a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

There is a well-established ancient Christian tradition that St. Thomas, one of the
twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, came to south India in AD 52, and preached the
gospel even to the high caste Brahmins, and as a result formed seven churches. 44
In addition to many later sources, most scholars refer to the Acts of Judas Thomas,
an apocryphal work in the Syriac language, dated to the fourth century, as the
earliest document which mentions St.Thomas and his preaching in India.
Nevertheless, drawing inferences from the same work, there is a north Indian
tradition about the apostolate of St.Thomas that he also preached in north-west
India. 45 Although there are arguments against such an early origin of Christianity
in India, based on the absence of more reliable historical sources, A. Mingana
presents evidence for the presence of Christianity in the area surrounding old
India to the north-west, west and south-west, where there were bishops as early
AD 225. Therefore, he argues that it is ‘improbable to suppose that there was no
Christian community in India … before the second half of the fourth century.’ 46
As Frykenberg observes, whatever be the place or date accepted for the St.
Thomas arrival, the undeniable fact is that ‘forms of Christian presence and
tradition became established’ in India ‘during the earliest centuries of Christian
era.’ 47 The local Christian communities (St. Thomas Christians) have their own
44 For more discussion, see Mundadan, History of Christianity, 30-31. For details on those
churches which claim the St. Thomas tradition in their origins, see, Hedlund, ‘Indian Instituted
Churches: Indigenous Christianity Indian Style,’ in Churches of Indigenous Origins, 5.
45 For a detailed discussion of the sources of the St.Thomas tradition, see J.N. Farquhar and G.
Garitte, The Apostle of Thomas in India According to the Acts of Thomas, The Syrian Churches
Series, vol.1, ed. Jacob Vellian (Kottayam, India: 1972); Xavier Koodapuzha, Christianity in India
(Kottayam, India: Oriental Institute of Religious Studies India, [n.d.]); A. Mingana, The Early
Spread of Christianity in India (Manchester: University Press, 1926); Stephen Neill, A History of
Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707 (Cambridge: University Press, 1984);
Mundadan, History of Christianity in India.
46 Mingana, Early Spread of Christianity, 6.
47 Robert Eric Frykenberg, ‘Christians in India: An Historical Overview of their Complex Origins,’
in Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500, ed. Robert
Eric Frykenberg (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 34.
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