Vernacular Catholicism, Vernacular Saints

Reid B. Locklin is Associate Professor of Christianity and the Intellectual Tradition at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. He is the author of Spiritual But Not Religious? An Oar Stroke Closer to the Farther Shore and Liturgy of Liberation: A Christian Commentary on Shankara's Upadeśasāhasrī, as well as the coeditor (with Mara Brecht) of Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsForewordBindu MadhokEditor’s IntroductionReid B. LocklinHiding Behind the Lens: Fieldwork and Friendship with Selva J. RajAmanda Randhawa1. Being Catholic the Tamil WaySelva J. RajPart I: Vernacular Catholicism in Context2. The Story of Christianity in Tamil NaduMichael Amaladoss, S.J.3. Two Models of Indigenization in South Asian Catholicism: A CritiqueSelva J. Raj4. The Ganges, the Jordan, and the Mountain: The Three Strands of Santal Popular CatholicismSelva J. RajPart II: Health, Healing, and Fertility5. Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Deities: Vow Rituals among Tamil Catholics in South IndiaSelva J. Raj6. Transgressing Boundaries, Transcending Turner: The Pilgrimage Tradition at the Shrine of St. John de BrittoSelva J. Raj7. An Ethnographic Encounter with the Wondrous in a South Indian Catholic ShrineSelva J. RajPart III. Status and Humor, Competition and Communion8. Public Display, Communal Devotion: Procession at a South Indian Catholic FestivalSelva J. Raj9. Serious Levity at the Shrine of St. Anne in South IndiaSelva J. Raj10. Dialogue "On the Ground": The Complicated Identities and the Complex Negotiations of Catholics and Hindus in South IndiaSelva J. RajPart IV. "Being Catholic the Tamil Way": Responses and Reflections11. Comparative Transgressions: Vernacular Catholicisms in Tamil Nadu and KeralaCorinne G. Dempsey12. Vernacular Christianities: Tamil Catholics and Tamil ProtestantsEliza F. Kent13. Extending Selva J. Raj’s Scholarship to Hindu American Temples: Accommodation, Assimilation, and a Dialogue of ActionVasudha Narayanan14. Reinventing "Classical" Indian Dance with or without Indigenous Spirituality in Three Contemporary "Secular" ContinentsPurushottama BilimoriaAfterwordWendy DonigerPostscript: The Tie That BindsSelva J. RajBibliographyContributorsIndex

"…a fine volume about the interaction between Hinduism and Christianity in South India." — from the Afterword by Wendy Doniger"Raj's work was a timely intervention that not only filled the long existing void in the scholarship of Indian Christianity but also added news pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of the complex reality of Indian Christianity as a lived religion." — Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies"…this volume fittingly honors Raj … it showcases a fascinating body of fieldwork and descriptive writing on Catholicism lived and practiced as a minority religion in majority Hindu South India. The essays are rich in concrete detail … Regarding both practice and theory, this volume will enrich many a class on Asian Christianity and interreligious dialogue today." — Horizons"No doubt, Raj's scholarship and ethnographic studies will deeply impact the study of everyday expressions of Christianity in India and the religiosity of ordinary people, and this volume is an important contribution toward this end." — Reading Religion