign trade was almost entirely in their hands. Historian Susan Bayly (1989, 249) also describes them as being an “elite warrior group.” In addition to the honors bestowed on the community in the fourth century, Kerala rulers conferred several high privileges on them in the eighth and ninth centuries as well, in return for economic and political support provided by the Christians (Ayyar 1926, 53; Narayan 1972, x). Five copper plates inscribed with these privileges are still preserved in the Mar Thoma institutions in Kottayam and Tiruvalla in Kerala (Juhanon Mar Thoma 1968, 100).

The Anglican bishop Leslie Brown, who lived in Kerala for around fourteen years in the early decades of the twentieth century and became principal of the ecumenical Kerala United Theological Seminary, has written a detailed account of the Saint Thomas Christians and describes them as a group that “lived in two worlds at the same time, but with no consciousness of tension between them or disharmony within themselves. They were Christians of Mesopotamia in faith and worship and ethic; they were Indians in all else” (Brown 1956, 3–4). In the highly caste-stratified society of ancient Kerala, valued new groups were incorporated into the society by being accorded an honored position within the caste system. Even Christians and Muslims were assimilated into the system as quasi-castes. Susan Bayly (1989, 250–251) gives several examples of the way in which the Nazranis were integrated “within the wider ‘Hindu’ society of the region—the term ‘integration’ being used here to convey a position of high status and acceptance within the region’s most prestigious social and religious institutions.” She points out that many of the Christian churches were endowed and protected by Hindu kings. Christian churches looked just like Hindu temples except that they had a cross on the roof. Nazrani rituals and rites in this period were very similar to those of Nayars, a high-caste group, ranking just below the Brahmins. Nazranis dressed like Nayars, except that they added some praying beads or a cross to a ribbon on their heads (Gouvea [1606] 2003, 250), their houses were built like the Nayar houses, and they practiced many of the life cycle rituals and ceremonials of the Nayars. Like the Hindus, the Malankara Syrian Christians had hereditary priests (following a line of descent from maternal uncle to nephew like the Nayars). Consequently, they were “accorded the same position [as Na...