[7] Chenchiah got his education from Madras Christian College which had grown enormously under William Miller, a Scottish missionary and the school principal.
[10][11] According to V. Devasahayam, Chenchiah "retired from that position after refusing to yield to Government pressure to pass a verdict in their favor."
He pursued "active friendships with people of others faiths" and was involved in several formal and informal inter-faith discussions.
[12] Chenchiah was a prolific writer and wrote on several themes, but his main focus was on rethinking Christianity in the Indian context.
Chenchiah was forced to resign his post as editor of ‘The Pilgrim’ after facing pressure from his promoting of Christians and Hindus praying together.
[17] David Muthukumar has suggested that Chenchiah’s theology was heavily influenced by his contemporary Master C. V. V..[18] He was also seen as a successor to Brahmabandhav Upadhyay and Sundar Singh.
He was one of the founders of Christo Samaj of Madras in 1908 with an aim of coordinating the country, the church, and the mission to the supreme purpose of Jesus Christ.
He believed there are two possible realities at the core of every religion; one, a pivotal personality like Rama, Krishna, Jesus, or Budha; two, the discovery of a truth or principle as the all-inclusive nature of Brahman.
According to Chenchiah, "A religion grows up around one or both of these realities, providing different means to comprehend the principle and follow and emulate the personality."
[sic] Though Chenchaih agreed Kraemer's belief that religion is a human creation, both Chenchaih and Kraemer took different approaches to the study of religion; Kraemer on one hand, advocated a missionary's approach - the missionary perceives Christianity as the one means to understand God and studies other religions either out of curiosity or to affirm his conviction of Christianity's superiority - Christian revelation is the only means to understand God, an approach pivotal to the Kraemer's missiology; Chenchaiah on the other hand, being a second generation convert, seems to had grown dissatisfied with what the Church had to offer in response to the Indian context in which he lived and through which he was trying to understand the faith.
He felt uneasy with Western concept of Church and advocated for a new indigenized Christ-ism from the gospels, using his Hindu perspective.
[1][6][22] Critics pointed Chenchiah for giving undue weightage to the epic figures like Krishna and Rama of Hinduism.
It substitutes a new scheme to realize the Kingdom of God by a reformation of this world and of becoming the children of God by repentance and faith....Dr. Kraemer thinks that Hinduism and Buddhism differ from Christianity in that they are anthropo-centric while the latter is theo-centric ... he misses the essential point - in the practice of Christianity the Church depends on human effort as much as any other religion, though in theory the doctrine of grace is stressed.