Wednesday, August 9, 2023

It is the 9th of August, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It was on this, the 9th of August in 1329, that Pope John XXII established the first diocese in India under the Archdiocese of Sultany in Persia. And you say, “Congratulations”. And I say, “Wait, this is bigger than you think- or at least, weirder.” And I say that because the history of the church in India is a riddle to historians and to most Christians in the West. And so, on the anniversary of this “establishment” of a church in India, we are spending our time today making simple the history of Christianity in what is now the most populous country on the planet. That’s right! It just surpassed China with 1.4 billion, and though the Christian population is only 2-point-something percent, that means about 25 or so million Christians.

According to tradition and the apocryphal “Act of Thomas”, it was St. Thomas (doubting Thomas) who was directed by the risen Christ to head to the east where, according to tradition, he came across a community of Jews from the great diaspora and evangelized them. So, Indian Christians have long held independence from the Western and Eastern churches and are called “St Thomas Christians”. They are also called “Syrian” Christians, and this takes us into more solid history. It was in the middle of the 4th century that we begin to see David of Basra and Thomas of Cana, who were Persians who made their way to India bringing their Syrian liturgy. By the 5th century, we have evidence of a Christian community in South West India, claiming the heritage of St. Thomas and the Syriac rite along with a Metropolitan from Persia. We have a record from 883 of Anglo-Saxons sent by King Alfred to find the tomb of St. Thomas, reportedly in India- thus beginning the tradition of pilgrimage to India for Thomas that remains popular today.

We have the record of Marco Polo, who claimed to find Christians in India, and it was likely news from the likes of Polo that led to the Pope claiming authority by setting up a Western diocese in Quilon on this day in 1329. But, as you might imagine, there were plenty of Indian Christians who didn’t appreciate the Latin church asserting itself, and we find an early schism in the church that would presage centuries of schism in the Indian church. With the arrival of the Portuguese in the late 15th century and then the arrival of Francis Xavier and the Jesuits, the Latin church continued to put down stakes. The synod of Diamper in 1599 formally linked the Thomas Christians and the Roman Catholic Church, although it led to more division as some would accept this and use a “western” Syriac liturgy, with others refusing and keeping their traditional “eastern” Syriac liturgy.

In 1653 a group of Indian Christians met to formally denounce the Roman Catholic Church- those who did not recognize the authority of the Pope would themselves splinter into those using the East Syrian liturgy and others using the West Syrian liturgy. While there is a lot to those schisms, it’s worth pointing out the centrality of the liturgy for these Christians’ identities.

And then came the Protestants- and not yet William Carey (the missionary most often associated with Indian missions. It was the Lutheran pietists who came to India first with Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau- they brought Lutheran hymnals and catechisms to translate as well as set up a printing press and started a school. And then, in 1799, William Carey established the Serampore Mission. On account of Carey’s fame India became a favorite destination of Missionaries, but too often, new missions led to a splintering of Christianity. Just as the Papal announcement on this day in 1329, the commandeering of the St. Thomas Christians led some to join and others to splinter. From schism in 1653 and subsequent missionary groups, there are today eight major Indian Christian denominations, with none of them holding a great majority. A plurality is Roman Catholic, but in recent years, independent and Pentecostal churches, as well as united denominations, are on the rise. In practice, Indian Christians, according to a 2021 Pew Research study, are regular in their attendance at church but are substantially more likely to hold doctrines not traditionally associated with Christianity, from belief in Karma and the sacredness of the Ganges.

Indian Christianity is a fascinating study in that because of its remoteness, it was not originally the creation of a Christian state or culture but rather grew up in a context that was neither Roman nor Byzantine. Nevertheless, its history, as marked by today’s anniversary, is indicative of churches meddling in the affair of the St. Thomas Indian Christian tradition.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Matthew 15:

35 [Jesus] told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 9th of August 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is a big fan of Marco Polo but unsure of the rules regarding “fish out of water”- He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man fascinated with the number of ill-conceived pool games- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.