Departments of Christianity

Mysore, the city of palaces, gardens and temples, is also the seat of one of the ancient universities, to be precise, the sixth to be established in India in 1916. Added to its great heritage and glorious tradition of excellence in education, Mysore University with a Five-Star credit by NAAC, has the distinction of being the first university to have started a Department of Christian Studies in India. When this university took the historic decision to set up a Department of Christian Studies in the year 1980, the purpose was to promote advanced studies and research in Christianity as an academic and scientific discipline into the mainstream and crossroads of secular thinking and the various religions and ideologies of India. The study of Christianity in the socio-economic and political setting of Indian reality aims at also promoting National integration, social and religious harmony through research and dialogue into those basics that are common to all the religions and ideologies. The department is the first of its kind in the whole of India, thanks to the government of Karnataka, the University authorities and the Diocese of Mysore. The initial effort and impetus to it was given by the late Professor D.S.Amalorpavadass of revered memory, who was the first Visiting Professor of the Chair in Christianity. The Chair in Christianity, established in the University in 1979 from an endowment by the Diocese of Mysore, was instrumental in setting up the Department of Studies in Christianity.