Review: The Journey of Christianity to India in Late Antiquity: Networks and the Movement of Culture, by Nathanael J. Andrade

Abstract

Nathanael J. Andrade, The Journey of Christianity to India in Late Antiquity: Networks and the Movement of Culture . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 296 pages, 3 b/w maps. ISBN 9781108419123. £75. Andrade is a welcome newcomer to the field of authors who have attempted to establish the roots of Christianity in India, a topic of interest to students of early Eastern Christianity in general and the St Thomas tradition in particular. Readers of the genre will be familiar with the closely held belief among several writers, relying on the Acts of Thomas , that it was the Apostle Thomas himself who arrived on the south-west coast of India in the first century C.E. and set about his program of preaching and conversion. Taking an altogether different approach to this tradition, Andrade's work is clearly and firmly located in the study of networks. This framework sets the scene for a work which is a useful deviation from the norm in relation to other studies on the beginnings of Christianity in India. Andrade is insightful in his questions about the meaning of Christianity—that is, what defined “religion” and how premodern societies perceived it. He explores the distinction between Christianity and Judaism as what he calls two “stable and separate” faiths, and places religion firmly in a socio-cultural framework. He rightly notes that Christianity, even in its early iterations, was not monocultural. These observations provide early insights into his views of the timeline of Christianity's arrival and establishment in India. The book is presented in three parts, supported by three maps and two appendices. The first part, consisting of less than 30 pages, deals with the Acts of Thomas , with detailed reflections on dating, language and location. He examines geographic and other anomalies and offers the conclusion that, in his view, the Acts of Thomas lack historical validity in regard to the arrival of Christianity in India. The second part, comprised of two …