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formation of several indigenous missionary organizations and churches. While many of the mainline churches in India maintained alliances with foreign churches even after independence, at least for some years, most Pentecostal organizations are of indigenous origin. The Indian origin of Pentecostal churches is the chief reason that prompted Hedlund to call them ‘expressions of nationalism in response to colonialism.’ 18 Since Pentecostalism in Rajasthan is an indigenous movement, it has been closely connected to nationalism. Although Pentecostals are accused of being followers of a foreign religion, they claim that they are real patriots trying to build the nation India. A study of the practices of Pentecostals in the state reveals that they are making several attempts towards nation building. They affirm that although they are only a minority, they are nation builders in every sense. In his sermons the Pentecostal leader Thomas Mathews frequently used the phrase ‘we are nation builders.’ This claim is demonstrated in their various activities. The use of the National Flag by Pentecostals is an example of this. Several Pentecostal churches in Rajasthan keep the national flag inside the church building, and they wave the flag during worship services, while they sing and praise God. Not only on Sunday, but during common gatherings, like Masih Mela (Christian Festival), they use the flag. 19 18 Hedlund, ‘Nationalism and the Indian,’ 91-107. In order to make his claim, he presents a case study of the IPCoG. According to him, the formation of IPCoG is an example of the national feeling of Pentecostalism against colonialism. 19 This practice is not to imitate American Pentecostals, who also have the flag in churches, but a deliberate attempt by Pentecostals to demonstrate their loyalty to the nation, as there remains an accusation from the time of British reign in India that Christians are not patriots. 174
Furthermore, Pentecostals in Rajasthan celebrate national days, such as Independence Day and the Republic Day, along with the rest of the nation. They hoist flags not only in their schools, but also on their seminary campuses and church premises. Prominent people like Bank Managers, Police Inspectors and Freedom Fighters from outside the community are invited as chief guests during such celebrations and are asked to address the people as well as to impart nationalist feelings to their audience. Patriotic songs with the meaning ‘we are patriots of our nation’ are sung in the Bible Colleges during such celebrations. Collective prayers for the peace of the nation are also said. There are articles on patriotism in Cross and Crown, the first Pentecostal periodical in Rajasthan, published from Udaipur, Rajasthan. 20 Such articles are published mainly during the Independence Day celebration. Pentecostals in Rajasthan are passionate about securing divine blessings for India, and they make special prayers to that effect. They pray for the rulers, from the President of the nation to the Sarpanch (chief leader of a village), and members are encouraged to fast and pray for the nation. They say that they are making such intensive and sincere prayers for the nation on the basis of Scripture. I Timothy 2:1-3, Jeremiah 29:7 and Romans 13:1-7 are the common scriptural passages used to support this, 21 and these verses are often read publicly. It is common practice in many Pentecostal churches for members to repeat slogans like ‘we bless India,’ ‘we love India,’ ‘God bless India’ and ‘God loves India’. After pronouncing these 20 See for example, Jaswant Rana, ‘Jeremiah as a True Patriot: A Model for Us,’ Cross and Crown (Aug- September 1996), 14-16. 21 This information is found in the file ‘Academic Session 1999-2000,’ File No. D15.e (Udaipur, India: FBC). 175
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A CONTEXTUAL MISSIOLOGY OF THE SPIR
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Abstract This thesis studies the id
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Acknowledgements My heart overflows
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Abbreviation AICC All India Christi
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3.2. Pentecostal Beginnings in Raja
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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Pentecostali
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imported movement from south India,
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Indian Pentecostal missionaries. Th
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the ‘impressive success’ of Pen
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Pentecostalism, there has been a gr
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cultural nationalism, religious int
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Penthecosthu Sabhakal 30 fall into
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the product of Pentecostal theology
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All the above studies have certain
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the global culture of Charismatic C
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Missiology is the academic discipli
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has a major role in the theological
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Figure 2 Pentecostal Presence in Ra
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elievers. They refer to the example
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This study essentially uses the ind
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helps to ‘create the bonds of mut
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Jorgensen, participant observation
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approach them personally. Twenty Pe
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esearch is concentrated on a few di
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meetings on eight occasions at all
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time keeping the necessary distance
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Chapter 2 HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND ID
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2.1.1. A Socio-Religious Issue Iden
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India, and so he suggests that both
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indigenous nature of Christianity i
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definition and the rich diversity o
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Dalit Pentecostalism 37 and chiefly
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There is a well-established ancient
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As A.C. George rightly comments, th
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involved in forming small cells wit
