Believing Without Belonging?: Religious Beliefs and Social Belonging of Hindu Devotees of Christ

By Vinod John and Arthur G. McPhee

This study examines an indigenous phenomenon of the Hindu devotees of Jesus Christ and their response to the gospel through an empirical case study conducted in Varanasi, India. It analyzes their religious beliefs and social belonging and addresses the ensuing questions from a historical, theological, and missiological perspective. The data reveals that the respondents profess faith in Jesus Christ; however, most remain unbaptized and insist on their Hindu identity. Hence, a heuristic model for a contextualized baptism as Guru-diksha is proposed. The emergent church among Hindu devotees should be considered, from the perspective of world Christianity, as a disparate form of belonging while remaining within one's community of birth. The insistence on a visible church and a distinct community of Christ's followers is contested because the devotees should construct their contextual ecclesiology, since it is an indigenous discovery of the Christian faith. Thus, the "Christian" label for the adherents is dispensable while retaining their socio-ethnic Hindu identity. Christian mission should discontinue extraction and assimilation; instead, missional praxis should be within the given sociocultural structures, recognizing their idiosyncrasies as legitimate in God's eyes and in need of transformation, like any human culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: Nov 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532697241

Vinod John

Vinod John serves as an adjunct faculty at Taylor Seminary at Edmonton and teaches online courses at other schools besides pastoring and leading an indigenous mission.

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Believing Without Belonging?

Religious Beliefs and Social Belonging of Hindu Devotees of Christ

Vinod John

foreword by Arthur G. McPhee

American Society of Missiology Monograph Series vol. 48

Believing Without Belonging?

Religious Beliefs and Social Belonging of Hindu Devotees of Christ

American Society of Missiology Monograph Series 48

Copyright © 2020 Vinod John. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Pickwick Publications

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-9722-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-9723-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-9724-1

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: John, Vinod, author.

Title: Believing without belonging? : religious beliefs and social belonging of Hindu devotees of Christ / by Vinod John.

Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020 | American Society of Missiology Monograph Series 48 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-9722-7 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-9723-4 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-9724-1 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Christianity—India | Hinduism—Relations—Christianity. | Christianity and other religions—Hinduism. | Syncretism (Religion)—India | Christian converts from Hinduism

Classification: bl2015.p57 j64 2020 (print) | bl2015.p57 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 11/03/20

I dedicate this work to Eveline, my wife of twenty-five years, and to our marvelous children, Abhishikta and Anmol. The fact that I have completed this study is because of their persistent patience and encouragement. I also dedicate it to all the faithful messengers of the good news who tirelessly work with the people this study deals with.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Tables

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Caste, Community, and Christianity

Chapter 3: Varanasi: Socioreligious Significance and Response to Christian Missions

Chapter 4: Varanasi: Hindu Devotees of Christ, Their Religious Beliefs, and Social Belonging

Chapter 5: Faith and the Hindu Community

Chapter 6: Believing in Christ as Hindus

Chapter 7: Belonging to Christ as Hindus

Conclusion

Appendix A: Maps of India and Uttar Pradesh

Appendix B: Open-ended Interview Schedule for Study Respondents in Varanasi, India

Bibliography

Tables

Table 1. Variation in percentage of Christians in India during 1872–1901 | 31

Table 2. Statistics of Missionary Labor in Benares | 87

Table 3. Christian demographics in Varanasi 1881–2011 | 92

Table 4. Number of respondents according to age groups | 99

Table 5. Respondents’ gender | 99

Table 6. Baptized and unbaptized devotees | 100

Table 7. Educational background of respondents | 100

Table 8. Respondents’ affiliation to four caste-blocks | 101

Table 9. Respondents’ years in faith | 101

Foreword

Writing this foreword to Dr. Vinod John’s Believing Without Belonging? brings memories of my first reading of the full manuscript in 2013 and my opportunity to ask him questions about it via the Internet from Nepal, 8,000 miles from where he was in Kentucky (USA). You may recognize, as I did immediately then, that the title he chose, which he put in the form of a question, came from a book by British sociologist Grace Davie. Her book was called Religion in Britain Since 1945: Believing without Belonging. Published in 1994, it did not take long for her provocative and popular phrase, believing without belonging to become conversational fodder among those interested in the church’s future in the Western world. Why, in the West, where connection to a congregation is less and less likely, so the question went, has the role of the church and religion kept a prominent place in public discourse?

