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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions
Allerd Stikker witnessed and actively participated in the Daoist
resurgence, together with the Alliance of Religions and
Conservation. Strikker shares his fascination for Daoism, and
explains how nature conservation is deeply rooted in its philosophy
and practice. He tells the story of his cooperation with ARC in
assisting Daoist masters to build the first Daoist Ecology Temple
in China, and how this ecology movement has spread throughout China
in recent years. He shares his joy when the Chinese government
picked up on this success and officially declared that Daoism
should be restored as the heart of Chinese culture, in order to
overcome the ecological and societal problems that China is facing
- thereby putting Daoism officially back on the map.
South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion
Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian
communities, some dating almost to the earliest days of the faith.
The stories of South Asia's Christians are vital for understanding
the shifting contours of World Christianity, precisely because of
their history of interaction with members of these other religious
traditions. In this broad, accessible overview of South Asian
Christianity, Chandra Mallampalli shows how the faith has been
shaped by Christians' location between Hindus and Muslims.
Mallampalli begins with a discussion of South India's ancient
Thomas Christian tradition, which interacted with West Asia's
Persian Christians and thrived for centuries alongside their Hindu
and Muslim neighbours. He then underscores efforts of Roman
Catholic and Protestant missionaries to understand South Asian
societies for purposes of conversion. The publication of books and
tracts about other religions, interreligious debates, and
aggressive preaching were central to these endeavours, but rarely
succeeded at yielding converts. Instead, they played an important
role in producing a climate of religious competition, which
ultimately marginalized Christians in Hindu-, Muslim-, and
Buddhist-majority countries of post-colonial South Asia.
Ironically, the greatest response to Christianity came from poor
and oppressed Dalit (formerly "untouchable") and tribal communities
who were largely indifferent to missionary rhetoric. Their mass
conversions, poetry, theology, and embrace of Pentecostalism are
essential for understanding South Asian Christianity and its place
within World Christianity today.
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