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many local languages before Penteco
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Kerala. In one way or the other, th
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2.3. The Origin of Pentecostalism i
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mission in 1908, came to India with
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Indian Pentecostalism. Many non-Pen
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the ‘Pentecostal-like movements
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Indian revivals, without the influe
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elationships between dominant group
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missionaries. As McGee rightly obse
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participated in the 1908 revival an
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2.3.3.2. North India The Sialkot (P
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civilizations, be taken as coming f
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trembling and falling down on the g
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aptism, within weeks he had to modi
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and personal religion.’ 170 Even
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However, the most important and und
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There were trans-cultural elements
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Chapter 3 PENTECOSTALISM IN RAJASTH
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the Rajputs kingdoms is not general
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The CMS and the Canadian Presbyteri
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3.1.2. Contemporary Christianity Th
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involved in non-church planting eva
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has been ignored by writers, thus m
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tongues. The Jiwas were working in
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Although Peter Lal began his preach
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the state, such as Jodhpur, Jaipur,
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CNI church met in the medical store
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ecame known as the Banaswara trio a
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meetings conducted by Philip and hi
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Marubhoomiyile Apostalan (The Apost
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conscious of the significance of be
Page 133 and 134: particularly those from Kerala, hav
Page 135 and 136: They have also launched a Bible Tra
Page 137 and 138: Twelve out of the eighteen Pentecos
Page 139 and 140: available for everyone, and the inv
Page 141 and 142: of Christianity is responsible for
Page 143 and 144: validated by an accreditation agenc
Page 145 and 146: served as executive council members
Page 147 and 148: example shown by a student from Cha
Page 149 and 150: David J. du Plessis is true of Raja
Page 151 and 152: chanka kiya’ (the Spirit has heal
Page 153 and 154: example is the recent acknowledgeme
Page 155 and 156: them and disqualify them from being
Page 157 and 158: perspective.’ 120 Pentecostal ins
Page 159 and 160: One of the most significant feature
Page 161 and 162: there are changes in the outline of
Page 163 and 164: However, as the churches started gr
Page 165 and 166: Although persecution placed Penteco
Page 167 and 168: there took place unusual spiritual
Page 169 and 170: e headed for extinction.’ 145 Thr
Page 171 and 172: this issue has changed. In the late
Page 173 and 174: gatherings. However, today they hav
Page 175 and 176: expressed his concern that not all
Page 177 and 178: Chapter 4 PENTECOSTALISM AND THE RE
Page 179 and 180: expression, belief, faith and worsh
Page 181 and 182: statutory Commission was constitute
Page 183: attempts have been made to explore
Page 187 and 188: minority and fundamental rights, se
Page 189 and 190: elonging to this land. The concept
Page 191 and 192: various dynamics related to the iss
Page 193 and 194: people will no longer be subject to
Page 195 and 196: enterprise in Asia.’ 43 Once the
Page 197 and 198: enterprises. The VHP had planned to
Page 199 and 200: occasions when they had to face opp
Page 201 and 202: claiming to be working for the glor
Page 203 and 204: and language.’ 67 Hindutva advoca
Page 205 and 206: time it gives approval to Hindutva
Page 207 and 208: As a direct influence of Hindutva i
Page 209 and 210: one, and is ‘historically variabl
Page 211 and 212: There are clear illustrations of th
Page 213 and 214: spiritual values, it is uniquely to
Page 215 and 216: crisis. 101 If this report is true,
Page 217 and 218: Janata Dal (BJD) in the coalition g
Page 219 and 220: disturbed the communal peace. There
Page 221 and 222: social work done by the Christians
Page 223 and 224: (purification). McKean observes tha
Page 225 and 226: against Christians are distributed
Page 227 and 228: Another chief strategy seems to be
Page 229 and 230: in the academic year 2001-2002. He
Page 231 and 232: oth the objects and reasons for the
Page 233 and 234: Pentecostals are always accused of
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4.6. Conclusion The above discussio
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north India. Indian Christians lack
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Financial poverty has been a major
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terms of its leadership structure i
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peculiar to Pentecostalism in Rajas
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greater presence of Christians. Man
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from larger organizations and that
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sign of holiness. However, later on
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a fair representation of local peop
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Although the term ‘globalization
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entitled ‘Pentecost: Internationa
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Coleman’s argument that the moder
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and Lewis Houston and Bill O’Lear
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esponse to different situations. Th
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they have made changes in their the
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achieved as the present world syste
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while they were distributing litera
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Jainism participated in the event.
