St Thomas the Apostle

This life begins with the apostle Thomas exactly where the Church should begin: in the Gospel itself. Thomas is ardent enough to say, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him,” honest enough to ask the question that draws from Christ the words, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” and memorable above all for moving from wounded unbelief to the great confession, “My Lord and my God.”

It then turns to the later missionary traditions, especially the persistent claim that Thomas preached in India. He takes those traditions seriously enough to recount them at length, but very cautiously, distinguishing the extravagant Acta Thomae from the harder historical question of how early Christianity took root among the Christians of St Thomas on the Malabar Coast.