Davie’s popular phrase depended on a context for meaning. Its two keywords: believing and belonging are meaningless without a context—even in the Bible. Believing can mean any of the following: faith as intellectual assent; trusting God daily in life; obeying God; and faithfulness to God and neighbor (the two commandments are one). Belonging can be about any of these: one’s blood or adoptive relationships; mutual affinity; being formally or informally part of a group; one’s religious and/or cultural identity; and fitting in socially. Dr. Vinod John wanted to know what those ideas mean in the context of caste Hindu devotees of Jesus in North India—Hindus with no interest in a connection to a traditional local congregation or denomination, or no connection to the global ecclesiastical establishment institutionally.

Such questions are pertinent today because there is no such thing as a supracultural gospel. If an expression of Christian faith is not local, it is foreign. So, when God stepped into human history in the person of Jesus, he came as an Aramaic-speaking, Galilean Jew. Had the Incarnation occurred in, say, Siberia¸ socio-culturally we would remember a different Jesus. His purpose as the bearer of grace and truth for the salvation of humankind would not have changed. His command to love God and show it by loving your neighbor would not have differed. However, the expression of it would have differed as much as a fur coat differs from a toga.

Effective witnesses of the gospel have understood this. When from Pentecost the apostles and other believers took the gospel to gentile lands, they sought not to transplant the pot with the plant. They sought, instead, to transplant the gospel in local soil. The Jerusalem Council, described in Acts 15, is an example of how they worked it out.

This concern is at the heart of Dr. Vinod John’s interest in Believing Without Belonging? His focus is North Indian caste Hindus. He asks two key questions. First, when Hindus believe in Jesus, why don’t they identify as Christians or with the global Christian church? And why don’t they join an institutional church? Second, how does becoming a devotee of Jesus affect the sense of self of an indigenous Hindu?

In his pursuit of this relevant quest, in Believing Without Belonging?, Dr. John introduces us to the groups of Hindu devotees of Jesus in the Varanasi region of North India. One set of groups is related in some way to a Catholic Ashram founded six decades ago. Their goal, from the start, was to foster indigenous expressions of the church. Also, he describes several nearby autonomous groups of Jesus devotees. In the past, the members of these groups were devotees of various Hindu gods. Today, while still residing in their towns and villages of birth, they worship only Jesus. Friends or relatives introduced many of these believers to Jesus. But others heard of him in settings beyond their region and told their friends and neighbors when they returned home. Often, these Hindu believers’ devotion to Jesus began when they looked to him for healing or when someone testified of signs and wonders associated with Jesus. In this book, Dr. John summarizes and analyzes answers he got to the many questions he asked of indigenous devotees of Jesus Christ, and observations he made, concerning their devotion to Christ. But what he offers is no dry-as-dust academic accounting. His introduction to the groups—the beliefs they hold concerning Jesus, the rituals and liturgy they use for their bhakti to him—is interesting to read and lucid. Earlier in the book, he offers a set of spiritual biographies of leading lights in Indian Christianity in the same engaging way.

Two of the more interesting topics to which Believing Without Belonging? give attention are identity and baptism. Both discussions underscore the complexity of present-day indigenous responses to Jesus. Class and caste, cultural and religious traditions, social identity and history, and communal expectations must all be considered. For instance, in Varanasi, a city known for its cremation ghats, people assume they will cremate their loved ones. But in the West, followers of Jesus encourage entombing the body as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection to come. Is one to be preferred over the other? Regarding baptism, Dr. John details well-known issues, then proposes a contextual model, what he calls the Guru-Diksha ceremony for launching new believers into a life of discipleship. This proposal he intends for discussion as much as for trial in North Indian caste Hindu contexts.

Concerning Christian identity, he proposes that Hindus continue to call themselves Hindus, for that is what they are, socially and ethnically. That is what the label means to Hindus: it is not a narrow religious term, for Hindus can believe many things. That is why, when I taught graduate courses in world religions many years ago, I described Hinduisms, not Hinduism. In the past, missionaries like Bishop J. Waskom Pickett who ministered for nearly five decades in North India decried what he called social dislocation, the Western church practice of extracting new believers to mission stations from the places and associations where their witness could be most naturally effective, more effective by far than any outsider’s efforts. Dr. John quotes a Hindu believer who well understands this: Christ is my ‘ishta’ [God]; he has never left me; I will never leave him. But I would not have joined the Christian community. I would have lived with my people and my community and been a witness to them. Thus, this conviction that Hindu followers of Jesus should be encouraged to retain their sociocultural identity leads to what is the most interesting part of his investigation. His questions and reflection about allegiance to Christ, the nature and purpose of the church, and Christian identification (e.g., Is our Christian identity most properly vested in Christ or a particular expression of the institutional church?) all relate to that proposition.

