This dissertation applies ethnographic research to answer a question in the field of religious studies: to what degree does the prevailing world religions paradigm illuminate the interpretation of religious material that cannot easily be fit into a single major religious tradition. Indian Catholicism generally and Tamil Catholicism in particular have been deeply neglected both by scholars of India (who generally assume that Christianity in India is a "foreign" religion more-or-less indistinguishable from the Christianity of European missionaries) and by theologians and historians of Christianity (who often treat non-Western expressions of Christianity as somehow "compromised" by influence from alien religions such as Hinduism). By interrogating the early modern origins of the world religions paradigm and questioning its applicability to the particular case of Tamil Popular Catholicism, I intend to bring about a shift within religious studies and allied theological fields that will allow popular Catholicism to take a more central place within scholarship. The major issue I pursue in this dissertation is the manner in which European expectations about the nature of Christianity as a world religion impede the understanding of non-conforming expressions of Christianity, such as Tamil Popular Catholicism. My primary research agenda is a matter of ethnographically surveying a representative Tamil Catholic site to determine the characteristics of Tamil Popular Catholicism which most differentiate it from European expectations, and later to integrate these these findings with the theological self-definition of Catholic Christianity. Methodologically, my approach combines ethnography with oral history, aiming at a "thick description" of Tamil Popular Catholicism in its various manifestations which can be later used as a basis for theological reflection. Drawing on extensive field research at the St. Antony Shrine at St. Mary's Co-Cathedral in Chennai, I argue that popular, non-Western expressions of Christianity in Tamil Nadu differ from elite interpretations primarily with respect to the questions of exclusivity, openness to other communities, and the place of "magical" or supernatural healing traditions. There are concrete social and political consequences to the proliferation of Western religious categories in India, namely, the unraveling of the previously integrated Tamil religious culture into separate "Catholic" and "Hindu" identities and the social and political marginalization of Tamil Catholics. At the St. Antony Shrine, the local expression of Tamil Popular Catholicism defies description in terms of the prevailing world religions paradigm, which differentiates absolutely between "Christianity" and "Hinduism" and posits the existence of two hermetically-sealed religious communities ("Catholic" and "Hindu") where I argue there is but one (the popular religion of the Tamil people, in which "Hindu" and "Catholic" differ primarily by virtue of caste rather than religious classification or practice). The usual strategy within the world religious paradigm for describing non-conforming Catholic sites is to appeal to the concept of "syncretism," which refers to the mixture of two or more of the world religions into an incoherent third. This term carries heavy pejorative overtones and marginalizes religious phenomena so described, redirecting scholarly attention to religious phenomena that can be described using existing categories. By demonstrating how Western religious categories impede the understanding of a typical, non-eccentric Asian site, I show that the prevailing categories used by Western scholars to analyze religions are Orientalist in origin and logic and in need of drastic redefinition, which I provide in my conclusions by taking recourse to a premodern, Augustinian construction of "religion" which rejects the pluralization of "religions" in favor of a singular definition, circumventing the theological charge of "syncretism" and the legitimization of nationalist or communalist factions formed on the basis of pluralized religious identities.

This dissertation is a historical and missiological study of the concept of the child in North American holiness and pentecostal mission discourse between 1897 and 1929. Despite official prioritization of evangelistic preaching, new holiness and pentecostal mission movements devoted much of their energies to starting schools and opening homes for children in need. Growing widespread interest in studying and protecting children encouraged child-focused activity. At the same time, an evangelical spirituality that emphasized childlike trust in God helped to sustain mission work with children. The study analyzes narratives found in denominational and mission periodicals as well as other missionary writings to uncover the voices and actions of mission practitioners. In early holiness and pentecostal mission movements, publications enabled the exchange of stories, ideas, and funds. This exchange spread the idea of living by childlike faith, provided resources for raising children in Christian faith, and supported and built children’s homes. Child-centered discourse thus propelled the spread of holiness and pentecostal meta-cultures that formed the next generation of the movements. Chapters 1 and 2 show the links between holiness and pentecostal mission and earlier evangelical movements. Chapter 1 argues that the child has been central to historical evangelical identity, spirituality, and mission. Chapter 2 identifies changing understandings of the child and approaches to mission that accompanied changes in evangelical identity. These developments contributed to the proliferation of mission discourse on the child during the period of this study. Chapter 3 shows how holiness and pentecostal missionaries, such as Albert Norton, looked to God as a good father who met their needs. Missionaries’ response to a benevolent father was called “living by faith,” and it shaped their approach to mission with children. Chapter 4 examines how members of North American Wesleyan holiness groups, the Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Nazarenes, pursued a mission of rescuing and raising children in Christian faith around the world. Chapter 5 explores how pentecostals, such as Leslie and Ava Anglin and Lillian Trasher, set up homes for needy children in various global locations and contributed to the formation of pentecostal childhoods. This dissertation argues that holiness and pentecostal efforts to care for and train children helped to form global evangelical movements. It contributes to the history of mission, sheds light on how and why these movements spread, and provides a historical link to popular practices of twentieth-century child sponsorship. The study concludes by highlighting the role that narratives and the concept of the child played in shaping evangelicalism.

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Text in German, summaries in German and English / Die Arbeit beschreibt und reflektiert aus missionswissenschaftlicher Perspektive das häufig mit „reverse mission“ bezeichnete Phänomen afrikanischer Mission in Europa. Dafür beschreibt und vergleicht sie drei relevante Perspektiven afrikanischen Ursprungs, um das noch wenig untersuchte Phänomen wissenschaftlich zu fassen. Anschließend wer-den die Ergebnisse missionswissenschaftlich gedeutet und die Rezeption des Phänomens in der deutschsprachigen Theologie und in der deutschen kirchlichen Landschaft unter-sucht. So wird identifiziert, welche Aspekte des internationalen Diskurses in Deutschland besondere Beachtung finden und welche missionstheologischen Positionen dazu vertre-ten werden. Davon ausgehend werden Perspektiven und Desiderate auf dem Weg zu einer multikulturellen Missionsbewegung benannt. / The study describes and reflects a phenomenon of African Missions to Europe, which is often called “reverse mission”, from a missiological perspective. For this purpose it describes and compares three relevant Africanrooted perspectives in order to catch this not jet well researched phenomenon. The results are interpreted missiological and the reception of the phenomenon in German speaking theology and in German churches is researched in order to identify, which aspects of the international discourse are attracting special interest in Germany and which missiological views are advanced. On that basis perspectives and desiderata for the future discourse on the way to a multicultural mission movement are named. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)