It has been the long-standing concern of Robert Eric Frykenberg, Professor Emeritus of History and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Christianity in India: beginnings to the present (Oxford 2008), to tackle three problems in particular where academic and popular perceptions of Indian Christianity are concerned: the notion that it is a foreign religion in India, for the most part a legacy of European colonialism; a tendency to focus upon the activities of western missionaries, often subjecting them to superficial and distorted interpretation in the service of some broader, voguish analysis; and the lack of close, theologically- and linguistically-informed attention to how Indians have experienced, understood, and developed Christian ideas and practices on the subcontinent. The fifteen essays in the present volume, addressing the theme of ‘understanding’, attest both to Frykenberg's own success in applying more rigorous and more Indocentric approaches to Indian Christianity and to his enormous role in inspiring and facilitating the scholarship of others. A warm biographical essay by Richard Fox Young is followed by pieces homing in on Indian agency and expertise, with Daniel Jeyaraj, Fox Young and Chandra Mallampalli looking at South India, Peter B. Andersen at the Santals, and Avril A. Powell at Agra; on the complexities of Hindu-Christian understanding (Geoffrey A. Oddie and John B. Carman); on the nuances of western mission thinking and strategy (Brian Stanley on the ‘cult’ of Henry Martyn, Wilbert R. Shenk on the (mis)use of the Ancient Churches model, and Michael Bergunder on denominational shifts amongst Indian Christians); and on the dilemmas raised for Indian Christians by Indian nationalism (Gunnel Cederlöf) and later by independent nationhood (Judith M. Brown, on the Nehruvian era). Two concluding essays, by Rosemary Seton and Martha Lund Smalley, remind us of the incredibly rich range of source materials available to modern historians in this area, and will be of great practical use to researchers getting started in this area or seeking to expand their horizons. Some of the contributors here are offering revisions or extensions of previously published material, and none seek to critique or to criticise Frykenberg's approach. But this is a volume that coheres very well indeed, honouring Frykenberg by renewing his challenge to students and scholars alike to tackle the vivid richness of Indian Christianity on its own complex terms.