We who are on mission with God in the world are the beneficiaries of Dr. John’s interest and cogent study along these lines for the sake of the Kingdom. We can be grateful for his readiness to reflect deeply on his own North Indian Christian culture in light of the work of the church, and for his diligence in undertaking a conscientious look at what believing and belonging mean to the followers of Jesus in that context.

Arthur G. McPhee, PhD

Dayton, Virginia

Professor of Intercultural Studies (retired)

Asbury Theological Seminary

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for receiving encouragement and support from several people for completing this study. Besides acknowledging the care received from my nuclear and extended family, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mentor, Dr. Lalsangkima Pachuau, who not only steadily challenged me to do better but also believed in me. His patient guidance and continuous encouragement have mattered most to me in the completion of this study. I am also obligated to Dr. Art McPhee and Dr. Steven Ybarrola, who have been my benevolent academic advisors and whose supervision and constructive criticism have strengthened my research. A generous scholarship received from the Foundation for Evangelism (USA) made my studies at Asbury Theological Seminary possible, which led to the research for this book, and I am filled with gratitude to the Foundation. Last, but not the least, I am also forever indebted to countless churches, organizations, and individuals who have supported me financially and spiritually throughout my studies and beyond. To name just a few would be unkind to others who wish to remain unnamed; however, I pray the Lord will reward them all in this age and eternity for their investment in the Kingdom.

Abbreviations

AMBFM American Methodist Board of Foreign Missions

BHU Banaras Hindu University

BJP Bharatiya Janata Party

BMS Baptist Missionary Society

CMS Church Missionary Society

CNI Church of North India

ERV Easy-To-Read Version

ESV English Standard Version

IBMR International Bulletin of Mission Research

IMS Indian Missionary Society

LMS London Missionary Society

NASB New American Standard Bible

NCC National Christian Council

NCCI National Council of Churches in India

NIV New International Version

NLT New Living Translation

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

OBC Other Backward Classes

RSV Revised Standard Version

USA United States of America

YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association

American Society of Missiology Monograph Series

Series Editor, James R. Krabill

The ASM Monograph Series provides a forum for publishing quality dissertations and studies in the field of missiology. Collaborating with Pickwick Publications—a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon—the American Society of Missiology selects high quality dissertations and other monographic studies that offer research materials in mission studies for scholars, mission and church leaders, and the academic community at large. The ASM seeks scholarly work for publication in the series that throws light on issues confronting Christian world mission in its cultural, social, historical, biblical, and theological dimensions.

Missiology is an academic field that brings together scholars whose professional training ranges from doctoral-level preparation in areas such as Scripture, history and sociology of religions, anthropology, theology, international relations, interreligious interchange, mission history, inculturation, and church law. The American Society of Missiology, which sponsors this series, is an ecumenical body drawing members from Independent and Ecumenical Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and other traditions. Members of the ASM are united by their commitment to reflect on and do scholarly work relating to both mission history and the present-day mission of the church. The ASM Monograph Series aims to publish works of exceptional merit on specialized topics, with particular attention given to work by younger scholars, the dissemination and publication of which is difficult under the economic pressures of standard publishing models.

Persons seeking information about the ASM or the guidelines for having their dissertations considered for publication in the ASM Monograph Series should consult the Society’s website—www.asmweb.org.

Members of the ASM Monograph Committee who approved this book are:

Roger Schroeder, Professor of Intercultural Studies and Ministry, Catholic Theological Union

Sarita D. Gallagher, Associate Professor of Religion, George Fox University

Recently Published in the ASM Monograph Series

Rosalia Meza, Toward a New, Praxis-Oriented Missiology: Rediscovering Paulo Freire’s Concept of Conscientizacao and Enhancing Christian Mission as Prophetic Dialogue

Taylor Walters Denyer, Decolonizing Mission Partnerships: Evolving Collaboration between United Methodists in North Katanga and the United States of America

