Portal:Indian Christianity.html |
| | | ca | | | de | | | en | | | es | | | fr | | | it | | | nl | | | no | | | pl | | | pt | | | ru | | | ro | | | fi | | | sv | | | tr | | | vo | | |
| |  |
Wikipedia portals: Culture · Geography · Health · History · Mathematics · Natural sciences · Philosophy · Religion · Society · Technology
Religion: Adventism · Anglicanism · Atheism · Ayyavazhi · Bahá'í Faith · Baptist · Bible · Book of Mormon · Buddhism · Calvinism · Catholicism · Christadelphians · Christianity · Christianity in China · Indian Christianity · Confucianism · Creationism · Eastern Christianity · Falun Gong · Heathenism · Hellenismos · Hinduism · Hindu Mythology · Islam · Jainism · Judaism · Kabbalah · Latter‑day Saints · Lutheranism · Mahayana Buddhism · Mythology · Nontheism · Occult · Oriental Orthodoxy · Saints · Scientology · Shinto · Sikhism · Spirituality · Sufism · Taoism · Tibetan Buddhism · Vajrayana Buddhism · Wicca · Zoroastrianism
 Christianity in India is the third-largest religion in that nation, following Hinduism and Islam. Abrahamic religions on the whole date back about 2500 years with the arrival of Judaism, followed by arrival of Christianity around 2000 years ago. Christianity is believed to have come to India in two main periods, the first century missionary activity of Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, and the Western missionary activities from 1500 to 1975. Vasco da Gama, seeking pre-existing Christian nations in India, discovered a sea route to India by circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope which caused a major influence on both the histories of Asia and Europe. The total official number of Christians in India as per Census in 2001 are 24,080,016 or 2.34% of the population. There are three main regional concentrations of Christian population, namely in Malabar Coast, on the Konkan Coast, and among tribal people in East, Central, and North-East India. The states of Kerala,Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh account for 60% of India's total Christian population.  According to tradition, it was on a trading vessel plying between Alexandria and the Malabar coast that St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in Kodungallur or Cranganore (കൊടുങ്ങല്ലൂര്)in AD 52. Modern developments in archaeology, anthropology, numismatics, toponymy, geography and trade route investigations have revealed evidence of the trading which forms the background to the St. Thomas tradition of Kerala. Maliankara was the headquarters of the Church of Malabar from the 1st century. (Malankara is cognate of Maliankara) and hence the church was known as the Malankara Church.  Roman Catholicism reached Goa during the period of European colonisation, which began in 1498 when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived on the Malabar coast. With the establishment of Goa Inquisition in 1560, a large section of the population became Roman Catholic. 
 Thomas appears in a few passages in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has just died, the disciples are resisting Jesus' decision to return to Judea, where the Jews had previously tried to stone Jesus. Jesus is determined, but Thomas has the last word: "Let us also go, that we might die with him" (NIV). He also speaks up at The Last Supper . Jesus assures his disciples that they know where he is going, but Thomas protests that they don't know at all. Jesus replies to this and to Philip's requests with a detailed and difficult exposition of his relationship to God the Father. In Thomas's best known appearance in the New Testament, John 20:24-29, he doubts the resurrection of Jesus and demands to feel Jesus' wounds before being convinced. Caravaggio's painting, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (illustration above), depicts this scene. This story is the origin of the term Doubting Thomas. After seeing Jesus alive (the Bible never states whether Thomas actually touched Christ's wounds), Thomas professed his faith in Jesus, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!"; on this account he is also called Thomas the Believer. The indigenous church of Kerala State, India has a tradition that St. Thomas sailed there to spread the Christian faith. He is said to have landed at a small village, at that time a port, named Palayoor, near Guruvayoor, which was a priestly community at that time. He left Palayoor in AD 52 for southern Kerala State, where he established the Ezharappallikal, or "Seven and Half Churches".
|
