Attention to culture and the redefinition of missionary activity. The case of contemporary India.

Abstract

Numerous studies have been dedicated to the analysis of religious conversion but the causes that lead individuals, or groups of people, to change their religious affiliation remain obscure. There are many factors and human agents involved which vary greatly according to each situation. However the process of christianization has been almost exclusively associated with the activity of one type of human agent, the foreign missionary. This is exemplified in the classical histories of Christiany in India: they contain little else than the stories of missions progress in that part of the world and focus on the charismatic figure of the missionary. The reason for this emphasis is that these works rely almost exclusively on missionary sources which, as we know, were meant for missions sponsors back at home. However the study of other evidences and the critical analysis of the circumstances in which the missionary organizations worked in the past, have shown that they have not been as efficacious in their endeavour as their archives would lead us to believe. Often conversions have taken place despite their presence or outside their direct sphere of influence. More often than the Churches would be ready to acknowledge missionaries have failed to bring about christianization. Thus in India after 500 years of missionary activity there are only 2.5% Christians. But today, the evangelization policy still relies on the missionary personnel. Missionaries are still perceived as the privileged agents of conversion and explicitly or implicitly their achievements are still evaluated in terms of figures of baptisms. The same kind of conception is found outside the Church circles.