1

Introduction

In examining the Hindu response to the gospel, it may surprise some that most Hindus have not had serious theological issues with the teachings of Jesus Christ or even with his deity, except for the antagonism displayed in recent years by a section of the Hindu intelligentsia.¹ This minority group, operating under the compulsion of Hindutva² credo, has problems with Christ mainly for political reasons. Interestingly, despite the perceived openness to Christ and his teachings, no considerable number of Hindus has become Christian in the sense of being baptized and joining the institutional church. Andrew Wall’s rhetorical question is pertinent to pose here: But can we look at the total history of India over the past two centuries and say that even the indirect and acknowledged influence of Christ is not a response to good news? Or dare we say that it is outside of God’s saving purpose for the world God redeemed?³ Before responding to it, the question needs to be put in other words: Does the very low number of Christ’s followers from Hindu people mean Hindus have not understood Christ’s message and the gospel has no appeal to the followers of the ancient Vedanta philosophy? As Andrew Walls rightly points out, that is not the case. In reality, some Hindus over the years have been attracted to the gospel and have confessed Jesus Christ as their savior. However, the main challenge before the church is that not many of these believing Hindus have come forward for baptism and for fully belonging to the institutional church.⁴ Thus, to respond directly to Wall’s rhetorical query, yes, a significant number of Hindus have indeed responded to the gospel and have believed in Christ.⁵ However, a majority of them continue to remain in their traditional communities of birth instead of moving to the Christian community, as has been the case with tribal and Dalit followers of Christ, who have swelled the North Indian church since the late nineteenth century. Thus, because of their socioreligious location, such a Hindu response to the gospel poses one of the most crucial questions in Christian missions: Why do Hindus not belong to the Christian church and community upon believing in Jesus Christ and acknowledging his lordship and consequently, what then is the identity of these devotees of Christ? This research aims at considering these questions.

Therefore, it is evident such a response to the gospel presents an enigmatic phenomenon for missiologists to examine and ponder. In fact, several Christian leaders and mission theorists in the past have been perturbed by this issue and have pointed out various challenges involved in evangelizing Hindus.⁶ Some of them have proposed a new form of Christianity and church for the Hindu sociocultural context that has no visible form or structure, whereas, others have completely discarded this proposal, insisting on the theological necessity of a visible church. However, not much ethnographic research exists on the issue, making it mostly a scholarly affair where rarely do the people discussed by scholars get to speak for themselves. In recent years, however, it is exciting to note there is a growing interest in this field of inquiry. This has led to a few thought-provoking empirical studies showing that indeed a considerable number of Hindus believe in Jesus Christ but do not belong to the institutional church. Most studies have been conducted in Chennai, South India. Herbert Hoefer, an American Lutheran missionary who has taught in India, conducted the first such study and published it as Churchless Christianity.⁷ It was followed by another study, comparatively with a very small sample, by a Danish theologian, Jonas Jørgensen;⁸ and a recent one is a qualitative research by Indian scholar Dasan Jeyaraj.⁹ A few contemporary scholars, such as H. L. Richard,¹⁰ suggest that the new form of churchless Christianity¹¹ among Hindus is a welcome sign needing encouragement. Other scholars, however, disagree with this perspective, pointing out some serious theological and missiological issues inherent in the emergence of this Christianity. Thus, the issue of believing in Christ and belonging to the institutional church among Hindus continues to be a debated matter for Christian missions in India and needs further theological exploration undergirded by empirical research.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The preceding brief discussion points out the prospect of Hindus who believe in Christ but find the idea of belonging to an institutional church problematic; therefore, supposedly not many have done so. My ministerial experience over the past two decades has also led me to believe there must be such Hindu individuals and groups. An intriguing news item published a few years ago also stimulated my interest in this subject. The National Catholic Reporter (USA) published a story of thousands of Christ devotees regularly gathering at the annual convention of a Catholic Ashram in Varanasi, India. The report says, They call themselves Krist Bhakta (devotees of Christ)¹² even though they are neither baptized nor belong to an institutional church. Thus, based on my observations, ministerial experience, and reports from some reliable contacts in Varanasi, I presumed this proposition to be extant. Nevertheless, I decided to empirically test such a phenomenon in Varanasi through a pilot study conducted in the summer of 2009. Since the above report claimed and my pilot study appeared to corroborate the evidence that some Hindus believe in Christ but are not part of an institutional church, I decided to examine this phenomenon in detail for its empirical verification and for the purposes of answering some of the vital questions that such a trend raises. For example, if indeed such Hindus exist, what then is their socioreligious identity? Do they identify themselves as Christians, and should they be doing so? Do they maintain their Hindu identity and why? Should they alter their identity to Christian or should they have a hybrid identity of Hindu-Christians? Do they completely reject the church and form a churchless Christianity,¹³ or are these devotees developing a rather distinct Christian fellowship, which could justifiably be called another form of the Indian Christian church? Therefore, the problem before this study is to examine and verify the phenomenon of the Hindu devotees of Christ at a micro level choosing Varanasi, India, as the location of a case study for my field research, and to analyze the findings and questions they raise from a historical, theological, and missiological perspective. It is anticipated that a particular study of the religious beliefs and practices of Hindu devotees of Christ and their identity construction in the majority Hindu context can assist in better understanding the authenticity and indigeneity of such responses to the gospel that form and transform the nature of World Christianity as it interacts with other religious and cultural traditions.

