Introduction
It is very important to always remind ourselves that the long westward movement from Antioch through which people from Europe gradually became Christian was far from complete as late as 1500. Also during the Ante-Nicene centuries, there was an eastward movement that carried the Cristian faith to the people of Persia, India, China, and Africa. In this paper my focus is going to be on how Christianity came to India, I draw on the unique historical realities, social factors and the other religious characteristics that are pertinent to Christians from the people of India.
Unique Historical Realities
India’s Christianity goes back to the first century, according to Christians in India Thomas, one of the original disciples of Christ Jesus, was the first person to bring the gospel to the land of India. From their account, He came to the southwest coast of India (which is now known as the state of Kerala) and build a lot of Christian communities there before he moved to the southeast of India (Tamil Nadu) and that was where he died. Present India has Christian who trace their roots to the Apostle Thomas. According to them, Thomas was buried at Mylapore, which is close to the city of Chennai. For many years’ scholars dismissed this account as fabrication. But there have been recent discoveries of documents of the early trade routes that crossed the Arabian Sea from Egypt to the west coast of India which makes the story plausible. Regardless of this precise information, it is clear Christianity came to India at a very early date. Christianity soon created its own local style of faith in its new Indian setting.
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Traces of early Christian presence in India are found in works which date just a century or two later than Ad 73, the date of Thomas' passing, as this has been saved in the neighborhood conventions of Thomas Christians. From Alexandria, the stronghold of early Christian learning, a Jewish-Christian academic proselyte named Pantaenus, who had been guiding to Clement and Origen, decided to lecture Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers'. According to Eusebius, he went similar to India and found that Matthew's gospel had landed before him and was in the hands of some there who had come to know Christ.
Christians in India were the minorities within the local social order, and as result became the new caste within the social hierarchy of southern India, given the absence of records, the historical process that led to this state affair can only be surmised. As a result of the burst of the initial growth. The Thomas Christian community were at their all-time high averaging about 20 percent of the local population. As the conversion slowed and ceased finally. They reoriented itself toward the solidification of its own community and living at peace with the Hindu community who were the largest among the population. The introduction of Caste, a socially defined status made it easier for the transition. Caste took a center stage in religion. And religion became the main factor of the growing Thomas caste. In the nutshell, the Thomas Christian gained a high caste identity and they thrived as a minority community within the general community among the Indian population for over 2000 years.
Social Factors
The idea of high religion in India, at any rate as it was before the Islamic Hejra in 622 and up until the arrival of Catholic Christendom in 1498, fills in as a setting where to attempt to see much about the political what's more, strict, just as social and social, experiences that occurred from that point. The high culture of the Brahmanical religion that was advancing had no single name. It likely could be portrayed by two words: dharma and Sanskriti. There is no single word in Indian dialects that straightforwardly compares with the term 'religion' or 'strict'. Dharma obligation, request, and Rightness is a minor estimate, while Sanskriti portrays the entire of high, or old-style human advancement and written works passed on from sacrosanct legend. Just in South India was high or old-style human advancement maybe more intently related with the Tamil or Sangam (Cankam) progress, and its literary works, expressions, and sciences. Dar-ul-Islam (or dar al-Islam), then again, understands and grasps a combination of all progress, thoughtfulness, and nation under a solitary 'Habitation Submission' to God. As we will see, its underlying foundations, ethos, and elements of doctrinal avoidance and social consideration were oppositely restricted to those of dharma and karma, from a certain point of view. Therefore, prior to taking a gander at the effect of European Christendom, it is imperative to have some essential seeing, anyway briefly depicted in a to some degree oversimplified structure, of the settings of old-style strict customs inside which this effect happened.
Other Religious Characteristics
Indian Christians of all the different denominations, particularly the more aggressive Pentecostals and Catholic charismatics, have encountered serious abuse by radical Hindu gatherings as of late. Abominations have extended from the decapitation of Catholic ministers and the assaulting of nuns to the demolition of places of worship, the unearthing of Christian bodies from graveyards, the beating of AG adherents to Annaipalayan, the consuming of Bibles, and the marching of Christians stripped through towns and towns. Accordingly, practically all Christian gatherings have joined in the arrangement of an 'All India United Christian Voice' to direct mass rallies and to give joint official statements. Unfortunately, this soul of participation has just risen under pressure and shows little indications of perpetual quality. India may well have been the primary nation to experience the cutting edge Pentecostal overflowing. Indian Pentecostalism has been debilitated, in any case, by visit divisions and by noncooperation between different Christian gatherings just as among preachers and Indian pioneers. In any case, unobtrusive development proceeds, particularly among charismatic and autonomous Pentecostal gatherings.
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