True Catholicism' in Colonial South Asia

by Wei Jiang

As a case study of the religious history of colonial Sri Lanka in the 19th and early 20th centuries, this book by Jiang Wei explores the prehistory, development, and decline of the 'Independent Catholic Mission' established in Colombo in 1888. This movement of religious emancipation was closely linked to other reformist endeavours like local trade unions and was ministered by former Roman Catholic priests from Goa and Colombo. Led by the Goan priest Antonio Alvares (1836-1923), the global context of the Independent Catholics included worldwide ecumenical networks and cross-confessional rivalries involving Old Catholics, Anglicans, Syrian Orthodox, and Roman Catholics both within Asia and beyond. By drawing attention to religious independentism in Catholic Asia around 1900, this monograph represents an important contribution to a polycentric history of Christianity.