1.2. Research Questions

1.What is the nature of religious beliefs and practices of the first-generation Hindu devotees of Christ set in the historical and sociocultural context of Varanasi?

2.What proportion of Hindu devotees of Christ are unbaptized and why do they choose to remain unbaptized?

3.What is the professed self-identity of the Hindu devotees of Christ and what are its missiological challenges?

4.What is the nature of their belonging to the Christian church and community?

1.3. Scope of the study

The issues pertinent to this study have a wide-ranging and pan-Indian scope. However, a study of this nature cannot claim to do justice to the issues at hand by representing the whole country because of the diversity and complexity of the Indian context. The impact of Christian missions in the Indo-Gangetic plains of northern India has been minimal, and very few studies of indigenous Christianity in this region exist. Due to my considerable experience in Christian missions in North India and my primary knowledge of the native language (Hindi), I have decided to limit my research to North India, selecting to conduct an empirical case study in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh,¹⁴ as a sample that sheds light on what could be occurring in the larger Indian context. The phenomenon of the Hindu devotees of Christ who belong differently to the church is a vast subject matter by itself and can be explored from several perspectives. This study, however, is limited to examining the phenomenon of believing and belonging among first-generation Hindu devotees of Christ from the perspective of an indigenous form of Christianity set in the context of World Christianity.¹⁵ This emergent form of Christianity could be seen as a response to the encounter of the gospel within the unique Hindu socioreligious context of North India. The category, Hindu devotees, is further limited to include only caste Hindus; that is, only those who belong to the four-tier caste system and not those who are considered the outcastes.¹⁶ The reason for doing this is not for any bias against the outcastes. These exclusions also do not assume any justification of the caste system as a tenable social system; on the contrary, exclusions are solely for the purpose of having a clearly defined focus group for a case study without prejudice to any particular caste, outcaste, or group of people. It is beyond the scope of this study to dwell upon the complex issue of caste in relation to Christian missions¹⁷ except to acknowledge it as a given sociocultural context of the gospel in North India.

Furthermore, as noted earlier the church in North India constitutes a minuscule minority. In Uttar Pradesh province where Varanasi is located, the Christian population (356,448) is only less than one percent of the aggregate population of about 200 million.¹⁸ Therefore, it is no use distinguishing between Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Christians of other traditions. Thus, only Christian(s) will be used to refer to a follower of Jesus Christ irrespective of one’s denominational affiliation unless otherwise noted.

This is not a quantitative study to ascertain the numerical strength of Hindu devotees of Christ in Varanasi; instead, the purpose is to engage in a qualitative study of a few first-generation Hindu devotees of Christ from a caste Hindu background, who claim themselves so, are identifiable as such to other people, and are accessible for study. Even a qualitative study with an enormous population, out of which about 80 percent are Hindus, needs an immense amount of time and financial resources, which was beyond the scope of this study. Therefore, a snowball sample¹⁹ strategy was used for locating, identifying, and interacting with the informants for this study until adequate data was collected.

1.4. Definition of Key Terms

The following key terms are necessary to clarify the discussion and context:

Belief/Believing

The present study often refers to belief in Jesus Christ, which means a person’s religious belief in Jesus Christ is expressed through one’s openly confessed lordship of Jesus Christ. The study tries to understand, describe, and analyze the nature of believing among the Hindu devotees of Christ in Varanasi.

Belonging

Believing in Christ or being a Christian has traditionally been associated with belonging to the church—a fellowship of adherents visibly present in a certain place, which admits one through the initiation rite of baptism. For most Christians in all parts of the world, the church is an essential, integral part of their faith in Christ; therefore, it is inconvenient for many to think of believing in Christ without visibly belonging to the church. In the West, belonging in the sense of formal association with the church has been gradually eroding. However, in the Indian context, belonging is used in the sense of joining as a member of the church and participating in the Christian community. Unlike the West, a lack of belonging is not because of secularization of faith; on the contrary, it is due to the sociocultural and political matters associated with becoming Christian from a Hindu religion.

