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Pneuma 31 (2009) 291-329
Book Reviews
Pradip Ninan Thomas, Strong Religion, Zealous Media: Christian Fundamentalism and Com- munication in India (New Delhi, London, and Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2008). 207 pp., $39.95, cloth.
During the 1990s, Rupert Murdoch orchestrated a satellite invasion into India via Hong Kong that dramatically altered India’s media landscape. The growth of Star TV in Asia resulted in the proliferation of entrepreneurial Indian cable operators distributing new international programming using satellite uplinks. At the same time, Indian television pro- ducers were suddenly given new opportunities to create and broadcast their own program- ming outside the confines of India’s national television networks. Christians seeking to use media to communicate the gospel of Christ and provide Christian ministry stepped through this open door, which resulted in a rapid growth of Christian programming.
Pradip T omas’s recent work, Strong Religion, Zealous Media, provides a recent history of Christian broadcasting in South India and a sharp critique of Christian media organiza- tions working there. T omas’s list of sins committed by Christians, especially Pentecostals involved in media, include infl ating their outreach data, promoting a “health and wealth” gospel not rooted in church tradition, proselytizing among Hindus, promoting Christian separatism and political conservatism, and showing a lack of respect for the Orthodox and traditional Christian churches of South India.
Unfortunately, T omas’s excellent and useful review of the growth of Christian broadcast media is overshadowed by his strong ideological distaste for Christian mission. T omas opposes evangelical eff orts to preach the gospel to non-Christians, likening Christian broadcasting to Bourdieu’s concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence. By drawing on Bourdieu’s fi eld theory, T omas positions Christianity in India as a zero sum game in which an increase in Christian media infl uence means a cultural loss to Hindu people. T omas even goes as far as to imply that violence against Christians in India, which has recently grown vicious and unconscionable in the Orissa State, is brought on by the Chris- tians themselves as a result of their evangelizing among Hindus. Perhaps T omas is not familiar with Christ’s Great Commission to “preach the gospel to all nations” or does not understand that Christians view sharing the message of Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins as an act of love, not symbolic violence.
T omas’s analysis assumes the worst about the motives of Christian media professionals without off ering any hard evidence of improprieties. By characterizing the Christian church’s use of media in South India as a Gramscian “war of position,” T omas leaves no room for analyzing the positive social changes brought about by Christian media programs, including help for the impoverished. Instead, T omas’s ideological bent causes him to view
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/027209609X12470371388047
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 291-329
Christian ministry to the poor as “fronts” for hegemony rather than true expressions of Christian charity.
T omas does make many valid criticisms, however. His observation that churches cannot compete with high-quality television programs exposes the need for Christian media orga- nizations to do more to serve and enhance the local church. Also, T omas’s call for a cove- nantal approach to reconciliation among diff ering religious groups in India is welcomed. Given that India is the world’s largest democracy, Indian Pentecostals and evangelical Christians should strongly promote mutual respect and understanding with those of other faiths.
Reviewed by William J. Brown
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