Missions Resources - Bibliography

The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories
Authors: Chatterjee, Partha
ISBN: 0-69101943-6
Publisher: Princeton Univ Press, 1993
Type of cover: Soft Cover

Summary: If you think contextualization is merely evangelical PC, look no further. This book is about India. It is about nationalism in the 1870s. Along the way, it tells a story that will knock your socks off.

Hinduism was a dead religion 150 years ago, and it really wasn’t a religion but a big body of folk religions and superstitions. Along came a man named Ramakrishna, who revitalized these traditions into a major and living religion. Why? What happened?

Here you’ll learn the story of arguably the worst loss the church has ever suffered through its own sin, a loss that ultimately reverberated throughout the Church, leading to surprising developments in America, China and elsewhere. Don’t buy this book – it’s expensive and wordy -, but look it up in your school’s library, and read chapters two and three. The whole story is a side issue for Chatterjee, but this one really shook me up.

-Paul Grant