Faithing the Native Soil: Dilemmas and Aspirations of Post-Colonial Buddhists and Christians in Sri Lanka. By Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi. (Colombo: Centre for Society and Religion, 2012.)<\/span><\/p>\n Reviewed by Peniel Jesudason Rufus\u00a0Rajkumar<\/span><\/p>\n In a comprehensive manner he provides the reader with exhaustive overviews of Sri Lankan religious and ecclesial historiography, delving into areas such as: the forging of a post-colonial Sinhalese Buddhist self-hood in a manner which was contingent upon \u201cmajoritarian\u201d and \u201cnativistic\u201d claims; the development of the missiological positions of the Roman Catholic as well as the Protestant churches and their ongoing impact on the churches; the emergence of and responses to Evangelical Christian presence in Sri Lanka; the reconstruction of the \u201cnative status\u201d for Christianity through de-colonisation; the transformation of traditional roles for both Christians and Buddhists; and the call to <\/span> However, what strikes me about the book \u00a0is the omission of any reference to the Sri \u00a0Lankan Tamils in the discourse on \u00a0Christian mission where the main religious \u00a0partner of Christianity is portrayed as an \u00a0ethnically identified form of Buddhism, i.e., \u00a0Sinhala Buddhism. Rendering the Sinhala Buddhists as a monolithic category does not help. In my opinion, the integrity of Christian mission in Sri Lanka cannot only be tested in terms of Christianity\u2019s attempts to assuage the fears of the Sinhala Buddhist majority, but also in critically recognizing the concomitant results of such a posture on Sri Lankan Tamils (both Buddhists and Christians). To resort exclusively to the former would render mission susceptible to the vagaries of majoritarian politics and lend itself to be interpreted as intentional indifference to the ethnic minorities. Therefore, though the author emphasizes the need \u201cto look beyond the popular and dominant discourse of the \u2018Sinhala Tamil conflict\u2019 which has been elevated during the last twenty five years\u201d (236), this also seems to be the book\u2019s undoing. Conceiving the missional accountability of Sri Lankan Christianity in isolation from the Tamils divests Christian \u201chospitality\u201d of its prophetic dimension and the new road map could lead Sri Lankan mission to new alignments, the political dividends of which may be contentious. This aside, the book\u00a0remains informative, timely and engaging. \u00a0Born out of experience and expertise it\u00a0bears testimony to an author who, while\u00a0being passionate about interreligious\u00a0relations, is nevertheless provocative in\u00a0style and daring in deciphering the signs\u00a0of his times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Faithing the Native Soil: Dilemmas and Aspirations of Post-Colonial Buddhists and Christians in Sri Lanka. By Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi. (Colombo: Centre for Society and Religion, 2012.) Reviewed by Peniel Jesudason Rufus\u00a0Rajkumar In a comprehensive manner he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-book-reviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
redefine Christian identity. Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach which combines interreligious theology, a history of Christian mission and post-colonial political analysis, Hettiarachchi skilfully derives significant nuances that bring to the fore the contestable nature of contemporary identity-forging categories. What characterizes an appropriate missional praxis for the churches, according to the book, is cultivating an \u201cecclesiastical willingness and the\u00a0theological readiness to recast the\u00a0churches\u2019 function (mission) and praxis so\u00a0that it becomes a faith of the land and\u00a0gains the respect of their religious\u00a0neighbours\u201d (209). The book breaks fresh\u00a0ground in proposing an intra-religious\u00a0roadmap as the way forward in mission for\u00a0Christian churches. The call to engage in\u00a0intra-religious dialogue on the contentious\u00a0issue of conversions and for common\u00a0recognition of the civic responsibility\u00a0seems appropriate in a context of\u00a0divisions between churches. The\u00a0importance of intra-religious dialogue is\u00a0increasingly being recognized, and \u00a0touching upon this dimension adds value\u00a0to the book.<\/span><\/p>\n