Finally I am reading up on some of what happened with the development of “Christianity” in India. This book I’m reading is surely a good introduction, and in a way it is a very instructive guide to just how varied the phenomenon of Christianity really is. It is almost hilarious to read how the Portuguese traders came to India and after a very short honeymoon period with the local (Thomasine) Christians they found there, began to look down on them and ultimately cast them out as heretics, because they came from a different tradition.

Personally I had no idea before reading this book just how extensive was the presence of Christianity in India, with 56 million Christians in Kerala alone. For me the connection was reinforced strongly when I met a lady at one of Gary Renard’s seminars who was in Kerala at the time of the tsunami and as an icu-nurse by profession, felt completely hopeless in rendering assistance without any medical supplies whatever, and at that time she experienced a vision when she prayed for help, in which a man offered her help, who introduced himself as “Thomas.” She realized it was indeed an experience of the apostle Thomas, and evidently she also found the connection also with Gary’s writings about the connection between the Thomas gospel and A Course in Miracles. It all makes sense, for the Thomas material is closer to the Course than almost any other Christian sources.

As always there is “more between heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophy.” Meanwhile on a historical level, the authors of this book come from a purely Roman Catholic standpoint, with an interesting Indian flavor. The book does take into account very Indian phenomena like Sri Ramakrishna who must be regarded as a Christian saint, even if not officially so recognized by any church. Further the book gives an interesting picture of at least four layers of Christianity that are present in India, and the various culture clashes involved, with the arrival of the Portuguese perhaps being the most instructive for a Westerner. It is truly kind of amazing to realize how Thomas ended up in India, ca. 50 CE, and things evolved one way, and to see that contrasted with the evolution towards Roman Catholicism in the West, and how the two could not see eye to eye. Yet there are people like Sri Ramakrishna who learn to understand and hear Jesus as he really is regardless of all the theological confusion of the world. 

What you will not find in this book is any insight in how the evolution worked from the Thomas gospel in India, towards what we find there today. There is discussion of the differences in form of the worship and the churches, which looked more like temples than Western churches, but there is precious little about the evolution of the content of the teaching. Writing from a typical RC standpoint, the authors treat the whole thing as “Christianity,” without seriously questioning the nature of the tradition, let alone the fact that “Christianity” has so little to do with the teachings of Jesus, or the possibility of some unique and worthwhile features of the Thomas tradition. One of the things that stood out to me was that there seemed to be precious little proselytizing by the Thomas Christians, which would be a major difference with the aggressive development of Western Christianity. All in all, the book is fun and instructive, and I can only hope some day to find some material that perhaps reflects a more in depth view of the Thomasine tradition in India.