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are a global community, because she
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‘reflection to orient it, to orde
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developments that shift the context
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the need for and responsibility of
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6.1.2. Contextual Missiology of the
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spiritual transformation,’ and so
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the global on the local is a realit
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states, ‘for Pentecostals, theolo
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It is argued here that the Holy Spi
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some consensus regarding the work o
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as ‘participation in the sending
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and magic. He was tormented by the
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of people from other faiths. Accord
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As seen above the stories of healin
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current study shows. To put it anot
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anticipates distinctive Indian Pent
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one among several ways to justify m
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this ‘as secondary destroys the w
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Second, in certain cases the Spirit
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important role in a culturally sens
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nations.’ 127 However, the Spirit
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would have been no opportunity for
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formation of a Pentecostal church i
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esult he changed his position. He a
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Jerusalem community, the local Pent
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y the context, then moved by the Sp
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Jonathan Ingleby discusses the sign
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languages, but use similar terminol
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theology in terms of ecumenicity, F
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in Rajasthan is on the rise, and so
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will ‘convince sceptics …that C
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ecome involved in various social in
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possibility.’ 183 Bosch gives a f
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transformation. First, it has the
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Pentecostal community is still sore
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open social context of the common p
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Self-awareness of the tribal commun
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can get more involved in medical mi
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edress the balance of cultural expr
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such as evangelism, social mission
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Christianity as old as Christianity
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movement. It also showed that the c
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However, in the light of the curren
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Being ecumenical, it is able to pro
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contextual missiology. Thirdly, fro
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ather there can be more issues and
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Appendix 2 Research Representation
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Appendix 4 THE RAJASTHAN DHARMA SWA
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Appendix 5 Rajasthan Freedom of Rel
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fabric is weakened by such illegal
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45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1991-19
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Appendix 9 South /North India Repre
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Appendix 11 Theological Education o
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Althouse, Peter. Spirit of the Last
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Barrett, David B., and Todd M. John
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________ ‘Pentecostal Theological
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Cox, Jeffrey. Imperial Fault Lines:
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Farquhar J.N., and G. Garitte. The
Page 387 and 388:
Heaney, Robert S. ‘Conversion to
Page 389 and 390:
Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christend
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________ ‘The Debate on Conversio
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________ Spirit-Shaped Mission: A H
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________ ‘The Charismatic Renewal
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Miller, Basil. Praying Hyde: The St
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________ The Flaming Tongue: The Im
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Poruthur, A. ‘Ground Realities of
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Sarkar, Tanika. Hindu Wife, Hindu N
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Special Correspondent. ‘An Openin
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________ ‘Anyadesathu Krupayude T
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Whiteman, Darrell L. ‘Missionary
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Godwin, Colin Robert. ‘The Empowe
Page 413 and 414:
Correspondent. ‘PM Responds to EU
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