Notes from 3/31

Review from 3/29 Speaker

3 general movements in Christianity in India

• Thomas tradition
• Jesuits

-Francis Xavier--> Portuguese and Pandavars (lower caste/fishers)

-Robert de Nobili (17th century)--> Brahman

*If there's no such thing as caste in India, why do we continue using the language?

• Scholarly explanation?
• Accessible spectrum?
• Form of translation?

Background

Paul in Galatians

• Tension towards maintaining social categories and radically changing social categories simultaneously (Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, etc)

19th-20th century

• Protestants and Pentecostals come into India

-Embrace of breakdown of traditional social structures

-Impetus of change because of their emphasis on individualism

-Pentecostals- believe individuals can contact Divine directly (speaking in tongues, other filling with the Spirit)

*Catholics and Pentecostals deal with exorcisms more than any other Catholic tradition especially in late 20th century

Saint in the Banyan Tree Discussion

Exorcisms and Possessions

• People who are more naïve may be more vulnerable
• "Not your personal sin" as a determinant, but an external force that makes the person somehow open to exorcism (porosity)
• Mosse argues that with the Jesuits there's tension towards trying to create some boundaries and limits between indigenous religious practice and Catholic practice

-Emphasizing the importance of maintaining right Christian practice> indigenous

• Mosse says physical impurity or the evil eye might be related

How can they get rid of demons? In South Indian indigenous Christianity

-Cut the hair after calling the demon out

*also what Hindu exorcists do

…But in the Jesuit tradition

-Emphasis instead on confession

Does it happen (possession that is) ?

-Yes, because people BELIEVE it happens and act in ways that shape the experience

Religion Spreading

• Blending of popular indigenous religious practices and what's taken from Catholic Christianity
• Spread beyond Jesuits (French)
• Catholic tradition is material oriented (medium of communicating the Divine)

-Imminent (Eucharist doctrine)- God chooses to make himself present in things (Rosary beads)

-Emphasized in the Counter-Reformation

• Proliferation of Christian shrines, statues and other materials in India and makes that a characteristic of Christianity in Southern India

*Connects to possession because there's a possibility that evil can enter through these same materials; same things that fuel Christian belief are related to possession

Banyan Tree itself

• Knarly, prolific growth, roots and canopies, vines
• Becomes a metaphor for Divine growth

-How Christianity grows in South India

-Not one direction

-Multiple trunks that blend and intertwine (religion and culture in South India)

Why a saint in the tree?

-St. James is associated with a particular tree in that town which is why is becomes a pilgrimage site

Religious Anthropology

• How do people relate to the Divine?

-Possession is often a way of talking about how the person is understood and thinking about how social relates to individual

• Group norms
• Other peoples anxieties

-With the importance of confession and simplicity of the soul