Between the Sea and the Sky

“An excellent study and analysis of ‘lived religion’ that integrates the dangerous and risky work of a fishing community of southwest India with their ritualistic Christian faith, centered around the protective warrior saints and their own neithal/Indian spirituality that relates them to and protects them from the challenges of the sea. A very good example of enculturated and contextual theology!”

Michael Amaladoss

“To those habituated to theologies from the land, here is a highly fascinating and extremely illuminating volume of theology from the sea. It dwells in the cosmology, life world, and everyday practices of a group of Christian fisherfolk whose vision, values, moods, religious experiences, and motivations are drenched in the vagaries of the nurturing and, at the same time, menacing oceans.”

Felix Wilfred

“The seaside communities of southern India are home to intensely devoted Catholics who trace their Christian roots to Saint Francis Xavier. The lives of Catholic Mukkuvar fishermen there are oriented to the sea—a bounteous, yet fickle, sometimes dangerous source of well-being that gives rise to its own unique cosmology. P. T. Mathew has a keen eye not only for how fisherfolk have been shaped by the sea but also how they have shaped and interpreted Christian faith. This is a great contribution to our understanding of Indian Catholic life.”

Thomas M. Landy

“Lived religion is in the blood and veins of the Catholic fisherfolk of Kerala. It forms their identities, instils them with infinite courage, and provides patience and fortitude to accept the unpredictable outcomes of fishing. Mathew’s erudite rendering of this complex socioreligious and cultural reality stands out for its deep and nuanced understanding of the fluid and boundless, yet coherent worldview of the fishers, which straddles the sea and sky on every fishing trip.”

John Kurien

“P. T. Mathew’s splendid new book tells the story of the indigenous fisherfolk of Thiruvananthapuram coast of Kerala. Informed by critical ethnographic and historical scholarship, Between the Sea and the Sky offers a vivid portrait of a people’s resilience rooted in their lived religion—a rich interweaving of Indic/neithal religiosity and Iberian Catholicism. In an age of unrelenting globalization, Mathew’s study of neithal Catholicism reminds us that wisdom is lived in stories that, like the people themselves, remain unique and irreplaceable.”

William O’Neill

“The book is a fabulous model for doing theology in context. The anthropological, ethnographical, and sociological analysis of the worldview, belief system, ritual practices, and folk traditions of the fisherfolk makes it a unique specimen of scientific research. This volume is highly informative regarding the constituents of lived neithal religiosity, religiosity, a topic hardly explored by the intellectual world. The striking portrait of fishermen’s way of overcoming the tsunami of 2004 and Ockhi cyclone of 2017 and of running rescue operations during the Kerala floods of 2018 with their traditional wisdom and daring faith is, in its content as well as recitation, a brilliant pattern of narrative theology.”

Vincent Kundukulam

“Between the Sea and the Sky is a wonderful work on the life of a fishing community in Kerala in South India, who struggle hard to survive amidst the challenges posed by both nature and the prevailing social conditions. P. T. Mathew shows us how the lived religion of the fisherfolk who spend most of their time between the sea and the sky serves as a vital source of energy to face their life challenges. This well-researched work is a resourceful book for those interested in understanding the organic relationship between religion, sea, and the fisherfolk.”

R. Sooryamoorthy

“In an excellently lucid articulation, P. T. Mathew captures the rich experience of neithal Catholicism, the ‘lived religion’ of the fisherfolk of a South Indian region. In his descriptive and interpretative gaze, the subaltern self of a people living in a periphery comes to life in a poignant way through a religious idiom. It is a must-read for students of religious studies, theology, sociology of religion, ethnography of religion, and the like.”

Gnana Patrick