EMQ » January–March 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 1
Edited by Rebecca Samuel Shah and Joel Carpenter
Fortress Press
311 pages
USD $33.66
Reviewed by Boaz Johnson, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Theological Studies, North Park University, Chicago, Illinois.
I write this review during a time of great angst among minorities in India. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hindi nationalist government of India has instituted severe measures against Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs. A Member of Parliament of the ruling party has denounced Graham Staines’ mission work among lepers, who along with his two children, was burnt alive while asleep in their van. The present government has also severely limited the movements of Muslims in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Against this backdrop, I read the essays contained in this timely volume, Christianity in India: Conversion, Community Development and Religious Freedom. The editors, Rebecca Samuel Shah and Joel Carpenter have brought together a formidable group of scholars, who know the situation in India well.
The first part of the book focuses on conversion and identity. In the first chapter “Saving the Soul of India,” Rebecca Shah gives a good overview of the rise of Hindu nationalism. For the nationalists, anyone who is not Hindu, should convert to Hinduism or leave India. Chapter 2 provides an example of how conversion to Christianity impacted the life of a high caste Hindu woman, Lakshmibai Tilak. Raised with utter disdain for outcastes and minorities, she was transformed by her conversion to Christ into a person who cared for the marginalized. Chapter 3 gives examples of western missionaries, like C.F. Andrews, who made friends within Hindu society and worked closely with them. In chapter 4, Joshua Iyadurai argues that the persecution of Christians and Christian missionaries is not merely the work of recent Hindu fundamentalists. Rather it has some of its origins in the works and ideas of Indian leaders such as Gandhi, who is most revered in the west.
The second section argues the West can learn much from Indian Christian workers and theologians because of the severe constraints they face. Chapter 5 makes a strong case for the intrinsic relationship between evangelism and social action. Chapter 6 shows how “development” and “church” are two sides of the same coin, and this is the Mission of God.
The final section paints a stark picture of the immense suffering that Indian Christians are experiencing. Diverse aspects of persecution are addressed in chapters 7–10 on the powerful film industry, human rights, psychological trauma, and physical violence.
This volume is an impacting journey into the suffering and violence that Christians in India face today. Readers in the West would learn much from this volume. One wonders if persecution such as seen in India might become a more common phenomenon globally, a pandemic potentially worse than COVID-19.
