UNDERCURRENTS

book review: THE MALABAR MANDATE A LIFE OF VOLBRECHT NAGEL https://www.amazon.in/Malabar-Mandate-Prof-Varghese-Mathai/dp/8193084128 Too often, the free-church missionaries are a neglected lot in the colonial mission history. Nor do they find an adequate place in the national church histories, being labeled as dissenters. Compounding the problem is a profound lack of sense of history, among the Brethrens and Pentecostals. What we have, instead, are poorly researched materials, often written by people who are professionally ill-equipped to dig up and interpret relevant information from the depths of social memory and archived records. Somehow we have got used to mediocrity. So it is refreshing to see something different – the Malabar Mandate is an exception. This book will find its true worth when people will take a fresh look at the free-church mission history of 19th and 20th century India. In the first place, I was drawn to the book because I liked Nagel. He left an inefface...

The Psychological and Therapeutic Functions of Pentecostal Belief and Practice in the Ministry to the Aged Samuel Eapen, Lecturer in Theology, IPC Theological Seminary Kottayam, India.  INTRODUCTION Human life in modern times have increasingly indicated two factors: increasing longevity of life and decreasing mortality rates. This has meant that population above 60 is growing by the day and they come to constitute a significant portion of the total population. True, our technology and science have made life longer. But the quality of life of the people is as important as the longevity of life. By quality of life is meant the values such as choice, independence, dignity, privacy, rights, fulfillment etc. [i] It is especially important to think of the quality of life of older persons who do not possess all the best of the natural capacities and possibilities like that of the other age groups In a society where most people are religious, the role of religion in helping peo...