Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- The Spelling of Indian Names
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- PART THREE
- 11 India in the Seventeenth Century
- 12 The Mission of Mathurai
- 13 The Thomas Christians Again
- 14 Other Roman Catholic Missions
- 15 Non-Roman Catholic Christianity in India
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
14 - Other Roman Catholic Missions
from PART THREE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- The Spelling of Indian Names
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- PART THREE
- 11 India in the Seventeenth Century
- 12 The Mission of Mathurai
- 13 The Thomas Christians Again
- 14 Other Roman Catholic Missions
- 15 Non-Roman Catholic Christianity in India
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
Summary
The historian who essays to deal with the story of the Roman Catholic Church in India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is faced at the outset by a grave difficulty. It seems that there is not in existence any orderly and systematic account of this history such as could give general guidance in the planning of a survey of this period. In 1958 an Indian scholar, well versed in the history of the church in his country, wrote:
The missions in India, taken as a whole, have not yet been made the object of a serious and well-documented study. Since the history of the Indian [Roman Catholic] Church is no more than a long series of dissensions and conflicts, there exists on this subject an abundant polemical literature … which has little scientific value. Apart from such works, the various orders and congregations have left to us some well-written monographs on their respective missions.
The situation in 1982 is better, but not very much better, than it was in 1958. It still remains difficult, therefore, to work out a systematic and reasonably complete survey of the history and progress of the church in those difficult centuries.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A History of Christianity in IndiaThe Beginnings to AD 1707, pp. 333 - 363Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984