Believing Without Belonging?

“Hindu followers of Christ have constructed a perfectible post-colonial alternative to believing and belonging. With historical and cultural precedents, such a missiological construction may offend normative western Christianities imported into India without violating biblical and historical emanations of local Christianities. While the resulting Hindu ecclesiology may not fit inherited standards, it accounts for local personal and communal experiences of Christ and honors Christ’s trans-local family building within the socio-cultural and spiritual frameworks pertinent to Hindu identity. What a treat from Dr. Vinod John!”


—Sègbégnon Mathieu Gnonhossou, Seattle Pacific University





“Do Hindus have to deny their birth identity in order to affirm their second birth identity as devotees of Christ? To wade into this thorny missiological briar patch, Vinod John conducted anthropological and ethnographic research in the Hindu stronghold of Varanasi, unearthing the emic perspective of what it means to be a Hindu devotee of Christ.”


—Darrell Whiteman, Global Development





“Believing Without Belonging? welcomes the reader into the fascinating world of how Hindu converts mediate their faith within North India. Vinod John combines first-rate ethnography with theological rigor to provide original scholarship into the dynamic, negotiating identities of Hindu believers and what this means for understanding ecclesiology in such a context. This is precisely the kind of critical micro-study needed to comprehend the emerging state of world Christianity.”


—Gregg A. Okesson, Asbury Theological Seminary





“This fascinating Indian study exposes the complexities of Hindu responses to Christ in what can be a hostile environment. Vinod John issues a timely reminder that the way other believers express their newfound faith is not for us to say but for them to work out by the power of the Holy Spirit and in conversation with world Christianity.”


—Kirsteen Kim, Fuller Theological Seminary