Authority in the Catholic Community in Kerala.

Abstract

Researches and publications on the Catholic Community in Kerala are in abundance. Most of them are, however, from the point of view of history or religious worship. In Authority in the Catholic Community in Kerala we have a sociological study of the Syro Malabar Catholic Community (SMCC) of Kerala which claims its origin to the first century A.D. itself. A special feature of this study is its theoretical orientation and the sociological analysis of an ecclesiastical reality. Within the Weberian concepts of stratification and bureaucratisation, Kuriedath analyses autho- rity in the SMCC of Kerala. He has convincingly proved that even though stratification and bureaucratisation are normal in any society, influence of group interest is of particular importance in the formation of a specific structure of a given society.