James Ponniah

Associate Professor of Christian Studies, University of Madras and Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Asian Christianity (IJAC)

James Ponniah serves as the Head of  the Department of Christian Studies at the University of Madras and the Director of ACCS (Asian Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies), Chennai.  He is the chief editor of IJAC (International Journal of Asian Christianity), published by Brill and indexed in Scopus. He serves as one of the coordinators of ISAC (Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics), hosted by National University of Singapore. His publications (authored, edited and co-edited) include The Dynamics of Folk Religion in Society: Pericentralisation as Deconstruction of Sanskritisation (2011), Dancing Peacock: Indian Insight into Religion and Redevelopment (2010), Identity, Difference and Conflict: Postcolonial Critique (2013), Committed to the Church and the Country (2013), Psycho-Spiritual Mentoring of Adolescents (2019) and Culture, Religion and Home-Making in and beyond South Asia (2020), Democratization of Indian Christianity: Hegemony, Accessibility, and Resistance (2024), Indian Christianity and its Transformative Potentials (2025), Asian Catholicism and the Remaking of Contemporary Families. (2026), At the Foot of the Cross: Christian Vocation, Transformation of the World and Stewardship of Creation Today (2026). Currently, he is the lead prinicipal investigator of the project entitled “A Study on the Spiritual Formation of Future & Young Women Leaders in India: Evolving an Ecumenical Perspective,” funded by Templton foundation, and serves as Asia co-ordinator for the project titled as “The Church of the Sheaves: A Church for All—Synodal in Method, Missionary in Spirit, Credible in Love,” jointly led by De Paul University, Chicago, Urbaniana University, Rome and the Decatery for Evanelization, Vactican.