The Ashram Church

This study explores the potential of the Christian ashram as an alternative way to institutionalize the church in India. The ashram church proposal is located within the broad history of the Christian ashram movement in India. The study examines the formal ecclesiality of the ashram church from the perspective of the Free Church ecclesiology developed by Miroslav Volf in his book After Our Likeness: The Church as the image of the Trinity (1998). Three pathways of contextual relevance are proposed, and using selected issues from the broad context of the Indian church, the ashram church is probed to see how it could help the church become indigenous in expression, form and vision.