Darren Todd Duerksen, Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-Faith Context: Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) among Hindus and Sikhs in Northwest India (American Society of Missiology Monograph Series Book 22) (Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2015), xxi + 292 Pps., $37.00.
Darren Duerksen is Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies at Fresno Pacific University. When Hindus and Sikhs become followers of Christ, what happens afterward? Should they join Christian churches that look and feel very unfamiliar to them? Or to what degree can or should they remain a part of their Hindu or Sikh communities? Uncomfortable with the answers that were provided to them by Christian leaders in northwest India, six followers of Christ began Jesus truth-gatherings that sought to follow Christ and the teachings of the Bible while remaining connected to their Hindu and/or Sikh communities. Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-faith Context analyzes these contextualized practices and identities of these leaders and their gatherings, situating them in the religious history of the region and the personal histories of the leaders themselves. Whereas Christians worry that the Jesus truth-gatherings are syncretizing their beliefs and are not properly identifiable as “churches,” Ecclesial Identities analyzes the Jesus truth-gatherings’ practices to find vibrant expressions of a local church that are grappling with questions of social and religious identity. In addition to its ethnographic approach, Ecclesial Identities also utilizes recent sociological and anthropological theory in identity formation and critical realism, as well as discussions of biblical ecclesiology from the book of Acts. This eleven chapter study will be a helpful resource for those interested in global Christianity, the practices and identities of churches in religiously plural environments, and the creative ways in which Christ-followers can engage people of other faiths.
Bradford McCall
Claremont School of Theology