Pedagogies of Prayer: Teaching Orthodoxy in South India

Abstract

This article focuses on religious pedagogies as an essential part of the practice and the making of modern religion. It takes the case of the Syrian Orthodox communities in Kerala, South India to examine how shifts in pedagogical models and practice have reframed their understanding of knowledge and God. The paper highlights two moments of transformation—the nineteenth-century missionary reforms and twenty-first-century Sunday school reforms—that brought “old” and “new” pedagogies into conflict, redefining the modes of knowing and religious subjectivities they presuppose. For this I draw from historical and pedagogical materials, and ethnographic fieldwork in churches and Sunday schools. The paper diverges from widespread narratives on the missionary encounter by showing how colonial efforts to replace ritual pedagogies with modern schooling were channeled into a textbook culture that remained close to Orthodox ritualism. The “new” pedagogy turned learning into a ritualized practice that continued to emphasize correct performance over interiorized belief. Contrasting this with todays’ curriculum revisions, I argue that educational reforms remain a privileged mode of infusing new meanings into religious practice and shaping new orthodoxies, especially under the threat of heterodoxy. This reflects a broader dynamic within Orthodox Christianity that takes moments of crisis or change as opportunities to turn orthopraxy into orthodoxy and renew the faith. The paper engages with postcolonial debates on religion, education, and modernity, and points to more pervasive assumptions about what makes Orthodox Christianity and the modes of knowing and ethical formation in Eastern Christianity.

Religious practice among Finnish converts to Orthodox Christianity

“…However, interiority matters too, and not only in monastic asceti cism but also for lay people (e.g. Luehrmann 2017;Pop 2018;Naumescu 2019).…”

“…Scholars studying socalled cradle Orthodox Christians describe Orthodox formation as lifelong immersion in a takenforgranted religious world (Bandak and Boylston 2014;Kupari 2016;Naumescu 2018Naumescu , 2019. The principles of correct prac tice are instilled in individuals from early on, starting with children being taught how to relate to people, objects, events and spaces charged with religious signifi cance in their surroundings (Bandak and Boylston 2014: 33;Naumescu 2018: 36-7;Naumescu 2019: 394-6).…”

An Affective Atmosphere of Religiosity: Animated Places, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Attachment in Ukraine and Beyond

“…In contrast, even when migration has resulted in the spread of Orthodoxy beyond Eastern Europe and the Middle East, religious communities usually retain an ethnic cast. Consider the Syrian Orthodox Church in Kerala, India(Naumescu 2019), or the Russian Orthodox Church in A N A F F E C T I V E A T M O S P H E R E O F R E L I G I O S I T Y…”

“…In contrast, even when migration has resulted in the spread of Orthodoxy beyond Eastern Europe and the Middle East, religious communities usually retain an ethnic cast. Consider the Syrian Orthodox Church in Kerala, India (Naumescu 2019), or the Russian Orthodox Church in America and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States. This is one factor that explains why Orthodox-inspired visions of a global order remain understudied (Rupprecht 2018).…”

“… 11 The taxing nature of learning biblical teachings and mastering the art of prayer is revealed in Naumescu's (2019) study of Syrian Oriental Orthodox believers in Kerala, India, their pedagogies of prayer, and the role of recitation contests in perfecting this discursive art. Coptic Christians in Egypt expend enormous efforts to teach how to select an appropriate saint to pray to (Heo 2018).…”