Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India
Kerala Christian Sainthood is an ethnography-based study that celebrates the multi-vocal function of saints. Drawing on pilgrim anecdotes, shrine practices, official hagiographies, and regional lore, author Corinne Dempsey demonstrates how the business of saints routinely extends beyond their capacity as earthly conduits of miraculous power. Saintly characters described in this book, hailing from the religiously pluralistic south Indian state of Kerala, tend not only to the health and...
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In this fieldwork-based study, Corinne Dempsey examines Christianity in Kerala, which is home to India's ancient and thriving Christian community. Dempsey views their saint traditions as reflecting devotees' "hybrid" (Western and Eastern) identities in colonial and postcolonial times. She uses Kerala Christian devotional practices as points of comparison with European Catholicism and the indigenous Hinduism of the region.