Hindu Devotee(s) of Jesus Christ

A follower of Jesus Christ from a caste-Hindu background who confesses and shows signs of religious faith in Christ as their savior and who may or may not be baptized, but who is unassociated formally with an institutional church as their members.

Institutional/Organized Church

A church that is formally associated with a denomination and is structured after the pattern of one of the denominational churches that originated in the West, such as, including but not limited to; the Methodist Church in India, the Church of North India, the Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church, or the Baptist Church.

Hindu(s) and Hinduism

Without going into the complexity of defining these terms, which are arguably one of the most debated terms at the conceptual level,²⁰ in this study, the term Hindu denotes a person(s) belonging to one of the four Varnas²¹ (castes) and hundreds of sub castes (jatis) of the four-tier, hierarchical, caste structure of the Hindu society, and one who thus identifies oneself.

Dalit(s)

Originally a Sanskrit term, Dalit²² literally meaning broken, currently depicts people belonging to one of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) found all over India who are kept out of the four-tier caste structure of the Hindu society through a well-defined religious sanction in Hindu Scriptures and in their social practices.

1.5. Theoretical Framework

I am originally from North India and stand in the Protestant tradition of the church looking at my own society wondering why, after more than two centuries of persistent Christian missions, there is only a minuscule 0.17 percent of the total population who identify themselves as Christians.²³ Therefore, my approach to research in missiology, as an interdisciplinary field, is using what John Creswell calls transformative mixed methods.²⁴ This approach examines the phenomena of peoples’ lived experiences using various theoretical lenses as a framework, and varied methods for qualitative data collection and analysis.

The issue of religious believing in Christ vis-à-vis social belonging to the church is not a recent issue in Christianity. In one form or another, whether it is believing without belonging versus belonging without believing²⁵ or believing before belonging versus belonging before believing,²⁶ this issue has existed for a long time. In the West, the topic was made popular in the 1990s, after the publication of Religion in Britain Since 1945: Believing without Belonging,²⁷ by a British sociologist of religion. This and Grace Davie’s other works²⁸ reason that in Britain and in most other European societies as well, a growing majority of people uphold religious belief in God but does not formally belong to the institutional church. This was widely discussed both in the secular and Christian circles.²⁹ Furthermore, the relationship between believing in and belonging to Christ is usually perceived through the lens of mainly two theories: the secularization theory and the supply-side theory. The former states, religious practice and belief are directly related and that current trends are towards fewer individuals attending religious practice and towards fewer individuals expressing religious beliefs, although these trends possibly move at different speeds and in different directions.³⁰ On the other hand, according to the supply-side theory, religious belief is an exogenous phenomenon, which is not affected by the extent to which individuals attend religious services. Subsequently, a decrease in religious practice is not necessarily accompanied by a weakening of religious belief or an adoption of secular ideas.³¹

In the Indian context, the relationship of believing in Christ and belonging to the institutional church or Christian community is perhaps as old as the Christian faith in this country, albeit with a distinctive nuance compared to the Western context. Both of these theories are helpful in clarifying the relationship of believing and belonging; however, they are inadequate in explaining the phenomenon in India because the dynamic involves two religious groups—Hindu and Christian—unlike the West where the relationship of believing and belonging is confined to a mono religious and predominantly Christian context. The religious and sociocultural realities in North India markedly differ from the West where most people claim to be Christians in at least their beliefs. As Grace Davie’s research pointed out, many Christians in the West are said to be moving away from a formal attachment to the church primarily because of the widespread secularization of their culture and faith. However, in India, Hindus do not counter a substantial impact from secularizing forces and the subsequent waning of religious vitality. Therefore, these theories may not clarify why a majority of Hindus keep away from the institutional church, but they furnish a helpful theoretical framework to look at this phenomenon in India.

It must be submitted that the Hindu response to the gospel has been quite varied over the years. Some Hindus have uncritically accepted the message of Christ and have become members of the Christian church and community. However, most Hindus have remained indifferent to Christianity. Those who remain aloof do so primarily for sociocultural concerns.

Reviews for Believing Without Belonging?

[Kennedy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great resource on world Christianity and Christian missions and missiology in a multireligious context.